I Was A Teenage Dodongo

[voltecpower]

Who: Pulse and you
What: He is become Dodongo, destroyer of green-hatted Hylians.
Where: Computer Lab and other locations
When: June 28th and on into the week
Warnings: One very confused and upset firebreathing carnivorous monster.


The itching Pulse had begun to experience early that morning had finally reached a point where it had become simply unbearable. Pulse was forced to vacate his post at the bake sale, not wanting to alarm anyone by how he could no longer refrain from scratching himself all over. Setting his tray down in an empty space and thanking the very nice and helpful Miss Lyra, he disappeared back inside the student dorms building, headed for the computer lab.

The first thing he suspected was that he was undergoing some kind of update, except that he usually felt extremely sleepy and lethargic when his code half was having to alter itself to accomodate alterations to his human half. Maybe it wasn't an update, but an upgrade; he had experienced a few of those as well, once every few years or so, typically involving a substantial increase in height and size, with the addition of more human-like features. Was it already time for his fifth one? He was still only fourteen years old; it felt rather early for him to be upgrading again. And he had never experienced a strong itchiness all over his body before he had this kind of change happen to him, either. But, what else could it possibly be?

No matter what, though, it would be best if he got back inside his dorm, or inside cyberspace, at least. Update or upgrade, or whatever, it was better for him if it occurred while he was in digital space, where his whole body was treated like data and could be altered more easily.

Once inside the computer lab, he looked out over the desks of running monitors, and approached the nearest one, preparing to dive straight through its screen.

He only realized that the monitor screen wasn't reacting to his presence just before he crashed headlong into it, pushing it off the back of the desk and onto the floor, where it fell and broke with a loud clatter.

Pulse lay there across the desk, dumbfounded, wondering why he was still seeing the dark back wall of the lab, instead of what he expected to see when de-substantiating through a monitor. He was finally starting to get up when he was overcome by a sudden wave of pain, a sensation of sharp edges stabbing him all over his body. Caught completely off guard, he let out a choked gasp and dropped to the floor.

His hands went to his arms, to his chest; he couldn't find anything on his armor that could possibly be inflicting such pain on him. But when he felt how rough and bumpy his armor had become, when he felt the jagged scales--

"Wh-whaaa??"

He felt his stomach, his sides, his face, all turning dry and hard, sharp scales jutting out from every surface. But then he felt his hand pulling away from his face, although he wasn't moving it... What was happening to his reach? His arms suddenly felt so weak... He began to feel warm... Very warm... His insides... burning up... Was he on fire?

"A-a-aaaaaAAAAAAUGH!!"

He rolled over on the floor, slamming into chairs and desks, thrashing about; no matter what he did, he couldn't stop it, he couldn't put any end to the pain wracking his fragile body. Poor little fellow. He was seeing stars.

"G-gyaaaah, someone help, aaaagh! Someone please helllp! What's happening to me, gaaaaaAAAAAAAH!!"

It had become too much; it was though all of his neurons were firing at once. He saw a bright, smacking blast of light; losing all senses, he slipped into unconsciousness there on the computer lab floor.

*~*~*~*~*

The first thing he felt, after who knows how long he had been knocked out, was the floor against the underside of his jaw. It felt wet and sticky; he must have been drooling while he was unconscious.

"...U-ughh..."

He tried opening his eyes, but everything was still dark and blurry. He blinked, trying to clear his vision. He could see the walls, he could tell that there were objects in the room... but it was from some perspective he wasn't expecting. He may have been having trouble with depth perception, too; there were things that appeared to be nearby, but, they looked much smaller than normal, like they should have been further away...

He felt heavy. His whole body felt like it weighed a ton. He tried lifting his head up, feeling the floor scraping dryly against his skin. He couldn't raise it very far; for some reason, his neck didn't want to bend as far as it used to. In fact, his neck felt very stiff, and thick...

Where were his hands? Oh, there they were, underneath him. He felt no strength in them at all, and gave up trying to push himself off the floor with his arms, afraid that he might break them somehow.

He tried to engage his legs instead. When he found them, he suddenly realized how strong he was; one foot underneath him, then the other foot, and soon, he was up off the floor. But once he tried to stand upright, he stumbled; leaning forward, he caught himself before he could hit the floor again. Something was behind him, balancing him out, forcing him to remain in a hunched-over position. He couldn't reach back and feel it. Where did his hands go all of a sudden? Where was anything anymore? Everything felt so out of place. The sensation was deeply unnerving to him. He couldn't even turn his head far enough to look--

There, on the desk next to him, was a computer monitor that had luckily been able to remain intact after all the ruckus from before. Its cord had been pulled, so its screen was dark, allowing it to be reflective. What was being reflected back at Pulse, through that screen, caught his eye.

Pulse didn't know what he was looking at in his reflection, but it certainly wasn't anything he had ever seen before. It was huge, red and scaly, with sharp yellow horns and a large mouth full of teeth, almost like some kind of prehistoric creature. He had flinched at first, trying to look behind him, thinking that it was standing over him... But no, this particular beast happened to be himself.

"Whaaaaat... What am I...?"

It didn't really fit the pattern; he half-expected his next upgrade to be that of an adult humanoid form, perhaps minus the helmet or some of the bulkier parts of his armor. Going from small humanoid to slightly taller humanoid to giant reptilian thing didn't really make a lot of sense. After all, he was partly generated from human DNA, not... whatever he was DNA.

"Am I... did I get... corrupted?"

It had happened to his father, transforming him into an evil genius with a twisted mind. Pulse stood still for a moment, going over his thoughts. Did he feel any different on the inside? Did he perhaps feel like turning against humanity and constructing an army of substantiated attack programs?

...Not really, he didn't think. He did feel something unusual, but... it wasn't... anything... particularly anti-human.

"I don't understand..."

He had ruminated over the issue enough on his own; if he couldn't figure it out, then the next best course of action would be to consult an outside source, of course. There were all sorts of unusual beings here at the school, as well as humans who were likely knowledgable of all different kinds of strange creatures. He could try to find one of them and ask them what he had turned into, and maybe even find out why he had turned into it. If he didn't frighten them off first...

Turning away from the computer, he began making his way across the lab to the exit door, stepping carefully over the wreckage of a number of desks and feeling very guilty at the sight of them. It wasn't until he had actually reached the door when he found that he had a bigger problem than just whether or not he would be able to approach someone for information.

"Ohhhh darnit..."

The door was too small for him to fit through.





((Updated OOC: Later on that evening, Pulse was able to escape the lab, but for the hours of the day spanning between the bake sale and then, he's still trapped in there. Anyone who wishes to approach him about having sold them a mutation-inducing pastry can find him here in the lab. He will be visiting some other parts of the school after his escape, scenarios of which are available here, as he tries to find out what's going on. Ultimately, an encounter with Shadow the Werehog outside in the forest will cause him to turn feral and complete his transformation, after which he will start roaming the school halls and attacking anything that moves with the intent of eating it.))

Comments

Computer Lab

[numbercrunching]

Just as Pulse found himself staring at the door that should lead him to the hallway (that was unfortunately too small for him to fit through), the familiar face of Alter Ego popped up on the screen of his COMP device. The program had been in sleep mode for about 5 hours and only now just snapped out of it, looking around the room for the presence of anybody.

That was when he saw an unfamiliar face. He didn't know that this creature was Pulse. Upon seeing him, Alter Ego blinked curiously and gasped.

"Ah...! Excuse me, are you a new student?" he asked. Considering the other students and teachers of Smash Academy, it wasn't too odd to assume that this monstrous being was just another student here. It hadn't occurred to Alter Ego that it was impossible for this mysterious "new student" couldn't have possibly entered the room without having undergone a massive transformation. Not yet, anyway.

[voltecpower]

"Wah! Urff, ulp..."

The sound of someone else's voice in the room surprised him; he suddenly felt a very strong, very strange sensation in his stomach, something similar to things he had seen and felt when he first saw boiling water, first saw something melting. He could feel it pressing against his insides, wanting to come out through his mouth, but he immediately decided that he didn't want it to escape, and clamped his mouth shut until the feeling passed.

"Mmph... Hah..."

He felt hot, and there was a weird taste in his mouth, almost like... smoke.

He disliked it.

"Blah."

Getting over all that, he finally decided to look into finding out where that voice came from, stepping back and turning around to face the tables he hadn't knocked over yet. He didn't notice the COMP there at first, mainly because everything around him appeared miniaturized to him, but eventually he spotted it by its lit-up screen. He approached it carefully, leaning his head down to get a better look at it.

"...Oh, Alter Ego! Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you... in here... No, it's me! Pulse!"

[numbercrunching]

At first, Alter Ego stared ahead with a gentle smile.

"Oh, alright."

Then, he processed that information and appeared confused.

"...? Wait... Pulse? How... Wh-What happened...?"

[voltecpower]

"I-I-I don't know... I m-mean... This morning, at the bake sale, I was terribly itchy... Then I came in here to get to my dorm, and I couldn't get back in the computer... Then I remember... Pain... But then I must have passed out or something, because when I woke up again, I, I was... this."

He could feel his hands down there, even though he couldn't see them, but he attempted to gesture toward himself with them anyway.

"But I don't know... how... or wh-what... or why!"

[numbercrunching]

Alter Ego stared at him uncomfortably - not because of his form, but because of what he described. It sounded awful. He tried to think of a solution.

"That's worrisome," sympathized Alter Ego, clutching his hands close to his chest from within the COMP. "I wonder if anyone else is having the same problem? You said it started at the bake sale, so maybe somebody was sick and it was contagious...? Something like that."

An idea struck him. "Would you like me to check the network to see if anyone else has reported any strange occurrences, Pulse? Maybe we could find a solution from a first-hand account."

[voltecpower]

"S-sick? With what??"

He had no idea that there could possibly be a sickness which resulted in the afflicted turning into a giant reptile. Possibly some kind of debilitating skin cancer that would make them resemble one after a long while... But not actually transform them into one...

"Well, if... if it is..."

His throat was suddenly very dry.

"If it is a sickness, then I hope there's a cure... I can't see myself being very useful... like this."

Except maybe as a beast of burden, he thought, but how was he going to watch over and protect the Network that way?

"I don't really see how... I mean, I didn't see anyone else at the bake sale... acting like they were in pain, or appearing like they were itching as badly as I was..."

He paused in thought.

"...But, I guess it wouldn't hurt to... check... at least."

[numbercrunching]

"Anything might help. Just keep your hopes high, Pulse...!" cheered on Alter Ego, and he went to check the school network from the COMP.

"Hmm... ...I see a post from somebody. I think it's the school nurse." Alter Ego had never met the school nurse, so he wasn't sure, but considering what the post said, it wasn't a bad guess. "There's no cure right now... But, they're looking."

Alter Ego looked back up to face Pulse. "I'm sorry... I guess that wasn't much help. I don't see anything else yet..."

Computer Lab

[hawkhearsyou]

In response to a request from the nurse himself, Ulki found himself standing outside of the computer lab. Rarely did he visit this particular room, but he was about to - and for a reason he could surely see happening at this school, but nothing he'd expect otherwise.

According to what Rhys told him, people were spontaneously turning into beasts of all sorts. He wasn't sure what caused it this time, but Ulki could only hope that he wasn't affected this time. Last time was bad enough. He still remembered it.

The hawk laguz opened the door to the computer lab. It wasn't too hard to find Pulse, as he was right there. Ulki stared at him. Wasn't this the same thing that Shinon once owned? Ulki couldn't remember what it was called, but he was fairly certain that whatever Pulse was, it was the same thing - only bigger.

"You are Pulse... Correct?" he asked.

[voltecpower]

Pulse lay there on his stomach amidst the wreckage of half the lab, having gotten tired of standing a short while ago, his legs in his semi-transformed state not yet strong enough to carry his heavy body for very long. He raised his head to look when he heard the door open, and spotted the visitor as he entered.

He stared back, noticing the huge birdlike wings on the person's shoulders. Was this man one of those who had sprouted feathers, like Rhys mentioned? If so, he was lucky that it was only an extra pair of limbs on his back, and that he hadn't ended up with the body of a giant beastly bird.

He bowed his head in a polite nod when he was addressed.

"Um, yes sir. Are you, uh, are you Mister Rhys's friend?"

[hawkhearsyou]

"Yes. My name is Ulki," he answered, looking him up and down. It was no wonder he couldn't fit through this door. Most of the doors in this school were small as it was, including this one. Ulki looked at the door and wondered what to do to help him escape.

...It seemed that the only choice would be to perform some property damage. That's how it seemed, at least - there was no way Pulse was going to fit through that door, and after breaking so many computers, what's a bit more damage? (Ulki really didn't want to think about it that way, but there wasn't much else he could do.) Even so, the ability to escape was likely more important than this wall was, even if Pulse's change was only temporary. He had no other methods of being able to help him out of the room.

"You're stuck in here... unless you break through this door," he said, looking back at Pulse.

[voltecpower]

Even recent events notwithstanding, Pulse was no stranger to property damage. In fact, it had been extremely disconcerting to him when something didn't break under his effort, although he made it a point not to destroy anything that belonged to someone who wasn't trying to enslave humanity, at least not at the moment. In his current state, he had even become somewhat reluctant to move about, feeling that everything around him would give at the slightest nudge, considering how much more physically powerful he had become.

"Ah, break the, um, door, sir?"

Well, he had also heard of certain situations, such as car accidents, where people trapped inside of a car could only be freed with the prying-apart of the car, resulting in it being rendered inoperable... But then, it was their car... This door didn't belong to him. He paused for a moment before continuing.

"...Would I be excused, sir, for having to break down the door?"

Nevermind all the destroyed computers, but then again, that had already happened, and he was going to have to take responsibility for it somewhere down the line anyway.

[hawkhearsyou]

Ulki wasn't sure if he had an answer to that. But if it were him, he'd take whatever punishment was coming to being stuck in a cramped room when he was in the process of turning into who-knows-what. Ulki gave no direct response to Pulse's question, but instead, reached for the door itself and grabbed onto it from the side.

He yanked at it until it came off its hinges, and he disposed of it on the floor. Pulse seemed uneasy at the prospect of damaging the school unnecessarily, but Ulki felt that he'd be a lot better off outside of this room.

"Now I will take some of the blame if it comes your way," he said, looking off to the side. "You will want to come out sooner or later."

[voltecpower]

Pulse watched, wide-eyed, as Ulki ripped the door from its frame and tossed it aside as though it were no big deal. He supposed, since it was an emergency, that it could simply be ruled as collateral damage... but here this apparent human-turning-bird was willing to share some of the responsibility. And Pulse knew that some of it would still be on him, considering what he knew was going to happen to that doorframe when he attempted to exit the room.

"Um... Th-thank you, Mister Ulki."

He was grateful, but all the same, still felt extremely sheepish. He wondered what all other accommodations would have to be made for him, afraid that he may become a burden on others, as he stepped carefully toward the open portal. He stuck his head through experimentally, ducking low as he naturally expected to have a large spike sticking up on top, as he still did. Finding that he could get that through with no problem, he bunched his arms up and continued forward into the spacious hallway, only coming to a stop when he realized his waist was too wide to slip through.

But he wasn't about to ask for any more help; planting his large, clawed feet on the floor, he shoved his way forward with a loud grunt, bending the metal frame, shattering any adjoining windows, and causing some part of the concrete/brick wall to collapse as he came loose and fell forward into the hall, slamming into a row of lockers and scoring a huge dent in the flimsy metal doors.

"...Uuuuugh..."

He was a bit dazed, but otherwise fine.

[worstjock]

This... thing... is crying and waddles into the computer lab.

[voltecpower]

Pulse was getting bored with waiting and had begun to attempt a cleanup of the computer hardware wreckage, making sure broken consoles were unplugged and sweeping the shattered bits of plastic and circuit board to the rear of the lab with his tail. Even though most of him was covered with a thick armor, for some reason his tail was more sensitive than the rest of him; he flinched a little when it came in contact with the sharp edge of a busted monitor screen, turning around and using his face to nudge the broken glass instead.

He stopped when he heard something making very distraught weeping noises behind him. Shifting his feet underneath him and turning around carefully, he spotted the little creature there, standing just over a foot tall. Having some knowledge of pokemon species thanks to Cyrus's material, he recognized the creature as being a pokemon, however, he was having trouble remembering its species name... Oompa? Whoopi? Looper?

"Um, hello... Hi. ...What's wrong? Are you, uh... Did you lose your trainer?"

He didn't know how comfortable the pokemon was with being addressed by something twenty times larger than it, but he knew some other pokemon were much larger... Then again, that probably didn't matter...

[worstjock]

The creature babbles in pokemon speech, thinking that since he can understand you, you must be speaking poketalk.

It keeps crying as it says things you can't understand.

[voltecpower]

Pulse cocked his big head slightly at the stream of oopaa oopaa oopaa coming from the tiny pokemon's mouth, watching as the tears continued to flow from its eyes.

"...I-I'm sorry... I'm afraid I... don't understand."

He was confused for a moment... then he remembered Riwane and instructor Char. They were pokemon too, but he was able to communicate with them... but then, it was because they could take on a human form, with which they were able to speak his language...

"Do you, er... Are you a student, perhaps?"

[worstjock]

Oh, this guy wasn't a pokemon. He was something else. So, Jock would have to be a person to talk with him.

There was a poof and he was a bald man. "I'm supposed to be an arcanine but instead I'm a wooperrrrrrrrrrr," sobbed the man.

argh I talk too much

[voltecpower]

Pulse couldn't remember if he had even seen a pokemon-to-human shift; most of the time, he had been distracted. The tiny amphibian suddenly poofing into a tall balding man caught him off guard, not only because of the size difference but also because of a kneejerk reaction he still had to suddenly being confronted with tall, bald men. However, lacking much of the agility and litheness he used to enjoy in his former state, all he could do was fall backwards on his backside in surprise, causing the floor to shake slightly on impact.

"Wha!!"

He felt that horrid burning sensation in his throat again, immediately clamping his jaws shut and lowering his head.

"Mmph."

It calmed down soon afterward. He raised his head back up to address the man.

"I-I'm sorry, sir... You... You said you were an Arcanine, sir? Oh... So, then, you were a pokemon originally, then you... changed into a different pokemon... A Wooper."

Oh, right, that's what it's called. Pulse looked the man up and down. Apparently not everyone was turning into giant reptiles; the situation must be unique for each individual, also seeing as how Woopers didn't have feathers. Which then begged the question, Why me? Why couldn't I have turned into something smaller and less bulky? And what in the world am I, anyway?

"Well, ah... I can probably... understand... why you're upset... I think. You were, ah, a rather large Fire type? And, well, now you're not. But, you can still get around... and use the computer..."

Being able to use the computer was considered an important survival skill to someone like Pulse.

"And, uh..."

He had to stop and think. Why was it getting so hard to remember things?

"You're, uh... Don't you... have an ability... that makes you immune to water, now?"

[will_be_god]

By that point, Cyrus had heard about Pulse's radical transformation. It was buried under everyone else's transformations, but since Cyrus never partook of baked goods as a general diet rule, he remained solidly human.

Before opening the door, he peered through the small window. Ah, sure enough, there was a giant beast. He thought he'd seen it in a book, something about smoke...

"I'm entering the room," he cautioned, in case there were any instincts that came with the body.

[voltecpower]

Pulse had reach such a level of boredom that he had never experienced before, normally able to go anywhere and do whatever he wanted, usually with an excess amount of energy that begged to be burned off. He hated to do so, but he wouldn't withstand it any longer; he lay down on the floor, on his stomach, and shut his eyes for a nap. Perhaps they'll have found the cure to this thing by the time that I wake up, he thought, or maybe when I wake up I'll have found that this was all just some incredibly strange dream.

His eyelids fluttered back open when he heard Cyrus's voice. The very visible wreckage of computers which remained laying along the edges of the lab told him that this wasn't a dream; or, perhaps, he just hadn't awakened from it yet. Disappointed, he then turned his attention to his visitor.

He wasn't exactly sure what to feel, seeing that it was Cyrus. He still respected him as a senior, as a professor, but since his calls for action back when FDC was plagued with violence, Pulse had begun to lose trust in his ethical practices. Then there was that whole "Galaxy Club" thing which Pulse didn't like the sound of in the least. But, still, he hadn't yet actually seen Cyrus manage to accomplish anything to those ends... Pulse had begun to wonder if he was simply all talk. Then again, Knuckles didn't trust him, either. Perhaps it was just all of the people here keeping a weather eye on Cyrus that was preventing him from putting any of his plans into action.

But right now, he was here... and Pulse was in a rather awkward position, not to mention a severe disadvantage, having lost all of his powers and ending up trapped in the body of a big, bulky, ungainly reptile... thing.

Why was he even here, anyway? ...Was he the "friend" Rhys had sent to help him?

"M-Mister Cyrus."

Pulse's uneasiness with the situation was affecting his nerves, but he gave Cyrus a polite nod with his armored head to the best of his ability.

[will_be_god]

"Pulse," Cyrus addressed. This was certainly not like he'd imagined. "I trust you are unable to simply return to your data state. If you will have it, I will assist you in extricating yourself from this room. Though in return, I ask that you permit me to test this new body of yours."

He was saying a lot at once, but he didn't really care.

"These transformations have occured before in this place. Chaos and disorder...far more than usual. I aim to find a preventive cure."

[voltecpower]

Pulse's gaze fell to the floor, brows furrowing, as he pondered over Cyrus's offer. In return for helping him get out, which he dearly wanted to do, he wanted to test his body... How? It sounded too much like he wanted to experiment on him.

He didn't feel very comfortable about that. There had been an incident in the past when his DNA was used to some end... and as a result, he had to fight and destroy a deadly C-Life who could pass for his older brother. He had tried his best to protect his genetic material ever since then, using his electric powers to sterilize the outside of his armor, and to cauterize his wounds when he got hurt. But without those powers now, he was going to have to be on his guard... and Cyrus wasn't exactly someone he felt he could trust with something so potentially dangerous.

Besides, didn't Rhys already say he was working on a cure? Pulse would entrust his genes to Rhys over Cyrus any day.

He finally raised his head to meet Cyrus's gaze.

"Are you the one Rhys assigned to help me, sir?"

[will_be_god]

Rhys? That was a name Cyrus hadn't expected Pulse to mention. "I have not been informed of such, although I do not know his word. Such a thing may have taken place without my knowledge, though more likely you have simply confused my arrival for that of another. However, I wish to study you just the same. To discover the root of these transformations that have taken hold of the school. And since you are a relatively unique species, information from you will be very valuable to my study."

[voltecpower]

The red flag already went up upon hearing that Cyrus wasn't here at Rhys's call, but then it had begun to dawn on Pulse why Cyrus thought he was "interesting".

"No! I mean, no, sir... I c-can't..."

As a reaction that was likely extremely atypical of something his species, he began taking careful steps backward, away from Cyrus. Normally, he would have simply fled, either using his super speed to depart or slip into cyberspace through the nearest available monitor screen. But now he didn't even have the convenience of a wide-enough doorway, and he was afraid of what he might do if he felt pressured into a fight response... especially with the burning feeling beginning to well up in his insides again, triggered by his emotional state.

"I mean... sir... It wouldn't be safe. I'm sorry. I have to refuse."