Zosk was nervous. They had used a lot of ‘machines’ as they called them, to scan him, his body, and prepare the change. He had seen their magic, or technology as they called it, at work, and had understood some basics, but it was still scary.

He hoped he hadn’t made the worst decision, and sometimes wanted to back out, but the alternative was pretty bad. Zosk had no idea what would happen to him if he didn’t comply. He wanted to trust Kepler, thought he could, but still, he was risking a lot. How could he know how restrictive they could make his body, or how much control they would have?

They all had this kind of metal body, and seemed happy, but a paranoid part of him wondered if they had been altered, or were sometimes controlled. It didn’t seem that way, but the more they taught him about technology, the more he saw the potential loopholes. Of course, they were aware of this, and had tried to reassure him. But his only source of information were them, he had no one he could trust wholeheartedly here, he knew that.

He felt stuck. No good choices. There were some upsides, like he would be a lot stronger, wouldn’t need to eat as much at all, and could hold his breath for long periods of time if needed. Also, he could lose limbs without much worry. As an adventurer, it was a lot of upsides. Especially as a mage. And live forever, apparently.

However, they didn’t want to give him an armor. Understandable. It seemed to be a pillar of their military, and they didn’t want to give it away.

He was standing in a white room with a big machine in the middle, some beds were lining a wall. The machine looked like an encapsulated bed with lots and lots of arms inside it. Not nice. There were risks, as it wasn’t made for his specie, he knew.

“Don’t worry Zosk, we have scanned your body, and they have made all the necessary adjustments.” Kepler was with him, as always these days. It had been tense between them.

“I know what you have told me. Maybe there are some more tests we can do?” He tried, knowing he was just trying to postpone the surgery for as long as possible.

“Everything is in order, you won’t feel a thing, and come out better than before.” He could almost hear the probably that Kepler didn’t add at the end there.

A nurse was opening up the thing, and they were waiting on him now. He had never felt so alone, surrounded by strangers looking at him. Pressuring him into something he didn’t really want. It would have been easier if they had done it earlier, but the more time between the decision and the operation, the more he had gotten cold feet.

Trying to muster up some positivity and confidence, he shook his head slightly, clapped his cheeks, and walked towards the weird bed. His heart was beating out of his chest, like he was fighting for his life, as he slowly crept up in the machine, and lay down. It slowly started closing on him. He started to panic despite himself.

“Kepler? KEPLER? I think we should wait a bit?” But it didn’t seem like he could hear him through the glass. Kepler was looking at him with a weary smile, trying to be both reassuring and understanding. It didn’t work.

“Oh no. Oh no.” He heard a soft ‘pshh’ sound, and soon he started to feel woozy. They had explained how it would work, but at this moment, he had forgotten everything, and kicked at the glass in a last effort to get out, before slumping for good.

He woke up, and felt his whole body ache. Suddenly everything came back to him and he sat up. Zosk looked around, and saw that he was still in that white room, the machine was in the center, and he was on a bed in a corner. The glass was cracked, and he wondered if they had cancelled the operation due to his outburst.

Looking down at his hands, they were the same ones he had always had. Relief flooded him. Kepler wouldn’t be happy, but that was alright. For once, he was alone, and slowly stood up. He had some lingering aches everywhere, but that might be the sleeping poison. There was a mirror and he looked at himself. He was the same, exactly.

He walked closer, and looked at his eyes. Closer still, he was in front of the mirror, when suddenly his vision zoomed in, and in the depth of his own eyes, he saw something that made him stop. They hadn’t stopped the operation at all. It was already finished. They had changed him.

But it felt like it always had. He wanted to deny it, but the zooming vision wasn’t something he could do, he didn’t have a skill to see long distances. There was no use denying it. But he tried anyway, even if he knew deep down that it was done.

“How are you feeling?” Kepler said from behind him. He stared at the mirror as he replied

“Shockingly normal. A slight ache, as you told me I would have.” It was disarming that he didn’t really feel different, but still, he knew his body was completely made of metal, except his brain.

“Well, I told you it would all go well. My dad will have to check on you to make sure they didn’t implant more than they said, but it went well, right?” Kepler clearly tried to sound hopeful. And truth be told, he did feel better now that it was over. It didn’t feel to bad.

“Plus, you have an advantage over us, you can recharge your batteries with magic. You’ll have to teach me eventually.” Zosk turned around at that.

“I can’t promise anything Kepler, you know this. We don’t know how good you are with magic. But we can try I guess.” It’s not that he didn’t want to, but he wanted to keep expectations low in case of failure. Which it probably would be.

“Yes I know, not to worry. You can always recharge mine.” Kepler waved of his concern.

“Come on, let’s go see my dad.” He continued, and they soon left the clinic.

Now that he knew of cameras, and other means of surveillance, Zosk had a tendency to look at the room’s corners a lot more. Ignorance was bliss, as this once wonderful world had actually some unpleasant secrets. It was scary to know their leaders knew where all of them were at all times.

Of course, no one was actively following each and everyone of them, but they could know any time they wanted. He was part of that now, he knew, despite Kepler’s reassurances. They took the tube transports which he had once marvelled over, but now seemed more sinister. Surprisingly, not that many people looked at him weirdly. Some people apparently changed their body to be some animal type. It wasn’t common, but it still existed.

There were guards outside the house, and a lot of people coming in and out. They were allowed in without fuss, and soon they were standing in the lab. A lot more people in white coats where here, taking notes and working on various things. Maximilian saw them and walked up to them.

“Ah ! Zosk, glad to see that everything went well.” How could they know so fast? He wasn’t sure what gave it away.

“How can you be so sure I underwent the transformation?” He asked, perplexed.

“Well, I activated heat vision.” The Dr. said, like it explained everything. Heat vision? What was that?

“You can do a mental search if you are unfamiliar. When you are more used to it, you can instantly activate the different options. You can try now, see if it works?” Max continued, he seemed very happy for some reason.

Mental search? How did he even do that. He tried to think the words, but it didn’t work. He tried some other ways when suddenly, like an unknown muscle, he could feel how to activate the search feature. Zosk searched for heat vision and like a mental menu, he could choose. Zosk mentally chose to activate the option, and his vision drastically changed. Everything was in hues of blue to red. Most of everything was purple, or dark blue, but a machine in the corner was red, some parts even closer to white.

It was fascinating, and also scary. Exciting, in a sense, but horrifying in another.

“How do I make it stop?” He said, but they were talking between themselves and didn’t seem to hear him ask the question. He tried again, louder.

“How do I make it stop Kepler?” He didn’t like how panicked that had sounded, but he needed it to go back to normal. Now.

“You just turn it off?” He responded, unsure of why he was having trouble.

Heat vision, OFF. Vision OFF. STOP. NO HEAT VISION. NORMAL VISION. PLEASE.

His mental commands weren’t working. Maybe it wasn’t working correctly? What if they had made an error in the surgery. Or if he could never turn it off? Could they could see his panic? Because Kepler offered some more advice.

“It’s not like saying words in your head. Calm down Zosk, and simply will it off. It should be more natural, like moving a muscle. You don’t think, move here, you just move it.” As if that was helpful! He took a deep breath, and tried nonetheless. His vision turned back to normal, and he let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding.

“It will become second nature. No worries.” Kepler said as he patted him on the shoulder, and he was shocked that he almost didn’t feel the contact. It must have been clear on his face, because it was like Kepler knew exactly what he was thinking.

“You can change how much you feel, but beware, pain will also be more felt. It is like with the heat vision to change. They always crank it low after an operation, just in case.”

Slowly, he tried to change it so he could feel more. Suddenly, he felt even the air, around him, and his eyes went round. He could feel on such a level. Kepler slowly put his hand back on his shoulder, and he felt the movement even before it touched him. But once he touched him, the contact almost hurt. It was too much. It didn’t hurt in his shoulder, more like in his head.

“Yeah, don’t crank it up too much in the beginning. Your brain will adapt, but it can’t process it all in the beginning.” He heard Kepler, but the words didn’t register in his brain. He turned down the sensitivity and slowly he felt better.

Zosk was in a slight daze, and only noticed now that Maximilian had opened up his arm and connected directly into his new body. He had wanted to yank it out, but knew that he was checking on his restrictions.

After a moment, Max spoke.

“Surprisingly nothing Zosk. Maybe they knew I would check, but they kept to their word. They have installed a low level AI that will stop you from spreading knowledge of Mars, the portal, but nothing more. Unless you try to do that, everything will be normal.”

Normal. Nothing felt normal to him. He wasn’t even a Reptilian anymore. He had become something else entirely. What even was normal? This last week had been all but normal, and it felt like lifetime ago he was in Larnwick, on vacation.

How the hell had it all come to this? Because someone was curious. Because he had decided to follow the weird human. Fucking stupid idea, is what that had been. Hopefully he wasn’t totally screwed.