Chapter Text
Medkit looked in the mirror and frowned. He reached a hand up to the crystals coating his horns and flinched at the sound of glass clacking together. Grabbing at the parts and ignoring the pain, he wondered what would happen if he broke his horns to match.
Last time he broke the crystals off, he was in so much pain he couldn’t think. However, the shards were almost near his head, and he wouldn’t let them get to his brain. The clicking noise of his hand meeting the crystal was all he could hear, besides the whirring noise of the fan in the ceiling of his bathroom.
He prepared for the pain, taking a deep breath before tightening his grip, another hand just below the point he wanted to break, and snapped.
It did not break the crystals this time, instead he snapped at his antlers. The velvet on his horns was where the most pain came from, as his body desperately tried to save a lost cause. Quite the metaphor for Medkit’s current mental state.
He fell onto the floor with a loud thud, screaming in misery. Blood poured out of the snapped point, a little below the point his crystals were. How ironic, that the same thing that could be used to save so many others was ripping him apart at the cellular level. As the pain subsided slightly, he gathered the shattered remains, wrapped them in a thin towel, and laid them on the counter. He could stock them in his gear later.
He wrapped the snapping point in bandages, and stood up. His horns matched now, although the tip of the left one was beginning to crystalize. Shedding season was in two months, all he had to do was carve off the crystals until the antlers fell off entirely, then have the process start all over again when they almost grow fully, still laced with velvet.
A biograft walks in, whirring with the crystals that powered it. “MASTER. ME AND 5484331 HEARD SCREAMING AND I WAS SENT TO CHECK. IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?”
“I’m fine.” he coughs out, careful to not disturb the bandages hiding the mutilations.
“OF COURSE … REMEMBER THAT ASKING FOR HELP IS OKAY.” It’s not. He has to do everything on his own. He’s the head scientist. He’s supposed to do everything himself, no help. He doesn’t need any. He’s fine.
He steps out into the lab from the attached bathroom, and heads to a different area. He has nothing he could be working on here, right now he had to wait for results. There was a project in the secret labs he had been assigned to, and now it was time to get the briefing.
The scanner to sign out as well as the staff exit, is in the break room, a place he never goes. It’s mostly for security staff. Flamethrower, 8-Bit Blaster, and Fireball Spell are standing around the barcode scanner in a circle, talking between themselves. They should have clocked out thirty minutes ago.
“I’m just gonna fireball it at this rate.” Fireball Spell pulls out their gear, and reads through the page.
“No, we can fix this.” Flamethrower isn’t wearing their uniform like the other two, and their gear isn’t strapped to their back like normal.
“We? Ya broke it. I’ve already clocked out, and want ta’ go home” 8-Bit shows his usual done with everything attitude, accentuated by his rough accent, from somewhere far to the north in a border town.
The three of them jump as Medkit approaches.
“Noth-nothing’s happening, sir! We’re just trying to head out… everything’s fine!”
“Fireball Spell and Flamethrowa’ broke da scanna’. Not sure how they even did dat.” Blaster shoves his hands in his pockets, and leaves, muttering in his native language, punctuated by a few borrowed Blackrockian curse words.
“So.” He turns away from the door, and towards the two remaining. “Explain.”
The two proceeded to talk over each other, pointing fingers.
“They scanned it first-”
“No, you did!”
“Lying bitch, go-!” The room starts getting hotter as the two fire-based Inphernals fight, now cussing at each other in Blackrockian.
“Stop, or you’re both fired.” The two jumped at the threatening of their job.
One of the biografts entered at that moment. Judging by the the crack on their horns, it was the same one that went to check on Medkit. Time Bomb had affectionately named it Chip, and it stuck. Inphernals will pack bond with anything.
“I HEARD AN ARGUMENT. 98547854 REQUESTED I CHECK IT OUT.” It stood there, observing the scenario as it waited for a response.
“Fireball Spell broke the scanner!”
“Lying bi-!”
“CAN’T YOU JUST TYPE YOUR ID IN THE KEYPAD?”
“There’s a keypad…?”
“IT IS USUALLY HIDDEN BEHIND THE SCREEN, UNPLUGGED.”
Medkit does not care for this. He has other places to be, but the three of them are blocking the door.
“Move.” He shoves Flamethrower to the side, who slams into Fireball Spell.
“HEY!”
“Dickhead!” He ignores their insults, and walks out into the snow.
He scans his ID on the pad in front of the door, ignoring the DO NOT ENTER signs. This is where he is meant to be. Two Inphernals greeted him at the door, Ship in a Bottle and Sledgehammer. They guided him deeper into the complex, snow hitting the concrete with a wet slapping sound.
“We captured a continuous annoyance, and discovered his extensive, self-done gear modifications. Your boss would like you to look over these, as well as is allowing you to pursue a study that you have been wanting for quite some time.”
The two stop at a door.
“We don’t have the clearance to go through here. We were just told to update you on the mission, and instinctively walked with you. Go on now.” Despite his lower status, Sledgehammer was always condescending to Medkit.
There were two others to receive him, a pair of twins, refugees from Thieve's Den. How they got into this position he didn’t know. Katana of the Ninth Moon and Bow of the Ninth Sun. Disowned children of a lost samurai, now in service to the Korblox.
They beckoned him to follow, still not fluent in Blackrockian.
“Here.”
The door was imposing and dramatic, with only a lab number on the door. Dissection Room 2. He had heard of these labs but was never required to be here.
The one strapped to the table, sedated, was someone Medkit was familiar with. Coil, the Crystal Criminal. Crimes included assault and battery, theft of government property, grand larceny, and destruction of government property.
His breathing was steady, and he was hooked up to a variety of machines. “Instructions are on the table.” He picked up the paper, ignoring the stickers reading ‘CLASSIFIED’ in bright red print, right above ‘2.0 PROJECT’.
The notes were all about Blackrock’s plan to create a super-soldier. Coil has already expressed extreme resilience to gear and body modifications, especially due to all of his being black market or home-done. It notes about things Medkit has not done or isn’t skilled enough to do, like brain surgery. He’s here for supervision and biomedical engineering. Increasing physical strength through muscle adaptations, and replacing one of his eyes with a robotic one.
The fluorescent lights buzzed above him, the only thing illuminating the room. There was seventeen pages of instructions and future experiments, plus a testing phase and harsh, severe training. He stared at Coil’s body, lying motionless on the operating table. The sedative was wearing off, and his hand was starting to twitch.
Coil was a very interesting case due to his gear. Originally Gravity Coil, he modified himself with the other two, Speed and Regeneration with the latter sped up with one of Medkit’s own crystals, likely stolen.
The first step was to be done before the sedative wears off. The crystals have an affect on those who use them, and one of the traitor’s would hypothetically mess with his nervous system and his gear, the extent unknown. Medkit doesn’t recognise half of the words in the explanation, but he trusts it. Blackrock is always correct.
It took only a moment to yank out his own crystal and replace it with the eight-pointed one of his former lab partner. Coil spasmed a little bit as it was removed and again when the new one was jammed in, but was held down by leather.
A few moments later, as Medkit is reading through the instructions, Coil jerks awake.
“HEY! WHAT THE FUCK?” He’s yelling, trying to break through the restraints. He fails, as his body is still attempting to both wake up from the sedation as well as deal with the magenta crystal. Medkit is still studying the effects of the Subspace crystals on the Inphernal body. Jamming one into a horn will surely produce interesting results.
He ignores Coil and mutters the motto of the country as he finishes reading the folder. “De profundis ad astra.” "From the depths to the stars.