CURIOSITY, A BRIEFCASE, AND THE MYSTIC SHADOW PHOENIX

It Came From The Syringe

"This is a problem," Ian muttered as he looked in the mirror, about a week after the attack.

Ever since he'd injected the serum, his nails had been growing alarmingly quick, which wasn't so bad other than requiring him to trim them daily, otherwise they looked to him, like vicious claws.

That day, however, he had another problem.

Right above Ian's scalp, was a solid half inch of hair that was not his usual dark brown, but instead a pale blue. It matched his new eye color quite well which had also traded from brown to blue over night.

This was a very serious problem.

Blue eyes weren't so bad. That was easy to overlook and had apparently come with much better than 20/20 eye sight for he could read the fine print off the back of his allergy inhaler from all the way across the room and he didn't even have his glasses on.

He wouldn't have even been able to see the inhaler from here, yesterday.

He also realized he hadn't needed to use his inhaler since the day he injected the serum.

Considering a change in eye color might be easily overlooked by most people, blue roots though, wasn't something normal people had. Given that it was just the roots, he couldn't pretend that he'd dyed it that color either.

"Maybe I could shave it all off?" Ian considered before quickly dismissing that idea. If he did that, he was just asking to get pummeled. "I could trim it short."

That idea actually had some merit, but it wouldn't last long with how fast his hair was growing. Going from half an inch of hair to two inches of hair in a few days would be even more noticeable than it was now.

Finally, Ian just shook his head. He was looking at this wrong, trying to find some way to keep things hidden, but that was already rapidly becoming impossible.

A week on the drug had evaporated most of the extra weight that had plagued him since he was a child - yet still, the mounds of fat on his chest remained.

The thought of them not going away sent a shiver up Ian's back. He had been using clothes that were becoming increasingly baggy and weather inappropriate to keep this hidden, but it had now passed into the realm of ridiculous.

As Ian considered his appearance, anxiety built within him. Intellectually, he'd come to accept that his final form would be drastically different from what he had been, that was a given, but seeing his body change day by day had been disconcerting to the point that he hardly looked at it. He couldn't. It was horrifying to him.

At first, it had just been a welcome weight loss, and indication of a healthier more athletic future, as his frame had slimmed, and the fat vanished. Now it was becoming obvious that his waist was slimming faster than his hips.

That's when a truly horrifying thought crossed his mind. He realized that an increasingly feminine form was developing in the mirror.

Ian stared at his face in the mirror, slowly tracing the bone structure with his hand as his heart rate increased. He couldn't believe how much his face had changed.

His face had slimmed down so much, to a point where people almost didn't recognize him. In fact, he almost didn't recognize himself, and it was taking on a softer appearance.

Over the past several days, whenever he went somewhere he had to interact with strangers, it had been a nightmare for Ian, and he now recognized why they were beganing to assume he was a girl.

This was causing him much anxiety, to the point he was considering not ever going out of the house again. What was he to do?

There had to be a way to stop this.

He looked closer at his newly blue-colored eyes, gasping at the sight of them. Over the last several minutes his eyelashes had grown thicker and the length of each lash had increased dramatically.

On top of that, at hat very moment, as Ian watched in horror, his lashes began to change color, from black with a hint of blue, to a deep, bold blue that matched his roots.

Overcome with fear and emotions Ian dropped to his knees. His mind was overwhelmed with the changes. He dropped his gaze and stared at the floor for several minutes. In a daze, he began to hyperventilate.

Moments later he passed out.

Ian regained consciousness about twenty minutes later and pulled himself back up on his knees. Still in front of the mirror he eventually looked back up at himself . The almost unrecognizable reflection continued to freak him out. 

He slowly removed his shirt and hesitated for a moment before finally reaching up to examine his chest with his hands.

The flabby man boobs, a staple of his life for many years, were changing, becoming a more palpable presence. No longer were they just flabby man boobs, they were much firmer, filling in, taking on a shape and definition that was far from what he was used to.

Attempting to shove the anxiety back, Ian tried to focus his mind on the future not the past and think about the possible positive outcomes based on the documented results of other test subjects.

He couldn't do it and tears, once again began to trickle down his face.

Yes many of those test subjects had become huge, muscular, wildly attractive men with unnatural strength or some other highly desirable superhuman trait. Exactly what he has assume he'd achieve, but those test subjects had all been female.

Before long he was sobbing, deep, heaving sobs. The negatively of what he now saw as his future, had smacked him between the eyes. He enjoyed being male and had absolutely zero interest in anything female, other than some day having a beautiful female life partner.

He began to desperately wish he had never found that formula, as he now believed he was destined to live a nightmare and there would be no positive outcomes.

Ian had progressed far enough that attempting to hide this any longer would be impossible.