As soon as Collin agreed to the request, the metal doors closed around Collin’s cage. It was a simple thing to agree to do something he was planning to do already, but with a twist of mystery to it. After the wrist implant, expecting some sort of unrevealed factor was a given, so for it to be transparently layed out for him ahead of time this time made it an easy choice.


    The cart in front of Collin slowly opened to reveal a darker green blob inside that was the size of a bead rather than the strawberry sized blobs the others dealt with.


    “So what if I can’t connect to it?” Collin asked.


    “Just do your best,” Merrin said over the intercom, “Are you ready?”


    “Sure,” Collin said, taking a deep breath and trying to picture himself as willing as possible.


    A high pitched sound blasted from all directions, making it momentarily much harder to concentrate. Collin regained his focus when he heard a primordial whisper in his mind. The whisper originated from the blob in front of him almost as if it were calling out from too far away to make out the words. Collin set his attention to that call and opened his mind to it.


    The pulsating, hungry pull from the blob grew more intense as Collin followed the call. The call and the pulsating pull both merged as they both centered on Collin’s mind. In a disorienting moment, Collin felt himself falling to the ground as he lost all muscle control. Instead of fighting back the sensation, Collin leaned into it until the pulse grew to an overwhelming strength. The pulse expanded into an aura that felt incorporeal yet palpable. The aura surrounded Collin’s body and it felt comfortingly familiar as he felt himself leave his own body. The next moment, the whole world went black.


    …


    When Collin woke up again, he had a hard time remembering much other than his own name. He couldn’t see or hear anything but felt a vibration in the air. That didn’t seem completely right, but somehow it felt natural. At the same time of feeling natural, there was a contradictory feeling of instability to his own existence.


    A burbling sensation from within warped his body as he first grew legs, then eyes then a body and some semblance of ears that let him hear the vibration in the air as some kind of constant background noise. Blinking, he found himself looking from the vantage of something incredibly small. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Collin skittered around the tray he was on until he felt several life pulses far away and a single familiar life pulse close by. He wasn’t sure how he felt the life of something else, but it came as naturally to him as any other sense. The life pulse nearby belonged to a human, unconscious and on the ground.


    Was that human him? What was a human? Why wasn’t he sure?


    Collin felt like he should know more than he did, but nothing was coming to him easily. He felt so hungry and it was making it impossible to think straight.


    “CX21, can you hear me?” A growling noise rang out from the top corner of the room.


    Collin felt an anger inside of him from hearing that noise. Whatever it was, it was aggravating.


    The noise called out again, “CX21, this is Chuck, if you can hear me, I want you to move in a circle clockwise, then counter clockwise.”


    The growling felt insistent, but it was hard to think through the confusion of everything. Collin felt so hungry and it was getting worse. The voice was making it harder to think. Between the anger and the hunger, Collin had no room for anything else.


    “CX21,” The growling siad, Collin knew it was a voice that was using words to manipulate him somehow, but the words made no sense, “Next, I’d like you to see if you can change your original form.”


    Between the hunger and the aggravating voice, Collin was overwhelmed by the need to stop one. Collin pinpointed the life pulse that resonated with the growling sound and leaped toward it with all of his might. He was stopped short by a glass dome around the tray. Collin scratched at the dome with his feeble legs, but it was no use.


    He was trapped.


    That was unacceptable.


    Collin let out a raging scream that rattled the glass around him.


    The growling reacted to Collin’s scream, “Fantastic! Let’s not overdo it, though. It takes practice to maintain longer stretches of time. I’m turning the frequency off now.”


    Collin heard the background noise disappear and soon after the growling stopped, he felt a pull on his mind from the unconscious human on the ground. Recognizing the opportunity for escape, Collin followed the pull.


    …


    In a snapped blink, he opened his eyes from his human body again.


    It took several minutes of dazed blinking to fully remember who he was, but when his memory came back, Collin realized that he had done it. He’d connected to the Hypnosite. He felt his stomach with his hand, remembering the intense hunger that he had felt and watched thankfully as the cart sealed the little blob away.


    The whole experience had been exhilarating, but it was nice to have his own memories back. Everything was so much clearer now. Collin could think at a normal speed and things made far more sense to him. For some reason, inside of that hypnosite, he was so stupid, he was barely even conscious beyond basic recognition ability and instinct. It was almost painful to feel that limited.


    “How are you feeling, CX21?” Merrin called out over the intercom.


    Collin shook his head to clear his thoughts, “I’m good, I’m good.”“Congratulations on a successful connection,” Chuck said.


    Collin felt a wave of bloodthirsty rage run through himself before he pushed it down.“Should you be interested in continuing the experiments, we will be in touch with you for next week.”


    Collin ran through his memories of the experience and responded confidently, “Oh, I’ll be back next week. Try and stop me.”