Mei had made good headway in her new baby, or rather the newest design variant of the last several attempts made with it. It didn't look like much, simply a small round object with a few very flexible looking parts all around it. The pinkette looking it over, she shook her head.
"It's done, but how do I test it? This isn't exactly humane, it wouldn't work on a mannequin, and I'm not familiar enough with the human body to know either..." Hatsume sighed, aside from the fact this went against every last bit of honor that most support gear inventors had, it made her feel inadequate and almost like she was committing a crime, then again she was doing exactly that, more or less, even if it was against her will.
The 1-H member had already been through the explosive testing phase of this new gadget, given the fact the only possible outcomes of its use on Levono would be death or success, and she hated those options. Trying to help someone control a quirk, or attempting to improve someone's effectiveness or add versatility were very different things, especially when compared to this.
Mei knew that everything she made, everything she gave to fellow schoolmates, could very well be used as an instrument of murder... She never put much time into that train of thought, the fact it could happen was something everyone knew, but literally anything these days can be used to kill someone if used correctly.
Didn't put the stress off of her anymore, though as she was deep in her thought, the pinkette suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder that startled her into nearly dropping the new invention on the floor, barely catching it.
"Are you okay? You looked like me for a minute there." Jezel commented, having come down to check on Hatsume once again, like she did routinely.
"Yeah yeah, I think it's done." Mei exhaled, not even attempting to pretend otherwise. Not like she could lie or hide the invention that she had been staring at for probably a lot longer than admittedly desired. The plant quirk user took it from the gloved hands of the inventor, looking it over, having 0 clue how to use it and being rather confused.
"You work fast... How do we use it?" Jezel tilted her head, looking puzzled by the deceptive simplicity. The pink haired teenager pushed aside several items from the desk, looking down at her dirtied form, only now feeling the exhaustion from the constant work setting in. Hatsume normally had infinite energy when it came to creating her 'super cute babies,' but guessed that the lack of actively wanting to be involved in this matter was not helping her motivation, or maybe it was a lack of energy drinks doing it to her.
"Just put it on his chest where his heart is, it'll go from there... If it works, then it should act as an extra helper for the heart, taking stress off of it, and it will also replace all of the veins in his body with major and minor synthetic variants, aside from his head." Mei elaborated on how the device worked, she noticed the slightly older than her girl blink at that.
"Huh, just like what Levono did to fix me when my quirk was killing me, but on a bigger scale." The girl with plant bulbs all on her forearms looked it over like a fascinating toy, eager with it yet glad to see it was done, in a shockingly short amount of time.
"Difference is, I'm not a veteran doctor. Sure, I know some stuff about quirk control or treatment, but this is so far out of my field that it isn't even funny." Mei informed the kidnapper, trying to tone down expectations, especially given without a means to test it, she doubted even the Levono siblings would risk their father's life on it.
"It's made, it turns on, it doesn't blow up, yet we have no way to test it. If it works, it'll work, if it doesn't, then it'll definitely kill the person it gets used on." Hatsume finished, laying out the underlying facts about the device, she hadn't even bothered giving her new baby a name after all of this. It didn't feel like a creation the 1-H girl had made out of love or inspiration, just forced circumstances, knowing that alone made her very upset with herself.
"Well, that won't be an issue, I know just the way to test it." Jezel hummed, Mei wondered what that meant, she was more than open to hearing ideas though. That was when Hatsume saw the plant quirk user beginning to step towards the two comatose individuals, she stood up nervously.
"W-What are you doing?" The zoom quirk user hesitantly attempted to query, seeing the insomniac look over her shoulder, gazing tiredly at the newest of their kidnapping victims.
"Well, you said we need a way to test it. Sure, both of them graduated from U.A., one became an actual doctor, the other just became another dime a dozen marketing expert." Jezel smiled, looking quite eager nonetheless. That was when Hatsume realized what the blonde was about to place it on the 2nd kidnapping victim's chest.
"Are you crazy?!" Was all Jezel heard before suddenly being tackled by Mei, getting her away from the unconscious individual. The pinkette might hate how the sleeping pair were used as constant reminders of her fate if she failed to serve any purpose, but Hatsume wasn't going to stand by and watch someone be used as a guinea pig, especially with her own creation. Mei might have a tendency to blow people up in her workshop, however that was with consent and full knowledge of what they were testing.
"What are you doing?" The girl with plant bulbs on her forearms calmly queried, her right wrist being pinned against the wall by Mei. The support gear inventor was trying to keep the kidnapper held against the wall, while at the same time attempting to grab the new gadget out from their hand.
"You can't use it on them! I only told you the risks to begin with because I was hoping you might be able to come up with an idea I hadn't thought of!" Mei declared; this situation had gotten out of control far faster than she could have anticipated. The 1-H student tried to get ahold of the gadget once again, ignoring the constant head pain that was ringing out in her skull currently again.
"Only one of them really has any value in this world, it would be for the greater good to save a medical professional's life, wouldn't it?" Jezel rhetorically responded, Hatsume could not tell if she was being messed with or not, the pinkette honestly hoped she was right now.
"You can't do it! If it doesn't work, it will kill them! That's not something you can EVER go back on! Even if you aren't heroes, I know you guys aren't villains either!" Mei tried to reason with the blonde, swearing to herself that she was just impersonating Izuku at this point, he really did rub off on the pink haired teen too easily. Mei's hold on their wrist grew even tighter, Jezel blinked and stared at her, after a moment, she sighed.
"You U.A. students really have a way with words... We'll think of another way to test it, okay?" The plant quirk user relucted, much to the 1-H student's overwhelming relief as she finally let her go.
"Thank you... I'm sorry for attacking you." Mei breathed a sigh of relief, the blonde-haired girl looked down at the device yet again.
"I think I already have a better idea of how we can test it." Jezel said, with a gentle smile gracing her features, that expression that Hatsume had seen a dozen times these last few days but was relaxing to.
"Really? What is it?" The zoom quirk user queried, before the conversation could go any further the top scoring support course member suddenly felt the device being placed against her left forearm by Jezel, with the button being pressed as it did so.
"What are yo- Gahh!" Mei suddenly gasped in shock, the feeling of sharp metal piercing her flesh and beginning to dig into her arm started, almost instantly her left arm went limp, much to her horror. The genius held onto her limb tightly, feeling her teeth grinding against one another as she tried to resist the sheer agony that could only be describe as her muscles being tore apart due to poor placement of the device, she could feel it moving underneath her flesh.
"Testing it, of course. I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing these are bad results?" Jezel giggled, her calmness despite the whimpers of pain that came from the hostage was unnerving. Mei fell to her knees, doing her best to resist screaming despite the fact it felt like someone was drilling four holes into her arm at the same time, she didn't know what to do. She didn't program an emergency stop button on the invention, Hatsume had designed it to run independently either, and breaking it might make things far worse before she even had a chance to detach it.
It was torture.
"Jezel!" They heard from the stairs that exited the basement, it was Brenna calling his sister. Mei wanted to call for help, in some vague hope he was more sensible than the blonde plant quirk user. The pain was too much for her to even raise her voice anymore, she was curled up on the ground, clutching her limb as the machine kept digging around, trying to do the task it was made for, the misplacement was making it rip apart the inside of Mei's arm.
"Yes Brenna?" Jezel stepped away from Mei with a content smile on her face, leaving her lying there.
"We've got people nearing here, somehow they got past Lesk. We need to deal with them!" Brenna exclaimed, with that said, Jezel gave a nod, seeming to awaken quite fast to that, heading up the stairs and leaving with her brother. Mei was now alone, unable to tell what was worse, the pain in her head or the pain in her arm.
"D-Did they say people are here...? I-Is it s-someone to save us?" Hatsume mentally asked herself, looking at her arm and seeing some blood had begun to spill out from one of the gadgets insertion points. Mei tried to stand up, to get back onto her feet, she was able to get to leaning against the wall.
"Maybe n-now is my ch-chance..." Mei gasped; each breath she took just sent another shockwave of agony out through her arm. The pain was getting bad enough that she could actively ignore her own broken skull now.
Blood ran down her arm, all the way to her hand and fingertips, before it dribbled onto the floor, leaving varying sized droplets in a vague trail. The pinkette tried to make her way towards the staircase, after a few steps another wave of pain shot out with a new intensity, it caused her to scream in shock before falling forward onto her chest, barely catching herself. All Mei could do was lay there, it felt like her arm was going to be torn off at any second at this rate.
"Someone... Help me... Please!"