-- Vivian POV, Medtech Facility --

  The medtech facility had a track and field area too and it had quickly become her favorite playground once she stood better on her new feet.

  She had just finished a lap in full sprint and stood bent over forward with her hands on her knees, trying to catch breath.

  Runners high.

  She had heard of it, but never experienced it. And now she was floating on cloud nine. This body had a crazy reward system for physical activity. She just had run the quarter mile the fourth time this day. Running had become her favorite activity. Running and jumping actually.

  Jumping didn't come with something like a runner high, it just felt fun all by itself. Her new body was faster, so it felt like actually being airborne for a while, almost like flying in slow motion to her senses. It certainly helped that fact that she could both jump higher and farther than before. And her new agility allowed air acrobatics as well as to land in about any pose she desired. For some strange reason she quite often didn't feel compelled to even try and land on her feet, but just come down, roll over and bounce up again, either for a new jump or to use the momentum for a quick sprint.

  Sprints! Her sprints were phenomenal. At least as long as the ground offered enough traction for her claws. If she slipped she just face planted. Polished stone floor was mean stuff. Metal floor too. But on grassy soil, asphalt or rough concrete, she bolted like no one.

  She got into a light jog on the track around the field. It seemed her legs would be good enough for another quarter mile in a little while. Another benefit of this body, she recovered quite quickly. On the other hand, she ate an almost crazy amount of meat every day. Such a powerful body sure came with a price.

  But at the moment life felt good. And in a little while she'd run the quarter mile once more to make it feel even better. It was her last day in the medtech facility and she wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. Tomorrow morning her new life with Tom would start for real. One more meal to eat, one more night to sleep.

  But first, another lap to run.

  -- Vivian POV, New Fairhagen --

  Tom had fetched her early in the morning and now she could see the city for the first time, which was her new home town, New Fairhagen.

  Tom was steering the hovercar by himself, even if he could easily set it on autopilot. Outside, the sky was overcast, which meant that she didn't need her sunglasses and could watch the city all naturally while their car weaved through the traffic.

  New Fairhagen was less dystopian than she had expected with a stagnant population. At least this part of the city was well maintained, a mix of towering skyscrapers with shorter buildings to give sunlight a chance to reach deeper in between. Actually it was a quite nice city, the only thing she found lacking were parks and other greens. A lot of glass, metal and concrete.

  Despite the relief of seeing her new hometown to be a fairly nice place, she felt nervous. They were heading to the central police station. Apparently she needed a weapon permit for herself, because she could bite and scratch. Dr. Meyer had warned her about the test, Thomas had reassured her plenty of times that is was just a formality, and she sure hoped that was all that there was to it.

  She still had not made up her mind when Tom stopped the hovercar, "We're there Vivian. In just a little while you'll be registered and a full citizen once more."

  She tried to smile at him, got out of the car and followed him inside the police station. She had bad memories of such places from her former life, but that was past now. Tom made his way to a counter and she followed him there.

  "Hello officer, I'm here to get my companion registered. She received a new body and needs a new ID", he explained the situation.

  She looked around while Tom and the officer talked about some details, then she felt addressed.

  "Vivian is the name right?" The police officer looked at her and she nodded, "Yes. I guess you have my old registration?"

  The officer nodded, "Yes, I've got it right here. You are now in a companion contract with Thomas Morgan?"

  She nodded in response, "Yes, that is correct. Tom bought this body for me."

  "Right", the officer touched the screen a few times, "Your body has natural weapons, so we'll have to check those."

  He looked at Tom, "Mr. Morgan please take seat and wait. We must test Vivian alone."

  Then she was addressed again, "Vivian, please follow me to the lab. Don't worry, it won't hurt and it won't take long".

  Thomas nodded, "Alright" and went to one of the waiting chairs along the wall while she followed the officer to door that led into a room that looked a bit like a medical facility to her.

  The officer pointed to a daybed, "Sit down there, Vivian. I'll bring the bite strength meter."

  "I will", she confirmed, hopped onto the daybed and watched how he picked something round from a shelf, disinfected it, wrapped the thing with what looked like a soft, foamy layer, and disinfected the whole thing once more. The smell of the disinfectant tickled her nose and she had to sneeze.

  "Sensitive nose, huh?" The man asked while he brought the thing to her. It smelled even more repulsive to her now, "Yeah. Went through sensory training, but it's still difficult to deal with all of it."

  He nodded and offered the round and wrapped thing to her, "Take this, hold it with your fangs and bite down as hard as you can."

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  So that's why it was wrapped. Sort of a teeth protector. She put it between her fangs and looked at the man for confirmation if she had it right, "'ike 'is?"

  "Yes. Now bite as hard as you can", he confirmed.

  Her teeth went right through the soft layer but she tried to bite as hard as she dared without breaking her teeth, then tried to pull the thing out of her fangs again, and handed it to him, "As hard as I could."

  He washed it in a small sink, removed the wrapping, washed it again and then read something on it, probably a display. "That's impressive. You can sever a man's arm with a single bite."

  She nodded, "I eat meat. Bones are crunchy. The docs said I need the minerals."

  "Makes sense. If your nutrition includes bones, you need a bite like that", he replied while he typed something into a hand held device.

  "Next, cutting test." He produced a frame from a cabinet and spanned a sort of tissue over it before he returned to her with the thing, "Put that on your legs or against your body, then hook your claws in on top and try to cut or tear as far as you can. The tissue gets stronger the farther you cut. You'll get stuck somewhere in the middle, but try as hard as you can."

  She put the frame against her belly, held it with her left hand and used the claws of her right to cut towards her. She made it not even halfway. "Guess my bite is better?"

  He measured the length of the cuts, "Your bite is really strong, but this isn't bad either. You can cut anything up to light body armor, it seems."

  Not that bad, then.

  "Aaaaalright."

  Why did he pronounce the word this way?

  "Your claws aren't so much of a problem, but with your bite strength we need to do some additional tests", he informed her.

  "More bite tests?" She wondered.

  "No, a psychological evaluation how you react to stress and sensory input", he seemed as calm as before, but she certainly wasn't anymore. If she was bad at something it was this sort of thing.

  The visual and sound tests had been unpleasant but no problem. She could ignore flashing lights and irritating sounds quite well.

  "Now we need to test your reaction to surprising touch. Think you are stuck in a crowd of people and they randomly bump into you", he informed her.

  She already hated the idea just from imagining the situation.

  "Just stand in the middle of the room with your back to me. I'll touch you lightly at your back and sides. Tell me what you feel and think while we do that. If it gets too annoying tell me and I'll stop", he instructed.

  "Will do", she confirmed and positioned herself as requested and already felt her ears swivel and bend to pick up any sounds that he might make so she could get a little warning before he actually touched her.

  A touch at her left shoulder. She twitched but managed to resist the urge to retaliate. Nevertheless her tail was now flicking nervously left and right.

  "I hate this game", she let the officer know.

  "Just relax and stay calm", he replied.

  A touch to her right upper arm. She tensed and hissed quietly, tail flicking more violently.

  Then another touch at her left side! She shot around, hissed and slashed at the man with a hand full of claws.

  He jumped to safety, but to late. It was mere luck that she had missed the slash. "Relax, girl. I'm not gonna hurt you. Just want to find out what you feel and think if people touch you unexpectedly."

  She grimaced, "I can already tell that I hate to be touched without warning."

  "Let me get my safety gear. Then we try again."

  Now he was behind her again, with body armor, gloves and helmet.

  "Ready?" He asked, his voice a bit muffled by the helmet.

  "Ready", she confirmed.

  A touch to her upper back. She hissed and tensed up, pulled her chin towards her chest.

  A touch at her right side!

  She spun, ducked, jumped and shot towards him with full intention to bite his throat, but crashed her snout into his helmet instead.

  Now she sat with an ice bag to cool her bruised snout.

  "Vivian, you need to control yourself better", he let her know with a stern voice.

  "I know, officer", she nodded dutifully.

  "Good. One more try."

  She got into position again.

  "Ready?"

  "Ready."

  This time the touch came center back and before she could think, she felt herself kick backwards and upwards. She heard him groan and when she turned she saw him holding his crotch. Quickly, she took two steps to support him, "I'm sorry officer, I didn't mean to hurt you."

  "Yeah, it's ok, Vivian. Some are allergic to touch and need their personal space. But I must put it to the record that you are not safe for crowded spaces. Not with your bite, your claws and reactions like that."

  Shit. She was failing this badly.

  The smell test had been nothing but embarrassing. Resistance to food, which belonged to other people. What a sort of torture! She was supposed to sit there with a sausage on the next table. First she thought she had this one. Stupid sausage. She could ignore the stupid thing. Then thoughts came to her, sneaky bastards that they were. Wait for a moment when no one looks. Tell someone else had taken the sausage. Deny that there ever had been a sausage at all.

  Now the sausage was gone, she was hungry for more and she had scored another fat minus.

  Then, the smell of blood. They had to rip the test object out of her fangs and claws. She wanted nothing less than to eat the thing.

  Then the most embarrassing. Apparently a selection of herbs was know to drive felines crazy in various ways. The first two did nothing to her. The third though. She had never felt that horny before. In her mind she already was in the officers pants in reality at least at his shirt and it had taken two, maybe more, hard slaps to reset her mind. At least she could be slapped out of it.

  Then another herb that smelled just heavenly. She wanted to hold and sniff the test item forever. She still missed the thing.

  Now there were five big red markings in her record.

  She sat besides Tom and waited for her registration to be completed. They had taken DNA samples of her, fingerprints, her foot prints, and a dental impression. Great.

  The officer approached them again, "Mr. Morgan, Vivian, I'm afraid I have bad news for you. Vivian in her new body isn't safe for the public. She is dangerous and lacks self control. It is somewhat evident that this is due to the body, which you chose for her, but it still doesn't change the result. Vivian, you can't be unsupervised in public as long as you use this body. Mr. Morgan will be responsible for you. Shouldn't change much right now, because you two have a companion contract and he was already in charge, but for the time after the contract you'll have to find someone who either takes you in as companion or will act as your legal guardian."

  He then handed her something that reminded her terribly of a dog tag. She was certain it had a electronic transponder, but it was engraved as well. Her name, "Vivian", then "Sapient Animal" and "Guardian: Thomas Morgan"

  Shit. This was what Dr. Meyer had warned her about.

  "Vivian, you'll have to wear this tag visibly every time you leave the house. You're not allowed to walk alone, except to the closest police station to report a problem, like the loss of your caretaker. If you are found alone by the police, explain the situation why you are alone and follow their orders. You'll be brought to the next station, to be held and as soon as possible returned to your caretaker", she was instructed.

  She sighed a little hiss, "I understand, officer."

  Back in their hovercar she had to ask, "Tom, what does the scan show on my transponder?"

  He showed her the result:

  Name: Vivian

  Guardian: Thomas Morgan

  Class: Sapient Animal

  Warnings:

  - Lack of self control

  - Not safe in crowds

  - Keep away from food

  - Keep away from blood, catnip and valerian root

  Dangers:

  - Strong bite

  - Sharp claws

  - Powerful kicks

  Tom looked at her, "What scored you the powerful kicks? I thought they only test bite strength and claws?"

  "I kicked an officer by accident during the test and hit him in a very unfortunate spot", she slumped in her seat with drooping ears and a limp tail.