Johnny didn't remember having a tail before, that much he was sure of, he thought, scurrying through the cramped trash shoot of this unknown facility, alarms and lights blaring behind him. His mind was a haze, his memories slipping away by the moment, and his head was pounding. Where was he? How did he get here and why did everything smell so… pungent? He stalled at the end of the shoot, smelling the sweat through the orderly clothes before he could hear him running down the hall. “Subject 66 went this way, move it!” Subject 66… Johnny looked down at his plain white shirt, two bold black sixes stained with some blood that smelled like someone elses. He rushed off, his new tail whipping around behind him as he darted for freedom. Johnny sprinted down the hall and into another chute, following the scent of fresh air. He stopped behind a wall, looking down the hall as he ducked beneath the guard shack to the back entrance. Catching his breath as a new voice joined the sounds over the loudspeaker, a warning to the staff “Subject 66 is in the south corridor, stop him at all costs but bring him back to me ALIVE.” Malice dripped from the last word, malice Johnny felt familiarity with.
 
Another splitting headache shot images of the past few minutes, the table Johnny was strapped to, the whirling of machine and electricity, the pleading of a Ysoki as Johnny and this newcomer sat face to face - strapped to their tables with some apparatus attached to their heads. Bright lights, splitting pains and suddenly, by Johnny's recollection he and the Rat had switched places, except he wasnt looking at this whiskered face, he was staring at his own body now slumped over. Hands approached and instincts kicked in, biting and clawing the orderlies who jumped back astonished that the patient had any energy left. Suddenly Johnny was on the move, scurrying down the hall ane running toward what he hoped was freedom.
 
The door swung open in front of Johnny, snapping him back to reality. More orderlies rushed in, this time with armed men. Staying low to the ground, Johnny spotted a keycard hanging from a guards pocket as they discussed in loud tones where to split up. A few fingers dipped the pocket and cut the card loose, without any notice of the small Rat creature scurrying now towards the exit. Swinging the door wide, Johnny lunged out into the fresh open air, diving into the nearest dumpster which was luckily due to be loaded and sent to the dump that night. As Johnny waited, he pondered what had happened that day.
 
He had no memory of his former self, no recollection of anything beyond the certainty of his first name and the last 10 minutes. He knew he was once a human, a male, that much was certain, but now, as he looked at his tiny paw grasping a blank keycard, he wondered who he had become. How do you live as a Ysoki? What was he even good at? Clearly either Johnny or this rat body was a thief at some point, but which, and when? How? Too many questions, and no answers.
 
Johnny now moves forward, itching to learn about the facility that had captured and experimented on him, about his former human life, and how to reconcile himself as ‘Sixes', the gunslinging Ysoki.