Doctor Taenia, a wizened, slightly bald man was looking forward to retirement.
Having spent almost thirty years in the medical world, he had seen it all. He had treated many illnesses and diseases, at least those that had a treatment. In that time, he had seen many advancements that few ever thought possible. New cameras that could see into the various cells of the body, chemical detectors that could figure out bacterial infections… the progress he had witnessed was amazing. Advancements were continuing an improving… although it seemed that this progress had somehow made him obsolete.
The hospital that Doctor Taenia had worked in for so long had started to use a new AI system, much like everyone else had to help in the care of various patients. The emergence of AI had started to make diagnostics easier though in some ways. Would those that come after him rely on the instruments before their own common sense? A database was certainly helpful but… something about the AI offering suggestions made him uneasy. It was going to replace him apparently, better, and cheaper than what came before. There was nobody going to replace him, this machine was apparently going to do all the work.
…in theory.
The clock ticked… and … that was it. He was off the system and now they had their mechanical consultant to work with instead.
“Doctor!” A nurse called nervously. She was out of breath as she entered his office. “Wait- We- we need you. There’s a patient that just came in.”
The doctor took hold of a pen from his desk. “I’ve retired now Sheela, I’m no longer employed. I’m sure the replacement will do a good job,” he half grumbled that out.
The nurse stared still white as a sheet. She put her hand on the doctor to stop him. “It- It’s is just we have a really weird case. I mean- ‘really’ weird.” She looked at a loss for words. “You really need to see this. I think you’ll want to see it.”
Dr Taenia smirked. “Heh… an unknown rare disease? I’m sure the AI can handle it,” he said with a shrug. Why not stress test the new medical marvel a little? He considered himself an expert on rare diseases, but it was true the AI had trumped him in the various tests… much like how computers could beat anyone at chess now. So seeing it lose for once just as he was leaving was actually pleasant.
Sheela continued to insist. “The AI can’t figure it out. Please… just come see.” She was almost begging at this point.
Doctor Taenia frowned and raised his hands in defeat. “Oh hell, fine… if only that I’m curious what the AI can’t figure out. What does it say anyway?”
“The AI says…that she just has chicken pox.” Sheela replied. “Uh- she’s in isolation room B5.” She pushed the button to the elevator.
Dr Taenia moved from tiptoes to his heels in a nonchalant manner, not too concerned. “So why doubt the diagnosis? Chicken pox isn’t really something that can be easily confused.” It wasn’t like he was being paid at the moment… well… he dismissed that thought. This was for a person… if the AI has failed, he couldn’t let the patient suffer.
Sheela said nothing now… She didn’t want to ‘contaminate’ the doctor’s thinking or give him any indication of her thoughts on the mater. It was important to say as unbiased as possible in such a strange case. “In here…”
They were soon in the room and… Dr Taenia stared in shock. “Huh…”
It appeared to be a girl… apparently a teenager as far as he could tell. The girl was breathing heavily, covered in a hospital gown looking quite terrified. Poking out from the bottom of the covers, was- well- clearly a costume…
He could see a set of talons. Three toes with vicious looking claws… a fourth claw on the back part. It moved slightly, gripping the air with clear intent and motion. On the right side, stretched out, was apparently a bird’s wing, much longer than a human arm covered in dark black feathers. It all matched nicely with that dark hair the girl had, cut to about medium length running just past her shoulders. She appeared to be about sixteen years old, perhaps?
“…chicken pox?” Dr Taenia asked staring at the nurse. “… is this a joke? Some kind of last day prank when I’m retiring?” He took on a slightly menacing look, clearly angry at the whole display and what appeared to be an insult to his intelligence. They put some kid up to this too? Maybe she was the daughter of one of the employees… soon they would rush in and say ‘ha ha’ and it would be all over the net.
Nurse Sheela placed a calming hand on the girl’s shoulder as she started shivering. “Hey it’s okay. Dr Taenia really one of the best when it comes to rare medical issues… um… let’s take off these covers so he can see… is that okay?”
After a brief pause she nodded. “I- I guess I don’t mind,” The bird girl said as the covers were taken off.
With the covers away, more of the girl could be seen. She was dressed in a hospital gown for modesty, but it was clear now to see that the ‘wings’ were… her arms. They were her actual arms! Her torso was human enough with nice C-cup sized breasts… not too big, not too small, but certainly quite perky looking. From the waist down she seemed to have more of those dark black feathers, which covered up parts of her hips. The talons and scales started around her knees… and what looked like a very ‘odd’ leg structure with some light yellow scales providing a glint of gold to the dark feathers.
Dr Taenia sighed. “Fine, let’s check your pulse, shall we? Let me see your wrist.” He took hold of the ‘costume’ and tugged at the end of it... finding an odd slender ‘finger’ like structure buried under the mass of black feathers. “What the- where are you hiding your hands?”
“I- I don’t have any hands!” The girl suddenly cried. “They- They are gone. I just have these!” she waved her fan-like projections that had taken the place of her hands. It gave a soft woosh of air between them.
At this point Dr Taenia started to push around the odd structure… feeling how the wings were made. It was not like a human’s arm at all. Too thin… and even a little delicate? The bones were elongated… possibly even hollowed out? This was an arm of sorts… but the further down it went, the more they spread out… and these black feathers made it difficult to get a proper understanding of how it all looked… except as a possible bird’s wing. Was he really dealing with something… someone… not human? “… Well I suppose I can use a stethoscope,” He muttered placing it on the young girl’s chest as she gave a slight gasp a the contact. “Hm.. still feeling the cold… and your heart is beating as normal… any pain?”
The girl glanced down. “Well…the tail feathers are hurting me. I’m lying... down on them.”
Dr Taenia raised an eyebrow at the increasingly bizarre situation. ‘I was this close to retirement… but now I’m being messed with by someone in a costume…’ it had to be a costume, right? “So… is this some kind of new teen internet challenge I missed?”
Sheela started to talk and explain the situation. “According to the notes...apparently, she transformed like this… in the middle of a school class. Everyone saw it…”
The girl started to get a bit more annoyed at the poking and more at them talking about her like this. “A-Actually- I’m a guy-“ she stated emphatically.
The doctor raised an eyebrow. He was no stranger to this aspect of society at least. “Ah… you mean… you identify as…one?”
“No!” The girl looked ‘very’ angry now. “I was- I am!” She said even more annoyed. “You can see my Id and stuff in my bag um- it’s somewhere. Can you fix this? Please?” She started to move to her side, allowing the plumes of dark black feathers to poke out. She sighed in relief of them finally being released. “My name is Colin… I’m just a student- I was in PE and… and… everyone started laughing at me- I fell over… then got up and was turned into this!”
The doctor rubbed his beard at this account of an absolutely bizarre and frankly baffling situation. So he was dealing with a full unknown. “hm…right. Well. Let’s give her the full set of tests then. Bloods… X-ray… genetics… family history… environmental… and I suppose I’ll wait for the inevitable call from the MIB…”
The nurse nodded and made some notes. “don’t worry Colin, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
