“I want skin.” Carla declared.

“Need a good fuck?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” she replied. “But I also want to cuddle up in all that fur and actually feel it, ” she said, looking at Soph.

“I could do with a fuck as well, but Ata is unavailable till the end of the month. If we can get you some skin, we can satisfy each other.”

The three of us had spent the week manipulating our essence into waves we sent out rather than trying to control it. Carla and I concentrated especially on using our link to synchronise the waves. Getting a steady rhythm going seemed to be the key. There were two ways it could work. If we synchronised it so my crests met her troughs, then it would result in a smooth melding of essence. Crests vrs crests clashed, and that was a way to strengthen our control against each other. Carla had tight control and small, powerful waves. I had more volume available, but volume wasn't everything, and I also needed to create that power. Our clashing for power was probably a metaphor or something.

We could do that, though. I was improving over the week clashing essences against each other. I was experimenting as well. Slow, gentle swells right through to chaotic, pounding surf.

Soph was being left out, and she only mutated just before the anomaly was destroyed, so she had no chance to strengthen her essence control. Her bond with the dogs was mental, not an essence link like ours. So she couldn’t replicate what Carla and I were doing.

I was convinced we could use essence outside of our mutations. According to the vet, Buck did not have mutated vocal cords, but he could attack through his bark. I have to figure out how.

We had kept up a training schedule, and Carla had greatly improved her unarmed combat moves by practising against Soph and, surprisingly, Sam. Sam had been joining them. Soph was out until she healed, and Carla consistently wiped the floor with me. Sam and I were more evenly matched, but now that I had someone to spar against, I was improving.

Amanda was a regular visitor. She came to pick my brain, and I picked hers. She had been working with the Enhanced Soldiers when they were together and now met them individually as their schedules allowed.

Eight soldiers and Soph survived the Mutation. Add Ensign Jeong and Lieutenant Ata Wihongi, and that made ten. Commander Lewis had followed Ensign Jeong in focussing on the eyes. His mutation was rougher, but it worked. Ata's primary mutation was the eyes, but she had added feathers, which were noted but not relevant as yet.

The army soldier that had killed the labrador survived and went full were-dog. Fur, snout and teeth, smell, hearing enhancements, and claws. It is a puzzle as to why he went through an almost full mutation, and Soph just got fur. He was also the last to recover and probably wouldn’t have done so without the medical help.

Other results varied. The surviving Air Force lady got the eyes of a parrot but also grew a beak. She was finding that very difficult. One army guy got the horns of the goat but also developed the hooves, fortunately only on his feet. He was being called the Faun. One army person got the claws of a cat and also the whiskers.

Some mutations were better than others. They all had an essence pool but didn’t know what to do with it. There didn’t seem to be any mutation requiring active essence unless they were like me and didn’t realise an ability used essence.

I think this essence pool is the key, and the other mutations were the bonuses or burdens you had to live with. But I had no proof of that yet, and like most people, they were focused on the apparent mutations.

By the end of the week, I was getting peopled out again. I could escape, but Carla really wanted to change.

We synced small waves and then grew them, and the shared essence was good.

We convinced Amanda that we would try the first change here at the Hardcastle Shack. She could bring medical equipment and help, and she outfitted a room.

Carla was way past wearing scales, and we thought the chances were good. I had a bed in the room beside Carla as the last time I passed out, using too much essence. Last time, I was only half full when we started, so I was confident I would be fine.

On the day, Amanda brought another doctor, two nurses, an ambulance and two military paramedics. She has such high confidence in us.

I asked Soph to be there with Rich. Rich can sense essence and emotions, and Soph should be able to sense what is going on. That was the plan. Rich could not sense our link in action, but he could when we were creating waves in us as individuals, whether the waves came from ourselves or the link.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It was a crowded room.

Carla and I locked eyes and started syncing our essence. We thought the crests cancelling the troughs seemed like the best approach, but it may not be. We started with that. We started gently, like pebbles dropped in a pond. It took several starts for the waves to synch. Once they were, it was a matter of increasing the power without changing the timing. Soph’s idea of getting a metronome to help keep the time was good, and we had it running. It definitely helped. I figured I had to be ready to adjust my essence to hers, as when she started to change, she was likely to lose focus. Pain has a tendency to do that.

She signalled the start, and I felt a draw on the essence in the link. Nothing physically seemed to be changing for her, but the draw on the essence was increasing. It was hard to keep the waves synched.

Carla moaned, and I felt a fluctuation in the essence and tried to compensate, but things were a bit rough there for a few minutes. She wriggled as if she was uncomfortable and then tried to scratch under her scales.

“The skin is changing,” Amanda said. And she was taking samples of something.

Then Carla screamed, and I heard a Rich whimper. I felt that as well. I am starting to sense her pain through the link.

“She is speeding up,” Soph said, and I realised that was true. We were getting out of sync again, and I tried to adjust. The draw on my essence was getting stronger, making it harder to keep the time, especially the sped-up time. I reached out and swiped the metronome, knocking it off the table, as it was more of a distraction now.

My essence pool was down to around half now, and I had to increase my waves, but Carlas were reducing rapidly. I could feel the pain increasing. Her crests were the troughs now. This synching was not working anymore.

I looked over and saw a scale fall off her. I realised it was not the first. We were coming up on the end, and the synching was not working, so stuff it. I increased my waves, ignoring hers. I was not in full tidal wave mode because I think most of the work was done, but I pushed.

Carla gave an agonised groan and passed out. I groaned, but I kept the flow going until Anamda brushed off the last scale, and then I stopped. My pool was under half but more than a third. It was hard to tell.

The medical people checked her vitals, and one came to check on me. Apart from heavy essence use, I was fine. I could do it with a drink and some food.

“The system fell apart at the end but carried the change most of the way,” I said.

“She has skin, but it is like newborn skin.” She checked her feet. “There are no calluses. That is going to be painful for the next two to four weeks. She will have to be careful of blisters.”

“Do you think she will grow hair?” Soph asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Amanda said, “we will have to see. The gills are still there.”

I looked at her neck, and the slits were still there.

Amanda was scanning her with something, “She is still hardened as far as I can tell.”

“How long did it take?” I asked.

“Sixteen and a half minutes,” a technician said.

“There has got to be a better way,” I said, primarily to myself.

“It was a success and no risk to her life,” Amanda said. “That is a great start.”

Carla woke after fifteen minutes with a groan. “Fuck, that hurt all over.” She felt herself checking for scales. Amanda had collected them into bags for testing. “No eyebrows or hair. No scales. Seems like no extra bits and no bits missing,” she said as she checked her fingers and toes.

“No calluses either,” said Amanda. “Your feet will be sensitive to the ground for a few weeks. Start with some soft slippers.”

“Amanda said your hair should grow back now,” Soph said, going over and giving her a hug.

“Oooh, you are nice and soft,” Carla said, running her fingers through Soph’s fur.

She looked at me in a querying way.

“No,” I said, “you can wait till later before I fuck you.”

“Bastard. I was asking what happened?”

“The wave system broke down when you ran out of energy. There has got to be a better way.”

“Yeah, I was not concentrating on anything but the pain.”

“The system carried us most of the way. I just needed to finish it off.”

“You were always good at finishing with a climax. Thanks.”

“The climax is yet to come.”

“What happened from your perspective?” Amanda asked, spoiling the banter.

“At first, it was like a skin rash, then it started to itch like all over, and then the itching got real bad and then painful. Then, it was suddenly like my skin was on fire. I was losing control of the essence before that, but then I totally lost it. I think that was the tipping point. The part where the scales were disconnected from … well, from me, I guess. How long was I out?”

“Fifteen minutes or so,” I said.

“Where are the scales,”

“Amanda collected them in bags.”

“Can I see?”

We handed scales around to everyone who wanted to look at them and got Amanda to leave a bag with us.

“I am sure there is a better way,” I reiterated.

“Yeah,” Carla replied, “but it is a successful start. I have skin! I have missed having skin!”