Elena was disappointed. The rookie Turk had been hoping for an exciting debut mission... but instead she was just taking a silver case to HQ in the middle of the night, like a glorified courier.

Watching from around a corner up ahead, another woman on her own mission also hoped for excitement. As they say, be careful what you wish for...

"Hand over the case!" Jessie said, gun in hand.

Elena moved quickly, enjoying the wide-eyed shock of the AVALANCHE woman as she grabbed the weapon. Jessie, unfortunately, bumped the trigger in the melee. Bullets hit the case, releasing a red liquid.

"You terrorist moron!" Elena fumed as they scuffled.

"You grabbed my gun!" Jessie retorted, and then felt dizzy.

Elena felt it too, the pair staggering away from each other.

"Ugh..."

Both women felt warm and itchy all over, and throbbing pains began across their bodies, especially at their tailbones and faces. The two groaned as they felt strange sensations, their minds foggy.

Long tails tipped with fire-like ends began growing from their backs, as their knees began changing direction. Writhing as they transformed, the two women clawing away at the clothing that no longer fit them. And the clawing was literal - for their hands and feet had shifted into paws, and their skin was now covered in ever thickening red fur.

Eventually, where two women had been there now lay panting red lion-like creatures, in ripped and loose fitting remains of their clothes. As their minds cleared, Elena reacted first....

"W-what did you do to me?!" She yelped.

"Me?! It was your Shinra weird science!" Jessie growled back.

Elena bared her teeth, and leapt at the transformed AVALANCHE woman. The pair rolled and growled as they engaged in a literal dogfight, as the liquid leaked into the gutters, and worked into the water supply...

***

Diluted, the substance acted slower. But this meant that by the time the problems began, it had spread unknown....

The first the Shinra learned of it was when Scarlet groaned, and fell to the floor in the middle of a meeting in the late afternoon. As she transformed to the shock of all but one man present. Moments later there was commotion through the whole building as woman after woman began changing. A story that began repeating across the city, upper and lower....

In Seventh Heaven, Tifa struggled to free her changed limbs from her long socks and gloves. In the church, Aerith untangled four legs from her dress. In Sector Six, the Honeybee Inn dancers bee stingers now briefly covered different tails.

At a performance of Loveless, elegant dresses tore and ripped as their wearers transformed. Office workers on trains heading home were trapped in their pantyhose and shredded skirts. Female Security Troopers tried to free themselves from their armour with their new paws.

Hojo didn't bother to hide his grin as it all unfolded. Certainly, he had some explaining to do in the near future - but he also had hundreds of thousands of test subjects.

Meanwhile the first two transformed lay exhausted in the tunnels of the upper city, having fought each other to a four legged standstill...