The beginning

Connie and Sonya climbed through the window of Benjamin’s house. It was time for him to join him, time for him to become one with them. A year ago, when he had helped to change Jennifer he had agreed that after one year he would join the group he helped to start more then a year ago. When they walked into the kitchen, Benjamin was standing there, drink in hand. As they walked into the kitchen he turned towards them, smiling. Placing the drink on the kitchen table, he pulled up 3 chairs, motioning for Connie and Sonya to sit down at the table. Sitting down himself, he took out the vial of serum from his shirt pocket and poured it into the drink.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time now girls and I’m glad it’s finally here” he said as he sipped the drink. Enjoying the taste of it he said

“I remember the day we all first met” as he closed his eyes and continued to drink the drink.

***

14 months earlier

It was getting late; the sun had long since gone down. Benjamin was tending to his garden. It had been a long day and he was getting tired. As he went through the process of putting his tools away, he heard a sound in one of his trees. The sound sounded much like a warbling sound. When he looked up in the tree he saw 2 young raccoons looking back at him with curiosity. He enjoyed feeding local wildlife, and figured that they had seen him feeding the squirrels and were looking for some food of their own. He looked up at the animals and asked them if they wanted any food. Both of them responded by climbing down the tree and standing in front of him on their hind legs and begging.

“I’ll take that as a yes” he chuckled. He walked into his house and came back a few minutes later with two bowls loaded with dog food, which he knew that raccoons loved.

“Here you go, enjoy” he said. He watched as the two of them ate every last kibble and smiled as if to say thank you before climbing out of the backyard.

“I wonder where they came from?” he thought.

***

Present

As he finished the last drops of the drink, Benjamin placed the drink on the table and waited for it to take effect. He looked at Connie and Sonya and reached over and petted their heads.

“Who would have thought that an apparent random encounter would lead to all of this?” When he finished the question, brown fur began to sprout on his chest. He Lifted his shirt up to confirm its presence, something which made Connie and Sonya chitter joyfully.

“Shouldn’t be long now”, he said as Connie and Sonya walked over to him and watched the fur grow on his chest. He gently petted the fur on their backs and continued,

“I remember how you visited me every night for 2 months. And then there was that day I made the decision” he said.

***

1 year ago

The two young raccoons had been visiting Benjamin’s house every night for the past 2 months. For the past year he had been working on developing a serum. The serum would, when ingested by an animal, give the animal human level intelligence, mass immunity to disease and alter their aging rate so they would age at the same rate as a human and therefore live as long. He hadn’t of tested the serum yet, but he had reason to believe he would have to alter it for each species for it to work properly. When the two young raccoons came to visit him that night, he placed their food out for them and then told them about his plan.

“I don’t even know if you can understand me, but if this works I could use it on the two of you and it give you all those wonderful things.” He said. The two looked at him, almost as if trying to analyze what he had said. Pulling a pair of scissors out from his pocket, he looked at them.

“I need a sample of your DNA to complete the serum. A piece of fur will do just fine,” he said. The two seemed scared, but possibly attracted by the glimmer of the scissors in the moonlight, walked over to them and sniffed them. While they were looking, he carefully cut a small piece of fur off of them.

“There we go, that wasn’t so bad was it?” he said. The two of them looked at him in confusion before resuming eating. Holding the fur in his hands, he smiled and walked back into his house.

He stayed up very late that night using his machines to integrate the raccoon DNA with the serum. As day broke, he held the vial of it in his hands and cheered. He had done it.

“Now I need a test subject,” he said to himself.

***

Present

Benjamins entire torso was now covered in a thick pelt of brown fur, so he took his shirt off. Connie and Sonya chittered happily at the site of the fur and petted it. Benjamin smiled when he realized how nice it felt. The grown of fur proceeded down his arms and legs and he resumed telling his story.

“I thought long and hard about testing it on the two of you. I knew there were risks, but they seemed worth it. If the serum worked then it could improve your lives greatly. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it didn’t work. So that night I decided to test it.

***

A year ago

Night had fallen and Benjamin had prepared the food bowls for his 2 visitors. He gently opened the vial of the serum and poured a small amount into each dish. He could hear his two furry little friends chittering outside. With the bowls in hand, he walked outside and into the backyard and put them down. When both were half done they looked strange for several seconds. They blinked their eyes, looked at Benjamin and stood on heir hind legs.

“Well? Did it work? Can you understand me?” he asked. When both of them nodded their heads he jumped for joy.

Both of them motioned for a pen and paper, which he provided. He had to admit that watching a pair of raccoons trying to use pen to write something on a pad looked cute. After spending several minutes writing, they both handed him the pads. The writing said it all.

“Thank you for whatever it was you put in there! Suddenly we can think much more clearly. We could understand you partially before but it was hard to figure out most of what you and other humans were saying. Now everything is so clear. But we do have one question? How are we going to live and where? Others of our kind may have a hard to time accepting us now”.

“Don’t worry, I have something planned. So what are your names?” he asked. One of them wrote on the pad and handed it back to him. It said

“my name is Connie and this is Sonya. The human that raised us gave us these names. Before we weren’t sure what the names meant, but now we know”.

“Fascinating! As for how you’re going to live. I have two plans. The first is that you could stay with me. The second is that I have the plans to build a house for you out in the woods, it will have running water and everything. Don’t worry, I have plans to make it very sturdy and to design it in such a way that no one would have any idea that it’s there. I can build it on protected land I own, so no development will ever take place there.” Benjamin responded. Sonya went to work on her pad while chittering with Connie. After a few minutes of writing she handed him what she had wrote.

“The house idea sounds like fun, I just wish there were a way our friend John could be with us there”.

“John?” Benjamin asked, to which Connie responding by writing that John was the man that raised them.

“Perhaps there is a way. I have been doing some tests on human Blood and hair samples and have found out something interesting. This serum is far more powerful then I originally thought. In theory, if a human were to ingest it or even if it came into contact with his skin, it could transform them into a raccoon. As a raccoon, they would keep their intelligence, perhaps even gain greater intelligence and experience long life and have many natural immunities to disease.” Benjamin responded. Connie and Sonya both wrote down if he could teach them to make new serum.

“I don’t see why I can’t teach you and provide you with the equipment to make it” he said.

Present

Benjamin’s entire body was now covered in fur and he had shrunken down such that he was about twice the size of Sonya or Connie. He could feel his tail coming in and his face reshaping into a raccoon face. Climbing out of his clothes, he stood on top of the table.

“The weeks following that night were a lot of fun to say the least. I remember the day you moved in to the new house and wanted me to stay with you as one of you. It was then that I decided that in one year’s time from then I would do so.” He said. He shrunk until he was only a bit bigger then Connie and Sonya and his tail finished it’s growth as his face finished re-shaping and his human speech changed into raccoon sounds. Connie and Sonya both chittered at him happily and he responding by chittering back, happy that he could understand them. They walked over to the new raccoon and sniffed and petted him and told him the rest of the story.

“A few days later, we changed John. Then came to you with a request”. Petting his muzzle, Benjamin smiled.

“You wanted me to change a woman so John could have a female companion that used to be human. So I decided to pick someone that lived close to your home and to change her by opening up a coffee stand from which I sold her the ‘special coffee’.” He said.

“Proycon coffee” Connie and Sonya giggled.

“Yes, the name was rather ironic. I’ve always wondered how she is doing. Is she alright?” Benjamin asked.

“She’s fine, in fact she’s very happy and is involved with another guy we changed” Connie and Sonya said.

“You’ve changed others?” Benjamin asked.

“9 others since then, we’ve even expanded our home so it’s huge now. The techniques you taught us for concealing it have worked great. So far people don’t suspect a thing, some people have even walked right by it and not been suspicious” Connie and Sonya said.

“I’m glad I could help. So will I get to meet all these other people you changed?” Benjamin asked.

“Of course you will silly! They want to meet the person that made this all possible!” Connie and Sonya responded.

“I can’t wait” Benjamin happily said. Connie and Sonya hugged him and motioned for him to follow them.

“Lead the way” he said. And he followed them to his new home and to the new life he had helped create.