Alex felt an odd sensation between his legs. He looked down to see nothing familiar... he was becoming a she! Though he had expected this, the reality of his situation hit him full force, and he began to panic.
"I am not going to be a human anymore... I am not going to be the same species... I am not going to be the same gender! I am not going to be ME anymore, will I?"
Alex began to panic as 'his' legs began to spread, making his entire body more chicken-like in form. A stubby tail sprouted above his now-pointed butt. His skin was bleach white, covered in several layers of white feathers. They varied in length from nearly imperceptible on his chest to six inches long on his shoulders.
Shoulders which Danielle had recently rested her head on... Before arriving at the center, he had put all his energy into comforting Danielle, and had spent none of it on his own mental preparation. Dark thoughts invaded his mind. "When my brain changes, will I have the same memories? How will I recognize Danielle after she changes? What if they never change us back?"
For the first time Alex screamed. What came out was a loud, short cluck! Apparently, his vocal cords were some of the first things to go. His fingers fused into a lumpy mass, while the skin around them fused together and filled out into a stub. His arms, of their own volition, bent at the elbows until his hands were tucked nearly under his armpits. Both sections of his arms lengthened to form his new wings.
Alex glanced into a mirror which hung on the wall. He looked like a mad combination of human and bird. Avian limbs rested on a still quite human looking torso and head. He wanted to look away, but could only stare at himself. His eyes had become large round circles, and the pupil expanded to cover the entire eyeball, though he could still see.
Alex saw feathers spread from his hairline down his prominent cheekbones and chin. His ears had fused to his skull, leaving holes. He could no longer tell where his hair began or ended, it was all a uniform coat of downy white. His nose and mouth became yellow, and started to protrude as his comb lengthened and spread down his face. His still muscular chest began to round and compact, and his once long neck became short and indistinct.
Staring at himself, seeing himself, albeit changed, greatly calmed Alex. He dimly suspected the chemicals at work, but was too involved in the change to care much either way.
He had read some of the science behind these transformations earlier in the week, so he knew what to expect next. The energy used to transform him expended his body's mass, and part of the chemical he had drank regulated the proportions of his cells as they changed. In other words, he was going to start shrinking.
It came in a rush. Alex's mass could no longer hold his size, and he was suddenly a foot-tall bright-white full fledged chicken, standing and pecking at the room's checker-tiled floor.