Max woke up starving, so he stumbled to the kitchen and quickly replicated some food and wolfed it down until his stomach stopped growling. Then, still half asleep, he stumbled his way to the bathroom for his morning ablutions.

Both Jackie and Swytch woke to the sound of a blood curdling scream, and orienting on it, quickly sprinted to the bathroom and stopped dead in their tracks, their muzzles hanging open.

"M... M... Max, is that you?" asked Swytch.

Standing before Swytch and Jackie was a humanoid form covered in black and white fur. THICK black and white fur. The humanoid turned around and Max's green eyes peered out from a black and white marked face. The fur had the same general coloration as a skunktaur but was covering a human body.

Nothing else had changed. Max still had long white hair on his head and where the hair met his back, a white stripe of fur ran down his back to his butt. The rest of his back was a deep black fur, very thick and fluffy. This wrapped around his sides to meet more white fur on his chest, stomach and groin. The white fur accentuated his square chest and abdomen as well as his masculine attributes. His hands and feet had white "socks" and his face was completely covered in black fur up to his white hair. There was no fur on the palms of his hands but the skin there was darker and perhaps tougher looking. Other than that, he still looked like Max wearing a new fur body suit.

"What the HELL HAPPENED TO ME?!?" he almost yelled. "I am going to murder a certain grape soda on four paws!"

Jackie hesitantly stepped forward then ran a hand over his chest and made a "Woooooing" sound. "He is SO SOFT!" she exclaimed before clinging to him and rubbing her face on his chest. Curious Swytch came over and touched Max. "Wow! You're right!" and Swytch hugged him too rubbing against him.

Max was at a loss for words. "Great, I'm even more of a freak now," he sighed.

"Yes, a very soft and fluffy freak," Jackie agreed.

"You are SO not helping," he muttered darkly.

Both Jackie and Swytch dragged him back to the bedroom and quickly showed him how much they enjoyed their very own freak. Several times each actually.

A bit later Max had to have help bathing and then finding something to wear that wouldn't make him itch horribly. Luckily, a pair of sweat pants and one of his hoodies worked well although now he felt really warm instead of cold. Max didn't even bother putting on his boots, they rubbed the fur wrong and made his feet itch horrendously; plus, the bottoms of his feet were darker and quite tough. Again, today, there was fresh coffee and the note was gone so at least the twins got the message. This might be the last carafe of heavenly coffee so everyone enjoyed it while they could, Max dribbled a bit down his chin, not being used to furred lips. Afterwards everyone got ready for work and left, but not until after both Swytch and Jackie took several photos of Max for posterity and probably for blackmail... Max made his way back to the clinic, his hood pulled up hiding his face. Once he got to the waiting room he curled up to sit on his feet to hide them and waited to give a certain purple kitty a piece of his mind.

Dreamspirit walked in the waiting room noticing the scent of Max but seeing him huddled into a ball. Shi cocked hir head. "Max?" shi said. Looking at the balled-up person.

"We need to have a few words, Doctor..." Max managed to snarl out still not moving from his curled-up position.

Shi sighed. "Don't you take that tone with me, Max," shi stated bluntly with an expressionless look on hir face as shi stood there. "Besides we are having your access codes made so you can just come right in and get ready for the day. Things will go a lot faster in the mornings. Now if you don't mind, get in here," shi ordered.

"I don't think so, you walking grape soda..." he growled this time. "Your last treatment didn't go so very well." And with that Max removed a white furred hand from the folds of his sweatshirt and pulled back the hood glaring up at the chakat.

Dreamspirit put a hand to cover hir muzzle as shi started to chuckle. "Well, you won't be cold anymore!" And hir chuckles turned into a hard belly laugh. "Guess it's what you get for calling me grape soda. Look at it this way Max, you may be able to hang out with the refugees after all," shi said jokingly.

Max jumped up boiling in anger, "You think this is funny??? I wasn't freak enough on the inside, I had to be a freak on the outside as well? I'm not a morph, I'm not a human, I'm a fracking genetic joke!" And instead of a swing at someone he cared about, Max took a full on swing at the wall instead.

Dreamspirit quickly stopped and projected calmness toward Max without even realizing it. "Max, calm down, I'm just trying to make the best out of a odd situation. We can and will fix this."

Shi stood there waiting for him to move. "Bio-bed 4, OK?" shi asked as shi motioned for him to proceed hir.

Max slowly sank to the floor exhausted and just nodded weakly. "Fine... Whatever..." Max stood with a grunt of effort and made his way slowly through the door heading to the exam rooms. He made his way to bio-bed 4 and sat on the edge with a sigh. "Sorry for the grape soda comment..." he murmured.

"It's fine Max, I never took it personally, however I want you in your skivvies," shi pointed to bio-bed. "We are going to re-scan you again like we did from the day you got here. See what the hell happened. I mean I gave you 40 cc's of an enzyme to stop any further changes to your body. That should have been more than enough. Twenty should have done the trick, but having skunktaur DNA, I made it 40 just to make sure. To be on the safe side, we won't be using that again. We will be making 6 different scans, each of another system of your body...." Shi paused for moment, "Fuck micro-centimeters... we'll have to go much slower... And much more carefully." Shi pushed a few buttons to set up the scans and pulling up the old ones on the screens. "Computer, keep bio readings feeds on Maximilian Pilumnus." the computer made an acknowledging sound displaying his cardiogram, pulse, neuro pattern and respiration.

Max grumbled and started shucking his clothing and muttered, "You always did want to get me naked..." As he finished shucking clothes he just stood there in his new fur and muttered, "Fuck it..." and crawled up on the bio-bed and laid down on it. "You sure you suppressed the skunktaur DNA and not the human DNA?" he asked now slightly curious.

"We don't have anything to suppress human DNA," shi replied.

"That was designed for one our older patients. Her body was always changing..." Shi looked at the display with what looked like an angry face. "After these scans, you'll do what you did yesterday." Shi handed Max a PADD, "Here is your new access code. It will only work for entering this lab, I want you to just come right in and sit here in bio-bed 4. Think of it as your new office..." shi trailed off as shi mainly focused on the display at the head end of the bio-bed.

"Do what I did yesterday? I'll change again?" he gasped out.

"Max, we don't know what triggered that change," shi barked. "As far as we know, the hypo I gave you did work and wasn't strong enough to keep the changes from happening. Until I know what happened we'll stay the course. Only change to today is you will not get the hypo. Remember Max, one step at a time." Shi looked over the scans as they came in. "Just a few more seconds. Once this is done you'll do everything you did yesterday. But this time, the computer will track your every move, every heartbeat, every spike low and high in your brain. Something else is going on here we can't see yet. But we'll find it. It's our job to. Till then Max, enjoy the fur. Take this time to learn what it's like to be one of us for little bit," shi said with dead seriousness in hir voice.

Max made a bitter face. "I'm not even one of you as you put it. I'm just a human with fur. I'm not anything but a freak..." he sighed. "I don't belong anywhere now. Although Swytch and Jackie seemed to think I was fluffy," he made a face. "So, I get to be poked and prodded again by your crazy mouse doctor? Is she sane?? I think if I allowed it she would happily dissect me to see why I ticked," he growled as he made another face.

"She is one of the best we have here, she does get a little excited at times. But she won't hurt you... much," shi joked. "Max, you're not the first... Um, well, at this point Morph to come in looking like this. There was one just like you, just he was feline and had ears and tail." Shi made a face expressing hir sorrow, "He was unique." Shi paused a moment and pushed a few more buttons and a wall screen popped up with the older scans side by side with the new scans. "OK, Max, you're free to start your other tests," shi said distractedly as shi turned to look at the screen with a worried look.

Max looked at hir closely, "I know that look Dream, what happened?"

"Hmm?" shi looked at him after a moment. "Oh, with the scans I am not sure yet, but don't worry about it, dear," shi smiled at him. "Run along so I can fix you."

Max raised an eyebrow at Dream and the use of the endearment and sighing hopped off the table and wobbled on his feet for a minute.

Dream grabbed a medical scanner and ran to Max's side.

Before opening the scanner shi reached out to him grabbing his arm with a free hand. "Max, are you OK?" shi asked looking at him very closely.

Max shook his head for a second, "I'm fine, just got dizzy for a second. Must have jumped down too fast. I'll survive." With that he walked through the door looking for Doctor crazy mouse.

"Max!" Dream said in a demanding tone. "Get back here. And take a seat." Shi looked at him with concern as shi waited.

Max stopped and hunched his shoulders and turned right back around grumbling and moved back to the bio-bed, he turned and hopped back on the bed only to let out a yelp of pain and jump right back off again grabbing his tail bone. "What the frack was that?"

Dream looked at him with a look of confusion. "What's wrong?" shi asked as shi opened the scanner and started to scan him for anything else shi may have missed on the more detailed scans.

Max turned and looked over his shoulder not seeing anything, he reached for his tail bone and found a swollen nub instead protruding from his spine. "What the hell?!?!"

Dream noticed what he was doing and scanned over the nub. With a look of shock on hir face. "Right, Max... just take today a little slow. OK?" shi informed him in a wheedling tone.

Max glared at hir, then at hir scanner. "I'm growing a tail, aren't I?"

"Max, it would best if you start the other tests and let me work," shi said sharply. "Go." And after saying it turned to the wall screen and started looking into the deep scans as shi put the scanner on a docking port next to the wall screen. As shi tapped hir comm badge, "Team 7, I'll be sending you a profile, I want you to go over it with a fine-tooth comb. And get back to me, ASAP!" shi said with authority.

Max, now feeling summarily dismissed, turned around grumbling and went to find the crazy mouse. He didn't even notice he had left his clothes behind, he wasn't cold anymore. He exited the exam room muttering something about grape sodas and dominatrices...

As Max left, Dream looked after him. Worry all over hir face. Not sure how or what was causing this fast change. Seeing something like it before, shi couldn't help but worry. Wondering how shi was going to breaking this news to him if they couldn't find a way to help him soon. Was an entire lab going to figure out the problem shi wondered. Grabbing a PADD and putting all the current and past information of Max's medical records on it shi made hir way out of the lab with haste.

Max wearily trudged his way towards Dr. Sand's office. He was absolutely exhausted. After showing up in Dr. Geelaine's office, the crazy mouse, without clothes, the day had kind of gone downhill. At first, she had been about to call security when a naked morph showed up in her office, but then when he managed to identify himself as Maximilian Pilumnus, she had swapped to fascinated in a heartbeat. Again, he had been poked, prodded, tested, and thoroughly run to ground. He managed to reclaim his clothes before he left. Apparently, it had been bad enough that Swytch had contacted him mentally to find out what was going on.

'Max, is everything alright?' hy had sent with worry clouding hys words.

'No, every thing's not alright. Not only am I now covered in fur from head to toe, but there seems to be a tail trying to grow out of the base of my spine. I'm absolutely exhausted and I've been eating everything they will let me. I've been poked, prodded and chastised by Dream at my reaction to suddenly being furry. Shi mentioned I should see what it is like from the other side and maybe I would understand things better. I'm now a freak on the outside as well as the inside. I'm not human; I'm not a morph... I don't know what I am now, or if they will be able to fix it., he sent, weariness and frustration coloring his mental words.

'Max, what you are is still my Denmate. I think I can speak for Jackie when I say we are not going anywhere and that no matter what, we still love you. We will stand with you no matter what happens love. Besides, you're much more snuggly now,' hy sent teasingly hoping to cheer him up a tad.

Even Max couldn't remain as downtrodden with the love and affection Swytch sent through the link to him and he smiled both physically and mentally, 'Thanks, hon, I needed that. It just seems like I had finally started to settle into the new me and suddenly there is now a new, new me. I just can't seem to catch a break and it's frustrating.'

'I understand that, just remember, you have two mates who love you and a son waiting for us to come home; a son that needs hys father as well as hys mother. Be strong for hym and be strong for us. I love you, Maxy,' hy sent.

Max couldn't help but smile at the pet name and sent a mental hug, 'I'll see you when I get home hon, I think I'm going to want a lot of cuddling tonight from everyone. See you home soon.'

Swytch sent acknowledgment and a hug as well and then broke he connection. Max wasn't scheduled for a psych evaluation gain today, but he needed to talk to someone and Dr. Sands was easy to talk to so he stopped in front of hir door and activated he door chime.

"Come in?" said a curious voice.

Max palmed the door open and walked inside. Dr. Sands was looking up from hir data terminal curiously. "Are you lost, Sir?" shi asked.

Max sighed. "It's me, Dr. Sands. Max..." he put his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie and looked at hir as shi looked him over.

"I'm guessing there were side effects from some kind of treatment?" shi asked.

"It wasn't a treatment at all, it was supposed to help halt any further changes, but instead I woke up like this!" he vented his frustration again then took a breath stopping himself. "Sorry..."

Dr. Sands shook hir head and motioned to the chair in front of hir desk. "It is quite alright, you're probably a bit overwhelmed, please have a seat." Shi watched him as he sat gingerly to one side and raised a curious eyebrow.

Max mumbled, "I also seem to be growing a tail and it is a bit sensitive."

Dr. Sand's eyebrows both rose this time. "A tail?" shi asked curiously. It seems Caitians share the Earth feline's natural curiosity.

Max sighed and stood back up lifting his hoodie and lowering his sweat pants a bit in the back showing hir the six centimeters of protruding flesh that was already covered in thick black fur except for the top which extended the white stripe down his spine.

Dr. Sands gazed at it for several minutes before shaking hir head and looking back up at Max. "So, what do you have in your bag of tricks for a genetic freak of nature that someone threw together in a lab someplace? What words of wisdom do you have for someone who is no longer human and not even a morph? WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T BELONG ANYWHERE?!?" Max practically screamed before collapsing to the floor and curling into a furry ball crying.

Sands flinched from the sudden wave of despair before getting up quickly and moving around hir desk. Shi quickly knelt beside Max pulling him into an embrace and stroking his hair as he clutched at hir sobbing like a broken hearted child. "Shhhh, it's OK Max, it's OK..." shi murmured gently while slowly rocking him while stroking his hair. Shi let him get it all out while shi held him like a child in hir arms. Shi understood he tried to be strong for his mates, he tried to be strong in the face of everything that was happening to him but eventually, even the strongest wall crumbles. No matter how strong the wall, the waters eventually erode it away and breaks through, so shi just held him crooning an old Caitian lullaby that hir mother had sung to hir when shi was scared or when the other kids has teased hir for being different. It was really all shi could do to help Max at this moment, but music soothes the soul and eventually Max's sobs quieted and his shaking subsided. He was left breathing hard to catch his breath as he slowly sat up being careful not to tweak his budding tail and wiped tear streaks from the fur on his face.

"Sorry about that..." he murmured.

Shi smiled at him placing a hand on the side of his face and smiled. "It's alright Max, you're not the first person to break down on me and I'm sure you won't be the last. I'm just happy I could offer you a safe place and an understanding shoulder to break down on."

They stared at each other for several moments before Dr. Sands quickly stood up breaking the moment and helped Max to his feet motioning for him to take a seat again. This time, shi sat beside him and tentatively took his hand and just chatted with him like a friend instead of a Doctor. Max asked if shi would teach him the song shi was crooning to him since it really helped calm him. So they spent the rest of the afternoon working on the song and even for a non-Caitian, he did credibly well, even with all of the rolling R's.

Max eventually left and made his way back home, his hood up and his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie. The only furriness showing was his feet. He stopped by a diner on the way home because he was starving again. He chose a booth in the back and ordered from the menu on the table. Max looked out the window watching the ebb and flow of humans, morphs, and aliens all seemingly working in harmony. So where did he fit in now? How far would all of this go? He sighed and turned to the food that had just been delivered to his table, he thanked the server who looked at him curiously but left him to his food. He quickly sucked down the food and shortly after a couple of desserts as well before his stomach finally stopped complaining. He paid the tab and made his way back to his quarters.

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