4 Changes

Black.

White.

Red.

Colors were flashing through my mind and past my eyes and I couldn't escape them. Then, with the colors came a pain that I could feel so clearly and intimately, it was like the caress of a lover.

It flickered over my nerves and through my muscles. It racked it's way into my bones and it tore through my organs, flooding them like liquid fire. I felt the pain changing my body, I felt my body trying to resist the change.

...That only made the change hurt even more.

I couldn't hear it, but I could definitely feel my bones cracking and snapping. I could feel them crumbling themselves to dust. Once they were fully crushed, next was my muscles. They were torn apart like wet paper in a blender, and I felt them coalesce into a red goop in my body, my skin serving the same job as a water balloon - to keep the liquid inside from getting out. The only reason my body stayed in vaguely the same shape was because the machine was enclosed around me and keeping my in the right shape.

Once my muscles liquefied, next was my organs.

And then my nerves.

And then my blood vessels.

Everything. Everything was broken.

Though the immense pain, I found myself asking; was this how it was supposed to work? Was this right? Was I playing God and now I'm being punished for it?

I felt my hair detach itself from my scalp and I felt my skin dry up and lose all it's moisture.

Each step that happened amplified the pain by a fold. Which seemed impossible because I somehow knew my nerves had been liquefied - I shouldn't be able to feel anything. But here I am, feeling everything. Feeling my body break down. Feeling my body fail.

I don't know how I knew, but the only organs still not liquefied in my body were my heart and my brain. Everything else had joined the red goop inside of me.

Just as I thought that I'd made the worst mistake...a spark happened inside of me.

That spark was like a chain reaction that led to 2 more sparks. Those 2 led to 4 more sparks. And so on until the sparks had kick started a gigantic fire inside of me. The fire pumped my body and my broken down cells with new instructions. New instructions on how to make a better body. A stronger body.

My bones were the first thing to come back into existence. The cells making up the bone having gone through a radical change. They made bones that were leagues ahead of what they once were.

My muscles built themselves over the new bones and I couldn't move them - no nerves yet - but I could still get a sense for their strength. Their undeniable will to overpower things. Like some kind of animalistic urge that couldn't be tamed.

My blood vessels followed, just in time for the new blood being made by the newly re-made bone marrow. As the blood was being pumped into the vessels, they were being made, like a well-oiled machine that was perfectly in sync with every other part. But that didn't occur to me. All that I felt was an unreal connection with my blood. An intimate connection, one could say. Like there was nothing that could come between me and my blood.

I could feel the vitality seeping through the blood as well. The complete opposite of my sickly blood.

The vitality surged through me, filling my muscles and supporting their strength.

While all this was happening, my organs were also being remade. Everything about them being made better, stronger, more efficient. It was like before they had been clogged up and could only work at 1% of their best. But now, they'd been cleaned out and sent into overdrive and were working at 110%.

My new hair shot out my scalp and I felt my body push against the metal container I was in, like it had grown in size overall.

Everything was growing back into a stronger and better state, and I felt wonderful.

It was itchy, but other than that, it was completely fine. Better than fine; it was great.

I couldn't feel an ounce of weakness. Anywhere in my body. My bones felt indestructible. My muscles felt powerful. My skin felt impervious. My nerves felt so swift I was wondering if I had actual lightning traveling through them. My entire body felt incredible.

I felt all the liquid pain - which must have been the cure - that was left over, split into two parts. One part went to the brain and another to my heart. Where it slowly re-worked them to be better.

Before long I felt like I had the heart of a horse - it was slow but the heartbeats were so strong I felt like my internal body was shaking or undergoing a biological earthquake. Then there was my brain - I could think so quickly now. My intelligence hadn't gone up, but my thinking speed had. It was like my brain was a computer now, working far quicker than it had before I took the cure.

And then I just lay there.

Feeling this body and all it's power. I knew from the memories that the original cure would give me strength beyond a human. But even then, it would be weak among the other big players of this world. So I re-engineered the cure to be many times more efficient in it's empowerment of me.

And right now, I was feeling all of that empowerment. It was quite frankly intoxicating for me. I'd gone from being a cripple, to becoming more than a human can ever achieve naturally.

I didn't move. Not even a little. Before long, the device I was in, clicked and hissed before I felt the needles retreat from my body. Then the top of the device started to raise itself, letting my new skin touch air for the first time.

...It seemed my new skin was incredibly sensitive because each prickle of the breeze told me information I'd never felt from touch before.

I could accurately tell you the room was 20 degrees. I could also tell you that Milo was to the right of me and Neena at the bottom of the device near my feet. All of that information purely from a simple breeze.

But even more sensitive, it seems, were my eyes.

As soon as the bright lights hit my eyes, I let out an inhuman hiss before lifting my arms up to cover my eyes. The restraints holding my arms down didn't even last a second as I covered my eyes and let out a shout, "Turn the lights off!" I could somehow...hear their expressions? I could hear the confused expression on Milo's face and I could hear Neena rush to turn the lights off, leaving the lab lit up by the ambient light of the multiple computer screens around it.

But hearing people's expressions? Is...is that echolocation? It seems that way, at least.

The sound was bouncing off of their faces and hitting my ears, where that information would be sent to my brain and it would decipher a face from that information. Not just the face but their expression, the minor twitches of their facial muscles...it even came with slight predictions on how they were going to move.

Cracking my eyes open and lowering my arms slightly, I saw that despite the room being dim and dark...I could see everything in perfect clarity. Even the things I couldn't see, like the back of the machines in the room, I could sense with my echolocation. I had a full 3-D map in my head.

...This was all so unreal.

"Mikey? Are you okay?" I heard Neena's voice. Everything about it. The worried tremor, the pitch she was using, the fact that she'd just recovered from a chest infection because of the slight phlegm-y-ness of her throat and how that sound was added to her voice. No one human could hear that. But I could.

"Michael?" Milo asked, putting a hand on my shoulder and I could feel the heat emanating off his hand.

...I could feel the blood pumping through his veins.

I quickly pushed him away, not even trying that hard but still sending him flying into a computer desk. I pushed him away because for a brief second I thought about drinking his blood. About ripping open his throat and drowning myself in the red nectar he held in his veins.

Neena looked shocked before angry marching to me. Now that I'd become aware of blood...I could smell it with clarity, no, I could FEEL it with so much clarity that it was slightly maddening.

Breaking the restraints on my feet, I flipped backward with ease that surprised even me, before pressing my feet against the side of the device and bouncing myself back into the top corner of the room. I kept myself up in the corner somehow...I don't know how I was doing it, but I was just sticking to the wall--Are those claws?

I looked down at my hands and feet and saw my extremities ending in short but sharp claws. Each of them were black and about an inch or two long...and they all gleamed with sharpness. Like the very sight of them could cut you. Each of them had slid into the solid wall like it was butter and my fingers were holding up my body like it weighed nothing.

I heard Neena walking closer to me once again, this time with much more caution, I looked to her and she flinched.

...Which hurt a lot more than I thought it would.

"Don't come near me!" I yelled, my senses and my new urges overwhelming me.

I knew I'd gain them. I knew that. But knowing something and experiencing it are two completely different things.

And right now, I don't trust myself to not kill two very important people to me.

The very thought of the fact I'd be able to do that sickens me. But I pushed past it and pointed to a freezer on the opposite side of the room, "There's a bottle of purplish liquid in there - get it, quickly!" I yelled with urgency as I tried not to smell her blood - as I tried not to lunge at her and rip out her throat.

My entire being was pushing to do it, but I would not be controlled by these new instincts.

I am Michael Morbius. I am a Doctor. I sword an oath! I will not break it just because of some base, animalistic instinct!

Neena opened the fridge and quickly found the bottle. I tried my best at a smile, but it was uneasy and crooked, I knew that, but I still did it, trying to keep her calm, "Good...now throw it here and don't come near me until I've drank the whole bottle, okay?" I said, my voice sounding like an addict who was next to his own personal brand of addiction.

She threw the bottle and I swiped it out of the air at such a speed that it must have been a blur to her.

Ripping the cork out with my teeth, I poured the contents into my mouth and swallowed the contents with hungry gulps. The liquid was sweet and tasted like pineapple, and when it hit my stomach, I felt the liquid quickly get digested before the nutrients it held were delivered to my new cells and satiated their new appetite.

Though I did feel like something was missing, I didn't feel the homicidal urge to kill my two friends any longer.

I dropped myself down to the ground and walked over to where Milo was - he'd been knocked out.

Neena walked over to me and pushed at my body, expecting me to go backward somewhat. All that happened was her rebounding because of the force she used. Her eyes looked shocked for a minute before she backed up slightly.

...That stung as much as the first one.

"I'm sorry, Neena. I didn't want to hurt Milo and if he stayed close to me any longer, I would have done something unforgivable," I said, my voice uneasy - it also sounded a little deeper and much smoother - "Please, let me explain it to you, okay?"

She gave an uneasy nod before sitting down on a chair. Meanwhile, I picked up Milo and laid him down on a desk nearby.

I then went and sat down next to Neena.

"I'm different now, Neena--" just as I started she interrupted me.

"No shit you're different now, Michael," she snapped at me, her anger from earlier flaring back. Which I'd rather have than her fear. I'd rather her be furious than fearfully taking steps back.

"...I'm different because my disease needed a more radical...cure," I looked at her, urging her not to interrupt me this time as I could see she was about to, "My cure had to change my DNA a bit more than it did to the others. I've...My DNA has been mixed and spliced with that of the Ultimate Bat DNA. I took DNA from all manner of different bats and engineered it to be perfect for me and to heal me. It comes with certain side-effects," I leaned back into my chair and closed my eyes while sighing, "I know it looks bad, Neena. But the cure has rid me of a disease and made me stronger and better than ever. Please try to see that."

I lied. But only because I couldn't straight up tell her a giant purple man will be coming to Earth in the coming years and he will be trying to wipe out half of life in the Universe.

There was also some truth to what I said, however.

My DNA was badly malformed by my disease. But even then, I didn't need to take the cure so far to deal with that. I did what I did for power. I'll never forget that. But I'm not prepared to admit that to Neena. I don't want to ruin the image in her head of me. I don't want the only family I've ever had, to look down on me.

So I lied.

Standing up from my chair, I sighed once more, "You can think what you want, Neena, but please try to understand that I had to do this to myself," I said before walking past her and toward the fridge, picking up some more of the purple liquid, before leaving.

Neena just sat there in silence, digesting the information I'd given her. I'd give her time to do that.

And with that thought, I walked away, keen on getting a better understanding on my new body.