"Nic, I need you to see two cases today, being that the initial staff has seemingly decided to take a break from their duties..." Nic remembered Dr. Sorensen saying as he walked to the first Pokegirl's room.
"Can't believe he insists on putting faith in those guys, even after they ditch'im like this..." Nic said in a gruff under-his-breath whisper. He then went through what Dr. Sorensen had explained to him about these two...
"The first's name is Marie, and it's a rather odd case... She's a Gun Valkyrie but she's afraid of her own chain guns, moreover the noise that they make when actually firing... She also has this odd quirk for being a fan of the Edo league's pop culture icons By which I mean she is an Otaku... We refer to her sometimes as 'Pocky,' due to it being her favorite treat, but I digress, I surmise her fear stems from post-traumatic stress disorder, as she was a survivor of a small scuffle post-sukebe's revenge war, as well as serving time during said conflict." Nic heard him say in his head.
"The last one is a Joltina that can't seem to acquire a voltage above that of a standard tazer round, and she's quite sensitive about it... She also likes to be the first to have a taming session with any new staff, so I'd omit the fact about Fio and you somewhat cheating her out of it..." Dr. Sorensen had warned.
"Alright, room 34-L, Low threat case wing..." Nic mumbled as he opened the door with his key-card and walked into an anime lover's paradise. Every inch of the walls were covered in J-Pop material, and there was the sound of a Pre-Sukebe Korean group playing on a small stereo on her bed stand. She looked up in shock with a look of fright for her things, fearing immediately that Nic was there to relieve her of her belongings.
"OUT! LIKE RIGHT NOW!" She shrieked in a teenager-esque voice.
"And what're ya gonna do about it? Shoot me?" Nic taunted as she sat up from laying down on her stomach and summoned her guns, leveling them at his face. Undaunted, he went up to one of them and pushed the barrels up against his forehead with the words,
"Pull... I dare you..." He said with an unamused look and tone. He noticed her jaw clench up for a fraction of a second, indicating what he knew already.
"I-I'll d-d-do i-it... I-I sw-ear-r...!" She stammered, obviously panicking.
"The what're you waiting for? Do it..." He said, finally calling he bluff as she dismissed them and began crying in more anger than sadness.
"Fine, go ahead and take all my stuff, I hate being here and I hate you! You're a big meanie!" She said in that same teenage manner, almost as though she was one.
"I'm not here to take your stuff, I'm here on Dr. Sorensen's orders to keep you company, Unless you really want me to leave..." He said, starting to turn around to the door.
"NO! WAIT...! Uhm, I mean... You don't wanna stay?" She said, obviously having been left to herself for a while and desperate for company.
"I guess I could, but I was told you had to make some form of progress today, the Dr.'s sayin' you've kinda slacked off on that..." He said as her eyes went to that same frightened manner from just a few minutes ago.
"W-wh-what... Kind of progress?" She said, trying not to stammer.
"Well, he wants 200 continuous rounds fired, and he says it needs to happen today at the firing range I recently cooked up for others that might need to use'em." He explained.
"B-b-bu-... 200? That's... That's like, over 100!" She said, hoping to weasel out of testing again.
"Yes it is, but that's not the point here... Unless of course you don't ant that new album out by Dizzy Pandas..." He said with a grin.
"Wha-...? You mean... Dizzy Pandas' 'Dizzy on the floor' album? That doesn't come out for another month!" She said in disbelief.
"If you wanna buy it in stores, yeah it doesn't come out till then, but they've got a special download option on their website, good for only another day, and I just happen to have the only Internet access here for another 300 miles around." He said, immediately grabbing her interest. She stared at him, weighing her options for another minute before finally crumbling and saying,
"Fine... It's just 200 rounds, right? It'll be over quick at least, right?" She said more to herself than him for reassurance.
"Thattagirl... C'mon, I got it already set up." He said as he took her hand and led her out the door after closing it behind them and locking it to keep any thieves at bay.
...
As they walked into the newly remodeled room underground in the basement catacombs that was once an empty room with no real use other than storage, Marie saw an impressive bit of work that had been lovingly put into the designs. There was not only the standard targets that moved back and forth, but ones that would move in erratic patterns all around for better practice on moving targets.
"I take it you like what you see?" Nic asked her seeing the look of pure awe on her face.
"This is... Wow..." She said, with only a slightly nervous look on her face now. They walked over to a computer console for the controls of the targets and Nic began typing commands in.
"So, uhm... What're you going to have them do?" She said, starting to get interested, mainly due to the new music she might soon get.
"I'm just gonna have a simple back-and-forth target, but you've gotta fire those rounds before it gets too close, alright?" He stated, causing her to stare at him in shock.
"Well... It'll be done quickly, right...?" She said.
"Depends on how quickly you can spin'em up and get to shootin', sweetheart..." Nic said in a lighthearted manner. She gritted her teeth as she stared at the target; a standard dummy target on which was drawn an angry squiggled face. She immediately busted out laughing at the sight of it alone, causing Nic to stare at it himself.
"Who the heck drew...? Never mind, let's get started..." He commented, wondering who had been down there but him...
...
Dr. Sorensen had been working on the finances which, despite the heavy upgrades, indicated that they were still in the red, according to both He and Maddy's math. Maddy was the resident March Hare, there because she was unwanted by anyone who didn't want to deal with her love of tea and other caffeine-enriched drinks as it made her spout more annoying nonsense rhymes than normal. Dr. Sorensen had found her true line of work in the form of his math and calculation problems for issues pertaining to the slowly accruing debt he was now facing. He sat back in his chair and stared up at the fluorescent lights in the ceiling, covering his face with his hands to block it out for a moment of peace and quiet. That soon ended abruptly however when the sound of continuous gunfire could be heard from downstairs, 2 floors down to be exact.
"Good god, is that coming from the basement?" Dr. Sorensen cried out as he noticed Maddy had disappeared. He then looked under his desk and saw her cowering, twitchy from the sudden loud noise.
"Don't worry Maddy, I'll see what's going on, you just stay here, alright? Athena, if you would follow me please, we'll get to the bottom of this..." He said as a smooth-skinned figure arose from underneath a pile of clothes in the corner. Her eyes seemed to have no emotion, no spark to them as they stared at him lifelessly. It followed right after him as they took the stairs, down to where more of the gunfire could be heard.
"Athena, ready your armour, this could be rough... Defend yourself as you see necessary..." He said in a slightly shaky voice as he kicked open the door for his Doll, Athena, to enter. Suddenly Athena was sprayed by a hail of gunfire that immediately stopped with the words,
"OMYGAWD I'M SO SORRY!" Suddenly Marie came bounding out of the room and Dr. Sorensen breathed a sigh of half-relief, half-frustration.
"What in God's name is going on down here? I was working on financial reports and the next thing I know I hear... Nic, What's going on...?" He said as Nic poked his head out the door sheepishly to see Athena getting up and clearing the dust off of her body from the wall she got slammed against. She was sporting some type of living armour that covered the vital areas of her body as well.
"Is that.. a Doll? What's the armour for? Waaaiit... A Guyver?" Nic said, staring in disbelief. Suddenly Dr. Sorensen got the first look of pure anger on his face.
"She is none of your concern... Just leave her alone, she doesn't need anyone's help but mine!" He screamed in a growl, the veins bulging on his neck. Suddenly he stopped, catching himself from going any further.
"I... Apologize... It's just, first we're in the red in terms of debt and bills, then this and I think I may have to check myself in here soon..." He said, straining to keep himself from crying. Nic could tell one thing about him; He needed some sleep as there were huge bags under his eyes that had been slowly growing the past few days.
"Look, why don't you go and get some rest, you deserve it... Besides you can only do so much like you are now..." Nic said in a concerned tone.
"I'm fine... I just need to finish the last bit of-" He started to say before he walked no more than 2 feet and dropped, passed out on the floor. Nic sighed and said,
"Marie, can you get the poor guy back to his room? He desperately needs to consider his own health on top of all of the patients here..." He said shaking his head in disbelief at what had just occurred.
"Alright, but wait... How many rounds did I fire?" She asked anxiously as Nic showed the counter which read,
"327, That sound right? Even though the last hundred or so landed on this poor kid, you still lit'em up and then some..." He said rather impressed himself.
"You mean... I can get the album?" She squealed excitedly. Even though it was enough to shatter someone's eardrums, the good doctor didn't even twitch in his sleep.
"Let's just get'im back in his bed first, okay? Then I'll let you download it..." He explained calmly.
"But what about Athena? She doesn't listen to anyone but Dr. Sorensen..." She said, motioning to the Guyver-bonded Doll who seemed to be staring straight ahead blankly. Nic snapped his fingers in front of her face, trying to evoke a response, but it didn't work.
"Geez, she must have some serious input issues..." He thought to himself. As they began walking Dr. Sorensen back to his office, she immediately began following them all the way there. Upon entering she covered herself back up with the clothing and various items from before, completely concealing herself as before.
"He musta told her to stay here when he's not around... I was wonderin' what those odd motion signals were comin' from in here..." He commented as Marie laid the doctor down on his cot he had in his office.
"Aww... He's snoring..." Said Marie in a voice one would normally use with a child. Nic just facepalmed, suddenly remembering the other patient he had to get to that day.
"Aw, shit... I've gotta deal with another case, so let's get you that album and back to your room..." Said Nic, leaving Sorensen to snore the rest of the day away.