Karyn volunteered to go first, Jon deciding to hold off until Karyn went all the way through the process. It was a week and a half later on a Thursday morning when Karyn was about to get her second MRI scan. As far as Karyn's parents were led to believe, she was volunteering to test some new energy drink, and these appointments involved little more than a few hours on exercise machines. To put off explaining to Karyn's parents exactly what was about to happen to their daughter, Jon had used the stone to wish for them to have won a two-week vacation to Argentina.
Dr. Chester was looking over Karyn's scan. "Amazing. Look at your abdomen here. It's like all your organs have been blended together. Your bone density is well below normal. Normally that would be bad, of course, but in your case it's something else. Your natural tissues are breaking down at an accelerated rate, and I think you have less than twenty-four hours before the N-Cells take over completely. We've got a room set aside for you already. I think you should stay here until it's over."
"Ugh..." Karyn groaned from her chair. "My stomach feels funny."
"Or maybe a lot sooner," Chester mumbled. "Let's get her under observation."
Chester and a younger doctor brought Karyn to a private room. There was a bed covered in plastic and a table with a large basin, maybe twenty gallons in size. As Karyn was set down on the bed, a milky gray goo began seeping out from her lower orifices. "This is likely to get weird, Karyn," Chester whispered, injecting her with a sedative.
Karyn returned to consciousness, staring at the ceiling. She felt naked, though she couldn't feel her arms or legs. She was surrounded by a dark stormcloud blue plastic wall that she couldn't seem to peek over.
"Karyn? Are you awake yet?" asked Jon's voice. He peeked over the blue plastic wall, which reached up to the height of his stomach.
Karyn felt Jon tap the outside of the plastic wall, sending vibrations all the way through her. Then she heard a familiar fizzing sound.
"They said a little of something like this might help you get some perspective," Jon said, carefully pouring a small amount from a bottle out onto Karyn.
As soon as the liquid splashed onto Karyn, she could taste it. It was odd, in that it seemed like it had been poured into her eye at first, but she could also taste it. She decided that this part of her must be her mouth, so she licked her lips, savoring the taste of the Dr. Pepper. Her vision seemed to be growing more concentrated as she made up her mind about where her eyes were supposed to be.
From Jon's perspective, the stormcloud blue plastic basin on a table was about two thirds full of a thick pale gray goo, until he poured a bit of Dr. Pepper into one corner of the pool, when a mouth appeared, followed by a pair of eyes. "Where am I?" asked the face in Karyn's voice.
"You're in a tub on a table," Jon said, scooping up a handful of the goo and letting it fall back down. "It's finished."
Karyn smiled. "Good."
"How do you feel?"
"Now that you mention it... pretty good. But a little weird, you know, having no arms or legs or anything," replied Karyn. "I hope I can get back to looking like myself by Monday. I don't want to miss too much school."
"I could make a wish," Jon offered, taking the stone out of his pocket.
"No, I want to try to do this myself." Karyn's face rose up on a pseudopod and leaned over the edge of the basin. "I don't want to miss the experience." She lunged forward, tipping the basin over, off the table. Karyn splattered on the floor with the basin upside-down. Gathering herself together, she began rising higher.
Jon watched the goo on the floor form a column slightly shorter than him, with a pair of eyes near the top. It began to take a feminine curved form, while a pair of thick tendrils sprouted from the sides, forming arms and hands. A head took shape, though somewhat featureless, having only eyes and a mouth, and a set of long limp tendrils emerging from the top and back like hair. Her legs defined themselves and separated.
"That wasn't too hard, was it?" Jon asked.
"It's an okay start, I guess," replied Karyn. She steadied herself with a hand on the table as she reached for the bottle. "Better not get ahead of myself, I've got a few days. Everything's going to be so different now." She took another few sips. "I guess I'm naked, but I don't even have skin right now so there's not much to see. Let's go for a walk."
"Let's see if Dr. Chester is still in the lounge," Jon suggested.
