“We gonna stop here for today, or d’you think we should refuel and keep going until we hit the city?

“Nah, let’s stop here, I need to get more than three hours sleep tonight.   Besides, I think Kate’s lost her ability to move in straight lines at this point.”

“Hey, fuck you.”

“You wish. Anyway, I think I see a motel up ahead past that gas station. That look good to you?”

There was a small chorus of ‘yeah’ from the assembled women, the roar of their motorcycles flaring up again as they quickly covered the distance between them and the motel. The five women got off their motorbikes and went over to the front-desk to check in, finding a middle-aged, slightly overweight brunette woman wearing a white blouse with her hair done up into a bun waiting for them.

“Hello, misses. Will you be checking in today?” She politely said to the bikers, one of them confirming that yes, they were indeed, and would only be there overnight. They stepped forward to sign in. The one who had stepped forward was Kate, a woman in her early twenties who had assigned herself as the leader of their group, nobody else caring enough to challenge her supposed leadership. 

She was rather short, something she didn’t like to be reminded of, but was otherwise the calm one, having announced when they first formed their group that somebody had to be the responsible one, and made sure that they actually showed up to the events that the other members of their motorcycle club, the Patriot Guard Riders. She wasn’t overweight, but she wasn’t exactly thin or slender, another sensitive area for her,   and had long blonde hair above a wide face with pale skin and brown eyes, ruining any Aryan jokes that Sari could have used on her.

Next up was Maria, half-Chinese with short black hair, she was the quiet one of the group, preferring to stick to just having her jacket be the main sign of her being a biker, rather than doing the full act like the rest of the group, instead sticking to regular jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers, rather than the leather and boots that the others preferred. 

She had instead decided to back up her act by spending most of her non-biking days at whatever gym was available, her strength a source of considerable pride for her. Sari had always made jokes about her being the normal one of the group, and the joke of her being the one that would blend it whenever sent to retrieve supplies for the rest of the group had gotten old for her.

The third of the group was Claire, the oldest of the group, the others being roughly the same age, while she was several years older, having not come from the same year level of high-school as they had. She was thin as a stick with dark brown hair done up in a ponytail and a slightly gaunt face, with no fat at all on her frame, as well as no muscle to speak of. She was fully vegetarian, something that had caused a bit of conflict with the more meat-happy Maria. She had become the one of the group who worried the most, and tended to stay out of conversations unless she felt she had something to say, in which she never shut up. 

And then there was Sari, who managed to be energetic, despite her lack of sleep and the long ride. She had always given people the answer of “go places, see the rest of the country” whenever she had been asked what she wanted to do after she graduated, and generally surprised people when she actually got around to doing it. At 5 foot 8 and with almost mid-back length bright red hair, she was generally thin, but had never really had the dedication to put in the time needed at the gym to develop a serious body like Maria. 

They had all joined up with the Patriot Guard Riders just out of high school, and while they rode on their own for a year or two, they had eventually all met up and decided to ride together for until their next event, forgetting to disperse afterwards. By the time they had reached their next destination they had formed a proper group, and had decided to stick together from then on, only occasionally breaking up for various reasons.

It had practically been a dream come true for Sari, living a life on the road with just her, her friends, and her precious bike. Her parents hadn’t exactly been the most pleased, but screw them.

“So, you’re on the other side of the country in the middle of nowhere, after riding for fourteen hours straight. Still living the dream?”

Sari smiled, giving a thumbs up to Kate.

“Still livin’ the dream. I’m gonna go collapse for a while now.”

“Whatever, we’re going to go fuel up, and then see if there’s anything worth spending money on in this place. We’ll meet you at the gas station if we don’t get back first.”

Sari headed upstairs while her friends dispersed, throwing her bag onto the ground next to her bed and flopping onto it. It was a fairly small room, with the standard cheap motel things such as a tiny kitchen and a bathroom, but not much else, the living room serving as her bedroom. She supposed she could have gotten something nicer if she had roomed with her friends, but she preferred to have some alone time whenever she could get it.

She eventually pulled herself up, searching for a remote for the old CRT tv in the room. Did that thing even still get anything, or had they switched over to digital yet? That was the kind of thing she stopped keeping track of when she got on the road and never stopped. Just her, a bag, and her bike. Well, and her closest friends, that tended to be a big draw of the deal.

She found the old and battered remote and turned the tv on, leaving it on the news channel that it was on when she turned it on, letting the newsman’s words sink into the background noise of the room, not really being absorbed. She briefly entertained the idea of being up to date on things, and instead decided that laying back on her bet and falling asleep for a while was a better idea. She kicked her boots off and took off her jacket, falling back onto the bed and closing her eyes.

She reflected on her life so far, wondering what she was going to do. Just keep riding? Her life had been fun on the road, but it just didn’t feel like she was making an impact on anything. Whenever she showed up to a big event, she just kind of blended into the crowd, her usual quality of standing out of a crowd as a biker disappearing in a group of them. She tried to put it out of her mind, navel-gazing not being her strongest point. She was a bit too young to have a mid-life crisis, anyway. She readjusted her positionn, figuring she could worry about it later, right now just focusing on relaxing for a bit.

She was then, of course, not expecting herself to start shivering as her body began to tingle, Sari breaking out into a sweat as her peaceful moment was interrupted. She pulled herself to her feet, panting heavily as she tried to keep her balance. She felt horrible, like her bones were trying to stretch out of her body, and her skin felt like it was covered in insects crawling all over it. To make matters worse, in addition to her dizziness, everything felt like it was getting smaller, the ground seemingly getting further and further away. She looked down, nausea hitting her as her arm seemed to hairier than usual, like a man’s rather than her usually completely smooth arm. It was a weird shade of orange, rather than the red of her hair, with weird black patches running up it like spots, and it seemed to be getting thicker every second. 

She tried to justify the idea that she was just hallucinating from her sudden spell by rubbing some of the sweat off of her forehead, instead getting the warm feeling of fur rubbing against her, like a cat was stuck to her arm or something. She looked down at her hands, now completely covered in hair, white on the insides of her arms and palms, and orange and black spots on the outside. To make matters worse, her clothes were feeling extremely tight, her chest feeling much heavier than usual while her jeans felt like they were about to rip, and shortly afterwards living up to her prediction by tearing apart, revealing that her legs were covered in the same fur!

She fell backwards onto the bed, trying to calm down and convince herself that she was just hallucinating something crazy, scratching at her now incredibly itchy ears with her suddenly black nails, which were sharper than usual for some reason. The pain in her bones had gone away, but everything   still looked smaller, and she stopped her scratching as reached the pointed tip out to the side, her ears twitching as she touched them. Twitching? What the hell was going on? 

As she attempted not to completely freak out, one final jolt of pain came from just above her backside as she felt something grow from it, something long and thin, and brushing against the bed almost like a… Tail?

She remembered that the bathroom had a mirror in it, and rushed for it, her tight shirt reaching its limits and ripped as well, Sari clawing the remains of it off as well as her bra as she lurched towards the bathroom, almost bumping her head on the top of the doorframe. She almost threw up as she felt one final wave of nausea, before suddenly all of the pain and tingling and nausea stopped, Sari almost sinking to the floor at the sudden lack of it, and deciding upon further thought that that was probably a good idea anyway. She almost collapsed onto the floor, the cold floor muffled through her layer of hair or fur or whatever it was, the white side facing towards her.

She looked down at herself, completely covered in the same leopard-patterned fur, and figured that she needed to see herself in the mirror, pulling herself up with surprisingly more ease than usual, realising that the feeling of height wasn’t just in her head, but she seemed to be two or three feet taller than usual, having to bend slightly to see herself in the mirror.

Her first thought was holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit as she saw her face, along with the rest of her chest and body completely covered in white and orange-spotted fur, a thin enough layer to make her look completely human, not distorting her facial features in any way, two black stripes running up her cheeks, but enough to colour her face otherwise completely white,   while two enormous cat-like ears stick out from her hair, twitching as she realised that she seemed to be able to control them to some extent, but not much, as they seemed to be in the same position that she had seen cats keep theirs in right after something had scared or startled them.

Her second thought was holy shit my tits are huge, as her normally c-cup breasts were easily the size of her head each, and yet remained firm and didn’t have any back-pain or weight issues, her back supporting them effortlessly.

Her third thought was holy shit I’m ripped, as muscled abs that definitely weren’t there before were just below her chest, while the rest of her body rippled with definition through the fur, like she had just spent every day of the last year at the gym, in contrast to her slender and unmuscled frame from before. She gave her arm a quick flex, feeling like she could bench-press a car. The realisation that she at least had one very positive change to her served to calm her down a bit, although it was somewhat counteracted by the fact that she now looked like a freak.

And speaking of other changes to herself beyond the whole furry thing, her normally bright red hair was the same orange spotted pattern that her fur had, and her hair seemed much wilder and unkempt than usual, as well as a bit longer. She wondered why she was even thinking about this, considering the rest of her changes. 

The whites of her eyes had a weird light green tint to them, but her pupils and irises were the same, with no cat-like pupil shape or anything, and there didn’t seem to be much of a different in her vision, although she could have sworn that everything seemed clearer now. She also noticed that her canines seemed to have become pointier and sharper, kind of like fangs, which she found kind of cool, in a weird way.

She was also reminded of the fact that she seemed to have grown a long cheetah or jaguar-like tail, which at the moment seemed to have a mind of its own, thanks to Sari having no idea how to control it. It was like having another arm; there was no real way to mentally describe to herself what it was like, and that was messing with her brain’s ability to consciously control it.

Her fourth thought was why does everything sound weird?, as everything was sounding muffled through her new cat-ears and they felt like something was stuck in there, Sari not wanting to risk sticking a claw through her eardrum by attempting to clear it manually. She was considering trying it anyway when suddenly everything went clear, and suddenly everything was much louder, Sari realising that the random voices in the background of her hearing seemed to be coming from outside, and that she could hear some surprised screaming as well almost as clear as day, although the lower sounds remained incomprehensible. 

She also heard someone yell “Oh my god, cut it, cut it!”, causing her to wince at the loud sound, before realising that it had come from the news playing on her tv. Was this happening to other people as well? She could also hear this annoying humming sound, which sounded kind of like what you got when you put your head near one of the old CRT tvs, except much louder and annoying.

Evidently, her hearing was much better with cat-ears, and she really wished she could turn it off, since everything was so loud with it like this. She shut the door to the bathroom, wincing at the slam she made when she almost broke the door with her unpractised strength.

Her fifth thought was ok, I just turned into a giant furry cat person with super strength or something, I’m two or three feet taller, and it might have happened to everyone else. Holy shit this is awesome. Sari knew that this thought was completely irrational, but it was like a really weird childhood dream coming true, seeing as she probably had weird animal superpowers or something now. She was kind of reminded of that one eighties cartoon that she couldn’t remember the name of, except taller and less goofy. Also three dimensional and real. Whatever it was, once things stabilised a bit, she was definitely going to enjoy this.

Either way, she knew that she should be freaking out much more, but other than her general panic and confusion over the change, she was surprisingly calm. But what was going to happen to her now? How was she going to keep going once she actually stepped outside? How would her friends react? What had caused this, anyway? Government conspiracy? Suddenly activated metagene?  Either way, it was sounded more and more weird the more she thought about it, although saying that this was weird was a superfluous sentence right now, but right now, she had to go find her friends, and at least establish a plan or something. And find something that would fit her now.  

She walked back over to her bag, turning the annoying high pitched hum of the tv off along with it, pulling out her phone and quickly calling Kate, thankfully avoiding a situation where her fingers were too big for the buttons or screen by the fact that her fingers hadn’t grown. She had to avoid scratching the screen with her claw-like nails though.

“Hi, uh, there’s been a thing. Like, a big thing. It, uh… Can you come over? Like, right now? Thanks, bye.” 

That was the message that she repeated to all of her friends phones, who had picked the worst possible time not to pick up. If this was happening to them then she couldn’t blame them, but couldn’t they have picked a better time? Who didn’t have their phone on them at all times anymore, anyway? Well, looked like she had to go outside. Hopefully this did happen to everybody else, or she was going to get a lot of screams, or at least weird looks. Then again, from the sounds outside, she might be in luck.

Wow, she had a weird definition of luck.

--

Sari took a deep breath, and readied herself to go downstairs. She had pulled on her baggiest plain white t-shirt and her leather jacket, but thanks to her head-sized assets, the shirt didn’t cover her midriff, and she had to go bra-less. She had also pulled on some stretchy pants that she usually used for sitting around a house or as pajamas, but had ended up more as shorts that failed to reach her knees with her new height.   Plus, her tail didn’t push them down, and she didn’t need to cut a hole for it or anything, which was nice.

Still, she preserved her modestly, although that was honestly the least of her identity issues right now. She had also managed to force her feet into her boots, which pretty tight, but still fit fairly well all things considered. She crept downstairs, conscious of how much louder her boots were now, whether it was her enhanced hearing, or her new weight. Muscle was heavier than fat, and she didn’t think she had any of that left.

She made it down and peered around the corner, now able to hear the chatter coming from outside, but still not make it intelligible. She really hoped she could turn the hearing off, or this was going to make getting to sleep much harder. She’d be able to hear Maria’s snoring from the other side of the building now. Well, moment of truth, she guessed, and opened the door, revealing herself to the outside world.  

Thankfully, nobody seemed to be looking in her direction, and the random citizens walking past seemed to be a mix of people running home and looking confused, but they seemed to be normal, except for that one wolf guy who was hang on, wolf guy? Her eyes widened as she confirmed that her weird changes had happened to other people, as a half-naked werewolf looking guy was freaking out, trying to get out of sight and presumably back home.

Her resolve weakened and she considered going back inside and waiting this out, but she pushed forward and began to head for the gas station, which was just up the street from the motel. The first person she was about to pass freaked out at the sight of her, running away before she could say anything, causing her to speed up her walking until she reached her second person, who she had first noticed crossing the road towards her rather than away. He was some random guy in his twenties, short blonde hair, jacket and jeans, nothing particularly interesting. What was interesting was the fact that he actually approached her, and slightly nervously began to ask her something.

“Uh, hey. You’re the first werewolf or werecat or whatever that hasn’t been screaming or half-naked, so… Uh, do you have any idea whats going on? I was just going to get some lunch when everybody started to freak out, and half the people on the street started turning into, well, that.”

Sari paused for a second to try to compose a response. The guy seemed more awkward than scared or surprised or anything. Hopefully she’d run into more people like this rather than screamers. 

“Well, uh, I’ve got no idea, actually. I was just kind of sitting there and then I went all furry. Sorry about that. Um, could you try telling people that I’m not going to freak out and start eating people or something?”

“Uh, sure, whatever. I’m gonna go home before I catch it or something, thanks, I guess.” With that, he turned to walk away, before Sari stopped him, figuring she might as well ask him something before he left.

“Oh, by the way, have you seen any bikers on the way here? I’ve kind of been looking for my friends, and I was just wondering…”

“I think I saw this one old guy on a Harley an hour ago, but other than that, sorry.”

“Never mind, thanks anyway.”

He walked off, and the whole thing had been kind of surreal to Sari, seeing as she had been looking down overhead to him the whole time, among other things. Also, she couldn’t keep her tail still, which was kind of annoying. It was more of an awkward conversation than what she had expected from movies or anything. She also thought that he was a little loud, but that was probably just her ears.

As she continued, she noticed people in cars staring at her as they drove past, and she wondered if she should start running. Probably a bad idea, she didn’t want to present herself as anything other than perfectly calm and definitely not a threat. 

Thankfully, she made it to the gas station without any more direct encounters, other than people staring or running away from her, but when she got there, her friends were suspiciously absent, without even their bikes or anything there, meaning either they forgot, decided to go something else, or she was early. And she forgot her phone. Shit.

Well, better inside than outside, she thought, and went in, where there was one male employee attending to a middle-aged woman, who spotted Sari, froze up for a second, and then slammed down her money and rushed for the exit. The employee looked at her with surprise, but not fear, and actually looked relieved.

“Oh, so that’s what everybody was yelling about. And here I was thinking something worse had happened.”

Sari was stunned into silence by his indifference to her, and he thankfully noticed, hastily adding onto his sentence.

“Yeah, uh, my boss kind of turned into a lion-man in front of me and ran off, and I was wondering if that had happened to anyone else. So, uh, you need anything?”

“I thought you’d be more freaked out by this.”

“I kind of am, I’m just not yelling and screaming and all of that stuff. So, what did it? Chemical attack? Aliens?”

“No idea. I’ll get back to you when I know. Have a bunch of women shown up here by any chance? About three of them in a group, jackets like mine?”

“You mean those bikers chicks? Yeah, they showed up for a refill, and then they left, haven’t seen them since. You missed them by about ten minutes, sorry about that.”
Well, at least she knew that they had stopped here at some point, she thought, before turning back to the cashier.

“Uh, do you mind if I stay here for a bit? I’ll try not to scare off too many people.”

“Sure, I guess.”

What followed was about three or four minutes of an awkward silence, Sari being a bit self-conscious despite the fact that nobody showed up, until she thankfully heard the sound of several bikes pulling in, Sari immediately rushing outside to meet her friends and… Oh. Well, apparently it hadn’t just been her then. What was waiting for her outside, climbing off of their bikes, was a normal but distressed looking Maria, and what after a second look appeared to be… Kate? 

Only instead of being a catperson or a wolf or something, she looked like more of a rat or mouse or something, juding by the long and thin tail coming out from her rear, and she was covered in dark brown fur with mouse-like ears, her hair colour having changed to match the fur, and her otherwise intact clothes, thanks to her not being any bigger than usual.

However, they seemed much looser than usual, and her usually wide face seemed a lot thinner than usual. However, she didn’t seem to have any of the Amazonian muscle definition that Sari had, at least from what she could see. She was also quite visibly freaked out, and had plainly seen Sari, which hadn’t helped her mood at all.

But before Kate could get close enough to say anything, Sari also got a good look at Claire, who she wouldn’t have recognised, had she not narrowed it down from recognising Kate. She had grown at last two feet, although she was still smaller than Sari, and appeared to have turned into some kind of black cat, probably a panther, with a black furred face and presumably similarly coloured body.

Her shirt had thankfully remained stretched but intact, and her jacket similarly positioned to Sari’s but she had apparently been forced to discard her jeans, holding onto her boots, and her nudity being saved by a pair of white underwear that was just barely holding on, her full furry legs being shown off, along with similarly enhanced muscle definition to Sari, although she thought that it wasn’t quite as much as her. Her hair had also turned the same deep black as her fur, and Sari noticed that her eyes were a similar green to her own, idly realising that she never would have noticed a small detail like that from this distance with her human eyes.

Sticking out from behind her, and probably one of the primary reasons why she had abandoned her usual jeans was a long black tail wagging behind her out of distress. Sari briefly wondered if she had had any better luck controlling it than she had, before wondering if that was the type of thoughts she should be putting priority in. The three reached Sari, with Kate immediately yelling at her.

“Sari, what the fuck is going on? What happened to you, and why the fuck are have we turned into these… things!?”

“Kate, calm down, I don’t-“

“Calm down, why the fuck should I calm down!? Everything’s gone crazy! What did this, and how are we going to ever go outside ever again!? What-“

“I get it, I get it! Look, this happened a ton of other people, maybe it happened in the rest of the country, or world, or something! Screaming at me isn’t going to help anyone! Let’s just go inside, and we’ll figure something out in there, ok?”

Kate looked ready to start yelling again, when Maria started shoving her towards the gas station doors, telling her to get her shit together and stop yelling. The four got through the doors, a very put-off employee awkwardly asking if they needed anything, Sari quickly telling him no before heading into the bathroom to talk their problem over. Claire started talking, staring quiet and quickly raising in volume.

“So, does anyone have any idea what caused this? I mean, we were just shopping, and then suddenly I feel terrible, and then I grow a tail and fur and huge and when I feel better everyone else changed as well and then Kate started yelling and Maria freaked out and-“ 

Sari quickly cut her off before she could start panicking.

“Hang on, let me answer. Look, no, I don’t know what did this. And as long as we avoid freaking anyone out, I think we’ll be fine. And hey, maybe we could try to make the most of this?”

“You’re sounding like you’re enjoying getting turned into a freak.” Kate said, not coping with her changes well, and trying to get her tail to stop moving, with little success.

“Well, yeah, I kind of do.” Sari said, while her friends looked at her like she had just said that the sky was made out of pretzels and that oranges were an acceptable substitute for oxygen. 

“What? Admit it, it’s kind of cool. I’m huge, I’ve probably got super-strength or something, I can hear pretty much everything way better than before, and you guys probably have something like that as well.”

“No it fucking isn’t, Sari.” Kate said. “My ears keep hurting from everything, I’ve got these stupid teeth sticking out,” She said, Sari noticing that her canines definitely seemed a bit longer than usual, and not just like her own pointed fangs. 

“Well, you two managed to get a better body than me in two minutes than I spent years working on...” Maria said quietly, sounding extremely jealous, apparently ignoring the fur.

“Do you think there’s a way to change back? Are we like werewolves or something?” Claire asked, Sari stopping and thinking for a second. She  hadn't  actually thought of that, and wondered if there really was a way to do that. Was it a full moon thing, or could she change back and forth at will? She figured it was worth a shot, and closed her eyes, picturing herself as she normally was, willing herself to change back, and repeating “change back change back change back” to herself in her mind.

“Sari, what are you do-“ Maria said before gasping, Sari feeling a stretching sensation similar to what she had felt when she was changing, except in reverse this time, like she was getting smaller. Her skin was tingling as well, and she was feeling much colder all of a sudden, but she didn’t dare open her eyes until finally everything stopped, and after a few seconds, she opened her eyes and looked down at her hands, perfectly smooth skin meeting her gaze.

“How did you do that?” Kate asked, shock in her voice as Sari checked one of the bathroom mirrors to see if she really had changed back properly. What was waiting for her was a perfectly human body, her muscles and enlarged assets back to their pre-change size and perfectly normal, except for the fact that her eyes were still green-tinted, her hair was the same orange-spotted pattern that it had been when she was part-cat, and her ears hadn’t changed back at all. 

Her shirt was also stretched out and much baggier on her form, but it was an acceptable price to pay. Her hearing seemed to have gone back to normal as well, since she could no longer hear the cars from at least a hundred metres away, which was much more comfortable, and yet she kind of missed the added range.

“I said, how did you do that?” Kate demanded, Claire also waiting attentively for her answer.

“I, uh, just kind of concentrated and willed it, I guess.” Sari said, also surprised at her feat. The two others immediately closed their eyes like she had, and after thirty seconds or so of straining, Kate swore, nothing having happened.

“Fucking hell, how did you do it! I can’t do anything about this stupid body!”

“Calm down, we’ll figure it out.” Sari said, Claire also giving up and looking depressed rather than angry.

“Let me try again, maybe I can do it both ways.” Sari said, closing her eyes and trying the same thing, only this time picturing herself with her animal-like body. She wasn’t sure which parts of her method actually worked or not, but she was keeping her eyes closed until she experimented further. She didn’t want to be stuck halfway between the two forms and break her spine or something.

The stretching feeling came back, alone with the same uncomfortable tingling feeling and an occasional crack from her bones, and she opened her eyes to find herself back in her new form, Kate swearing again at her ease in changing back and forth between the two. 

“Look, we need to find out what’s happened.” Sari said, eager to divert attention away from her ability over the other two, and trying to work out a plan beyond the next hour or so. “Should we stay here, or should we head for the city? Maybe the government did this or something. Can’t be   worse than staying here.”

“No use staying around this dump.” Kate grumbled, still trying to change herself back. They quickly debated it between themselves, with Claire advocating staying put, Maria not being sure, and Sari and Kate advocating them moving out. Eventually they came to a decision, and headed back to the motel, not doing anything until the next day at least, just in case it all went away by then, or was some kind of crazy dream.

But none of them slept well that night. Sari out of excitement of what would happen next, Claire out of worry out of what would happen next, Maria out of worry for what they would do and what would happen to her friends, somewhat freaked out by their changes altogether and wondered what would happen to their group, and Kate generally angry about the whole thing.

--

“You sure you can fit on that thing? You sure you don’t want to change back?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not that tall. Besides, Claire doesn’t have a problem.”

“You sure you don’t want to freak out any passing motorists? Don’t want to burn your tail off either.”

“I’m fine, Maria. It doesn’t matter anyway, since they’re still changed, and the ears and hair kind of stand out. Now come on, let’s go!”

The roar of the bikes engines filled the air as they started moving, quickly driving through and out of the town and onto the open road. Sari wondered just would happen next, and just how everything would be different if this had happened to the rest of the world. World politics would be a bit different, but she didn’t exactly want to worry about wars or anything springing up because of this. Right now, she just wanted to worry about herself and her friends, even if it might have not have been on the big picture.

Either way, she thought to herself, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about not standing out anymore.