Leon barely made it to the toilet before his body violently expelled everything.
Dark, foul-smelling substances came up from his stomach. Black and viscous, like oil mixed with tar. The smell was horrendous—rot and decay and something chemical that made his eyes water. He vomited again and again, his body purging itself of impurities.
But it wasn't just from his mouth.
His skin was secreting the same dark substance. It oozed from his pores, coating his arms and face in a slick, disgusting film. Leon looked down at himself in horror. He was literally sweating out toxins.
The process lasted several minutes. Each wave of nausea brought up more of the black substance until finally, mercifully, his stomach was empty. His skin stopped secreting. The purge was complete.
Leon leaned against the sink, breathing hard. The smell was overwhelming even to his enhanced senses. He needed to clean up. Now.
He stripped off the hospital gown and turned on the shower, cranking the hot water to maximum. Steam immediately filled the small bathroom. Leon stepped under the spray without testing the temperature first.
The water hit his skin. He could see it was hot—steam rose around him, the tiles fogged up—but he didn't feel it. Not as hot, anyway. It felt warm, comfortable, but not scalding like it should have been.
His temperature tolerance had changed too.
Leon grabbed soap and scrubbed vigorously, washing away the black residue. It came off easily, swirling down the drain in dark rivulets. He shampooed his hair twice, making sure every trace of the substance was gone.
As he cleaned himself, he noticed his skin. It was clearer than it had ever been. Smooth and unblemished. The small scar on his forearm from a childhood fall—gone. The acne scars on his shoulders from his teenage years—vanished. Even the tiny imperfections everyone had were simply absent.
His skin looked perfect.
Leon finished showering and turned off the water. He spotted a pack of new toothbrushes on the counter—the hospital must stock them for patients. He tore one open and squeezed toothpaste onto it, then began brushing his teeth vigorously.
His mouth, his tongue, every surface. Getting rid of the awful taste from the purge. He brushed until his mouth felt clean, then rinsed repeatedly with water.
Finally satisfied, Leon grabbed a towel and dried off. Then he looked up at the mirror.
And stopped dead.
The person staring back at him was Leon. But also not Leon.
He was taller. At least two inches taller than his previous five-foot-ten. His jawline was sharper, more defined. His cheekbones were more prominent. His face had lost any trace of softness, becoming angular and striking.
But his eyes. His eyes were different.
They'd been brown before. Now they were gold. Actual gold, like polished amber catching sunlight. They seemed to glow faintly in the bathroom's fluorescent lighting.
And his hair. Still black, but white strands were forming throughout. Not grey like from aging—pure white, like starlight. The tips of his hair were especially affected, creating a subtle gradient effect.
His body had changed too. He'd been thin from the rapid weight loss, but now muscle definition stood out clearly. His shoulders were broader. His chest and arms were lean but sculpted. Eight distinct abdominal muscles lined his torso. Every muscle group was perfectly defined, creating a physique that looked like it belonged on a fitness magazine cover.
He looked like an upgraded version of himself. Like someone had taken his features and refined them to perfection.
"What the hell," Leon whispered.
He clenched his fist experimentally, testing his strength. The movement was fast—faster than he'd intended.
BOOM.
A small sonic boom echoed through the bathroom as his fist broke the sound barrier. Just from clenching it. Leon stared at his hand in shock.
He was strong. Really, really strong.
And his hearing. He could hear conversations from down the hall. Multiple conversations, all at once.
"—patient in 408 is being discharged—"
"—need someone to check on the Cole case—"
"—cafeteria closes in twenty minutes—"
"—Dr. Patel wants another set of labs—"
The voices overlapped, creating a cacophony of sound. Leon concentrated, trying to filter them out. Focus on what was closest. Just this room. Just the bathroom.
The other voices faded to background noise. Better.
His sense of smell was equally overwhelming. He could smell the antiseptic from the hospital hallways. Someone's perfume three rooms over. Coffee from a nurses' station. Cleaning chemicals. Food from somewhere in the building. Everything bombarded him at once.
Leon took a slow breath, trying to adjust. His brain was learning to filter the excess information, prioritizing what mattered and ignoring what didn't.
His vision was the most striking change. He could see individual dust particles floating in the air, illuminated by the bathroom light. When he moved his hand, it seemed to move in slow motion. His perception of time had shifted—everything around him was slightly slower than it should be.
He was fundamentally different now. Enhanced on every level.
Leon spotted fresh hospital clothes folded on a shelf—a basic t-shirt and sweatpants that the hospital provided for patients. He pulled them on. They fit decently despite his increased height and changed proportions.
Even in basic hospital clothes, he looked different. Better. Like someone had used a character creator to max out every physical attribute.
He took one more look in the mirror, still trying to process the transformation, when he heard footsteps approaching outside.
The door to his room opened.
"Leon?" Maya's voice, cautious and hopeful.
Leon stepped out of the bathroom. Maya was standing just inside the room, carrying a paper bag that smelled like cafeteria food. She froze when she saw him.
Her eyes went wide. Her mouth opened. No sound came out.
"Hey," Leon said softly.
"Are you—" Maya's voice cracked. "Are you my Leon?"
"Yes. I'm okay, Maya. I'm—"
He didn't get to finish. Maya dropped the bag and launched herself at him. Leon caught her easily, his enhanced reflexes kicking in. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, sobbing.
"I thought you would never wake up," she cried. "You were unconscious for hours, and they didn't know when you'd wake up, and I was so scared—"
"Hey, hey, it's okay." Leon held her, one hand stroking her hair. "I'm here. I'm okay. Everything's okay."
"You're different. You look different. Your eyes, your hair, you're taller—"
"I know. I'll explain everything, I promise. But Maya, we need to leave. Now. Before things get complicated."
She pulled back enough to look up at him. "Leave? You just woke up. The doctors want to monitor you—"
"They want to study me. You heard what Dr. Patel said. They think I have some genetic mutation. If we stay, they'll want tests. Lots of tests. And I don't think we want that kind of attention yet."
Maya's biologist instincts warred with her concern. Finally, she nodded. "Okay. Okay, you're right. We leave. But you're explaining everything once we get home."
"Deal."
---
Checking out against medical advice was easier than Leon expected. He signed the forms, declined the wheelchair they tried to insist on, and walked out on his own two feet. The nurse at the station stared at him as they passed. So did several doctors in the hallway.
Leon kept his head down and moved quickly. The last thing he needed was someone deciding to detain him for observation.
As they walked through the hospital corridors, Leon noticed something strange. Tiny specks of light floating in the air. They were barely visible, only catchable from the corner of his eye. When he tried to look directly at them, they seemed to vanish.
"Am I seeing things?" he muttered.
"What?" Maya glanced at him.
"Nothing. I'll explain in the car."
They made it to the parking lot without incident. Maya unlocked her Honda, and they both got in. Leon had to adjust the seat back significantly to accommodate his new height.
As Maya started the engine, she kept glancing at him. "I still can't believe you're okay. You look like... I don't even know what you look like."
Leon smiled. "Let's go home first, okay? I'll explain everything."
"You better. Because you're freaking me out a little." But she was smiling too, relief evident in her voice.
The drive home was overwhelming for Leon's enhanced senses. Every car engine roared in his ears. The radio was too loud even on the lowest volume. Maya's heartbeat was a steady drum beside him. The city sounds flooded in through the closed windows—horns, conversations, construction, dogs barking.
And those specks of light. They were everywhere. Floating through the air like dust motes, but with a faint golden glow. Leon watched them from the corner of his eye as Maya drove.
They passed by a park. The specks were noticeably denser there. Clustering around trees and grass. Living things.
They drove past the edge of a small forest preserve. Even denser. The specks practically swarmed through the foliage.
Energy. That's what it was. The Evolyx that had transformed him. It existed in the world, floating through the air, concentrated around life. And now he could see it.
Maya kept glancing at him during the drive, questions clearly building. But she stayed quiet, focusing on getting them home safely.
Finally, they pulled into their apartment building's parking lot. Maya parked, and they took the stairs up to their unit. Leon noticed he wasn't even slightly winded. Three flights of stairs might as well have been a flat sidewalk.
Inside the apartment, everything looked exactly as they'd left it. Leon's laptop still on the coffee table. Maya's research papers scattered across the desk. Home.
They sat on the couch together. Maya turned to face him, taking both his hands in hers.
"Okay. Start from the beginning. What happened?"
Leon took a breath. "Something happened when I was trapped under that debris. I was dying, Maya. I could feel it. But I had to stay conscious, so I focused on breathing. Small, controlled breaths. And my body responded. Everything synchronized—my heartbeat, my breathing, my nervous system. It all lined up in this pattern."
Maya's biologist mind was already engaging. "Synchronization? Like resonance?"
"Maybe. I don't know the right scientific term. But when everything aligned, something broke. Inside me. In my genes, I think. Like a barrier that had been there my whole life suddenly shattered."
"A genetic barrier?"
"I saw my DNA changing. Transforming. This energy—I call it Evolyx—it poured into me and integrated with my cells. My whole body was rewritten on a fundamental level." Leon met her eyes. "I'm different now. Enhanced. I have perfect memory."
"Perfect memory?"
"Test me. Pick any textbook we have. Any page."
Maya stood and grabbed a random biology textbook from the shelf. She flipped to a page without looking. "Page 392. What's on it?"
Leon closed his eyes, accessing the memory. "Cellular respiration. The diagram shows the Krebs cycle with eight steps. Citrate, isocitrate, alpha-ketoglutarate, succinyl-CoA, succinate, fumarate, malate, and oxaloacetate. The text explains how each step releases energy. There's a sidebar about ATP production. Professor Morrison made a note in the margin about the exam—'focus on rate-limiting steps.'"
Maya stared at the page, then at Leon. "That's... you could have memorized that before."
"Fair point." Leon stood and walked to the kitchen. He opened a drawer and pulled out a knife. "Then watch this."
"Leon, what are you—"
He held up his left hand and drew the knife across his palm. Not deep, but enough to draw blood. Maya gasped and reached for him.
They both watched.
The blood stopped flowing immediately. The edges of the wound began to close. New skin formed across the cut, knitting together seamlessly. Within seconds, the wound was gone. His palm was perfect, unmarked.
Silence filled the apartment.
Maya's hands were shaking. Her scientific mind was struggling to process what she'd just witnessed. "That's... that's impossible."
Leon set the knife down. "I know. But it's real. All of it is real."
Maya looked up at him, and her eyes were filled with wonder and fear and a hundred questions. "What are you now?"
Leon thought about the golden ring around his heart. The Evolyx flowing through his body. The vision of his DNA transforming.
"I don't know yet," he said honestly. "But I'm going to find out."
---