2014-11-09 - The Daemonite's in the Details: Filling In the Blanks

Majestros' lab has been thoroughly reconfigured in the last several hours. Several pieces of technology "borrowed" from the HALO Corporation are present, with several more of Emp's own design added. Amidst all that is a variety of items created by Majestros himself. Genetic manipulation is a delicate science. One tiny thing out of sequence and you get horrible defects or in this case potentially unforseen and highly undesirable side-effects. There is no margin for error.
So of course, Majestros has simply resolved that no errors will be made.
He's currently seating the proper connections for everything, clad in his costume and moving from item of inscrutable technology to item of not-quite-as-inscrutable technology, making sure everything is in place as he waits for the other players in this little drama to arrive.
It isn't long before those coming with Kara for her 'check-up' filter in: Lord Emp himself, still in a suit from an earlier meeting at HALO Corp; Charis, who is filing her nails with a dagger that she might have borrowed from Cole; Hadrian, whose face is concerned as he slides in to watch-- and be there for Emp in the event of the worst; Reno, carrying Kara, who is wriggling a bit as she is leaning over his shoulder like one might carry a sack of potatoes--; because of the final bit of her entourage, Cole Cash, who is making increasingly goofy faces at the six year old that is returning them in kind between peals of giggles.
Probably not Majestros's favorite day ever, really.
Jeremy Stone pokes his head up from behind one of the devices, lifting the spotlight-glasses he had on and waving towards the new arrivals, "Hey guys. We're just about finished setting up here." Yes, Dr. Stone, at least when he's at normal human size or lower, is among those few that Majestros actually trusts in his lab with relative regularity. Particularly when biochemistry is involved, as it very much is right at the moment.
"Lord Emp." Majestros greets the High Lord with a nod, sealing yet another connection.
"Bryce...take her over to the bed there." Majestros gestures. "Charis, you may accompany her if she wishes." He looks to the Spartan, "Hadrian, you know where the monitoring station is." And finally his eyes fall upon Cole, "Cash...stand against that wall, say nothing, and //don't touch anything//." Yes, Majestros is bossing people around well....like a boss. With the exception of Emp, whom he approaches and offers a holo-pad, "Lord Emp, if you could double check the results from the last three simulations? Dr. Stone and I concur that the results are as intended and the mathematics, as he said, "check out." But I would prefer a third set of trusted eyes before we proceed." So yes, Emp gets -asked- to do things. The privilege of being old, apparently.
Warblade looks somewhat relieved to divest himself of a squirming child, depositing her onto the appointed bed easily. He immediately leans against the wall nearest the bed, though, hovering like an overprotective older brother.
Charis hops up to sit on a open spot of tablespace in the lab, and Cole leans against the same lab table beside her, giving her a quick once-over that's not entirely family-friendly. She continues filing her nails. He pretends to not hear Majestros's order for him to be on the opposite side of the lab.
Hadrian moves to the monitoring station after shooting Cash a warning look, and Emp, skimming the holo-pad as he walks, follows him, his brow furrowed. "Assuming," Emp asks, tapping a few things on the pad, "that it does not work, what are we looking at for critical failure?" He manages to keep and worry out of his tone, but then again, thousands of years of politics offers that ability.
Jeremy looks a little discomfited by the question, but just busies himself with giving the equipment a final check over, moving to verify his checks with Hadrian so he can log them in and start powering things up in sequence. Majestros looks to Emp and notes, "Aside from the obvious? Activation. Which will likely have no effect on myself, you, Hadrian, or Charis. But may well drive everyone else in this structure and for several hundred miles around violently insane."
The Kheran warlord looks over towards Cole now, his eyes narrowing slightly, "Mr. Cash, I realize you have an incessant need to draw attention to yourself by flouting authority at every opportunity, but I have extended you the courtesy of staying so long as you follow instructions. If you insist on not doing so, then I will gladly arrange for you to wait out the process on the summit of K2."
"Violently insane?" Cole asks. "Sounds like normal," he points out, moving to where he was instructed-- but lacksidasically as possible.
Kara bounces on the bed. "Uncle Reno says if I'm good he'll take me for ice cream," she announces. "You should come too, Mr. Majess-ros." Charis stifles a snicker at that, then gives Majestic an all-too-innocent look. Kara frowns at her. "He needs ice cream. Sprinkles make the grumpy go away."
Majestros moves across the room to stand beside the bed, and actually one side of his mouth quirks in a half-smile, "And you must be Kara." He actually extends his hand to her, "Hello Kara, I am Majestros. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Have Charis or Emp or anyone else told you why you're here today?" He actually looks...nice. Smiling to Kara as he asks his question.
Kara bites her lip, glancing at Emp. "...Mister-Dad Jake said that the bad men Ms. Charis got me from put a bad thing inside me, and you're going to take it out so it doesn't hurt me or anyone."
Reno shrugs. Sounds legit to him, that explanation.
"Uncle Cole says if it's not removed, I will explode." Kara nods sagely, as only a six-year old can manage.
Emp... just might give Cash a rather murderous look at that.
Majestros flicks his eyes up at Cash, levelling a flat stare at him before looking back to Kara and smiling more openly, "Well..." He actually ruffles her hair. Ruffles! Though his expression and tone grows more serious, "I'm not going to let you explode. I promise. Neither will any of the rest of us." Majestros meets the young girls' eyes a moment, a tiny wrinkle appearing on his forehead as the flicker of a frown -almost- makes it to his face, but it's smoothed over almost before anyone's likely to notice, replaced with another rather gentle smile, "We've even made sure there won't be any needles."
"Okay!" Kara grins cheerfully. "Needles aren't so bad, though." She lays back on the bed, holding her arms out like a pro-- but then again, what /had/ the Daemonites been doing to her for the last few years...?
Charis wrinkles her nose in distaste at the memory of getting the girl out of her previous captivity.
Emp... well, he buries his attention back into the holopad. "The calculations look correct as far as I can tell," he replies to Majestros. "Whenever you are ready to begin."
Majestros glances to Emp and nods, "Dr. Stone?"
Jeremy moves over to a console, hits a few buttons, and gives a thumbs-up, "We're go at biosystems."
"All checks green at monitor." Hadrian speaks, somehow managing to sound encouraging with just those few simple words.
Majestros gestures to one of the other stations, conveniently sized so that Emp can stand behind the console comfortably, "Lord Emp, as you have taken responsibility for Kara, this is master command. You will have the ability to cease the operation at any time."
Majestros first moves next to the bed again, sliding over a tray that has a series of air-hypos and a small container with a clear gel. Majestros dips a fingertip in the gel and rubs it into Kara's upper shoulder, providing a local anasthetic so the three air-hypo shots offer no pain when he delivers them one after the other. "These shots are filled with what are called "nanites" Kara. They are very, very tiny machines. This first one will help keep you from getting sick while the others work. This second will clean out most of the bad "stuff" that the bad men put inside you. And this last will take the small amount of bad stuff that will be left over, and make sure it's not bad anymore, and then help make sure that all the -good- things you have are still where they're supposed to be." He places a hand on Kara's head for a moment, and smiles, "This may be uncomfortable for a few minutes, Kara. If you need to, take Charis' hand and squeeze it. Also...." He slides over a pan, "At the end, even with the nanites, you will probably feel like you're going to sick up...you can use that when the time comes." Assuming Emp and Reno followed instructions, though, she probably hasn't had much beyond water today to eat.
With that, Majestros moves to the console nearest the bed and notes solemnly, "Operations is ready." He manipulates the hard-light controls that spring to life around him, and a large crystal lens slides into place above Kara, starting to glow with a pale green light. "Commencing in 3, 2, 1...activate."
At first, Kara purses her lips and furrows her brow seriously, glancing towards the spots on her shoulders where the nanites were introduced.
Then she lets out a soft whimper, closing her eyes tightly and biting her lips hard.
Emp watches the readings, his hands gripping the edge of the station he is at tightly enough that had it been made of lesser material, it may have dented.
Hadrian says calmly, but sparing both the child and Emp a concerned glance-- "Heart rate rising."
Charis moves to take the girl's hand, but Reno actaully gets there first. "Be brave," he forces some cheer into his voice. "Remember, we have ice cream to go get, right? We'll even bring Dr. Stone."
"Miss Priss too?" Kara manages to sound cheerful, if not pained.
"Sure," Reno replies, then glances back at Emp and Majestros.
Cole... crosses his arms and scowls. He's not good with things if there's nothing to shoot at.
"That's expected. Temperature will go up as well. Anything above 104.4 Farenheit, let us know." Jeremy notes from the biosystems station, fingers manipulating his own controls to start guiding the nanites he's been given charge of.
Majestros is silent, manipulating the controls, in some cases so quickly that his fingers or forearms become a blur as they fly across the hard-light "buttons." "Genome reinforcement should be complete...now." Majestros looks to Kara once more, and nods, smiling a bit, before speaking, "Proceeding to Extraction mode." He glances to Charis, briefly, giving her a look that should warn her that "this is going to hurt."
And Kara lets out a wail of pain, tears beginning to trail down her cheeks. She thrashes a bit, but Reno grips her and and Charis moves over beside her, smoothing her hair back.
"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry..." the girl whimpers as the extraction continues, trying to wipe her face with her free hand for a moment before letting out another wail.
Emp's face is stone. He stares at the child with a cold and calculating look.
There's a sharp slamming noise as Cash punches the wall beside him and stalks out of the room. Hadrian glances over after him, and shakes his head slightly, before looking back at the monitors.
"It's okay, sweetheart," Charis says. "It's okay. It's almost over." She shoots Majestros a look as if to confirm that as true.
Majestros face may as well be stone. She's have a hard time feeling his emotions now. He's always been far too good at stamping them down. Burying them deep. That's not necessarily cause for alarm, though...he tends to do it whenever he's faced with any situation that requires great focus and significant risk. He does, however, dip his chin ever-so-slightly in a nod towards Charis, "Just a few moments more, Kara. You're doing very well." He actually smiles to the girl, brightly and encouragingly.
Jeremy warns, "She may lose consciousness in the next phase, and respiration and heartrate will slow -way- down for a bit. That's within our parameters."
Majestros nods...and activates the last phase, "Reconfiguration and repair beings now." The lens above Kara glows brighter, enveloping her in its light...Charis and Reno as well, but it was programmed to filter out their presence well before the procedure began.
The experimentation that had been done on Kara, however, gave her a bit more... staying power, so to speak, than they might have expected otherwise. Under normal circumstances, that wouldbe good. But for now, it may have been better if not.
She doesn't lose conciousness. She does, however, begin to hyperventalate as the pain ratchets up. Charis flinches from the wave of terror the girl lets out, but continues stroking her hair back. "Shhsshhshhh..." she murmurs as Kara lets out a shriek of pain.
Reno's face tightens. "Almost done, kiddo. Then we can show Uncle Cole your new unicorn."
Then Kara lets out another wail.
"...or not." Reno says hurridly.
Emp takes a deep breath as the procedure draws to a close, and as soon as his presence is no longer needed where he was, he steps back and starts moving towards his adoptive daughter.
He gets to her bedside as it finalizes-- and she turns her head and promptly vomits bile on him.
He sighs. Kara whimpers out an apology while Charis stifles a laugh, glancing to Majestros and Hadrian to verify everything worked as needed.
Emp shakes his head and takes her hand from Reno's. "Believe me child, I've dealt with worse. Are you ready for ice cream?"
Kara's mouth curls into a grimace. "No ice cream. I think I'm gonna throw up 'gain."
And... she does. At least Reno manages to get the bucket there in time this time.
The second vomit is slightly metallic-tinged as her body purges itself of the machines used to..."fix" her.
Majestros glances to Hadrian and Jeremy, a questioning brow raised. Jeremy gives an "OK" symbol and Hadrian nods, a glimmer of a smile on his face.
Majestros exhales in a sound that carries relief no matter how hard he might try to hide it, "Life signs are normal. No defects or errors recorded. It appears we have been successful." He moves over and gives Kara's hand a gentle squeeze, "You did well, Kara."
He looks to Charis, and there's a flicker of something rarely ever seen from Majestros. Something that's almost...mischievous? He reaches to the small holo-pad he'd given Emp earlier, and places it in front of Emp, activating it as certain -other- data scrolls by, "Congratulations Lord Emp. It's a girl."
You see, the procedures that had been inflicted on Kara had already skewed portions of her genetic code towards Kherubim, albeit a heavily altered variant. So when the time came to "repair" setting her back to baseline human simply wasn't possible. Thus, while she still may have a little "extra" in some ways behind the baseline....Kara is now officially a Kherubim/Human hybrid...and the genestock used to "fill in the blanks?" on the Kheran side? None other than Emp's himself.
He couldn't save his own son, but he can give someone else a daughter.
Emp's expression... shifts and changes as he reads the holopad.
Then he looks at Majestros with a look of genuine happiness-- a very rare expression for Emp, indeed. "Thank you..." he says quietly. Then he glances down at his clothing. "I suppose I should go get showered and changed," he chuckles, patting Kara's hand. "By the time I'm done, you should be feeling a little better-- and we'll go get ice cream. Or whatever you think you can hold down, okay?"
Kara nods, her expression slightly sulky, but not at him so much as that general 'sick kid' kind of sulk. "'kay."
Reno actually scoops the girl up. "Let's get out of the lab," he suggests. "You'll probably feel a bunch better somewhere else."
Kara nods sullenly, then looks at Majestros with a pout. "You need more unicorns in here," she says pointedly.
"Indeed," Charis agrees. What a helper.
Majestros nods slightly to Emp, his expression...its' usual stony self once more. It remains so as the others filter out of the lab. As they go, Majestros is motionless save for the manipulation of a few controls to power things down and whatnot.
"Majestros, do you need some help cleaning up?" Jeremy asks as he moves away from his station.
"No, Doctor Stone. I will handle it." Majestros replies without looking at the man, still manipulating those holograms with precision and purpose.
Jeremy nods and moves out of the room. As the last one to leave, the door slides shut behind him. After a few more moments, Majestros actually moves back and slumps back into a chair. He's silent a few moments, staring ahead, and then clears his throat, once, before swivelling to face another console. As he starts to bring up another batch of research on some other matter altogether, a soft chuckle escapes him:
"Heh...Unicorns."