1995-

Shirou Morita frowned at the globe in the cradle in front of him. Liquid stirred at the

bottom of the sphere, but the covering only revealed the contents as a sound. How

could he examine the contents without touching anything?

The sphere, dull and gray, had been recovered from the scene of the living building

attack five years ago. The Robot Rangers and three new heroines had been on the

scene. They had stopped the rampage from reaching the central precincts of the city.

A lot of people had been hurt and killed, but more had been saved. During the

cleaning up of the damage, one of the defense force soldiers had found the globe and

boxed it up for study. That was why five years later Shirou thought a laser could be

used to poke a hole in the cover so he could look inside.

Once he knew what was inside, he could start testing it.

Shirou fitted the cradle underneath the emitter. He dialed the power down. He wanted

a small hole, not a through and through wound. The liquid had to remain inside the

shell so he could avoid contamination of the lab.

Of course if he messed up, he was as good as dead. The thing had been one of the

motivating power sources for a giant humanoid building. If it activated like it had

previously, the first person it would seize for power would be him.

He didn’t want to be a battery for something that might take over his place of work

and kill all of his coworkers.

Only the coworkers he didn’t like should be killed.

Shirou pulled on his goggles. He looked one more time around the lab. He was locked

in and unless the orb activated, the doors should be enough to keep things in if things

went wrong. He checked the laser one more time, then the cradle. One shot was all

he had. He flipped the switch.

The laser cut on with its characteristic whine. The beam burned through the gray shell

slowly. He cut the power as soon as he was through the shell.

He paused before taking the next step. He had to take a look inside the hole to make

sure he hadn’t cooked the contents. Then he could move the cradle to a safe room to

study everything and take samples.

He hoped that he had something to study. Dr. Yamada had given the thing to him. If

he failed, he would be out of a job, and someone else would be trying to figure out

what the thing was.

Any position in his field would be out of the question if he lost his job at the Institute.

No one would hire someone who couldn’t do basic tests without causing problems

and getting fired.

Shirou pulled the cradle from under the emitter. He didn’t want the thing to drill a

hole in his head while he was moving to the next step. He looked inside the hole to

make sure the contents were unharmed.

The goo inside the shell struck for him as he leaned over the orb. He screamed as it

covered his face and the collar of his protective suit. He staggered away.

He was definitely going to get fired now.

Shirou tried to calm down. His face was covered with the active ingredient of the orb.

He was still alive. All he had to do was get it off somehow.

It would help if his exposed skin wasn’t telling him his face was being flayed from

his skull.

At least none of the stuff had gotten inside of him. That would be worse than the

problem he had at the moment.

Shirou staggered to the wall. He pressed the button to sound the alarm. He also

pressed the switch that shut the room down. The stuff couldn’t get loose no matter

what it did to him first.

He made his way to a field cleaning unit built in the wall. If he could use that to get

the stuff off his face, he might have a chance to live.

A rumble turned his head to look at the laser. It was the only thing in the room that

might be dangerous to him, and the contaminant. Then it came apart into component

parts.

“Oh, no.” Shirou ran to the cleaning unit. He had to get the stuff off of him. He was

about to be turned into a living weapon to escape the labs and the building.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Pain ran up his spine. He fell to the floor. He tried to reach the lever for the cleaner.

If he could pull that, he might have a chance. He didn’t want to kill anybody. His

spine cracked and he curled up in a fetal position.

Dr. Yamada would cleanse the room and examine his remains to find out what had

gone wrong. The stuff may, or may not, be killed by the radiation. Either way, he was

a weapon that would be destroyed, or killed before he became a danger to the others.

Changes worked their way through his body. Everything was pain. He didn’t bother

screaming because his vocal cords had given out. Then radiation flooded the room.

Shirou laid where he had fallen. The radiation wasn’t killing him. It was allowing the

yolk to build more skills in his body so he could be taken for a rampage through the

city.

How did he stop it? He had to get up. He had to do something. How did he save the

city, possibly the country?

Shirou’s hand closed on the egg. He looked at it. It meant nothing to him. It certainly

wasn’t going to help him.

The egg expanded wrapping around him and his new machine parts. He tried to fight

it off, but it formed a cocoon that bound his limbs together. It dropped to the floor,

ten times as big as when he had punched the hole in it.

“Can you hear me, Shirou?,” said Dr. Yamada. The radio must till be working for

Shirou to hear his voice. “Can you talk?”

“Stay away!” Shirou couldn’t make himself shout loud enough. “Stay out of here!”

If they came into the room, they were as good as dead. He had to do something. What

could he do?

He had to stand. He had to take control of things. If he didn’t try, someone would do

something stupid.

And the last thing he needed was someone doing something stupid.

Shirou decided he had to stand. He had to get out of the egg. Then he could worry

about the other alterations to his body.

He already knew he was as good as dead. He might as well try to get some good out

of this.

He struck at the egg as best he could with his hands. His limited mobility made it hard

for him to do anything more than push hard. The shell rolled slightly as he struggled.

He braced himself as much as he could and kicked. The egg rolled some more, but it

didn’t crack.

He kicked again. The shell wrapped around his leg. He tried to pull back. The

wrapping went with him. He paused in uncertainty.

What did this mean? He realized the pain had settled down to a dull roar. He couldn’t

decide if that was good, or not. The shell collapsed around the rest of his body. He

felt compression as the thing shrank over his holed protective suit.

Images filled his mind as a hose entered his ear. He turned his head and pulled on the

wet strand with his teeth. Was this how the people in the apartment building felt as

they were stabbed and used up?

Other hoses tried to fill his ears. He yanked his head away from them as much as

possible. He couldn’t let them seize control of his brain. He had to fight the thing off.

“Shirou.” Dr. Yamada sounded close. He sounded too close.

“Keep away, Dr. Yamada!” Shirou felt the tubes going in his ears. “Don’t let me out

of this room! Don’t let me live!”

“I want you to calm down.” Dr. Yamada sounded in his ear. “The changes you have

been experiencing have been going on for hours. We just now found a way to

communicate with you. Do you understand?”

“It’s not safe.” Shirou tried to slip his hands out of the sleeves to pull the tubes out

of his head. “This thing is trying to implant itself in my head.”

“I want you to remain as still as you can.” Dr. Yamada sounded way too calm.

Shouldn’t he be losing his nerves right now. He could be the next victim if things go

wrong. “We’re going to try to get you out of that thing.”

“What are you going to do?” Shirou hoped the procedure saved the city. He knew he

had taken a fatal dose of radiation.

“We’re going to use the gravity gun we recovered from Dr. Pluto’s attack sub.” Dr.

Yamada whispered something. “Close your eyes and count to ten.”

Shirou started counting. He had thought the gravity gun was off-line. How had they

gotten it to work? He wished he could see through the shell over his head.

When he reached five, he heard a buzzing. The shell over his head vaporized. He took

a deep breath of air. He was alive. How was that possible?

He looked around. A robot had been pushed into the room. A computer screen with

Dr. Yamada’s face on it had been installed in its chest. The gravity gun had been

installed on a turret so the robot served as its firing platform.

Tentacles from inside the egg grabbed the robot. They took the thing apart and began

inserting combinations into Shirou. He screamed once, but the pain wasn’t the same

as the initial pain when he first started his transformation.

“The thing is turning me into a monster.” Shirou hoped Dr. Yamada could still hear

him. “Kill me before it figures out how to get to the general population.”

“I think we have a cure.” Dr. Yamada spoke from the radio speaker. “I’m coming in.”

“Stop.” Shirou couldn’t lift his head. At least nothing was trying to get into his ears.

“This is way too dangerous, Dr. Yamada.”

The door cycled open. Dr. Yamada stepped into the room. He wore a protective suit

like Shirou’s own. He held a vial in one gloved hand.

The tentacles reached for Yamada to meld him with his employee. The doctor opened

the vial and threw it on Shirou. Smoke roiled from where it struck. Cracks ran down

the front of the shell. Then it broke open.

“Don’t move.” Yamada held up a hand. “You have been altered in a way that could

still be dangerous to others. I want you to stay here while we think of some way to

help you.”

“I don’t know if I can.” Shirou realized he was floating in the air. “What’s going on

with me?”

“You are still giving off radiation.” Yamada held up both hands. “We don’t know

what else is going on.”

“Why aren’t I dead?” Shirou raised his hands. Light flicked through his flesh from

where gloves used to be. “What have I become?”

“I don’t know.” Yamada shook his head. “We’re going to have to do some tests to see

if we can reverse what happened. You might be isolated for a time until we can think

of a cure for the radiation.”