Chapter 3 Awakening part 1

Blaze groggily began to stir and wake up after his brush with death. When he opened his eyes he felt a shooting pain causing him to blink and winch from the pain. Blinking helped to relieve the pain so he continued to do that while trying to focus and fix his vision. Once the pain stopped Blaze noticed that his vision was wrong. It looked like he was looking thru a kaleidoscope instead of his normally clear vision. Blaze moved his right hand in front of his face only to see twelve hands and weird colors all over his hand.

Blaze once again closed his eyes because he didn’t understand what had happened. Thinking back he remembered taking the Mana injection and reasoned that this weird vision is either a side effect of the injection or his vision had been permanently damaged. This realization made Blaze feel really scared at first but he calmed down very quickly. Blaze noticed his abnormal calming and thought that this might also be a side effect of the injection.

Blaze wanting help and information remembered being placed on a bed and reasoned that he was probably placed back in the observation dorm while he was fighting for survival so he called out “Hello. Is anyone there I am having trouble seeing and I need some help.”

A shy female voice responded from nearby and to his right “I will call for one of the doctors. I am happy that you have woken up.”

Blaze wanted to look at the girl he was talking to so he once again opened his eyes and tried to focus around where he heard the shy girl’s voice come from. He once again saw twelve separate images but he tried to focus mentally on only one image so he could understand what the person he was looking at was like.

When he focused on only one image his vision became clearer but he doubted what he saw because the girl laying in a bed on the other side of the room had cat like ears and green cat like eyes. Not to mention he saw what looked like pulsing veins of different colors on the girl’s skin.

Blaze closed his eyes once again and said “I appreciate your help. Do we have call buttons on our beds or something to call the doctors if we need help?”

The shy girl’s response was just a simple “Yes. It is on the side rail. It’s the big red button.”

Blaze heard footsteps coming in his direction then a male voice that blaze recognized as belonging to the male doctor who gave out the list of possible formulas out earlier said “What seems to be the problem Miss Johnson?”

The shy girl responded “Please just call me Kate, Doctor Sebast. The guy over there is the one who needs help.”

Doctor Sebast moved over to Blaze’s bed and lifted up a chart and started to read it quickly while saying “Mr. Arclight what seems to be the problem?”

Blaze decided to be polite and said “Doctor Sebast please just call me Blaze.” After a few seconds pause with no reply he continued “I am having a hard time seeing.”

Doctor Sebast replied “Ok. I can have a look at that for you but I hope you realize your body has been changed due to the alien Mana being injected. Just like all the other test subjects you have undergone a physical mutation and it is at the cellular level so we believe it to be permanent.”

Blaze thought ‘This guy is blunt. No wonder he is just a researcher and not a real doctor his bed side manner is horrible.’

Doctor Sebast finished speaking “I am going to need you to open your eyes so I can examine them.”

Blaze complied and opened his eyes to have the doctor scan them with a hand held device. After a few beeps a robotic voice came from the scanner “Subjects optics and nerve endings have mutated 98%. Please wait processing data now, data processing completed. Test subject Blaze has new vision nerves and optics made up of a tubular optic lens with a high amount of rhodopsinthe and chorine. Test subject is believed to have low light vision, heat vision, and extreme magnification capability of the eye. Other unknown nerve clusters and optic structures detected unable to provide positive analysis of those systems with current data. Recommend further analysis of mutation.”

Doctor Sebast started talking a few seconds after the scanner finished its report “So there you have it Mr. Arclight. That is why you are having trouble with your vision it seems you will just have to learn to use your new eyes for you to be able to see. Do you have any other questions?”

Blaze thought ‘I know the scanner didn’t say I was blind and that I must have some supper great vision, but how can I be expected to just learn all of a sudden how to see again with new alien eyes. I was not expecting to have any physical changes done to my body. That is another reason why I went with a magic only formula. This could be a really big set back to my plans. I better find out if anything else is different.’

Blaze responded to Doctor Sebast’s question with a hesitant “Have I physically changed in any other ways?”

Doctor Sebast responded with a frustrated sigh and said “Your ears, facial structure, and body have all been altered some. I can have an orderly bring over a mirror if you would like. It would also be better for you to see it for yourself.”

Blaze asked “How is a mirror going to help when I can barely see correctly?”

Sebast “Look at Ms. Johnson and tell me what you can see.”

Blaze once again opened his eyes and focused on looking at the shy girl Kate. This time when he focused he just saw an outline of a body in different shades of pastel colors. Blaze reasoned that this must be the heat vision that the scanner talked about and closed his eyes then opened them again and tried to focus on a different image of Kate.

This image looked normal but showed Kate as still having cat ears and eyes. Blaze noticed that in this image Kate did not have the weird pulsing multicolored veins on her skin. Maintaining focus on that image from his eyes he slowly turned his head to look around at his surroundings.

The open bay with beds was just how he remembered it. Single twin beds lined up in rows with a dresser and cabinet separating them. Curtains are hanging from the ceiling that could be closed for privacy. Basically it was your normal hospital like setup. Then he looked at Doctor Sebast and confirmed that he looked just like he remembered with blond hair and blue eyes and a scar on his upper lip.

So that would mean the girl in the bed really did have the eyes and ears of a cat. However, Blaze had to make sure so he answered Doctor Sebast’s question with a hesitant “Kate is a cute girl around my age with the eyes and ears of a cat?”

Doctor Sebast “Correct Mr. Archlight. I will send an orderly over with a mirror for you. Now, please do not call for me again unless it is life threating. I have to finish my report and observations before 5 PM if I do not want to work over again tonight. Please press the blue button for normal problems and that will call over the orderly.” With that said Doctor Sebast turned around and power walked back to a door on the far wall.

Blaze just shrugged off the doctor’s rude behavior. He had greater things to deal with right now. He first uncovered his body and started a visual examination of his body. The changes to his external body were not as complex as his eyes. His arms, legs, and muscles all seemed to work correctly which he was seriously grateful for. The only thing that had seemed to change was his skin is now grey instead of tan. Blaze thought he might have also grown a few inches but he wouldn’t know for certain about that until he underwent a full body scan again.

Blaze planned to check out the more private areas of his body after the orderly arrived with the mirror. He also reasoned that the orderly could help him to the bathroom in the event that he could not walk after his changes. The cute lab tech was the one who brought Blaze his mirror not a male orderly like he hoped for.

Blaze thought ‘Well, she did help hold me up when I was fighting that unbearable heat. She might be able to help me to the door of the bathroom if I need assistance. I would still hate to ask her though. I will try to walk on my own first.’

Once the lab tech saw Blaze she rushed over like a star struck fan. Shoving the mirror in Blaze’s face she shouted “I have brought a mirror for you sir. My name is Melinda. Will you please MARRY ME!”

Blaze was struck dumb by the lab tech Melinda’s actions. A girl he just met just proposed to him. He has had girlfriends before and has gained experience with female behavior. This was not normal though. Yes, he knew he was alright looking maybe a six out of ten for most girls. But her reaction was like he was a ten out of ten with super model like looks. Then he backed his face up a little so that he could actually see his reflection and the face staring back at him was the answer to Melinda’s sudden confession. Blaze no longer looked human. He looked more like a fantasy elf character. Blaze now has purple eyes, long flowing silver hair, two medium sized elf like ears, and a cute cherub like kissable face.

Blaze thoughts were completely blown away. Between the confession and his new face it was too much for his mind to handle and like a computer going through a memory overload his thoughts were ‘error, error, error cannot compute. Performing hard restart on reasoning functions please stand by.’

After a few minutes of staring at himself in the mirror his brain finally seemed to come to terms with his new physical existence and began to work again. The first thing he noticed was the whispering over by Kate’s bed. When he looked over at Kate’s bed he saw Melinda crying on Kate’s shoulder and Kate patting Melinda’s back saying soothing words like “It will be ok” and “You will find someone better”. Blaze was an idiot about something’s but not about a woman’s feelings so he collected his thoughts and prepared himself to answer Melinda’s confession seriously.

Blaze coughed first to get the girls attention then said in a very sincere voice “I am sorry for not answering your confession. I was just shocked that a cute lady like you would confess to me. My answer is no for now, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to get to know you better.”

Melinda beamed a beautiful smile at Blaze and said “Yes, it is too soon for a wedding but is it ok for us to go out on a date? You did say that you would like to get to know me better after all.”

Blaze felt like a trapped rat in a maze and thought ‘I think I have been had. This girl is even more devious than that red head at my dojo. She most likely played this whole scenario out in her head just to wiggle a date out of me. God the pain I went thru because of that red head. I am going to have to up my vigilance and watch my words even more closely now so this doesn’t happen again.’

Blaze smiled and laid on the charm “Certainly though it will be some time before I can take you on a proper date. I will be stuck in here for at least a week for public safety. Once I am released I have a few things that I will have to take care of then I should be free for a small outing.”

Melinda clapped with glee and ran off. Blaze thought ‘Yeah, crises averted’. Then he saw the scowl on Kate’s face and just had to ask “Did I do something to upset you as well Kate?”

Kate looked directly into Blaze’s eyes and said “If you stand her up or don’t make good on the date promise I will not forgive you.”

Blaze thought ‘How did she know that was my plan? Ahh, who cares I will never see her or Melinda again anyways. I just have to keep good relations till I get out of the institute then I can be on my way and not have to worry about it.’

Kate then said “Just so you know. You have been asleep for two days and missed an announcement from the institute. All Mana recipients will be moved to an island close to Hawaii. They also said this was for observation because we all mutated more than they expected. So it should not be a problem for you and Melinda’s date because she will be one of the observers.”

Blaze thought ‘Urgh, fine you win. I will go on ONE date with her and that’s it. I have other things I have to do though so even if I like her and have fun on the date I can’t go on a second. Is that acceptable?’

Kate just smiled and began to talk about events Blaze had missed over the two days he was asleep. Apparently Kate was the first person to receive the Mana injection here in Columbus and the first to wake up. Columbus branch office had the third highest survivor rate with five out of thirty injection recipients surviving the first hour. Two of the five survivors became completely animal like and it is assumed that they have lost the ability of higher thought, reasoning, and speech.

Then Kate began to explain why she chose to have the injection. Apparently it was because she had a terminally ill sister and the Mana injection she had chosen has a side effect that could cure or counter her sister’s illness. Kate was planning on waiting till the third or fourth trial round like a lot of other people but her sister had taken a turn for the worst so she worked a deal with the institute. The deal was for Kate to participate in the initial trials and if she survived then the injection would also be given to her sister Eve. Eve would be receiving her injection today and if everything went good should be joining Kate here at Columbus branch before we are all shipped off to Hawaii.

Blaze lost interest in what Kate was saying after her background story. He still wanted to go to the bathroom to ensure nothing else was different with his body but he just couldn’t break into Kate’s one sided conversation to excuse himself. Blaze thought that Kate was shy at first but now he had a completely different opinion of her. Blaze was not one to remain idle so he decided to familiarize himself with his new eyes while he was being subjected to Kate’s ramblings.

Blaze first stopped focusing so that he could go back to the area he at first called his kaleidoscope vision. Blaze thought at first that this was his new vision but him being able to focus on a single image made him doubt that theory. If Blaze’s new theory was correct then he is right now seeing images from twelve separate optic nerves in his eyes. One for each type of vision he now has. Now the question is how to get rid of the other images all together so that he would see thru only one nerve at a time.

Blaze thought thru the issue ‘Focusing only helps a little and doesn’t seem right. Maybe I have some new muscles behind my eyes that I can use to pinch the nerves closed. Ok if I do have muscles behind my eyes now how can I make them work? A baby learns their muscles through trial and error then once they get old enough and have practiced enough it just becomes natural. I doubt my situation is like a baby’s though because my mutation was caused by an alien animal and the transformations I have seen so far all have animalistic qualities to them. So how does an animal learn their muscles? By instinct I would assume. Ok I guess it is time to become one with my inner animal.’

Blaze closed his eyes and started to try and meditate. This was his first time meditating so he was certain that he wasn’t doing it right. Then he imaged that he was a snake. As a snake he has horrible vision and it gets even worse once night falls. The snake is starving it hasn’t eaten a meal in days. It can hear prey but does know where to strike. The snake needs to use its infrared vision to sense heat to find its prey. When the snake switches to using its infrared vision Blaze opens his eyes and does the same thing. For the first time since Blaze woke up he was only seeing things from one perspective no other images were intruding on his sight. Granted it was not his normal vision but it was still liberating to know that his theory was right. Now all he needed to do was practice.

Blaze in his elation forgot that he was supposed to be listening to Kate. However, Kate didn’t care that Blaze had stopped paying attention to her because she had gotten what she wanted. What she wanted was to learn more about this enigmatic man and reading his mind should have been the quickest way to go about it. However, he was able to block her scans somehow. Kate noticed threw the time she has spent near him that she could read his thoughts when he was agitated or upset. So she was talking continuously like most men hate to try and get a reaction out of him. It did work though he just shut her out and went into a daze. Once Blaze’s thoughts were occupied with figuring out his strange eye sight Kate noticed she had complete access to his surface thoughts. Kate decided to observe Blaze and his thoughts to see if he could adapt to his new eyes. She was a silent passenger in his mind threw the whole process. Kate was over joyed for Blaze when he figured out his new eyes. Kate and the other survivor Trask have been trying to get used to their new bodies and appendages for the past two days with very little success. Kate had figured out she could read minds a little while after she woke up. However she still had to figure out how her ears and tail worked. Especially her blasted tail the dang thing seemed to have a mind of its own.

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AN: Look forward to Part 2

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