Nate Vis woke up with a headache.

It would've been sucky on any normal day but Nate doubted he had had a normal day if he remembered correctly.

One by one his memories slowly returned till he had some semblance of what had happened to him.

He had been attacked and beaten up by a bunch of Vulcanite and True Birth supporters. Nate thanked his lucky stars he had survived the encounter. The groups weren't exactly known for letting any Vat-Born that crossed them live.

Nate looked around for any clue as to where he was. He saw dozens of other beds lined up around him, each hosting their own person. And each person didn't look all that well. Medical equipment lined up along each bed. Sometimes just a few basic things. Others had scores of things set around them, each one monitoring their health with a keen eye.

Nate wasn't surprised to find that most were Birthed.

He looked around his own bed, seeing around several pieces of equipment, the most notable of them being an Augment station.

Crap.

Nate slowly started to realize what had happened to him when he was unconscious. That's when two nurses, both Birthed. Walked in.

"Oh my, tell the doctor that one of the patients has awoke," nurse one said to nurse two. The latter running out of the room to go fetch the doctor.

"So I'm sure you have questions," the nurse said politely.

"Only a few," Nate said, he had already pieced together what had happened, for the most part, he was attacked, taken to the hospital. The damage must've been bad if they had to use Augments.

"Well then what are they?" The nurse asked.

"For starters, what Augments did you give me? Along with how much is this going to cost?" Nate asked.

"I can answer the first one, I don't really look like an accountant do I?" The nurse said.

"No, I suppose you don't."

"Well, first we attached some basic Vat-Born skin to your basic wounds, but for the rest, we had to rely on Augments. The first one was a mask, a basic Augment to your intelligence along with the Augment enhancing your baseline strength. The other's we just some implants that enhanced bone durability and healing factor. You were beaten pretty bad, you know?"

"Yes, I do," Nate said sourly.

"So when can I remove them?" Nate asked.

"Oh, that's the thing, you can't. We may be able to in the future with more research. But at the moment you can't remove it." The nurse said, Nate didn't hear any sympathy though.

Nate checked his face to make sure it was true, feeling instead of warm cheeks and flesh, finding cold steel and other such metals instead. He could now fully feel what they had done to his body. Dozens of miny needles had sunken into the flesh of his face. Twitching and repositioning themselves anytime his facial muscles moved.

His arms were different. Numerous scars and bruises marked his brown skin, leaving him feeling like the doctors and nurses hadn't taken away all of his humanity.

His legs showed the very same markings, thankfully the implants hadn't damaged him that much.

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"I see our patient is awake and sound of mind as he is in body yes?" Nate turned his eyes to the door, finding the previous nurse alongside a doctor.

The man was dressed in the standard outfit of a white lab coat, glasses, and black pants. Though his other attachments made him much more memorable.

Dozens of miny mechanical hands shivered and swived around him, many of them emerging from inside his lab coat. Two more mechanical eyes were placed above where his human ones should be. Around his eyebrows, if Nate had to hazard a guess.

And where his eyes should have been numerous little mirrors now stood. Absorbing almost every inch of light that went into it. Making that area of his body almost entirely black. Devoid of anything.

Nate stared at the doctor with a very noticeable and understandable shock.

"I'm Mr.Pemberson, Dr.Pemberson, the guy who gave you all those fine and dandy Augments. I would very much like you to stop staring at me like that, you should know it's rude considering your heritage," the thing, no, Dr.Pemberson said.

"Sorry for that, I just never expected someone with your considerable Augmentation to be the doctor that brought me back from my predicament," Nate said, feeling quite a bit embarrassed.

"Well, at least you know your manners."

Dr.Pemberson looked at Nate directly. "The implants you received from me were only the ones in your arms, legs, back, and testicles. The mask was given to me by a former colleague which I had to modify a bit to fix you."

"Thank you for that, I honestly expected any decent hospital to give the barest of efforts considering my heritage," Nate said sadly.

"Well, most of my patients are Vat-Born after all, and my hospital makes more money by being a bastion of medical expertise for any and everyone. I'd be damned businesswise if I failed to uphold that," Dr.Pemberson replied.

"So my repair was for the potential money and image?" Nate asked.

"Of course, that's what almost every recovery in an actual decent hospital is mostly about. While some may care about making the world a better place by making sure no random child loses their parent. We have to make money to keep that dream functional."

"So how much money did you make from my recovery?" Nate asked.

Dr.Pemberson went into thought for several minutes. "From all the donations we received from the kind Vat-Born population of Muddenburg, I guess around one-two hundred silvers? The good press we received though is worth much more."

"And how much do I owe?" Nate asked.

"Around nineteen, maybe twenty silvers?" Dr.Pemberson said.

"Good god, that's around an entire two months without pay!" Nate exclaimed.

"Yes, it is. I noticed you were an engineer? There's plenty of freelance work you can do if your job's not making enough money. It's what most engineers do anyhow," nurse one said.

"Yeah, but I don't have a license. So I can't sell any tech like that easily."

"Black Market then." Dr.Pemberson said as he fished out a teacup and a kettle out of his lab coat and poured himself some. God knows how he had one on him but Nate guessed some more esoteric Augmentics.

"Well isn't that illegal?" Nate asked.

"Not if you don't get caught."

"Well, then thanks. I'll get your money back to you soon," Nate said as he hopped out of bed.

"You better hope so. I should also tell you that your naked and your clothes are in the locker room left off here." Nurse two said, chuckling at Nate's embarrassment and subsequent racing towards the locker room.

"I thought the men's locker room was on the right?" Emily (nurse one) asked.

"Oh let me have my fun!" Atonia (nurse two) said.

"Excuse me ladies, but I must leave for some important work right now."

"That's a lie Dr.Pemberson, but okay. You can have your fun," Atonia said.

Dr.Pemberson quickly walked out of the room and headed to his office. Once there he closed the door, locked it, shut the blinds, and turned on the light. Before quickly turning to his guest.

"Did you put the tracker on him?" said his guest.

"Yeah, I did. The technology is still unfamiliar to me though." Pemberson replied while sipping his tea.

"Don't worry, you can experiment all you want with it after the job is done. I assume you told him about the Black Market, yes?" The figure asked.

"He fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Let's hope he doesn't ask himself why a doctor so worried about public opinion would tell him to go to the Black Market."

"The Soul-Less are all fools," the figure stated.

As Nate went to go get his clothes and chew out the nurse who directed him to the ladies locker room. He never noticed the symbol in the eye of the mask. Of a hammer striking a sword with power, and with the sword glowing red from the heat.

The symbol of the Cult of Vulcan.

Give me your sick, your poor, you weak and feeble. And all that you would dispose of. I welcome them to the land of the free! Where every one of them can live their life without pain or sadness, or shattered pride and body. The Land of the Free is waiting.

- Radio Recording of Wildrow Wilson, President of the U.S during the Refugee crisis of 1921. Seven years after the war began