What Tom had said came as a complete surprise to Patrick.
"....Under attack? From who?"
"My best guess would be that thing that appeared in the sky. I only know what you saw, and that wasn't enough to categorize it. Once you go back, we can get a proper scan on it."
"So what does th-" Patrick was cut off by a loud beeping. The whiteness around them began to darken. Tom stomped his foot. "Dammit! I can't keep your mind in here anymore! I have to put you back. Don't worry, we'll be able to talk, just not at first. My final piece of advice: experiment. You have powers, Patrick. Find out how to use them!"
His vision fading, Patrick nodded his head before slumping to the ground.
* * *
He was laying on his back, still on the rooftop. Sitting up, Patrick rubbed his head. "What. The. Heck. Was that? Was I drugged? Am I going insane? I reall need to see a doct-". His eyes fell on the iguana at his feet. He stared at the collar around its neck.
Gary's collar.
The iguana tried to sit on it's back legs, failing due to its short forearms. Instead, it rolled three times to the left, then three to the right.
"No way. Absolutely not. My cat is not a lizard." The iguana turned its eyes to Patrick, the emotion in them clear as day. It made a squawking noise, rasping and coughing. Then it licked its front foot, cleaning and washing it.
"...Gary? Is that you?" Somehow, the cat/iguana understood, and crawled over, rubbing its back against Patrick's leg.
"Oh my god. Gary!" He reached down, grasping his pet and holding him up to his chest. The moment he touched the creature, his palm pulsed blue. Patrick's vision was suddenly crowded with shapes, words, and other miscellaneous information. He gasped, nearly dropping Gary.
"What!? What is this?" With his free hand, he moved his fingers through the floating blue shapes. They acted completely tangible, moving out of the way. Now able to see them one at a time, he began reading them.
"Vitals...age...health...species...intelligence...Is this all about Gary? Species: feline. It is about Gary! Wait..." A lone square caught his eye. "Status: red. Repair: possible. Please select Y/N. Harmonize?" Repair? After a moment, he touched the Y. Instantly, Gary began glowing. A stream of colors began flowing from Patrick's palm to the lizard. His eyes widened in shock, and he felt like he was imploding. Or throwing up. Or both at once.
The glow intensified, forming a bubble around Gary. It was so bright, Patrick had to look away. But he felt something shift in his eyes, and though the glow was still blinding, he could look right at it, pain free. His new discovery was interrupted by a loud meow. The glowing orb seemed to explode, but was then sucked into the orange cat now standing on the cement rooftop.
"Gary!" He hugged his beloved pet, once again bombarded by the blue screens. He found the one from before. It now read: "Status: blue. Functioning."
"C'mon Gary. Lets go back inside."
* * *
Once they had returned to his room, the cat leapt onto the couch, acting like he always had. Patrick cleared a portion of the floor, sitting down in it. Wondering what time it was, he looked at the wall clock. "7:30. PM."
The sun was shining right in his face. Mind spinning, Patrick pulled out his phone to check its clock. The moment it lit up, his palm pulsed green and the same little screens appeared around his head, only various shades of green. Jerking back in surprise, he blinked rapidly. Then he pinched himself. Sighing, he began reading the words scrolling around his head. He flicked one to move it out of the way. Gary leapt off the couch, attempting to capture the floating hologram.
"So you can see them too?" Gary recovered from his embarrassing crash-landing, and began to calmly clean his forelegs.
Looking back, he continued reading the screens. There, in front of him, was displayed every single scrap of information about his phone, from its case color, to the social security number of the man who picked the color to be put there. It was staggering. Patrick let go of his phone. One by one, each screen collapsed into a vertical line before fading. It was at that moment that the sun sank back below the east horizon.
The sudden darkness simply added to Patrick's confusion and frustration. His emotions took hold of him, and he turned and punched the nearest thing. That just happened to be the side of the couch.
The force of his usually average punch sent the couch the eight feet to the bookshelf. Patrick was once again stunned. He had no idea what was happening to him! He spent the next few minutes crying, both in anger and sadness.
When he had calmed back down, he thought about what he did know.
He knew something was attacking earth, and that something had changed him. If Tom was telling the truth, he would be able to speak to him soon. But how soon was soon? Tom had said the thing was inside him, under his skin. His skin looked the same to him. Felt the same, too. He searched his mind, recalling of Tom had said how to activate anything. He had mentioned something about 'basic forms', and called something 'part'. Picking up his phone and clearing the screens out of the way, he opened the browser. He searched 'basic form'. Nothing. He tried 'part'. Also nothing. He wanted to scream again.
"But what is a 'part'?" The moment he finished speaking, a large white screen appeared in front of him.
"ACTIVATE PRIMARY FUNCTION? Y/N?" He poked the Y.
He was waiting more instructions, but none came. He stood up, ready to give up, when his skin began itching. He looked at his hand.
It was opening up.
He would have screamed, but he felt no pain. As he watched, his hand formed what Tom had shown him with the hologram. His left hand now had claws, and his feet were encased in metal. His right eye was now covered by a transparent cover. Words scrolled across it.
"Basic Form 2 active."
Looking around, the things that filled his room now had small boxes of text attached to them. His clock, for example, had a green square floating next to it, while Gary had a blue one. Gary was staring at his owner like he was an alien.
Walking over to the bathroom, Patrick flipped on the light. His face was partially encased by the plates. Tom was right. It was very strange.
Tom also said to experiment.
"Put away." Nothing.
"Retract."
"Deactivate."
Nothing was working. Now he was scared he could never get rid of the plates. He pictured them going back into his skin.
That was all it took. The plates began unlocking, features disassembling and retracting. In the mirror, Patrick could see the small squares of skin extending and retracting on small arms, closing up seamlessly. It scared him. But on a theory, he pictured the plates back on himself. They emerged again, locking into place. On. Off. On. Off. It was so easy!
Thinking back, Tom had mentioned that this was Form 2. But what about Form 1?
In seconds, the plates had emerged once more, only this time covering his entire body. He wiggled his fingers. They felt no different, though perhaps a little heavier. This form responded to the same control as the other one.
Patrick looked back outside. It was daytime again.
"Ok, lets 'experiment'."