Adventures In Science Fiction #7

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"Alright, so exemplar are the Adonis ones," Ian mused as he looked through the notes on the serum results. 

It had taken a couple days worth of work, but Ian, with some help from the internet, had managed to define enough of the words in the documents for him to finally make some semblance of sense out of it.

This serum was apparently intended to force an exemplar mutation onto someone, one that was programmed to adhere to a specific kind of mold. In the case of this particular serum, it seemed to generate a body that would be attractive, resilient, and slow aging.

While this all sounded wonderful, and might even help him overcome his current issues, to include the bullying, it apparently had a pretty high variance rate, as well, with lots of ranges listed from height to hair to body composition to coloration that were all possible outcomes.

There was variance even beyond that, though, into the realm of extraneous mutations or bizarre appearances. This was where it got frightening, since the creator's far from conclusive testing indicated at least a thirty percent fatality rate, and a very high, seventy-four percent, rate of some form of unanticipated mutation in subjects.

Ian hummed softly as he stared at the small vial, trying to weigh the pros and cons. It would change everything, that was certain, give him power that he'd never dreamed of holding, having long ago given up on the dream of manifesting himself.

Conversely, it could easily kill him, and even if it worked perfectly, would the results be something he could live with. According to the documents, there were no tests done on anyone younger than twenty-one, so it was hard to tell exactly what his end results might be.

At the same time, Ian had difficulty trying to come up with things about being his present self that were positives, so much so that he began to think that no matter what the results were it would be better than his present life.

The documented results showed that most of the test subjects had become fearless, invincible, superhuman strong, and impossibly good looking. Forty-eight point three percent of the test subjects experienceed transformations from female to male, which, Ian was learning, appeared to be one of the objectives of the experiments;  Captain America-like transformations that created an army of super soldiers from small, weak, young girls.

Was there a possibility of a gender change, were he to take the serum? Ian certainly hoped not. Besides, there was documentation of a couple male subjects taking the experimental serum, but nothing in the documents about any male to female transformation.

He had also deduced from the documentation that he would be stronger, healthier, and live longer after the serum, regardless of whether there were extreme mutations or not.

Due to being overweight, Ian believed his male self was not attractive in any way. Which was a hindrance to his chances with girls.

The most compelling argument that he could think of for not taking the serum was that he was quite satisfied with his current male plumbing and exchanging it for the alternative elicited a gut reaction of queasiness. After all, the female equivalent seemed rather awkward, uncomfortable, and insufficient. Not to mention, he had absolutely zero interest in guys. His only interest was in Emily.

The more he pondered it the more he convinced himself the most likely outcome would be that the serum turned him into a Thor-like super human.  But still he knew there was no guarantee of anything.

"So much risk," Ian whispered as he glanced toward the briefcase where the little vial still sat. "Yet, the potential for much reward."

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