"You cannot do this to me!" Steven cried, appalled and with tears in his eyes.
"Shush," said the scientist, incredibly, almost unbearably, calm. "I just have. So just relax."
"Relax? No! I want to go home!"
"Well, you cannot, young man. No police will find you. I suggest you merely learn to adjust to you new life. You'll be exercising in the salt water pool, also to check and monitor your organs and other vital signs."
Steven protested but the orderlies carried him to the basin in question without seeming to notice his resistance, albeit just feeble punches thrown randomly. He was too weak to do anything and they knew it. He was slipped into the water in spite of his struggles and the barriers around it were too slippery for him to even try to reach the rim of it. Not that he would have had the strength to hoist his entire body up sand over the rim. And then what? Could he flop, literally like a fish -or rather a dolphin-out of water, to his home or at least out of this crazy facility? Unlikely. Very much so. And did he even know where this very facility was? No, of course not. Maybe not in his own home country, as far as he knew.
Later, when the scientist came around, he was docile. After all, Steven needed the man to check if he was in good health and remedy to any problems that might arise. He'd suffered a massive xeno-transplant and no hospital could very well help him with more usual operations. The mad scientist did congratulate him for being so obedient and Steven dared asking him some questions. After all, that crazy man was happy with the results of his check-up. He simply said they were in a small, filthy rich country on the other side of the world and that he was paid handsomely for his works. It allowed him to make extremely interesting researches without being bothered by annoying ethics committees and ridiculous laws that impeded the progress of science. The country would open soon a "Mythology Zoo" which would attract rich elitist crowds, and later more common crowds amazed at the extremely realistic special effects. Steven would be placed in the aquatic exhibit quite soon. Appalled and terrified by what was about to be his fate, Steven did not dare ask where his legs had gone or what the mad scientist had done with them. He was not sure at all if he really wanted to know...
Steven could also hear and see other victims, locked in cages or in water tanks as well. He could glimpse them but all were in similar awful conditions, adjusting to lives they did not choose and were not prepared for at all. Some truly looked forlorn and utterly despondent. So much that they responded to nothing. The mad scientist seemed all right with it, though. He praised them for being so obedient and well-behaved and when he was done, he patted them on the head or on the cheek. Not that they cared more about it than anything else. Steven did try to attract their attention but he had more luck with others. There was a siren girl, with the wings and feet of a bird that tried to communicate with him. There was a guy with a big belly and hindquarters of a goat that kept touching his penis and testicles when he thought no one was looking. There was another mermaid girl right next to a man who had been through so many transplants that he looked more like an orca merman with yellow stripes and tones and another who resembled a porpoise merman monster with the face to match. Steven felt lucky that at least the mad scientist had left his upper body and face alone for the most part. The two males tries to attract a bit too much the attention of the girl with the tail of a tropical fish, who cowered on herself and cried silently all the time. The mad scientist merely told the two males that soon they would get to her and that once in their big aquarium they would have all the time to coax her into feeling the same affection they did for her. He chuckled at the situation, saying that soon little pups would be fathered thanks to his good works. One cage even held a centaur that held still so long that Steven first thought the poor guy was actually dead. But no, he was just really, really depressed. He did hope he would make some friends once they all were set in the zoo.