Ch. 2: The Rebirth of the Female Bandicoot.
As sudden as if I were hit by a bullet, I immediately woke up and quickly used my mighty sniffer to scope out the area. It was only a short while until I had found the familiar scents of the jungle plants, the rolling sea-salt infused waves, and the distance scents of food that I knew I was right back in the jungle. If I can close my eyes and think really hard, I can distinctly recall the sight of me amongst a number of different plants, indicating that I was both in a different patch of the jungle than I was last time, and that there was bright light that could be seen from the canopy of the trees, which indicated that it was sometime around mid-day. Still being a wild animal, I did not even ponder what had just happened, as I wandered through the patch of plants toward my next meal.
Low and behold, right out of a patch of grass, stood a mighty ant hill, worker ants poured out the top as if the queen had made a royal decree that she and the entire colony should immediately pack up everything and move to a new hill. I then snuck up from behind the hill as if not wanting to arouse suspicion, until I was right there beside it, immediately eating them one by one and enjoying myself to the fullest.
And then I heard humming.
Not the normal kind of humming you hear around summertime from Cicadas that might populate the warm, humid, air where you live. No, more like the humming of a piece of nearby plant harvesting equipment that you may find on a farm or tropical jungle setting. In other words, something very foreign and scary.
I guess a part of me must have remembered the events of what had happened yesterday (or it was just an everyday fight or flight response, again, that day was a hypothetical day and normal bandicoots do not have good memory) for I then immediately ran into a bush behind the hill and continued for parts unknown. I ran for as far as my little bandicoot paws could carry me, using my nose to hopefully find my territory so I can hide in my little burrow and wait out the noise.
Only the noise did not go away, for no matter how fast I ran, the noise seemed to be right close to me. In fact, after some time had past, (How much time exactly? Enough to realize when something is afoot, that's what.), I then stopped, turned back, and realized that nothing was behind me. I then started to realize that the noise did not come from anything in the area, but instead, had come from above me.
My ears then led my eyes to a hole in the canopy right above me, to what appeared to be two glowing balls in the sky: one larger, one smaller. The more I looked at it, the more I felt as if the temperature started to grow warmer and warmer, the rest of the plants around me seeming to become more red in color as if they were burning up from the intense heat. As the humming started to increase with the increasing heat, I then tried to move away, only to feel like both my legs and head were being restrained by some invisible force. It truly felt like I had no choice but to stare up at what appeared to be the sun and its twin brother as they were about to explode and devour the entire world.
"Cu-Cu-Cortex! I still think you are making a big mistake"!
(…)
My eyes then slowly started to open, only to find that I was flat on my back in what appeared to be a pitch-dark room. Okay pitch black is a bit of an overstatement, for there were a couple of windows that showed off the night sky, as well as a couple of monitors on the walls that did give off some sort of dim light. That, and there just so happens to be this giant, over the top, evil ray gun mounted on the ceiling, whose blinking lights, radiating rings around the nozzle, and two glowing protruding from that nozzle seemed to be aimed just inches away from my heart.
[Seriously, what is the use of all those light bulbs near the top of the Evolvo Ray anyways, to draw more attention at the next evil scientist's convention.]
"N-Brio, now is not the time to be getting cold feet!", I heard from the far-left corner of the room, "We are in the process of creating scientific history here! Do you want us to waste all of that valuable time and electricity by shutting this machine off now"!?
"B-but Cortex,…", I heard from my right, followed by a brief chuckle, "…a creature as small as small as the Ripper Roo had barley survived all of those changes! Aren't you afraid that the effects of the Evolvo Ray might ki-ki-ki-ki-kill someone of her small stature"!?
There then was, supposedly, a brief bit of silence before Cortex continued in what appeared to be an angry tone.
"Moron! Do you think I am not aware of the consequences!? While you were gone, I had taken it upon myself to reconfigure the ray so that the dark mojo only effects small parts of a creature at a time! A bandicoot like her should be able to recover no problem"!
N-Brio's eyes then opened real wide, and his mouth hung open like their hinges had just snapped apart after years of neglect and abuse.
[A/N: N-Brio's words not mine.]
"Bu-bu-but Cortex…", N-Brio had said with barely enough air in his lungs to continue, "I am the only one who knows how to a-alter this machine…I…I… was the one who invented it".
Cortex then let out frustrated growl.
"Just trust me and do as your told! Quickly, throw the switch"!
And just like that.
Tch…CLUNK!
The switch was pulled, and the humming started to intensify even more so.
I then tried to roll over to get back on my arms and legs, only to find that what had been restraining me in my dream had turned out to be these brown leather straps that were attached to some kind of cold metal surface (to which I would later find out is called a gurney). After the realization that I was pretty much stuck there had entered my thick skull, I just laid there as those two bulbs pulsated with energy from the ray, enveloping every square corner of my vision with blinding white light.
Among the ocean of whiteness, I could faintly recall hearing N-Brio whispering something to me in a hushed tone so as not to anger his yellow master anymore than what he already has that day. Though N-Brio cannot personally recall him ever saying this, I could have sworn that right before the moment that my life would be changed forever, I overheard N-Brio whispering into my ear: "P-p-please be brave, my little Tawna".
Suddenly, a bolt of electricity shot out from the ray and shook me all about like I was being played with by a cat with Parkinson's disease. I must have let out the loudest shriek of my life as the mojo fueled electric beam made its way into every single fiber of my being, doing God only knows what to me.
…
As sudden as if I were hit by a second bullet, I immediately woke up in pretty much the same area I was in before. Like I mentioned previously, I was not the kind of creature to recognize past, present, and future events, or the kind of creature to recognize similarities and differences between those events, so it would surprise no one that I was already on the prowl for my next meal.
Low and behold, right out of that same patch of grass, stood that ant hill again. Sneaking up to the side of the hill, I was about to commence snacking down on those little boogers to my hearts content...
...but then my brain started to hurt.
It was only a quick and sharp kind of pain, sort of like if could actually feel a quick transfer of electricity from one neuron to another in your brain, (I bet you didn't know I was so well versed in biology, did you). I remembered me shrieking, but the pain was so quick that I immediately forgot about it and continued onward in my feast.
And then I felt weird.
Writing this right now, I am not sure how I can try to describe the kind of weird that I felt in a way that makes sense, but I am going to try anyways.
Hear me out:
Imagine you are a machine designed to place the hoods on cars in an assembly line. As soon as the computer sends the signal to turn you on, your mechanical arm immediately extends toward one of the belts so you can then pick up the hood, turn around, places it on the car, rinse and repeat this process until the computer tells you to turn off. Now imagine that one day, as you are busy placing the hoods on those cars, a thought hits you:
"I exist".
You are not yet aware what you are doing, why you are doing it, or that you are even a machine, but rather the fact that you are some kind of being that takes up space.
That was what I had felt during that time near that ant hill, for at that moment, though my instincts had kept on telling me to eat those ants because I was hungry and I needed to eat, I had actually felt like I was aware of myself. I was something standing by some elevated patch of dirt that was eating these little guys, that I was not even sure what they are called, in an area that I also did not know what to call it.
After I had finished eating, I then crawled away from the ant hill, this weird feeling not seeming to go away as I made my way back toward my hole in the ground.
And then the pain came back…hard.
Not even inches from the hill, more of these electric shocks traveled through my brain, the pain being so unbearable that I just laid there with my paws over my head and my eyes closed as I braced for impact. With every shock, it seemed as if more and more revelations kept on popping up in my head like popcorn: I started to recognize the jungle as the place that I live, I became aware of my everyday routine of waking up in my burrow, finding food, and sleeping; I even became aware of the giant nose on my face. But most importantly, I also started to remember my time both before and leading up the castle (which both explains my brief memories in both this chapter and chapter 1).
…
One of those shocks must have been particularly painful, for I do remember eventually waking up during the middle of one and found myself, yet again, strapped to a gurney back in the castle.
Though I was still strapped down to a metal surface, a quick look around had told me that this was a different room than the one I had been in before. For starters, there was only one window that seemed to show visions of the outside, and I could faintly recall seeing a ceiling as well as these black horizontal lines that seemed to block the only exit out. In other words, a dungeon cell, or at least one that both had a gurney recently installed and a doctor's office's amount of equipment lying around.
Even though the storm still brewed in my head, I still tried to wriggle my way out, only to find something else new:
Every part of my body, from my kangaroo-like hind legs, to the tips of my ears, were on fire.
Not literally on fire though, but the aches and pains I felt could have fooled me. The first wriggle I attempted caused such a negative reaction, that I screeched into the heavens for all to hear. Except this was not my normal everyday screech, (that you may be used to seeing me do by this point), this one sounded bigger, deeper, less rodent like, and it hurt like hell in both my throat, as well as my face.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared above me, giving me both a better view of both the stone walls and the metal bars, as well as inviting another shockwave of agony to ripple across my entire nervous system as I try turn my head away from the source. The sound of a creaking gate drew my attention to the entrance of my cell as Dr. N-Brio slowly entered the room. He tip toed inside carrying a glass container containing something that, honestly, looked like apple sauce, with a lid that looked like it should belong on a container of strawberry jam. He then began to hum to himself as he placed the container on the end of the gurney, and then proceeded to press a button at the side of the wall that slowly made the gurney pinch inward as it transitioned to a more upright position, leaving me just hanging there on the top half of the device with my feet left to kick at the air.
After picking up the jar and untwisting its lid, he then retrieved a metal spoon from one of his coat pockets and then proceeded to scoop up some of the glop and then edged it toward my face.
"Don't worry my dear, I've mu-mu-modified your formula so that now the pain should subside within a couple of minutes of ingestion. So, please, pu-p-please, can you open wide"?
Seeing as how you can argue that I just now received the mind of human only recently, it was only fitting that I refused that glop like one stubborn baby, with every attempt Brio made to let the "air plane" land being met with one harsh denial after the other. Eventually though, he did leave me alone, turning his back toward me as he gently walked out of the cell door, giving me the chance to leave me alone with my own thoughts. For a while I just sat there, trying not to move so as not to invite another nervous system attack, until I began to move one of my fingers where I would discover that something had changed.
As I looked toward that paw, (I can just hear my past self whimpering with all of that movement), I had noticed that this "finger" actually came from one of these two little nubs that had seemed to inexplicably appear on my paw since the last time I became conscious. Upon further inspection, I had then noticed that not only had these two nubs appeared on my other hand, but also my feet as well, with me only being able to move each of them just a little bit.
A short while later, N-brio then came back into my cell pushing what looked to be a steel table on wheels, with what appears to be a small Tupperware container containing something small, dark, and moving on it. N-brio then wheeled the table overt to my line of sight and then opened the lid to reveal that that something was actually a small group of ants that were scurrying across their little prison, completely unaware of what was about to come next. Not content with the ants I had eaten in my dreams, I moved my head toward the container, mouth open, and ready to chow down.
N-brio, being the conniving man that he secretly is, saw this as his opportunity and quickly poured the sauce down my throat while my mouth was open, to which I swallowed without much thought.
At first, nothing had happened, but then only a short while later, I felt my eye lids slowly start to droop again as I began to go under, something besides heavy duty pain killers obviously being included in that modified formula.
And this is where things become a bit fuzzy, for I was mostly asleep through the rest of my mutation, leading to time and events kind of getting blurred together as I drifted in and out of dream land, my only real companion being the football headed man who would occasionally given me food.
Most of my dreams, as you may guessed, all involved me hunting food in the jungle as if nothing had ever happened. Except this time, as each part of my body slowly started to reconfigure itself, I had the displeasure of hunting with what my dream self would either perceive to be a broken leg, or an arm, or my back, or even having two swollen mosquito bites forming on your chest. However, no matter how many changes I had went through during my time in that cell, it did not feel as painful as it was in the beginning. In fact, I even started to feel my strength increase from all these new changes.
One of the dreams that I can still recall as if I were still there was one were my hunting was unexpectedly interrupted by one of the local large falcons on the island, its brown feathers blending in perfectly with the nearby branches as it swooped in and wrapped its talons around my two shoulders. In any other instance, this would spell doom for me, but this time, I had the nerve to repeatedly swat at those yellow claws with my longer bandicoot fingers as he struggled to get my body off of the ground, making the weirdest squawks I have ever heard in my life:
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Cut it out. Ow. Ow. Ow".
…
I then slowly opened my eyes again to see N-brio again, this time, off in the corner rubbing the parts of his hands I had scratched in my dream.
Immediately, I had noticed something felt different. Looking down, I had noticed a large beige blanket covering a large section of my body. True, this blanket could have been there all along, but I've also been so high lately that I may not have even noticed. I then began to wiggle my arm and had also found that the restraints had also seem to have gone, at least on my legs. With this revelation, I then kicked the blanket off, the shock of what I saw pulverized me with fear.
"Uhhmm...He-he-he happy birthday Tawna.", N-brio had said with a nervous chuckle, "Welcome to the first day of b-u-bu-bu-both your new life, and your new body".