1 1 week later...

Nick woke up to the sound of singing.

"...fishy in the sea, tiny little fishy, who could you really be..."

Sound drifted from off to the left from what seemed to be a small child.

Nick tried opening his eyes but couldn't seem to muster the strength. Nothing hurt, thankfully, but he felt like... well... like he got run over by a truck.

'What's going on?'

He tried to remember what had happened. Everything was fuzzy, but one thing was certain.

'Something's not lining up.' He thought as he tried to remember.

'I remember I was walking home, then I was surrounded by police. And I saw..."

His eyes shot open in realization.

'TRUCK-KUN YOU D***!' He thought.

He immediately regretted his decision as piercing light stabbed his eyes.

'Ah, balls!' He swore as he tried to keep his eyes open.

'Have to... get up...' That's what he told himself but, even then, he still took another hour to keep his eyes open. When he did, however, he saw something really strange.

Everything was fuzzy and hard to make out, but he was reasonably sure that there was something brown over his mouth that partially blocked the bottom of his vision. Strands of some kind of wire were sticking out of it and extended out of view.

Turning his head slightly, he noticed that he was wearing a gown of some kind.

'Okay, I'm probably in the hospital' He paused to look around the room. 'Or maybe a nursing home?'

He noticed the hospital room seemed a lot nicer than the ones he went to. At least from what he could see on his side of the curtain. Instead of bland green or white walls, this one had an actual design on it. The furniture was a lot less sterile too, and he noticed a distinct lack of medical equipment. Not including whatever was on his face.

'This looks less like a hospital room and more of a waiting room in a video game, a nice one.' He thought this because 'Ain't no one gonna spend that much money on a waiting room in real life.'

He placed a hand on the table next to him and pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Hm?" He asked as he noticed something wrong.

He tried moving his hand again to find what was off and felt pressure past the tips of his fingers.

'Are my nails really that long?'

He moved his hand closer to get a better look.

His eyes were still a bit fuzzy but having something to concentrate on helped.

As his vision cleared, he finally was able to tell the problem.

He didn't have nails on his hands, he had claws.

Nick froze and, as he did, noticed the singing seemed to come from slightly above from where it should be.

He twitched and felt something brush against the side of his head.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

A nurse was examining a screen when they noticed someone walking by.

"Dr. Barret, what brings you over here?"

"Hello Rodolpho, just checking on a patient. I got a notification that he woke up." Came the text to speech voice of the Doc.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A horrific shriek tore through the air.

The both of them started before going checking their screens.

"Room 707!"

Both of them rushed into the nearby room and glanced at the child sitting on the bed. Only needing a moment to tell that she was fine, they checked the next patient over.

He was a young man with grey and brown speckled hair who was hunched over puking into a trashcan.

"Don't worry sir, we're here. What happened?" They asked while standing a good distance in case of another episode.

"I'm fine." Nick paused to gag. "Just moved too fast."

The two medical professionals sighed in relief.

"Well, maybe we could get you something for your stomach and maybe you could tell us what happened?" The nurse asked in a way that wouldn't alarm him.

"No. Thank you, but that won't be necessary." He said before putting aside the trashcan he was nursing and turned around.

"I think I ju- CHEESE AND CRACKERS!" Nick cried as he stumbled backwards off the bed.

He raised a shaky arm and pointed at Dr. Barret.

"W-w-what happened?" He asked.

"You were in an accident. Your bus got into a collision on the road. You should be fine now, but your still a bit frail." The Dr.'s text-to-speech voice came out not quite as soothing as she would've liked.

"Okay," Nick said warily. "I remember that."

"But that's not what I meant." He said while trying to suppress the errant idea blossoming in his mind.

"What I meant was, why are you like that?"

They paused, a bit confused.

"Like what?" Rodolpho asked.

"Like wh-"Nick stammered in disbelief.

"Why do you look like the missing link!? Why does SHE look like a sonic fan character!? And why do I look like F******G Mortimer Mouse!?"

The two of them looked at him strangely.

"You've always looked like that, sir."

Nick's heart froze.

"What?"