Note from Author.
**WARNING**
This story is a work of fiction and does CONTAIN ADULT & VIOLENT SITUATIONS. Some of the characters USE COARSE LANGUAGE. Please be aware of that before you read this story.
Due to the very generous nature of a couple of special people, my latest endeavor has been edited. As I said I'm not a professional, I like to do this for fun.
So I would like to thank Mr. Mike Regan, Mr. Evan Mayerle, and Mr. David White for taking their time to help me make this a better story.
Thanks guys.
*Author's note: Tabitha in Eric's timeline is about 3 and Sabrina is 22 in this time line and story Tabitha is 6 and Sabrina is 25. *
****Disclaimer****
All characters that appear in this story that have appeared or have been mentioned in "Sabrina On Line the comic strip" by Eric Schwartz are the copyright of E.S. Productions & Eric Schwartz and are used with his permission.
The characters Chris Foxx and Dexter are the copyright of Chris Yost and are used with his permission.
Character Thomas Woolfe is the copyright of Michael Higgs.
The characters Max The Black Rabbit & Zig Zag are the copyright of Malcolm Earle and are used with his permission.
Other characters mentioned in this work of fiction are the creations, ideas and situations of the writer.
This story is based on Copyrighted characters and situations created by Mr. Eric Schwartz, Chris Yost and Malcolm Earle but is not intended to represent or be a part of the Sabrina On Line Universe Created and drawn by E.W.S. Or the Sabrina Online Story written by Chris Yost and Sabrina At Algonquin. Written and drawn by Malcolm Earle A.K.A Max The Black Rabbit.
Sincerely Mark White
Happy reading……and now on with the show.
Chapter 3: What's in a name?
Canada: The Past.
She turned up the air conditioning in the room. The lower temperature would help keep the snake sluggish and easy to control. Using an overhead electric crane, she moved the cage over to her examining table. She opened it carefully and removed the huge snake. As it came out of its confined quarters it was apparent that it was pregnant. Very pregnant, either that or it had eaten a small child. It didn't move very much, in fact it looked almost dead and it wasn't far from it either. She took the snake and spread it out. It offered little resistance to her handling.
"Your time has come my pet to give birth to a new and improved generation of skunk." She picked up a needle and administered it to the snake. What little life that it had clung to faded forever. She now had little time before her real patient expired. She grabbed a scalpel and began to cut into the snake, trying to extract the life that lay within its belly. The laser sharp scalpel sliced effortlessly through the tough hide of the snake and she could feel it scrape across the egg shell. Carefully she removed the huge egg from the dead snake's body.
It wasn't long before she heard the wails of a child being born, a child who just last week was but an embryo. She turned it over and allowed it to regurgitate the fluid that was in its small lungs. It coughed and coughed until all of it was expelled. Then the small furry child went limp, fearing the worst she put her stethoscope to the child's back and heard the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of its tiny heart, she sighed. "It must be exhausted," she thought. Next she moved the child to her medical scanner to see if all her time and work had gone as planned.
The scanner was state of the art, x-ray, layer transfer, 3D capability all in a small package. It was way beyond anything the world had today, but she didn't have time to draw up schematics, get patents and call lawyers. It wasn't worth her while. She was rich enough now to do anything she wanted, so money wasn't a factor and to hell with the rest of the world anyway. She positioned the child under the scanner and turned it on. It would take it a moment to boot, so she arranged the child in a more comfortable position. "Pretty," she thought; she would be a beautiful Skunkette when she grew up, hopefully within the next few weeks.
She passed the scanner over the body and found truly remarkable findings. Her bone structure was almost normal but there were several inconsistencies, the pelvis was one. She had to turn on the 3D mode to really get a good look. It was simplistic but elegant. It would work wonders if she ever got a hold of something really big. The muscle structure was also very interesting, she doubted that her prey would be able to escape from her hold. Despite her size she was all muscle. She went up the body with the scanner and found all the major organs in different places; she was a mess inside. She made several passes and stored them in memory for later study. The head was also and interesting piece of engineering. She could see how the jaw would dislocate and move on its own. Oh she would be a sight to see eating something large. But she was really concerned about the creatures plumbing, it wasn't normal. It wasn't even close. She wasn't a surgeon or a doctor but she knew enough to tell that this little critter was going to need one very soon. A very good one.
"Well my little one, you came close to my design but not quite, still have a few bugs to fix. But first I'm going to have to give you a name." She thought about it but nothing was coming to her. Then out of the blue she had it. "Your name will be Swallow, like the bird, not actually how you will eat although I suppose that fits as well." She used the scanner one more time and found out something else about Swallow that was going to be a problem. Her body temperature was high even for this cool room. It had to be that black fur of hers it was absorbing all the energy from the lights. If she gets out into the sun she'll fry, she thought. She examined the girl's coat more closely and found it very different than her own. She didn't understand why it was so coarse, it was more like fine quills. "Young lady you will just have to stay indoors in the warm months or I will have to move to a colder climate."
She put Swallow in a thermally controlled cage and tried to find a suitable temperature for her. However it wasn't working and she became extremely frustrated. It was almost as if her body was trying to keep her temperature high. Then she tried something counter-intuitive because she had to know. She increased the temp to something very unpleasant and she got her answer in a big way. The little skunk's fur began to separate and stand on end, like a sea urchin's spines.
"Cooling fins!" She exclaimed! "Her hairs are tiny cooling fins, this is incredible!" And they worked well for her temp went back down but stopped at that abnormally high number again. "Looks like that's your normal temperature." She said to herself. "Hmmm it's a little high for what I would like to see but you're young and using a lot of energy at the moment. We'll just have to wait and see."
She set the temp back to what appeared to be Swallow's temperature and her fur settled back down. She was amazed, she didn't know this was going to happen. "Ah nature, it has a way of surprising the hell out of you."
She left Swallow to rest and began her search for a surgeon. She checked her database closely for one with a background she could use against him. A couple of names came up but only one was in the specialty she needed. A Dr Hector Caliban otherwise known as Henry Walton. She found the address of his practice and called for a limo to pick her up. She didn't really feel like driving today and the limousine service was owned by a friend of hers. She always liked to throw some business her way.
It was a small building with many offices and she found Dr. Caliban's easily. She entered the waiting room to find many people there and they all stared at her as she passed. They had a good reason to, she had forgone her top this time just sporting a nipple chain going across her chest. In the middle was a little heart locket, in some circumstances this attire might just pass as normal but here it stood out like a white elephant. She did have a long skirt on that covered up her favorite rubber underwear, which held in her favorite new toy.
She gave the awaiting patients a quick glance then dismissed them letting them talk amongst themselves. She walked over to the secretary who had also been staring but now had moved on to other things.
"Is Dr. Caliban in? I have urgent business with him."
"He is." She said. "But there are others in line in front of you. If you would kindly take a seat he should be with you shortly."
"F___ that!" She marched past and into a hall to where she saw Dr. Caliban's office at the end. The secretary tried to stop her. "Miss you cannot go back there."
"The F___ I can't!" She hauled off and belted the secretary, which sent her sprawling to the floor. "I would stay down if I were you." Then she walked by the woman and proceeded to Dr. Caliban's office. She flung open the door and interrupted a conversation he was having with a lovely young Lady Fox.
"What is the meaning of this?" Dr. Caliban spoke. He was a bright orange Tiger but had no stripes on his face what so ever, to her he looked extremely funny looking.
"We have business to discuss." She said as she moved into the office.
The secretary spoke up from behind the intruder. "I tried to stop her Dr. Caliban but she hit me, should I call the police?" She was holding the swelling side of her face.
"I don't know what this is all about, but I think you better leave Miss." He stared at the slim and barely dressed white weasel. She was something to look at.
"Oh but don't you want to hear all about your friends in California, I hear they been looking all over for you."
His face went pale at hearing that, something very hard for a furry person to do. "Mrs. Eldrick I think we will have reschedule your visit. Free of charge of course."
"Well I never!" Mrs. Eldrick picked up her purse and started to move out of the office. Dr. Caliban got up and tried to calm her.
"I'll bet you never have either, you should try it up the a__ it would loosen you right up."
"You slut! You have no right to speak to me in that manner." Said the lady fox.
"Takes one to know one lady, now scram and don't let the door hit you in the a__. You may enjoy it too much." She laughed as the woman's face turned red, another hard thing for a furry to do but she accomplished it very well.
The secretary didn't know what to do and Mr. Caliban could see this clearly.
"Joan I have to take this, give all the patients waiting a 25 percent off for staying the longer time."
"All right Dr. Caliban. But what about the police?"
"Ah no need to involve them. I'll settle things up with you later, ok. Just put some ice on your face for now. Oh and tell anyone with an appointment tomorrow that the office will be closed."
"But.."
"Tell them Joan please. I'll explain later right now I have business. Come in Miss."
"Bye Joan." She grinned and slammed the door as the secretary left.
"All right who are you? Were you sent by them? I have money." He was stuttering and stammering trying to get the words out.
"Dr. Caliban calm down no one knows you're here except me, for the time being."
He sat down and looked nervously at this highly provocative lady weasel. "I don't know you."
"No you don't and you really don't want to know me Dr. Caliban but our paths have crossed and there is nothing you can do about that."
"What is it you want? If it's money, that I have."
"Money I don't want, your skills as a surgeon, that I do." She took out a folder from her bag and threw it on his desk. "Take a look, I'm sure you'll find this very interesting."
He opened the folder to find extremely detailed graphics of the internal structure of something he couldn't recognize. "These are fantastic drawings miss but what do these have to do with me?"
"Those are not drawings Dr. Caliban they are 3D scans of a creature I need to have operated on. You can tell even from the first shot that her internals are a mess."
He looked carefully at the drawings in question again. "You can't be serious this thing cannot be alive. It's far too mixed up inside to live very long." He studied the other scans and made a fantastic discovery. "This thing's digestive system is based upon a snake. Its whole body is designed that way, except for this..oh that's interesting." He stared at her to see if he could read her in some way, but failed.
"Correct, but as I said the internals need to be moved somewhat to make her more comfortable and to increase her life span."
"No kidding! You want me to operate on it?"
"Yes." She eyed him up and down and well, still found him very funny looking. She almost laughed but she stifled it.
"It will cost." He grinned, he had been looking at a new Jaguar down the road.
"It won't cost me anything, Henry."
He gulped, he hadn't been called that in years. "Who gave you that name?"
She could almost see him bolting on her. "Calm down Dr. Caliban no one knows your secrets except me, but that will change quickly if you do not do as I ask. I'm not entirely going to give you nothing for the operation. About 10 grand, she will require others as she grows."
"And if I refuse?"
"They will be trolling the river soon to find your body Dr. Caliban, I'm sure of it."
He began to pant. "Ok I accept. When do you want to do this?"
"As soon as possible, every minute she is like this, threatens her safety."
"You know I could call the cops." He grinned. " What you've got here is illegal in every term of the word."
"Yes Mr. Caliban I know biological experiments on our own people are, as you termed, illegal. But I know you won't call them because you're curious about this creature now and what else I may have up my sleeve. Am I correct in my assessment?"
She was good, reading him like a book. "Yes you are; I will be closing the office as you heard. After you mentioned California I panicked and in my mind I was booked and prepared to leave, that's why the closing."
"I do not blame you. You really are in over your head." She could tell he was extremely nervous now.
He stared at the scans some more. "I can do your surgery tomorrow."
"Good." She handed him a piece of paper. "This person can get you almost any medical appliance known. I have many of them and she knows them all. Call her and request anything you would think you would need. If I don't have it, I will when you arrive. My men will come to your house in a limousine, then you will be blindfolded and have hearing retardants put on your ears. You will come to no harm but you cannot know where you are. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but is it all really necessary?"
"Yes Dr. Caliban it is, the less you know, the better."
"All right Miss….hey, you never did tell me your name."
"That's right I never did. Good day Dr. Caliban it's been a pleasure."
"Ah, one question, do you always dress like that?"
"Oh heavens no Dr. Caliban, in fact I'm over dressed today." She took the folder off his desk and turned to leave.
"Ah.. I'll need those."
"You will have up to date scans when you arrive, you can study them there." She closed the door behind her. In leaving the reception room she left a bewildered secretary and a bunch of thoroughly annoyed patients.
The Next Day.
Dr Caliban entered the operating theater and his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe the set up she had, it was better than any hospital he had ever been in.
"Does the room meet with your specifications?" She knew it had by the look on his face.
"It sure does! I wish I had this equipment all the time. I could perform miracles."
"Well we don't need a miracle but I need you on your best, that's for sure. Ready to see your patient?"
"Lead the way Miss." He still couldn't believe it, the place was fantastic, "Wow" was the only word that came to his mind.
"Swallow has grown some since those scans I showed you. I will have to take some more, she hasn't moved very much. I'm not sure if it's just because she doesn't want to or if she is in pain."
"Swallow?"
"I named her after the bird."
"Oh..Ok." Funny, perfectly describes this things internals too, sheesh. He was amazed to hear that this thing had grown enough in one day to change things. "If you said she has grown some more I'll bet she hasn't the energy to do much anyway."
"That's true. Well, here she is." She pointed to a cage with a big black and white furry thing inside. "Her back is turned to us, she doesn't like eye contact. I've turned her several times and she always turns back around."
"Ah why is she in a cage?" He doubted that anything that small could be threatening.
"I can't have her wandering about the laboratory, she is like a small child and you know what small children do. They tend to get into everything and many things in this lab could harm her or destroy this laboratory."
"Ah.. I understand. How old is she? She is quite large."
"I'd have to guess about six, the aging process is slowing down now. The main drugs I gave her in the beginning are wearing off. She'll age normally from now on, good thing too I'm gonna have to get her to talk, walk and do everything a six year old can do."
"She won't be able to do one of those things." Dr. Caliban said.
"What do you mean?"
"She doesn't have the capabilities for sound from what I briefly saw, her throat isn't designed for speech. It's designed for swallowing prey whole."
A look of horror came over her face, she had forgotten that would be the case. It was one of the most obvious things. "It never occurred to me."
"However." He paused, "There have been some major developments in voice research. Mainly involving cancer patients who lose their voices. I'll do some research, there just might be a way to get her to speak."
She thought that this was a little more than she bargained for so it was time to offer something else in return. "If you do this, then you will have my guarantee that if someone finds you I will make you disappear again. I will set you up with a position and money. You need not fear me Dr. Caliban, just don't get on my bad side."
They helped the skunk girl from her cage, she didn't offer much resistance. They laid her in a comfortable position on the scanner table and began. Dr. Caliban couldn't believe how powerful the scanner was, the finest details could be seen, it was truly amazing. "Wait, back up..there, that's what I wanted to see." He pointed to something on the monitor.
"So, what is it?"
"It's a breathing tube." He said with some excitement.
"So?"
He almost laughed but he didn't think it would be a good idea, considering who he was dealing with. "It means she has two systems like us, her nose and mouth can take in air and process it. The tube is small and probably will be able to produce sound. She should be able to speak, probably softly but she should be able to do it. She is quite a piece of engineering, her breathing will be shallow if she swallows anything of large size."
"Anything big she'll put it between her legs, it's designed for really large prey."
He wasn't sure if he heard that right. "She's backward compatible, that's amazing!" It also left an interesting question unanswered. "Is she capable of reproducing?"
"That I'm not too sure of." She moved the scanner around and found small organs but both her and the doctor weren't sure what they were looking at.
"That could be something but I don't know for sure." Her organs were so mixed up and different shaped that he wasn't really sure if they were reproductive organs or not.
"We will be in a better situation when she gets older."
"Yes, her organs will be better defined, you should be able to determine then."
"That's true." She printed off the scans and they took their time going over them. It took hours to figure out exactly what should be done but in the end they both seemed to in agreement with what they were going to do.
"With this mod it should allow the body to function the way it was designed but I wouldn't go feeding her for at least a week. Her body will need time to heal."
"Good that's what I wanted to hear, I want to get her body working. Are we ready?"
"As ready as I'm going to be."
The operation lasted 12 hours, longer than what they thought but they got Swallows' plumbing worked out. All in all they were extremely pleased with the results. In a weeks time she brought him back to show him the results. As he approached the cage and immediately noticed something, "She's a lot bigger now." He said in surprise, he just couldn't believe it.
"Yeah I would say she aged about six years, in the last week."
"But I thought you said her aging was slowing down?"
"It was but this seems to be an abnormal spurt, all indications now say she has stabilized."
"So she is about 12 now?" He looked at the large black furred creature in the cage and wondered what his host had given her. There was a fortune to be made here if he could just figure it out.
"Yeah give or take, I'm going to bring in a therapist tomorrow. I want her analyzed as to where to start therapy. It's going to take awhile to get her motor skills down, plus I'm not sure how intelligent she actually is."
"That will be interesting to find out."
"Yes Dr. Caliban, I'm just hoping she's not a cave dweller."
"Has she showed signs of anything?"
"No she really doesn't move a whole lot. And when she does its very slowly, I suspect she is in pain from the surgery but I am unsure."
This was strange Dr Caliban thought, she should be over the stress of the operation by now. "I'll get you a prescription for a mild pain killer, give that to her with her food. That might help, it might also be best if you give her another scan as well. She should be over the initial operation by now."
She knew that this creature had piqued his curiosity and had a great interest in it. "That might be a good idea lets get her out of there." They pulled Swallow from the cage and were startled to find that Swallow had a serious infection.
"We'll have to put her on an IV as soon as possible."
"Yes, I'll have my assistant get it for us, just tell me what she needs." However it seemed that Swallow was going to have to wait for their conversation was interrupted by a horrible scream. Alarms were going off and Dr. Caliban's host hurried to a monitor. "Damn! It's patient two, her readings are off the scale." She ran down a hall followed closely by Dr. Caliban. She pushed a coded lock that opened a door that he hadn't seen before. It led into a living area where a very pregnant lioness was lying on the floor screaming. A skunk woman was curled up in the corner terrified as to what was happening. The lioness looked to be almost nine months plus but that wasn't the most startling thing. They could actually see her abdomen growing.
The female screamed in agony as her womb expanded. "What have you done to me bitch? Get this thing out of me!" Her face was laden with pain. She was desperately trying to hold what ever was trying to get out, in.
Mother watched as the lioness screamed in agony. This wasn't supposed to happen, she thought. This was totally abnormal growth and at this rate it, whatever it was, was going to get out whether she wanted it or not. The lioness screamed again and again as her belly increased in size, you could hear her skin stretch and the fluids gurgle from inside her body. Something wanted out and wanted out now!
"Try to comfort her while I get something to try and stop this." She ran off and soon came back with a syringe. The lioness's belly was now positively huge; her attempt now would have no affect. What ever was inside her was going to tear right through any moment. They watched helplessly as the lioness's belly continued to expand and expand. All the while she screamed in agony, they moved gently back as they knew it was time. The horrible sound of tearing and ripping flesh could be heard as what ever was inside the lioness clawed its way out. The lioness let out one last horrible scream and then there was silence. What emerged was a huge blood covered female skunk. It gasped for breath as it tried to free itself from its birth parent. They rushed to its aid and helped pull it free. The host gave it an injection and it fell limp.
"What about the lioness?" Mother said.
Dr. Caliban felt for a pulse but found none, he shook his head. "No pulse."
"Oh well, let's get our new patient out of here and into the shower." As they cleaned they noticed that the female skunk was still growing at an alarming rate.
"It's still growing." Dr. Caliban pointed out.
"Yes I can see that." Said his host who was obviously not impressed. This wasn't the way things were supposed to happen and she hated when things went wrong.
"Was it supposed to do this?"
"Not exactly." She said as she scrubbed. The creature wasn't putting up much resistance to being manipulated and washed behind the ears.
"What does that mean?"
"I engineered this one to increase mass if needed, that was my theory anyway. Just think if you entered into a job that required more strength than you had. Well you simply have the body give you the mass and musculature that you needed to do that job. Once finished the body could return itself to normal. That was my theory but it seems to have gone astray."
"Seems this one can't turn it off."
"Yes and if I don't find a cure for it soon she's going to be the incredible hulk of skunks."
"She already is."
They finished cleaning her up and took blood samples while the creature was dazed and confused. It sat quietly and kept looking around trying to take everything in. Hopefully the samples would tell them why she was out of control. But the growth of the skunk wasn't the biggest surprise. That came when the creature spoke to them.
"Do you know what's wrong with me?" It said in a clear British accent.
Their jaws hit the floor, they couldn't believe this thing could talk. "You can talk!" The host said.
"Of course." The skunk said calmly. "Can't all skunks talk?"
"Not skunks of your approximate age." She was totally unprepared for this.
"Not really, you can talk so I should be able to. Have you made any progress as to why my body is growing at such an alarming rate? I figured it to be one square inch every 2.4 mins."
The two of them just stared at each other. "You've figured out your growth rate?" The host said to the skunk.
"It wasn't hard."