Polekitty/not so secret origin part 2
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Two weeks later, Shands Children's Hospital, Gainesville Florida.
Sharon Evan paced back and forth in the ICU. She was a nurse at Tallahassee Memorial, so she was able to get in where most family members couldn't. Randy had called in the Leon County Sherri f's dept helicopter to airlift Rhonda to the emergency room after she was attacked several weeks back. She arrived in full cardiac arrest, it took 12 hours and teams of doctors before she was even stable enough to figure out just what was wrong. Which was the problem..they still didn't know. Two days later she had been transferred to Gainesville, while her wound's weren't life threatening, she'd probably have some scars on her arm but the other slashes weren't that deep, she stayed in a coma, unable to be roused. Worse, starting at her arm and now covering most of her body, her skin had turned from it's normal dark tan from her mixed heritage to an almost ebony black. They feared it was gangrene at first, yet discovered it was just the skin changing color, the tissue beneath was still healthy. She peered anxiously through the glass, Rhonda was the only occupant in the ICU ward at the moment, her room actually walled off with an airlock for infections cases. The creature that attacked her was also airlifted to the veterinary medical center at Florida State, the best they'd been able to determine is that it was a skunk at one time, mutated by exposure to radiation and chemicals in the crashed Rikti Craft.
That was one good thing that happened in this she thought, glancing at the tv. The publicity over her plight had prompted the governor to place several angry calls to Washington, there was footage of a crew from Eglin Air Force Base in hazmat suits finally removing the crashed wreckage. She sighed bitterly, angry. If they had done that before, then the worst her daughter would have to worry about now was getting a course of rabies shots. Glancing at the clock, she figured she'd wait a couple more hours before waking Randy up. The two of them had been taking turns, one of them always at the hospital, Jake staying with his cousins during all this. She looked back at the moon suited figures around her daughter, they were coming back out. Waiting impatiently, she stood outside the door for the decontamination room...hopefully they'd have some answer.
Dr Robert Antonelli was frustrated, He had no idea what was happening to his patient. Oh he knew What was...he just had no idea why, or what to do about it. He stripped off the protective suit, cleaning quickly then rotated through the airlock, time for the roughest part of his job.
“How's she doing Doctor?”
He sighed “Honestly Mrs Evans, I wish I could tell you. We went to change the bandages on her injuries this morning...they're totally healed. No scarring, nothing, as if she'd never been bitten. The skin pigment is definetly changing, we estimate another day or so until it's all over her. Pulse and respiration are normal, though the temperature is still a bit higher than we like. As for why she's in a coma..it may have something to do with this.” He stepped over to a monitor, sitting down in front of it he pulled up a file “This is imaging taken using the University's electron microscope. This is a normal human skin cell” he said, pulling up one image “and this is skin tissue from the creature that bit her.” Putting the images side by side, he put a third between them “this is from your daughter earlier this morning. The tech initially thought that there was an error in the SEM and had it re calibrated, but it turns out that her DNA is shifting, hourly it seems.”
Sharon stared at the images in shock “you mean she's mutating?”
“Mutations are usually internally triggered, this is an outside source, the radiation and the chemicals in the skunk's saliva acting on her.”
“Is there anything that can be done?”
Dr Antonelli shook his head “Not here, though I have been in consultation with someone up north who has an idea. We know it was Rikti chemicals, there is a doctor in Paragon City, Dr Steven Sheridan. He's an expert on the Rikti, if anyone can find a way to stabilize her, he probably can.”
Sharon nodded, pulling out her phone to call Randy “When do we leave?”
Six weeks later, Crey Children's hospital, Paragon City.
Rhonda was bored. BoredboredboredboredBORED! She had been locked in this hospital since she arrived a month and a half ago, not that she remembered any of that, or anything at all really between the time of the attack and when she woke up a week and a half ago. They'd been sticking her in this machine twice a day, something called the Genetic restabilzer, all she knew is it made her skin itch and gave her a migraine every time they turned it on. Good news was they were only going to do it once a day now, and in a week every other day. She tried not to think too much about that, and definetly tried not to look in a mirror..or at least did for the first couple of days. Once they moved her out of intensive care into a normal room, her roommate's appearance made her feel a lot less freakish than she was feeling, her skin totally black now, with soft fur covering most of it, hair turned ivory white, other than that everything was the same.
Raym on the other hand, was anything but normal looking. Bright yellow skin, purple hair, oh and a tail as well. She was a couple years older, but from the same area of the country pretty much, her father in the Navy as a diver at the base in Panama City Beach, in Paragon City to work on cleanup of sunk alien vessels and naval ships off the coast. The two girls had hit it off , Rhonda was pretty much friendly with everyone, and they were currently griping about the bane of modern medicine, hospital food.
“Ah swear” said Rhonda, pushing something that was almost but not quite unlike meatloaf with her fork “this has got to be the best way to lose weight ever invented. Ah'd kill for a cheeseburger right now, this stuff's about as tasty as dog crackers.”
Raym laughed “Now how would you know what those tasted like?”
“My bratty brother bet me his allowance that ah woudn't eat one. He was broke that weekend.” She snorted “Cant' stand that pest sometimes.”
“He didn't seem that bad when he stopped by. “ All of Rhonda's immediate family had come up with her, her parent's not wanting to inflict Jake on Randy's brother longer than they absolutely had to.
Rhonda snorted “He's got you fooled.” she pushed her plate away, not wanting any of the faux-meatloaf. “don't think ah want any of this tonight..maybe can raid the snack machine.”
“you know, there is a nice hamburger place not far from here, down at the south end of Steel Canyon, near the war walls.”
“how are we gonna get there? Ah don't think they're just gonna let us stroll out of here after all.”
Raym just grinned, slipping off her bed and pulling on her shoes quietly. As Rhonda did the same, she held a finger to her lips and spread her hands..there was a funny sensation, and then she vanished. Rhonda bit her lounge to keep from giving it away, glancing down at herself, she saw she was almost invisible too. Looking back up she noticed she could see the mutant girl faintly “they can't stop us if they can't see us, come on, this will wear off in a few minutes.”
Major Flanders technically was a chicken place, but like just about every fast food joint nowadays you could get pretty much anything there, though most of it was chicken based at least, or so they said. Rhonda didn't care, at this point she'd have eaten an opossum sandwich she was so hungry. The burgers were as good as advertised, though surprisingly to her none of the staff or the other patrons seemed to pay much attention to their weird appearance. Getting out of the hospital was easy, there was one tense moment where an orderly tried to push an empty bed into the seemingly empty elevator, but they managed to squeeze to the sides without being hit by it at least, then simply followed a nurse getting off shift out the front doors. The two of them sat outside in the twilight at a table out front of the rester aunt unwrapping their prizes.
“See, what'd I tell you? Woah, slow down!” Said Raym, as Rhonda took a huge bite out of her burger, washing it down with her milkshake
“Sorry, just that , well, it's weird, ah seem to be hungry all the time, but ah haven't put on any weight, in fact lost about 10 pounds. Dr Sheridan and Dr Majias thinks mah metabolism got accelerated or something as a side effect.”
“Must be nice, I've got to work out in order to keep from putting any weight on. Gonna try to get in the Naval Academy when I get out of high school, though if I make it won't have any problem keeping the weight in control.”
“Didn't realize they let open mutants into the service, no offense”
Raym shrugged, her tail swishing behind her. “well after losing so many in the war, they're not being picky to whoever wants to sign up. They're even letting women apply for special ops, as long as you can pull you're weight doesn't matter who or what you look like.”
“Eh, point. Mah dad was in the Army before my folks-” A scream broke her train of thought, as a glowing green eruption of energy appeared in the early evening sky atop a hill in the small park across from where they were eating “What tha Hell is that?”
The yellow skinned mutant frowned as she looked over, slurping the last of her shake “circle of Thorns. They're a cult that surfaces every now and then, into human sacrifice”
“Should we like call the cops or something?”
Shaking her head, Raym stood up “Nah. Cops around here aren't equipped to deal with things like them. Though the 'or something' on the other hand...” She repeated the gesture she made back in the hospital room, once again the two of them disappeared from view. “Stick close, we'll see how many there are, If its a lot I've got some friends I can call for help.” She made a different motion, and a bubble appeared around Rhonda, barely visible to her “that will help protect us if necessary.” she explained.
Rhonda nodded nervously, following Raym across the street and up the slope. Crouching down behind a tree she saw half a dozen or so men, at least she thought they were men, couldn't really tell from the robes they were wearing standing in a circle around a woman suspended in mid air, writhing in agony. One of them, wearing a very funny looking hat seemed to be their leader, looking up at the woman as she whimpered he sneered “you should feel honored!”
Raym 's tail twitched back and forth angrily as she watched, whispering to Rhonda “only six of them, piece of cake. Stay here and if anything goes wrong head for those police drones by the wall.” With that she crept a bit closer, gazing at the closest cultist, hand gesturing towards him while she whispered “You take back what you said about my sister”
The cultist blinked, turning suddenly towards the robed figure beside him “YOU TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT MY SISTER!” He bellowed as he attacked his companion with a wicked looking blade, sending him reeling. The others stopped in surprise at the sudden outburst, the ritual ruined. One stepped up to try to separate the two as Raym ran up unseen, raising her hands up in the air. Suddenly there was a huge flash of light, the cultists clutching their heads blinded, as four slightly see through hulking figures ran up under her direction, tearing into the would be sacrificers.
“what the heck?” asked Rhonda , the five cultists unconscious on the ground, their leader running over the top of the hill with the blue man group chasing him.
“They're not real, but if they hit you, you think it is...and if they hit you hard enough, you pass out like these goobers” she replied, the invisibility fading. “problem is they're sort of stupid and don't last very long” she said as they disappeared over the crest of the hill after the fleeing mage “I really hope there's nothing over there...”
There was a shout from over the crest of the ridge, and from the other side came the wounded mage...followed by a dozen of his companions..and two huge...things. Leathery wings, horns, and throwing fire towards the two girls on the hill.
“Awww Crap! Said Raym as she looked on with wide eyes “Whats a Behemoth doing here? Rhonda RUN!”
