John had FIVE apple slices now! But only four of them could fit in his Pocket, so he just hid the last slice in his hand and enjoyed the texture of the thing.
Unlike the others, which were… Somewhere… This one would have to eventually be eaten or it would get slimy and gross and stuff. But for now, it was his too! His!
Wedgie had like a whole army of friends now!
Also, the nice nurses kept trying to get him to talk, and to remember stuff, and all that. Which was fine, because he remembered a WHOLE lot of stuff, even if most of it was loneliness and being lost and possessing nothing and…
Anyway, they were trying real hard to get him to remember his 'actual' name and family and what happened to him and stuff, yet for some reason they weren't satisfied with 'I lost my name years ago' and other such answers.
Assuming he had a name, and a family, and all that… He had a whole new body now, right?
[[Correct.]]
So it wasn't like he was genetically related to… Whoever they were. And any memories he might have originally had were lost in the millenia or longer of madness, crippling sanity, and endless dreams and fantasies they constructed to help endure the endless nothingness.
So right now, System and Wedgie were his family! Plus his small yet growing army of apple slicy friends!
That was fine, right?
The nurses said 'no', and well… Who was John to argue with them?
They were nurses, they knew lots of nurse-related stuff.
Still, he didn't mind being a John. And a doe was a female deer, someone wrote a whole song about it!
So he was deer to someone, and he was a John, and supposedly there were LOTS of Johns out there (And something about a lot of John Smiths?), so that was a whole BUNCH of potential new friends and stuff!
Anyway, for now his Pocket was slowly growing stronger from use and could protect a few more apple slices a day, and that was enough for him. John was fine with this.
He wasn't bothering anybody anyway, right?
[[Funds for services rendered have been appropriated from legal sources and apprehended accounts belonging to criminal organizations.]]
Yeah, so it was good! Probably!
Plus, it felt awesome here. He could touch his new clothing, and smell his pillow, and his sheets were cool, and he could hear things as the nurses helped other people down the hall, and all sorts of fascinating new experiences!
Things were going great!
~~~Pocket System~~~
He sighed. "One of the stranger medical incidents I've ever run into, honestly… And that's saying something! I'm going to think about this for a long time, let me tell you!"
His guest gave a soft sigh and began putting on some black sunglasses. "Perhaps not."
The doctor grunted. "No, none of that, I've got a medical exemption."
The man in the black suit paused from pulling something out from his jacket. "Really?"
Dr. Sonsen nodded. "Medical Group ︎1233 ︎, ID ๔332. I've got clearance."
He grinned! "Always glad to meet one of our finest!" He held out a hand. "I'm Agent G, good to meet you."
The doctor nodded. "Likewise. I've done my best to keep this one isolated."
Agent G chuckled. "No wonder you took things so well… Right, if we can disperse all the circle talk, what is actually going on here?"
Dr. Sonsen frowned. "Not a species I recognize, but whatever it is can fake human VERY well. And he is polite too, thankfully… None of my staff have been altered or modified to the best of our awareness, though I have kept the ones who may be contaminated together and in containment. Following standard procedures on this one helped keep it contained significantly."
The agent hummed. "Found a Gloaranian once who attempted to pass himself off as human during his surgery… Did pretty well too, except he didn't understand asymmetrical bodies. Gave his 'human' body two hearts, noses, mouths, and so on and so forth…"
Dr. Sonsen snorted. "Compared to the time I had a kidney unravel into a nest of tentacles, that sounds like a relaxing vacation! No, this one was like I said before, just strange. Theoretically, it was a young human male, eight to nine years old… But he just wouldn't die."
Extra documents were handed over to the man. "Medically, despite our best care, he should have passed away twenty four times during our operation. Many more times before it, no doubt… More than enough to have me ensure that only cleared personnel interacted with the patient, when possible."
Agent G hummed, glancing over the lists and pulling up his phone, activating one of the more restricted applications. "You said Group ︎1233 ︎, ID?"
Dr. Sonsen was already moving old documents to the unofficial 'shredder' that was dissolving the evidence. "Id ๔332, medical division. And yes, I know the twenty others on the list will have to be handled… But at least it should speed up the procedure, having kept them all within the same teams."
He nodded as the device beeped and a hologram began marking names in red. "Any further concerns with the patient after treatment?"
The doctor nodded. "He went into some sort of healing coma, and seems to radiate an odd sort of 'wellness aura' that initially caused me some concern. He's currently resting in one of the agency's secured assisting living homes, which you should be able to access now that you've followed procedure and can unlock his case files."
Agent G sighed, frustrated. "Yes, now it's coming up. Potential teleportation incident, case E#223483D34, Subject 'John Doe', etc." So much time could have been saved if this data had been unlocked earlier!
Dr. Sonsen shrugged. "You couldn't even be called in until we cleared the patient. He could be a mnemonic risk or… Well, you understand the risks. And further research will likely be needed to ensure this 'Recovery Aura' causes no long term issues to the exposed personnel…" Sigh. "One of the stranger medical incidents I've ever run into, period."
The agent nodded and began modifying deployment and handling procedures to fit the situation. "Any handling procedures or suggestions?"
The doctor shrugged. "Apple slices. The kid loves them, though I'm not sure if it is a cultural thing, a biological requirement, or a psychological desire. Remote medical monitoring confirms it isn't blatantly poisoning the child or causing any detectable amount of addiction… But then again our equipment thinks he is just a normal young human kid!"
The agent blinked and checked the attached list of apple species. "So stick with these types, just to be safe? Can do."
A flash of light behind them confirmed that the supporting staff were now cleared, though neither the Agent or the Doctor flinched at the sudden experience. Agent G nodded, and began putting away the materials. "I'll begin the entry procedure to the secured medical site in twelve hours, after filing the paperwork and getting some Gala apples for the kid. Hopefully this will all go better with a bit of a bribe at hand."
Who knew? Stranger things had happened before.
~~~Pocket System~~~
John winced at the continuing burn, but it worked!
Wedgie now had ANOTHER new friend, Sir Appley Sliceton the 18th!
Still, it felt odd stretching the System Pocket like this. Like a heavy bruise, or a strained muscle, it burned to push his limits so far and so fast… Even if it was only by increments of apple slices.
Which was awesome! Feeling stuff was great!
[[Self Harm is not a requirement for feeling sensations.]]
Well no, and it sucks to hurt (theoretically), but look at how many apple slices he had now! They were wall HIS and they lived in his secret Pocket and they'd never leave him or vanish or turn into another of the endless Dreams or…
John shook his head.
Plus, this was like training, right?
[[As limits are exceeded, the collected Data allows System to enhance the existing features to increase functionality while decreasing risks and energy expenditures.]]
Yeah! Training!
[[Overworking or exceeding recommended levels of activity can adversely affect…]]
Eventually he could have SO many new segmented fruity friends!
[[Excessive damage could limit Pocket capacity until fully recovered.]]
…Oh.
He sighed, and slumped back into his medical bed. Alright. Fine.
He'd slow down with the whole 'stuffing his Pocket with awesome things' plan. For now. Temporarily.
He felt the System subtly point out that the existing resources could be redirected in other ways, that he could alter his priority list to adjust the rate of 'full recovery' and 'unlocking abilities' and all that… But waved it off like usual.
He and his System were mostly fine now, and he had his Pocket!
The rest could take its time recovering, he had more than he ever dreamed of now and it felt amazing to just experience this.
After all, he just had to relax and recover! And that was easy!
He found himself staring at another of the apple slices from lunch.
Not that he would take it.
Nor was he hungry.
He was just looking, alright? That was fine! People looked at things all the time!
…At things that might begin to go bad if left out in this uncaring world.
But such was life, right? Things happened! And he was busy recovering!
…Although he DID feel less of a strain now.
John stared harder at the slice.
Maybe… Maybe he had waited long enough already?
[[13.932 seconds have passed since…]]
But like, that was long enough right? The background burn was WAY better now, and the more he did this thing the easier it got, right!?
[[It is inadvisable to…]]
Yeah! It would be fine!
Come join my friends, Sir Appley Sliceton the 19th!
[[Pocket!]]
OW!
A spike of pain!
[[HOST was warned that…]]
Who could have seen this coming!? Woe to the world!
Oh, it felt slightly better now. Thank appley goodness!
[[Temporary pain relieving measures have been taken and…]]
He must be getting better at this!
[[...Pocket has temporarily been placed into lockdown until module has fully restabilized.]]
WHAT! WHY!?
[[...]]
Nooo! Wedgie, you must take care of the apple clan! Only you can guide them in their fruity ways, only you can protect them from isolation and endless self doubt!
With a worn and bitter heart, John Doe began to slowly consume the remaining survivors, each delicious apple slice sacrificing their lives to rejoin their beloved ones in spirit, if not in Pocket.
They were going to be deliciously missed. Especially the slightly sour apples, those ones were amazing! Though the sweet ones were nice too, and in general the crispy crunch of biting into a fresh apple wedge was always pleasant in general…
~~~Pocket System~~~
'Jessica Smith' sighed as she went through decontamination.
John seemed like a nice boy, whatever species he was… But he certainly wasn't human. Or fully recovered.
It was why they all had to go through these quarantines and screenings and stuff, because of his 'healing aura' or 'health field' or whatever this was.
That field had made this most recent case FAR more frightening to be involved with initially when they first started providing long term medical care to the child…
But now they have gathered some data to work with?
Well, the thing was just mildly frustrating.
At first, the staff had all gone through their mental checklist for what would go wrong… Indoctrination, attempted harvesting of bystanders, mental degradation, hormone rebalancing, the whole list. Each of the cleared personnel had to go through a battery of tests and checks and reviews and… Sigh.
But now they had a grip on this area of affect ability. A general gist of what was going on.
When John Doe was hurt in some way, his attempt to recover was somehow 'spilling' into the surroundings on some nonphysical plane of existence.
The radius of effect was fixed, and ignored all materials and creatures that attempted to disrupt it… But thankfully, it seemed to ALSO be sophisticated in the automatic execution of its duties.
No cancer, no rampant cellular aging… Hell, this wasn't even pure regeneration or time reversal or flesh replacement! No, it was something more bizarre.
Test subjects (And staff) didn't just heal basic wounds or regenerate lost digits and flesh and so forth when in range, no… They 'fixed' things about themselves, things that weren't controlled by genetics alone!
Scars and stretch marks vanished, sure! But so did unwanted freckles and blemishes. Eyes shifted color, hair grew healthier and seemed to refuse to split ends or overgrow, people gained or lost weight without side effects…
From what the egg-heads and technicians could tell, this wasn't just biological healing but something more esoteric. A 'Become Better' field, or something like that.
It certainly boosted the number of volunteers to help take care of the boy, that was for certain. Over the months of recovery, the average intelligence, beauty, and strength of the nursing staff became statistically boosted to unexpected degrees, to the point where constant testing and limited contact procedures had to be put into place.
Hence, the annoyance.
But in return for getting paid while doing a safe profession in a secured facility, in return for continuously shifting towards some idealized better self? Well, the massive mountains of paperwork and testing was more than acceptable.
Though not needing to sleep was becoming frustrating.
Something about the 'healing' field was just… Negating the need for rest. A few minutes within meters of the 'child' was the same as sleeping in for a month while on vacation!
Honestly, she was a bit suspicious that management was deliberately rotating the healing staff per shift to take advantage of that ability rather than to avoid extreme contamination from contact with the patient.
'Oh, you suddenly aren't worked to death anymore? Huh. Welp, back to work you guys!'
Subtle.
Real subtle.
Meh, annoying or not, at least the kid was easy to please. Bring in some apple slices, miss and ignore how he was absorbing/vanishing/teleporting/consuming/whatever the spare apple wedges, and job done!
The kid was happy as a clam, and a joy to work with! Best protection detail job an Agent ever had!
The loud beep caused her to sigh and move on to the NEXT decontamination room. This one was that stupid sound one, right? Or the lasers? She always got those two mixed up.
Stupid containment procedures.