• "Atmospheric conditions within the examination chamber are holding steady." a female intern reported, "Looks like we're ready to go, Doctor."

    34-year-old Doctor Sean Pitt nodded and slipped his hands into the white Latex gloves. His brown hair was hidden underneath a surgical cap, with the exception of the long sideburns running down near his ears. Blue eyes glanced out at the ancient skeleton laid out on the examination table inside the chamber, the body of what could be a member of humanity's long-forgotten past. When he had received a message from the head of the archeological institution that a fully intact skeleton of what was possibly a Neanderthal and that he was the one they had chosen to examine it for authenticity, Sean couldn't believe his ears. If the recovered body was indeed the real deal, it would be the highlight of his entire, under appreciated career. All his life, he had lived in the shadow of his older brother, Jacob, never expected to amount to anything that would be counted as his equal. When Jacob joined NASA and Sean graduated college with a degree in archeology, their parents favored the path Jacob took because to them, studying things from the past in a dusty library and digging in the dirt wasn't considered a real job, just something that would make you waste your life away. Sean had a bit of a falling out with his parents and brother after that and ended up immersing himself within his work, rarely leaving the library or the office. His self-esteem was at an all time low at the point when he was put in charge of this examination, but he believed that that wouldn't be a problem anymore afterwards.

    Sean took a deep breath and strapped a surgical mask onto his face, "Alright...let's get this show on the road."

    With that, he strode through the airlock doors and out onto the chamber floor. His heart beat rapidly in anticipation as he approached the mummified remains, the empty eye sockets of its skull stared blankly back up at him. He paused, feeling as if the skeleton's dead eyes were somehow looking straight through him, like it was still alive and sizing him up. "Doctor? What's wrong?" the intern asked through the intercom from the observation room.

    "Nothing...I'm fine. I must be a bit tired." Sean replied, trying to shake off the weird sensation that had come over him, "There's some residue here on the breastbone. I'm going to try and scrape some of it off."

    Sean selected a hooked scraping tool from the small kit laid out nearby, similar to what dentists use to remove plaque from teeth. Slowly and delicately, the tool descended onto the splotch and the residue began to peel away from the bone. To his surprise, the removal of the residue revealed an odd-shaped marking that wasn't similar to anything Sean had seen before. It was shaped like a figure eight, along with several curved lines running through the design, and a golden hue accented its lines. "I've got something here." he said, "Some kind of symbol engraved into the bone matter."

    "Do you recognize it?"

    Sean shook his head, "Nope. Let's take a photo and send it upstairs for analysis."

    "Right."

    While the intern was busy setting up the lab camera, Sean took a closer look at the strange symbol that he discovered. Suddenly, the marking started to glow with a greenish light, overwhelming the overhead bulbs in the chamber. He tried to tear his gaze away, but his nerves no longer obeyed him. The light grew and grew until it was almost blinding, then there was a flash of white light. Sean felt his mind being squeezed, and moments later, collapsed to the floor, out cold. "Doctor Pitt!" the intern cried as she scrambled out of her chair and ran into the chamber. She knelt beside his prone form and checked his pulse, thankfully finding a steady but weak heartbeat. There was an emergency PA system speaker on the wall nearby and she rushed up to it, slamming her palm onto the large red activation button. "Medical team to the examination chamber!" she exclaimed, "I repeat: Medical team to the examination chamber!" Minutes later, a team of paramedics rushed in, heaved Sean onto an orange-colored stretcher, and carried him off towards the ambulance waiting outside.

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    The steady beeping of a heartbeat monitor and the hum of air conditioners greeted Sean's ears as he slowly woke up. He squinted as his pupils adjusted themselves to the bright glare of the light hanging over his head and sluggishly panned his field of vision to his left. Seeing a nurse dressed in surgical scrubs, he tried to speak, but his voice only came out in a harsh whisper, "W-Where am I?"

    The nurse turned around and gave him a pleasant smile, "Ah, you're awake. Don't worry, you're in the hospital and you're going to be all right. However, there were...unseen...complications."

    "What do you mean?" Sean asked, an uneasy feeling rising inside his stomach.

    The nurse hesitated, unsure if he should reveal what had happened while Sean was unconscious. "Uh, nothing." he muttered, "Is there anything I can get for you?"

    "What...do...you...mean?" Sean repeated, making the nurse's fake smile disappear in an instant.

    "Your...body...suffered a dramatic increase in muscular and cellular density, as well as your physical appearance." the nurse explained, "I'm sorry, but we don't fully know the extent of the damage until we run some more tests."

    For the first time, Sean took notice of his arms, which were completely covered in a dense matt of hair and were the size of thick tree branches. He stared at them in horror and ripped the hospital sheet off the rest of his body, finding the same exact thing. Fear began to grip his mind and he began to panic, jumping out of the bed and out of the room. "Sir!" the nurse exclaimed as he ran after him down the hallway, "Sir, you need to calm down and come back with me now! We still don't know if you're in any condition that would be dangerous to you!"

    His voice seemed distant as Sean continued to stumble along the hallways towards the hospital lobby, occasionally crashing into various equipment and countertops because of the fact that he wasn't used to his new body form. Still wearing the hospital gown, he kept walking out the front entrance and into the street beyond. Cars swerved to avoid him, honking their horns as they struggled to avoid the sudden obstacle that was in their way. One, unfortunately, wasn't so lucky and failed to get out of the way in time, its tires squealing in an attempt to bring the vehicle to a stop. Sean saw the threat and reacted on instinct, pulling his right arm back and aimed a massive hooked punch underneath the front bumper, causing the car to fly backward end over end. As the vehicle crashed to the pavement, Sean finally began to see the world around him and he looked around, wondering what he had just done.