Caution with venom

Cracking his knuckles, Leroy washed his hands and started to prepare his surroundings. He was one of the few people that actually came to the laboratory early, preparing the area for the other researchers and scientists to work within. It had to be perfectly clean, each bench wiped spotless and sterilised along with all the equipment... So he should get started, then.


Getting the sanitiser ready he got to work, beginning to remove any contaniments from the benches, including gross stains and the like. He was a scientist himself, of course... Just a junior one. He tended to only assist in experiments and research, or worked with the smaller, younger team on lesser projects. Right now the teams were working on seeing if they could create a more potent antidote, attempting to find the perfect formula so it could be mass produced and assist in the extreme cases of bad poisoning, so the shelves were stocked with many forms of poisons and venoms from plantlife and Pokemon alike.


As his cleaning efforts brought him closer to the closed cupboards and shelves, his foot stepped in something wet and slightly sticky... Confusion crossed his brow as he looked down, seeing a small pool of a slightly foul smelling fluid spreading slowly on the floor. His eyes went wide with with slight realization, following the trail of the pool up to the cupboard... Reaching forward and slowly pulling it open.


He wrinkled up his nose as he looked up and down the shelves, seeing the viscous liquid drip down the shelves, making a huge mess in the shelves. Eyes following to the source, he saw a fallen, destroyed jar of Arbok venom, resting a couple of shelves down from where it was meant to be. He sighed deeply. Someone wasn't careful putting it back and now... He had a huge mess to clean up.


His annoyance led to haste, reaching forward as dripping venom leaked onto his exposed hands, something he ignored as he slowly cradled the broken jar and the biggest pieces he could grab, more of the sticky fluid coating his hands as he brought the broken pieces to the bin, disposing of the material quickly. He needed the big, safer stuff to deal with this though. But first, to thoroughly wash his hands.


Turning on the cool tap water via the basin in the corner of his room, he started to rinse off all the venom, hoping it wasn't too potent... but a slight stinging was felt as the water washed over his palms, prompting him to look. Bringing his hand to his face, he saw a small, slight cut, leaking a bit of blood. In any other situation, this would be alright... But as his heart sank as realisation hit him. He had been working with venom and it was all over his hands.


Turning and exiting the room with haste, he started to run down the hallway in a hurry, his small wound starting to throb as it was aware the venom had gotten into his bloodstream. Trying to keep his heartbeat down, trying to keep himself calm, he kept moving... He just needed to get to the supply of anti-venom. He'll be alright, right?


But the concentration was far more potent than he thought, his head starting to hurt and his fingers and feet starting to feel numb... Enough to the point where he had to struggle to pull himself along. It was almost like he was losing control of his limbs... And his guess was right. Mere steps before the door Leroy collapsed, yelling out as he hit the floor. Forcing himself to try to get up, his efforts were in vain as he could no longer feel his lower legs. But something else caught his eye.


Upon his hand, surrounding the wound were small, coalescing scales, tinted purple as they weaved into his skin, almost taking it over. His eyes went wide as the sudden panic spurred him to try to drag himself, yet something else was wrong. His hands seemed... simpler, somehow, his fingers smaller and feebler, fingerprints disappearing as it just seemed more... condensed. Almost like it was slowly becoming a stub.


The scales continued to spread at an alarming rate as the venom circulated in his body, helped on by his panic as he still tried to crawl forward... shoes and socks slipping off as his feet merely didn't exist anymore, replaced by ever shrinking stubs, arms and legs progressively smaller... As something began to writhe at the base of his spine. A tail, snaking out of his pants started to grow, coated in the same purple scales, segmented... as it continued to lengthen, while his limbs continued to shrivel away.


Gasping out he found that words failed him, his tongue lolling out of his mouth... a long, thin, forked tongue that could taste the air, clumps of hair starting to fall out around him. His skull began to pull forward, his nostrils stretching apart... as the last nubs of his limbs disappeared, leaving a growing snake-like body. His mind whirled in confusion and fear as the venom briefly clouded his mind, numbing his body as something else began to develop.


His torso, covered in scales and the same thickness as the rest of his long tail started to flatten, pressing tightly against the sides of his shirt before it inevitably burst at the seams, a long, flat disc of scales, with a menacing looking pattern that seemed to make a face appear on his upper body... if you could call it that now.


As his eyes thinned and moved to either sides of his head, sharp needles of teeth lining his large maw, his body finally seized being stretched, finally resting at a massive length as it twitch and coiled without his knowledge, trying to recover from the metamorphosis, allowing the venom to sink into his system as he sat up slowly, looking at his lengthy body, sensations of the cool ground against his new body flooding him system. It was a bit too much for him, his tongue flicking in and out almost as absent-mindedly as breathing.


The sound of a door opening at the very end of the hallway was heard, his head flicking in the direction of the door as one of his workmates absent-mindedly stepped in to put on his coat, strolling down and checking his phone before glancing up to see the large snake before him. There was an awkward silence... Before he turned around and ran in the other direction, screaming.


Leroy blinked, only watching him flee before shaking his serpentine head. What was he going to do...?