Chapter 11: Change is Good
Dan woke to his mother calling his name and he let out a yawn before he asked, "Did I oversleep?"
"No honey, it's just school has been cancelled for the day." Miyoko said patting her son's head, "Just go back to sleep for now."
"Alright." Dan murmured not daring to argue with such a good idea.
A few hours later he got up and was messing around in his room. He found the surgical mask he was supposed to return lying on the floor of his room still and his eyes went wide as he realized he had forgotten. Figuring that the government had the school day cancelled because of the threat of the spores increasing in their area, Dan knew he would have to sneak out in order to return it. He quickly threw on a red shirt and a pair of jeans as well as his own mask.
He silently snuck towards the front door and surprisingly he made it out of the house unnoticed. He thought about grabbing his bike and riding all the way to the Clay residence, but decided against it. He ran instead through the empty streets, well every once in a while he would spy some people out and about, but only on the streets that had little businesses, a lot of the residential areas were dead in activity. He slowed his jog to a steady pace as he came closer to the street Keith resided on.
He was only two streets away when a burning pain in his chest began to fluctuate he had to pause before rounding the corner because it was so strong.
'What's happening to me?' The brunette thought and then heard a faint whisper in his head, 'Time to transform.'
"What the hell?" Dan wondered aloud before forcing himself to continue on and finding Keith standing outside by his mailbox conversing with the blunette, Runo.
It looked like Keith was borrowing one of his family member's mask so he could chat outside. Dan half wondered if Keith was trying to ask Runo out, but dashed that thought away because of yesterday, however, deeply Dan believed it could still be possible and for some reason the pain in his chest burned even more.
'I don't really know this girl, but what's this urge to kill her? Wonder what they're talking about. Gawd I wish this pain in my chest would stop. It burns!' Dan thought as he wandered up to them.
"Hey Dan!" Keith called to the brunette with a wave.
Dan waved back with the mask stiffly. The burning was getting worse and his vision was starting to blur. He stopped halfway and cradled his head as it too began to pulse with pain.
"Dan? What's wrong? You okay?" Keith called out clearly worried, but to Dan's ear's he sounded like he was miles away.
'Take form and fight for the truth.' Said the serene voice.
Next thing Dan knew he was on his knees and hands panting hard as his body modified itself. Red marking seemed to graph his skin originating from the marking on his hip. He felt a sudden pain in his mouth as his teeth sharpened and his canines extended. He felt his back wriggle and then something explode out of his pants. It felt like an extension of his body, another limb perhaps, but his mind was focused elsewhere as his arms and feet began to surge with a burning sensation. His fingernails grew a little longer into claws and he felt another bone growing out from his wrist and his arms adorned bat like wings. His feet destroyed his shoes as they too grew longer nails or rather claws. He felt his skin hardening and the sensations return to his chest as something cold and smooth emerged to the middle of his chest.
A growl emitted from his throat as his eyes felt as though they were on fire for a moment, but it was quickly gone. He was now fully transformed and his heartbeat rang in his ears as fear and anger took hold of him and he launched himself at the closest thing.
Runo wanted to scream for what she had just witness, but fear kept her from doing so. Keith was standing in front of her protectively as he realized what was happening. The brunette was fine one moment and now he was some sort of lizard human. His tail swayed back and forth like a cat, but paused as now the morphing was finished. He growled and then leapt forward. Keith was evasive and moved Runo away as well.
"Runo get out of here!" Keith shouted to the blunette as he tried to keep the brunette focused on him.
She didn't hesitate, but didn't run out of total range for curiosity kept her. Keith nearly escaped another blow from the brunette as he swung his tail to catch the blonde off guard.
"Dan, listen to me!" Keith demanded of the rabid younger boy, "You've got to fight the urge! Don't listen to the voice! C'mon Dan, you don't like violence!"
A guttural growl was the older boy's only reply from the brunette as he charged blindly only to be stopped by the blonde and thrown backwards.
"I didn't want to do this so soon, but you leave me no choice." Keith cried out to the brunette, "Don't think you're alone in all of this now."
He too fell to his knees as his own body morphed. Black marking graphed his body and silver gray spikes sprouted from his shoulders and one from the middle of his arms. He too grew claws and fangs as well as a tail only it was black with silver spikes. A small silver horn pointed out from Keith's forehead and his own eyes glowed, but his were red. He stood ready to fight and let out a roar.
Dan was caught off guard by the black and silver lizard boy before him. One thing was common between the both of them and it was that their shirts were ripped to shreds so the only clothing they both had was their pants. One thing though was certain after they both had totally morphed and that was this fight was about to get serious. Dan retracted his wings and charged forward to tackle his opponent. Keith was ready and leapt over the out of control brunette that barely noticed missing his target. As he landed, the blonde took ahold of the red tail yanking the younger boy backwards into a sleeper hold.
"Dan, calm yourself! Think rationally!" Keith hissed as he held the struggling rabid boy, "This isn't you! Attacking in cold blood is not your way! You're kind and gentle!"
"Dan please stop!" Cried another voice, "Drago wouldn't like to see you as this!"
Keith turned to yell at the blunette, but because of the distraction Dan was able to slip out of the hold and knock the blonde back into a wall. Then he was next to Runo with bloodlust in his eyes and a clawed hand grabbed her throat lifting her up off her feet.
"Dan….please….." Runo choked, "Drago….Drago is your older brother's name….isn't it? Please Dan….."
Keith stood up brushing the rubble off himself, "So kill or be killed?"
The blonde was then astonished at what he saw next as the brunette lowered the blunette and then fell to his knees. His mind was becoming less foggy as he suddenly came to a memory of a tall tan boy with dyed red hair that also had blonde streaks in it was talking to his younger self. He couldn't hear it, but yet he understood it was words of comfort.
'Who are you?' Dan wondered in thought for a moment and then came back to reality.
"Runo get back from him!" A voice shouted and Dan leapt to his feet and backed away from her as well.
"Dan?" Runo murmured as a look of utter fear became his expression.
He finally realized what was happening and who exactly he was now, but now he wasn't sure what he was species wise. He looked at his hands; no they were claws, claws of a monstrosity. He started running, and he didn't stop until he reached the woods, but not until he felt it was far away enough. He stopped to rest on a branch of a tree, high enough from the ground no one would notice him. Who was the boy in his memory exactly? Dan gripped his head and let out a scream of aggravation. He was feeling so confused and angry with himself, but the weirdest thing was that he had felt like this before, but he couldn't remember when.
He curled his tail around himself as a chill in the wind made him shiver. He closed his eyes and tried to make it all go away by pretending that it was all just a horrible dream. His amnesia never really bothered him that much at first, but now he had to know why and what he was missing such precious memories.
"What am I? Who am I?" The brunette murmured burying his head in his hands.
"Dan." A voice whispered and a hand came to rest on his backside, "Kuso, snap out of it."
He did snap out of it and nearly fell out to the tree because of it, but a hand caught him and pulled him back up easily. The brunette looked up to see it was the blonde again.
"Take it easy and let me explain what's happening to you." The blonde said with a reassuring smile.
"What is this? What did that spore do to me?" Dan asked frantically, "I can't go home like this!"
"Hey, calm down!" Keith said putting his hands on the brunette's shoulder, "The form you're in now is proof that you were strong enough to survive the spore's disease, but there's more to them. If you constantly listen to that woman's voice you'll surely lose your sanity and become a bloodlust monster."
"So then why, why did you and I survive only to become this?" Dan asked gesturing to himself.
Keith leaned back into the tree's trunk with a sigh, "I don't necessarily know, but I can tell you how to change back at least."
"How?" Dan asked standing up excitedly.
"Just calm down, ya know, meditate. Took me a couple of hours my first time, but once you get the hang of it…ya know." Keith stated.
Dan nodded and sat down trying to clear his mind of all distraction and just focusing on bliss. He stayed like that for nearly half an hour before he finally started to regress back to his normal human form. He opened his eyes and was smiling brightly as he was back to his normal self.
"Looks like you'll have the hang of it." Keith said grabbing ahold of the brunette and jumping down out of the tree.
"Thanks Keith, sorry I attacked you and Runo, I don't understand why I did though." The brunette said as the blonde returned to being human as well.
"Well the reason you attack me is because at the first transformation there's an instinct to kill any other that bears a mark of fate." Keith said as he showed the back of his right shoulder to Dan.
On it was a black tattoo that reminded Dan of a cobra bearing it's fangs. Dan looked down at his own mark of fate and sighed.
"I still don't get it." Dan murmured.
Keith shook his head, "I still can't wrap my own brain around it all, but I could only figure out how to hide this form and keep it under control."
A thought crossed the brunette's mind and he had to know, "How long have you been like this, Keith?"
Keith proceeded to removing his tattered shirt so only his pants were the clothing he adorned.
"About a week and a half." Keith replied stuffing his hands into his pockets, "I was taking out the trash and was too lazy to put on my protection and well, I thought it was my imagination and fear, but well, how about you? I lent you my mask, so what happened?"
Dan stuffed his own hands into his pockets as he remember the fleeting memory of his fall the day before, "On the roof when Runo and I were arguing, I slipped and well, while I was falling my scarf came off and at that same time a spore floated by into my throat."
"So she didn't shove you at all." Keith stated rhetorically.
"Is that why you two were talking before?" Dan wondered.
"Yeah," Keith said starting to walk towards the edge of the woods, "I was trying to get her side of the story to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions."
The two were quiet as they wandered to the edge of the woods and a sigh escaped the brunette's lips.
"It's getting late and we'd both better get home." Keith said finally as Dan grimaced, "What's wrong?"
"I'm afraid to go home now as a monster. What if I transform in front of my parents?" Dan mumbled.
Keith put a hand on the brunette's shoulder reassuringly, "I'll help you sneak back. As for your monster side, just keep meditating."
Dan nodded and let the blonde lead him home.