2 Waking up

12 January 2086

The Federation of India and Persia, New Magician Research Institute, 300 km from Chennai.

In a pure white room, there laid a hospital bed in the middle of the room. Lying on it was a child that looked about 5~6 years old, who was hooked up to various machines beside him, constantly monitoring his heartbeat and brain waves. He was even hooked to an IV drip and various other liquids. However, what struck out the most on the child were the chains around his hands and feet.

His limbs were tied to the bed using leather straps, and what looked like steel cuffs. In the room opposite to this one, separated by a one-way glass, was one young man sitting in front of a bunch of computers and machines that were analyzing the condition of the child. Although he was wearing a white coat that signified that he was a scientist, the way he was resting on the chair signified anything but that. With his feet on top of the machines and a coffee in his hand, he was scrolling through his phone on what could only be social media. Suddenly, one of the machines started beeping. The young man was so surprised he spilled his coffee on himself.

" Damn, that surprised me! " When he looked towards what was making the sound, his eyes froze, as did his movements.

'Impossible! That's impossible! Is the machine not working? There is no way that 001 has brain activity!!'

The reason he was so surprised was due to the fact that the boy on the bed or the so-called 'Subject 001' had been lying on the bed for a total of four years and had never shown any signs of life apart from the slowly rising and falling lines on the heart monitor. Even, due to the fact that even after years of care 001 did not show any signs of waking up, the higher ups of the government had decided to remove him from life support after another year. And that was why the young scientist thought that the machine was malfunctioning. Yet, even after checking it multiple times, he didn't find anything wrong with it. And thus in his excitement and disbelief, he slowly picked up the phone on the wall beside him and exclaimed,

'Subject 001 is showing signs of brain activity! I repeat, subject 001 is showing signs of brain activity!! '

This message was then immediately sent to the head scientists (also called supervisors) of the institute, who then rushed towards the room where 001 rested. Today was going down as a wild day for the various scientists in the institute, as today they saw the scientists that loved discipline and silence in the institute rush down the hallway shouting for everyone to make way for them. One by one, each of the head scientists reached the room where the young man was.

*Bam* As the door was slammed open, 3 scientists barged in.

"Supervisor Anand. Supervisor Habib. Supervisor Arvind. " called the young man.

"You're the one who reported the anomaly in the monitoring of 001? You'd better pray you're correct." said Anand with an indifferent expression.

"Humph. I bet you ran here praying for it to be true didn't you? After all, you're the one who brought him here." replied Arvind.

"I might have run, but you got here at the same time as me. Considering your office is farther away, doesn't that mean that you ran faster than me?" Anand replied, sneering at Arvind.

"Ok, ok. Let's all calm down and look at the screens. You're the young man who reported the change right?..." looking at the spilled coffee on his clothes and the floor, and then glancing at ID around his neck, Habib continued "Devendra right? Why don't you wash up and come back? Take your time " he said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you sir." Hearing this, Devendra quickly left the room with a relieved expression on his face.

' To think that I would meet all three head scientists today. Although I guess it's true that Supervisor Anand and Supervisor Arvind have a bad relationship ' he thought to himself.

"Now then, shall we see this change? " said Habib, to the other two scientists. Hearing this, they both stopped staring at each other and focused on the screens in front of them. And as they did, they had the same reaction as the young man before, shock and disbelief.

"Are we sure the machines are not broken?" asked Arvind.

"They are checked regularly, Supervisor Arvind, they are definitely working properly " replied Habib.

"But you realize that 001 has not shown any sign of brain activity for four years now. To suddenly start to show activity without any form of stimulus is unheard of. Especially after years of no activity. In fact, he was even declared brain dead recently and thus was gonna be removed from life support right? " said Arvind.

"The reason why he recovered brain activity doesn't matter. The important thing is how long will it take for him to wake up? And once he does, will he be able to control his powers? Last time, his body nearly collapsed from his overwhelming psion count flowing through his body" stated Anand.

"At the current rate of recovery, he should be conscious in about 3~4 months and should be fully awake by the end of the year, " said Habib.

" Indeed. I guess we need to schedule another meeting with the Ruling Council and rethink about what to do with 001, " said Anand.

At the same time, while the three heads were having their conversation, inside the boy's mind (his consciousness space),

'That hurtttttt, just my luck to encounter a crack in space on the one day I decide to step out of the house! …. Wait, I'm alive?? How? Wasn't I..wasn't I… sh-sh-shredded? But if I am alive … why can't I feel anything? And coming to think of it, where am I? I can't feel any of my body! I can't feel my eyes, mouth or even my limbs! Deep breath, or not I guess. Don't panic. Don't panic. Stay calm and register your surroundings, that is what a good main character does. But f*ck I can't sense anything! Aaaah, I think I'm gonna cry, I guess I can't do that either huh… "

Right now, Alaukik's consciousness was inside the body of subject 001, however, it had not yet adapted to the new body, and thus Alaukik could not feel anything. That was also the reason why the body suddenly showed signs of brain activity, as there was a new consciousness in the brain.

'Wait wait, I can feel something! Something that is wiggling around? Wait, I'm sensing myself, but it's definitely not human shaped … did I become a slime? Impossible right? Yeah… I mean, I can't even control it. It's moving around on its own. What could it be? Lets think, it's part of me, but I can't control it, and it survived the shredder …. Could it be? My soul? It has to be right? So let me get this straight, I got sucked into the shredder, my body was broken, but my soul survived, and then got into another body? If that is the case, then I am currently in the mind of the body? And so, could it be that my soul is currently trying to fit with the body? Is that why it's shaking and wiggling and expanding so slowly? If that's true … then how long is this gonna take?? Like, my soul's changing soooooo slowly, it could compare with a turtle! I guess I have no option but to wait?" Alaukik thought sadly.

Slowly, as time passed, Alaukik's soul fit more and more with the body until one day, 4 months later, Alaukik could feel some of his body.

"Finally! I can feel something! I was going to go mad inside this cage of a mind! Now then, what is it that I feel? It is … a bunch of particles that are traveling in what I can only assume to be my body? Is it blood? But that can't be right? Blood is liquid… and what I'm feeling are definitely separate particles, and there are a looot of them. Are these my cells? I mean, what else could it be right? There's not much in a body that is particle-like and is in a large quantity right? " he thought as he tried to control those particles. And unsurprisingly, it didn't work. He couldn't control those particles, and could feel them rushing here and there and even out of his perception.

While outside the body, in the room opposite, there were new readings on the devices. Devendra was monitoring the screens when this happened, except this time, he was paying attention and thus was not surprised. Instead, he calmly reported it to his superiors,

"Sir, subject 001 is now emitting psions. I repeat, the subject is now emitting psions in random bursts. "

After this, not much else happened the next 8 months. Alaukik's soul slowly adapted, as the readings on the machine increased. And so, eight months later, in the white room, the boy who had never opened his eyes for 5 years, opened them.