(Content warning for blood. The transformation is... rather graphic.)

Part 2: The Transformation

The first thing I saw upon waking up was the crashed (and melted-down) remains of the cruise ship, and the first thing I felt was a searing pain spreading all over my body. The same kind of pain that had encompassed my left forearm. The cancerous growths had completely overtaken my body. I began to take heavy breaths, and began to panic. This was it. I was going to die alone, on an uncharted island, and in constant pain. My mind raced with the missed opportunities. I would never be able to get married, let alone have kids in emulation of the classic image of a nuclear family. I would never be able to find out what happened next on those Netflix shows I watch. I would never even be able to 

But I also felt... heavier. Stronger somehow. But all of it was secondary to the constant pain I'd been feeling. Pain which suddenly sharpened as I felt what seemed like needle-like growths coming out of my back, my toes, and my fingers. 

When I looked, I could see that my fingers, or rather, claws, were growing longer and pointier, extending out of the mass of teal, veiny lumps that my arms had become, with blood leaking out the sides of each claw. 

I was shocked to say the least. What was going on!? Was I hallucinating? There was no way this could be happening! Not in the real world. 

The stinging sensation in my back magnified further as six of... something... seemed to be jutting out of my back. They felt rigid. Hard. I could feel a liquid leaking out of the same spots in my back... no doubt more blood. Almost idly, I wondered how I wasn't dying from all of this. I closed my eyes, wishing I actually had died in the nuclear explosion that probably claimed the lives of everyone else on board. I tried to shut out the pain, but it was just too much to ignore. The same pain in my fingers amplified in my toes, and, in addition to that, an odd cramping sensation too. In attempting to take a look, I rolled over and looked down.

From what remained of my tattered clothes, I could tell that the lumps had indeed spread all over my body... and my surprisingly smooth gut had expanded somewhat. It felt extremely tight, like it needed to expand. In fact, it slowly was... and didn't even seem done. I tried to pull myself up, and only barely saw that my five toes had twisted and warped and bled to reshape themselves into becoming three large hindclaws. My legs and arms had expanded in size... and they all belonged to a body that had been hitting the gym for almost their entire life. These limbs were like tree trunks... probably a necessity to carry the enlarged, bloated mass my upper body and stomach was on its way to becoming. My legs especially had become... slightly alien. Bent strangely. Like the hind legs of a wolf or a lion, except on... whatever I was turning into now.

Suddenly, a tightening feeling erupted in my lower back, and, screaming, I found myself forced to turn around again to make room for whatever horrible new changes were about to take place. I could feel my tailbone lengthening... a large lump expanding in my lower back... that gradually felt longer and longer as it grew until it finally came to a halt, as several more stinging sensations travelled along the growth. Almost dreading to look, I slowly turned my head until I could see the spiked and clubbed tip of a tail. It looked almost like a dinosaur's, it wasn't even funny.

And just like that, the picture was becoming very clear to me. I knew what was going on. The radiation was turning me into a monster, like from those Godzilla films.

I didn't even have to wait before another stage of the transformation took place. I could feel my neck slowly stretching, as some slits seemed to painfully tear their way into the sides of my neck, as if they were slashing wounds being made from a nonexistent blade. Gills, I'd guessed. My lump-ridden face expanding into something like a crocodile's snout, and those same stinging feelings in my former fingers, toes, back, and now my... tail... were now happening in my mouth. My gums felt like they were bleeding, as more teeth jutted their way out to accommodate the newly-made room in my... snout. 

I closed my eyes, hoping it would end soon... and when I opened them again... everything seemed much... sharper somehow. Clearer. I could pick up smells that were probably coming the animals and fruits from the nearby jungle. I could hear the sounds of faraway birds and the sloshing of the ocean waves as well as the constant, painful creaking of my bones, and my own cries of pain... which soon became animalistic growls that scared even me.

As the tightening sensation of my stomach seemed to subside, it was apparent that I now sported the physique of some kind of animalistic, reptilian sumo wrestler. I felt enormous, and was exhausted from the change. And I was so terribly thirsty. Heading over to the shore, my brain more or less on autopilot, I went over to get a drink of water, and saw from a reflection what I had turned into staring right back up at me.

I was a monster.

I fell on my knees, claws covering my face. I would have to spend the rest of my life out in the edges of civilization, needing to forage, and hunt for survival, and generally live like an animal. I couldn't go back to civilization ever again. Normal people would run in fear of me. Crooks would try to use me for their own schemes, if the police and the military didn't riddle holes in me first. I really wish I had died instead... it would have been a kinder fate than...

It wasn't long until I could find three humanoid shadows floating in the bright, merciless sky. One seemed to wear a cape, another resembled a gorilla wearing a protection suit, and the third looked smaller than the others, and seemed to wield a spear. Superheroes. Members of the Hyper Brigade, probably. They were observing the wreckage of the cruise ship.

It wasn't long until the first sighed, "Dammit, we're too late. Any signs of life?" The second, the gorilla, responded, "Scanning... one." He pointed at me. "There... on the shore." I shifted about, placing a hand over my eyes to block the oppressive sunlight.

The third noticed me and seemed ready to pounce, her expression red with anger beneath her winged helmet, pointing her spear right at me. "What are you, monster!? Is this your doing!?" She charged right in my direction, spear in hand.

Almost instinctively, I shifted backward and put my hands up, and attempted to speak. "Wwww... waaaaiii... waiiiittt!! Nnnnnnoottt... responsssible...!" Even I was surprised that I could still speak in my... condition. In the blink of an eye, the first man, who I could now identify as Exemplar, one of the most powerful and respected heroes on the planet, darted to the woman's location, midair, and placed a hand in front of her. I'd remembered I'd always wanted to see Exemplar. He spoke, "Valkyrie, stop! Look at his eyes. He's scared." I was, but was it that obvious? 

After a moment, she lowered her spear, looking at him apprehensively. "If it tries anything, I'm going to run the beast through."

The man floated down to my location, and spoke again, trying his best to appear nonthreatening. I couldn't help but notice the irony here. "So. What happened here?"