Note: This will begin shortly after Eugene Changes is busted by the police and will follow another one of his
experiments.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ron sat in the hospital, lazily watching as numerous doctors looked over him and took all sorts of samples. He
was extremely weak, a result of the horrible conditions he had spent the past year in while under the care of
Eugene Changes. To a casual viewer, he looked like a massive Great Horned Owl, only the vague human-shaped
body suggest anything different. He had one noticeable difference, his arms ended in talon-like hands instead
of wings, allowing him to at least continue to manipulate things as a human would. His arms were then covered
with long feathers to give him the appearance of wings, but several failed attempts had proven them to be
useless for that purpose.
Ron had come into contact with Dr. Changes a few months after he had finish college, he had graduated with a
BS in Biology, but the tanked economy had produced very few job opportunities. Dr. Changes had posted a fairly
well-paying position and, with few other opportunities available, he had taken the position in order to help
him buy time until another position came upon him.
Sufficient to say, things did not go the way he had expected. In retrospect, Changes attitude and demeanour
towards him was now painfully obvious, but at the time he hadn't thought anything of it. He'd often engage him
in discussions about his favourite animals and what his future prospects looks like. Then, out of the blue,
one day Changes had told him there was a way out, a way to guarantee his future without having to worry about
money, about a career.
Ron had blown him off, but Changes had somehow managed to slip him some of his serum, and before he knew it,
he'd been locked up along with the rest of his 'freak show'. The changes had taken a lot of time to get use to
and even now he was still adjusting to his new body. In particular, he still had a hard time dealing with head
movements, he was unable to move his eyes, like any other owl, so he would have to physically move his head to
look at anything not immediately in front of him. But he was still not use to that and often still tried to
just move his eyes like a normal person and, of course, there was that whole, 'turn his head around' thing
that owls could do that still was so weird for him to do.
Changes had no taken very good care of him, in particular he was often underfed, leaving him very weak and
barely able to do anything more then just sit there. Had the police not busted Changes' operation, he was
possibly going to die. But now, with plenty of fluids being pumped into him, he was probably going to recover,
though now that brought up the frightening question, "what happens now?"
He had been missing for over a year now, so long that he didn't even know if his family still thought he was
alive. But beyond that, what was he really going to do now? He was a giant bird, a freak to the rest of the
world. What could he possibly do now? With his imprisonment by Dr. Changes now over, all these question arose
in his head, and he had no idea how to answer any of them. The best hope he had was that Changes had developed
a way to reverse the process, as slim of a chance as it was. Never had he'd seen one of his experiments return
to human form, but that didn't necessarily mean that Changes had never discovered a way to reverse it.
However, even if he could be changed back, he didn't know if he wanted to. As horrible as the situation was,
Ron could not deny that a part of him enjoyed this new body. He loved owls, he had fantasized about becoming
an owl, and now that he was, he couldn't deny his desire to remain one. Sure, it was quite a challenge to get
use to, but over the course of the past year he had become a bit comfortable with his new body. He could now
see much, much better in the dark, he no longer needed clothing to stay warm, his hearing was greatly
improved, and he couldn't deny that it was kind of cool that he could now look directly behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After about an hour, the doctors finally left him to rest. Ron turned the TV on and quickly changed to the
news, which was now running non-stop coverage of the police discovery of Dr. Changes' operations. Strangely
enough, according to the story, it was Changes that had first contacted the police, claiming someone had
kidnapped one of his volunteers. He didn't remember anything like that happening, but then again, for the
longest time he'd barely been conscious of what was going on around him. He watched the report for about half
and hour, but his weak body finally gave away and he fell asleep without even turning the light off.