“Wherever I make it.”

As she ascended the panopticon’s main elevator after the Eco/Bio junction was cleared and Vahlen sent them off to their duties, she looked over the contact information she sent to each person that witnessed it.

Therapists and mental health professionals.

As she stood next to Amanda her thoughts idly raced. Her mind replayed the crunching of Farlow’s bones. How his face went from very much alive and terrified within his own home.

To nothing but a blank stare.

He was well, however, his education, life goals, and aspirations all melted into a hollowed shell.

It was tangible in her mind.

The breaking.

The wet squelches.

“Any fucken pipe these days...” Amanda drew out.

“Yeah... heard about more and more pipes going out lately, can you check on the ones in my lab with me?”

“And what other reason would I be following you?”

“Maybe because we’re friends?”

“Well, got me there, couldn’t get rid of you if I tried.”

“Stuck to you like glue.”

They chuckled as the doors open to the lower laboratories. The hydroponic systems manned by scientists in lab coats, most were caretaking for or studying the plants in their own large planter boxes, each gleamed in the overhead lights as a few misters switched on. She always admired its odd beauty, originally captured from Zone 17.

The very thing that grew from the strangely warm flowers growing off the whistler’s tracks.

They lined the walls of the terrarium, each was a slightly differing variety with colorful flowers sprouting from the main stem, in the center, each one had a red floral bloom, the petals tucked flatly akin to a lizard's skin.

“That’s a bright plant.” Amanda pointed at a particular plant with a heavy finger, “what is that one... it looks...”

“New? It is, just got this one couple days before I went into Zone 17... it grew from that thing’s tracks. But I need whatever chased us captured, and alive.”

“You’re nuts, when you hunting again?” Melissa merely looked at herself with a shake of the head, the ankle swelling went away, the nerve pain remained the same.

“No time soon...” she turned her head to a tall woman humming to herself, her hands busy digging through the center of a large flower the size of her head, she gently pulled at it with a whisper of success.

As it came free, the strangely crimson mass was still connected by nerve-like roots, each one popped free. The tall woman moved her head away, crimson droplets landing near some marks on her neck Melissa recognized.

Barely covered with concealer.

She knew she’d make them return later.

“Hey Dakra, it finally bloomed?”

“Hey lady, yep, it finally stopped, pulsing...” the mass wriggled in her hands, crimson staining her gloves and sleeves. “I’m pretty sure this is meat?” Melissa cocked her head with a quizzical frown.

“So... we have an animal that spreads,” she pointed, “that...”

“Looks like a solution to me.” Dakra’s eyes softened they met Melissa’s, just as quickly flashing to Amanda, “thanks for keeping our little bunny here safe.”

She waved her arms out, “nah, don’t worry about it, she saved us too... if it weren’t for that flare gun...”

“We’ll call it even.” She bumped shoulders with Amanda. “So... is there anything connecting this plant to the...” the frustrated ecologist shook her head, “what should we even call it?”

“Eh... it was kinda nasally when it screeched at us... how about... Whistler? Death Clicker?”

“Yeah... Whistler works for social media, I don’t want to scare anyone to badly, but unofficially.” She let it hang briefly as she looked around the space. “Death Clicker.”

“Agreed, I saw all of you... sorry girly.”

“I’m still kicking...” she glanced down with a wince, “moving.” She walked up to the bleeding mass in her hands, observing it closely, as she leaned her head down to sniff it, she reeled back with her hand on her nose.

“Smells like ground beef.”

“Should we try cooking it?” Melissa shook her head.

“No, send a sample to Eta, we need it checked thoroughly before eating any of it,” Dakra nodded, a perfect smile she couldn’t help but stare at, she did the same in kind as Amanda withheld a smirk.

She stayed with both ecologists for an hour, going over the various dispersal methods the thing may use aside from the Whistler’s tracks.

All they knew was that with each step a whistler took, life followed.

With each sprinting lope it bounded after its prey, a potential life.

Dakra left with a sample for Eta to look over, the little cryo-box wafted steam as it closed. As she watched her walk away with a hidden smile, she paused briefly, suddenly strolling to Melissa as Amanda made her way to the door.

Amanda paused, waiting for her to come along as the two biologists drew close.

“Hey, before I forget, just uh. Lemme know if you need anything, at all, kay?”

“Thanks, Dakra... we still on for tonight?” A look of excitement crossed both of their faces, at a sniff of the porceleium bloom still present on Dakra’s glove, she winced.

“Yeah, lemme know if anything changes.”

“Will do.”

“See ya’ around, Rabbit.” Dakra purred.

They parted ways, Amanda noticing both looking each other up and down before leaving for the elevator. As she rode the central elevator up with a few scientists, making conversation she could barley pay attention to, she could only think of Tom, and then the augments her friend was to go through.

“Hey, you ready for next month?”

“As ready as I can be... still nervous about it, but the faster I get through that, the faster I don’t deal with the anxiety.”

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“Alright, well hey,” the elevator doors opened to the bustling medical spire, “if you need any tips, tricks, advice. Just lemme’ know.”

“You're the best, Amanda, and yeah... more than likely.” Her gaze wandered to the augmentation ward. Battling the fear of being sliced open, the fear of what amounted to piano wire being installed to augment her muscles and remineralization of every bone in her body.

“Alright, well... I’ve got a date with Tom, get some rest, you’ll need it, as much as you can.”

After trying to follow her advice the following month, she often found herself paralyzed with doubt, the more her body healed the more she could only think of it being broken all over again.

She disliked her most recent conversation with Vahlen, the words, ‘break you to make you better’ had come up more than once. She’d be broken as she was most of her life. The sting of leaving Karla all those years ago felt similar to the clouded visage of her soon-to-be-changed body.

She wondered, a small silver lining, how tall she would be.

During her pre operation checkups with Eta, the doctor’s look of quiet concern grew with each new chart she read through. Melissa could only imagine what the hieroglyphics making up her genetic code told Eta. But the wonder woman doctor lady still held a strange, almost concerned face.

She batted away most of the concerned ecologist’s questions save for one. When asked what exactly Eta saw, she only said that she would be the perfect candidate for the program, that her body was the most malleable to change she had ever seen.

It felt like a gift, but the disquiet continued. She wanted to know why she was ‘perfect’.

Her answers were lost as she finally approached the surgical ward. A nervous energy floating about the medical crew as each one seemed ready beside each autodoc. The hospital gown didn’t provide any protection from the surgical ward's perpetual wind chill.

The space was meant to be freezing cold, each step was icy, Ripley didn’t seem to notice the cold as she stood next to her autodoc.

“It looks as if we shall be neighbors.” Her smile felt warm, the un feeling surface of the autodoc's acrylic was a stark opposite.

“I might drop by for some sugar.”

“I will perhaps cling upon you for warmth.” Her smile and that little beauty mark rose along with her brow as she shivered, her eyes impatiently flicking at the lab technician in his blue scrubs.

“Isn’t that a job for Bishop?”

“No, he is far too hot, akin to a space heater on full power. Among other things.”

“Uh huh, so I’m, just right for you?”

“You are, eh, close enough.” The medical personnel readied oxy-masks, passing them to each patient

“Here’s to being neighbors, girl next door.” She laughed at the obvious wink.

“You and your flattery, one day this may get you into trouble.” She chided, waving her finger.

“Yep, I’ll be stuck on ice, I’m sure.”

“Relax! You’ll be fine!” Karla’s voice, her light southern accent always caught her attention. The breeze of the ac system wafted straight through her gown. “Besides, Mel. I’m here for moral support.” She thrust her hands at her hips in triumph.

She wanted to grab hers. “I appreciate you, but uh... why are you gowned?”

“An experiment, I’m having a couple scans of my brain made, the neural lace is crystalizing a couple of new regions. I’ve felt... I don’t know,” she swished her arms out, “strange? Weird dreams? And even weirder, I thought I heard whispering in the walls the other day.”

“Are you feeling any other effects?” Karla shook her head reassuringly at Ripley.

“Nah, I’m fine, Eta’s just doing a checkup and I’ve been cleared by mental health.” Her brows furrowed in concern, “I thought I saw the little girl pointing at me... and she pointed at Nala right after while in Zone 17 last week. I really don’t like it.”

Karla cleared her throat as the autodocs slithered open, “So, I’m getting my engram copied so we can look at what I saw. Just to... I don’t know, make sure I’m not crazy?” Melissa and Ripley offered their support through concerned looks of their own as they undressed, handing their gowns over to the medical personnel.

“Karla, you’re not crazy.” She stepped inside the autodoc, the acrylic closing silently as the fluid pump below her feet turned on. “I saw her too, in Zone 17... waved right at me.”

“Wait... you’re not joking, are you?” Her dimple disappeared, the little smirk she tried holding up gone.

“I’m sorry, but it's true... I not lying to you, Posie...” she held the mask to her face as the warm operating fluid, pausing before placing it on. “Watch out for her, kay? First chance we get, we’re talking about it, I have too many questions.”

She put the mask on, the nano-machine reactive seal fixing to her skin seamlessly as the vocal system switched on. She suddenly felt exposed, she caught Karla looking her up and down briefly. Her thoughts wandered to Karla’s body, how perfect her skin was, how beautiful she made her voice long ago.

They connected in so many ways, save for a few. The autodoc’s mechanical, snakelike appendage slithered up to her wrist as a particle display showed her where to place her arm in the fluid.

She hated that she loved. The needle effortlessly inserted itself.

She loved that she could hate. The chilly fluid raced through her veins like her icy thoughts.

The things she said during the end of a story of them.

Her brutal honesty was always something she loved and hated.

It brought out the raw display of her true inner self, all bore for Karla, whether it was wanted or not.

Bubbles wrapped her, barely able to make out the words but had to watch Karla’s blurry mouth as she placed her hand on the glass with either a dutiful or encouraging expression. She only wanted to encourage her smile.

“You’ve got this, Rabbit.” She smiled in kind, hidden under her mask.

She shot a thumbs up from within the clear chamber of the autodoc, thin mechanical arms roiled around her, an array of cutting instruments gleaming under the harsh glow of the bank lights.

Vahlen came into view, just a blur of red, white, and black. Ravensmantle’s flag.

“Are you ready, Melissa?”

She nodded, “this is going to work, right?” She felt her body slowly losing consciousness as Vahlen spoke.

“Of course, this is the first of many augmentations, right now, semi metallurgic muscle grafts and hardened bones after a few new organs. Next the…” Her voice was lost as the drugs kicked in, the autodoc operator told the others to hurry and get out of the way.

Her consciousness simply washed away.

The surgical sites were painful as their bodies healed over months.

She and Ripley sat in the same large recovery room after every procedure. It became more grueling by the day, the procedures within such a short and precise window had become exhausting.

With time both managed to walk again after having their limbs extended slightly, nano machines enlarging every bone. Their frames feeling more powerful than they ever could have dreamed. Moving heavy objects was a simple task.

She set the 60-pound dumb dell on the rack of the lonely gym, despite only a week in after her recovery. Ripley had rapidly gained muscle, it was as if a missing puzzle piece to Ripley had been found.

She was still her demure and kind self.

Just more akin to a powerful dancing body builder, she took to the augments well, being nearly as tall as Bishop’s 6’8 frame.

She cleaned her machine with a squeaking rag, pondering her own physical changes. Her body thrummed with energy, the second heart in her chest the source of many jokes.

Her crew had decided ‘cherries’ was the best term for the higher blood pressure all Ravenguard had. It was uncomfortable, Vahlen said that in time she would adjust to it.

"Hawthorne,” Vahlen’s voice called, “I’m glad I found you here. How are you feeling?”

“Good, mostly,” she winced slightly, itching at her newfound scars and extension incision points. She noticed she could see just over the top of the tall lockers as she rose to meet Vahlen.

She could see the top of her head.

“Hurts.” The scars there were brutal. Jagged.

“Yes, they will hurt for a while, it will be worth it, I assure you.” Bite mark.

She flicked to a display of the Ravensmantle military stipulation, a long document that each new Ravenguard had to sign 14 times.

“Further training begins soon, it goes much further than basic.”

“Like special forces? Why me, I’m just a scientist,” Vahlen’s eye flicked back to the display.

“It is precisely why.” Her voice a flat edged razor. “You, must go to the Outlands to further study Cadre biolife, if you have the training and every brutality we have to offer. Bite mark.

Couldn’t stop staring at the bite mark.

“You’ll survive nearly everything, until you teach someone that can replace your position, which I doubt they will. You must be a capable killer, as well. The Cadre are not human anymore. The House of Damocles, human, they are by far the worst. You cannot trust them.”

She followed Melissa’s suddenly avoidant gaze, “our world is under threat every day. Soon, even our children will become soldiers. Whomever they are, whatever they believe in, whatever gender they choose. They must live to become adults.”

“You begged to have a position within my country, you begged for my protection and mercy.” Her eye’s burned with a feverous sting, “I need you to understand, you must protect your home with a blade as with your knowledge. This is the Ravensmantle way.”

Before Melissa could utter so much as a response, Vahlen cut her off with a lethally edged knife gesture. Bite mark.

“So, I trust between that and your augments, it will prove of no concern. Today, May-17-2100, you are now designated Ravenguard, protector of our home.”

Rather than speaking, she responded by paying her debt to Vahlen.

She silently signed the contract to her victorious smile.

Her augmented eyes gleaming colorlessly, swirling pools under her bite mark.

Predatory tooth pattern.

“Best of luck, do or die.”