Before I start, I just wanna say stuff to my reviewer(s).
to Crystal Remnant: Thank you so much for the reviews. Yush, I loove makin' 009 suffer... we'd be pretty good friends. But still, thanks for the advice! You rock!
Roll the fanfiction!
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009 slowly awoke in the same room, but this time, it was much darker. He assumed that it was nighttime. Getting a close look at the walls, he found miscellaneous medical objects. The beep of a HRM reminded him of the aftermath of the battle with 0010. He soon realized that he was in the infirmary in the Dolphin. He looked around, and could see a figure coming forward. He recognized the figure as it came closer.
"00...8?" He said, finding it hard to speak. He eyed a needle that 008 was holding, and grew nervous.
"Here, this'll only take a second." 008 responded, holding a BD vacutaining needle (A/N: Vacutaining needle is used to collect blood for blood tests. Wikipedia teaches me a lot of stuff.).
"Why... are we back in... the ship...?" 009 asked uneasily.
"After you passed out, you started having seizures. We needed to get you back in the ship's medical bay so we can care for you better. " 008 explained.
009's heart dropped. Now he was having seizures? Things were getting serious.
"Now, you're gonna feel a little prick here in a second..."
008 injected the needle carefully into 009's forearm, and then wrapped a tourniquet around where the needle was held. 009 cringed as he felt the needle pierce through his skin. After a few minutes, the vacutaining needle had a good-sized sample.
"H-hey..." 009 started, trying his best to speak.
"Something wrong?" 008 asked, transferring the blood from a vacutainer to a small vial.
"Has... anyone found... what's... wrong with me... yet?" 009 asked, struggling to get his voice to sound normal.
"Not yet... but this blood sample oughta give the doctor an idea of what might be wrong." 008 responded hopefully.
"Hey... are there any painkillers?" 009 asked. "My stomach hurts..."
008 gave him an apologetic look. "The Doc says that we should probably avoid painkillers until he's found out. Just try and hang in there until we find out, allright?"
009 nodded. He looked up at the ceiling, not knowing if he could 'hang in there' much longer.
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The recreational room of the Dolphin was quiet. Everyone was still a bit shook up from the ordeal the night before.
003 sat in a soft chair, trying to get the awful scene of 009 being racked by seizures out of her mind. How could this all have happened so quickly? One moment he was fine, and the next, she wasn't even sure if he could make it through the night. She felt like she was going to cry at any given moment.
Then, the door to the recreational room opened. Dr. Gilmore walked out slowly, as if hesitating to say something. The look on his face was uneasy and apprehensive, as if the news he carried was deadly. He cleared his throat.
"I have some news." He announced uncomfortably..
Man, if you wanted to get those 7 other people's attention in a flash, that's all you had to do. Everyone looked up at him. Silence fell to where you could hear a pin drop and echo.
Dr. Gilmore cleared his throat again, preparing himself to give out the unfortunate news. "From the blood test, I've examined that 009's disease is not contagious, so you are free to visit him."
"Can we visit him now?" 003 asked.
"Yeah, it seems like forever since we last saw him." 006 added.
"It's been 2 days. Idiot." 002 muttered.
"Hey, are you trying to make some sort of fool of me for mssing a friend!?" 006 fumed.
"You wanna go!?" 002 shot back, cracking his knuckles as if he was getting ready to fight.
"Yeah, I'm feeling good enough to break that bird nose of yours in half!"
"What's that, fat-ass? Y'mind saying that to my FACE!?"
"Both of you shut up or I'm taking my gun hand and whacking all of your teeth out." 004 said threateningly. "Please, go on Dr. Gilmore."
"Okay, then... the unfortunate thing is that nothing that I found added up." Dr. Gilmore said grimly. Silence fell over the room and everyone inside it.
"Are you sure?" 007 asked, breaking the silence. Dr Gilmore nodded.
"Is there anything else that you can do, doctor?" 004 inquired with worry in his tone.
Dr. Gilmore sighed. "I was afraid it would come to this. There's one way that will classify what exactly is wrong with him."
"Well, what is it already?" 002 asked, annoyance in his tone. Then, he paled. "It's not... it's not-"
"I'm afraid it is." Dr. Gilmore replied to 002.
"What are you talking about?" 003 asked worriedly. If the procedure's bad enough to make 002 lose his face color, then it must be serious. This alarmed her.
"It's much like that of a spinal tap, but since 009 is a cyborg, it will have many differences from an ordinary spinal." Dr. Gilmore explained. "One will have to be preformed to collect his human cerebrospinal fluid, and the other will have to be preformed for the machine cerebrospinal fluid. The needle, which is at least 6 inches long, will have to be 12 inches long for both portions of the test."
"He's the best model among us." 005 spoke up. "He should be able to handle something like this."
"That's true, but it's extremely painful. There's a 75 chance that 009 could die." Dr. Gilmore said uneasily. Everyone was in shock.
"Is there anything else you can do?" 003 asked, wanting anything but the chance of 009 dying.
"There are other options, but they are far too risky to do without this one having been done first." The doctor replied grimly. "We have no choice, other than to let him deteriorate."
"It sounds to me like you're saying that one way or the other, he's going to die." 008 brought up.
"But there's still that 25 chance, right?" 007 asked.
"Well, yeah, but one way or the other, 25 is pretty flimsy." 002 replied. "Can't you just do something like give him some medicine or something to see if this clears up?"
"That's the problem." Dr. Gilmore countered. "Cyborgs are designed to be able to intake any time of medication. but 009 was specially designed to be able to have the utmost best immune system, and they decided to simply cut off the ability of enhanced medications for him. With simple ones like Tylenol or Advil and such, he can handle those just fine. But with much more complicated ones like what I'd have to use, it'd damage his system even more, to the point in which he can no longer heal."
"Well... that really puts him in a corner." 006 said. "We don't have a choice, do we?"
"I'm afraid not..." Dr. Gilmore sighed. "This is the only way. We've no other choice."
TBC
