As I looked down at the one with two whiskers extending from the top of its head, I waited for one of the drones to finish charging whatever energy they were trying to test on me.
I'll admit, there was a part of me that wanted to take part in this, the part of me that whispers dangerous and stupid thoughts that should be killed as soon as they pop up. Because who in their right mind would actually put themselves in such danger?
And especially when... huh? I feel a sharp sensation bouncing around in my current body and-
Suddenly, like the snap of my finger and without so much as an activation command, my body began to change, stretching in ways I didn't know it could; or rather, that it should be able to.
Cracking, I felt so many things cracking and snapping inside me. Nothing was hurting; my bones weren't breaking at least. Perhaps it was due to my current biology, but there was something inside me that felt so very wrong.
What had become of my internal organs started to writhe and wriggle in my chest. Squirming and coiling around my spine in a jittery and staggered way. As if they couldn't tell what to do or how to act. As if they had lost all sense of understanding and suddenly gained a mind of their own.
I keeled over in the air, balling myself up, holding my chest as the pounding feeling continued to reverberate throughout my body.
It was, I think, the word is ticklish. Yes, I believe that was the correct word to describe this weird collective sensation.
And within the next split second, I was forcibly reverted back to my, unfortunately, base human form. All at once, my body systems had been completely shoved into a state I wasn't prepared for.
So, there I floated as my bangs slowly obscured my vision as I was slowly returned to the ground I had once departed from, time crawled to a halt, and my mind spun out of control trying to figure out what was going on around me.
'Transformation timeout? Impossible. I long since removed that from my Ultimatrix. Wait, no, even with it, it's nearly impossible for me to time out; the Ultimatrix core only has to use its Omnienergy to keep me in my alien forms. No thanks to Tennyson altering my DNA.
Hmm, so why was there no warning from the Ultimatrix?
There wasn't even the normal flashing warning it would give...
So how? Why would my stabiliser suddenly stop working?
THE BLUE LIGHT!
That's right, arh, I remember now! How could I forget?! It said it was entering low-powered mode. And with the recalibration mode light, of course, many of the features of my stabiliser would be locked away.'
The drone's charge continued steadily even with my accelerated thought process.
'...But... why would that disable my stabiliser? That was the base functionality before I added the old cores later on. Not to mention that that shouldn't interfere with the stabiliser in the base device.
So why would it disable that feature while in the process of repairing itself?
It can't have been that damaged... could it?'
The red light that was seeping out from the bottom of the droids, that mysterious energy that had resonated with me, nearly reached completion and fired upon me. The heat slowly reached my back as
'I didn't know that would even be possible. How could that be possible? Did the cores change something in the programming that affected that function? Rrgh, of course, of all times now I find out that this happened and not during the installation and the check-ups.
Azmuth be damned if I end up...'
My eyes widened as I remembered where I was as time returned to normal, my mind focusing back on the present.
'Crap!'
Within another gap instance, I had my body once more undergo a transformation, starting from my waist outwards. As my body started to pulse, randomly expanding and contracting all over, and at the core of my structure, my stomach, my organs were once more being changed and shifted around. Though this time it was not for the purposes of being rearranged and condensed into a singular writhing mass.
Within the centre of my body and spreading outwards, all my internals were being pulled apart as they were quickly being replaced as they melted into a dark red gelatinous substance. Quickly spreading upwards as the sides of my skin and flesh were pulled into these strange semicircle doughnut shapes as a gaping hole took up their original form.
A soft burning feeling along with the slime-like matter I was steadily becoming.
My right arm was pulled upwards as the other was pulled to join and melt into the rest of my body. My chest and head were stretched and pulled in a multitude of ways as the hole in me grew more and more, my body steadily unravelling.
Splitting my body in all manner of ways as flesh and bone was boiled down and turned into a sluggy, bouncy mess. My eyes melded together before splitting into three; slanted and sharp. Markings steadily spread around the rest of my body, starting from my eyes.
Upon reaching completion, as most of my body had been turned into a dark red slushy, the energy passed right between my halves as I finished my transformation, slumping down onto the floor as a large puddle shortly after.
And there it was, that odd resonance I felt looking at it earlier; there is absolutely some strange connection I have to that odd thing.
I shifted my now three eyes across my semi-liquid as I waited for the Ultimatrix to generate the anti-gravity projection needed for Polymorphs whenever they leave their planet. 'It would usually already be done by now.'
I watched as the two whiskered reptilian was struck and engulfed by the light. I observed it as it hunched over in what might be pain. While it was possible, it could also just be a bad reaction; it might have been calibrated to my biometrics, as good as that would do, so that might be the reason for its body's disagreement with the energy.
Or that he may have some kind of trait that conflicts with it, perhaps cybernetic enhancements.
There is a whole plethora of possible reasons as to this reaction.
Aside from my own reaction to it, I have nothing to go off of that helps me understand what the purpose of it was. And the reaction my body has to it is so nebulous I can't even use it as a basis for any theorem.
And so I watched, my red eyes glued to his(?) visage, as he convulced and joted in place. The others of his - yes, going off some of the others in the room - his kind also had their eyes drawn to him as his body began popping out in random places, and yet his skin held strong.
It looked as if he wanted to yell out in pain, but his voice would not find him. Whatever was happening to him must be truly horrific, as he jumped in and out of consciousness like a bungee cord. As his flesh rippled, various kinds of ligaments and organs ruptured out with a violent force.
His skin peeled open all across his body as his body mutated in ways I could not start to properly comprehend. It was so... I'm not even sure what words I could even use to describe how his body began to change and morph far beyond its natural limits.
A part of me was, despite my better thoughts... intrigued by what was unfolding before my eyes. But it was just too... disgusting; no scientific progression, no matter how shattering or grandiose, should be made like this.
That's not even mentioning that they were planning on testing it on me! My biology is already a mess; that thing would only scramble it further, maybe even push it far over the edge if I'm really unlucky.
Whatever synergy I feel for that energy can't be good or end up well. I need to get out of here as soon as possible, or else I'll be that energy's next victim.
...
...
...Ah damnit! Right, it's in recalibration mode. I've been waiting around for nothing since all the systems are down.
All right, let's see if the gravity is weak enough for me to move around on. These lizards don't have the body type of a species built to live on a giant or supergiant planet. And... Yep, I can move this body around. Wish I had the anti-gravity projector, but I've dealt with worse.
Contracting and stretching out my body repeatedly, I managed to slither out of the way of another set of blasts from those saucer-shaped drones. My gelo-like body squelched together into a compact blob of red goo as the beams of energy hit the ground near me harmlessly. I shook a little from being so close to the impact, my body rippling in a way I didn't know it could.
'Come on Albedo, keep focus; can't turn back now.'
Balling up slightly, I launched myself at one of the other scaly people as they were screaming and yelling at each other, pointing every which way. I grappled onto one of their faces, holding on as gravity desperately pulled me down. Burrowing holes into its head to give me some hold onto, I forced it to assist me in my continued evasion of the machines. Since they obviously weren't programmed with safety in mind, going with a zigzag pattern of manoeuvre was the most logical until I think of a better plan.
I don't know what exactly they were expecting to happen. Hmm, assuming, depending on how long I've been here, they could know that this strange energy has been resonating with me, or they just wanted to test it out, and I was their first choice.
Either way, these are questions for another time when I'm not in danger of being turned into some strange kind of abomination. But maybe this energy might be—
'Oh! There's the exit door.' I thought as my body stretched and curved into a head, my three eyes locked onto my ticket out of this death trap.
My body jiggled as I heard something crackling near me, once again congealing into a smaller form to avoid whatever it was that was heading towards me. And that happens to be another smaller drone(?) with some kind of electronic field going between its two mechanical clamp-like appendages, given the way it moves.
Pulling back on my host, I stretched myself out and curled the end into a swirl for some extra momentum. I slingshot myself at one of the drones; if I wasn't constantly keeping myself put together, I would have just fallen to the floor uselessly.
I pierced the metal of what I surmised was some type of capture drone, melting away at its internals as pieces of my body dropped to the flooring and started eating away at the metals. A red smog slowly rose from the ground as my body ate away at the floor.
'They weren't resistant to the acid of a Polymorph... I expected some kind of faults or instability in the alloys, but these are truly lacking.' I began recalling those droplets of my body; I'd rather not miss a finger or chunk of my brain if I were to turn into something else. 'Where did they get such components? These must have been the leftover scraps, but I can't fathom why they would use these in a test room.'
Well, it's not as if I will have to worry about it for long, as I jumped from my chauffeur and bounced off the ground, stretching and clinging to another reptilian who carried a very terrified, crunched face as he noticed me flying through the air at him.
I used his now weighty upper half, thanks to me, to swing him around and further launch myself closer to the door. Calling the chunks stuck on the floor to my new position.
I slid across the floor before I came to a standstill. My body rose as it solidified and condensed. Quickly, it split into 3; two grew my sides, and another sprouted from the top. Rapidly they swelled in size as my body quickly reformed to my human guise.
There was nothing but absolute chaos and confusion proliferating the area. They were all running around in complete disarray as
"Hahaha! Observe simpletons! You're being undone by the smartest Galvan in the universe! Not even Azmuth could flander his way out of—" My feet are stuck.
"....What?"
I tried to move them again, yet they didn't budge.
"Huh?"
Looking down, I found something I didn't - couldn't have expected to see.
My legs... were still melted.
"How...."
I heard a voice that brought my attention to my right hand.
[Ultimatrix recalibration has ended]
[Issues have been analysed, located and fixed]
[Functions have been restored]
While that had brought me some level of relief, though it did not stop the overwhelming confusion I had about my current predicament. And—
'Huh?' My gaze was dragged up from my feet as a blinding red light two blinding beams were heading towards me.