When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!
I'd always taken that phrase from a Heinlein novel as saying, "Get it out of your system so you can THINK!"
Well I did a little bit of that. Quietly. With discretion...
"FUCK ME!!! Jesus Christ?!! What the hell?"
...Or not.
I calmed right the hell down though, when I heard a loud crack and brought my hand up to see that I'd snapped off a corner of the marble sink fixture. I
looked at that piece of stone in my hand for a long long moment. Then I laid it on the shelf above the toilet and deliberately walked back into my room and sat
down in front of my computer. Not to do anything specific, but just to THINK. Think it through.
I tuned out the world and tried to listen to everything my new body was trying to tell me. I looked at the HUD in my field of view. I found I had an intrinsic
understanding of what it all meant. I ran a complete diagnostic. I learned (or relearned) my specs.
I found to my astonishment that I could think in a clearer fashion. I had a constant sense of the time, both from the obvious display that could be called up
in my HUD, but also an intrinsic -sense- of time. I felt that I might be able to organize and multitask far better than I ever had. Far from disturbing, once I
got used to the difference, it was like a cloud being lifted from my mind.
Testing my senses I found that in most ways they were better than my originals. Much better. I used to need glasses or contacts and had astigmatism. My sight
now had crystal clear focus and I could use telescopic or microscopic zooms. My hearing was clearer. I used to have trouble picking out distinct noises from
background sounds. Now, just sitting there and listening, I could hear the hum of the air-conditioner outside, and under that I could hear the distant sounds
of engine noises on the road and even out on the freeway. And even under that I could hear the sounds of the tires of the big rigs as they passed a couple of
miles away. And I could even hear the hum of the alternating current as it was stepped down by the transformer between the wall socket and my speaker units for
the computer.
I had a sense of smell, but it was perhaps only just a little sharper than before. I picked up my can of soda and experimentally took a sip. I could taste it.
I was glad I could taste things still. I knew C8 didn't need food in the normal sense, but could eat in small amounts. And so could I, apparently.
(Speaking of a sense of smell. One of the first things that assaulted me was the burnt smell coming from my bed. Apparently whatever process my body had gone
through ultimately put out a LOT of heat. The sheets had been charred brown and the foam between the cover and the mattress had an approximately man-shaped
impression burned into it that was still smouldering.)
My sense of touch at first seemed a bit dull, then I realized I was "wearing" the equivelant of gloves. And I remembered from concept that I should
be able to shift my form.
As it turned out, my shapeshifting abilities more varied than I expected.
My basic android endoskeleton was more or less static, though the skeletal arrangement could be modified somewhat. I could compress my height down to just
under 5 feet by compressing most of the long bones and spinal elements, or telescope them and increase my height to over 7 feet. I could also expand some
elements in a horizontal direction, like the shoulders and pelvis. But all of that was purely mechanical. No actual restructuring or nano-morphing was involved
in that.
Surrounding the endoskeleton, power core and pseudo-muscles was a thin layer of nano-machines and raw materials. Mostly in the form of various carbons and
plastics. If given no configuration setting, I guessed that I would have looked much like a store mannequin.
My set default form was the one I was the most familiar with. The one that looked the most like the old 60s anime. But there were others. In my memory there
were at least 5 other variations on that basic theme, and several pre-sets for "civilian" attire and appearance. Apparently I could create others.
But I couldn't just do it "on-the-fly". I had to have good reference and time to set it up in memory.
All of this self-discovery took place in under a minute. And completely internally. Once I sat down, I did not move until I was ready to move. It took place
entirely within the confines of my head. It was like I was opening up schematics and watching everything unfold in virtual space. By the end of the process I
knew my new body better than I knew my old one.
And I did not miss my old one. I'd allowed myself to get out of shape. I hadn't been morbidly obese, but I was by any objective standard, fat. Not
unrecoverably so, but I had been daunted by the thought of how much work it would take to get back into shape.
Now I didn't have that problem. I was much stronger and faster - MUCH faster - than any human being. I wondered just how much faster. I'd have to test
that soon.
Ironically, my actual mass had remained the same. Though my body looked whipcord thin now, I still weighed close to 300 pounds. I guessed that whatever process
had changed me had used my bodymass as raw material. That my bed had nearly gone up in flames was a testament to how much energy had been used to do so.
So I knew what I now was.
But.... What had happened?
I opened my eyes. The screen of my computer looked normal now. There was no indication that it had ever been anything but what it had always been.
Going back over the events of the evening just before the change, I remembered others noticing strange behavior from the game. It seemed likely that I was not
the only one affected.
My computer somehow had been turned off. I didn't remember doing so. But I hoped it would start again. Turning the computer on and rebooting, the system
seemed alright. It ran a disc check as if it had suffered a power failure, but other than that, came up normally. (it didn't escape my sense of irony that
I was now a FAR more sophisticated hardware platform than the machine I was using)
I brought up Firefox and checked the City of Heroes boards. But there didn't seem to be any posts of someone claiming they'd become their character.
Based on the time, maybe it was simply too soon. I could check back later.
So. What to do? First off, I thought of the shapeshifting. Could I manage to duplicate my old human form? It would be necessary for identification purposes.
I checked my digital photographs stored in my documents folder on the hard drive. Some of them had shots of me taken by others. Not many, but there were a few
key shots. Most older than 5 years ago. But that was fine with me. I was going to make a few "tweaks" anyway.
Some time later, after copying the pictures over and comparing them with my own sense of what I had looked like, I crafted an appearance that would be very
very close to my previous appearance. I'd darkened my hair and put back in the copper highlights that used to be there in my youth. My waistline was still
wide. But not as wide as it had been. My pants would fit slightly loose on me (should I actually pick up a pair from the floor and try them on.)
I dug out the full length mirror from the closet, walked into the living room and set it up. Then, I shifted over. My body expanded in certain directions and I
could feel my face morph. The helmet split apart and differentiated itself into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of separate elements as my hair formed
and the color came in. My "tights" became my usual ensemble of black dockers and T-shirt. (I'd left the big number 8 on the T-shirt, though. It
appealed to my sense of humor. Hey, I'm an old school anime fan and that's how Gatchaman did it!) My boots became sneakers and socks. And the gloves
with their combat padding melted back into hands.
I touched my face and then the mirror. Yes, my sense of touch was fully human.
Although, there was a slight problem I noticed when I looked closely at my fingertips. No fingerprints.
I willed some more detail into my hands and fingers based on my memory of them. But I knew they wouldn't stand up to inquiry. How the hell was I supposed
to remember what my fingerprints looked like anyway?
But overall, not bad. After a few weeks I could afford to trim myself up even more. For now I would at least match the picture on my drivers license.
And now the second big order of business. If I didn't know any better, I'd say my adrenaline was pumping at the thought.
I picked up my keys and wallet and locked the house, then got in my Explorer and turned the engine over. I drove the 5 miles over to the local airport where my
dad kept the Cessna and parked in the main parking lot next to the restaurant (currently closed for business. The current economy wasn't friendly to out of
the way restaurants that people didn't know about. Shame, that.). I left the keys and wallet under the floor mat and locked the car, knowing I could get
back in with the keypad combination on the drivers side.
Then I walked out to the flightline, keeping my senses alert. No one was within several hundred yards of me. I morphed to my default form as I reached the
taxiway.
"Right, then." I said to myself, then, and mimicing Adam from Mythbusters, I added, "this one's for distance, and for glory!"
I started running towards the northern end of the runway, and started eating up bigger and bigger stretches of pavement each time my feet left the ground. I
felt light, almost weightless. Powerful. By my internal speedometer, I was topping 100 MPH by the time I put on the brakes and skidded sideways like a skiier
to the end of the runway.
Apparently mass and momentum still had some grip on me. More so than the game portrayed. I had leaned further and further forward as I accelerated. And the
game certainly did not show what it took to -slow down- either! I figured that I could compensate for that, though.
Turning around, I started back the other way, this time with the full length of the runway ahead of me. Quickly topping my previous speed before the halfway
mark and still accelerating, I confirmed for myself that the artificial limit on speed in the game no longer applied!
So what -was- my top limit? As I continued toward the end of the runway. I realized I didn't want to stop and I didn't HAVE to stop if I did this
right. I angled to the left and LEAPED...
"Oh Holy SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT......!!! Maybethiswasn'ta good ideaaaaaaaaa!"
I came down in the center lane of the road that ran parallel to the airport, and my legs actually TOOK the shock and I bounded back up again in a shallower
leap that took me further down the road, and then I gained more control on the second bounce before finding my pace and settling back into a run, screaming and
then laughing madly as I blew through the light just before the freeway and leaped again straight from the road up onto the overpass and then angling left onto
the Eastbound lanes of Interstate 20.
Then I REALLY opened it up.
I'd always taken that phrase from a Heinlein novel as saying, "Get it out of your system so you can THINK!"
Well I did a little bit of that. Quietly. With discretion...
"FUCK ME!!! Jesus Christ?!! What the hell?"
...Or not.
I calmed right the hell down though, when I heard a loud crack and brought my hand up to see that I'd snapped off a corner of the marble sink fixture. I
looked at that piece of stone in my hand for a long long moment. Then I laid it on the shelf above the toilet and deliberately walked back into my room and sat
down in front of my computer. Not to do anything specific, but just to THINK. Think it through.
I tuned out the world and tried to listen to everything my new body was trying to tell me. I looked at the HUD in my field of view. I found I had an intrinsic
understanding of what it all meant. I ran a complete diagnostic. I learned (or relearned) my specs.
I found to my astonishment that I could think in a clearer fashion. I had a constant sense of the time, both from the obvious display that could be called up
in my HUD, but also an intrinsic -sense- of time. I felt that I might be able to organize and multitask far better than I ever had. Far from disturbing, once I
got used to the difference, it was like a cloud being lifted from my mind.
Testing my senses I found that in most ways they were better than my originals. Much better. I used to need glasses or contacts and had astigmatism. My sight
now had crystal clear focus and I could use telescopic or microscopic zooms. My hearing was clearer. I used to have trouble picking out distinct noises from
background sounds. Now, just sitting there and listening, I could hear the hum of the air-conditioner outside, and under that I could hear the distant sounds
of engine noises on the road and even out on the freeway. And even under that I could hear the sounds of the tires of the big rigs as they passed a couple of
miles away. And I could even hear the hum of the alternating current as it was stepped down by the transformer between the wall socket and my speaker units for
the computer.
I had a sense of smell, but it was perhaps only just a little sharper than before. I picked up my can of soda and experimentally took a sip. I could taste it.
I was glad I could taste things still. I knew C8 didn't need food in the normal sense, but could eat in small amounts. And so could I, apparently.
(Speaking of a sense of smell. One of the first things that assaulted me was the burnt smell coming from my bed. Apparently whatever process my body had gone
through ultimately put out a LOT of heat. The sheets had been charred brown and the foam between the cover and the mattress had an approximately man-shaped
impression burned into it that was still smouldering.)
My sense of touch at first seemed a bit dull, then I realized I was "wearing" the equivelant of gloves. And I remembered from concept that I should
be able to shift my form.
As it turned out, my shapeshifting abilities more varied than I expected.
My basic android endoskeleton was more or less static, though the skeletal arrangement could be modified somewhat. I could compress my height down to just
under 5 feet by compressing most of the long bones and spinal elements, or telescope them and increase my height to over 7 feet. I could also expand some
elements in a horizontal direction, like the shoulders and pelvis. But all of that was purely mechanical. No actual restructuring or nano-morphing was involved
in that.
Surrounding the endoskeleton, power core and pseudo-muscles was a thin layer of nano-machines and raw materials. Mostly in the form of various carbons and
plastics. If given no configuration setting, I guessed that I would have looked much like a store mannequin.
My set default form was the one I was the most familiar with. The one that looked the most like the old 60s anime. But there were others. In my memory there
were at least 5 other variations on that basic theme, and several pre-sets for "civilian" attire and appearance. Apparently I could create others.
But I couldn't just do it "on-the-fly". I had to have good reference and time to set it up in memory.
All of this self-discovery took place in under a minute. And completely internally. Once I sat down, I did not move until I was ready to move. It took place
entirely within the confines of my head. It was like I was opening up schematics and watching everything unfold in virtual space. By the end of the process I
knew my new body better than I knew my old one.
And I did not miss my old one. I'd allowed myself to get out of shape. I hadn't been morbidly obese, but I was by any objective standard, fat. Not
unrecoverably so, but I had been daunted by the thought of how much work it would take to get back into shape.
Now I didn't have that problem. I was much stronger and faster - MUCH faster - than any human being. I wondered just how much faster. I'd have to test
that soon.
Ironically, my actual mass had remained the same. Though my body looked whipcord thin now, I still weighed close to 300 pounds. I guessed that whatever process
had changed me had used my bodymass as raw material. That my bed had nearly gone up in flames was a testament to how much energy had been used to do so.
So I knew what I now was.
But.... What had happened?
I opened my eyes. The screen of my computer looked normal now. There was no indication that it had ever been anything but what it had always been.
Going back over the events of the evening just before the change, I remembered others noticing strange behavior from the game. It seemed likely that I was not
the only one affected.
My computer somehow had been turned off. I didn't remember doing so. But I hoped it would start again. Turning the computer on and rebooting, the system
seemed alright. It ran a disc check as if it had suffered a power failure, but other than that, came up normally. (it didn't escape my sense of irony that
I was now a FAR more sophisticated hardware platform than the machine I was using)
I brought up Firefox and checked the City of Heroes boards. But there didn't seem to be any posts of someone claiming they'd become their character.
Based on the time, maybe it was simply too soon. I could check back later.
So. What to do? First off, I thought of the shapeshifting. Could I manage to duplicate my old human form? It would be necessary for identification purposes.
I checked my digital photographs stored in my documents folder on the hard drive. Some of them had shots of me taken by others. Not many, but there were a few
key shots. Most older than 5 years ago. But that was fine with me. I was going to make a few "tweaks" anyway.
Some time later, after copying the pictures over and comparing them with my own sense of what I had looked like, I crafted an appearance that would be very
very close to my previous appearance. I'd darkened my hair and put back in the copper highlights that used to be there in my youth. My waistline was still
wide. But not as wide as it had been. My pants would fit slightly loose on me (should I actually pick up a pair from the floor and try them on.)
I dug out the full length mirror from the closet, walked into the living room and set it up. Then, I shifted over. My body expanded in certain directions and I
could feel my face morph. The helmet split apart and differentiated itself into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of separate elements as my hair formed
and the color came in. My "tights" became my usual ensemble of black dockers and T-shirt. (I'd left the big number 8 on the T-shirt, though. It
appealed to my sense of humor. Hey, I'm an old school anime fan and that's how Gatchaman did it!) My boots became sneakers and socks. And the gloves
with their combat padding melted back into hands.
I touched my face and then the mirror. Yes, my sense of touch was fully human.
Although, there was a slight problem I noticed when I looked closely at my fingertips. No fingerprints.
I willed some more detail into my hands and fingers based on my memory of them. But I knew they wouldn't stand up to inquiry. How the hell was I supposed
to remember what my fingerprints looked like anyway?
But overall, not bad. After a few weeks I could afford to trim myself up even more. For now I would at least match the picture on my drivers license.
And now the second big order of business. If I didn't know any better, I'd say my adrenaline was pumping at the thought.
I picked up my keys and wallet and locked the house, then got in my Explorer and turned the engine over. I drove the 5 miles over to the local airport where my
dad kept the Cessna and parked in the main parking lot next to the restaurant (currently closed for business. The current economy wasn't friendly to out of
the way restaurants that people didn't know about. Shame, that.). I left the keys and wallet under the floor mat and locked the car, knowing I could get
back in with the keypad combination on the drivers side.
Then I walked out to the flightline, keeping my senses alert. No one was within several hundred yards of me. I morphed to my default form as I reached the
taxiway.
"Right, then." I said to myself, then, and mimicing Adam from Mythbusters, I added, "this one's for distance, and for glory!"
I started running towards the northern end of the runway, and started eating up bigger and bigger stretches of pavement each time my feet left the ground. I
felt light, almost weightless. Powerful. By my internal speedometer, I was topping 100 MPH by the time I put on the brakes and skidded sideways like a skiier
to the end of the runway.
Apparently mass and momentum still had some grip on me. More so than the game portrayed. I had leaned further and further forward as I accelerated. And the
game certainly did not show what it took to -slow down- either! I figured that I could compensate for that, though.
Turning around, I started back the other way, this time with the full length of the runway ahead of me. Quickly topping my previous speed before the halfway
mark and still accelerating, I confirmed for myself that the artificial limit on speed in the game no longer applied!
So what -was- my top limit? As I continued toward the end of the runway. I realized I didn't want to stop and I didn't HAVE to stop if I did this
right. I angled to the left and LEAPED...
"Oh Holy SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT......!!! Maybethiswasn'ta good ideaaaaaaaaa!"
I came down in the center lane of the road that ran parallel to the airport, and my legs actually TOOK the shock and I bounded back up again in a shallower
leap that took me further down the road, and then I gained more control on the second bounce before finding my pace and settling back into a run, screaming and
then laughing madly as I blew through the light just before the freeway and leaped again straight from the road up onto the overpass and then angling left onto
the Eastbound lanes of Interstate 20.
Then I REALLY opened it up.