Hey guys! I've managed to get this one up a lot faster than I thought I would. I keep feeling that this one is a little shorter than usual, but from checking my word count I don't think it actually is. I found this one a little harder to write, so hopefully it came out ok.
Massive thanks to varjotin and PrincessShotgun for reviewing the previous chapter! You are both very kind.
Enjoy!
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Not a single word was exchanged as Hana followed Cooler through the shiny metal hallways. She'd been granted the briefest of moments to say goodbye to Zee before Cooler had lost what little of his patience remained and hurried her along.
They had since boarded onto a much larger ship than the one they had previously been on, and were making their way towards the medical wing to deal with Hana's numerous injuries.
The strange, part cyborg, part humanoid Dr. Jaeger walked along side her, glancing over at her every now and then before scribbling notes she couldn't see in his notepad. Part of her found it slightly irritating, but for the most part she was too tired to care.
From what she could gather, Dr. Jaeger was actually one of King Colds scientists, but had been sent with Hana and Cooler to 'oversee her recovery'. Whatever the hell that meant. She figured he must be here to report back to Cold.
The ship seemed to be heavily occupied with various beings and as they passed a few of them in the corridors, all of them cleared the way as soon as quickly as they could the second they saw Cooler. They all were wearing very similar armour to what she had already seen on King Colds ship, tight purple bodysuits, white boots and gloves topped off with yellow chest armour. To Hana they all looked absolutely ridiculous.
Before she knew it Hana was sat on a cold metal table in the hospital wing as Dr. Jaeger fussed around gathering up various supplies. Cooler stood tall in front of her, arms folded across his chest and glaring at her.
"Just a few moments sir and the healing tank will be fully op-"
"No tank." Cooler interrupted sternly, not taking his eyes off of Hana.
"Sir? She'll heal far faster in the tank than-" Dr. Jaeger was interrupted again when Cooler whacked his tail on the ground in an irritated fashion.
"What a dick head" Hana thought to herself as she glared back up at him, refusing to be the first of the two to break eye contact.
The Dr. seemed to do as instructed and instead gathered up a fresh set of supplies, fussing around in front of her. Hana gasped and broke of eye contact with Cooler to look down when Dr. Jaeger stuck a needle in her arm, drawing up a blood into a small vial.
"Standard procedure" the Dr. explained with a gentle wave of his hand in response to Hana's glare now being focused on him instead. "We need a sample to put on record, check your general health, DNA mapping, all the usual"
Hana was about to make a comment when she gasped again as a clear gel was applied directly to the burn on her shoulder, causing a burning but at the same time freezing sensation on contact with the blistered skin. Slapping Jaeger's hand away when he went to apply the same to her chest area, opting to do it herself with a wince. She was sure she saw the corner of Coolers mouth twitch upwards in amusement at her action, but she was too pissed off and in too much pain to care much for what he thought.
Dr. Jaeger seemed to busy himself with inserting the blood sample into his computer and tapping away, bringing up what appeared to be the standard profile of an extrasensory on one screen while a long list of code scrolled on the other.
Hana glanced over at the screen, an image depicting the appearance of a standard sensory, this one a female. Her had hair far whiter than hers, and she lacked the darkening Hana had towards her roots, but aside from that they were extremely similar. Same small frame, same red eyes.
She noticed the Dr. frown at the screen, but he didn't say anything before returning to picking up various other medical supplies. After a little while of prodding, poking and wrapping up various wounds Dr. Jaeger concluded his treatment, handing Hana a small pot of the clear gel that had been used to treat her burns. "You'll only need to apply this a few more times, and you should be fully healed. Just rest for a few days, or that skin will open back up. Come back in a day or so I can check on your progress."
Hana nodded to indicate her understanding and stepped down to the floor to have her elbow immediately grasped by the Icejin. She pulled her arm away, glancing up as he glared down at her. "Seriously, where the fuck do you think I'm gonna go?" she spat sarcastically, drawing another glare from the purple being.
Although he did seem to accept her comment as he beckoned for her to follow him through the large corridors of the ship. Moving to another level that Hana surmised must be towards the top levels of the vessel.
"You will be staying on my floor so I can keep an eye on you" Cooler advised over his shoulder as he walked "and I don't expect you to cause me any more inconvenience than you already have." His voice was stern, but Hana wasn't particularly interested in listening as they finally paused outside of one of the metal doors.
The door opened up into the ceiling and Cooler gestured for Hana to go inside, stepping in right behind her. The room was far larger than anything she had lived in previously, with what appeared to be a door to a walk in wardrobe to her right, a bathroom to her left and a large bed ahead of her. The room was sparsely decorated with a small desk area and sofa being the only additional furniture to her bed.
Hana continued into the room, gazing around before her eyes settled on a pile of folded clothing on the bed. She pulled a face when she plucked at the folded purple fabric, knowing what it must be.
"That is your uniform for you to wear" Cooler explained from the doorway, arms crossed over his chest again.
"I have to wear this?... Like, all the time?" Hana queried as her eyes moved to the chest armour. It was hideous.
"Yes Hana, you have to wear it all of the time." Cooler snapped as he then pointed a hand towards the small desk. "There's a map of the ship over there. If I hear you've been causing any trouble, they'll be hell to pay".
"Yeah yeah," Hana waved a hand as she continued to glare down at the ugly uniform.
She knew she was pushing her luck now. Cooler was angry enough at her presence as it was, and she was fully aware that her attitude wasn't helping. Truth be told, at this point she didn't care. As long as nothing happened to Zee, she would toe whatever line she had to but she wasn't going to be some kind of cowardly slave while she was under Coolers supervision.
"You can have a few days to recover, and then your training starts. Don't cause me any trouble before then" Cooler clearly wanted the last word as he growled out his sentence before exiting the room, the door sliding shut behind him with a whoosh of air.
Hana sighed running a hand through her hair and collapsed back on the bed, finding it to be extremely comfortable. She laid on the bed with her legs hanging over the end, staring up at the ceiling, mulling over the events of the last 24 or so hours. If she ever saw Bogart again she'd rip his head off, but she had the feeling that she wouldn't be returning to her home planet any time soon.
Then there was poor Jungo. She didn't really know him, so whilst she wasn't all that emotionally invested, she was sad that things had ended how they had. From what she had known of him, he was just an innocent kid dragged into a life he didn't deserve. Although she knew similar would have been probably been said about her years ago.
No longer able to cope with how grimy she felt Hana sat up and made her way to her bathroom, catching a glance of herself in the mirror and cringing slightly. She was absolutely covered in dust and dried blood. The burn on her chest and shoulder had settled as an angry red blotch on her skin, and she was glad that whatever had been put on them seemed to be doing its job.
Dried blood blood matted her hair, which was barely recognisable with all the the debris and dirt in it. Anyone that didn't know any better could have mistaken her for being dark haired.
Sighing Hana peeled off what remained of her clothes discarding them on the floor and got into the large shower, turning on the hot tap and stepping out of the way of the stream of water. Putting her hand under it to check the temperature she was pleasantly surprised to find that it not only spurted out of the shower head with a reasonable amount of pressure, but it was actually hot.
Hana stared at the floor as the warm water washed over her, watching the various colours mix and wash away down the plug hole before finally washing all of the dirt and grime from her body.
When she finally emerged from the bathroom she felt a million times better, but the past days events had certainly caught up with her as she let herself collapse on the bed again. The room was pleasantly warm, and she was enjoying the fact that she didn't have to hide away under the covers from the biting cold. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad being here after all.
If she could make this work, she would be living a much better life than she'd ever achieve back on her home planet. Plus King Cold had eluded to the fact that she wouldn't be permanently separated from Zee. If they were on a squad together, things really wouldn't be that different than before. Just better.
She sighed and rolled onto her side, hugging her knees up towards her chest as her eyes drifted shut.
A few hours later, Hana growled when she rolled over for what felt like the thousandth time. Despite her exhaustion, she just couldn't sleep. As much as it was lovely to lay on, her bed was just too squishy compared to what she was used to, and she just couldn't sleep on it. She huffed, throwing her arms down at her sides as she glared at the ceiling.
This was just a stupid problem to have. She couldn't sleep in her old bed because it was shit, and now she couldn't sleep in the new one because it was too good. With a sigh she got up, grabbing a pillow and her blanket and dragged them over the the small sofa, setting up a makeshift bed there instead and settling in.
Laying on her side facing into the room, she was relieved when she finally felt herself drifting to sleep.