The Animalian colony in Australia has been doing rather well, though Australia was hit pretty hard by the pandemic. It has a fairly wide representation of Australia's unusual fauna, including its extinct fauna. Since Project Thylacine has been so successful, the Australian government was wanting to expand it to recreate some of the other unusual creatures from prehistory. The pandemic had put those plans on hold, but now that the coronavirus is becoming more manageable, there was talk about expanding the colony.
Though in the meantime, the Australian colony asked for the main Horizon Labs’ assistance with a matter involving two red kangaroos. While kangaroos are already well-represented in the Australian colony, Horizon Labs has more experience dealing with muscular hyperthropy. Indeed, the male kangaroo already looked like a bodybuilder with his huge muscles. The female could easily be told apart for being smaller and having a pouch, but she was quite bulky as well. The pair have been living at an animal sanctuary where they had the optimum diet and plenty of water to drink, which made them much healthier than wild kangaroos. However, they were a little too healthy and their bigger muscles put a lot of stress on their hearts. Which is why they were being uplifted at Horizon Labs.
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"It's a bit fitting that they're being uplifted during the Year of the Rabbit," commented an intern.
"Kangaroos are not rabbits," said a scientist, "At most, they have some convergent evolution with similar traits, but they are not even remotely-related. In fact, I wouldn't mention rabbits too quickly. Australia had a very bad history with rabbits."
"Oh, right," said the intern.
"If you want to work here, you need to study zoology more thoroughly," said the scientist.
The kangaroos were given the Animalia virus rather simply. Simply putting it in their drinking water was enough to ensure their uplifting. Though they may be used to being around people, it might be a little dangerous to give the kangaroos injections. Male kangaroos tend to be aggressive, especially when they're around females. And not only did this one have strong, muscular arms, but his kicks could easily disembowel a man.
Since kangaroos are already bipedal mammals, there was little about them that was reshaped as they became Animalians. The most noticeable changes were their forepaws developing into proper hands while their bodies took on more humanoid proportions, which included a large pair of breasts for the female. Though probably the most major change was that their legs and hips were restructured to allow them to walk normally.
The male kangaroo rubbed his head and said, "Crikey, that felt weird."
The female kangaroo held up her new breasts and said, "This is more than a mouthful for any nipper."
"They look good on you, though," said the male.
Just then, the female noticed the way they were standing with their legs at different angles. "Oh no, I think our legs are broken," she said.
"They're not broken," said the scientist over the intercom, "You've been modified with human DNA to become Animalians."
"What's an Animalian?" asked the male.
"They are uplifted animals and people who have converted to become like them," said the scientist, "There's a global community for you to join now."
"Well, I hope they can tell us how to walk with these things," said the female.
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The Animalian virus had an interesting way of adapting the kangaroo's primary form of locomotion. While kangaroo Animalians are capable of walking normally, they were also able to lock their legs in sync to allow them to hop long distances. This type of hopping can be pretty jarring for newly-converted humans and it required that women wear extra-supportive bras. The newly-uplifted kangaroos will be staying in Lyre so that their strength levels can be properly measured before returning to Australia.
Of course, since Australia is getting closer to overcoming the COVID problems, it seemed like it would be a good time for Animalia Ambassadoria to visit the colony. Though that should probably wait until spring break.