It would surprise nobody that the flu had unintended consequences. After all, Dr. Moreau had no suspicion of the existence of his co-conspirators, and they were unaware of each other.
Indeed, they would be more surprised that it worked at all, much less manage to satisfactorily accomplish their goals.
Each of the two contributions had a synergistic effect when combined with Dr. Moreau's primary mutagen.
First of all, once the physical enhancements had been completed and the subject had recovered, a second round of Dr. Moreau's mating compulsion would be triggered, pushing them to their new limits.
Secondly, while Dr. Moreau had intended that those affected by the Flu would simply copulate with the closest available feritile member of the opposite sex, people would instead by drawn to those with whom they felt some level of physical attraction.
Of course, since all of their predjudices and preconceptions were eliminated by the same contribution, there would be no concern regarding the purity of bloodlines and heritage. So Dr. Moreau's goal would still be satisfied.
An unfortunate potential consequence of this particular synergistic effect would be a tendency towards incest. Thankfully, Dr. Moreau had anticipated such a problem, and had ensured that any partners with more than 12.5% common heredity would be mutually infertile, and therefore would not trigger the mating compulsion at all.
There were also other effects which were independent of the synergy between the different portions. Some were deliberate, others arose because the researchers were unaware of particular factors.
The basic mutagen was targetted specifically at humans, and not at those with whom they could not conceive fertile and viable children. As such, it would also affect any other races that were close enough genetically to humans to conceive children.
The mating compulsion would not trigger if there was no chance of conceiving children. While intended primarily to protect children, it would also have shielded those no longer capable of conceiving, had one of the additions not acted to rejuvenate everyone past their prime.
This meant that immortals, being sterile from conception, would not be subject to that specific effect, although they would experience all of the rest of them. They would still serve as vectors, however, and spread the mutagen until there was simply no one left to infect.
Unknown to anyone, incidentally, was the fact that Akane had actually drowned, and therefore perished, during the creation of the Spring of Drowned Akane. It had been her first death, and was now immortal.
The first co-contribution was intended to maximize the subject's physical attributes. However, as a ki manipulator, if only barely, Akane's potential attributes were far higher than any normal human.
Since the mutagen had been designed to be adaptive, and Akane was the primary vector, it altered itself to augment the subject's attributes to the full, superhuman, physical potential of a ki manipulator, if not the skills.
There would likely be a fair degree of property damage until people got used to their new strength. Especially since anyone could now toss a full-sized motorcycle around like it was a good-sized rock.
This adaptability also came into play when the virus infected an alien race which could produce viable and fertile children, although this would only come into play for those with whom there was actual intercourse. Both partners would be physically augmented to the limits available to both races, unless it would render either sterile, which would prevent people turning into immortals.
Shapechangers provide an additional complication, since the mutagen would be transmissive in all of their forms. The mutagen would spread among any race or species which could be assumed by anyone who could be infected.
An absolute prerequisite to be affected by the mutagen was, of course, the possession of a genetic structure. This meant that kami could not be directly affected, unless they had either once been human or had been borne from a union of a human with a kami.
This meant that Belldandy, Marller, Peorth, Skuld, and Urd could not actually be affected, but that the Sailor Senshi would be. After all, the latter were the kami of their specific celestial bodies manifested as humans.
That fact brought up an incidental risk to any of those kami who was linked to Yggdrasil. Since the primary energy link used to sustain the manifestations of those kami such as the Norns and Peorth on Earth was channelled through the Moon, and Serenity was the Moon, in a spiritual sense, it meant that if she were affected, the effects of the mutagen would be passed on through that link.
It would not, however, cause anyone having intercourse with a kami affected via that link to suddenly become kami themselves, since the kami is not actually physically infected.
There were, of course, some more unusual effects arising from certain specific situations.
Ryöga's direction curse, for example, was actually an unidentified side effect of the same family technique he used to produce his infinite bandannas, among other things. Basically, it was generating a pinpoint dimensional gate which would flash open briefly when its energy levels built up sufficiently and Ryöga was preoccupied.
The physical augmentations caused by the mutagen were greatly increasing the amount of those energies that Ryöga could sustain, which meant that he would now find himself much further afield than anywhere on Earth, as well as bringing more passengers with him. Although he would tend to frequent areas with weaker dimensional barriers.
At least he was limited to those environments he could actually survive in.
Is that P-chan entering Akane's room and snuggling into her embrace to comfort her?
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(Posted Wed, 12 Feb 2003 17:07)
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