Doctor Holly carefully stroked her newest patient’s arm, eyeing the stitches she had used to hold the thing together. It had been a rather simple procedure all and all. Just a transfusion of synthblood and thoroughly cleaning the wound, though the girl’s occasional gasps of pain had been a bit distracting. The girl was definitely in shock though, the gasps came infrequently enough and her nearly frozen skin was a dead give away.
Never in her life would Holly have thought she’d say this, but she almost felt bad for the pain she caused her newest patient. Usually, the idiots of the Crusade caused her enough trouble she was never bothered by it. Well, mostly unbothered by it.
Her patient, one Zuku Ichima, looked up with large, watery doe eyes. “A-Am I good to go?”
“Almost.” Doctor Holly said as she forced herself up and towards a terminal. She looked over the results of her newest scan, finding it to be just as weird as the last results she got. This one was a brain scan, revealing the Squire’s brain to be just a bit... well, her brain’s synaptic response was different than a normal person's.
If that's where the difference stopped, Doctor Holly wouldn’t show much interest outside of making a note in the Squire’s file to check for any neurodivergent signs. No, the doctor found the entire brain to be one mess of oddness.
For one, the Hippocampus, Prefrontal Cortex, and Visual Cortex were slightly enlarged. She couldn’t tell its exact effects by just the brain scan if there were any at all, but it was yet another interesting note. She’d expect to see such a thing in only the most exotic of biomods, or the craziest. Yet she couldn’t find any signs of previous surgery, suggesting some kind of mutation.
It was a bit odd, but more and more mutations had been popping up over the years, so Holly didn’t think too deeply about it other than briefly wondering if that conspiracy theory of big corps dumping mutagens into the city’s water was really true.
“Was there an infection?” The girl asked from where she sat on the examination bed.
Doctor Holly looked up, catching sight of the worry in Zuku’s face. Something inside of her shriveled, almost like watching her little sister in distress. “No, but I’m going to give you some medicine to take just in case.”
The innocent relief, followed by a blinding smile warmed her heart. “Thank you!”
“O-Of course…” The doctor turned away from her the blinding sight of the girl, refocusing on her terminal. She had learned over the years that some things were better off just being avoided, such as the girl’s crazy high charm.
She shifted her attention fully back as she looked over another reading. Other scans of the Squire revealed minor oddities. For instance, her muscles were extremely springy. Not all that odd seeing as several other Crusaders shared that similarity. What was odd was the muscle mass in general. The girl had way less muscle mass than every other Crusader the doctor had seen over the years.
To be honest, it was a bit of a relief seeing a normal person again. Since she had been hired, all she saw were the same muscle-bound idiots of the Crusade with little variation between them. And don’t even get her started on the ones roided out to oblivion. The bulging veins sent disgust shivering down her spine every time without fail.
Thankfully, the more recent results were at fairly large odds with what she got when the Squire first came in. Her heart rate was back to normal, no longer beating at a very worrying thirty-three beats per minute. Heck, her heart rate was what brought up this whole deeper dive in the first place. With the amount of blood the Squire lost, her heart rate should’ve been spiking more than anything as her heart tried to use blood it didn’t have.
Doctor Holly chalked it up to some kind of new combat drug or something caught in the Underground. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen them, though the Crusade had been cracking down on combat drugs as per her request. She wasn’t exactly sure what happened to the Squire, what with it being classified and all that, but she had been around the block enough to recognize signs of the Underground. The filthy trench coat was a dead giveaway.
“So- how much do I owe you?” Zuku asked, drawing the doctor from her thoughts. She had a pitiful look on her face, as if someone had just given her a beautiful new puppy and then brutally punted it. Into a furnace.
“Hmm?” Doctor Holly shifted her attention from her terminal backup to her distraught patient, once more feeling that peculiar sensation as if she was doing something wrong. “Oh, uh- nothing? Most of the facilities here are part of the benefit package. This is your first time here?”
The girl’s disarming smile returned. “Well, I try not to get injured… and I work with an Inquisitor, so combat isn’t all that common.”
“Good practice.” The doctor paused as a nurse finally brought a small white bottle to her. Doctor Holly checked out the label briefly and wrote some notes down on her terminal before heading back to the girl. “Here you go.”
The girl grabbed the bottle, looking it over. “Thank you.”
“Chek… I know you can’t say much, but can you tell me where in the Underground you were?” Doctor Holly asked.
“Oh, um…” The girl froze up, her hesitation obvious. Probably the order of some numb nuts Crusader paranoid over their own organization stabbing them in the back. Idiot. “Oldtown.”
The doctor sighed. “That's a relief. Okay, we don’t have to worry about the parasites under East End or the fungal growths under Portside. Those antibiotics should be all you need, but come back if something crops up.”
Doctor Holly went back to the examination room’s terminal, grabbing a sheet of paper beside it and a pin. The least she could do was to get the poor girl some time off. So young, and yet already being sent off to the Crusade’s battlefield. Her file even said she came from Satcha Orphanage before it burned down.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Holly really hated how the Crusade treated the hundreds of orphanages they operated, practically using them as seedbeds for Aspirants. And yet, she couldn’t say anything too negative about it. For all its faults, the orphan programs took in kids that probably would’ve died in a gutter anyway… she should know, having come from one.
The doctor finished the note, handing it over. “Okay, hand this to your Inquisitor. Five days off, then light duty for the next week till the stitches fall out.”
Zuku’s face lit up like a spotlight, nearly blinding the doctor. “Oh thank you!”
Doctor Holly sighed as she handed it over. This was always the favorite part for her patients. If only she could find a spouse who looked at her like her patients looked at doctor’s notes, she’d be set for life. “Alright, you’re good to go.”
The girl bolted out of the bed like she hadn’t walked in with severe blood loss and left before the doctor could say anything else. Holly sighed deeply as she returned to the ever-growing mountain of paperwork.
– – –
Freeedooommmm! As soon as I left her sight, I dropped the pitiful act. I practically skipped down the hall as I headed back for the elevator. I was more than ready to head home and hit the sack. I didn’t even look back as I left the creepy doctor behind.
Seriously, the way she looked at me… a shudder went down my spine. It was like I was a rat in her lab, ready to be poked and prodded to divulge all my secrets. Deeply uncomfortable, though my discomfort might've been influenced by my overall unease being around Blue Crusade faculty. Even my very real and rational worry couldn’t drive off my tired cheer as I arrived at the elevators.
My tired cheer remained undiminished even as an elevator froze and the second plummeted down the shaft, having broken from its wire. The third time's the charm and all that.
I moved to hit the ground floor, pausing as my tattered sleeve came into view. Maybe I should check out the cleaners while I was here. Then- then I could go and lay down in my blessed bed… after taking a shower. Probably get something to snack on too…
Oh, and I need to mentally catalog some information, such as East End having freakin’ parasites in their Underground! Seriously, what the hell was wrong with that place? I wasn’t entirely sure if Portside was much better with supposed fungal growths. Learning stuff like that made me a bit more hesitant to head Underground, at least not without some assurances. I’ll ask Nael when I get the chance if he's dealt with them before.
My hand slid down to the button for sublevel one. The elevator helpfully dinged as it closed, sliding slowly down. I leaned up against the wall, nearly falling asleep on my feet thanks to the chill elevator music. It wasn’t quite smooth jazz, but there were no lyrics to it.
The elevator doors slid open on the first door, allowing a Knight in. His armor was battered, deep gouges torn into the chest plate and arms. Even his helmet hosted a slit near one of his eyes, allowing an icey blue pupil to stare out of it. He gazed at me, instantly banishing any sleepiness as I stood up straight.
Knights were already terrifying enough, but what the hell beat this guy up so badly? I’d seen rifle rounds bounce off of the Blue Crusade armor easily, and yet something tore such deep gouges into his armor. My mind danced with thoughts of dozens of monsters I’d heard tales about, wondering if one of them might’ve done it.
Then a chill went down my spine as I looked over his armor. Whatever tore his armor to shreds had lost. This guy beat something that could so easily tear through his armor, and he didn’t seem hurt in the slightest. As if I wasn’t scared enough of the Crusade.
I looked away, attempting to distract myself to little avail. Already I could feel the cocktail of guilt and fear from the armor's enchantments, though it faded quickly. All this time around the Blue Crusade was starting to make that particular enchantment less effective. They still probably had a host of terrifying enchantments though. No need to get complacent around them…
The Knight shifted his frigid blue eye to the elevator’s panel, then leaned against the wall similar to how I was just a few seconds ago. “Crazy night, huh?” His voice threw me off, sounding cheerful and friendly even as his barely visible eye radiated stern badass vibes.
“Huh- y-yeah… crazy knight…” Thankfully, the elevator doors slid open as we arrived at our destination. I got out before he could say anything else, freezing momentarily as I entered the place.
It looked like a dry cleaners shop I might expect to find in one of the mega apartment buildings or arcologies. It was a fairly large room centered around a counter, though there were doors leading into other areas. Behind the counter sat racks and racks of clothes, vests, and armor.
A little old woman, her skin as pale as a vampire’s, sat behind the counter slowly sewing together a sleeve. Although I stepped out of the elevator first, I took a step to the side, allowing the Knight to go ahead of me in feigned adherence to seniority. Practically though, I wanted to see how he handled it.
Unfortunately, what I saw didn’t help me much. The guy just handed over his badge and walked to one of the doors without saying anything. I idled a minute, pulling out my phone to pretend I was doing something important.
A few minutes later, the Knight returned holding all of his armor and clothes. He had changed into the same style of clothes I’d seen others in the gym wearing. Crusade digital camo sweats and a loose t-shirt. Additionally, he had on a full silver face mask, though this one was entirely unenchanted. He handed everything over to the lady, and then back to the elevator.
I waited for the old woman to put away the Knight’s gear before approaching myself. I decided to go with a peppy, friendly approach. I splattered the friendliest smile I could on my face. “Hi! Um- I’m new here, but my superior said I should come down here?”
The older woman eyed me, unimpressed. She sighed, leaning over the counter slightly to get a better look at me. “Hand me your badge, girl.”
I passed it over without much hesitation. It was always a bit nerve-racking to hand it over, though I tried to not let it show on my face. I mean, I logically knew it would be fine since the shoe had so far fit perfectly, but there was always that little bit in the back of my mind that warned me of how easily this could all go wrong.
The woman scanned it, then held it back out to me. “Inquisitor Ligh, huh? Next time you see him, tell that bastard he still owes me for poker night.”
The sudden image of the old lady playing poker with the Inquisitor popped into my head, nearly drawing a chuckle. “Of course, ma’am.”
“Nova… head to room 5, change into the clothes there, and then bring me everything else.” The woman grabbed her sewing needle, pointing towards one of the side rooms before continuing with her project.
I followed her instructions, heading to the side room. I found a pair of sweats and a t-shirt much like the Knight’s resting inside of it. To my surprise, they fit perfectly. Not too snug, but not so baggy as to get annoying. I gathered up all my gear, thankful that I left everything important locked away on my bike, and headed back out of the room. I did keep my badge and a few other things like it though. I set my bundle of clothing down on the counter.
The lady wrinkled her nose at my bundle of clothes. Being out of them, and having held them up to my chest on the walk over, I got a better sense of just how bad they reeked. I couldn’t fault her in the slightest. “Come back in two- three days, and I'll get them ready and fixed up for you.”
“Thank you!”
She made a noise. I couldn’t quite tell if it was a growl or an acknowledgment, but I took it as my sign to leave. I headed back for the elevator, once more with a pep in my step as I headed for freedom- more accurately, as I headed for home and a nice, hot shower.