When I woke again I felt changed. But not mentally like you might think. Yes, I felt physically changed, like I was in another body or something. I opened my eyes to find myself in a different room than the night before (or at least I think it was night). It was just a standard hospital room, and sunlight streamed in through the windows.
What did those scientists do to me? But I would find out myself.
I sat up, still too woozy to stand, and looked around. The room was just a common hospital room, with nothing out of the ordinary except for some notes lying on my bedside table that said odd things like "DNA is not exact" and "possible problems with body functions" or "give therapy?".
When I realized the notes were about me, I wondered what was wrong with me.
You were just in a car crash, for crying out loud! Of course something is wrong with me! They probably did surgery to help me survive my injuries...
Then it hit me. I was physically changed! But what exactly did they change...?
I looked down at my hands and saw the first thing they changed. My hands weren't hands anymore, they were paws. Orange-furred paws somewhat similar to a ferret or beaver's.
I was shocked, but I wasn't scared or anything like that. But what startled me even more was when I pulled down the single sheet from my bed. I had a body of a large orange weasel. But I was unlike anything found on Earth.
I was a pokemon.
"He survived, Mrs. Basil... Yes, that's what I said... No, I'm not just trying to make you feel better... Yes, he's here at the hospital... Oh, ok. I'll meet you in the front lobby... Ok, bye."
That call had been simple, but she was asking for the full explanation. That was information I could not give. That was information that would have driven her insane, literally, with worry and distress. No, I could not tell her about the intense surgery that only had a 23% survival rate that was tested for the first time on her son.
Yeah, Mrs. Basil would probably forget everything but her son. And the doctors wouldn't want that. There are still tests to run, exercises to do! And she would try to avert them the best she could if she knew what they were.
Boy, what a lot of trouble this whole thing is.
So, I'm a pokemon now. What am I supposed to do? Sit, wait, let them do experiments on me? No. That's not gonna happen. Never! No tests for me, thank you.
So I got up, full of adrenalin from the previous moments, and tried walking around the room. I had legs similar to a dog's but I could stand up on them. I paced around the room, testing my feet, er, hind legs and trying to get used to my paws.
Once I could work my new appendages without effort, I started thinking about whether to go out of the room or just wait here, bored, while the day passes outside.
I decided to go out.
First I opened the door just a crack and peeked out. I had to be sure no one would see me, an otherworldly creature, wandering through the halls.
The coast was clear, so I cautiously stepped out and looked around more closely. There was a red light blinking slowly above an empty information booth. Of course, I had to see what the light meant, so I walked into the booth and examined the computer screen. It had a setup of security camera readings and a section on the computer marked "EMERGENCY". Normally this would be off in most hospitals, but this time it was displaying a small room that was emanating an unnatural glow. A flickering red, or maybe orange, was coming through the door.
Fire!
I had to help. I couldn't let the flames spread to the rest of the hospital; it would kill hundreds, nay, thousands of innocent patients!
If I remembered correctly about the pokemon video games, the thing I had become was a buizel. And, as a water pokemon, it could shoot water. Maybe that could help. If only I knew how to use the move water gun...
And then I suddenly found something in the back of my mind that had somehow emerged. Like a mental walkthrough on how to use water gun and two other moves, tackle and scratch.
I had no time to try it, so I had to hope that it would work.
To the fire!