Chapter Three: Medical Science

Jayce was the first one to enter the room. He found Viktor sitting inside his invention, screaming as sparks and lightening erupted from his body. The mask had fallen down, revealing the tormented face of the Machine Herald. Jayce's first impulse was to shut the machine down. But as soon as he cut the power, the machine reacted different than expected: instead of shutting down it seemed to drain the energy inside Viktor's body now. A strong hand grabbed Jayce from behind and pulled him down. Singed pulled up his blast shield in time to block the disastrous explosion that followed after. The mad chemist had enough experience with explosions to know that Viktor might be still alive. He pulled a transmission orb out of his outfit. The orb was green with a red "Z" engraved to it.

"How far are you from the outer mansion? Ah, yes. Rush over and tell the doctor to prepare for operating. We follow short after.", Singed put the magical artifact down and started giving orders: "Warwick, remove every kind of exterior augment and YOU", he looked at Jayce, "Tell me exactly what you know about this machine."

The werewolf was surprisingly skilled at removing the outer parts of Viktor's mechanized body. One might forget this, but the wolf was a scientist. Singed's old teacher to be exact. Jayce had barely started explaining when the wolfman dragged the body towards Singed. One could not tell if the man was still alive.

"We'll talk while running!", ordered the chemist as he threw the unconscious Viktor over his shoulder. After drinking one of his potions he also grabbed the protesting Jayce and threw him over his other shoulder. Then he started to run at terrifying speed. Warwick followed them on all fours.

Despite his looks Singed might be one of the strongest humanoid champions in the league: He could run easily on the Summoner's Rift even with his heavy equipment. Without his gas-tank and the big shield he was even faster, so carrying two grown men did not hinder him at all. The mansion he was running to was usually a ten to fifteen minute walk away, but with Singed's speed they would reach the mansion in less than five minutes.

Jayce was rather confused: "Where are you running to? We have medical staff here..."

"We have a specialist", answered the chemist, "I don't think that your medics have any idea how to deal with this."

"Specialist? You can't mean that brute of a..."

"He's the best we have, so you better learn to respect him... whatever, just don't get in the way."

The mansion came in sight. Jayce knew that several champions lived here since the east-building collapsed, but he did not know who. From what he had heard the building was not separated by nations or allegiances. A certain big green monster already expected them and held open the door. "Dining room, second on the right!", said Zac as they passed him. Singed did not even bother opening the second door and waltzed right through it. Dr. Mundo already expected them.

The purple giant had taken on something that looked like a really torn up working attire. Marks of blood, fire and claws were all over the white clothing. He picked the Machine Herald from the chemists shoulders and laid him down on the table. After performing some checks he exclaimed: "Mundo says he still alive!"

In relief Singed just dropped Jayce on the floor and asked the giant: "Can you fix him?"

"Again? Mundo think that this will be more tricky than last time. But Mundo already has great idea... but his will be little... experiment."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Singed did not really care what happened to Viktor as long as he stayed alive. Also if the doctor experimented... this could be interesting. The chemist realized that another person was in the room: Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper. With a slightly bored expression he sat in one corner, feeding the Poro on his head pieces of blood. Strangely the Poro wore a miniature version of his red coat. Singed had heard the rumors of the hemomancer teaching one of the most forbidden and dangerous magics to a Poro, but he had though of all this as a bad joke.

"Ah, don't mind him, he is Mundo's medical assistant", said Mundo. Vladimir stood up and moved towards the table, looking at the Machine Herald with a mix of disgust and fascination. While the bloodmage stared at the scientist, Dr. Mundo explained his plan: "Mundo has new formula for strong regeneration but for that all machine parts need to be removed from the body. Might kill him though... well, then Mundo has ANOTHER new formula for revival. And his this kills him too... well, we still have necromancy. And if that fails... Mundo think about that when needed."

Jayce could not believe the doctor's words. In all his years as a scientist he had never seen any of his colleagues operating like that!

"Are you using a highly experimental method on a dying patient?", he said, "This is not safe! You might kill him with that!"

"Pff, safe science", as Singed said these words everyone in this room let out an evil snicker. Apart from Vladimir, who was still scanning Viktor's blood, everyone stared at Jayce.

"This is why Piltover will never surpass Zaun", sneered the chemist, "Safety does not give results! It does not give data! That guy here is dying anyway, so it doesn't matter if the method is safe as long as it works. Move it, we start the operation now!"

Jayce tried to protest but Mundo just shoved him away. From here on the doctor was in command:
"Mundo say remove all metal that is not connected with brain. Assistant keep him alive! Singed, Warwick, hold him in place!" Vladimir just nodded and used his magic on Viktor.

In terror Jayce had to watch has Mundo pulled up his cleaver and rammed it right into the patients legs. The one leg was fully mechanical, so it only caused sparks to flow around. The other leg was not mechanized as the first, so Jayce could hear bones breaking as the cleaver separated the flesh. "Ooops, meh, Mundo will grow him a new one later.", was the doctor's only comment.

Strangely almost no blood came from the wounds – Vladimir tried his best to keep the blood loss under control.

Mundo repeated the process with the scientist's right arm and left hand. He did not dare to touch the third arm on Viktor's back because it was directly connected with his spine and his nervous system. Then the doctor ripped up his clothing. Most parts of his abdomen and chest had been replaced by parts of black metal that stood in contrast to his white skin. The doctor pulled out a syringe and shot an unidentified purple liquid into Viktor's body. Almost immediately it showed effect: the man seemed to wake up. He screamed in pain and tried to stand up, but Warwick and Singed immediately restrained him.

Mundo had to give him his formula now, or he would kill him when he removed the internal modifications. He used his cleaver to cut open the scientist. This was a race against time now: he had to remove all the unnatural parts inside the body before the real regeneration process kicked in. With inhuman strenght Mundo forced the already healing wound open and used his giant hands to rip out everything that seemed not to belong there. There was not much time, so he caused quite a lot of collateral damage: Blood, flesh, metal and organ parts dropped on the floor as the stench of the opened body spread inside the room. Vladimir looked really concentrated, as if even he had trouble preserving the Viktor's live now.

Mundo made another cut on the mans chest and continued his disgusting work. It looked like a monster that ripped random parts out of it's prey. After something that felt like an eternity he pulled out his hands of the patient's body. He had made it barely in time, because the mans wounds started to heal at an amazing speed.

He just took a second to rip out all the metal that formed the patients jaw line, tearing out all implants that had been in his face during the process. All this was too disgusting for Jayce to watch, but a morbid fascination forced him to continue looking at the sight of Dr. Mundo operating. Judging from the way the giant moved it was not the first time he worked like this.

Warwick restrained the patient, who moved around in wild frenzy, while Singed collected the metal parts on the floor. He would analyze them later on. This was the perfect chance to get some insight on the chemical processes that Viktor had used.

Everyone leaned back and watched as the patient's limbs grew back. It seemed like the important part of the operation was over. "Wait.", said the purple giant suddenly, "Mundo is missing his watch..."

They all took some time to realize that this was the doctor's attempt to make a joke.

"AAAAAAARGH!"

An inhuman scream turned their attention back to Viktor. His body had healed up, but now it looked like he was burning from the inside: His skin had turned red while steam erupted from it. The regeneration process was completed, but the formula was too strong for Viktor's body. His organism was about to self-destruct from an overload of energy.

Mundo pulled out various syringes and rammed them all into the patient's body, but none of them seemed to work.

"It would be easier to just kill him and revive him short after...", growled Singed who had to help Warwick with holding down Viktor. The substance Mundo had given him made him a lot stronger – too strong for the werewolf alone. Everyone stared at Singed.

"Mundo think this might work..."

He gave Vladimir a certain order.

Only a second later Viktor's heart stopped beating.

His furious movement ceased and he dropped down to the table like a lifeless puppet. Everyone looked at the doctor, waiting for the next step. The purple giant seemed to count the seconds that passed. Suddenly he rose his hand and slammed it on Viktor's chest. Combined with Vladimir's hemomancy he managed to set the heart beating again, but this time there was no strange side effects from the strange substances he had pumped inside the patients body. Viktor looked so peaceful now, just as if he was sleeping. Mundo picked him up with ease and gave him to Warwick. First he wanted to give him to Singed, but the chemist was busy separating the metal parts he collected from certain biological attachments.

And Jayce looked like he was in no condition to carry someone. The inventor was pale as he stumbled out of the room. The impressions of the operation were more than he could take. He had seen a man getting cut into pieces, getting eviscerated and killed, just to see him getting revived again. Suddenly he felt really dizzy. He must have started hallucinating, because suddenly Pantheon stood in front of him, wearing a pink apron. "LOVE THE BAKER" was written on it. He did not know that the warrior resided in this mansion, so he ignored the disturbing image and stumbled towards the exit.

Before he hit the floor he was stopped by a strange green substance. Zac picked him up, not sure what he was supposed to do with the now mostly unconscious Jayce. He just waited until Singed and Warwick left the building and dropped the Defender of Tomorrow on Singed's shoulder. The chemist did not even notice while he was busy talking with Warwick about some chemical stuff. Zac used this chance to bounce away. He did not like working with the scientists, but this time had been a emergency.

Well, whatever.

The another life was saved and his work was done here. He moved towards the institute with the intention of picking Riven up, who had a match on the Summoner's Rift currently. There was something he had to ask her...

"Hmm, I should get a suit..."

Viktor felt really strange as he woke up. He remembered that the machine overloaded and exploded, but nothing after that. Also his body felt kind of... unusual. So light. Really strange.

He requested a damage report from his cybernetic brain augment, but there was no response. Only after several attempts he received an answer:

dfspribhixbhrortg5cxg64rtgh4trhgrstg4xwgg84dfxthtz8h

Files Corrupted – System Damaged

Restoring Files, please stand by.

Wow. That overload must have been stronger than estimated if it could damage his machine-brain. With his eyes still closed he waited for the restoring program to finish its work.

System operational again. Performing scan:

Location: Bed. Somewhere.

Time: Night. Maybe.

Status of all systems: no response

No response? But that was impossible! He could still feel his body, his nervous system was intact, so his brain should be able to access his body. Also his localization and time systems must have taken a major hit. Slightly annoyed he switched the cyberbrain into manual mode and performed the scan himself. But the answers did confuse him:

Error 404, augment not found.

Error 404, implant not found.

Error 404, secondary systems not found.

More and more error reports came in, but suddenly the operational system of the mechanical brain broke down again. The last he could see with his mind was a blue wall written full of white text that made no sense at all.

Even when he concentrated he could not feel the machinery that resided in his body.

Apart from that his body felt really weird... his third hand itched annoyingly and... wait. It itched?

Viktor's eyes shot up. He was back in Jayce's apartment. The light was on, but there was no one else in the room. From the window he could only see the dark night sky. Viktor moved his third arm in front of his face to inspect it. It was still made of metal, no doubt. But strange veins spread through it like blood vessels. When he touched it he could feel his pulse running through the no longer artificial arm. Also he could feel his own touch on the metal.

Just what in the world had happened to him?

He tried to stand up, but he had difficulties with moving his body. Every movement felt heavy, as if he performed it for the first time in his live. Something was definitely not right here. Viktor pulled up his clothing, but where he expected augments and machinery, there was just weak flesh.

Panic surged in his mind. The fact that he was even able to experience panic worried him even more. Usually he had augments that controlled his output of hormones and limited these unnecessary things called "emotions", but even these implants seemed to be missing now.

He was not used to his own emotions, so fear overwhelmed him. Terrified Viktor cowered in one corner of the bed, shivering uncontrollably. Panic consumed all his reason. He did barely notice that someone had entered the room. As Jayce approached him, he tried to move away and keep a distance. He tried to speak, but even his voice felt unfamiliar to use without the machinery of his body.

Only a whisper escaped from his mouth: "What have you done to me?"