Andy's Origins - Part 1 (Patreon)

Andy was never an impressive specimen of a fox. Scrawny, insecure, barely reaching a height of 5’8”. Of course he had other skills to make up for it, but none of those matter when most of your male friends peek over your forehead or even use the top of your scalp as armrests for their burly arms. 

The vulpine reasoned with himself, no amount of studying or money would fix his underwhelming figure. Everyone around him won the gene lottery while he got nothing but a participation trophy.

So, when he saw a new poster hanging inside his college’s hallway, he had little hesitation contacting the names listed. A new kind of gene therapy firm was looking for volunteers to test out their new treatment… a cure to being small.

Only a few days later he already found himself sitting on an uncomfortable chair inside a room that closely resembled a doctors office… but where an actual doctor would usually stand, there was a scientist. A 6’2” coyote in a lab coat, who was fumbling with unusual equipment. He had introduced himself as Dr. Garte earlier.

The air was slightly colder than room temperature and reeked of sterile cleaning agents. 

“So, Andy, what do you know of this procedure?”,  the canine inquired in a soft french accent. The fox hesitated for a second. Was he supposed to do research on this?

 “I, uh, saw your ad. It said something about curing me? I mean my, uh, well..”, he vaguely pointed to his body. 

“So this is completely new to you?” The doctor looked at his new testing subject. Andy nodded slowly. 

That fox must really be desperate for this treatment…

Dr. Garte fastened an IV bag to an infusion bag next to Andy… but the liquid inside was green. Bright, neon green. Maybe this was not such a good idea after all.. but what did Andy have to lose? 

“Don’t worry about the color.” The scientist spoke. He took his subject's arm and fastened a catheter to his hand. The foxes' eyes stayed fixated on the liquid.. “What exactly is this?”, he questioned. 

“A solution filled with proto-molecules that can fuse different genomes and could cure diseases… or improve the recipient.”, Dr. Garte answered. Andy looked at him puzzled. “I-Improve?” 

The scientist now wore a small grin on his face. It was hard getting willing lab rats nowadays… He replied: “Did you know that the kangaroo can grow in size forever? I isolated the respective genes and proteins. Once injected, they should stay inside your body for a short while. But during this timeframe, your body will likely start increasing in height.” 

This sounded good, right? The hyena continued. “Now, the kangaroo will only grow a few inches over multiple years. So, the genome will multiply inside your body exponentially before eventually stopping.” There was a small pause. Everything was set up. The last thing to do was to connect the catheter to the green, ominous liquid. 

“Are you ready?”

Andy nodded. “So, how long will this last?”, he replied with a question. 

“You should start to see results by the end of today.” The lab workers tone shifted. “It’ll probably last a few days at a maximum…”