Oh, God, what happened? Ryan thought to himself groggily. He started playing through the previous day’s events. Then when he got to the crash, Ryan sat up quickly.

"Ah!" Ryan gave a short gasp as he moved his injured arm. He looked over to see it wrapped up tightly in a cast, "Hello? Mom? Dad? Nurse? Chelle?" He called.

"Sure, you wreck my go-cart, but you call me last..." Michelle said as she came         into the room.

As she walked in, Ryan couldn’t help seeing how she overturned the balance of the room. Michelle was wearing a bright red shirt, and jeans faded enough to look white. The room was dull green. There were two beds, one of which was of course occupied by Ryan, the other was empty. The two windows in the room were shaded, and gave in only a faint glitter of light. Over to his right Ryan could see a wardrobe-like piece of furniture. It looked very old. The only light that was bright enough to see by was the one on the ceiling, which gave off a pale white light. On the other side of the room was a TV, but Ryan could barely see the screen.

Well, at least I can listen to it; I guess...He thought to himself.

"Wow, this room could use some color." Michelle said, giving words to Ryan’s thoughts.

"Is he alright?" a voice called through the door just as Ryan opened his mouth.

"Again, yes! He only has a broken arm. You can come in, Mrs. Sherwood." Chelle leaned over and whispered in Ryan’s ear, "That’s all she’s been asking for the last couple of hours."

"Hours? How long have I been out?" Before Chelle could answer, Ryan’s mom hurried through the door, followed more slowly and cautiously by his dad.

"Oh, honey, what could you have possibly been thinking?" his mother asked, her hair bouncing. Ryan could tell that his accident had brought his mother out of one of her trials. She was wearing a pant suite, colored a deep blue, which offset her bright red hair.

"He wasn’t thinking, that’s what,” his father answered. Even though he sounded stern, Ryan could see a little glint in his eyes. Over the years Ryan had seen that glint more than once, and he had come to know what it meant. In his younger years, Mr. Sherwood, then known as Rusty Sherwood, had been the biggest punk in the town. He had spent the night in the little jailhouse more than once. Now, in his later years, known only as Mr. Sherwood and Dad from his son, Rusty lived on in his son. His father had not been in trial on that day, but had in fact been on a golfing trip. He was dressed in tan kakis and a blue polo shirt. His gray hair was combed over to the right, “Did you even know that taking that out could’ve blown the motor? That would’ve killed you for sure!”

"Now, Mr. Sherwood, you shouldn’t be too hard on him, this isn’t the stupidest accident people come in here for." The nurse walked through the door, "Now then, Ryan, this is only a holding room, for people who have just come out of the ER, or are due there soon. If you feel you are ready, would you like to move to a better room?" The nurse was young, a lot younger than Ryan would have liked. She didn’t seem like she would have that much experience. She had dark tan skin, and dark brown hair, a darker shade than Michelle’s.

"Um, Mrs. Rodriguez..." Ryan was about to speak, when he thought better of himself. That was something about him; unless it was for a good reason, like he was angry, Ryan didn’t like to give other people problems. He smiled at being so paranoid; it wasn’t like the nurse was operating, she was just moving him to another room.

"...I was just wondering...have you been having trouble with patients wanting other nurses over you?" He covered quickly.

The nurse’s eyes widened, “Yeah, I have, how did you know?"

"It might be that you look so young..." The nurse and Michelle blushed, but Michelle quickly hid it behind a grim face.

"Why, thank you! Now, do you think you could make it to another room?"

"Yes, I think I could." He answered.

As Ryan settled himself down into the new room he had been issued on the third floor, he couldn’t help but think about the newest events in his life. Most of the new experiences were on the list of things he never wanted to do again. Doing a face plant on the road, breaking his arm, and saying things that sounded like flirting in front of Chelle. Yeah, those were things he definitely never wanted to do again.

"Oh..." he let out a disgruntled moan.

"I’ve heard that before, you’re thinking of something important." Michelle said, walking through the door. "What is it this time? Thinking of how to make your hospital bed go past the speed of sound?"

Ryan ran his fingers through his hair, looking at her, "Why, is that possible?" Ryan asked sarcastically.

"I just thought you might like this. It might remind you to stop doing stupid crap like this." Chelle pulled the governor out of her pocket, and pressed it into Ryan’s hand.

"Thanks, do you really think this will help?"

"Not really, but now I’ll know if you lie about not thinking about it. So, your parents are at home?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess..."

Chelle looked like she was about to say something, but instead, looked at her watch and mumbled, "Well, I guess I have to go too." She nodded her head and walked out the door. A few minutes after Michelle had left, Ryan was wondering how he was going to get through such a boring night.

Like always, he didn’t have long to think, because a doctor walked in.

"Hello..." the doctor paused and looked at the chart, "Ryan, we have a new machine here, it gives advanced x-rays that show up as a 3D hologram, I was wondering if you would like to try it?"

"I already took some x-rays and I have a lot going on he..." Ryan paused and looked around, "Okay, I’ll come." He said, dreading the boredom of staying there alone. "What’s your name, anyway?"

“Edward, Edward Phull."

“Really?” Ryan kept him talking, just because he didn’t think he could stand the silence at the time, “So…You would have the title Doctor, right?”

“Well…I am currently escorting you to get an x-ray. If I’m not a doctor, then you might have a problem.”

Ryan laughed, “Dr. Edward Phull. That’s just great.”

"Yeah...I don’t know what my parents were thinking.” The doctor laughed.

 Ryan smirked, then shook his head. "That’s something you should get changed. Let’s get down there, please; I’m actually starting to get tired...” Edward led the way down the hall, and into an elevator. The doctor pressed a button on the lowest part of the switchboard and leaned against the door.

As the elevator slowly moved down the shaft, Dr. Phull began to sweat. The farther it went down the sweatier and more nervous the man became.

"Do you have a problem with tight spaces?"

"...What? Yeah, sure...That’s the problem..." Edward seemed a little off base, and Ryan started to wonder if the nurse he had seen earlier that day would have been more suited to this job.

Just as Ryan thought the doctor couldn’t sweat anymore without passing out, the elevator ground to a halt, and the doors came open with a ding, almost toppling Edward out into a dark hallway.

"Why would you have an advanced x-ray machine in the basement?" Ryan asked, starting to wonder what was going on.

"It is still...experimental."

"Is that something that is supposed to make me feel better?"

"I guess it is rather disturbing." The doctor did seem to be feeling better as the two walked down the dark hallway.

In the dimness cast by the overhead lights Ryan could just barely see doors on both sides. How Edward knew where he was going with all of the repetitiveness, Ryan would never know. Soon Edward led Ryan to a set of double doors at the end of the hallway. Just on the other side was a room that was a lot better lit than the hallway.

Without waiting for his doctorial escort, Ryan pushed his way through the doors. The inside of the room wasn’t what he had expected.

It was about the right size to be an emergency room, but it was empty. There was no operating table on the floor, no counters or trays to put things on, and nothing on the walls. Only the ceiling wasn’t completely barren, it had numerous bright white lights.

"Dr. Edward, what’s going...?" Ryan never got the chance to say ’on’. Edward had come up behind him and shoved a mask onto his face.

Damn! The person thought to himself as he woke up. What happened? Where am I? These were only a sampling of the many of questions that were racing through the person’s mind. The most disturbing of these questions was: Who am I?

The person shook his head. The room he was in wasn’t completely barren, yet he felt it was empty.

In the middle of one of the walls was a door, and on the wall on the left side of the door was a bed, upon which sat the person. At the foot of the bed, set against the wall was a wardrobe. The doors were shut, so the person couldn’t be sure what was in it. On the other side of the room was a desk, which wasn’t very interesting. It had no drawers. A mirror accompanied it. That was the thing that interested him the most. Maybe it would give the person some information of who he was.

Standing up from the spring bed, the person noticed it was only an iron pipe frame, holding up an old spring mattress. Just as the person was totally off of the bed, he fell to the floor, his body exploding in pain.

"Ah! God!" The boy yelled. His call, echoed to an unnaturally high shrill, yelled back at him. The pain seemed to explode from the boy’s back, but rebounded from all over his body. As he sat there on his hand and knees, the pain gradually lessened. Slowly but surely the boy moved towards the mirror. Stopping every couple of seconds, the boy made it to the desk upon which the mirror sat.

Slowly and painfully the boy pulled himself up the desk. As he stood fully vertical, panting from the effort of the climb, the boy sat and stared at his reflection.

It showed a boy, around maybe sixteen or seventeen. He was tall and muscular. His head was topped with a pile of dark brown hair, black with the sweat that poured from his brow. For a few minutes the boy sat there and stared at his reflection, unsure of what he saw. He continued looking into the mirror for what seemed like hours, studying everything that he could see. Doubtless, he would have stayed that way for even longer, had there not been a resounding knock on the metal door to his room. Turning around, with a flare of fiery protest from his back, the boy stared wide eyed at the door.

A few seconds later, it swung open, revealing a man wearing a white lab coat, "Good, you are awake." He took a few steps into the room, always staying aligned to the door. "Are you able to speak?" The boy simply gazed at him.

The man tilted his head, and wrote a quick note onto a clipboard that he had carried in with him.

"Your muscles seem to be in working order, and your brain has control over your body. Very impressive. And memory recollection?" The man looked at the boy, as if he expected an answer.

"Does the name Ryan mean anything to you?" Although nothing on the boy’s face changed, inside his mind a large shockwave had been set off.         

"Hm. This may work to our advantage. That is all." The man turned and walked out the door. The boy faintly heard the sound of a lock clicking in.

Ryan must mean something to me…who I was. Otherwise he wouldn‘t have asked. The boy thought to himself. My name. It must have been my name.

“So, I am Ryan.” The boy said quietly. His voice was shaky. The boy, Ryan looked back at the mirror. He was wearing pants and a shirt that were made out of the same type of material. It seemed like a greenish paper like material. Staring at the mirror, Ryan saw a small bulge in the pocket of his shirt. He looked down at the shirt, reached into the pocket, and pulled out a small object.

“It’s a governor.” Ryan said to himself, though he had no idea how he knew. Just then an image exploded behind his eyes.

It showed a girl. She looked a lot like the image Ryan had seen the mirror. Only, she was shorter, and her hair was longer.

“Chelle…” Ryan muttered to himself. He didn’t know where the name had come from, or who the person actually was. What he did know was that somehow, she had something to do with his old life. Ryan decided he had to get out. Right away he started looking around the room for something he might have missed.

Above his bed Ryan found a vent, but it was securely bolted, and it was too small for Ryan to crawl through. On the wall opposite the door, Ryan found a small window, positioned at the very top of the wall. If he backed up all the way to the door, he could see feet walking past.

Feet mean people. People could be my way out…Ryan thought to himself. He ran over to the desk and pulled on the chair in front of it, but the legs were bolted to the floor. Feeling almost dead from the pain rupturing all over his body and feeling hopeless, Ryan laid back down on the bed and fell asleep.  

“Hey! Get up!” Strong hands pushing him off of the bed awakened Ryan. As he hit the floor a rip tide of pain tore through his body. As the pain ebbed, Ryan opened his eyes.

The person, who had pushed him off of the bed, looked almost like a pro wrestler. From his position, Ryan had to bend his neck to see the whole person. The man’s legs were huge, at least as wide as Ryan was, and they barely fit in the pants the man had crammed them into. The man was wearing what looked like scrubs. The man’s trunk of a body barely seemed to be human. It was like staring at a person who had just eaten a whole suckling pig at a grill out. The arms looked like the guy’s legs, only bigger, and topped with fingers. The neck was almost thicker than the arms and legs. The head looked tiny in comparison to the body. The man had tiny, beadlike eyes, and flared nostrils. The mouth was opened in a toothless grin. The man’s whole body was crisscrossed with veins.

“You have been requested for a test, so you’ll need to come with me.” The man said in a grave tone. He grabbed Ryan’s arm and pulled him roughly to his feet.

“What? Who did what?” Ryan asked groggily, not remembering where he was. His mind was slightly muddled by pain. The man pulled a small syringe out of his pocket, and jabbed it into Ryan’s arm. Instantly, a cooling sensation spread, killing the pain. Before he knew what was happening, the man pulled Ryan out of the door, and down a myriad of hallways. Just as Ryan regained his senses, he was pushed through a set of swinging doors.

Immediately dazzling white light blinded Ryan.

“So, you are Alpha Triple Oh?” A booming voice sounded through the room.

“What?” Ryan asked, trying to adjust to the bright light.

“His voice seems to be of working order now. I wasn’t able to get the boy to speak earlier.”

“He does not seem like much. Alpha Double Oh looked so much stronger, yet he died right away. How is it that this one lived through the operation?” another voice called, this one sounded like a woman.

“Who cares vhy he lived? Now ve have to vorry about vhat to do vith it!” Another male voice called from across the room.

Just then, Ryan’s eyes adjusted and he saw his surroundings. He was in a large room, almost like a gymnasium. At one end was a large desk, at which eight people were sitting. Four were woman, all of them dressed in white coats. All had black hair, and were of medium build. The men were more varied. One was extremely tall, and had a crooked nose with red hair. One was short and squat, with almost no hair upon his head, except a goatee on his chin. One was African-American, and looked more educated than the others. The last looked the most like a scientist. He had black hair that fell into his eyes, and he wore huge glasses that magnified his eyes. He was the one who had just spoken.

“What is going on?” Ryan asked.

“Ahh, the others caught on much more quickly.” One of the women spoke.

“Others?”

“Okay, let me handle this one.” The African-American spoke, “Ryan, is it? You are the third in a line of human experiments. All of your predecessors…malfunctioned. You are the only one who has lived past the operation, but we have no idea why. So, until we do, we shall test you on all of the things we improved.” The man sat down, his booming voice echoing across the room.

“Experiment? What kind of experiment?” Ryan said, squinting to get another look at the eight people.

“You are the third of the Ragnarök experiments. You are the next step in human evolution.” One of the women spoke, in a high voice that commanded respect.

“What…exactly…did…you…do?” Ryan was trying to stop himself from screaming the question.

“We fused some bones together, exchanged others for a new type of plastic, one that is stronger than actual bone, but six times lighter. We also had to re-map your blood work.” The man with red hair spoke.

“Why would you do that?” Ryan asked, looking at his body for the scars.

“You von’t find zhe evidence on your visible posterior. All scars are on your back.” The person who looked like an actual scientist spoke, “Vhat ve did can all be explained in a few vords. Ve turned you into vhat your religion vould call…an angel.”

“What! You killed me?” Ryan asked startled.

“Why couldn’t you choose someone with a higher IQ?” One of the female scientists asked, looking at the doors Ryan had just come through. Looking behind himself, Ryan saw another doctor standing behind him. The scientists started talking again, but Ryan kept looking at the doctor.

He was mouthing something. It took Ryan a few minutes, but he soon made out the words the doctor was mouthing, Look at your back.

Craning his neck at a weird angle, Ryan managed to look down at his left shoulder, and he saw something white sticking up behind it. Lifting a tentative hand, Ryan felt the object. It felt soft, but underneath Ryan could feel a hard structure.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Ryan finally snapped and rushed forward, ready to jump the desk and tackle one of the scientists. When he was about a yard away, the scientist with the accent lifted up a remote. It looked just like an average TV remote. The scientist smiled, and then pressed a button. Immediately a searing pain shot through Ryan’s body, erupting from the edge of his left shoulder blade. After a few seconds the scientist pressed the button again, and the pain stopped.

“Yes, ve also installed a control chip.”

The African-American stood up again, “We have taken all of these steps for one goal. You are the first Human/Avian Transfer that has lived past the transfusion.” The other scientist pressed another button on the remote, and a weird feeling ran up Ryan’s spine, and when it got up to the base of his neck, he felt a pain in the place between his shoulder blades. To either side, he could see wings spreading out behind himself.

“What are those?” Ryan asked. Before any of the doctors could answer, things started to connect in his head. The first Human/Avian Transfer. Ve turned you into vhat your religion vould call…an angel.

“You turned me into a freak!” Ryan yelled, trying to retract his wings, but he only managed to move them down an inch.

“Not a freak, but the next step in human evolution. Don’t you see? Your arm has completely healed. Without the transfusion, we never would have replaced your old, broken bone with the new, plastic one. Now, you can do what the human race has been wishing to do for ages, you can actually fly, in theory, of course.” One of the women doctors said. She was the one on the end.

“He is gettink over stimulated. Ve must get him back to his room, before sometink happens!” The accented doctor said, jamming down on another button. Instantly blackness started to fade into Ryan’s vision. Just before he blacked out, he asked himself one question: When have I ever broken my arm? Then he was out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 3