The door slammed as Galley and her mother Akia walked into the living room.

"Honey it will be ok, don't cry!"

"ARE YOU JOKING?" Galley managed to scream through her hands and tears.

"I AM NOT GOING TO SCHOOL LIKE THIS TOMORROW!"

"Sweetie, you have to go to school... it will be ok."

Galley started sobbing again. "I'm never going to the Lab Ray ever again... never, never, never!"

Chandler, a shadow Gelert, walked in the living room, and Galley quickly threw a blanket over herself.

"Dude what's up with all the yellin'? I just got to the fifth level on Neoquest, and then... um what's with the thing under the blanket?

Akia whispered something to Chandler, and his grin grew bigger and bigger. "DUDE! I HAVE TO SEE THIS!"

"NO!" Akia yelled as she got between Galley and Chandler.

"You are her brother and you are not going to treat her like a freak show!"

"I'm not gonna make fun of her! I just want to see her... to um... comfort her."

"Chandler, NO! You just go to your room!"

"I didn't do anything! You can't just send me to my room.... isn't that like illegal?"

"NO IT'S NOT! Just go... please..."

"Fine! I'm going, I'm going!"

As Chandler walked up the stairs, Galley started to think about how nice her life was before Akia hade the marvelous idea that she wanted to start taking her to the Lab Ray... I used to be a beautiful green Shoyru, and now I'm... THIS! she thought to herself, but then her thoughts were interrupted when Akia asked softly if she wanted anything to eat.

"No, I don't feel like eating right now."

Still under the blanket, Galley started to think again. "No one understands how hard it is to be the stupid little lab rat..."

"Galley?" croaked a gentle voice from outside the blanket.

The former Shoyru recognized it instantly.

"Go away, Darwin!" Galley snapped at her big Lupe brother. "I don't feel like talking right now."

"Chandler told me what happened, and I'm real sorry," the Lupe said, persisting.

Stupid Chandler, Galley thought. If I ever move out from under this blanket, I'll make sure that the heads mysteriously go missing from his NeoQuest dolls.

"You know, Galley, it isn't the worst thing in the world being a--"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Galley screamed. "I don't want to hear it!"

"Don't want to hear what?"

"You know very well what! You know I don't want to ever hear the words Mutant Moehog... oops!" Galley squeaked, while placing her hands over her mouth. She could almost picture her brother's sly smile.

"See? Saying it wasn't that bad," Darwin whispered gently. "Now, you have to get out from under that blanket!" The Lupe grabbed the blanket and pulled with all his might, as he tried to remove it from the pathetic Moehog.

"NOOO!" Galley screamed as she tried to hold onto it, but finally the blanket gave way. Lo and behold, there she now stood, a very pitiful looking Mutant Moehog.

"WOAH--I mean... it looks really nice on you, Galley!" Darwin lied.

There was a sudden flash from above.

"A wonderful picture, if I do say so myself!" sneered Chandler from up the stairs. "I'll have to show this to EVERYBODY at school!"

"Chandler, NO!" Galley screamed helplessly. She tried to chase after him, but her new self made it much too hard. How could she possibly get around without her beautiful wings?

She finally stopped, then began to cry again.

"Oh, what am I going to do? I can't possibly live like this!" she sobbed.

"I suppose that's true. But I know how to help you," Darwin concluded.

Galley's ears perked up (which was a very unique sensation, since she had never had ears before). "H-how?"

"With this..."

...With a flourish, Darwin produced a bottle. It was filled with a beautiful, translucent green liquid, and the neck of the bottle was decorated with a pair of green wings. Galley gaped, then remembered her snaggly tusks and shut her mouth quickly. "Darwin!" she exclaimed. "Is it really...?"

"Yes," he said proudly. "It's a Shoyru morphing potion. I ran out and got one for you as soon as Chandler told me."

"But..." Galley said, wrinkling her brow. "But Darwin, Kauvara's potions are so expensive! How could you afford one on such short notice?"

Darwin winked. "You underestimate your big brother, sis. I have connections, see, and I can get stuff cheaper. I didn't get this from Kauvara; I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it from a Kougra, who was learning magic from an earth faerie. So it's got to be good, right?"

Galley wasn't sure she quite followed that, but she nodded. Anything was better than being a mutant Moehog, and if she could be a green Shoyru, and able to fly about light as a bird again, well--she was willing to try just about anything. She took the bottle from Darwin, then gratefully said, "I owe you one, bro," before drinking it down quickly.

It tasted funny, sort of like wind, pine sap, and mud all mixed together, and it left a funny feeling on her tongue. She put down the bottle and wiped her mouth with her hoof. The tingly feeling spread up through her mouth to her muzzle, all the way to the tips of her ears, then down through her pudgy, disgusting mutant body. She was soon tingling from the tips of her hooves to the roots of her mane.

As she watched, her dull olive-green skin began to shift to shimmering Shoyru green, and she felt wings growing out of her back as her tusks shrank. "I-i-i-t'ssss wooooorrr-k-k-k-innnnng-g-g," she stuttered to Darwin as her mouth changed shape. Within seconds, she was a green Shoyru again.

"I told you that you could rely on me!" Darwin said. Galley laughed and clapped her hands.

...As she did, however, Galley noticed something. Her mutant hooves had grown into beautiful Shoyru fingers, but now those fingers were still growing! She watched in horror as her fingers grew and grew, and her arms with them; her glossy green skin roughened again, this time turning into brown feathers, and her Shoyru muzzle extended into a Lenny beak. "Ooooh-h-h n-n-noooooo!" she stammered. "W-w-whaaaat's haaaap-p-pening?"

Darwin pranced around her, his expression terrified. "I don't know!" he said. "There must have been something wrong with the potion."

Within seconds, Galley had made the transition into a mutant Lenny; then, after only a few moments in that form, she began to shift again, this time to a red Skeith. Then again, into a yellow Jetsam; and again, into a Darigan Meerca. She couldn't seem to stop changing; her body went from one shape to another, faster than she could think.

She burst into noisy tears as her body began to change from Darigan Meerca into island Uni. "M-m-m-m," she said, as if to say "make it stop," but her changing mouth wouldn't cooperate. This is awful! she thought. I didn't know that anything could be worse than being a mutant Moehog, but this is! Galley,...

"Ouch, sis, let me go!" Darwin yelped in pain.

"What's all the racket about?" Chandler questioned while scrambling down the stairs. "WOAH! What happened here?"

"Stay out of this, Chandler," Darwin growled, still struggling from Galley's tight grip on his fur.

Darwin craned his neck around to glance at Galley again. She was now a plushie Cybunny, but was quickly changing into a Christmas Chia.

"Chandler, go to Kauvara's shop, and tell her we've had some problems with a morphing potion. HURRY!" Darwin shouted.

"Why can't you do it?" Chandler asked.

"JUST DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO!" Darwin screamed.

"Alright, alright." Chandler said as he walked to the door.

"Wait, you got some Neopoints?" Darwin asked. "Come here... is 6,000 Neopoints enough?

"Yup," Chandler said, prancing over and snatching the coins from Darwin's free paw.

As Chandler was notifying Kauvara about the transformation potion, and Akia was out earning Neopoints, Darwin was trying to soothe Galley.

"Relax, Galley," Darwin said. "Chandler will be back with the cure in no time." Darwin struggled out from under the grip that Galley had on his fur.

"Darwin, I've got the cure!" Chandler shouted, bursting into the house.

"Good, hand it over!" Darwin demanded.

Chandler searched through a brown paper bag, emptying the contents out.

"What else did you get?" Darwin asked.

"Oh... doughnuts, fudge, milkshakes, chocolate, lollipops," Chandler replied, giving Darwin a sheepish grin.

"Where is the cure?" Darwin demanded again.

"Well," Chandler responded, "After buying all this junk food, I could only get a weak healing potion."

"WHAT?!?" Darwin screamed. "It won't work, it's too weak... I'm sure of it!"

"It's worth a try," Chandler replied.

"Fine, but I doubt it will work," Darwin said.

Uncorking the bottle, Darwin held the potion over Galley's ever-changing mouth.

"What's going on?!" Darwin shouted.

"I don't know!" Chandler gasped, pointing at Galley...

...For a long moment, Darwin and Chandler simply stared at their sister, too stunned to speak. Galley, trembling, looked up at them.

"Thank goodness it's stopped..." she began, but the words trailed away when she caught sight of the aghast expressions on her brothers' faces. "What?" she asked.

"What the--?!" Darwin clamped his paw over Chandler's mouth before he could finish. He gulped nervously, slowly backing away from Galley.

"Well, Gall..." he stammered, "The good news is you're not changing shape anymore."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Galley said slowly. She began to look down to get an idea of what she may have turned into, but Darwin leapt forward and grabbed her head in his paws, to keep her from seeing, then laughed nervously.

"Chandler!" he barked. Momentarily unseen, the Gelert had begun to slink out of the room. He froze guiltily, looking over towards his siblings.

"Er... y-yeah? Need something, Dar?" he grinned shakily, backing towards the door.

"Do you have any Neopoints left?" Darwin asked, still keeping Galley from looking at her new form, no matter how much she struggled.

"Oh, I'm sure that I could figure something out..." Chandler stammered.

"How many, Chandler?"

"Uh... fifteen?" Chandler said, cowering as Darwin whirled to face him, inadvertantly releasing Galley for a moment.

"FIFTEEN?!?" Darwin howled, "How is that even POSSIBLE?! I gave you SIX THOUSAND!"

"Well..." Chandler was trembling in the face of Darwin's rage, "Chocolate is expensive nowadays, Dar..."

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Gelert and Lupe, Galley was slowly creeping towards her full-length mirror. In only a few seconds, she would see whatever horrible disaster had befallen her...

"Okay, okay," Darwin muttered, rubbing his temples with his paws. "You are going to go out and play games, do jobs, and spin wheels until you can afford--Galley, NO!!!"

Cutting himself off in mid-sentence, the Lupe made a valiant dash across the room in an attempt to tackle Galley and keep her from seeing herself. Galley, however, had anticipated such an action and nimbly leapt out of his grasp, landing squarely in front of the mirror. Her gaze met that of her mirrored self, and her eyes widened.

She was a Shoyru again. However, no part of her body seemed to match any of the others! One leg seemed to be made of snow, and the other plush! Her fur was a bizarre combination of stripes, spots, speckles and stars. Her tail was metal, and her wings checkered. The worst by far was her head, which seemed to be mutant, except for one horrendous eye that appeared to be that of a baby Shoyru. For the first time in her life, Galley would have been thrilled to be a mutant Moehog again.

Slowly she turned towards her brothers, who were watching her nervously from the farthest corner of the room.

Her mismatched eyes narrowed...

Darwin gulped, staring at his sister with eyes that had gone as wide as platters. "Y-y-yes... we are..."

Galley stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to do something. He then jumped, turning toward Chandler and swatting the shadow Gelert in the head. "What are you waiting for?! Go make some neopoints like I told you!!!"

Chandler stood there for a moment, his legs shaking and mouth agape, but another whap from Darwin caused him to snap his jaw shut, and his eyes now seemed to focus on his brother.

"O-o-o-ok..." he stammered, then fled from the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he retreated.

Galley turned back toward her reflection, her metal tail swinging back and forth violently. "I wish I was a mutant Moehog..." she moaned

Darwin tentatively moved toward his sister. "It'll be ok, Galley. We'll fix you. I mean, you're practically better already!"

Galley's deformed gaze turned toward her brother. "I... I... I mean, at least you're a Shoyru now... umm..." he said, his voice trailing off.

"THIS is not better!!!" she screamed, her tail swinging into a lamp and throwing it to the floor. Galley cringed as she heard the lamp break, causing her anger to flare and eyes to fill with momentary hatred. "Why does everyone have to experiment on ME?!? I can't even move without breaking something now!!!" A tear slid from the ridiculously large baby Shoyru eye and she sniffed, drawing a hand across her cheeks as a flood of tears escaped her.

"Oh Galley, please don't cry." Darwin's voice was soft and soothing, but Galley pushed him away as he laid a paw on her mutated shoulder.

"I'll never be normal again." she sobbed.

"No... that's not true. Chandler will come back with something to help you." Galley sniffed again, her tear-filled eyes rolling up to look at her brother.

"I hope so, Darwin." she said softly, "I don't want to be like this forever..."

Sad to see his sister in such a state, the Lupe desperately tried to think of something that could cheer her up...

...Twenty minutes later, Darwin was standing in front of his sister, looking absolutely ridiculous. He was wearing two large polka-dotted oven mitts on his ears, and had a bath-towel wrapped around his waist. He was wearing large hiking boots, and and had tied a bunch of spoons and forks on his tail with twine. To top it all off, he was decked from head to toe with silver tinsel.

"There." he said. "Happy? I look way worse than you now."

"What about the other part of the deal?" she asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Fine." Darwin walked to a shelf and grabbed the video camera they had bought during their last visit to the Space Station. "I'll be back shortly." he said, then walked out the door.

"Now I've gotta see this!" Galley said, as Darwin returned to their Neohome. He popped the video tape in and settled back onto the couch.

Galley laughed with amusement as she watched her big brother walk around Neopia Central, looking like a weirdo. He went up to random people and, holding the video camera, said to them, "Hi! Beware the Meepits!" The deranged Shoyru watched their confused faces as they tried to determine what to say or do.

At that moment, the door opened, and in came Chandler. He immediately dropped the bag of Neopoints he was carrying and ran over to the T.V. "Now this, I've gotta see!"

"No!" Darwin yelled, running over to the television and turning it off, still in his odd outfit.

"What was that all about?" asked Chandler, laughing hysterically.

"Nothing. It was... a project for school." Darwin said, pulling off the tinsel.

"Suuuure." Chandler said, trying to suppress a laugh. It came out as an odd cross between a cough and a sneeze.

"How much did you earn?" Darwin asked, changing the subject.

"4,000 Neopoints."

"Good. Now let's go to Kauvara's shop!" said the Lupe. "Come on, Galley. You need to come, too, so Kauvara can see your condition and find the right potion."

"No way!" Galley said, standing up defensively.

"Yes, way. You have to come, or you'll never change back to a normal Shoyru again!" Darwin said.

"Fine..."

"What?!? I am NOT going out in public dressed like that!" Chandler protested.

Galley's face began to turn red with anger...

"I can't believe I am actually dressed like this!" Chandler whined.

"Stop whining... besides, we all look like this, so who really cares?" Darwin told his brother as they made their way through the large crowds of people.

They eventually arrived at Kauvara's shop and entered. The tiny bell at the top of the door gave a little ding, and from behind a curtain (which most likely led to the back storage) emerged the beautiful starry Kau.

"Oh dear! What happened to you all?!?" she gasped.

"Actually Kauvara, it's only my sister here who needs help getting back to normal. My brother and I dressed up like this, so that Galley would feel better walking in public." Darwin explained.

"You're a very nice brother!" Kauvara complemented, "But we must help your sister right away! Come with me."

The Kau led her three guests into the back of the store, then told Galley to sit herself down on a chair. She then asked Darwin and Chandler to grab her various potions, bottles, and books.

Once all her equipment was ready, she began to follow a recipe in a book, pouring in many different liquids and powders.

"Um, Kauvara." Darwin began, "How much will this cost us?" he asked.

"Oh, don't worry about money dear! You don't need to pay me. I earn more than I need by selling my stock, so I'm very well off."

"Thank you!" Darwin exclaimed.

"Now, I must finish this potion." she told them.

The two boys sat quietly near their sister, who was quivering with fear. Thoughts raced through her head--Will the potion work? Will I turn back to normal? What if I turn into a mutant?!

"The potion is complete!" Kauvara praised. "Now, drink all of this, Galley. It actually tastes very nice."

Kauvara handed the mismatched Shoyru a small glass, which contained the unusual potion. She took a deep breath, then gulped down the entire drink...

...As the cold liquid slid down her throat, Galley felt like everything in her body was slowly turning to ice. She began to shiver uncontrollably, dropping the bottle which had previously contained the potion to the floor, sending shattered glass everywhere.

"Galley?" Darwin asked nervously.

At the same moment, Chandler turned to Kauvara and demanded, "Is she all right?!"

"Just give it a moment," Kauvara said, calmly beginning to sweep up the shattered remnants of the potion bottle.

Galley's teeth were chattering loudly, and the room was swimming in and out of focus, causing her to feel dizzy. She squeezed her eyes shut.

All of Her flesh felt as though it were crawling about on her bones, rearranging itself to take on a new form. For a moment, the sensation of tingling skin, coupled with the drastic drop in body temperature, made Galley think she might pass out.

Then, without any warning, it stopped. She heard Kauvara's soothing voice at her side. "How do you feel, dear?"

"C-C-C-Cold!" Galley stammered, shivering so violently that she could barely speak.

"That should go away in a moment," Kauvara said, "Don't worry."

Sure enough, her frozen limbs seemed to be thawing out, slowly becoming flexible again as the warmth returned. Shakily, Galley opened her eyes.

Chandler and Darwin were staring at her, mouths agape.

Dread settled heavily in her stomach. She remembered too well the last time they had looked at her like that: right after the failed morphing potion had horribly warped her appearance.

"Galley," Darwin said, sounding shocked. "You're..."

Kauvara shushed him. "Let her see for herself," she said with a smile, gently leading Galley towards the mirror with a comforting hoof, "There you are, dear. Take a look..."

With her stomach twisting into knots of fear, Galley tentatively raised her eyes to look at her reflection, and let out an involuntary gasp of surprise at what she saw.

She was a Shoyru again, but no ordinary Shoyru. Her skin was a lovely shade of lilac, and her wings spread wide, with intricate blue webbing. She had become a faerie Shoyru!

"I-I'm..." she stammered, looking at Kauvara with tear-filled eyes, "I'm beautiful!"

"I didn't even know you made faerie Shoyru potions," Chandler said, still amazed by Galley's new appearance.

"Oh, it's just something I've been toying around with. Nothing official yet," Kauvara grinned, winking at Galley good-naturedly. "Now, you three ought to be getting home. Your mother will be wondering where you've got to."

As the three siblings walked home, Chandler laughed as he brought up the fact that he STILL had a picture of her as a mutant Moehog to take to school tomorrow.

Darwin turned to Galley. "You know, now that you're faerie colored, I doubt mom would lab you..." he grinned.

Catching on, Galley winked at her Lupe brother. "And "You know, she DID comment yesterday that she wished Chandler was more... colorful."

Chandler's eyes went wide. "Um, but you guys would of course never let mom lab me... not my two, wonderful siblings... right? Right?" His voice had taken on a hint of panic.

"Oh, don't worry, it'll be fun! Anything can happen at the lab!" Darwin said, grinning.

"Yeah," Galley added. "Who knows? Maybe next week, you'll be my sister!"

The End