Creature Changers

So much has happened this week. My birthday, my winning the Best Female for the Rockman EXE Online song contest, my receiving FFVII (which I can't play because my CD Drive is SPOILT) and choir practices. Ah well.

I'd like to apologise for any OOCness I might have entered. I have really tried my best to write as IC as possible, and I only made Sheba yell because I thought that she was the type to shout when she gets worked up. After all, she yelled at the Wise One in the game. If Sheba is not like that, then I sincerely apologise. I will continue to try to keep my characters IC.

EDIT: Two whole weeks have passed since I wrote all that. Gah.

Disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun. BUUUTT... I do own the recipe of the Changertract potion!

Isaac: (raises finger) Remember, kids, don't try it at home!

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Chapter 16: More Mysteries

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Isaac slammed his palm onto the red button labelled "Emergency". As Felix hopped towards the fire extinguisher opposite Jenna's bed and struggled to unlock it, Isaac pulled thick sheets and blankets off the nearest bed and moved cautiously forward.

Smother the fire! Don't let it have oxygen to continue burning!

Before he could throw the heavy pile, a flicker of the fire touched him. Isaac flinched, then froze.

It's not... hot...!

Felix grunted at the weight of the fire extinguisher as he aimed.

"No, wait!" Isaac cried, staring at the flames in disbelief.

"Have you gone mad!"

Under the changers' eyes, the fiery wings retreated. Jenna was still unconscious, unaware of what had happened. Slowly, the flames disappeared into Jenna's back.

"Body temperature returning to normal. Blood pressure dropping. Condition stabilizing."

On the screen, Jenna's body was fully healed.

"What... how... igonher?" Felix had no idea what he was saying. Isaac was speechless.

Jenna opened her eyes. She glanced around sleepily, then caught sight of Isaac and Felix, both of whom were gaping like goldfishes out of water.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Where's that cylcops? What's going on? Where's this?"

She hopped steadily out of bed, pulling casts, wires, tubes, blankets and machinery with her.

"Jenna! You're still hurt!" Felix protested. "You can't just..."

"Me? Hurt? I don't feel hurt," Jenna said, looking puzzled. She eyed her body, frowning at the bandages that covered her. Tearing a cast off her arm, she stared distastefully at the heavy green cream applied to her skin. Scraping it off quickly with the cast, she revealed a perfectly healthy arm. Shaking it randomly, she grinned at Isaac and Felix.

"See, I'm perfectly fi..."

SLAM.

"Oh my! What happened!"

A group of doctors and nurses stared at all three changers.

"The girl... she was in critical condition..." one of the nurses stammered. She collapsed and fainted, nearly squashing a male nurse standing behind her.

"OHMIGOD!"

"How... could this..."

"What did you..."

"Call the hospital!"

"You're already at the hospital!" Jenna yelled crossly.

Silence reigned.

But was overthrown again.

"Check her!"

"And the girl on the floor! What's wrong with her!"

"You two should be in your wards!"

Talking, yelling, pressing buttons and panicking all at once, the medical team in the room sprung into action. Mia was hoisted onto an empty bed, and Jenna was pulled back onto her own.

"Say nothing about what happened!" Jenna hissed suddenly. Then both Felix and Isaac were pushed back to their wards.

"What's she talking about?" Felix demanded in a whisper.

"She apparently doesn't want the doctors to know about Mia healing us..." Isaac muttered back.

"Why?"

"Beats me."

"Go in and be quiet!" Someone said, throwing open the door to their room. A very angry nurse was glaring at Sheba.

A very nervous Sheba.

"I ask again, where have they gone?"

"Behind you," Felix replied. The very angry nurse whipped her very angry head around, and became, if possible, even angrier.

Taking a very deep breath, she glared at Isaac and Felix, who both let out very small "uh-oh"s.

"And where, have you two, been?" she asked very slowly, in a very pleasant voice.

Too pleasant.

"C-Calm down, Brigitta," a male nurse behind them said cautiously. "You don't want to kill them, now, do you?"

"Yes, I do, Malcolm," Brigitta replied. "INTO BED."

Felix and Isaac didn't need a second command. Sheba gave them both a devilish glare from beneath her blanket.

"The three of you will STAY THERE until I say so," Brigitta ordered. "Have I finally made myself CLEAR!"

All three changers nodded. Brigitta turned to Malcolm and the other nurse with him.

"Where's the fourth patient? Miss Blue-hair?"

"She collapsed in the ICU, and they're running several tests on her," Malcolm replied. Brigitta raised an eyebrow.

"Collapsed? That doesn't sound right... wait..."

As if she had suddenly remembered something, she turned to look at Isaac.

"Your cast... it's loose... and you're fine with that? And jumping up and down?" she asked suspiciously.

"Uh... hahaha! Wow, I wonder why?" Isaac said, smiling nervously.

"Hm... Send for Dr. Ferdinand. I'll call Dr. Martin. And YOU THREE WILL STAY HERE."

Brigitta opened the door, ushered the other nurses out, wagged her finger at the changers, then closed the door.

Sheba shot up at once.

"Where on earth did you two go?" she demanded.

As Felix explained, Isaac's eyes kept straying to the door.

What happened to Mia? And Jenna? What's going on?

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The door opened, and Jenna entered briskly, looking sulky. Behind her was Dr. Martin, carrying a still unconscious Mia, and another man in a long lab coat.

"Jenna! What-" Felix started.

"This is Dr. Ferdinand, and he's a specialist on healing of the human body's tissues," Dr. Martin introduced, laying Mia down on an empty bed beside Sheba.

"How is Mia?" Isaac asked.

"Don't worry. We've checked her, and she's fine." Isaac breathed a sigh of relief at Dr. Ferdinand's words. "Strangely enough, however, she doesn't have a single wound on her. It's as if she's just sleeping from exhaustion," the doctor said. He had almond brown hair parted neatly in the centre and dark, piercing eyes. Those dark piercing eyes moved from Jenna to Mia, then to Isaac.

"We have reason to think that your abilities to recover so quickly may have to do with your changing abilities," Dr. Martin said. "Currently, there are no doctors in this hospital that specialises in Changers. We've sent to Headquarters for specialists, and meanwhile, we'd like to run a few tests on you, if there're no objections..."

"There ARE objections!" Jenna interrupted. "We. Are. Not. Your. Test. Subjects. How many times do I have to say that?"

"Well, if you don't want to have tests, then perhaps you should tell us the truth about what happened to you," Dr. Ferdinand said.

"I already told you, we don't know! Isaac and Felix came to visit me, and then I woke up. When I did, my injuries had disappeared. We have absolutely NO IDEA about what is going on!" Jenna insisted.

So that was it. She doesn't want to be an experiment the scientists work on... so she won't talk about anything... Isaac knew then that Jenna was thinking about what the djinn had gone through.

"Indeed? Well, I think otherwise. Well, in this hospital, the doctors have the last say," Dr. Ferdinand said firmly. Ignoring Dr. Martin's weak protests, he continued on, his eyes glaring at Jenna. "And I will not release any of you until we get the information we need."

"Who are you to keep us here?" Felix demanded.

"I am the doctor," Dr. Ferdinand replied calmly. "The curing of your injuries could be a temporary thing, and for all we know, your wounds might burst open all of a sudden after a few days. We must keep you under observation."

"Like hell you will!" Jenna exploded. "All you want is to learn how we recovered so quickly, then use it to grab fame! All you scientists are the same!"

Was Isaac hallucinating? Or were tiny flames flickering out from Jenna's body?

"We're not objects that you can run tests on until you're satisfied! We have lives to live, and we're not going to spend our time working for a greedy someone else! You have no right to make us your lab rats!" Jenna thundered on. The flames were forming lightly around her, translucent and heated.

"What... what're you doing?" Dr. Martin cried, alarmed.

"Jenna!" Felix yelled. "What-"

But Jenna ignored them. "I don't care what you guys want! We're out of here! I won't let you use any of my friends as a lab experiment!"

"Calm down!" Dr. Ferdinand yelled back, hastily moving backwards and heading for the door. Jenna's fiery barrier had heated the whole room.

"I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO GET AT THEM!"

Both doctors fled.

"Jenna! That's enough!" Isaac shouted. "You're going to burn something if you don't stop!"

Jenna turned. Her eyes shone bright red as she looked around at them.

"We'll be all right. I promise!" she said defiantly. The flames flickered towards them.

Remembering what had happened previously, Felix reached towards the fire cautiously. The flames curled around his fingers and slid up his arm, filling him with a warm yet cooling sensation. There were no words to describe it.

Isaac stared at him and Sheba in wonder. Both their bruises were disappearing slowly.

"Jenna... can heal... too?" he asked.

The flames died. Jenna turned to him, looking confused but normal.

"How... what did I...?"

Felix raised his leg and shook it. No wincing.

"You know, I reckon that Kraden will be all over himself with excitement when he hears about this," Sheba commented.

"I think you're right," Jenna said. Then she fainted.

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"Are you sure you can be discharged like this?" Dr. Martin asked doubtfully.

"We'll be fine," Felix assured him. "But we need to get out of here."

He wasn't about to let Jenna explode again.

"I want you all to know that we have your interests at heart. So I think it would be best if you waited for a guardian to collect you," Dr. Martin said nervously, brushing his fringe back absently. "Besides... the two girls can't walk home themselves."

"They're just exhausted. We'll be fine." Felix hoisted Jenna onto his back. "I want to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Well, it's your decision really. Are you sure you won't wait for a parent?" Dr. Martin asked doubtfully.

"We don't have one." Swiftly, he exited the building.

"They... don't?" Sheba looked taken aback.

"Oh dear... Will the two of them be all right?" Dr. Martin looked even more worried. "All that paperwork and things..."

"They'll be fine," Isaac said, more confidently than he felt. He could not stop thinking about what Dr. Ferdinand had said. What if the healing was really temporary? None of the changers had any experience in the healing department.

"I'll have to speak to the director about letting them off their medical fees," Dr. Martin said. Isaac suddenly felt that he was one of the doctors in the hospital that actually cared about the patients.

"Well, I should probably head back too," Sheba said.

"You do have parents, right?" Dr. Martin said nervously. "I think you should wait for them. If anything happens to any of you I won't be able to forgive myself."

"So then we're to wait here until our parents come?" Sheba said glumly. Her eyes moved to the clock on the wall. "There's not much daylight left, and I still have homework to do!"

Isaac chuckled. It was supposed to be only one weekend, with typical homework problems, but it seemed as if months had passed.

"Mr. Char will fry me if I don't finish his History homework," he agreed.

"No he won't!"

All three turned to see Dora at the door. She gaped to see him without the bandages.

"Doctor, should he stay away from school for some time?" she asked weakly. "Just in case anything happens...?"

"I don't think it'd be much of a problem," Dr. Martin said. "I am rather worried, but they're still fine now... And missing school will mean a lot of trouble trying to make up. I think you should continue your daily life unless something serious happens. You should come for check ups regularly for a couple of months, at least."

"All right, thank you, doctor." Dora was still looking distressed. Holding Isaac's arm as if he were made of glass, she pulled him out of the room and waved to Dr. Martin.

"Kyle's waiting outside. Let's go home," Dora said.

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"Isaac! Isaac!"

"You're back!"

Flint bounced on the bed. As he flew into the air, Ground hit the bed. Alternately, they took turns to jump and squeak greetings at Isaac.

"Hiya," Isaac greeted, collapsing onto his bed with a sigh.

"Are you okay?" Flint asked, stopping. He climbed onto Isaac's lap.

"We saw you go out yesterday night! Dora said it's dangerous! Was it? Was it?" Ground asked.

"I'm fine. You guys warned Mom and Dad that I got lured out, right? Thanks," Isaac said gratefully.

"Aw, it was nothing. Nothing!" Ground said happily.

"We just want to see you safe," Flint added, tilting his head to one side. Isaac hugged both of them.

"Thanks again, you guys. I..."

"Isaac?" It was Kyle. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah!"

"Come down and see this!" Dora called. Both djinn looked at him curiously. Shaking his head blankly, Isaac proceeded down the stairs.

As he entered the living room, he noticed both Kyle and Dora perched in front of the television.

"What's the matter?"

The television blared.

"... Brett Marshall, age twenty-three."

Two photographs appeared on the screen.

Isaac gasped.

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Judgment. It's late. I'm not thinking straight. I've to go sleep.

Pardon the shortness this time round... I'm exhausted. Hate school...

Daidairo

Until next... (yawn)