Dr. Tao was humming as he made the first step to the chemical solvent he would pour on the crystal. It wouldn’t hurt the crystal. The girl was another theory completely. It was an acid that would eat at her skin and he would be able to pluck the crystal right out of her chest. It would leave a big gaping hole which he could close if he chose to. He hummed Bajak’s theme. It was fitting for this scene. A lovely girl about to be demolished by science like in the movie all for money. Or was it the other way around? Who cared? Ah, the solvent is hot!
He picked up the boiling liquid beaker from the flames and mixed it with the cocktail of other ingredients he had prepared beforehand. Mixing hydrochloric acid with nitric acid was to make a real disaster if you didn’t know how to mix the compounds well. Mixed together created a new kind of acid that was twice as potent and could melt the royal metals of gold and so forth. He waited until the ingredients bubbled up then he set the beaker to cool. It frothed at the edges. Carefully he took the container and brought it to the girl’s chest.
“Just a few drops,” he said, administering the drops with an eye dropper around the crystal and watched as the flesh dissolved to the bone.
Zen woke up screaming. Her chest was on fire, and her skin felt as if something was eating right through it. She looked down at the mess that was her chest. The acid was eating through her bones!
Don’t panic! I can heal us.
It hurts!
Zen’s hands scrambled for something to hold onto and wrapped themselves around the bars of the bed. She was belted down to the gurney by thick belts. The doctor ignored her crying and dug a pair of tweezers in trying to pluck the crystal but found nothing. He took a lens to the hole but could not find the end of the crystal at all! Zen screamed as he dug around her chest cavity looking for the elusive crystal. The bright glow that she had before came back and encompassed her and the doctor had to move before he was fried. The hole began to close, the bones grew back and so did the skin until nothing remained of the giant hole in her sternum. Zen calmed from her hysteria and closed her eyes for a minute, breathing in. She opened her eyes glaring at the doctor and sent a wave of energy at him. He ran screaming for Leroy, his only hope for controlling the girl.
The pissed-off Galactical popped his head in and saw the mess the girl was making. Again he raised his hand and commanded the girl to sleep. Zen slowly drifted off to sleep but sent a weak blast of power at Leroy causing him to duck out of the way. Even at low power, the blast destroyed the room around it in a huge explosion. Damn, how much power does that girl have!
“Ahh thank you, Leroy you can go back to experimenting now,” said the doctor fixing his tie nervously.
“What is she, doctor?”
“I have no clue but the Dons want to make her less than what she is now. I don’t think that is possible but they are the Dons so I’ll try my best to separate her from the crystal.” He turned to Zen grinning. “ My next attempt is feeding acid through her IV and seeing the results.” He turned to Leroy. “Should be enlightening!”
Leroy shrugged. The doctor had done worse before. Like the time he had split that mind reader’s mind to bits just to find out how it worked while he was still awake. He wanted the poor boy to teleport himself out of the surgery so that the cameras he inserted in his brain captured the psychic waves. Needless to say, the boy went nuts and brained himself with one of the cameras. Jorge or something had been his name. He sighed and got back to work on his rodents. They were much more interesting and safer for his consciousness too.
###
Zen awoke to her blood on fire but when she tried to scream, a piece of tape was around her mouth. Not caring she screamed anyway. Inside the acid was eating at her organs. Her Bp was through the roof and she was near kidney failure but the doctor just watched. Zen shut her eyes weakly. The doctor hmmed and tried to dig the crystal out again. It would not budge...not an inch. A blinding light made him run for cover but the light only fell over Zen healing her from the inside out and forcing out the acid in her blood back up the metal IV exploding it and dripping acid all over the floor.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Interesting, Guess I’ll have to hack it out and kill the girl.”
“D’Angelo wants the girl alive, so does Bernado,” Leroy said. He was standing by in case the doctor needed him again but the girl was too tired it seemed, from healing herself to attack him again.
“Cecile wants the crystal.”
“She is not a Don.”
“Correct, but she is paying more.”
“So you want to anger two Dons for a little money?”
“I see your point. I’ll have to find some other way to remove the crystal. Maybe lasers?”
###
The lasers didn’t work. They couldn’t get through the skin the crystal had grown back. They would literally bounce off the girl’s chest. Finally, after an hour of trying the doctor gave up and took some samples of the girl’s blood. What he found astounded him.
“Leroy come here and tell me what you see through the scope!”
Leroy sighed and connected the neural cables enlarging his eyesight. “A mess, sir?”
“No dear boy! A modern miracle! The crystal has bonded to this girl on a genetic level! You see we can’t get rid of the crystal because she is the crystal! Every inch of her is changing to accommodate the crystal’s power! This is amazing! Marvelous! Stupendous! Cecile is not going to like this discovery.”
“She is not a Don. I don’t think Don D’Angelo is going to like this either.”
“Good point. Are you sure we shouldn’t just hack it out of her?”
“You tried an acid doctor. Did that work?”
“No, in fact, there was no ending to the crystal. It’s as if it just vanished and only that little piece on her chest remains.”
“Have you tried taking that out?”
“No, I should. I still have some acid left.”
###
Zen didn’t scream this time when she saw the hole in her chest. She just fainted as the doctor tried to pry the small crystal shard out. It was a bust though and a bright light covered the girl and healed the hole before encasing her in a cocoon. Nothing got through that cocoon and Zen finally slept safely. The doctor sighed and finally faced the Dons and Lady Cecile.
“The crystal cannot be removed.”
“Que!” (What)
“What,” screamed D’Angelo standing up.
“Hmm so it's a permanent fixture,” asked Bernado.
“Yes, a genetic one.”
“Como esto es posible!” How is this possible?) Cecile stalked the doctor and shook him. “Saca el jodio cristal de la descarada! Por eso te pago imbecil!” Take the crystal out of that wretched girl! That’s why I pay you, imbecile!)
Bernado separated the enraged woman from the tiny man.
D’Angelo sighed. “Calmate Cecile! Tiene que ver otra manera de sacar el cristal.” Calm down, Cecile. There has to be another way to remove the crystal.) He turned to the doctor. “Isn’t there?”
“Well there is one way we haven’t tried yet and she is tired now but I’m afraid the cocoon she is in won’t let anything through right now.”
“Cocoon?” questioned D’Angelo.
The doctor nodded. “Yes, it seems that my experiments were too much on the dear and the cocoon was the result. If we put her in the converter while in the cocoon I’m afraid we’ll damage a highly delicate piece of machinery. Leroy can’t affect the cocoon. It seems involuntary on her part.”
“So what do we do now,” asked D’Angelo.
“We let her rest and recuperate,” Bernado said. He wanted to see his niece and see this cocoon the doctor spoke of. And to check if she’s alive. Isaias is going to kill me for letting them experiment on her!
“Can we see her?”
The doctor nodded and Bernado entered the room. His eyes caught the enormous cocoon made of light spinning in the middle of the room over a hospital gurney covered in blood and other vital fluids. What have they done to you Zen? He exited the room with a solemn look on his face. He had to find some way to stop them from putting her in the converter. He just had to!