The Burke's Virus otherwise known as the Bug had appeared nearly seventeen years ago and was named after its discoverer, unlike any other virus known to man Burke's had the unique property to change the human body nearly entirely. The virus itself wasn’t uncommon, about as common as the flu actually, but most cases of the virus showed little to no actual changes. Hair colour, eye colour, muscle definition, skin tone, race, sex, even age didn't matter to the virus, it scrambled the human genome to its own liking. Sixty year old men could become little girls, little girls could become a twenty year old hunk, but even after a physical age change you're still legally your age, a sixteen year old that became an eighteen year old still had to wait two more years to legally start drinking. Even seventeen years later the Burke's virus didn't have a true vaccine, the only current medicine for it was an injection that helped mitigate the changes, and even then that had the chance to fail and people still got rare changes. Mental changes have never been truly documented, reports of such occurrences have come from people who have had a sex change but were comfortable to it, many of these such individuals were reported to have had thoughts of being the opposite gender prior to their change, and were most likely transgender. Hair and eye colour changes were the most common, sex, race and age changes were far more uncommon but definitely not unheard of. Most people knew somebody or at least somebody who knew somebody that changed sex or age, but the rarest were anomalies, people who had abnormal characteristics outside of the human norm, intersex bodies, multiple arms, abnormal hair or eye colours, and shark like teeth, but never once has a person had animalistic characteristics outside of a humans, no animal fur and certainly no animal ears.

Burke's fucking sucked, it hurt like hell, aches all around your body, you need to use the bathroom a lot, you always feel like passing out, and you're body was just so damn weak during the whole process, staggering into the bathroom Carter Willow took the first photo of what he hoped to be very few "Can't wait to get this over with." 

Carter was twenty, he was a tall man at six foot three, built like he was made of bricks, with prominent abs, bulging muscles, and could bench-press god know how much, and now he was stuck in his dorm and weak enough that a light breeze could probably knock him over, he could only hope that when Burke's was finished with him he'd be even stronger than he was before. Grabbing the Bug Juice from the counter he downed it all like a man trapped in a desert, it was meant to help mitigate the hunger pangs from the virus, it tasted horrible, which was fine to him, having drunk hundreds of protein shakes to help build his muscles, and Bug Juice was just like a protein shake, except on steroids, with all said and done all he could do now was wait and hope.

The next day Carter lethargically got out of bed, falling onto the carpeted floor and just barely missing his head on the bedside table, groggily making his way towards the fridge where more Bug Juice lay in wait to be greedily consumed by its very hungry owner, there was no other food in the fridge. Carter had spent the rest of his weeks pay check on Bug Juice, he was currently working as a barista at the university café despite his brutish appearance, but he could definitely make a mean coffee. Stumbling into his bathroom sink he once again took a photo to document the changes, while he hoped for little to no changes he still had to document it because if his faced changed or if the worst comes to worst his sex changes, then he would have a really hard time getting a new id at the DMV. Looking at the mirror today only yielded a sigh from Carter, he had lost height, a few inches here and there, he might still but six foot even but who knows, the changes were only beginning and he knew that by the end of it he wouldn't be nearly as tall as he had been just a few days ago, after actually using the bathroom he went back to bed, the next few days would soon enough with how often he'd have to sleep.

Day by day Carter would wake up with nausea and cramps, and each day yielded more height lost and by his sixth day he was barely five foot one, his face was much more feminine and his hearing was shot, everything sounded muffled, the top of his head was really itchy and so was right above his butt, his once dirty blonde hair was now platinum blonde and down to his shoulders, his penis was just a nub at this point, he had to sit to pee today. He knew what was happening, he just hoped that by the end of it he still looked like an adult in some regard at least, he was twenty now, all his hard work into his body was gone, all that time wasted, the only reason he was even able to attend this university was due to the sports scholarship he had, and now he'd lose that soon enough as well, men didn't cry, but he didn't feel like a man anymore. Sobbing on the tiled bathroom floor he wailed and screamed, his life was over, he knew the changes weren't complete, he wasn't fully a girl yet, the virus would take away all he was meant the be, the man he had to be, he could barely finish high school he couldn't finish university at this rate, his grades were shot and his scholarship was gone, his dorm room was quite high, nearly to the roof, he was on floor seven, that'd be enough right? All he really learned from his time at uni was how to make coffee and other café drinks, he was an idiot who only ever got this far because he was lucky, his English degree was useless, how could he ever write a book good enough to actually earn more than minimum wage or even any money at all, climbing onto his bed he tried to open the window, he couldn't open it, his body was so weak and tired from the changes and feminization that he couldn't even open a damn window. He kept struggling to at least open it a little bit, until his fingers were sore and tired. Staring out of the window he saw only a few stars glimmering against the light pollution that plagued the city, once when on a camping trip he could see all the stars at once, each so distant and beautiful, what would his mom think of him now? Wrapping himself in a blanket all Carter could do was cry himself to sleep. 

She lay on the hill just beneath a large oak tree, the soft grass like a mother's embrace, hugging and holding her in an eternal comfort, the tree yielding the sun's rays, protecting the girls delicate skin like a father protecting his daughter from the harshness of the world, together they would keep and her and all she knew was their safety and love.

Carter awoke to the sound of his alarm, screeching through his ears, like a banshee, he tried to cover his ears but the noise didn't lessen the noise at all, not even noticing that he wasn't covering his ears, it was just so loud, each beep felt like somebody scraping cutlery against a plate inside of his own head, fumbling for his phone he was luckily able to turn the damned alarm off. Checking his phone Carter realized that he had slept for the entirety of day seven, it was now the morning of day eight and he was very hungry. For what may be the last time Carter stumbled his way towards the fridge and drank the last remaining bottle of Bug Juice, the virus should be over with him by now and he definitely noticed some changes, he was much shorter than he had been when he was last awake, when he tried to... tried to kill himself, after all this was over he needed to find a therapist. Making his way to the bathroom mirror he hesitated, every time he had taken a photo he only glanced at the mirror, glanced at the photo, today however he was feeling better minus the alarm, which meant that the virus was letting up, today was the final day, steeling his heart he looked himself in the mirror and couldn't believe his eyes.

He looked to see a little girl shorter than five feet, maybe around four foot five or six, his hair which used to be blonde was now snow white, going down all the way to a few inches above his bum, his left eye retained the blue he had been born with however it was brightened and gave the illusion of a glow, the same for his right eye however, that eye became a bright, both had the slit pupils of a fox. The most prominent feature however were not his heterochromatic eyes, nor his height or hair, no it was the fox ears adorned upon him and the complimentary tail that waved behind his now small frame. He was an anomaly among anomalies, gender changes were rare but not unheard of, getting an anomalous trait was like winning the lottery, if winning the lottery meant getting a third eye or an extra set of arms. Carter had essentially won the lottery thrice in a row, once somebody changed drastically it was very rare for them to ever change drastically again. Animal parts have appeared because of Burke's but they were very rare, nobody has ever been reported to have grown animal ears before, tails yes, but that person only had a tail, and that tail was smaller and catlike, his was a veritable bush, he had animal ears, he was an otakus wet dream.

The girls face was full of fear and trepidation, her eyes were damp and starting to tear up, the ears atop her head were now flat like a scared kitten, she held her tail close to her chest holding it like a child would their favourite plush companion, her now oversized shirt now like a dress. 

Carter couldn’t stand looking at his face any longer and left the bathroom back to his bed, still holding his tail though, lying down wasn’t difficult like one would imagine, the bone that started the tail went down towards her butt which would make sleeping quite easy actually. Looking at his phone once again Carter realized that he could still make it to work today if he changed clothes quick enough and called in that Burke’s was done with him, but that meant talking to his boss with his new voice that he hadn’t even used yet. Holding his phone Carter readied himself and phoned his boss’ work line, she picked up quickly enough. 

“Hey Carter, glad to see you call, is the virus done yet?” 

“Y-yeah Stace, i-it just finished this morning, do you think I can get into the shop today?” The noise that came out of his throat could barely be considered his old voice, it was squeaky and sounded like the little girl that he now appeared to be. He stuttered the first few words of his sentence and berated himself for not practicing his new voice earlier.

For just a few moments no words came out of the other end of the phone, Carter hoped that his boss would fire him for having such a drastic change, even if it was against the law. “Carter, just how much did you change?” Carter felt a gulp going down his throat, he’d thought that maybe he could just talk about it at the café and not right now on the phone. 

“Well, kind of my entire body really, I um, look like a little girl now, but I’ll still work today, I’m kinda broke after buying all that Bug Juice,” hearing a sigh from the other side Carter’s anxiety only deepened. 

“Do you have any clothes for your new body?” Stacy sounded more concerned than angry at the moment.

“N-not really no” 

“Alright then you’re going to get an allowance for new clothes from the café, go get yourself some actual clothes, you can come in tomorrow.” The government had set up funds for people who changed greatly after getting Burke’s, going to your employer or contacting the government itself was how most people got the additional funding for their new bodies. 

“Really? Thank you so much Stace, I promise I’ll be able to work tomorrow!” And with that Carter ended the call, now all he needed to do was actually get his new clothes, outside, in public, at the mall, maybe he should jump out of that window.

Standing in front of Burke's Boutique Carter hesitated, going in felt like giving up in a sort of way, like letting the virus win, ridiculous as it sounded. The trip there wasn't pleasant, all throughout the long bus ride people were staring at him, turning their heads kind of staring, before changing he wasn't bad looking per se and his muscles weren't anything to scoff at it wasn't that interesting compared to other guys’ muscles. Everybody knew he had the Bug, the fox ears made it pretty obvious, nobody bothered him about being a kid on a bus, nobody tried to stop him from crossing the street, moreover he felt pity from their stares. The worst reaction was when a kid younger than his apparent age yanked his tail, he had to literally pull it away from the kid's grip before the kid’s mom scolded him.

The store itself was specially designed to cater to changed folks, people suddenly with a different set of genitals, people whose heights changed, and especially anomalies. They also advertised custom clothes for people with abnormal traits, shirts for people with more arms, people with tails, people like Carter, even with the very low amount of anomalies.

Stepping into the store was like stepping into any other clothing store except for the suits made for children, dresses in quite literally every size, all manner of shoes, boots, and heels displayed on the wall. The cashier with baby blue hair and pink irises looking to be in her teens, with a pastel goth outfit black eyeliner, and a black and blue checkered skirt, eyeing him from the register, there weren't many customers around this time of day however.

Carter felt really underdressed in his oversized plain grey shirt and black shorts that he had cut a hole into, he felt overwhelmed looking at all the clothes, the girl clothes especially, mocking his new body, they were just so cute and girly, all those frills, that flowy skirt, the white dress that would look amaz-

“Can I help you?” Carter didn't get startled, not at all, he also didn't fall onto his butt. “Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to startle you!” The girl from the register had snuck up on him. Looking up at her Carter realized just how much shorter he was now, she looked like a giant from his perspective and she seemed to only be around five foot six.

Pushing himself up Carter decided to accept her help, completely ignoring the fact that he fell down, he did need help he had no idea where to start on his own. 

“I’d actually like some help, um,” he took a peek at the girl's name tag “Celeste. I'm looking for everyday clothes, Burke's just finished with me today and I really need some help.” 

With the help of Celeste, Carter was able to find some clothes that would fit him, nothing special, just a few graphic tees, lots of plain shirts, pants and thankfully no bras, he hoped that he would never need those things. That put him into a spiral of other female functions, shuddering at the thought of having to go through a period, if he ever did have one it would hopefully be at least a few years in the future.

However throughout the entirety of Carter's impromptu shopping trip he kept glancing back at the dress, it reminded him of when his mom helped him dress as a girl when he was a kid, before the accident, he wiped his eyes hoping that Celeste didn't see.

“Do you want to try it on?” Celeste asked, startling Carter with her sudden presence once again, at least this time he didn't fall over. Thinking it over, Carter came to a conclusion. 

“Why not.”

Once more Carter saw the girl in the mirror, her face was nervous, scared, fearful of what people might think of her, however throughout all of that she also held a smile full of nostalgia, the dress clung to her like it had over a decade ago, her tail pointed down without the aid of a tail hole to let it roam free. Stepping out of the changing room Carter came face to face with Celeste. 

“You look very cute in that it suits you, you look like a ball of fluff.” C-cute him of all people, if she saw him a week ago she would have never thought that.

“You really think so? I really like the dress, I think I'll get it, once the tail hole is cut that is.” How could he not get it, even if he never wore it again it would at least remind him of the last times he wore a dress, back when he was a kid his hair was longer than his short hair he had, well at least before the virus changed that as well. 

Heading to the register Carter realized that he only had five hundred dollars from Stace, he really hoped that that dress wasn't too expensive.

“So that totals to five hundred and twenty-one dollars.” Just twenty-one dollars over his budget, Carter felt that if he got rid of his other clothes then he wouldn't have enough for everyday use, he had to leave the dress behind, as much as it dismayed him.

“Can you return the dress please, I only have the budget for five hundred dollars.”

“Oh you don't have to return it, I'll just give you a discount, you remind me of my daughter.” Daughter? Despite looking like a teen she's got to at least have regressed as much as Carter did.

“Won't you get in trouble though?”

“Don't worry I'm the owner, I doubt I'd get into much trouble.” The owner? This entire time Carter was being helped not by some random employee but the owner, in a goth outfit.

“I know shocking right, truth is I regressed a few decades and became an anomaly, this blue hair isn't dye, and my eyes aren't contacts, turns out I really like goth styles, maybe I'd have worn something like this if I was born a girl, I just so happened to turn into a walking trans flag.” Another anomaly, in the entirety of Carter's life he'd never met an anomaly and now not only had he met one, he was one as well, Celeste also used to be a guy! 

“You seem to like being a girl, you didn't want to transition back?” Carter had to know how she was so comfortable in her body, maybe eventually Carter would get used to his body as well, but no matter what he would get stronger again, he won't let what happened to his mom happen around him again.

“Well at first I did, but my daughter told me to at least try a few months before transitioning to see if I liked it, and well here we are, she also suggested the name Celeste, said it was from a game or something.” Just try it out? Yeah Carter could do that, he doesn't hate his new body, he just hates what it's made him lose.

Paying for his clothes, Carter waited for the alterations to be completed, thinking about what Celeste had said, just a few months then he would make his decision.

“Thank you so much Celeste, you've been such a great help.”

“Don't worry about it, you can always come by if you need more clothes, it was nice to help another person who had a sex change.” Wait, Carter never told her about that.

“I could tell but the way you looked at those clothes, and especially those panties earlier, you were like a fish out of water.” Was he really that obvious? 

Well anyways he had a phone call to make. His phone rang for a few seconds before the recipient answered.

“Carter? How are you?”

“Mom I need to ask you a question, if I was born a girl what would you have named me?”

Despite his obviously changed voice Carter's mom didn't take time to question or wonder how much her child had changed, her child had asked a question and it would be a mistake to not answer. 

“Lily, your name would have been Lily."