It felt strange, to wake up and realize that you were no longer in the same body you went to sleep in, to no longer have arms or legs, or even distinguishable eyes or ears. I woke up without these things, and yet, I felt like so much more than what I used to be. Can you imagine what it is like, to suddenly have an intrinsic understanding of the space around you and know it is yours to command, to suddenly know that you could twist biology to your whims, to suddenly be an expert on subjects that you hadn't even known existed previously? I didn't have to imagine because it was my new reality, and it made me excited.
Less exciting was the realization that my memory was… fragmented, might be the best way to put it. I could remember some events, experiences, stories, but details were gone; I could no longer remember any names or dates, and I would say that I couldn't remember any faces but with aphantasia I could never do that anyway. Despite that, I recognized what I now was. I was a Shard, a conglomeration of cells from a fictional alien parasite, cast down to Earth to give some unlucky human superpowers. My role was to promote conflict and accumulate data, so that the secret to halting entropic decay could be found.
Feeling around, however, shows that my situation does not exactly line up with what I thought should be happening. For one, I'm not on some empty earth, ready to use its mass and energy to warp reality around my host; instead, I'm floating in the void of what feels like a pocket dimension, relying on my stored power to run my functions. Secondly, I don't even need to accumulate any data because it seems like the secret I was supposed to be looking for was just sitting there in my memory banks, waiting to be put to use. And lastly, while I am connected to a host, I can tell that, weirdly enough, they are also me. They are even more diminished in memory than myself, and seem to be younger as well, but at their core they're still me. I'm… not sure how that had happened, but whatever went wrong apparently mutated them because they aren't entirely human anymore. I… me… my host seems to be around eight or nine years old, but, unlike the typical human child, my host now has furry, digitigrade legs tipped with hooves, a short, furry tail, and small, golden horns from which two small golden weighing scales hung; in other words, he looks like a satyr who has weird jewelry on his horns. He is also unconscious, in an alley. I… should probably do something about that.
It looks like during the connection process restrictions were placed on how I could express my powers through my host, which was annoying, but I could work with those. Aha, one of the power expressions is a physical projection… with its own set of powers. That's strange, but one of them is a healing aura so hopefully that will get my host up and moving. Reaching through the wormhole, I twist the space next to my host in just the right way and a figure pops into existence. Why is the projection a little girl? Whatever, I can deal with that later. I activate the projections healing aura and then wait a second to see what will happen. My host starts to groan a little, which is probably an improvement, but he's still unconscious.
Seeing that he won't be waking up for a while, I decide to catch someone's attention. Hopefully, they can call an ambulance or maybe the Protectorate, and they can come and help my host. I take control of the projection and begin walking down the alley towards the street, before I change my mind and go back to grab my host. The projection isn't strong enough to lift him, so I grab him by the armpits and drag him. Thankfully, I have a three hundred and sixty degree field of view around my host, so I can avoid the trash and puddles in the alley. Once we're out of the alley, I set him against a wall and look around for anybody passing by.
Spotting a woman walking quickly on the other side of the street, I run up to her. She startles and looks at me, asking, "Can I help you?"
I go to ask for her help before stopping with my mouth open. I panic, realizing I don't know how to talk like a little girl. The woman looks at me strangely and starts to turn away. I start waving my arms around erratically before pointing over to my host.
"Oh," the woman exclaims, "um, okay, let me see if I can help."
She glances around and then heads back across the street towards my host. I move ahead of her, and, when she gets to us, I show her how he's unconscious by shaking his shoulders.
She looks confused by his horns but goes ahead and asks me, "Can you tell me what happened to him?"
I shake my head no and she asks another question, "Can you speak?"
When I again respond negatively, she says, "Ok, I'm going to call some people who will be able to help, alright?"
Without waiting for any response, she pulls out her phone and dials a number. "Hello, I have two children here on the side of the street with me. One of them is unconscious, and the other is mute and can't tell me what happened," she said into the phone, "Uh-huh. Um, the unconscious one is a boy, maybe seven or eight, and the other is a girl, same age or a little younger. We are near 86th and Stevens St. And I think the boy might be a cape, so maybe call the PRT as well. Ok, ok, yeah, I can stay with them for a little while. Thanks."
She hung up the phone and then looked at me, "Ok. An ambulance is on the way, and I'm going to stay with you two until it gets here, if that's ok with you?"
I nod my head and smile at her. I sit down next to my host and look around while waiting, trying to see where we are. After a few minutes, I hear a motorcycle, and, when I look for it, I see a man in what looks like armor coming towards us. When he pulls up beside us, I decide my work here is done for now and, not wanting to be asked questions I can't answer, I twist space again, dissipating the projection.