[h1]Katrina Meyer[/h1]

[quote] "PROJECT WILLOW. RESEARCH IN THE NATURE OF DREAMS AND EMERGENCY OFFENSIVE MEASURE FOR THE ERADICATION OF GRIT COLONIES. ALPHA TESTING STAGES. HEADED BY DOCTOR ALPHONSE DERIATHAN. AUTHORIZED BY KING LUCIAN UNQUIET. NATURE OF WEAPON REDACTED. LOCATION UNKNOWN. CLASSIFICATION LEVEL SIXTEEN."[/quote]

[i]What the hell?![/i]

Kat waited patiently for the robot to continue, but it merely stated some dull platitude about how candy was bad for you. She tried to rack her brains- did she remember a Doctor Alphonse Deriathan, had she ever read anything by him… She couldn’t remember; the name rang no bells. [i]Probably not my kind of doctor.[/i]

Something to do with dreams. Dreams, and killing Grit- Project Willow was some kind of weapon; and it was one which had been developed over some time, if it was authorised by the old King. 

A loud screech echoed all the way up the stairwell, which was enough to distract almost everyone else- Liam, Maria and Vincent had all headed over to see what was up. Kat’s mind was too busy whirling to really focus on much else. Not that her thoughts got her much further, she just kept returning the same theme- [i]Location unknown; does that mean someone took it?[/i]

Shaking her head, Kat focused back on her situation. Liam had dumped a bag of bionic implants next to her, before running off down the stairs. They seemed to be talking to someone, but given there had been no follow-up scream Kat decided to assume everyone was alright for now.

Kneeling, Kat opened the bag. Liam had a decent eye; he’d managed to find some impressive hardware. Or, perhaps the real surprise was that such impressive hardware had been lying around in the first place. This stuff wasn’t for neutralising humans, retractable blades, gun arm attachments… this was for Grit.

Kat hadn’t augmented herself for some time- she’d worn quite a lot of cosmetic bionic implants when she was a teenager, which was the in thing for most engineering students. That stuff had fallen out of fashion by the time she went to college- it was slowly making its way back into the mainstream, though this time in a more biopunk theme.

Still, she had never really been one for intense body modification (asides from her sigils)… plus, there was no time for it even if she found something that had been useful. So she searched through the bag, looking for something which would be quick and non-intrusive.

“Aha!” She cried, eureka moment buzzing in her ears. Alongside the shoulder tendrils (which would require surgery to implant properly, were two strips of thin, lightweight aluminium, small oval power packs with connectors like spiders legs attached to each strip by thin wires. A pair of subdermal implants, each of which were capable of ten electrical charges at max capacity. The charges packed a real punch too- about as strong as an electrolaser.  Flicking the ‘test’ switches on each power pack, she smiled to feel the ovals vibrate twice in short succession- meaning they were both fully charged and working.

[i]There’s sterile equipment here, a surgery bot- I probably won’t get a chance like this again for some time. I need to be able to fight somehow.[/i]

Kat didn’t have a great knowledge of medical matters, but in her line of work she knew how to get an implant in or out of someone quickly. Running into the surgery room, Kat saw one of the jars of microbots in gel and grabbed it, as well as a scalpel and a large syringe.  Clicking her fingers, she gestured at the surgical robot to come into the surgery room with her.

“I need your help.”

She quickly explained the procedure that would be needed to perform the operation. Handing the scalpel to the bot, Kat worked quickly on her right arm to start with- rubbing some numbing gel on the area before beginning. The subdermal implants were best placed on the front of her forearms, and extended all the way up to her elbows, with the power pack and nerve connections on the underside of her wrist to catch her deep branch vein on either arm. The thin strips of aluminium were thin enough that her skin didn’t need to stretch over them- the power packs she kept external , bending the connectors so they dug into her skin and connected to her nerves. Looking at the robot, she laid her left forearm on the surgery table and nodded. The robot leaned over and made the first incision.

[i]Ow ow ow ow ow[/i]

The numbing gel wasn’t quite doing the trick, but she didn’t really have many other options at this point- anything more potent would both take too long and dull her speed and sharpness after surgery. She didn’t turn her head away as the bot peeled the upper layer of her skin with one hand, and carefully placed the implants beneath her skin. When she was happy the implants were in place, Kat pinched her skin together with her fingers and, filling the syringe with gel, squeezed the gel out over the incisions she’d made. The microbots got to work almost immediately; noticing the damaged skin and replicating new skin cells to plug the gap. 

After about thirty seconds, the thin cuts she had made were gone- you could see where they’d been, as the skin there was too new, too pale compared to the rest of her arm. But at least she wasn’t bleeding profusely. Grabbing a paper towel from the wall, Kat wiped off the gel and the two of them began work on the other arm. 

The whole procedure took about twenty minutes, leaving long, thin lines of new skin along both her forearms. Tentatively, she reached out and touched the new skin, feeling the hard strips of metal beneath. Kat suddenly felt quite a long way from home- alien in her own skin. [i]If you’d told me I’d be implanting myself this afternoon, I’d have laughed at you.[/i]

Looking around, she realised everyone had disappeared. Her arms felt odd, perhaps painful, but definitely uncomfortable. It’d be a while until she was used to the extra weight she’d added. Sliding her jacket back on (the powerpack was just visible above her cuffs, but only if you were looking closely) she walked out of the surgery room. Every had left- clearly gone to see what the shouting was about. Picking up the bag of implants (stashing some scalpels, the jar of microbots and syringe in her rucksack), Kat headed down the stairs to see what everyone else was making a fuss about.