Sparks of Change
I guess I got into this mess thanks to my college roommate. Dean Joseph was a true nerd; he was overweight, bright as a lighthouse bulb, and spend most of his free time reading Japanese Manga.
"OHH, YEAH!" he exclaimed excitedly. "This volume was all I hoped it would be."
I clicked my tongue but held back the retort about how he said that about every single Manga he reads. Instead, I focused on my post-grad work, I had an important paper coming up my electrical engineering major, and I didn't want to make any mistakes.
Unfortunately, Dean was making it kinda hard to concentrate, as he decided to gush about his latest piece of Japanese culture.
"I mean, I knew this volume would finish out the latest story arc, but I wasn't expecting the outcome," I heard my roommate says, and looked his way and saw him nodding. "I should truly blog my thoughts on it."
Normally, I consider myself a very patient person and can tone anyone out. Dean, however, was one of the few who could crack my armor, and the fact that I was somewhat stressed from my upcoming essay wasn't helping matters either.
"You know, if you spent as much time on your studies as you do your reading, you might not be falling so far behind," I said, trying to keep my voice as flat as possible.
Dean blow some air out of his mouth and replied in a near-playful manner, "Please, as I need to study. I have been programming since I got my first computer when I was eight."
I choose to ignore my roommate at this point and went back to work. Unfortunately, I had just opened a can of worms and got Dean going, and once he gets started there's no stopping him.
"You know, Matthews, you can stand to be a bit more passionate about something. It might actually make you more likable, and you might actually get some," Dean said, trying to sound sly and smooth, but-in my eyes-came off as corny.
I bit my tongue so I didn't bark out that I had passion, just not for something as childish as manga. Thankfully, an alarm on Dean's phone went off, and without a word grabbed his backpack and bolted out of our room.
I let out a tired sigh as I saved my work, and put my laptop into sleep mode. I grabbed my worn-denim jacket and put it on as I followed Dean out of the dorms.
This has become somewhat of a habit with my roommate, he would go out somewhere at certain times and sometimes it will be a couple of days before he would come back. This normally wouldn't bother me, but the last couple of times he had come back with bruises. And the last time he came back, it looked like he had broken ribs.
This latest development had gotten me curious, and I decided to follow him and find out what he was doing. I wouldn't deny my disappointment when he walked to the closed docks and went into it through an opening in the fencing.
Here's a little bit of the history of my hometown; it was once a good port/fishing town, but that all changed sometime during the sixties. Seems that a rather strong earthquake hit the town and while nothing was damaged to badly a report did say the area around the port has become too unstable to use.
If I remember my local history right, the town was in a few money problems at the time the port was forced to close up, and couldn't afford to do much to try and do something with the port. It would have seemed like my town was going to be forced off the map, but an up-and-coming research company had come up with a solution to the town's problems.
See, NexGen brought a piece of unused land and built their main research building here. Not only did that save the town by bringing in new jobs, but the company also supported local businesses. That kept the town going, and it wasn't long before college I now go to was built, and my town was transformed into a true college town.
But I think I'm digressing a bit and should get to the matter at hand. I watched as my roommate disappeared into the docks, and I turned around and went to head back to my dorm room. I stopped and looked back at the docks.
I know anyone hearing this would find this crazy, but I swear that I heard something calling to me, urging me forward. I tried to resist this urge, but it was simply too strong to ignore. So, it wasn't long before I found myself squeezing through the fence's opening and lightly jogging to catch up with Dean.
I didn't have to go far, as my roommate was about a building and a half down from the fence, catching his breath. I nearly shook my head at Dean's poor health, when he suddenly straightened up and looked around. This act startled me enough that I ducked behind a warehouse.
I peeked my head around the corner and watched as Dean scanned the area. I thought he spotted me but after a minute of scanning, Dean began moving into the docks again.
I waited a solid minute before following, and it wasn't long before we came to the main office building of the docks. The office was just your standard one-story building, so I wouldn't go into detail about the building itself.
I watched as Dean scanned the area again, this time for nearly two minutes before he entered the office. I watched the building for nearly two minutes, expecting him to come out with some sort of mob member. When no one came out, I decided it was time for me to investigate, and cautiously made my way into the building.
To say I was disappointed when I saw the inside of the office would have probably been an understatement. There was nothing there, say for a deck, a chair, and a phone that looked like it was made in 50th.
I looked around, feeling my disappointment gave away to confusion. There was only one exit in the entire building, and I watched it for nearly three minutes, so where did Dean go? I looked around one more time, and that's when I saw the coffee mug on the table.
I walked up to the table and leaned down to get a better look at the item. The entire table was covered in a thick layer of duck. The mug, however, was the only thing that wasn't covered.
It was like it was recently touched, and I went to pick it up. To my surprise, when I try to lift it, I found it glued firmly to the table. I tried to pull the item off the table for a good 30 seconds before I gave up, and stood up.
I studied the mug for a higher viewpoint and that's when I saw it; the dust around the mug had been disturbed. A closer look revealed the mug had been turned, just enough to move the dust around it. So I grabbed the mug's top and following how the dust was disturbed, turned the item counterclockwise.
I was surprised when I heard a soft click, and took a step back when the table swings down, soundlessly I would like to add. I looked down the passage that opened and groan when I saw the LED-lit stairway.
"I draw the line when I find something straight out an old-school cartoon," I mumbled to myself.
I turned to leave when that urge once again flared up. I turned to fight it, but like last time, it proved to be stronger, and I soon found myself descending the stairs.
It was a short trip down, and soon I found myself in some sort of hallway, one that reminded me of a research lab I once visited with my parents. In fact, it reminded me so much of that place, that I began to lightly rub my chest as I looked around the hall.
There wasn't much to say about the place; all it was, was a long, white hall and a series of doors. Above each door was a light, all of which were currently red. Curious, I walked up to the nearest door and gave the knob a turn. It was just like I thought, the red light meant that the doors were locked, and that meant it was pointless to continue to go farther.
What was the point of exploring this place when all the doors would likely be locked? That what I tried telling myself as I turned to leave this place, only to stop dead in my tracks as that feeling exploded in the back of my head again.
"I'm not going any further just because I got a feeling," I told myself angrily as I forced myself back to the stairs.
I was near the exit and the feeling in the back of my head had gotten worse. It was so bad I felt sick to my stomach. I tried to ignore it all as I placed a foot on the first step. I suddenly covered my mouth as I felt my stomach jump, and I nearly lost my lunch.
I stumbled away from the stairway and slumped against the wall to the right of the stairs. I slowly lowered myself to the ground and let my stomach settled for a few minutes.
During this time, I began to think about all of this. So whatever I was getting had gotten so strong that I can't ignore it. It appears like it wasn't going to let me go until I get to whatever was calling to me.
So, with that in mind, and with my stomach calm enough, I pushed myself up and from the wall, and walked down the hall.
I was being guided by that feeling and turned left when I came to the end of the hallway. After a short walk, came to the only door on this stretch of the hallway. To my surprise, the light above the door was green. I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. Nothing deadly came out, so I cautiously stepped into the room.
I felt my throat dry up as I looked around the large room. The entire place was lined with machines I couldn't identify. But the most startling thing was in the center of the room; a metal pedestal with nothing on it.
No, I realized that wasn't right, as I got closer I saw something weird; the air above the pedestal was rippling. I got next to the pedestal and became transfixed on this strange phenomenon.
I watched as the phenomenon rippled around, and I would have the say it was the size of a softball as I watched the ripples disappeared at the edge of the phenomenon.
As I continued to watch this strange event, I was unaware of what I was doing at the time; I was once more rubbing my chest. It didn't take me long to realize what I was doing and looked down at my chest. It was at this point I noticed how my chest felt a bit warm, and I stopped rubbing it.
I wanted to run, to get away from this weirdness I found myself in, but at this point, my own curiosity had gotten the best of me, and before I realized what I was doing, I was reaching for the transparent orb.
I don't even think my fingers lightly brushed against the orb, but I still felt the energy that jumped from the object and bit me with the force of a croc's jaw snapping shut. My entire body started to feel numb as the energy jumped from my arm and into my chest right in the spot I had been rubbing a second ago. I couldn't even scream when I felt like my head was about to explode when the energy reached it.
Suddenly, I felt something else happening; like my body was caving in on itself. I was thankful that my body was so numb at this point, or I might have blacked out from the pain. Still, what pain made it through was quite weird, if I was being honest.
If I didn't know any better, I would say it felt like my body as undergoing heavy changes in certain areas. But, I didn't know if it was the pain I was feeling that was making me think my body was changing or what.
But, I knew this I didn't like what I was feeling between my legs at the moment.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, the energy retracted back into the orb. I fell to my knees and tried to catch my breath. It felt like I had just had ran a marathon after I had done twenty laps in an Olympic-size pool. Then there's the arm I touched the orb with; it was so sore I wondered if I hadn't damage it somehow.
"What was-" I gasp when I heard my voice, which sounded very odd, and somehow familiar.
Feeling was starting to return to my body, and I slowly stood up. I saw that the pedestal had gotten a bit taller, and I noticed that my body just felt plain wrong. I began looking around the room, ignoring the sound of something hitting the floor and spotted what appears to be, a locked, glass cabin.
I cautiously took walked toward it, not truly trusting my body at the moment, and when I got closer, I realized the glass door was one-sided. I ignored this weirdness and looked in it.
"Mikoto Misaka…" I muttered breathlessly.
I could probably be knocked over with a grain of rice at this moment, that was just how much shock I was in. I almost thought that I was in some kind of dream, but the numbness in my arm was a clear reminder that I was awake.
I tried to shake my shock off and studied myself a little more thoroughly. I noticed that a section of hair, mostly near a hair clip that had appeared, was still my natural black color. I also saw that if I looked really hard, I could make out a faint red tinge in my now brown eyes.
There was just enough left of my natural tan color in my skin to give it a bit of more color than I remember seeing in the anime my roommate's so obsessed with.
I took a step back and studied the outfit that my jeans, sneakers, black t-shirt and jacket had changed into. It was basically Misaka's spring/summer school outfit, and despite looking really hard, I couldn't find anything left of my old outfit.
Done with this little study session, I sighed slightly and turned away from the cabinet. I frown when I saw the items on the floor and got closer. It was around this time that I realized something; I wasn't having any trouble moving.
Now that information was very disturbing in itself. I knew the character I turned into wasn't all that developed yet, but they should be enough of a difference that I shouldn't have adjusted in such a short period.
I filed this into the back of my head and bent down to look at the items. To my surprise, the items were my cell phone and my wallet, both of which were in my jacket pockets before I changed. I guess they must have been pushed out when my jacket changed into this silly vest.
Oh well, at least I can get something else to wear besides this stupid uniform. I reached for the items with both hands, and that was a mistake. I had forgotten that my arm was still sore, and when I moved it a bolt of pain rush up it.
The pain was so sudden, I become a bit disoriented and lost my balance when I went to grab it out of habit, and I hit the pedestal. Almost immediately, an alarm began to blare, and I cursed under my breath.
"You gotta be kidding me here. I touched the thing on the pedestal and nothing happened!"
I decided not to stick around any longer and quickly grabbed my items. I may not look like the person on my IDs at the moment, but there was enough information on them that they could pose a danger to me if I just left them.
I stuffed my stuff into a skirt pocket as I made a beeline for the exit. I guess I should count myself lucky that there was no one in this place at the time, so getting out should be easy.
Or it should have been, but that hope was dashed when the door suddenly opened and I cursed under my breath again when something big stepped into the door and blocked my only way out.
