Michelle leaned against the streetlight near the small store and took off her bike helmet. She'd just had yet another fight with her brother and took a small bike ride too cool off. Now, with her anger waning, she considered what to do next. Maybe I should just hang out here for a while. No one will be expecting me home for a while. As she pondered what to do, she noticed a figure approaching her. It was a man, wearing what appeared to be a white lab coat. What was he doing here? Maybe he was lost, though it was rather late for someone to be walking alone. The man came closer. His eyes were focused on her. Worried, Michelle turned to run back to her bike, but the man got to her first.

When Michelle woke up, she was lying on a table, gagged and bound. Two strange people leaned over her. "She's awake," one remarked. "No matter," the other said. "Inject the serum." Michelle felt a sharp jabbing on her arm. At first, nothing happened. Then she felt a strange sensation radiating out from that point. At first it wasn't painful, but then it grew until Michelle screamed, her cries muffled by the gag. The world seemed to be shifting around, growing bigger. Then suddenly the pain stopped. As Michelle lapsed into unconciousness, she heard the voices. "It didn't work! No one will pay for this." "At least we learned something.""What shall we do with her?""Just dump her back where you found her.""Won't she tell," Laughter. "No one would believe her."

*~Nerin

"NO! Let go of me!" She hit, kicked, screamed, bit, everythign she could possibly do as the whitecoats dragged her away. She had just been on her way home from swimming practice when the grabbed her, out of nowhere. Now they were trying to wrstle her into a set of restrains. As they secured her final arm, Nerin bit down on one of thier arms, and she bit down hard. The scientist screamed, desperately trying to pull away, only finally succeeding when they knocked Nerin out. 

Though unconcious, she still felt the pain, the horrible, agonizing pain. It felt as if every inch of her body were on fire. Then, it stopped, as if it had never existed. All that remained was a numb feeling, and an odd sensation in her lungs that made it hard to breathe. she heard them cursing, saying somethign along the lines of: "Something is wrong with this batch too... first time we had actual physical mutation, though..." A heavy sigh. "Put her back on the street... no, better yet, throw her in the river."

As Nerin blacked out again, she felt dread creeping into her chest. The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by water, fighting, thrashing against the current. She struggled to stay afloat, but the river was pulling her under. As her last breath escaped and she started swallowing water, Nerin made a few discoveries. 1: She had a fish tail. 2: She could breathe underwater. 3: This river went through the city.

Swimming with the current, awkwardly at first but wuickly building in confidence, Nerin found an abandoned area along the bank, grabbed a ragged cloth from a pile of junk nearby, and wrapped herself in it. she needed to find her brother... quickly.

Slowly, Michelle dragged herself out of unconciousness. She groaned. What had happened to her? Her entire body ached, and she felt....different. She puzzled over it for a moment longer, then memory came rushing back. Those scientists! They had kidnapped her, had stuck her with something...then what? Her eyes snapped open-then looked around in puzzlement. She was back on the street-the same street she had been on before. In fact, under the same streetlight where she had been before. Had she imagined the whole thing? She shook her head. No, something told her that incident was real.

Suddenly, something large blocked the light. She looked up. Standing over her was the owner of the nearby store-but he was huge! "Hi, little girl." he said gently. "Are you lost from your mommy and daddy?" Michelle scowled up at the man. Why was he talking to her like she was 3? "I awm not lost. And don't call me a wittle girl! Iwm 14!" she cried, then stopped in astonishment. What was wrong with her voice? The man shook his head in an amused way, then left.Shaken, Michelle stood there, shivering. Something was definetely not right. Why did that man not believe her when she said she was 14? Why was he-and everything else-huge? Why did her voice sound babyish? Absentmindedly, she looked into the store window. A 3 year old looked back at her.

Michelle stifled a muffled scream as she stared at the reflection in astonishment. "Thats not me.." she murmered. She raised her hand, and the toddler in the gl*censored* raised one too. It was her! What had happened? It must have been the scientists. What had they done to her? As Michelle stared at her reflection, tears began to trickle down her cheeks. What would she do now? Her family wouldn't believe her when she said she was 14 year old Michelle. No one would. She was alone. How was a 3 year old to do anything? Might as well move away from here. Those scientists might come back. Still crying, she trudged away from the store-not noticing the large raincloud quickly building over her head.

((Could someone play Michelle's brother, or I could))

(I could, but I'm swamped with Rp's as it is ^^)

*~Nerin

Nerin found out rather quickly that she was no longer  18 years old. she shuffled through town, the cloth she had found pulled up to her ears, which had been replaced by fins. She cried several times, simply buckling over and sobbing, but Nerin was a strong girl. Every time she fell, she stood back up.

After wandering for awhile, she finally came across an area that was familiar. It wasn't long after that she found herself standing on the sidewalk in front of her house. What on earth was she thinking, going back home? She had suddenly un-aged eleven years and grown fish parts! No way would her family recognise her, much less accept her. Turning away with new tears in her eys, Nerin came face to face with a very familiar person, he younger brother. 

He didn't say a word, simply took her hand and pulled her in a direction away from the house. "R-Ruka! What are you doing?"

He didn't reply. "Ruka! Stop!" Nerin wrenched her now tiny hand from his now bigger grasp. Ruka had already seen the fins on her ears, but as Nerin scrambled backwards, her tail came into view as well and his eyes widened briefly before hardening again. "I'm taking you somewhere safe." He said, finally speaking. 

He held out his hand again and Nerin took it, however hesitantly. He led her to a small, secluded park, where people rarely visited anymore. A huge, ancient willow loomed over a sizable pond, its branches creating an effective curtain around a large area. Ruka pulled aside a few of these branches and ushered Nerin inside. This was thier secret spot, a place she and Ruka would escape to whenever things got bad with thier parents. 

There, under the watchful gaze of the willow and her brother, Nerin cried in earnest.

((That's fine. Maybe I'll bring him in later))

OOC: Im gonna' have to quit this RP as Im getting totally swamped ATM...

((Ok, Irissa))

Lost in thought, Michelle wandered through town, stumbling over her too big clothes. At last she reached a small park. Exhausted from her walk, she collapsed against a large willow tree and looked down at her small hands. "Why?" she whispered. "Why did it hawve to be me? I wanted two gwow up. Now, look at me!" Abrubtly, she felt furious. "It's now fair!" she yelled, then quickly lowered her voice. She continued muttering, "Now I'll have to wait fowever to grow up-or will I never gwow up!? I was so happy two be 14, in high school-now I'm thwee. I can't even talk wight...." As she continued to speak, the cloud over her head grew larger. Small ligtning bolts began to flicker in it.

(don't you mean 'too big clothes? X3)

*~Nerin and Ruka~*

"What's that?" Nerin asked, sniffling slightly as she recovered from her breakdown. Ruka glanced up, catching the sight of small flashes beyond the willow branch curtain. 

"I dunno..." He replied, getting up and slowly moving towards it. Nerin followed, her cloak pulled up securely. Ruka pulled aside a few branches to see a little girl leaning against the willow trunk. She was obviously upset about something, and it probably had something to do with the cloud hanging above her head, literally.

Ruka whispered, "We should leave her alone. Whatever she is, she could be dangerous..."

"But listen to what she's saying and look at those baggy clothes; she's probably like me... Hey!"

Ruka bit back a curse as his stupid older sister called out to the little girl, shuffling past him.

((Oops...fixed it))

Michelle paused in her rant and glanced up to see a 7 year old girl. What does she want? Rubbing her eyes, she muttered "I weally don't feel like tawking right now..." Her voice trailed off as she noticed the girl's ears. Fins? Suprised out of her tantrum, Michelle studied the girl closer. Now she saw the girl was just wearing a piece of cloth, not regular clothes. Could she...have the same problem as me. No, that's not likely. Might as well ask, though. "Umm... this may sound wierd..." she stammered, "But... how owld are you?" The lighting in the cloud above her head abatd slightly.

*~Nerin~*

She smiled at the girl, saying, "Eighteen."

She let the cloth fall, exposing the rest of her mutation. She also pointed at the cloud above the girls' head, saying, "It looks like you didn't come out of it unscarred either."

True, it was an a.ssumtion that the girl was the same as her, but since she had so directly asked Nerin what her age was, she was fairly certain she was the same, especially since no three-year old could talk like that, even if there was alot of slurring.

Behind her, Nerin could hear Ruka groan in annoyance at her actions.

*~Nerin~*

Nerin nodded, a frown on her face. "They grabbed me from the street, did this, then dumped me in the river. Luckily I can breathe underwater now, but look at me. I can't go home like this!" She turned and pointed to her brother who was still standing a little further back and said, "That's my little brother, Ruka. He said he's going to take care of me."

Nerin looked back at the girl and held out her now-tiny hand, saying, "I'm Nerin."

*~Nerin

"Hmm..... good questions. I have this old rag to cover me, but people will get suspicious if I'm always walking around like that." She picked up the cloth again and wrapped it around herself, her tail. She also shifted her hair so it helped hide her fin-ears a little better. She would likely need to get a hat or something. 

Pointing to the cloud again, Nerin said, "That shouldn't be too much of a problem if it's a rainy day, but on a day with good weather like this, it's impossible to hide you."

*~Ruka 

Ruka sighed and stepped in to say, "If there's two of you already, there's likely more. Those sceitnists wouldn't stop at two." This was geting freakier by the minute, but no matter in which direction it went, Ruka would stand by his sister regardless.