The Scientist-Brother

The Scientist-Brother

Max woke up at six o’clock in the morning. A strange hammering noise could be heard through the whole house. He headed downstairs to investigate. When he reached the kitchen the house fell quiet. “Max? Are you awake?” his brother called. “Yes I am, thanks to you making such a noise.” Max answered. His brother appeared on the stairs. "Oh I’m sorry I woke you up, but I have to work on my project, else I’ll never get it finished". Max grumbled something that his brother couldn’t understand. “Sorry, what did you say?” he asked. “Never mind.” Max replied. “Oh, ok. Just remember not to come downstairs. I can’t have you disrupting my work.” His brother said.

Max went into the kitchen to make himself breakfast. He knew that it was no use trying to sleep again, because his brother would go on working. Max sighed. A few years ago their parents had died in a car accident and since the he had been living with his 20 year old brother. Both of them didn’t like the arrangement, but they had no other relatives where Max could’ve gone too. His brother always shoved him around and Max thought that he secretly hated him. He sighed again. ‘I still have six years to go, before I’m 18. Six years with that idiot.’ He thought by himself.

After breakfast Max decided to take a walk outside, in order to evade his brother.
When he returned around two o’clock he found his brother sitting at the kitchen table. “I’m finished.”  He announced.  “Finally. I suppose I’m still not allowed to go downstairs, because I might break something.” Max said sarcastically. “On the contrary actually.” His brother answered to Max surprise. “I wanted to show you, what I’ve been working on the whole time.” “Really?” Max burst out “I didn’t expect that.”

A few minutes later the two of them stood in the cellar. A huge and strange looking machine stood in the center of the room. “Wow; that certainly looks impressive.” Max said. “What does it do?” “You should sit down, the explanation might take a while” His brother said and directed Max to a seat next to the machine. Max sat down and anxiously eyed his brother.

Suddenly a metal bar shot out from the side of the seat. “What the hell?” Max cried out “What are you doing?” His brother turned around and grinned. “I’m tired of you, you little brat. And nobody will miss you, when you are gone. Viewed that way you are the perfect person to test my invention.” A dark fear crept up in Max chest. “Are you … Are you going to kill me?” He stuttered. “No, I don’t think so. At least, if it works correctly you won’t die.” Was the reply. “What are you going to do then?” Max asked, his voice trembling. His brother turned around. “This machine is capable of fusing human DNA with animal DNA. Or at least it should be able to do that. So I will fuse your DNA with that of a fox.” Max was too shocked to reply. “I set up a few traps in the woods over the last few days and yesterday I caught a fox in one of them. It managed to escape, before I could take hold of it, but I was able to rip out a few hairs from its tail.”

At least that was what he thought. In truth he didn’t capture a fox, but a young kitsune girl. The girl had been too frightened to attack him and had run away the moment she got free. Still Max brother had been able to rip a few hairs out of her tail, of which he mistakenly thought that they were fox hairs.

Max had given up struggling against the metal bar, which secured him in place and fearfully watched his brother taking the steps to start the process that should change him forever.

After ten minutes his brother walked over to a control desk. He pressed a few buttons and the pulled over a giant lever in the middle of the desk. For a second nothing happened. Then Max was struck by electricity.

His body started to change. It grew more slender, so that his clothes hung loose on him. His hair started growing, until it reached his butt. His ears grew in length and fur appeared all over them. A long fox tail pushed its way out of his trousers and his chest expanded, forming two small breasts. Last, but not least, a new hole appeared, replacing something she wouldn’t need anymore.

The brother flipped the lever again and the machine stopped and released the girl. “Well, that’s an interesting result.” He said “Don’t you think Max, err I don’t think that name is fitting anymore. How about … Maya. Yes, Maya is a good name.” He grinned at her. “What do you think of your new body? Honestly I had expected you to grow fur everywhere and maybe a tail and fox ears too. What I certainly didn’t expect is that you turn into a girl. Must’ve been a female fox. Interesting, very interesting.” Maya looked at him, eyes filled with tears. “Why did you do that to me? Why did you ruin my life? What have I done to you?” Now her brother got angry and screamed “What have you done to me? Are you serious? You had to come here and turn me into a full time babysitter. You should’ve died in that accident then my life would’ve been much easier.” Maya was shocked. “What do you…” she started, but was interrupted. “Shut up bitch! Oh fuck it, I think I’ll just kill you now and tell everyone who asks that it was an accident and that it’s your fault to play with my machine without supervision.” He picked up a big hammer and advanced on Maya, who crouched fearfully in one corner of the room.

Suddenly the door burst open and a young girl walked inside. “Stop!” she yelled. Mayas brother didn’t even notice that she was there and continued to advance on his sister. “I said stop!” The girl yelled again. Still Mayas brother took no notice of her, so she made a fist with one hand, blew on it and opened it in his direction. A gust of wind hit him in the back and flung him against a wall, rendering him unconscious. Maya looked wide eyed at the girl. “Thanks for saving me…” She began, but the girl interrupted her. “What do you think you are doing?” She screamed at her. “W-What?” Maya stuttered and crouched lower in her corner. “Did you think you can just steal some of my power and get away with it, oh no. I will make you suffer for what you’ve done!” She made a strange gesture and an orb of light formed in her hand. She launched the orb at Maya, who shrieked in alarm.

The orb never reached her. Halfway through the air it was stopped by a wall of light. The girl looked at Maya, eyes wide open in surprise. Maya didn’t even see what had happened, because she had closed her eyes in fear. She was weeping in her shirt now, whispering “Don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me.” Over and over again. “How did you know what you had to do to stop my attack?” The girl asked her. Maya slowly opened first one eye, then the other. “You are not going to attack me again, aren’t you?” The girl smiled at her. “Not, if you explain to me, why you stole some of my power.” Maya looked at her, confused. “What do you mean? I didn’t steal your power.” Now the girl got angry again. “Well of course you did. Just look at you. You have a tail and fox ears just like me. You also smell like me. What more proof do you need?” she screamed. Maya crouched lower again. “I-I’m sorry.” She whispered. “I didn’t want this. My brother forced me into this.” The girl calmed down again. “What are you saying? You’ll have to explain that to me.” She said. So Maya told the girl what her brother did to her and where he had acquired the ingredients he needed for his experiment.

“Well, that explains everything.” The girl said. “By the way, my name is Katarina, but my friends call me Kat. I’m a kitsune girl, just like you now. Tears started to flow down Mayas cheeks. “Hey, why are you crying?” Kat asked her. “It’s just; I will never get my old body back, won’t I?” Maya wept. Kat looked at her and shook her head. “No. I’m afraid that won’t happen.” Now Maya started to cry freely. Katarina looked at her and patted her back. “Look on the bright side of it; you don’t have to stay with your brother any longer. You can come with me. I’ll help you to cope with everything. It’s my duty, since you are more or less my twin sister now.”

It took Maya a few hours to accept that her life had changed and there was no turning back. In the end Maya and Kat set out for the woods together. However, they left a parting present for Mayas brother. Of course they had destroyed the machine. And Katarina had transformed him into a girl, so he could experience the same as Maya. She had also erased his memory, concerning Maya, herself and his invention.

Now Maya and Kat are causing mischief together and Maya gets more used to her new body and her powers every day.