[Center]Intermission-Kiku, Col Black and Nomuro[/Center] --- Being dead hurt more than Kiku imagined it would. For one, she had thought it wouldn’t hurt at all: like, how could being dead hurt? If you were dead, you were dead. Nothing else to it really. But nonetheless, she felt nothing but hurt. Her stomach hurt, where she’d got shot, and shoulder felt a strange numb pain to it, as well. Slowly, she tried to flex her fingers, but nothing seemed to obey. Memories started to trickle back into her head: Of the mission, of the hunt and the kill, and then...She got shot? That was how she died, right? A sound caught her attention, it sounded like voices...panicky voices, at that. She couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like they were freaking out about something ‘waking up.’ Why did death smell like disinfectant? It took her a while to grasp that she wasn’t dead...A few seconds of acclimatising her body to the various sensations: of the cold metal against her back, of the slow beep of machines, and of the smell of sweat and dry blood and disinfectant. She tried to open her eyes, but was briefly blinded by the overhanging lights. She tried to lift her arms to cover her eye, but only her right arm responded, and it felt numb as all hell. “Wha…” She turned her head away from the skull-splitting light, and tried to look down at her left hand. All she saw was the stump of her left shoulder, as well as a number of stitched up holes. She began putting two and two together, and she glanced up to see her limb, dead and retched on a table beside them. She was broken. “Oh god...Ohgod, Ohgod! Someone, help me? Help me please?!” She tried to get up, to writhe away from the sight of her own dead limb, but every milimetre felt like a mile. Her body was numb and aching and it hurt so much, but seeing her own arm, just...there… Slowly but surely as her blurred vision began to focus, several sights would greet her. The paleness of her own skin, her spines folded against her back could feel the drugs coursing through her veins and were fighting them to try and keep her awake, she had no control over this. Still. One of the panicked voices was a man in a lab coat. Really, they were all in lab coats, but this one in particular had a distinctly asian descent in a room full of mostly caucasian doctors, and he was the only one that seemed particularly disturbed by the sight of the dismembered arm. The asian lab coat was on a phone connected to the wall with a cord, and he was screaming something in a furious tone, though the language was entirely foreign to her ears. As she struggled against the ties keeping her down, a woman enters the room, still decked out in combat gear, though she tosses her strange rifle to the side and dashes over to Kiku. Leaning overtop of the medical bed, Kiku finally recognized her face: Colonel Marie Black. Marie looked over the pale, badly maimed form of Kiku and grasped Kiku’s shoulders, resting her forehead against Kiku’s as her necklace slips out from underneath her chest plate: A cross. “Shh, it’s okay… These men are trying to help you, Kiku, just calm down… I’m here now…” Kiku’s eyes slowly focused in on Black’s, the fear in them so very contrasting to the normally brazen girl. Everything was moving out of her control, and she was so afraid of being broken. She couldn’t help but recall the times in the pit, of being weak and defenceless: of being forced to do what she must to survive...She’d fought tooth and nail to make herself strong. She’d given up everything, and now she was some useless cripple? “I’m sorry Colonel Black, I’m sorry. I’m sorryimsorryimsorry.” Kiku tried to raise her left arm again, visible through the tiny movements of her disfigured shoulder. She tried to wrap her phantom left arm around the Colonel, but felt the fruatration and pain of failure. Not being able to move her arm, she just shut her eyes, feeling tears flow for the first time in a what was probably years. “Help me, Marie. I don’t want to be useless; I can’t be useless! I’ll do anything, just don’t leave me here. Don’t leave me as some weak, useless little piece of crap, please?!” “Shh…” Marie says as she gently caresses Kiku’s cheek with her right hand, her left hand slipping into Kiku’s and squeezing it tightly. “You won’t be… But…” Her eyes move to another metal tray, to Kiku’s right side, that had several metal parts. One looked like a shoulder combined with a motor, another looked like a hand. “They have to connect your nervous system to the wires so you can have control over the replacement limb… You were supposed to be unconscious, because it’s… Quite painful.” Marie turns her eyes back to Kiku, taking a deep breath she stops caressing Kiku momentarily so she can take off her cross and place it in Kiku’s left hand. “They didn’t know that your body would adjust to the drugs so quickly.” The doctors around put on fresh gloves and masks, as the asian lab coat clears his throat and slowly places the phone back on the wall. “... Colonel…” He starts saying as she brings one of her hands up to motion for him to stop talking. “Kiku, they have to do this now, before the wound heals into a stump and the nerve endings heal… I’ll be here, right here, and so will God, he will watch over you, but this is going to be the most… Painful moment of your life, I will not lie to you. Just trust me, and the doctors, okay?” The tone of her voice was gentle, almost motherly as she waits for Kiku’s response, rather than forcing the procedure forward. Kiku opened up her eyes and focused on Marie, the fear in her eyes unchanged, but sharpened with a certain focus. It seems her body had fought off the rest of the drugs, and the mutant was fully aware of what the Colonel had said to her. She didn’t let her eyes waver though. “I can do it, boss. I trust you. Just...please don’t leave. I need you here. I’m scared, but I can do it if you’re here.” With a nod, Marie wraps her left hand around Kiku’s left hand, pushing the cross into Kiku’s palm. “I will. Do not worry. One child of God will not leave another to suffer alone.” The asian rolls his eyes skeptically as Marie sighs. “Just do your work, Nomuro.” He nods and grabs a small drill in one hand. Standing beside Kiku he looks at her sympathetically while the doctors stand impatiently around him. “Nǐ shì yǒnggǎn de.” Without further words, he starts the operation, drilling into Kiku’s flesh as quickly as he could to get the work done as fast as possible. Kiku’s eyes flared open at the sudden intensity of the agony from her arm. She clenched her teeth tight as she began to scream, pushing her body up as she writhed in torment. It was like a fire had been set inside of her arm. Somehow, it hurt even more than being shot: perhaps because her body was being kept out of shock by the cocktail of suppressed drugs in her system or something. She wanted to be stronger than this, but in the face of so great a pain, she couldn’t resist every nerve in her body shouting ‘run’ or ‘escape’ or ‘stop it, now.” She looked up at Black, almost wanting to open her mouth and tell her to, no, scream for her to stop the torture. Something stopped her, though. Perhaps it was the fear of being useless, or perhaps the thought of letting the only person who truly cared for her down, or perhaps it was just the fact that she was too stubborn to lose to something like a lost arm: but she kept her mouth shut, refusing to let her pain beat her. She glared into Marie’s eyes, trying to fight past the fear and the pain and the god-damn self-loathing. A glimmer of Kiku shone through: of the fearless girl, of the fearless, happy girl that got caught up in stupid stuff, and who didn’t even trust herself with money, and who didn’t even care about any of the stuff Marie moaned at her about: like trying ‘Church’ or trying to get a ‘safe job’ or anything like that. It was just a flicker, but it was there, staring back at Black as she kept screamed into clenched teeth; until her throat grew sore and beyond. The operation proceeded as blood started to seep out of her wounds again, though the doctors seemed intrigued that it was pinkish in hue rather than the dark red they expected. Getting a few samples that were rolling out of her anyway, a couple of them grabbed Kiku’s shoulders and held her down as Nomuro grabbed the shoulder piece and its several connections. Examining it quickly, he then puts it back down and starts putting magnetic metal pieces into her shoulder. They stung, but nowhere near as badly as the drill did. Black smiles, though concern openly showed in her eyes as she rests her hand on Kiku’s cheek. “Alright, it’s going well, just have to survive a little while longer… Maybe after this I can convince you to come to church with me…” She chuckles. “... Probably not, huh?” The sensation of the pain decreasing in intensity brought about a sense of relief in the mutant. She didn’t feel as much of an urge to scream in protest now, although a few grunts of pain were enough to tell everyone in the room that the process was not comfortable. Looking up at Marie, she offered a sort of half-smile at the joke...At least, she thought it was a joke. “I don’t feel the need to listen stories and promises to do what I do. Sorry boss, but the day you see me in church is the day I get my mom back.” A small wince of pain seemed to cause her face to contort, but soon enough she was smiling again, trying to pretend that this wasn’t the worst sort of agony she’d been through. Marie hesitates, then closes her eyes, a slight frown on her lips, but a look of understanding in her eyes as she opens them again. “Alright.” Nomuro nods to Marie, who in turn grasps Kiku’s hand tightly. “This is going to hurt.” The engineer then grabs the shoulder piece again, this time lining it up and shoving it hard into the bleeding wound Kiku had. The magnetic receptors which he had put in before attracted the metallic ends of the wires, connecting them to Kiku’s nervous system as Nomuro then grabs a strange looking tool connected to a generator. Shoving it into the shoulder piece, electricity flows into the shoulder piece, into the wires, and floods Kiku’s nervous system. The confidence and half smiles seemed to vanish in the writhing convulsions of electricity rocking her body. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream as she pressed and writhed under Marie’s strong hand. The convulsions were terrifying and she couldn’t even scream to the world about how much it hurt. It was the worst kind of pain, and she could do nothing but suffer through it. For what felt like far too fucking long, Kiku was obliterated by the pain. She eventually felt the spasming stop though, and felt her chest heave for oxygen. She’d spent fuck-knows how long screaming out, which meant she’d spent that much time not breathing: and the whole experience had her exhausted. She opened one eye to look up at Marie, offering her best-worst impression of a smile: which looked painful, to be honest. “Did I do it, boss?” Nomuro looks at the shoulder, tapping it with a finger. He then taps the flesh just beside the metallic shoulder, and instinctively, her metal shoulder twitches slightly under her own movement. “I would say so.” He says with a small smile. “Here.” He pulls two extra pieces of the limb over, attaching them slowly. There wasn’t any pain this time as he continued to attach artificial nerves and started drilling screws in at certain points. The painful part of the operation was over. Now it was time for the monotonous portion. “Can she sit up?” Marie asks, Nomuro nods as he undoes the straps. One of the doctors looks like they’re about to protest, only to get shot down with a glare from Nomuro. “The girl has been through enough today. She should be allowed to sit comfortable.” Marie smiles softly as the door opens again, a man was bringing a tray of food in. “Good. She hasn’t eaten in two days. I figured she might be hungry after this ordeal.” There was even ice cream in a small bowl, it seemed Marie was really doting upon Kiku this day. Kiku was slow in moving, even though it seemed the two adults thought it the best plan. She was...scared? It felt weird to admit that she was a bit afraid of moving, but her entire body weight felt off kilter. She felt like she was going to fall over at any moment, with the added weight of the metal arm. Slowly though, Kiku shimmies her body up the bed, trying to get a bit more comfortable, and trying to work some of the stiffness out of her body. She’d been comatose for so long that her muscles ached at the very notion of movement, but still; with exclusively the use of her right hand, she managed to sit up. Looking at both the doctor and the Colonel, Kiku felt the overwhelming desire to move her left arm. She’d felt her body feel...something before, when the left arm moved. It felt more than heavy, it felt like it was there, in some fashion. She slowly tried lifting the steel limb, and found the motion was sluggish, and wanting. It was going to take a long ass time to get used to it, for sure. Then, the ice-cream was brought in, and Kiku temporarily forgot her worries in a moment of bright-eyed wonder. She had been shown the delight of Ice-cream less times than she had not-metal-fingers. “Holy crap, isn’t this stuff really expensive? Like… More-than-some-grunts-earn-in-a-week kind of expensive?” “A month.” Marie says with a small smile and a shrug. “There is usually ample amounts of it for patients of these kinds of operations, however. The sugar is good to help kickstart your system into self recovery.” The tray is placed on Kiku’s lap as Nomuro continues to work on the left limb. Aside from an occasional twitch, it was functioning well. It was finished up to the elbow already. “You work fast.” Marie says with a bit of surprise in her eyes. “I have to. If I didn’t, one of these emotionless jokers would take my place, whole bunker would fall apart in a week.” Nomuro says with a smug grin as the doctors collectively rolled their eyes and started to leave the room, or take notes. Seeing the ice cream on her lap, Kiku lifts her right hand to grab the spoon and tuck in. She makes it as far as grabbing the spoon before stopping herself, and then re-aligning it with the bowl, but on her left side. She glances over at Nomuro, seemingly hoping to get permission to actually attempt to use the metal appendage. The Asian doctor, however, shook his head: clearly reading her intent. She pouted, but then just grabbed the spoon with her functioning hand and actually dug in. The Ice-cream was heavenly as it touched her tongue, and she couldn’t help but let out an over-happy giggle. After a few more mouthfuls, she puts the spoon back in the bowl: pacing herself so as to not end up being sick. She looked at the Asian doctor, but decided to actually speak this time. Her face had a bit of a more serious note to it. “So doc, be honest with me: Does this arm make me any stronger? Will I be a better killer with this limb? Will I be more useful to the Bunker with this metal arm, or am I about the same as before?” “No, depends on how you use it, and about as useful as before. It has its advantages, you won’t feel pain with this limb, though it can be damaged like any other, and excessive stress will cause the motors to overheat and melt.” He taps the motor now hidden underneath a metal plate in her elbow. He was halfway done attaching her wrist. “The metal is non-magnetic at least, so don’t worry about that being a problem.” Marie grimaces as she remembers something foul. Nomuro notices and chuckles. “Don’t worry. The few times arms and legs were ripped out of their owners never resulted in anything permanent, but we had to ensure that didn’t happen again. Oh, and Kiku, this isn’t bulletproof. Don’t expect it to stop a bullet from penetrating your torso.” He finishes with her wrist, then delicately starts attaching her hand. “Keep eating, you heard Marie. The sugar will help.” Kiku listened to the explanations silently, as she slowly picked at a few more mouthfuls of Ice-cream.Her face didn’t take on the same smiling, giggling complexion it did before, as her mind filled up with a grim determination. She had guessed that this would be the case: that the arm wasn’t an ‘upgrade’ made sense, after all. Finishing off another third of the bowl of ice-cream, she put the spoon down again, before looking at Black, with a smile. Here was the woman who’d saved her once, and who cared for her still. Here was the closest thing Kiku had to family, and to a mother, even. “Doc, Boss: Are there any special mutations or something that I can get? I’m not going to be leaving the hospital any time soon, so now seems like a good time for an upgrade. I don't mind risky, or crazy, or experimental or whatever; I want to be better than last time: to be faster, and stronger, and stealthier, and more useful. I don’t want to end up like...this again.” She turned to the doctor, eyes full of a fiery determination. “I trust you two, and I don’t want to be useless ever again. I want to be useful to the bunker, and I want to make up to the people who saved me, and I want to kill any fucker who’d hurt me, or the Bunker, or...any of the people I care about. I don’t have many left, so I gotta protect them with my own two hands. Although I guess one of those hands would also be yours now, doc.” “Just...make sure you drug me up a bit more, doc. And uh...Boss?” She pauses slightly, as she glances over at Col.Black, the woman who cared so much for her and who didn’t even have to. “...Thanks. I owe you like...Way too much.”