Arthropod Annex (A Fox Serum Story)

(TFs: Moth, cockroach, spider, scorpions, other insects)

By grapehyacinth

(next up in the Fox Serum universe after “Zoo Tour”)

Rick Stanis stood in a small amphitheater, glowering at the other volunteers for the latest Fox Serum 'experience'. Everyone appeared overexcited, their faces glowing at the prospect of living as a completely different being. The subjects chatted giddily, talking about the “Arthropod Annex” that they would soon be part of.

Rick hated how happy everyone was, but he managed to put a fake smile on his face. He could not show his animosity at all for fear of being disqualified from the group. Truly, he could care less about being transformed into an endangered species. There was really only one reason that he was here, and this reason stood across the room from him.

Julia.

Julia Feder had been his fiancee until she had met up with Rob, his perfect-in-every-way boss. Rob was the ultimate male – tall, blonde, muscular...everything that Rick was not. Rob had the money, the women, and the position. And, on Rick's introducing his fiancee to his boss, Rob quickly had Julia.

For the longest time, Rick could not fathom Julia's attraction to his boss. She was the bright, scholarly type that easily saw through Rob's super-jock facade. What on earth had made her fall for him?

Rick focused back on what the head scientist was saying. “So, yes, I'm head of this part of the Zoo.  Here we're going to study endangered arthropods. As you're well-aware, that's insects, spiders, and the like. You guys like the name we picked out?”

“'Arthropod Annex?'” Rob chuckled almost derisively. “Sorry, Dr. Welton, but it's pretty lame. I mean, most people don't know what an arthropod is. Hell, I'm not even sure what an annex is!”

Rob's voice sent Rick's mind reeling back to the morning of his break-up with Julia. Rob had entered his cubicle, spouting his usual “pick up the pace, we're team players” crap. He sat down beside Rick and stared at his computer, loudly chewing some annoyingly sweet-smelling gum. “I know we were going to talk this morning, Rick, but I was busy playing squirrel tag. Got me some good ones today.”

Rick could not ask. He did not want to know what the hell his boss was talking about.

“Tell me you never did it! I started in high school and never stopped yet! Run over as many of the little buggers as you can!” He threw back his head and laughed. “It's like when I hunt, only I get to do it in my car.”

This man needs to die a horrible death, Rick had thought to himself. If I could get some Fox Serum to make him a squirrel, then I could go after him...

Idly, Rob picked up a framed picture from Rick's desk. “So who's this chick?” he asked snidely while carefully studying the girl.

“The 'chick' is my fiancee,” Rick answered coldly.

“She coming to the work holiday party tonight?”

“Yes,” Rick said guardedly.

And he had been right to be worried; Rob had spirited Julia away from him not moments after they arrived at the party that night.

Dr. Welton's words brought him back to the present. “So we'll separate the harmful ones from the harmless ones. For example, our spiders will be off on their own, but our butterflies and moths will live in the woodsy tank with our crickets, beetles, et cetera. Just remember, if you somehow manage to wander off, don't eat anyone. It might be one of your friends. Feed on only what we provide you with. This is also a good way to avoid any diseases that the real bugs harbor, because, yes, if we don't change you back in time, you could die in bug form.”

The idea of dying in a foreign form made Rick question his motives for the moment. Trying to turn his mind from this frightening though unlikely possibility, Rick reminisced on how he had chosen to join Dr. Welton's experiment.

Neither he nor Julia had bothered to unfriend each other on Facebook, and he hated to admit it to himself, but he still followed every one of her posts. After yet another upbraiding from Rob at work, he came home to read: “Rob and I are joining Mission Replenish! We're going to become the 'fabulous green sphinx moth' which I never heard of, but it's endangered, and they're really pretty. I'm posting a picture of it. So if you don't come visit us at the Zoo, I'll see you in a few years! .” Julia's over-use of smiley-faces used to be cute. Now it simply made him want to vomit. But plans were forming in his head. Perhaps he could join Mission Replenish and change into something horrible to scare the living hell out of his bastard boss.

As the Arthopod Annex members-to-be were shown their living areas, Rick did not pay attention to Hannah, their new guide. Instead, he watched Rob and Julia, giggling and playfully swatting at each other.

Then Rob spotted him. “Hey, look who's joining us, Julia! It's UberSchmuck himself!”

“Right, you ass. I'm the uber-schmuck,” Rick spat under his breath.

“Oh my God, Rick! I can't believe you're doing this too!” Julia cried, obviously uncomfortable.

“Amazing, isn't it,” Rick uttered, vitriol in his voice. He turned away from her, angry at the twinge he still felt on viewing her pretty dark hair, tied back tastefully in a ponytail...

“You found out we're doing Mission Replenish, so you figured you'd join so you'd get her back,” Rob hissed into his ear. “Well, too bad, asshole. Even in bug form she's mine, and we're going to make so many butterfly babies it'll make your head swim.”

Rick shook his head in amazement. The guy was a complete moron. “Uh, first of all, butterfly babies are called caterpillars. Second, you're turning into moths.”

“Go to hell.” Rob put his arm around Julia and led her away.

Dr. Welton stood before them again, a woman quaking beside him. “Welcome back to our little 'transformation stage', as I like to call it. I hope you're all impressed with your new living arrangements. Now, for a change, I'm going to join you all. And I do mean 'for a change'!”

The woman beside him tittered anxiously, and Dr. Welton patted her on the shoulder. “I'd like to introduce to you my girlfriend, Dr. Diana Serkin. She's an entomologist who is studying the Madagascar hissing cockroach. And we're going to both turn into a couple of them.”

“They're endangered?” asked one man.

“No, but for Diana's first Fox Serum experience, she'd like to see what it feels like to be one.”

“Cockroaches are disgusting! Why would you want to be one?” spouted a woman.

“Jayce, you're turning into a beetle. How could you even say that?” her husband responded.

Dr. Serkin smiled. “Not all cockroaches are disgusting. The Madagascar hissing cockroach doesn't live in human dwellings, and it only eats fruit and decaying vegetation. Unlike the roaches you know, it won't eat its own droppings, or its own young, or other cockroaches. It's a beneficial insect, and its mating ritual is quite lovely.”

Dr. Welton blushed, “Well, if you like hissing.”

“You'll be an expert at it in no time,” she touched his back, and Rick observed with some jealousy. He had been like that once with Julia. Now that bastard Rob had her. He would show him!

“Now to see what you'll experience, I'm going to narrate my own changes until I lose the ability to speak. I ask you all to relax, sit back, and enjoy. Transforming's wonderful, and as you know, those pleasure-inducing drugs in the serum pack quite a punch!”

Dr. Welton jabbed a syringe into his arm, and almost immediately, one could see the tension drain from his body. “Okay, I'm starting to feel it...Oh, God, I love that feeling. My body is starting to change, see? My skin is darkening, and my limbs are thinning...I better get down on the floor so I don't fall.”

“Oh, Craig, you're already starting to shrink!” Dr. Serkin cried in delight.

“Oh, yes, and it's a rush!” he exclaimed. Everyone could see he was attempting to keep his scholarly demeanor, but it seemed a downhill battle as the pleasure washed through him. “Ah, I'm...mmmm. Growing my other legs...see the nubs...Good-bye hands and feet! The fingers and toes are fusing and becoming part of these...insect legs!” His voice was growing fainter as he became smaller and smaller. “Won't be able to talk soon...mouth parts...Body segmenting...Flattening...” He gave a great shudder. “My exoskeleton...the hardening all over me feels so...good...Losing semblance of human visssssssssionnnn....” His words fell away, and everyone watched in silence as the brilliant scientist shrank to the floor, reduced to nothing but a cockroach.

He rose up on his back legs, brandishing his front four in a clumsy victory wave, and Dr. Serkin laughed, holding her arm out to Hannah. “Oh, he's lovely like that! Quick, me next!”

Dr. Welton's other assistant, Mary, carefully picked up the new cockroach and placed him in a small glass tank as Dr. Serkin squirmed and shook through her own metamorphosis. Watching herself change in a large mirror behind her, she squealed, “I've never felt better in my life!” as she shrank away and hardened into a mate for Dr. Welton. Mary deposited her into the tank as well, and she carted it away. As she walked past, Rick could see the two cockroaches had joined up and were already busy doing things he preferred not to think about.

“Okay, next up. Sean and Vara, to become the endangered emperor scorpions.”

The couple received their injections at the same time, and they shrank down simultaneously, their bodies growing dark, their arms stretching into pincers.

“Damn, look at their tails forming!” Someone exclaimed as both Sean and Vara grew tails which lengthened until they curled around over their backs.

“Hell, Julia, we should have been them!” Rob commented.

Julia looked hurt. “But we'll be so beautiful! The green sphinx moth is so pretty, and–”

“Okay, okay. It's fine. As long as we can do...sex...stuff.” He raised his eyebrows, and she giggled.

And Rick wanted to retch yet again.

People transformed into grasshoppers, flies, crickets, and beetles before it was Rob and Julia's turn. Both stepped up, Julia excited, and Rob obviously trying to cover some sudden misgivings.

Julia glanced at him. “Are you worried?”

“Oh, no! Not at all!” he replied too quickly.

She smiled and held out her arm to Hannah. “I'm going first.”

Rob seemed to have no problem with this, and viewing his girlfriend's transformation appeared to fascinate and arouse him as well. Unlike the others, Julia remained silent through her changes, merely maintaining a beatific grin and breathing deeply. When her metamorphosis was complete, Rob blinked down at her. “Damn, she's kinda small. And she's just...green. I thought we'd look more exciting than that.”

Hannah grew incensed. “Uh, didn't you look at any of the information you were given? Everyone receives a whole packet with pictures of the animal and its whole biology...”

“Oh, Julia took care of all that,” he brushed her away.

The new moth remained on the ground, testing her wings while staring up at Rob in confusion.

“A freaking moth...Couldn't she have picked one of those huge-ass rainforest butterflies?”

Rick had had enough. “What the hell is wrong with you? She's beautiful! She's always been beautiful! You promised her you'd join her and now you're thinking of backing out? I always knew you were a spineless coward. All that manliness is a front! You damned...loser!”

“Fuck you! Like she'd take you back! Even if you're a moth, she'd reject you. What the hell are you becoming anyway?”

“Guys, please,” Mary pleaded.

“Uberschmuck. Julia originally called you that, you know? I liked it so much that I borrowed it from her.”

Rick wondered if this were true. “Change him!” He demanded, glaring down at Julia, then turning to Hannah. “Please! I work for this guy, he's treated me horribly, every day with him is a nail in my coffin...”

“What if I changed my mind and said I didn't want to be a goddamned moth?”

Still in doubt about how much Julia had said behind his back, he could not let his boss treat any woman this way. He lunged at Rob. “You son of a bitch! She's waiting for you!” He tried to grab his boss's arm, but was met with Rob's fist in his face instead. He staggered back, seeing stars.

Hannah jabbed the syringe into Rob's arm.

“Oh, shit,” Rob gasped, and he fell writhing to the floor.

The pressure at Rick's shrinking sides was immense, but so pleasurable that he could hardly keep from shrieking. In the seconds after his own injection, his feelings quickly shifted from fear to a lust for change that surprised him. With something bordering on an explosion, two extra sets of legs sprouted from him, making him cry out a victorious “Yes!”. His own arms and legs took on the appearance of the brand-new limbs, and presently he had eight hairy, solid, spider legs. He had never really thought much about the actual experience of transforming – his goal was simply to be changed, and to do something to get back at Rob. Yet here he was, diminishing into a spider body, and, as Dr. Welton had said, it was quite a rush.

“What kind is he?” cried a booming voice far above his head.

“Rick has turned into a red slate ornamental spider!”

“He's a tarantula!”

“Damn, he's huge!”

“He's kinda cute,” said a woman's voice.

Rick was hardly aware of the fingers picking him up and putting him into a container. He was transferred into a terrarium, where he merely remained where he was placed. He was attempting to get accustomed to his new form, but the dwindling waves of pleasure snaking through him were still making logical thought somewhat troublesome.

The terrarium was large, moist, and it felt homier and homier as the minutes progressed. When he was finally able, he crept up a tall branch to test his legs. Trying to coordinate eight limbs was complicated, but he got better with each endeavor. The spider senses were kicking in, and when he dove under some brush when startled by a loud bang, he knew he was more spider than human.

“Rick, here's a cricket for you to eat,” Hannah towered above him, his first meal dangling from her fingers. “I'm not sure if you're still grossed out by the idea, or if the spider instincts have kicked in. If not, don't worry. You'll get hungry enough, and you'll dig in. Predatory instincts can be overpowering, trust me. I've been a cat, but I've also been a hawk and a lion. Let me tell you...you're swirling overhead, you see that mouse down below you, and...well,” she gulped sadly, “it's toast. But to you, it tastes like...ambrosia.”

Rick couldn't comment, but he did wave his front leg.

“Does it feel cool having eight legs?”

He nodded.

“I might want to try that one day.” She giggled. “Maybe I'll even be your mate.” She winked, and, somehow, even as a spider, Rick managed to look uncomfortable. Didn't female spiders sometimes eat their mates?

“The girl that they were going to eventually try to get you to mate with backed out last minute. I forgot to mention it. But don't worry. You'll get your chance.”

He wished he could tell her he was not interested in a mate. Well, mostly not...He was more interested in getting to Rob.

She offered Rick her arm. “Want to come out?”

He nodded again, and crawled onto her hand.

“I don't think your venom would kill me, but still, please don't bite me.” Hannah petted him. “I always wanted a pet tarantula.”

Hannah took to walking around with Rick on her shoulder. This frightened both visitors and staff alike, but all were assured that the spider was a transformed human, and thus would never harm anyone. Yet as she entered and left the various enclosures, the transformed creatures made the predator inside Rick stir, and he found himself wishing desperately to sink his fangs into them.

And one day, they entered the area where Julia and Rob lived. On a nearby branch, Rob fluttered before Julia, fanning his wings out wide in an effort to impress her. She observed him with interest, and he made a move to mate with her.

Ugh. I need to see them mate? Rick's stomach grumbled. Hannah had not fed him yet, and the smell of prey tantalized him.

Hannah leaned over to pull some weeds that had sprouted through the brick walk.

Oh, Hannah, just get me closer to that branch. If I could just sink my teeth into that bastard, it'll scar him for life, they'll have to transform him back immediately, and he wouldn't mate with Julia!

Hannah leaned slightly closer, but, even with stretching, he could not quite reach...Could he parachute across a line of silk? He had played around with creating his own silk, which was interesting, but tarantulas did not make webs to capture prey, so he had ceased after a time.

Hannah giggled at Rob's antics. “Oh, Rob, you're quite the Casanova...of moths!”

Rob tried to bow, but it did not work. But this did serve to make Rick angrier, as well as to inject more of Rob's scent in the air.

Oh, how plump and tasty his moth body looks...

Hannah brushed against the branch, and Rick made the leap to his new perch without anyone noticing. Julia was at the end of the branch, and Rob had conveniently alighted beside her.

Rick began to creep towards the unknowing moths.

I'll scare the living hell out of you, you son-of-a-bitch, Rob!

Keeping out of sight, he approached, nearer and nearer...

“Where are you, Rick?” Hannah suddenly cried out in alarm. Both moths looked up, and Rick launched himself at his boss, damaging the moth's delicate green wings. Before the frightened insect could try to flee, Rick's fangs clasped onto his abdomen, injecting him with venom.

Julia tried to stop him, but she could only flail at him feebly with her wings.

She's trying to help him, and she's ripping her beautiful wings in the process!

That...stupid...ass!

Hannah had located Rick and tried to pull him away, but it was too late. Rick had surrendered to his spider instincts, and was happily dining on his boss.

Doctors managed to save Rob, but he was never the same. No longer the ultimate alpha male, he now was a paranoid, sorry shadow of his former self. He was diagnosed with the newly-minted 'post-metamorphic stress disorder', or PMSD. Julia soon broke up with him, and he left his job. He remained locked in his apartment for months, unwilling to make contact with any humans other than his family.

The media made an uproar over the affair, generating all kinds of anti-transformation activism. Rick was put on trial, but he was quickly deemed innocent, for he was most certainly not in his right mind. He was in an arachnid's body, and it drove him to do what an arachnid does.

Of course Rick agreed with this explanation, never once admitting his ulterior motive for joining the Arthropod Annex. Secretly, however, he prided himself on the fact that his very own venom had caused his boss's undoing. Now the last step to complete his revenge was to get back Julia.

Unfortunately, unlike any good romance novel, Julia was still not interested in him. Less so, in fact, now that he had poisoned and eaten her boyfriend. Remaining single, she went on to complete several other Fox Serum projects, including becoming a pterodactyl when Dr. Welton started to transform people into extinct animals.

Rick considered joining the extinct animal trials, if Dr. Welton were willing to have him back after all the hullabaloo died down.

He began to research what preyed on pterodactyls.