June 14, 2019: It's amazing how things have changed so much in the past 3 years, and it all started with one man's obsession.

Excerpts from the journal of the now deceased Benjamin Takahashi:

August 19, 2014. I've finally gotten the position of lead researcher for the biological enhancement team for DARPA! If only I could tell those who made fun of me for being a nerd and for going to those conventions. So what if I am a self-identified otaku. Why is my hobby so bad, when their obsession with sports and all things "manly" is perfectly fine. Ohh well, in time I will show them. They do say I am one of the most brilliant research geneticists ever, and success is the best revenge!

November 4, 2014. Breakthrough! We have finally found the key to unlocking more of the mind! So far they are only letting us test the mu1437 retrovirus on animals, but it seems to work! We have tested this on chimpanzees and now they all have an IQ in the range of 100 to 120! They can read, and communicate with us via computer, and they are learning things at a rate that rivals normal humans! They have names and have given them to us! I have been authorized to work on something that will break down and change their larynx to allow them to speak as a human would. This poses a challenge because I will have to not only create a virus to rewrite the genetic code so any changes will be passed along to potential offspring, but I will have to have it regress part of their cellular structure to stem cells that can become what we need them to become at a slow enough rate to not kill them, but one that will allow the changes needed to create what is needed to achieve the goal of speech in a short period of time. This is going to be challenging, but I will get there!

March 22, 2015. I did it. I can insert whatever characteristics I need and cause those changes to happen in an organism. They can speak now thanks to virus bc894. I have achieved greatness with just that alone, though the military wants to rush me along. Increased intelligence and changes to cellular structure aren't enough for them. They want enhanced healing abilities along with increased strength, agility, and endurance. If I want to continue as the lead on this I have to deliver results. I have taken one step that they know nothing about. I have taken a sample of mu1437. I am taking a week off for vacation due to the convention. They think I have the extra few days to prepare my costumes, but that is not why I am taking that much time. I will inject the sample as soon as I get home and shut myself in for a few days. 3 days will be enough for it to fully affect me. I will have that edge needed to pull this off. I cannot be caught, for to do so would be the end of me.

April 29, 2015. I have the edge I needed and am progressing faster than ever. I have unlocked the increased strength, endurance, and agility the military wants, but they still want the enhanced healing ability and now they want resistance to chemical and biological agents. They want a super soldier, and they want to enhance the elites in government. I have a bad feeling about this. I can see where this will go.
Also, I have befriended two of our test subjects, the chimps who call themselves Deronoo and Balbeeda. They are happy about being advanced, but are sad that they are being treated like prisoners and that they could never go back to being with their own kind who have not been advanced as they have.

May 14, 2015. I had to hide the anger inside today. Our test subjects were murdered. No, no one broke in. It was done by another team that I work with. The people in charge wanted to check out what changes were made to all 8 of our test subjects, including the ones I have befriended. They did so via vivisection. It was determined that the changes were permanent and stable. I have now been ordered to get the project over the line by years end, and that if I can I will be allowed to become one of the "advanced humans" with carte blanche on my research. I've also been given the talk about professionalism as one of the elites, not ordered to quit my hobbies, but hinted that it may be for the best to keep the hobbies under wraps. I also found my Sanada figure was boxed up with a note to take it home. So, they don't like catgirls. If only I had the catgirl ray gun she uses, then I would show them.

June 22, 2015. I discovered a side effect to unlocking what I estimate to be 25-30% of my brain. I now can "hear" the surface thoughts of others and I have developed slight telekinetic powers. Centers in the brain for telepathy and telekinesis that were probably not meant to develop any time soon have been activated. I must be careful with this.

August 3, 2015. I know how to give them all they want now, but I have stalled because I am going to give them a little extra. The catgirl ray gun gave me an idea. I am also not going to allow them to become the elite they want to be. After "overhearing" the plans for what amounts to a ruling class over all over the un-advanced humanity I have decided that we will not have that. When I decided the direction my career and studies were going to take I wanted to help humanity, not enslave it. I will make sure this thing is initially highly infectious and airborne, but has a dormancy period of about six months before making the changes needed. We can't have a bunch of jerks running the show, now can we.

September 26, 2015. I have everything they want all in one package called cg288. They have no idea, but CG stands for catgirl. I was able to write a few extra enhancements into the dormant stage. The retrovirus will do what they want. I've found that the intelligence increase from it gives the average human an IQ somewhere in the range of 600, and roughly quintuples agility, endurance, and strength. It also suspends and even reverses the aging process due to the fact that a body will regenerate any damage at the molecular level if given the nutrients needed. This should stabilize any subject taking it at an age of around 25, along with making them virtually immune to any disease. I have unlocked near immortality. I have unlocked the ability to develop telepathy and telekinesis.

They do not know that after the initial changes there is a 6 month incubation period for the rest of the changes to happen. Those changes give the subject a tail roughly a meter long, cause their ears to move higher on the head and become shaped much like a cat's ears, their hair and eyes to change to a random and bright matching color, and their body to become hairless, feminine, with a narrow waist, boobs, and a nice figure, even the guys! OF course they will still retain the equipment downstairs, but their genes will lock in all changes and those changes will be permanent. That will teach them! The surprise portion shouldn't pass along to the general population, so while they are becoming catgirls the general population will get the rest of the package due to the 6 month incubation period. Humanity will advance, they will not rule, and they will be marked for good. I hope.

October 6, 2015. It has been done. All the ruling elites, the special test forces, and the new ruling class have been enhanced. They locked me out of the enhancement. They have destroyed the samples and research. They lied. Ohh, but I have a surprise for them. They have been enhanced all right, enhanced by what I have created. Sometime next April they are going to get what is coming, and by then I will be long gone. I do not care who they get to try to undo it they will not succeed. I have locked it into place in their very structure and it will never be undone.

January 14, 2016. I think I have made a grave mistake. I “overheard” some of them mentally discussing their newfound enhancements, and that one of them had picked up from me that there are surprises in store. I will have to disappear and do so as soon as I possibly can. If only I had access to some of the base retrovirus form I could alter my appearance somewhat and be out of here, but that has been closed off to me. I also need to work on guarding my thoughts so they cannot pick up anything else from me. I am in trouble and I fear from my life.

February 8, 2016. They have me cornered and are going to kill me. I fear this will be my last entry. I pray that someone will find this so they can know why I have done what I have done. I pray posterity will forgive me as well. I may have screwed up royally. The changes that are a surprise for the elites were not able to be separated from the rest of the enhancements, therefore in a couple months the end of humanity as it has been will come. I will email this to my entire friends list. Hopefully it gets through.

NY Times article from April 23, 2016:
Scientists have not yet identified what has been causing people to fall ill and start growing feline features and their bodies to start feminizing. It first started a few weeks ago in the Arlington VA and Washington DC area, but has since spread to numerous cities throughout the world, mainly in Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America. Quarantine efforts have failed to stop it. It appears that the changes happen over a seven to ten day period, and leave the victim physically and mentally enhanced. The military denies any knowledge of what caused it, though military scientists and top government officials were the first to exhibit these changes.