I woke up with a sudden-ness that was astounding to say the least. There was no sense of lethargy, nor was there a need to re-orient myself. I became conscious and my brain whirred back to full speed as though it had never blacked out.

I opened my eyes and noticed that the sky was already dark. But at that moment, I couldn’t care less.

I remembered the wave of red energy that pierced my tummy and instinctively braced for pain. But thankfully, and rather surprisingly, none came.

Weird, but definitely good.

After a second or two, I looked down and lifted my clothing up to check on my tummy. There was no trace of anything entering it.

No wounds, no scars, no dried blood, nothing.

I touched it gingerly, and upon feeling no pain once more, I got slightly bolder and pressed on it lightly.

Nothing.

I frowned slightly, and pressed down on my tummy with more strength.

Still nothing. Everything felt normal.

That’s really good, but the weird part was starting to bug me.

Was it a dream?

My eyes swivelled to the secret compartment where I kept the satchel. I sprang up with great agility and quickly opened it up.

There it was. The satchel was still there.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

That’s really good. It was still weird, but at least the good parts were still there.

It was not a dream.

The red mecha core was real.

And it was within my body.

I was a ten year old junkyard scrapper. I’ve had my share of wounds and bleeding. Some were trophies from accidents which made me stronger instead of killing me, and some were inflicted by other junkyard scrappers as we fought for… well, scraps.

And all my experiences by that point had taught me one thing. If you’re not in pain, you’re probably fine.

So in proper junkyard scrapper fashion, even after confirming that I did indeed have a weird wave of red energy entering my body, I was still calm and collected.

I sat down quietly, trying to sense the energy within my body.

There it is! I thought in surprise. I didn’t expect to detect it so quickly.

It was still in my tummy area, where it had made its entrance earlier.

I felt my adrenaline pumping really hard in response and to my continued surprise, the adrenalin began to mix with the red energy.

My heart began to pound wildly in excitement as I felt the adrenaline-infused energy start to circulate around my body.

One round.

Two rounds.

Three rounds.

As it circulated around my body, the energy grew smaller and smaller until it became a quarter its original size. Thereafter, it stopped in my heart and disappeared.

Weird, why-

GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Blinding pain suddenly engulfed my entire body. It was so painful that my nerves had no idea what sort of pain it was. Was it hot? Cold? I didn’t know what sort of pain I was feeling, only that it was pure agony.

I crumpled onto the floor and began to convulse uncontrollably.

The pain continued unabated for many long minutes, but by then I had already lost control of my body.

I could only lie down there on the cold metal floor of my home in an awkward position, enduring waves and waves of never ending pain.

Finally, the pain stopped.

Gah! I gasped in relief. The sudden disappearance of such incredible pain was like heaven to me.

I straightened my body and stretched. Ahh, pure bliss!

Bliss!

I still remember to this day how wonderful it felt.

Truly the greatest pleasure can only be enjoyed in light of the greatest pain.

I am no philosopher, but I know that statement to be true.

I had never experienced such pain again, and I am extremely thankful for it. But because of that, I also had never experienced such bliss again. And to an extent, I am kind of regretful. But not regretful enough to want to go through that hell once more, thank you very much.

I took deep breaths and examined my body.

My body was no longer as it was before.

Before the blinding waves of pain, I had a scrawny ten year old body, a hundred and forty centimeters tall and weighing barely thirty kilograms.

After the blinding waves of pain, I was still a ten year old, but my body had changed.

I was definitely at least a hundred and sixty centimeters tall. And judging by the muscles on my arms that seemed to be chiseled out of marble, I was probably around sixty kilograms.

You would think that I would be shocked to the core.

I was shocked, yes, but only slightly. I was still basking in the relief and bliss of the absence of pain, and couldn’t spare much shock to deal with the change in my body.

Plus at that point, everything was already so weird that having my body suddenly grow a couple of years on me was not that big of an issue for me. Plus apparently, it was a great two years worth of growth.

Good.

I smiled dreamily as I put down my right arm after checking out the solidity of the muscles with my left hand.

I felt really FULL of power. My cells were brimming with energy, and I had half a thought to go hunting for a few gang members to rob once I was done with enjoying the blissful feeling which had yet to dissipate.

I was stretching out my hands flat against the cool metallic floor of the helicopter wreckage when I felt a strange resonance.

I could clearly visualize every single detail of the hospital wreckage, and I felt a deep sense of connection to it. A physical connection of somesort.

But there was more, I could also feel a weird mental resonance coming from the control panel of the helicopter.

I felt like I could reach out and just… take them?

How do I -

CRACK!

A deafening crack sounded, and to my utmost shock… Yes I was truly shocked at that time, blissful feelings be damned.

To my utmost shock, the helicopter wreckage which had protected me from the snow, rain, wind and sun for the past two years, suddenly just… poofed? Burst into grey particles and surged into my body.

A stream of white energy also entered my brain from the direction of the control panel.

I was beyond shocked.