By all counts, Dr. Samong fit every stereotype of "mad scientist." While he lacked the crazy hair-do (or any hair for that matter), he certainly made up for it with his personality. Samong's "science first, ethics later" creed often turned a critical eye towards his work, but his belief in being the only perfectly sane one helped deflect any inhibitions brought on by those looks. He even had a maniacal laugh that usually shot chills up the spines of whoever heard them.

The reason he continued to receive funding from numerous donors, however, was very un-mad-scientist. It was due to the simple fact that all his studies, practices, and break-thrus were aimed to produce results that benefitted all. He could be called a philanthropist, but that limited the scope of his charity. He was humanitarian, humane, altruistic to any and all living creatures, not merely humans. His heart cried out at suffering, sought to end the hurt of others, and thus he desired a change to come to the world.

It was in his late primary school years that he realized HE was the one that needed to be the one to fix it all.

Fast forward through his child prodigy years, graduating high school at only 14 years, achieving numerous degrees in record time, and the man bending over, looking through a microscope, was the result.

As he observed the DNA sample under the scope, though, a smile started pulling quickly at his mouth. The motions, emotions, actions, and reactions of the miniscule environment was performing spectacularly, beyond expectations even. His evil-ish cackle rang through his modern, though modest laboratory, the only other presence being a solitary maned wolf in a kennel. It perked its ears at the human's laugh for a moment, then turned back to its healthy meal of glazed ham and cheesy eggs, scrambled.

So what if its captor was borderline-insane? He provided the wolf with ample accommodations. The wolf's ribs were starting to be less-visible at this point, and the wolf had just been captured last month!

But it wasn't enough. There was still a number of health problems it was experiencing, such as the remaining effects of malnutrition, brittle bones, and reduced muscle mass. Thankfully, the solution was already before him, being a sample of a concoction he called "Emergency Medical Anatomical Improvement," or E-Mai, for short. Before his eyes, E-Mai was improving and encouraging tissue regeneration at an amazing rate, such that it could be considered miraculous.

Quickly, he slid his wheeled desk chair from the microscope and to the batch of E-Mai he had taken the tiny sample from. Just a solitary drop had been enough to regenerate an entire Petri dish's worth of organic matter. Many scientists would've argued that now it was time for testing on live specimen such as rats or mice. Samong didn't work that way, but went straight to the next stage; that is, the maned wolf he captured to nourish back to health.

Taking the syringe, Samong marched over to the cage of the wolf, who seemed tranquil at the moment, but Samong was all too aware of the risks of handling a wild animal. There were methods to sedate the beast, but all were frowned upon by the scientist. Why subject the poor creature to more punishment?

He approached the kennel and took another piece of meat from a nearby fridge. With a deft hand, he unlatched the kennel and laid the meat in front of the wolf. Just as it finished off the ham, it noticed the meat, which Samong did relent to adding a few... flavors to help distract from what he was to do.

The wolf, smelling the new meat and seeing its path unobstructed, immediately padded from its kennel and to the meat, tearing into it enthusiastically, but with a methodical feasting. Samong moved with a speed that belied his apparent age, jabbing the pencil-large syringe into the shoulder of the wolf, injecting the teaspoon of serum into the wolf, then backing quickly to gauge the canine's reaction. When it made no indication of having felt the injection, Samong relaxed slightly and marched over to his desk, grabbing his voice recorder.

"Test number 1 with full-size subject: injection has been administered and currently awaiting reaction. There isn't any immediate outward sign of any sort of change, but that is to be expected only..." he checked his watch, "...8 seconds after administration. Fortunately, no adverse effects have been observed either."

"What are 'adverse effects?'"

"They are happenstances and occurrances that were unintentional and usually have a malco....." Samong stopped mid-sentence and stared with widened eyes and a furrowed brow at the maned wolf. The voice recorder started to slip from his fingers, but he awakened from the sudden surprise enough to catch it and raise it back to his mouth.

"Correction: subject has displayed a sudden sign of the onset of sentience by speaking English aloud," Samong said, still staring at the wolf, "further follow-up will be..."
"What's follow-up?" the wolf said, interrupting him.

Samong didn't answer immediately, but sighed. It was going to be one of THOSE days then...

"Administering dosage number 27 to the subject that is referred to as 'Eliot' in Document 3j5a. Dosage has been increased to three times the usual concentration and results will be observed for any changes in the subject 'Eliot.'"

Putting down the recorder, Samong picked up the syringe and walked over to the maned wolf, Eliot, who was happily munching away on a recent food item he had acquired a taste for; breakfast cereal, strangely enough.

In the month since Eliot having gained higher brain functions, Samong noticed many significant, though small, changes in the maned wolf. For one, his frame filled out to a healthier weight, his rips no longer visible though he retained the slim physique inherent to his breed. His coat, whether by the occasional brushing or by the serum itself Samong couldn't tell, grew thicker, longer, and was quite soft.

A less-visible change he noticed, though, involved Eliot's appetite. It was quite abrupt to Samong, when Eliot looked up from his half-finished ham one day and asked if there was other food besides meat. A later examination of Eliot's dental structure revealed that, somehow, some of his back teeth had changed from incisors into molars. Though the wolf's overall dental structure retained its primarily-carnivorous function and appearance, the existence of the molars made Samong wonder whether he should continue the administrations.

Being the ever-curious man, it was an easy decision to continue.

Taking the double-dose in hand, Samong walked over to Eliot and knelt by him with the syringe ready. Eliot looked up at him, noticing the syringe, and went back to eating. By now, the maned wolf was used to the injections, actually looking forward to them because he always said it gave him a "jiggly feeling."

Eliot held still as Samong injected the serum into his foreleg, prompting a shiver of pleasure from the wolf as he hummed with pleasure at the feeling he had described before, though likely intensified. Samong started back to his desk and started to turn on his voice recorder when...

"Oh my."

Samong turned at the maned wolf's concerned exclamation and his jaw practically hit the floor. He took off his glasses, firmly rubbed his eyes, and put them back on. He blinked several times, unable to believe what he was seeing, wondering if he were going insane. After several minutes of staring and blinking at the changed Eliot, Samong slowly returned to the task he had been setting out to before, his eyes never leaving Eliot's form.

He picked up his voice recorder and started recording, but his voice didn't come out at first. Clearing his throat, he tried again.

"Um... Eliot has... changed. Significantly," Samong started. Thankfully Eliot was too concerned with the change himself to interrupt this time. "It appears that, in the space of mere seconds, he has put on a rather... ahem [i]significant[/i] amount of weight. His ventral area has swollen out with a large quantity of adipose-filled growth, contacting the floor and even lifting his frontal legs off the ground. He appears to be struggling to keep his hind legs on the floor as well. There is... significant thickening in his limbs and neck, with a generous filling-out having taken place in his facial area. The amount of growth has also spread to his back, where it had rounded out into a rather-large mound of fat atop him. Eliot appears to be, um, incapable of complete mobility at this time."

Even having said it, Samong still didn't believe the bizarre happenstance that had occurred in Eliot. All the space between his belly and the floor was gone, having been thoroughly filled up with his belly and waist. The wolf now came up to Samong's shoulder when the doctor was standing straight up, the roll of the wolf's back more than tripling Eliot's size, easily.

Samong set his recorder on the desk and slowly approached Eliot, his sharp eyes noticing the slight quivering and wobble of the maned wolf's immensity. To Eliot's credit, he wasn't reacting nearly as shocked as Samong had expected him to, but this wasn't terribly surprising a revelation; out in the wild, Eliot likely never saw any other animals with girthy frames.

But the wolf was still quite shocked.

"By the bone," Eliot said, gently pressing a forepaw into the portion of his fat that rolled in front of him, "what just happened to me?"

Samong didn't answer at first, but gathered up his instruments for taking one's vital signs. Eliot remained still and quiet throughout Samong's measuring, watching as the doctor tried to take his pulse, measure his breathing, and take his temperature. Samong wasn't terribly successful, thanks to the enormous amounts of adipose blocking any way of getting clear readings.

After a good while of the doctor still trying, Samong finally gave up and tossed his implements onto the desk with a sigh. Rubbing the scarce scrub of hair on his head, he turned to Eliot with a look of concern.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you," Samong said, "I didn't intend for this side effect from my serum at all. I'm really glad to have known you for this long, Eliot, and enjoyed every conversation we had. I just hope that, when it happens, you will have minimal..."
"What are you talking about?" Eliot said, tilting his head in confusion, "You're not leaving, are you?"

Samong face-palmed, "Look, Eliot, I'll be honest: your life-expectancy just dropped severely with your dramatic increase in weight."
Again, the head-tilt, "how do you know? I don't feel sick. I don't LOOK sick, do I?"
"Eliot! You've increased in size and weight beyond your capabilities of movement and it's in fat alone! Humans have died with less-drastic proportions and I don't see any reason why you would prove the exception!" Samong yelled.

Eliot's ears lowered as he cowered, seeming extremely hurt and, as a result, making feel like a dagger was sliding into Samong's ribs. He walked over to Eliot as he calmed his breathing and began rubbing the wolf's fat cheek.

"Sorry for yelling at you," Samong said, "I'm just worried I'll lose you to... well, to the Great Beyond."
"You think I'm going to... die?" Eliot said, his hurt expression gaining a shade of concern.
"There's years of research pointing to my belief in such," Samong said, sadly.

Eliot said nothing at first, but kept frowning. He looked away from Samong, clearly deep in thought. Samong got up and went over to his desktop, looking through the laboratory's inventory for a crane. They were going to need to move Eliot right now and even after he...

Samong didn't want to think about it, but surprised when he felt a hot tear slide down his cheek. He didn't get this emotionally attached before, so why now?

"If it makes you feel any better," Eliot said, "I honestly do feel a lot more amazing than I have ever felt in my entire life, and I was the most fit of my entire pack when I was still of a lower mind!"

Samong tried to ignore Eliot for the moment, sure the wolf was just making an attempt at reassuring him.

"Heck, if my legs could reach the ground, I could probably complete one of those Brass Gentlemen competitions no problem."

Samong had to stop and give the wolf an odd look at that.

"Brass Gentlement?" Samong said.
"Yeah, you know, like they swim really far, then they ride bicycles really far, and then they run really far?" Eliot said.
"Oh, you mean the Iron Man," Samong said.
"Whatever metal the guy is made of, I just know I can do it," Eliot said.

A bark of laughter escaped Samong before he realized it was coming.

"What I'm saying," Eliot continued, his tone turning more serious, "is don't give up on me so easily. I'm honestly in no fear of passing into the great Field above any time soon, so just keep up like we always used to."
Samong let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and let his smile remain.

"Alright, my friend," Samong relented, "I'll keep hoping for you."

Weeks passed and Samong began realizing that Eliot's assurances of his own health were turning out true. Of course, the wolf never was able to hold to his claim that he could run an Iron Man, but Samong was willing to lend him the plausibility.

Despite the leaden-lump-o-wolf's immobility, his health began skyrocketing through the record books. His immune system had become a veritable Fort Knox, his digestive processes had shot through the roof in efficiency, and all his vital signs strengthened.

In terms of strength, Eliot actually displayed a puzzling, though somewhat relieving, increase in muscle mass in the weeks and months following his initial fat-growth. Eliot remained immensely fat, not losing a single gram of lipid weight, but he didn't seem to mind it at all.

The wolf's increasing health puzzled everyone more and more each day. They only really noticed his musculature growing when it appeared he was getting fatter, but it was really the increase in muscle tissue pushing the fatty parts out more.

Finally, the scientists working with Samong decided to take it to a cellular level and were finally able to make headway.

Samong immediately had noticed the chemical make-up of the primary food source for the cells, as it was the very serum he had been administering to Eliot until that fateful (or rather fat-full) day when he stopped. The others were astounded and even Samong was mildly surprised to find that Eliot's cells had begun prioritizing the serum cells as a primary food source.

It was then the idea came to Samong to see what would happen if he gave another injection to Eliot, after all these months of going without. The wolf's body was self-producing the serum now to feed itself, but what would a surplus do, he wondered....

Eliot awakened to the sound of his pen's gate opening. Ever since his growth, he was far too huge to fit in his kennel anymore, so Samong had moved him into a pen designed to hold large stallions and bears. The spike of worry left immediately when he saw it was Samong, and then it turned to a spike of excitement when he saw the syringe in his hand.

"Is that...?"
"It is," Samong said.
"Then what're you waiting for?" Eliot said.
"Well... we should probably move you somewhere bigger..."
"How are you gonna know how much bigger I'll get?"

Eliot flashed his best wide-eyed puppy-dog face at Samong and the doctor's resolve, if there really was any resistance at all before, crumbled.

The human stepped forward and plunged the needle into Eliot's meaty thigh, then stood back for "proper observational distance."

And within mere seconds, Eliot began growing.

His feet, already a solid meter off the ground, increased their distance from the floor as his belly spread more outwards, flowing closer and closer to the walls and door of the stall, hay crunching as the furred belly smothered them out of existence. Eliot's sides, already merged with his belly, swelled greatly to match. They pushed and bubbled outward with a rush of fat, as if eager to prove just how huge they could get. Eliot's back shared the enthusiasm of his sides and belly, roiling with weight, growing ever closer to the ceiling as the soft adipose filled it up. And then there was Eliot's comically-enlarging limbs and face. Any form of being a length of bone and muscle was gone as his legs, too, had become so swollen with lard as to appear as massively-overinflated beachballs sucking in his paws. Samong actually watched as the paws began disappearing underneath the increasing folds and rolls of leg-fat.

Looking to Eliot's muzzle, Samong witnessed... well, aside from the wolf's rapidly-ballooning facial cheeks (which were each beyond the size of basketballs at this point), the wolf had a severely large smile on his face. At least, Eliot had a smile for as long as Samong was able to see his face, as his girth was making his head rise above and beyond the forward-swell of his belly, blocking the doctor's sight of the wolf's expression. But he could only assume the wolf likely had the smile still.

It was then Samong noticed the wolf's fat was getting close to him. Like it was mere feet... make that inches from him. At the wolf's current rate of growth, there wasn't a doubt in Samong's mind that he would soon be crushed by wolf-fats if he remained. So with a tactical retreat it was that he exited the stall and closed the door. He only had a few seconds to wonder if shutting the door would do anything before the walls suddenly bulged, creaked, and then promptly splintered under the growing mass of Eliot.

Samong had just barely stumbled out of the way in time and retreated an even greater distance to observe.

Just as Samong was about to start fearing that the wolf would grow infinitely huge, he noticed the alarming pace of the wolf's fattening slow, then come to a stop. Samong sighed with relief and walked over to the mountainous wolf. The slorshes and glorps coming from the wolf were almost deafening, but strangely relaxing.

Samong didn't say anything, as he doubted that Eliot would be able to hear him way up there and through all his softened frame. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Eliot's head had partially sucked in to his enormity, so his ears were covered by the fat directly as well. But instead, Samong just patted the part of Eliot's belly nearest him, observing how easily the furred fat wobbled and jiggled.

Today, it seemed, there were multiple victories. Eliot was in still-improving health with no signs of degradation and the scientific community had many new discoveries to make from this literal mountain of studies.

It would be a long road, for sure, but the advancements would be worth it, and so would Eliot's happiness.