"The Doc has signed off on this right? I don't like that there's no-one else here. I would't put it past you to be trying to take me out while no-one else is looking."
"Don't tempt me, dog. Now quit bitching and start a shift. I do not have all day." Dr Kovalenko lifted a slender finger off the intercom button and returned her attention to her notes.
The researcher was stood behind a thick barrier of re-enforced glass in order to observe and collate data. Whilst funding was not boundless in these times, and the installation of a locked-down test chamber within the HQ was quite a big outgoing; she had pointed out to others within the network that could could never afford to be too cautious when you were dealing with cryptid species. And, certainly, she felt better in this case that there was going to be several inches of near unbreakable material between her and that damned animal.
Operative Norrevinter, stood inside the white walls of the test chamber, colourful sensor wires trailing from underneath the set of scrubs she was wearing, was feeling a little less re-assured by her position. The tall, intimidating norwegian woman regarded the researcher at the viewing window with undisguised contempt and adjusted the shapeless garments awkwardly. They were, of course, a bit of a gesture in futility. The beast was only going to tear free of them within seconds, and possibly eat half of the fabric in the process. Oren wouldn't allow anything , other than herself and her shifting focus, in from outside of research out of concern it might influence the readings. However, it was embarrassing enough to have been assigned to a session of being the bitch doctor's lab rat, but she was not doing without some form of clothing.
"Are you recording?" Kora asked, pushing a strand of wavy, ginger hair out of her face to scrutinise what the biologist was doing. She trusted that soulless leech about as far as she could throw her, but orders were orders.
...though on reflection, she could probably throw her pretty far..
"Yes. Get on with it."
The vampress' cold grey eyes flickered from her annotations to a monitor set to one side that was gathering data. Pulse rate, brainwave patterns, temperature, electrical and magnetic impulses, that kind of thing. All the sorts of things you might want to know about a transforming werewolf.
Back in the chamber itself, the nordic woman reached below the neckline of the top and pulled out a simple pewter mjolnir, a few etchings in the scarred metal. Her large hand closed around the small metallic object, and gripped tightly, gripped until the edges started to dig into the skin on her palm. She then started to mutter something under her breath. Oren would have asked her to speak up for the recording...but who exactly spoke old norse? Well, aside from the backward Game of Thrones-esque lycanthropes that seemed to dwell around the scandinavian coastlines. There wasn't a lot of data to be gathered anyway. As far as her research had concluded, the actual words of a focus was not important, but the state of mind it brought about, in order to force a change, a werewolf needed to-
Her thought were cut off by screams. Screaming and the sickening organic crunching of snapping bones. She looked back to the viewing window to see Kora bent double, arms wrapped round her ribs as they shattered themselves. The noise was deafening, and was not going to let up until about the thirty second mark, when the vocal chords ripped in half. Oren muted the audio output on her end. She didn't need that distraction.
The observation room in the research section was soundproofed. The test chamber, less so. Oren would not be totally surprised if the screaming was not filtering out into the rest of the building.
The HQ was an older building. Once it had been a house to some wealth eccentric supposedly, then a boarding school, then an ageing relic out far away from anything of note. Then it had been purchased by their anonymous benefactor.. So far, it had proved a worthy enough location. The house was large and sprawling, enough main complex and outbuildings to house the staff members, and set far enough away from anything, amid thick woodland, so they didn't get many unwanted guests.
The age of the building though did mean that things such as sound did suffer from time to time, and the people eating breakfast in the cafeteria that morning might have been put off their food somewhat.
By that point, Kora had dropped to her hands and knees, limbs beginning to lengthen in sudden, spasmodic spurts of growth. Her facial bones had split and elongated, pulling together into some twisted snout that was cultivating a set of pointed white fangs. The pulse on the monitors was racing and body temperature had spiked. Fur had begun to spread over her skin as the scrubs began to rip with the rapid expanse of the chest and shoulders.
At the two minute mark the pulse would stutter and momentarily fail before returning faster, more rapid and forceful.
After about the five minute mark, Oren stopped the timer. Change was complete.
Int he middle of the test chamber crouched a hulking monstrosity covered in thick, reddish fur. It stood on two large, paw-like feet, legs bent like the hind quarters of an animal, but its hunched torso carrying some hint of a human-like spinal structure. Its arms were long, wiry, ending in twisted hand-paws with great yellowing claws. The face was all that of some kind of monstrous canid, perfectly formed set of carnivore teeth on display at it watched her, snarling, planting its feet to move.
"You're going to try to kill me again aren't you?" Oren asked, wearily as she ticked something off on her list. The vampress took a small, but deliberate step away from the glass moments before the full weight of the werewolf flung itself against the barrier, snarling, clawing, leaving streaks of foamy drool against the formerly clear surface.
She was going to have to clean that.
"I can't tell, Norrevinter, if you just have no self control, or whether you know exactly what you're doing and just do this to piss me off....because you can't think it scares me." Dr Kovalenko remarked contemptuously as she went to check the readings.
No, it didn't scare her. Well, not any more. The fact that the first time had gotten a flinch out of her was not really worth mentioning as far as she was concerned. Though funnily enough since then the Kora-wolf had tried it every time, and the Kora-person had denied remembering doing it at all with the expression of a child caught with their hands in a cookie jar.
Oren sighed as she tried to collate the data and ignore the rattling of the observation window as the beast inside tore at it. She was going to be so irritated if that got scratched.
What was that quote?
Never work with children or animals.
"Don't tempt me, dog. Now quit bitching and start a shift. I do not have all day." Dr Kovalenko lifted a slender finger off the intercom button and returned her attention to her notes.
The researcher was stood behind a thick barrier of re-enforced glass in order to observe and collate data. Whilst funding was not boundless in these times, and the installation of a locked-down test chamber within the HQ was quite a big outgoing; she had pointed out to others within the network that could could never afford to be too cautious when you were dealing with cryptid species. And, certainly, she felt better in this case that there was going to be several inches of near unbreakable material between her and that damned animal.
Operative Norrevinter, stood inside the white walls of the test chamber, colourful sensor wires trailing from underneath the set of scrubs she was wearing, was feeling a little less re-assured by her position. The tall, intimidating norwegian woman regarded the researcher at the viewing window with undisguised contempt and adjusted the shapeless garments awkwardly. They were, of course, a bit of a gesture in futility. The beast was only going to tear free of them within seconds, and possibly eat half of the fabric in the process. Oren wouldn't allow anything , other than herself and her shifting focus, in from outside of research out of concern it might influence the readings. However, it was embarrassing enough to have been assigned to a session of being the bitch doctor's lab rat, but she was not doing without some form of clothing.
"Are you recording?" Kora asked, pushing a strand of wavy, ginger hair out of her face to scrutinise what the biologist was doing. She trusted that soulless leech about as far as she could throw her, but orders were orders.
...though on reflection, she could probably throw her pretty far..
"Yes. Get on with it."
The vampress' cold grey eyes flickered from her annotations to a monitor set to one side that was gathering data. Pulse rate, brainwave patterns, temperature, electrical and magnetic impulses, that kind of thing. All the sorts of things you might want to know about a transforming werewolf.
Back in the chamber itself, the nordic woman reached below the neckline of the top and pulled out a simple pewter mjolnir, a few etchings in the scarred metal. Her large hand closed around the small metallic object, and gripped tightly, gripped until the edges started to dig into the skin on her palm. She then started to mutter something under her breath. Oren would have asked her to speak up for the recording...but who exactly spoke old norse? Well, aside from the backward Game of Thrones-esque lycanthropes that seemed to dwell around the scandinavian coastlines. There wasn't a lot of data to be gathered anyway. As far as her research had concluded, the actual words of a focus was not important, but the state of mind it brought about, in order to force a change, a werewolf needed to-
Her thought were cut off by screams. Screaming and the sickening organic crunching of snapping bones. She looked back to the viewing window to see Kora bent double, arms wrapped round her ribs as they shattered themselves. The noise was deafening, and was not going to let up until about the thirty second mark, when the vocal chords ripped in half. Oren muted the audio output on her end. She didn't need that distraction.
The observation room in the research section was soundproofed. The test chamber, less so. Oren would not be totally surprised if the screaming was not filtering out into the rest of the building.
The HQ was an older building. Once it had been a house to some wealth eccentric supposedly, then a boarding school, then an ageing relic out far away from anything of note. Then it had been purchased by their anonymous benefactor.. So far, it had proved a worthy enough location. The house was large and sprawling, enough main complex and outbuildings to house the staff members, and set far enough away from anything, amid thick woodland, so they didn't get many unwanted guests.
The age of the building though did mean that things such as sound did suffer from time to time, and the people eating breakfast in the cafeteria that morning might have been put off their food somewhat.
By that point, Kora had dropped to her hands and knees, limbs beginning to lengthen in sudden, spasmodic spurts of growth. Her facial bones had split and elongated, pulling together into some twisted snout that was cultivating a set of pointed white fangs. The pulse on the monitors was racing and body temperature had spiked. Fur had begun to spread over her skin as the scrubs began to rip with the rapid expanse of the chest and shoulders.
At the two minute mark the pulse would stutter and momentarily fail before returning faster, more rapid and forceful.
After about the five minute mark, Oren stopped the timer. Change was complete.
Int he middle of the test chamber crouched a hulking monstrosity covered in thick, reddish fur. It stood on two large, paw-like feet, legs bent like the hind quarters of an animal, but its hunched torso carrying some hint of a human-like spinal structure. Its arms were long, wiry, ending in twisted hand-paws with great yellowing claws. The face was all that of some kind of monstrous canid, perfectly formed set of carnivore teeth on display at it watched her, snarling, planting its feet to move.
"You're going to try to kill me again aren't you?" Oren asked, wearily as she ticked something off on her list. The vampress took a small, but deliberate step away from the glass moments before the full weight of the werewolf flung itself against the barrier, snarling, clawing, leaving streaks of foamy drool against the formerly clear surface.
She was going to have to clean that.
"I can't tell, Norrevinter, if you just have no self control, or whether you know exactly what you're doing and just do this to piss me off....because you can't think it scares me." Dr Kovalenko remarked contemptuously as she went to check the readings.
No, it didn't scare her. Well, not any more. The fact that the first time had gotten a flinch out of her was not really worth mentioning as far as she was concerned. Though funnily enough since then the Kora-wolf had tried it every time, and the Kora-person had denied remembering doing it at all with the expression of a child caught with their hands in a cookie jar.
Oren sighed as she tried to collate the data and ignore the rattling of the observation window as the beast inside tore at it. She was going to be so irritated if that got scratched.
What was that quote?
Never work with children or animals.
