Serpentbloom.

One of, if not the most highly valued species of flora humanity has ever had the pleasure of discovering. A bizarre hybrid of an obscure descendant of orchid, and powerful draconic DNA provided by the blood of passing monsters on death's door, Serpentbloom was nothing short of a miracle plant, for its breed of magic was an incredibly powerful regenerative ability. Essentially, were you to grind and liquify this plant into a fine shimmering oil (uncreatively called "Serpent Oil"), then all you had to do was soak it into quite literally any inanimate object, seal in the magic with a special bonding rune called a "Rune of repair", and viola, that item is now immortal. Should that soaked item, whether it be a sword, a sock, a table, a coat, a cloak, or a piece of armour, suffer any kind of wear, weathering, rip, split, or break in half entirely, then all you'd need to do is simply wait a hour or so (depending on the quality of your runes) and overtime your item will slowly knit itself back together until it's just like brand new. With Serpentbloom, most modern day man-made materials have been able to completely nullify their weakness to the ravages of time, and now their buildings, the clothes, their toys, and of course their machines could theoretically last for eternity....as long as they had enough of the stuff anyway.

See, the catch was that Serpentbloom was still just a flower, meaning its magic scaled with its abundance. The larger the object, the more Serpent oil you needed. And furthermore, it only worked effectively on single, simple objects, so while stuff like clothing or simple weaponry was fine, more complex things like machinery or structures required that each component be individually enchanted. So if you wanted your cloak to stop getting ripped up by passing thorns, a litre or so would be fine since it's just a big piece of cloth. But if you wanted your automaton to be able to heal itself after combat to save costs on repairs, you'd be needing a couple dozen gallons of the stuff, and you still have to make sure those components were still in the correct positions and places so maintenance is still a thing in this setting.

Another thing to note was that all of these wonders weren't exclusive to just Serpentbloom, rather this was just a mere fraction of the power found within the bodies of the "Draconic" or "Serpent" species of wild magic monstrosities. Be it wyrms, lyndwurms, drakes, wyverns, amphiteres and of course, pure dragons, all beasts within the draconic category housed this splendid power of constant healing, yet Serpentbloom remained as one of the easiest ways for harvesters to have access to such magic without any drawbacks, as not only was the blood highly poisonous or prone to containing the mutation, requiring intense refining and purifying to become anything close to usable, but getting to this blood in first place obviously requires you to fight what are considered some of the most deadly and powerful species of monster mankind has discovered so far. So since Serpentbloom pretty much skipped all of this process while still providing exceptional benefits, it has become a very, VERY valuable item of trade...

"...So, you lot understand why I don't want those Union BASTARDS taxing us to hell and back for it yes?!" The loud voice of Dr. Draven Douglas bellowed out to the large convoy parked around the ever larger clearing of blooming flower plains. "Need I remind you that there are only two ways to buy anything in this blasted sector? Wa-"

"Way 1 is do it yourself!" A sudden chorus of exasperated plague doctor foragers and their armoured security boomed in almost perfection unison. "And Way 2 is buying it from the Union, and there's only room for one spikey monster hunting organisation in this accursed land-"

"WE HEARD YOU THE LAST 18 TIMES YOU INSUFFERABLE CROCK!" One particularly agitated bird man yelled soon after.

"...Well, clearly you didn't hear it enough!" Draven hollered back, his resolve unshaken. "Because your progress is still atrocious! Pick up the pace you paltry pigheaded pillocks!"

The response from the harvesting team was as such a cacophony of "UUUUGH"s, with a couple "I'm going lose my shite"s and "This barmy twat"s thrown in for good measure.

The "Science Guild", "Guild of Science" "College of Corvids", "Institute", "Science team", or whatever less flattering title was thrown their way, was a faction notorious for being a thorn in pretty much everyone's side. From their propensity to hid their revolutionary research from the Empire's constant love of innovation, to their competitive rivalry and spiting of the Trapper's Union, to the contempt and mocking of any outlaw organisation they caught within line of sight, and of course their "play all sides so you always come out on top" strategies to every kind of politics, pretty much no-one liked the staff and chairmen who ran the ghastly colossus of a tower they called their headquarters, yet no-one was willing to do anything about them. For the college they ran was regrettably the most prestigious and successful centre of high-class education the forest nation of Engrievion could boast, and without whatever research and innovation they did share, Engrievion as a whole would be far more worse for ware than it already was.
Most notable of the guild's contributions was their status of being the go-to university for aspiring Doctors, Professors, all kinds of high class scientists. The enigmatic Plague Doctors that roamed the land, either as freelancer researchers, elite physicians, or even the medical officers of the Imperial Army itself, all of them were former or even current students of the Guild, as the Guild was the one creating, distributing, and enforcing their scientific licenses, was the inventor of their style of uniform and aesthetic, was the primary employer of their services, hell, the entire plague doctor identity and the influence of The Science Guild may as well be one in the same, the presence of the Corvid House was just that recognizable.

As such, the entirety of the guild's staff were also licenced plague scientists, ones that either decided, were convinced, or were "convinced", that their skillsets were best used as full time employees and researchers serving under the corvid banner.

The gathering of leather cloaked goobers and ironclad knobheads currently occupying the large sprawl of meadows was one such team of full guild staff, as the clockwork-powered crawler trucks surrounding the crew of low ranking hazmat harvesters, armoured knight-like security and elite security guards, note-taking researchers, and Dr. Douglas himself all proudly bore the corvid head of their institute's coat of arms. The meadow the doctors trudged through was one of particular value as well, as it was so mutated by the rampaging wild magic that flowed in the roots and bodies of the vast forests, that the plants and flowers within were almost all either Serpentbloom or some form of incredibly illegal reagents. Low ranking Botany supervisor Dr. Draven Douglas felt like a mining foreman who had just struck diamond once his camera trained scouting crows-(don't ask)-returned their findings back to him. Knowing how quickly such a find could be scooped up by all other factors of competition once word got out, Draven mobilized every scrap of harvesting workforce his meagre supervisor status could get, and had spent the better part of the previous night and this very morning shouting at his crew to "Get a bloody move on", glee running high in his veins from the knowledge of this find being his, and his alone.

Shame that some competition arrived regardless. Rather ironic competition in fact....

"This....this is a bad idea...." Freelancer Dr. Minerva Talos squeaked, slinking back into her hiding spot with a nervous whimper.

"Whaaat?" Shiny, the good doctor's armoured bodyguard guffawed as she clapped a gauntlet-clad onto Minnie's cloaked shoulder. "Oh c'mon, don't tell me this is your first heist!"

"Actually, it is." A third voice, the voice of Mercutio "The Merciless" Hermes chimed in from behind another nearby rock. "This is probably the first time she's ever gotten into a fight with people outside of my chain of command sooo..."

"Hey whoa-whoa-whoa, you never said anything about fighting!" Minerva piped up in growing panic.

"It's...it's a heist. I though the risk of combat was kind of a....y'know, a given?"

"OooOOOH!" The good doctor groaned in frustrated stage fright.

Minerva and her fellow outlaw strategist Mercutio didn't have a well-funded harvesting force like Draven and his goons did. Instead, they had the Emerald Scarves, a private army of outlaws and street thugs that served as the Good Doctor's muscle, rudimentary research team, and her hapless guinea pigs. Due to this, while they were able to scout through and plunder the resources of the wildness just fine, if not better than Science Guild goons, the metal gift-wrapped bounty of alchemical components and Serpentbloom that outlaws like them would struggle to buy off shelves was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So, Mercutio had taken a good chunk of his men and ordered two thirds of them to surround the convoy in preparation for an ambush, while he, the remaining third, the armoured mercenary on their payroll, and Dr. Talos herself scanned the scene from behind a rock-strewn hill looming above the meadow. Hermes was pretty proud of himself today, while he didn't know what those plague doctors were capable of, he could easily tell that they didn't suspect a thing, they'd be caught completely off guard. This was a good plan...even if a few among him weren't on board.

"Hnnng....aaaw man..." Minerva whined further, her eyes watering at how heavily armed some of those security guards seemed to be. "Do I really have to be here? Out in the frontline? I mean, my tower's unoccupied-"

"And guarded Doc." Mercutio retorted sternly. "It'll be fine, some of my best guys have it covered. Besides, we need you out here."

"WhyyYyYYyYYYyy?"

"Because you're an expert on herbs and stuff aren't you?" Mercutio explained. "We don't know shit about how to use whatever that convoy's hauling, or which samples are worth grabbing and which aren't. But, you do, you make your living off of that kind of stuff, you're one of the best people to bring along for a job like this." The young thief could sense that the response had moved Minerva a bit, but her whimpers still displayed her distress, so he continued. "Plus, you were part of the Science Guild yourself weren't you?"

"I mean....y-yes?"

"So, you know them better than any of us. You know how they work, how they operate, how they organize their cargo, hell you might even know some of the guys in that convoy personally. You're the key to our success here Doc, if you want those herbs and components, you'll need to pull your weight like the rest of us."

"...ooohh..." Minerva whined, curling up in a teeny ball of anxiousness. "Your logic's really sound b-b-but....eeeegh...."

"N'aww, relax doc, it'll be fun!" Shiny reassured, attempting to unfurl the anxiety ball. "You're one of us now remember? A muddy, grungy, grimy outlaw! And there's not a lot us outlaws find more fun than gettin' into big, bloodthirsty brawls, where we all stab and shoot and punch and eat each other like wild animals! Right Merky?

"Uuuuh-" Said Mercutio.

"Besides..." Shiny interrupted, beaming and winking at Minnie as she wrapped her arms around the little mutant plague doctor. "Bully yourself all you want, but we're still not blind. We've all seen how you fight before, when your body swells and bursts out into that sexy bird beast you are, with those rippling muscles, those bulging wings, and yer juicy, sexy, adorable talon feet, feet so supple and beefy that they could pick a guy up, and squeeze him..."

"HuUuUuUggghhhh..." Minerva shuddered and blushed in response, the sensual words making her toes squirm in her boots. "I....I-I dunno..."

"You're a big, beefy monster girl Doc, a monster that wiggles in the mud of outlaw scum, just like the rest of us!" Shiny continued, tightening her grip into a supportive hug as she tentatively listened to the little doctor's pulsing heartbeat. "Whoever those knockoff guys are down there, they don't stand a chance against a single one of us, let alone this big of a crew, you and I know it."

"uumm....w-well actually, the Science Guild are a lot more capable then you may initially think. E-even a small harvesting expedition like this would, by default, carry alon-"

BMMPH.

"Uuuh sir?" A voice suddenly piped up as something large, black, and feathery thumped onto the ground, startling the girls right out of their conversation. "We uuuh...We gotta problem."

The huge feathered creature unfurling itself in front of Mercutio was not only another one of the Emerald Scarves, but was also one of the notable "Harpy" class mutants within their ranks, which most commonly had their particular beast forms resembling that of large black and white Magpies, due to them being thieves and rogues like the rest of the mostly rodent-based gang. Due to their ability to, y'know, fly, Mercutio usually had them act as scouts and reconnaissance officers, so serving his role effectively, this cute fluffy bird boy seemed eager to report the developments of the plan. Rather...annoying developments as it happened.

For meanwhile, during this whole exchange of very oddly worded supportiveness, the other two thirds of the raid team had soon reached the optimal ambush spot Mercutio had plotted out for them, or at least, they'd like to think so. See, this was a good plan, a rather excellent plan one might even argue. However Mercutio was still only a man, and like any man, he couldn't predict every single curveball. So, beyond the Scarf leader's knowledge, the plan had already run into two very pressing issues.

The first was that since the meadow was so large and overgrown across the daylight sky, visibility when approaching it from the forest instead of the hillside was, to put it lightly, atrocious. As such, it was rather difficult to tell where the optimal ambush point really was. Worse still, it was just as, if not more tricky to discern how far they were to the expedition itself, meaning that the goons could get a liiiittle too close to the wandering harvesters, or armoured security, and have no idea until it was too late.

In fact, one of the harvesters was busying himself by rummaging through a rather thick bush just at the edge of the forest, his thick gloves protecting him from any of the jabbing bits. Under the beaked mask, his gaze was focused, calm, as his arms pushed and shifted the leaves and branches in search of anything useful within the engorged plant.
What he soon found after one more leaf parting was not a rare apex Serpentbloom flower however, nor any notably valuable reagent components. But rather, the second big hurdle of Mercutio's well-crafted plan, the biggest hurdle of almost all of the Scarves' plans in fact. The hurdle that plagues them wherever they go.

Kent.

"Hello." Said Kent, as the harvester's eyes widened at the sight of his face in the bush. "Is it me you're looking for?"

"WHAT IN THE-YAEUGH-" Was all the glorified gardener could yell before the outlaw's armoured hands grabbed his oversized collar and yanked him into the bush, before the blade of a gleaming, if rather ramshackle handaxe pressed into a part of his mask where his head... wasn't.

17 year old former butcher apprentice turned outlaw street thug, Kent Peters, was kind of the black sheep of Mercutio's recently reformed Scarves. Remember that one dude who charged at the rat boi with a handaxe during his overthrowing of Tybalt? Yeah, that was Kent. And Kent, is a bit of a moron. But not the charming and cute kind, like Shiny. But the annoying, irritatingly detrimental kind, like Shiny. I could probably elaborate further on how exactly he was this kind of stupid, but everyone knows it's best to show, not tell. So:

"Ello govnah." Kent then sneered behind his emerald mouth bandana. "Wanna chat about flowers?"

"WUH-Y-y-y-..y-yooou..." The harvester spluttered before quickly snarling as he registered what was happening. "Why you squalid crook! Unhand me!"

"Mmm...I don't think I will. Cause you sir, you're my hostage now, you get it?"

"Oh I am familiar with your vulgar strategies, outlaw scum!" The plague doctor hissed. "But I will not suffer as your bargaining chip!"

"Aw, cute how you think you have a choi-"

THWACK

"OW!" Kent suddenly yelled as a leather clad fist slammed into his face. With the scarves' client as his only frame of reference to how plague doctors worked, Kent had been assuming that all of these beak-geeks were squeaking, wimpy nerds who would wail and crumble at the first sign of conflict. So the nasty punch swung right into his nose caught him way off guard and hurt like a mother fucker, though fortunately it didn't stun him long enough to let his captive escape. For as the cloaked man scuttled out of the bush, Kent summoned his experience of subduing violently twitching muscle tendons to leap out in pursuit, quickly grabbing the plague doctor and wrestling him to the grassy ground.

"Okay PRICK." Kent spat as successfully pinned the hostage. "Let's just cut to the chase then eh? Me and the dudes-whereverthefucktheyfuckingfuckedofftoofuck-are gonna jump the lot of you wimps and pluck yer feathers for all they're worth, so in exchange for your life, anything you could tell us to uh....smooth out the process?"

"Y-....you-....you...."The harvester quickly stopped fighting and slowly turned up his beak to the outlaw's face, blinking in bewilderment of the audacity of this dude. "You....you captured me...for advice....on how to successfully raid us?"

"Uh....w-well, when you put it like that uh-" Kent stuttered. "Eh-er-ack-err-uh-wait-wait I wasn't 'askin' for advice', I was interrogating you. For information."

"Then why did you word it like that?"

"Uh, to sound badass? Duh?"

"....You think you're 'being a badarse' right now?"

"Yeah?"

"....Rrrreally?"

"YEAH?" Kent shouted, further overcompensating. "What, you don't think I'm cool right now? You think I'm a chump, huh?"

"Well...." The harvester suddenly chuckled. "....you did just loudly proclaim your plans of assault right in the middle of our camp."

"....heh?" Kent blinked.

Someone suddenly cleared their throat, and Kent's gaze slowly raised up from its pointed down position.
What he expected was the overgrown forest he had just snuck through, or maybe the forms of his Emerald scarf buddies.
What he got was the realization that he was completed surrounded by armoured plague doctor security guards, the entirety of the harvesting expedition staring at the man who thought he had lept out in a different direction than he actually did.

"Sooooo..." One of the guards then piped up. "What was that about 'you and the dudes' laddie?"

Kent's mouth went agape.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

By the way, there was another big issue in regards to Kent's usefulness. He was one of the "Weakbod Scarves" as Shiny had been nicknaming them, members of the Emerald Scarves that weren't quite as comfy with the gang's newfound gimmick as the rest of their more daring kin were.
Which meant that when Dr. Talos asked him if he wanted the gift of a tamed and controllable mutation, a chance to meld mind and body into his true inner beast, the opportunity to make his greatest, deepest, darkest, and most carnal desires a flesh and blood reality, when a revolutionary, versatile, absolutely wonderful werebeast powerset unknown to literally every other facet of mankind was practically handed to him on a silver platter by a smiling, adorable raven girl,

Kent. Declined.

He took one look at the ecstasy and euphoria of wild magic made into a useable weapon, and deadass said: "No thanks, I'll stay human."

So, this should go well.

"-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh......Would you believe me if I said I was just saying that to look more intimidating?"

"Not if you ask 'would you believe me?'." Replied the guard.

"....So you would if I didn't?"

"Seize him."

"FUCKIN'-NYEAGH!"

Springing into action, Kent immediately lunged and....hurled his handaxe. He didn't swing it like usually did, no, this time he thought it was a good idea to throw it. At what? Well, from his position he could make out the shape of Dr. Draven Douglas sitting atop one of the crawler trucks, and recognizing him as probably the guy in charge, he figured that if he could quickly kill the guy, then surely they'd instantly shatter and scatter. Classic Kent move.

CLANG.....crreak-clink.

Of course, the handaxe didn't get anywhere near Draven, obviously. Instead, it clanged against the wing mirror and crumpled limply onto the ground, with the wing mirror suddenly falling off its attachment and landing on top of it soon after.

Watching the entire ordeal with great amusement and pity, all Draven did in response was slowly glance over and say: "Blimey...that's just sad."

"Ah fu-" Was all the ex butcher could say before an armoured fist fiercely swung into his-

"Lemme guess..." Mercutio inhaled and exhaled as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "....Kent?"

The Magpie timidly nodded his head, and in response Mercutio let out a strange mixture of an animalistic growl and the most exasperated sigh imaginable.

"He's the dumb one right?" Shiny piped up as even she could sense the frustration.

".....yes." Mercutio hissed.

Any progress to soothe Minerva's nervous worries was completely undone as the news danced across her ears, and in response she could only squeak out a petrified "HhHhHNNNAAAAGH-" as she stared down at how clearly the expedition was figuring out Kent's motives. Like Mercutio said, Minnie knew the Science Guild better than anyone in the entire gang, so she knew just how educated and quick-witted even the most basic goon of theirs was. They could unravel Mercutio's strategies rapidly if they tricked Kent well enough. Heck, judging from how they got to work restraining him, they might've already learned something they intended to use. Did they know about the rest of the Scarves? Did they know why the outlaws were here? Did they even know that most of the gang were mutants?! Oh gods above, one of the guards just glanced up in towards her hiding spot. Did they see her?! OH FUCK THEY SAW HER DIDN'T THEY?!

Mercutio meanwhile was juggling both panic and fury. There was no way to contact the ambush team fast enough without compromising their hiding spot, and he still didn't know enough about the Guild and their style to be willing to take that risk. But even just one guy's error sent them into alert mode right away. Already they were withdrawing the scouting gear and prepping for a suspected attack. The harvesters were grabbing the deadliest looking tools. The guards busied themselves with pinning Kent down and interrogating him. The crawler trucks shifted into more defensive positions to protect their cargo. And the supervisor, it was hard to make out from the hill and the coverings of his uniform, but Mercutio could tell from the body language that Douglas wasn't panicking, he wasn't even raising his voice that much. The beaked bastard knew exactly what he needed to and organized things elegantly. Fuck. These guys were competent, likely more so than Mercutio's own men. Kent was stubborn enough to buy time, but not much. Mercutio had to think, plan some way to fix this shit, and do so fast.

And Shiny....Well she wasn't feeling terribly stressed.
She had seen jobs get fucked up way worse than this, usually cause it was her fault, so instead of panic she felt a bit of kinship pity for that poor Kent guy down there. There probably was a way to fix this without breaking stealth, but to be honest, why bother? Those not-Docs knew there was danger now, so what was the point in trying to convince them otherwise? Hell, why put up the illusion in the first place? It's not like this is anything the Scarves couldn't handle, especially with their special super powers.
Habit, that's what it must be. Old strategic habit.
Poor Merky was so used to needing stealth and trickery to get by that brute forcing shit still seems like a bad idea to him, even with his bigger, sexy rat body.
Aw, and Doc's such a massive newbie to fights that she must be convinced that this tiny fuck up must be her judgement day, not a drop of her raven confidence present.

Well, good thing they brought the armoured idiot then eh?

BUH-BUMP

"Mmgh!" Shiny then grunted, hunching over and clenching her fists as she gazed out to the transpiring scene. Her bones crackled, and her flesh gurgled, as the wild magic in her body began to writhe and squirm inside her, starting to make her bubble.
Kent had blown their cover and was getting his ass kicked. As annoying as he was, someone had to help the guy out. So why delay the ambush any further when it's basically already started?

RIIIP, RII-II-IIIIP!

Shiny's mouth then curled into a giddy smile as she felt her gloves squeeze her hands tightly, before her fanged filled maw beamed even wider as she watched pearl white fur split the seams open, the gloves rupturing and bursting apart as huge, black-clawed, paw-like rabbit hands erupted from her snapping gauntlets.

Shiny tried it Merky's way, and might have to do it Doc's way soon. But right now, Shiny figured she'll do it her way. The fun way.

CRACK-CRUNKLE-GUUURRRGLE-BLUBBLUBBLUB.

"hhhGGhh...a-a-a-aaaaaaAAACcckk!"

The progressively lapin lass' grin then swivelled down as her currently crouched legs began to bloat and throb with bubbling sinew. She was focusing almost all of her wild magic power into the joints of her legs for this change, prepping for a entrance those not-Docs will never forget. Man she was glad she wasn't wearing socks today, cause her feet were pumping and pumping like mad as they pressed and shoved their soft, increasingly meaty flesh into the rapidly shrinking interiors of her boots, claws and fluffy white fur already sprouting across them. Icy blue eyes warped and glowed into fiery yellow, as the hair on her head paled and melted into the pearl white fur rapidly spreading across her body, stuffing her armour to the creaking brim as her skull started to painfully crack and crunch into a cute button snout, ears lengthening higher and higher.

RIIIP

"Shiny." Mercutio piped up.

RIP-RIP-RIIIP

"What are you doing?" He continued with a frown.

RIIIIII-IIII-IIIIP

Shiny could only pant and splutter as her body swelled and swelled, holes spreading across the inner cloth of her armour as her right side skirt burst off with a 'POP-POP-CRACK-TWANG'.

"Wh-wh-waaa-what d-d-doOOEs it lo-ok li-i-iiike MerkeeeEEE-E-E-E?" The rabbit's drooling maw strained to string two words together from the agony. "C-c-c-cover's b-blown ain't iiiIIIIIiit?"

RIIIIP-RIPRIPRIPRIIIIP

"Why, are you transforming?" Mercutio responded with a fold of his arms.

RRIIIIIP

Shiny giggled and shuddered with excitement and glee.

RIPRIPRIRPRIPRIPRIPRIP

"Ha-AAAVE- the-the-the-uh- g-guys go b-b-be-EAST- mode too." She grinned and snarled as the seat of her trousers strained, creaked, bloated and bloated, and then burst open against her fluffy rabbit tail. "I-I-I-I-I-I'll go c-co-cover k-k-ke-KEe-eeeEEE-nt's assssSS!"

RIIIIIP-RIIIIIP-RRIIIII-

"Uuuuugh..." Mercutio sighed as he face palmed. "....Please just don't do anything stu-"

As he was trying his best to boss the swelling bunny beast around Shiny simply glanced up to the sky and wiggled her little tail, shifting her aim ever so slightly before her legs sprung open, slammed down hard, and launched her massive, still growing form right into the air like an empire artillery shell, bits and scraps of her armour tumbling to the ground in her wake.

".....-pid..." Mercutio sighed again.

The wind blew fiercely in the air. The Engrievion breeze wasn't as ice cold in the day as it was at night, but up this high it was still rather chilly. Good. That'll make the bursting all the better.

BLUB-BLUB-BLUBBLUBBLUUUB-

RRIIIIIIP

POP-POP

SNAP-SNAP-PAP

TWANG

CRACK-CRUNCH

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!

Shiny's body practically exploded with mass, engorging itself bigger and bigger and bigger as her violent growth spurt wrenched her attire to pieces.
Her arms inflated to double their previous size, her shoulder armour loudly straining and snapping off her back.
Her elbow and knee pads snapped against her joints with pops.
Her remaining side skirt burst off with a clang.
Inner cloth stretched, tore, and ripped into pieces against dolloping musculature.
Oh, and of course, who could forget the boots?

The boots that pinched, strained, creeeaked and squeezed, squeezed, squeezed. Shiny's pumping cuddly feet were swelling like balloons in her shoes, her giddy smile as wide as it can be as she watched herself become more and more monstrous, moving her feet up to watch them grow, and grow, and grow, until with a satisfying:

crack-crack-rrrrrriiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-BMMMMPH

Her hulking toes burst free from the fronts, spraying frayed scraps of leather as they wiggled and flexed in relief. With a grit tooth chuckle, Shiny shuddered and kicked her legs back out as her meaty paws swelled even meatier, buttery-smooth pads ballooning out so thick that her boots popped, twanged, and burst further, bubbling, pumping growth ripping and wrenching them into pieces until there was nothing but strips and strings dangling from her split shin-guards, her freed bare feet crackling and bulging into beautiful monstrosities, as the squirming murderbunny swelled bigger, and bigger, and bigger....

CLANG

"ACK-YOU FUCKWAD!" Kent spluttered and yelled as his back collided with the hull of a crawler truck. One of the security guards had seen it fit to literally toss the outlaw around as a means to loosen his tongue, punting and flinging him into various conveniently placed things to smack into, as his interrogators were casually asking their questions between each toss. It wasn't exactly....working, but it was rather humorous nonetheless.

"Save your breath O' wretched peasant." That very guard tutted as he stepped forward towards his captive with intent to throw him again. "Save it, and then spend it not on cursing, but on talking. Who have come with? How many? What is your plan of action?"

"Oh just three dudes." Kent coughed. "You might know 'em actually, their names are 'Kiz', 'Mie' and I thiiiink...oh, 'ASS'."

"You are atrocious at wordplay." The guard scoffed in response.

"I'LL ATROCIOUS YOUR WORDPLAY FUCKER!" Kent shouted back.

The guard simply shook his head and tutted again. "I'll have you know outlaw, we are playing nice. Your level of incompetence is soothing any nerves we have of your capability, yet your uncivilized spitting is starting to hamper our patience." His hand then slowly reached for the weapon holstered at his hip. "Keep it up, and we will have to increase the brutality of our interrogation methods. Up to you outlaw, would you prefer to end these silly shenanigans whilst you still have your wellbeing intact? Or are you stubborn enough to risk our far more...dubious...metho- Wh-" The guard then suddenly paused, and glanced around himself. "D-...Does anyone hear this weird, ominous whistling noise? Y'know like the kind that proceeds the landing of some incredibly large and heavy object falling at an immense speed and velOH GREAT HEAVENS-"

CRUNCH-CLANG!

"Pppthp-ppffff-PLAH!" Kent spluttered and spat as dust, dirt, and chunks of plants splattered all over him, as something very, very large collided with his overly verbose interrogator.

The rest of the expedition were of course as equally flabbergasted, even Draven's apathetic calm was quickly wrenched into alert tension, as every pair of eyes within the meadow were now locked onto the giant, pearl-white mass slowly unfurling itself from the cloud of dust its landing kicked up. The man caught underneath was, obviously, no longer a man, but instead a puddle of twisted metal and mushy gore that squelched and crunched under the steps of immensely hulking paws, paws that lifted themselves off their victim and stomped onto the lush grassy soil, their monstrous owner soon rising to her full, engorged size.

Remember to actually hide her sapience this time, Shiny let a menacing growl rumble through her chest, up her throat, and out from her slowly opening maw as drool dripped from her huge fangs, before she hunched herself back down slightly so she could appear more savage and bestial. It was rather fun, pretending to be an almost mindless animal, watching and sensing the panic and confusion rifling through the crowd of not-Docs as they realized the presence of a dangerous monster, no wonder the rest of the Scarves were keen to wear the façade too. Although it was quite disappointing seeing how quickly the plague doctors managed to compose themselves again, the fear was still there, yet the educated logic won over the primal terror much faster than most outlaw gangs she'd seen before, including Merky's own. Still though, roaring and snapping like a rabid beast ought to give these nerds a bit of a bigger scare, and she'd be more than happy to give that a try.

The expedition meanwhile were staring wide-eyed at the scene before them. A bloody hunter-class therianthrope, female Oryctolagus cuniculus to be specific, just appeared out of nowhere and pulverised security guard Terry. The bugger was quite an odd specimen to boot. Not only did it seem to retain its human sassiness, as it was now smiling at them through some warped pleasure, but this specimen in particular appeared to be much larger than her common kin, probably a result of being rather well fed.
Well fed?
Oh cock, the outlaw's mood was changing, from spite to pride, and the beast was subtly shifting her position to block their view of him. Was this what the outlaw refused to divulge? That they had somehow managed to capture and tame a mutant hunter and use it for their own benefit? Why those fetid scumlords...

Capturing and experimenting on wild animals was THE GUILD'S thing!

"Hhhhheeeee-HAH!" Kent wheezed and cackled. "Oh you guys are screwed now!"

Not discouraged by the criminal's words, two guards suddenly sprinted fourth in front of their comrades and slammed down immense iron shields between themselves and the rabbit beast. They were not one of the standard security present here, but rather members of the Science guild's 'Elite Security', heavier duty knight-like soldiers usually armed with greatshields and sharp, drill-like lances.

"Hark mine brothers and sisters! Suffer not the crook's musings!" One of the knights called out, pointing his lance to the lapin monster. "Thy thickset foe is nary more than urge-driven savagery! Useth thine education and wit, and together, we shalt dispatch the both of them with valiant ease!"

"Why the fuck are you talking like that?" The second knight said as he glanced to his co-worker in bewilderment.

"FOCUS IN SILENCE KNAVE!" The first knight spat.

"Oi, the wanka's wearin' me'al bruvs." One of the standard security guards suddenly piped up, pointing towards the gleaming breastplate across the mutant's chest. "Gimmie a sec, I can ge' it no problem."

And before any of his buddies could protest, the overconfident guard suddenly charged fourth towards the grinning Shiny. Shiny of course didn't worry, she was twice the guy, not like he could do anything substantial. Hell, Shiny had to stop herself from bursting into laughter as she noticed what the guy was unholstering from his belt.
A stick.
The dude was pulling out a stick. Not a mace or a club, not even a baton, a fancy cane-like stick with a little fancier thing at the top. Kinda looked like the little stick Doc had mounted on her bedroom wall back at her tower, saying it was a "ceremonial model". Pfft, this dude was charging at a giant humanoid rabbit monster with a fucking decoration piece?! Aw, aw that's sad. Ooo look, the tip was even starting to spin a bit, opening up and glowing with little sparks, like a frickin' toy. Aren't these guys supposed to be smart? Doc's smart, and she used to work for them, so clearly there must be something amiss here because honestly this is really stu-

BZZZT

OW OW OW OW FUCK OW-

"AAAAOOOOOWA!!" Shiny screamed and cried as a powerful, painful current of pale white lightning flashed across her armour and danced through her veins, singeing her fur, jolting her skin, and sending wave after wave of stinging, searing pain across her entire nervous system, sending her writhing and stumbling back as anger and confusion overrode her focus. "DUDE WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH-...you...."

The guard was frozen in place. Shiny couldn't see his eyes, but knew full well that they were wide open. He...he heard that didn't he? The words? The evidence that she was not a normal mutant?

"Y-....you..."

He did.

"Uh ohhh." Kent suddenly grimaced. Oh, he heard it too? From all the way over there?

"Forsoothe..." The fancy elite guard breathed, he and the rest of the guards choking and gasping in shock. Ah....they also heard it.

Clang-clunk-dingdingle-clank

The harvesters were still and unmoving, so stunned that the tools fell from their hands and loudly clattered on the ground. Oh good, they heard it too.

Mercutio hissed and palmed his face so hard it left a bruise, while Minerva shrank and shrivelled with a squealing "NnnoOooOoOOoooo..."

Even Draven, the highest ranking goon here, he stood to his full height and spluttered out a flabbergasted. "What the devil?"

It was about as clear as the daylight sky. Shiny just blew the Scarves' cover. Again. All because she didn't expect them to be carrying magic taser wands, which she might've known about beforehand had Minerva managed to finish her sentence before the magpie scout showed up.

Whoops.

"Uh...I-..." Shiny stuttered, her ears flattening against her head. "I mean.....'squeak'?"

The taser guard simply blinked, and blinked again.

".....U FACKIN' WOOOOO-"

---

So, with Minerva and Mercutio done up in Agonwolfe's style, I figured it was time to let him have a go at my good old armoured idiot Shiny. I think I probably could've asked for her feet to be bigger but eh, she's basically fully transformed in this picture so it's no biggie. Frankly, I think it's actually the hands that are my favourite bit of this one, they look so massive and fist-like like I always wanted them to look, and it's perfect

Also, say hello to the first proper introduction to the Science Guild, Minerva's old college grounds.
Long story short, y'all are gonna hate these guys.

But for now, bask in the butter-smooth deathbnnuy paws. And Hands. And face. And whatever else you're into I don't fuckin' know.

Artwork by  AgonWolfe

................

......."Hey are you picking flowers all by yourself?"

NO! I'M WITH THE SCIENCE TEAM!

AEUUGH-