Victoria "Tori" Weylin
Gotham General Hospital
June 24th, 2011
I opened my eyes to a stark white room, and I honestly thought it was all a dream. That Sylvia came to save me, that her mother brought me to the heroes, that Sylvia let herself get shot and stabbed, to make sure we got away. I felt my heart sink in my chest as I sat up, looking at the white scrubs. All I could think of was how they were probably doing more experiments. They stopped when they captured Sylvia back, but they started again when they left her in the space station. I started to get almost as skinny as she did, but I remembered how she wasn't hungry, so I always made sure to eat. Even if I couldn't keep it down for long. I nearly fell off the bed when the door opened. It was Sylvie in a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown and was hooked up to an IV. That red headed boy was pushing her. I remembered her mumbling in her sleep, about some boy named Wally. But whenever I asked her who he was when she was awake, she couldn't remember. But one night, she woke up suddenly, telling me how she dreamed of a boy with fiery red hair and freckles on his cheeks, with green eyes that made her think of evergreen trees. This was him, and this isn't a dream.
"Good morning, Tori." She smiled. I could see the emerald color of her eyes that had long since passed the last time I saw her in that room. Her raven hair was shiny once again, and as long as ever. It fell past her shoulders like a waterfall in the night.
"Where are we?" I asked, not completely sure. The night before had been a blur, and I fell asleep on what they had called the Bioship.
"We're in Gotham City. Since I had to go into some minor surgery to fix up some of my insides, they brought you here." She explained. I noticed she was scratching the skin around her IV port.
"So… S-so there were no experiments? I just crashed here at the hospital?" I asked, absolutely nervous. But I took a few deep breathes once I started hearing the water piped groaning. I couldn't lose control. I can't be destructive.
"No experiments. The only thing even remotely close are going to be minimally invasive tests to ensure you're okay." Sylvia told me as Wally reached down and locked the wheelchair in place. He grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to her, sitting down and holding her hand.
"So the testing will be exactly what she said, to make sure you're okay. The thing is, when we got Sylvia back, she wasn't exactly herself. First it was trying to get her to gain the weight back-" I cut him off.
"Which I see she hasn't done-" But Sylvia snapped at me.
"I did, let him finish." She got defensive. I started to get the feeling that something very serious was happening.
"So we got her to gain the weight, but then she was having little mental breaks and moments, until finally she had one last trigger. She nearly killed on of her hero teammates, which is saying something because this teammate in particular is half Kryptonian. What happened was, one of the major components used to condition her, was a very potent form of the Fear Toxin. It was in her spinal fluid and manifested a major role in her hypothalamus. The treatment is to give doses of nanobots in capsules designed by the Atom. The weight problem started because the nanobots are fueled by her caloric intake… Speaking of which…" I watched as Wally dug around in his pocket and handed one of those big 100 colossal protein bars. The look on Sylvia's face was priceless.
"I freaking love the peanut butter pretzel ones." She grinned as she tore into the bar, motioning with her other hand for Wally to continue.
"So, because the nanobots are fueled by caloric intake, whenever she took a new dose of nanobots, they would stop off at her stomach and fat deposits to refuel before working to filter out the toxins from her system. We found that it because increasingly harsh on her body when her hypothalamus began to produce the Fear Toxin to replace what was missing in her body chemistry. That was when the drug Narcan was introduced to her system, to shut down the receptors in her brain from receiving to toxin while the nanobots fix her nervous system and revert her body chemistry to its state before she was taken by Savage." He seemed to be finished with the explanation. Quickly scratching the top of his head, slightly messing up his red hair.
"So are you telling me all this because you think I might have had the same alteration in my biochemistry?" I asked, nervously rubbing my hands, slowly with a lot of pressure. I couldn't help it. Sylvia noticed my nerves and decided to speak up, pausing her snack.
"That's what the tests are going to tell us. We know how to handle it, so it'll be easier for you. If you do have the fear toxin in your system, I'll be with you every step of the way. So for you, we'll maintain a low stress environment as you gain your weight back before we start the treatment. Then when the treatment starts, it'll be hard to keep food down at first, but then your body will acclimate. The hard part after acclimation is ensuring that you're eating enough. If I don't eat enough, I'm prone to fainting and malnutrition. But you have nothing to worry about. It's still an if, and we know what we're doing. I got tested again this morning, and I'm in my last stretch of my treatment. Only a week or two left depending on how quickly my hypothalamus ceases in producing the toxin." She finished, but a buzzing sound started. Wally pulled a phone out of his pocket and handed it to Sylvia.
"It's yours." He told her, and she pressed the answer button.
"Hello?" She sat there for a moment, listening, then put her hand over it. "Alfred is here with my things since I have to spend another day here." She looked to Wally. "Can you get maybe one or two of the girls in here to stay with her while I'm gone? And make sure one of them is M'gann?" She asked him before hanging up the phone and setting it on her lap. "Don't worry, Tori, these girls are really nice." She told me, almost motherly, before reaching down, unlocking her wheelchair, and pushing herself out of the room, Wally holding the door.
"I'll be right back with some people." He assured me before heading out himself. The door closed and I got up, walking to the window, not completely sure if it was okay for me to be exposing myself. But I quickly soon learned that it was probably not okay. When I looked down at the parking lot, there was media amassing. I stepped away from the window and turned on the television that was set up in my hospital room. I immediately saw the famed Cat Grant reporting outside the hospital. I sat on the bed and watched in confusion.
"Good Morning, we are live outside Gotham General Hospital with breaking news. The Weylin Case has been reopened. Authorities are baffled by the sudden discovery of the teenager, especially after she was pronounced dead at the underground lab that was exposed by one of the girls who escaped and ran for the street in Central City. The now sixteen year old was recovered late last night in New Orleans. We have shocking footage of the teenager and her rescuers being chased through the French Quarter that you are seeing now. The two rescuers are in feline costumes, and it has not been confirmed, but speculators say the Gotham hero, Wildcat, teamed up with the thief, Catwoman." As I watched, I saw traffic camera feed showing last night's chase and Sylvia ripping people out of the vehicle. But then the scene changed to me standing in the window just moments ago, side by side with a photo of me from before I was taken. "Here you see the rescued teenager, looking safe and well. We are awaiting more information-" Cat Grant paused for a moment. "We have just been informed that Victoria's family has just landed in Gotham, and are on their way here no-" I shot off the television and looked at the floor. My family. There was a fog that lifted, and I suddenly started to remember names. I felt panic well up in my chest. I've been gone for four years and just about four months… and they thought I was dead all this time. But I was distracted from my panic when the door opened, and just about four girls entered, instead of the two that were promised.
"Hi. You must be Victoria." A raven haired girl that reminded me a lot of Sylvia but with cyan colored eyes, walked over to me and offered her hand. I shook it with caution.
"You can call me Tori." I told her, looking around at the other girls.
"Well, Tori, I'm Zatanna." The girl told me, smiling so innocently, just like Sylvia did before they wore her down. She wore a lavender colored tank top and white pants with matching white shoes. I saw her elbow the blonde next to her.
"I'm Artemis." She gave me a warm smile. She had long, blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail. But the blonde was confusing me. This girl was half asian, with grey eyes that almost looked black. She wore a white crop top with a brown jacket and black jeans tucked into knee high boots. She was taller than Sylvia, this Zatanna girl, and I. Even taller was the girl next to her.
"I'm M'gann." The pale girl smiled, her brick red hair and eyes shining in the light above us. She wore a pink headband in her hair and white shirt under a pink short sleeved cropped sweater with a matching pink shirt with knee high socks and dark blue oxfords. Something was bothering me about her. I got this weird vibe in the back of my mind, and it seemed to be coming from her. I winced and her eyes seemed to widen. "Sorry, I'm a telepath. Sylvia told me to make sure you didn't have any programming from Savage like she did." Now it all made sense.
"You're name is M'gann and you're a telepath? You sound a bit like the Martian girl that Savage and Queen Bee complained about when Psimon was put out of commission." The room's silence seemed to turn awkward.
"As a matter of fact…" M'gann slowly morphed, her skin turning green right before my eyes. But just as quickly as she turned green, she turned caucasian again, just to keep her cover. The room was silent for a moment before the last girl stepped forward.
"Well, I'm Raquel. It's nice to meet you." This girl smirked, shaking my hand like Zatanna did. She was african american with short, spiky black hair. She wore a green tank top with a pair of blue jeans and knee high boots similar to Artemis's. She had a long black knit sweater in her hands.
"So…" I didn't exactly know what to say to these strangers now that the introductions were over. "Do you guys go to school with Sylvia?" I asked, since they all looked about the same age, except M'gann, who looked like she was a senior in highschool.
"Well, I do." Artemis chimed in. "But we all know each other from our team." She explained. I couldn't help but smile.
"You mean the Team? Honestly I like anyone who can irritate Vandal on a regular basis." I told them, and they all began to laugh. As worried as I was, about the testing, my family, the Light, and the annoying hord of news channels outside, I was starting to feel safe. Well, as safe as a girl who escaped and immortal could be.