Okay - little note for everyone that saw my trailer video. I had to make a few changes for the video, the biggest being the way Kowalski performs the experiment on himself. In this version (and in the official Broadway show), he actually injects the formula into his skin. I had to change it in the video because A) drawing the injection is really, really hard, and B) the song's lyrics said otherwise. That song came off the Resurrection album, not the stage production - some changes were made in between.
Enough talk - onto the action!!!
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Unbeknownst to Skipper, Kowalski did continue his experiments. He new formula proved to be too much for the insects' primitive bodies and did not work on them. Kowalski was frustrated - he knew this formula would work, it had all the right reactions... until the cockroaches' ancient brains fried with these new chemicals.

What he needed was a more 'recent' body, better evolved with time - only a bird, mammal, or reptile would do.

The problem was... who? Many different 'subjects' whizzed through his mind: Kitka, that fiendish falcon who surprisingly often barged back into the zoo, asking Skipper to take her back; Salvio, the lying snake who'd somehow managed his way back into the zoo - Skipper had made sure that the first thing done that day was seal off the vent in his exhibit; Julien, who annoyed the heck out of everyone - this idea quickly left Kowalski's mind, Julien was a friend; and, for one wicked moment, he imagined trapping Joey in the lab and using him, that kangaroo was so disrespectful and bossy and... Kowalski literally slapped himself. The very idea! This was exactly why he needed to do this experiment, there was too much evil to be ignored any longer, even inside himself...

Kowalski froze. An idea formed in his mind...

Himself...

…

"September 13th - two hundred, forty-six hours in the morning." he said into his voice log he kept for the experiment. "*I have started this alone, and I must finish it alone. There is no longer a choice - I know that I must use myself as the subject of the experiment.* After all, maybe the best way to understand the reactions is to experience them..."

He stopped the tape, and looked around the room. His lab was like his second home - usually the bubbling chemicals and metal instruments were comforting and familiar to him, but tonight he did not even notice them. Tonight, all he was able to see was a small syringe filled with a bright red liquid, not unlike the blood in his veins. It was his formula, that he would be testing tonight.

No, not tonight - now.

Methodically, he began prepping himself for the injection. He tied a ribbon around his leg (the distribution point) very tightly, cutting off the blood flow. He washed his leg in clean, cold water and sanitized it and the needle. He grabbed a couple of tissues and set them near his chair, then gingerly took the syringe in his flipper.

He was scared. He had no idea what was about to happen to him, other than a great pain that would barely manage not to kill him. He stalled for a minute or so, admiring the formula itself - such a bright red, like a stoplight you had to run right past to get to your destination... but soon enough, he knew the time had come.

Kowalski moved aside his feathers and found a vein, then poked the syringe through his own skin and slowly pushed the liquid into his own body.

He pulled it out when the formula was gone, found his tissues and held them to the injection spot, then undid the ribbon, releasing the blood flow. Kowalski then flicked his recorder back on.

"*Two hundred forty-eight hours... it is done. I have injected five centiliters of formula H-J-7. I must now be wise - try to analyze each change in me..." he paused, licked his beak, then continued. "Bitter taste in the mouth… salty… stings the tongue. Warm in the gullet. Lightheadedness." Without even noticing it, he began giggling to himself. "No n-noticeable be-behavioral d-d-differences…" he noticed the giggling and stopped himself. "A slight feeling of euphoria... I wonder... *how will it be,*when it starts?* Will I see the world through different eyes?* But… there is nothing left to do, but show the world..."

And then it began.

*"Oh my... my God..." Kowalski muttered, clutching his stomach. "Something's happening, I can't explain... something inside me, a breathtaking pain! Devours, consumes me, and drives me insaaaa-AHH!"*

He screamed and fell to the floor. The room spun in and out of focus... the pain, oh God, he'd never felt anything like this before, never. He screamed again as he tried to get up and find the morphine he'd set out just in case... no luck, his bones had turned to jelly, his insides were on fire!

But he had to remember why he was doing this at all. He screamed into his recorder:

*"Suddenly - uncontrolled! Something is - taking - hold! Suddenly - AGONY! Filling me - killing me! Suddenly - out of breath! What is this? Is this death?"*

He felt himself somehow slip away…

"*Suddenly… look at me…can it be?*"

The pain was gone - but so was Kowalski.

"*What is this… creature… that I see?*"

Something had taken over his body - no, someone. That someone caught a glimpse of himself in a beaker. His feathers were sticking out in all directions - his back was curved, making him stoop over - his eyes were no longer Kowalski's clear dark blue, but a clouded dull red - feathers on his head had grown to such a length that they partially obscured his face - impressive muscles now bloomed out from underneath penguin fat.

That someone in Kowalski's body took a deep, exhilarating breath, liking what he saw in that beaker.

"*Free…"* he growled, then saw the recorder. It had been on this whole time. He sauntered over and raised his hand towards the stop button.

"Three o'clock… and all's well…" he sang softly into it, like a old-fashioned town crier, and flicked off the record button.
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The song is "First Transformation" and I do actually have a good clip for this one!

http:/ www. youtube .com /watch?v=pHDEdAhGCj0

P.S. The bolded print at the bottom is our first glimpse of "Hyde". In the show, the main way the audience differenciates Jekyll and Hyde is that Jekyll wears his hair in a Victorian-style ponytail, and Hyde just lets it hang over his face. In my story, Kowalski will always be in regular print, and Hyde (Black) will always be in bolded print. Hope that clears up some stuff!

Review!