1
2D opened his eyes slightly, the headache he remembered having back at full blast. He closed them again, then tried opening them. It was too bright. He sat up, blinked a few times, and realized where he was.
"Why'm I outside?" he asked out loud, looking around. He didn't remember falling asleep outside. He could have sworn he was in his bed. He scratched at the back of his neck, which was itchy.
He stood up and walked back inside, trying to piece together what could have happened. He couldn't think of any reason for his being outside; it made absolutely no sense. He did remember going to sleep in his room. Maybe he'd started sleepwalking. That wasn't good.
On his way back to his room, he ran into Noodle. "Konnichiwa, 2D!" she said. "Hey, Noodle," 2D said. "How are you?" It came out oddly. Noodle stared at him. "2D, when did you start speaking Japanese?" she asked.
2D was baffled. "Huh? What are you talking about?" he asked, clearly and fluently speaking Japanese. "See, you're doing it again!" Noodle said. "I didn't know you knew Japanese! Have you been learning secretly?" "I...I don't know..." 2D said. "I... have to go." He ran off to his room, questions filling his mind, scratching his neck again.
Noodle watched him leave. "What was that?" she wondered.
2D went into his room, sat on the bed, and stared at the walls. "What is going on?" he asked. Sleeping outside, itchy neck, fluently speaking a language he didn't know... None of it made any sense... and he was getting tired again. He closed his eyes, just for a little while...
Half-asleep, he stood up and left his room, walking past Noodle. She called to him, but he ignored her and walked on.
Soon he hit the fresh outside air. It was cloudy, barely evening, but 2D didn't notice anything. A spot on the back of his neck glowed. Not focusing, not even noticing where he was, he looked into the sky. He opened his mouth and emitted a strange alien language, and seconds later a giant spaceship hovered over him. With a huge flash of light, he was transported into the ship, and it sped away into space.
He awoke to two greyish-green aliens standing over him, staring with big black eyes. He was strapped to a table, and couldn't move. His neck itched more than ever. He did the only thing he could think to do: he started to scream.
"Hey, you said he'd be out until we were done!" the alien on the left complained. "Yeah, well sometimes they wake up early," the one on the right said. "Not my fault. We're almost done, just give him that stuff to make him shut up."
The left alien poked something into 2D's arm; all at once he stopped screaming. He was still conscious, just mute, and he felt every probe and poke and prod.
Finally, after hours of unpleasant torture, the aliens declared him ready. The left one poked something else into his arm, and he could suddenly talk again.
"What are you doing to me?!" he asked as soon as he could speak.
The alien on the right made a noise. "Ugh, you humans are always so stupid. I bet you forgot last night, too. Remember the language chip? Anyway, you're obviously here for experiments. Why else would we even bother with you? Take him away, he's ready to begin the transformation. Put him in a cell."
The alien on the left nodded, unstrapped 2D, and dragged him into a room where semi-transparent bubbles stood in a sort of grid. "What did he mean by transformation?" 2D asked the alien when they stopped. "You'll be changing shape soon, that's all," the alien said. "It'll be unpleasant when it happens, but you'll be fine afterwards. Here you go." He pushed 2D into one of the bubbles, which was furnished with a bed, a chair, a TV, and some sort of alien video game system with complicated controls.
"We'll call you all when it's time. No funny business, we've got guards everywhere. And only greys can leave the bubbles. You'll be fine." The alien turned and went back the way they came. 2D watched him leave, and swore.
-------------------------------------------------
"My organs hurt..." 2D mumbled. He waved at the alien guard who was nearest his cell. "When do I get to leave?" he asked, his voice sounding strange to him. He coughed.
The guard laughed. "Apologies, but you are not permitted to leave for a long time. How would we be able to study anything if we let our test subjects go every time? Here, watch some television." She passed a remote control through the one-way air bubble that kept him from leaving.
2D took the remote, then reclined back in the chair the aliens had provided for him. He could feel the changing around of his organs, a sort of dull pain, and they made strange grumbling noises. He still wasn't sure why the aliens were changing him, and he hoped to find answers soon.
Well, he'd be there awhile. He wondered if his bandmates were looking for him. They'd be surprised when he got back, looking like some sort of alien freak. Maybe the aliens'd turn him back before he got home. Probably not.
His coughing got worse, and he could barely breathe. He choked a couple of times, then spat out something gross, bloody, and... pulsing. "Erm... alien lady?" he asked, staring at what were unmistakably his lungs. "I think I coughed out my lungs..." He was especially confused, as he wasn't keeling over dead.
"Poor thing," the alien guard said, coming back over to his cell. "The organ shifts are so much trouble for you humans..." She came into the cell, and picked up the lungs. "Your appearance will be changing soon, it seems. But you've got some more useless organs to lose. Just warning you. Tell me when they come out." She smiled and left.
2D stared at the floor. He had just coughed out his lungs, and the alien called them useless, and said that more was coming out. And it didn't even bother him anymore. "What's wrong with me?" he said out loud.
"Maybe the question is really, what's right with you?"
2D looked over at the cell to the right. A tall humanoid, obviously female, looked at him quizzically. She had white skin, purple hair, solid-pink eyes, and four arms; she was wearing a light blue outfit. "You don't look like the type of human one normally sees," she said.
"Erm... it's my eyes right?" 2D said, and hacked out what appeared to be part of an intestine.
The alien girl nodded. "Yeah, that's it. You look part Sartian. 'Course, you've never heard of Sarta, have you. I forgot your superiors like to ignore the fact that there's people outside your little world. My name's Trii. I'm from Draga."
"I'm 2D, and erm... I'm from earth," 2D said. "My eyes are a long story. What're you doing here?"
Trii snorted. "Same reason you're here. These stupid greys are experimenting on us. I've already lost some of my organs, and who knows what I'm gonna look like? These guys are bad news. They run around messing with people's DNA and change them into completely different creatures. Word is they're doing hybrids now." She glared at the alien guard that walked by. "I hope I'll be a Tanian or some other violent species... I'll rip their throats out."
2D blinked. "Why are they doing this? I need to get back home... I'm in a band, and we were gonna go on tour, but they can't without me..." Another cough, and an organ he couldn't identify came out. He was feeling oddly giddy.
Trii looked at him, smiling. "Well, looks like you'll have a new stageshow. Check out your hands. Wicked."
2D looked down at his hands. He had grown an extra finger on each hand, and all six ended in razor-sharp claws. His skin was toughening as he watched, and scales crept up all over his arms. He gasped.
"I'm jealous," Trii said. "Tanian. Maybe you can rip out their throats for me." Her second pair of arms was getting shorter; she cursed. "Your language chip's working, right?"
2D nodded, his teeth in a grimace, the ones he still had becoming as razor-sharp as his claws. His voice changed as he asked her why, becoming an inhuman snarl. The alien guards watched him, seeming satisfied, and moved over to Trii's cell.
The changes that were happening to 2D seemed also to be happening to Trii. "Just asking. Small talk. All right, I'm Tanian too! We can both rip their throats out!" She seemed extremely pleased with the prospect.
2D's socks tore open as reptilian claws sprouted from his feet. One wall of his cell had a mirrored section, and 2D watched in horror as his face changed shape. He closed his eyes, determined not to watch. But he opened them again, and promptly fainted.