The ABO Serum

Coffee & a Secondary Gender

"What's up boss man?" Ryan greeted him, his curiosity obvious. The building went on lock-down over an hour ago. "Bout ten minutes ago they came and cleared out the customers. They said plumbers were coming to flush the pipes and not to serve anything made before and until they finished."

"Yes," Carey confirmed, since it seemed practical given what he knew, even though he'd not heard as much himself. "The supply was contaminated. We need to dump everything made today or in end of day prep yesterday. Let the plumbers flush the system and prepare to wash everything after with the cleaned water. Then we're gonna prep whatever food we have and feed whatever poor souls are still stuck here. Can you stay with me even if you get cleared to go? It's gonna be a late night but I'll have another crew cover tomorrow morning."

"Sure. I can do it. But what were we exposed to? I've been drinking coffee since the first batch at six a.m." Ryan asked.

"I can't even explain it right now. I have to identify all of today's customers with security. Can it wait until after? It's not deadly. Just...weird as fuck. I'm sorry." Carey looked so overwhelmed Ryan's heart flip-flopped. His boss was a sweetie for sure, planning to stay and feed the stuck folks. He wouldn't charge them. It wasn't his style. And he wasn't freaked out by whatever happened so it must be okay. Weird as fuck. What could it possibly be?

It was after eleven when the plumbers left and Ryan finished cleaning the equipment. While they worked he'd ordered some additional groceries delivered. Security brought the food in.

Carey was still sequestered in his office with the security guard. He'd come out three times with photos to ask Ryan if he recognized customers. Two were college students. They forwarded the photos to the school to request identities.

The third was more difficult. No one knew them. The building wasn't far from the freeway so it could be a traveler passing through. They circulated the photo in the company messaging system to double-check if it could be someone's friend.

The first pot of coffee Ryan brewed with the clean water drew Carey and the security guard out of the office. "I think that's everyone," Carey was saying. "Ryan, you are a hero. Please give this lady a cup and anyone else who comes by. I need to take one upstairs real quick and I'll be back to help with the food." He poured two cups and scurried off.

"Please join me. I need a break too." Ryan held out a cup to Ms. Freitas and after she took it grabbed a couple of brownies from the cabinet and took them to a table. There he gestured for her to take a seat. "These snacks are made offsite so they're safe," he assured her.

"Thank you." She took a seat and slowly sipped her coffee. "This is heaven. You married? Cause I would totally keep a househusband if he could make coffee like this."

Chuckling, Ryan sipped his own coffee and broke one of the brownies into bite-size pieces. "Not married, but not househusband material either. I'm on the barista-to-business-management track."

"Sounds impressive when you're not surrounded by doctorates," she teased.

"I know," he admitted. "Worst location ever for the ego. But these guys drink coffee faster than I can make it so it's good for business."

"Plus they're all gay so a pretty guy like you behind the counter keeps 'em coming back," she added.

"What?" Ryan thought the lab geeks were friendly but all gay? No way.

"You didn't know?" Miss Freitas seemed as surprised as he was. "Well, they're not all gay, but that's the project they're working on. Making gay babies."

"What?" This explanation wasn't helping at all.

"That's enough Ms. Freitas," Carey walked in the door in time to hear her last comment and promptly dismissed her. "I'd like to explain things here before he gets any more confused."

Ms. Freitas jumped to her feet. "Yes, sir." She grabbed her coffee and the last bite of her brownie and quickly left.

"Smells like you're brewing," Carey observed, dropping into her seat.

"Yes. I haven't seen them let many people out," Ryan confirmed. He watched Carey take a long sip from his cup and then sigh deeply. "They're all gay...," he prompted.

"They're not all gay," Carey explained. "But they're researching ways to allow gay couples to have their own children. That's a broad description. More specifically, this facility was built to host human trials for a drug that modifies DNA and causes the development of secondary reproductive traits. I'm not sure about everything but it means some men will grow uteruses and some women will grow dicks and some people won't change much at all. They can't predict who will be affected how. In rats, about seventy percent had no significant effect so that's good."

"And the other 30%?" Ryan asked.

"The change amplifies already strong aggressive or submissive traits. Causing the growth of a uterus in submissive men or the growth of a dick in aggressive women. Their clit grows." Carey was glad Daryl explained everything thoroughly to him over the weekend. His explanation in front of Trina earlier wasn't nearly as in-depth. "Aggressive folks of both sex become more dominant and also get a boost in intelligence and physical prowess. Submissive folks become more empathetic and nurturing. Both types become more fertile and the submissive types have strong heat cycles that draw the aggressive types and cause them to mate relentlessly until pregnant. More like animals. Of course, they've only tested animals. They don't know how the social dynamics will play out in humans, but we're about to find out because someone put the serum in the water system and everyone who drank today is starting to change."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

They sat like that in silence for a few minutes until someone tapped on the glass door of the shop.

"The coffee smell must be escaping. Let's feed folks. And we gotta get tested before we go. Daryl's gonna send someone to do our saliva swabs and blood draws here as soon as they're free so we can open up now." Carey's calm soothed Ryan's initial crisis reaction. There was nothing else to be done.

"Alright," he conceded. "Let's feed these freakygeeks."