The first thing I felt when I slowly began to rise back to consciousness was a lovely soft thing in my arms. It felt like a huge feather duster although a little bit damp in parts, but it was nice and I felt myself hum and snuggle it closer to my face.

“She’s so cute with that tail and those ears! Look at her!” I heard a matronly feminine voice say.

“She is. I’m glad this call is just a little girl with fox ears and a tail. Some of the other calls we’ve gotten during this emergency are terrifying,” I heard a strong feminine voice say.

“What’s going on out there?” the matronly woman asked.

“We don’t know much. People are being turned into crazy freaks and monsters. This poor girl got off lightly. I heard about a guy who got turned into pile of mud. Could still speak and everything,” I heard the strong woman say with a shudder in her voice.

When I felt at least mostly conscious, I realised I was wrapped in a warm blanket of some kind, and there was a source of heat nearby. My immediate attention went to my body however. Without the cold to dampen the sensations, I could feel my body was different. I sat up with a start when I realised my ever present penis was missing, the balls too. The usual pressure on the insides of my thighs that it exerted was no longer present.

As I’d sat up, I found the feather duster thing in my face, and I tried to push it away. Except I felt it, as in I could feel my hands pushing on the feather duster from the feather duster’s perspective. I held it away from me and began to trace it to the source. I didn’t get very far because it brought my body into view. I was naked, the blanket having slipped off me as I sat up. Directly below my vision I saw something I never expected to see. I had breasts. They weren’t too large, but they were there. Further down, my torso curved into a small waist and then out again into wide hips. I looked further. Peeking out between my rather thick thighs was a tuft of orange pubic hair… and nothing else.

I sat there and processed all of the new sensory information I had just begun to understand. I couldn’t get my mind to say it, but I knew what I was. My confusion was put to the side when I saw a figure kneel in front of me. It was a woman in a police uniform, her hair tied back in a severe bun and her hat held casually in her hands. She was tall too, or maybe I was short now?

“Hey there honey, can you tell us your name? Where your parents are maybe?” she asked gently.

“Um. My name is Callum. Uh, Callum Jesherin. My parents are like… a really long way away,” I said.

I received another shock when I spoke, my voice was high and girly. I still spoke with slightly male inflections to my words, but it was hard to make out.

“Uh. Callum? Are you sure?” she asked with confusion.

I nodded, “Yeah. I was just walking back to my hotel from a job interview when-”

My explanation was interrupted by a squawk from the police officer’s radio, “Jocelyn we need you back here at the station right now. We have more freak shows coming in, are you done with your current call?” asked a harried and belligerent sounding man.

“No sir, it’s a girl about fifteen years old I’d say. She has fox ears and tail like some sort of cartoon character. She’s not telling me her details,” Jocelyn said with a side eye in my direction. Fox ears and a tail? What?

“Just bring her down to the station and we’ll figure it out there, we can’t have you out there dealing with non violent calls. We need all hands on deck for the really bad ones,” the man said.

Jocelyn sighed, “Yes sir.”

“Alright, I don’t know why you don’t want to tell me who you are. Sadly I have orders,” she said before turning to the other woman, who turned out to be the waitress who had served me earlier.

“You remember me right?” I blurted to the waitress, “My hoodie! I left the bar wearing it!”

“I actually didn’t see anyone leave the bar in a hoodie. I had a break a while back, maybe it was then?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah! You served me! I was the guy who was from New Zealand!” I said desperately.

“I guess… you do have the same accent. But how did you get like… that?” she asked in disbelief.

The police officer intervened, “Whether or not the story is true, I need to get you back to the station, are her clothes dry?”

“Uh, yes I think so,” said the waitress.

She turned and picked up my clothes from a chair that had been dragged up to a heater. She gave me my boyshorts first and I held them limply in my hand, looking down at my new body. It was then I saw the neat little hole that had been ripped in the back of my underwear. I realised I had forgotten about something. Too confused and scared to be bashful in front of the two women, I carefully stood up and twisted my body around. There it was. I had a tail, a big bushy orange tail just like Jocelyn had said. I also realised as I turned my head that I had bright ginger hair that gently brushed the tops of my breasts. It actually felt incredible, feeling all that hair gently caress my naked body. I swished my head back and forth absently, letting the hair trail over my skin.

The tail was huge. Easily four feet long and about a foot of bushy width. I experimentally moved it back and forth under its own power, amazed at how easily I could command it like any other limb. The police woman cleared her throat. Oh. I carefully brought the underwear up my legs. I had only the barest hint of light coloured hairs on my legs, and it felt very strange to not meet the rough friction of male hairy legs like I was used to. I couldn’t get my underwear all the way up, my tail was in the way.

“It was difficult getting those off you, that tail is huge,” the waitress giggled.

I tried to get my tail back through the hole, but it was impossible. The way the hair grew did not allow me to thread it through the small hole it must have ripped when it grew. I settled for just letting my underwear stay bunched up under my tail. Once that was done, I had yet another new change to inspect. Tentatively I moved my dainty little arms up to my head and felt the huge fox ears that were on top. They were situated a few inches above where they were before and pointing at forty five degrees from the central axis of my body. They really were massive, almost a foot in length. How on earth was I going to deal with these things?

“Sorry, I know this is all very new to you honey, but I need you to put on your shirt and hoodie so we can get going. I’ll take you down to the station and we can sort out your situation there okay?” Jocelyn said, hurrying me along.

I nodded mutely and took the white dress shirt from the waitress, burrowing between the fabric like a tiny animal. The shirt was much too big and I hastily buttoned it up, finally covering my nakedness. Then she handed me my favourite hoodie, which when it was on me was almost comically large. When I had bought it, I had purposefully bought it larger than my size so that I would feel cozy and safe inside it. Well now I felt like a king in his castle within it. It was so big that I had an extra two feet of sleeve after my arms ended. The hood pressed my ears flat so that they poked out the front like strange horns. I must have looked ridiculous.

“You look absolutely adorable!” squealed the waitress.

“Um. I guess I’m ready now?” I said quietly, trying to hide my embarrassment at her words.

“Alright, let's get going, oh and don’t forget to thank your saviour here, if it wasn’t for her you’d have been dead,” Jocelyn told me.

“Thank you, ma’am,” I said, looking out at the waitress from the safety of my hood.

“You’re welcome dear. I hope they find your parents or get you back to your country,” she said kindly.

The police woman nodded towards the door and placed her hat back on her head.

“Oh! Before you go! Here take this! It’s hot chocolate. Oh and the blanket!” rushed the waitress, placing a huge thermos into my hands. It had a little sliding opening at the top to drink from. She then draped the huge blanket around my shoulders.

“Thank you!” I said with a genuine smile. I loved hot chocolate and big warm blankets.

The rain was still coming in sideways outside, and I stopped in the safety of the doorway and looked out into the night for the police car I would be riding in. Jocelyn took my arm and led me quickly out into the driving rain. The car was very close, so we made it there while getting relatively little rain on us. But as is always the way when you are running to a car in the rain, you get the wettest when you’re fumbling the key into the lock.

“Jump in the back seat!” she yelled as she threw herself into the car.

I did as I was told and hopped in as fast as I could. While the blanket had shielded me from the worst of the downpour, my guardian had not been so lucky. She brushed as much of the rain off herself as was possible, then wiped her hands and face with a little towel.

She looked back at me, “Sorry Honey, it’s policy not to let anyone but another cop ride up here with me, otherwise I wouldn’t have any problems with letting you in.”

I actually knew why this was policy, “It’s fine. You have guns and stuff up there. I understand.”

She gave me a smile and nodded, then turned forward again to start the car. While she pulled out and got us on the road to the station, I took a sip from my hot chocolate and thought about my situation. I was a fox girl now. I was an engineering nerd, so I had consumed a lot of anime in my nerdy boredom over the years. I knew somewhat what to expect with this new development. What I didn’t know was how I felt about this. The new body felt strange, not uncomfortable as such, but not comfortable either. I was a stranger to this new body. No, not a stranger… it was like I had bought a new car. Everything was roughly where it was meant to be, but I kept missing the gear stick with my hand when I reached for it, and the seatbelts did up in a strange way.

The ears and tail were another matter. I didn’t like them. Sure, the tail was nice and fluffy, but I didn’t want it attached to my fucking body. My ears were all bad. They were huge, almost impossible to hide and gave me away as a “freak show”. I was going to be treated as an spectacle by some, an animal by others, and maybe worst of all an object of some underaged fox girl fetish. I could see the hordes of katana wielding, fedora toting incels coming already. My thoughts turned fearful.

Which in turn sparked yet more internal self reflection. Suddenly I gave a shit? Why? I have everything taken from me bar my life and now is when my mind chooses to lift itself from the fog of indifference and care? I was a roiling sea of confused emotion in the back of the police cruiser.

Jocelyn must have realised I needed time with my thoughts, because she concentrated on the road. I turned my eyes to the windows and watched as the rain drenched city passed by. At some point my tail found it’s way into my lap and I gave in, hugging it to my chest for comfort. Soon after hugging my tail, I began to cry softly, the raw intensity of the past few hours catching up to me. I cried for my lost body, I cried for my terribly uncertain future and most importantly, I cried because I cared now.

When we pulled into the police exclusive parking are of the franticly bustling station, Jocelyn turned to me and gently asked, “You okay to go inside?”

I grabbed my forgotten hot chocolate and took a long drink from it before nodding reluctantly.

“Hey, everything will be fine honey, we’ll get your situation sorted.”

I nodded again and she took this to mean it was time get get out. She exited the car smoothly and walked around to let me out of the back seat. I made sure I had my blanket and thermos before I hopped out.

“Alright, I’m going to take you in and set you down in the break room okay? Then I’ll go talk to the chief about your situation,” she said kindly.

“That sounds fine. I just need somewhere to rest. I’m so drained,” I told her softly. My new voice worked best when I was soft in the way I spoke.

“I can imagine, kid, I can imagine.”

The police station was overflowing with activity. People were yelling and bustling about with a fervent intensity that scared me. What on earth was going on in this city? I saw one cop nursing a vicious slash up his arm, and another was pressing an extremely upset hispanic woman against a wall as she tried to lash out at him with deadly looking claws that had grown from her fingers. She was screaming almost incoherently about her children. My heart went out to her.

The further we got into the station, the calmer it became. When I say calmer, I mean relative to the shitshow out the front. Officers were still rushing around in an almost panicked frenzy as they shouted random numbers at each other that seemed to mean something I wasn’t picking up on.

With a firm hand, Jocelyn guided me into the break room. The room was actually larger than I thought it would be, with several comfy looking couches and chairs lining three of the walls. Along last wall was a stereotypical break room bench with a basin and tap, a well loved coffee machine and a fridge. The room had a few occupants like myself, distraught and harmless individuals who needed shelter.

I sat down and looked up at the kind police officer, “So I stay here?”

“Yes, I’ll come and see you when things are less-” she started, before a slightly overweight man in a police chief’s uniform burst through the door.

“Officer Hendal! Get to the corner of 6th and Washington! There’s another ten thirty two and they need backup right fucking yesterday!” he bellowed.

“Yes sir, about the girl though-” she started to say.

“Later woman! We have better officers than you trying to deal with some maniac throwing lightning at them with his fucking hands! Move!” he yelled.

“Yes sir,” she ground out between clenched teeth.

I cringed back from the terrifying police chief, but he didn’t even spare me a glance as he pushed Jocelyn out the door.

I huddled further into my chair and cautiously looked at the other occupants of the break room. I saw a few normal looking folks, huddled in their chairs like I was. It was the people who didn’t look normal that caught my eye. One girl about my age, my real age that is, had large pure white wings like those of a dove. A black boy who looked about ten years old had big rabbit ears that flopped down the side of his head. The last strange occupant of the room was a girl who looked to be about 18. She had hair that was slowly changing colour, like the LED gaming mouse I had back home.

I realised as I watched the others that I was like them too. Weird. Different. I hunched further into my chair, bringing my bare legs up and into the safe confines of my huge hoodie. I sipped from my hot chocolate and belatedly thought to bring my tail around to the front for added comfort. The thing was just irresistibly soft.

When I shifted, my hood tickled one of my ears and it gave an involuntary twitch at the annoyance. Suddenly my hood was off and my ears popped back up into their standing position.

The girl with the wings gave a little jump at the movement and looked over with wide eyes. I hid behind my tail.

“Holy shit, you’re a fox girl,” she said in wonder.

I peeked over my tail and nodded at her. She was cute, pretty even, with the sort of face that could convince anyone that she had done nothing wrong in her life. I ducked behind my tail again.

“Yeah, and you’re an angel. We’re all freaks now. Woop de fuckin’ do,” I heard a new voice say disparagingly.

I looked over at the speaker, the rainbow hair girl. She looked pissed, or maybe upset, I couldn’t tell.

“Wow, what’s wrong with you? Your hair is only a little different. You don’t have entire new limbs like we do. Calm down,” Angel girl frowned back.

“Oh, so just because you’re a bigger freak than I am, that makes my freakdom less of a thing eh?” snapped the rainbow hair girl.

“Please, both of you, just shut up,” I said quickly.

They both turned to me in surprise. Yeah, this fox got teeth.

I went back to hiding behind my tail and we all sat in silence after that. Cops came and went, usually to make coffee, although some of them stopped to eat something from the fridge. Half an hour after I had been dumped in this room an officer like any other came in and started pouring himself a coffee. As he did so, his radio burst to life.

“Shit shit shit! We have a ten thirty three! Officer down! The fuckin’ guy with the lightning got Jocelyn! She’s down!” the radio crackled.

“Fuck! No! The bastard hit her again! She’s not moving! We need more boots here!”

I felt my eyes widen as I stared at the radio, the little device of metal and plastic that had just delivered the terrible news. My stomach tied itself in knots, my throat constricted and I felt a small choked squeak escape my lips. The kind woman who had been ready to champion my cause was dead? Just like that?