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"Right, so Ripple," the doctor began. Doctor Lillian Rivers was a chubby woman with long blonde hair and a very British accent. "I'm afraid I have no idea what your physical condition is."
"... dude, that's what you said an hour ago," Alex complained. There'd been an ultrasound in between there, how had no light been shed on the matter?
"... yes, well, it did show us why your heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs were so anomalous." She looked down nervously at her clipboard.
Alex leaned forward in the chair, pulling the medical gown back down for more coverage - why were these always so damn thin? "Don't keep me in suspense, dramatic pauses are not medically necessary."
"I'm trying to think of how to phrase this tactfully," Doctor Rivers explained. "And… quite honestly, I'm coming up dry, so I'm just going to say it. Your trigger was much more metamorphic than previously believed."
Alex frowned. "So, we're talking internal mutations? I look normal but inside I'm reptilian or something?" Not exactly great news, but it didn't feel weird, she wasn't constantly confronted with Her Now Inhuman Nature, and no one was gonna react to weird shit that needed a medical examination to reveal. As vial-induced mutations went, it was kinda winning the lottery, and she had basically been expecting some - the Ripple vial was specifically called out as unstable and she'd drunk it in the middle of an emotional breakdown.
"... honestly your internal structures bear a closer resemblance to certain kinds of jellyfish and coral, more than anything else."
"... the fuck?" Alex poked herself, as if expecting increased squishiness at the revelation she was part jellyfish. The only increased squishiness was in her chest and she was pretty sure that wasn't jelly-related. (No she had not tested that in public. To be honest she hadn't tested that at all)
"Straight-up, we can't tell which of your organs is which. Appearance and location have completely shifted." She handed over an ultrasound printout, but Alex couldn't read those even when they depicted normal human biology. "To summarize, your skeleton appears to be coral, your blood is extremely clouded and hard to image through, and from what we can tell of your organs, they're all radially symmetric, either a polyp moored to your skeleton, or a bell shape like a jellyfish."
Alex just sort of blinked. "... huh." Honestly, it was hard to be disturbed by the abstract. Especially when the interior of the human body was already a gross wonderland of juices and microbes no one wanted to look at.
"Glad you're taking it well, but medically speaking, we very much need to rapidly assemble a diagnostic of what is going on in there. Metamorphic triggers generally experience few spontaneous health problems, but parahumans generally adopt rough lifestyles that get them injured frequently. And I'm basically going to have to figure out how to treat you from first principles for when you do that."
Alex didn't even bother protesting. She'd got into fights long before she'd drank the vial. "I'm hoping that doesn't involve too much poking."
Doctor Rivers grinned. "'fraid it's going to involve quite a bit of poking, luv. But we'll try to minimize the invasiveness. I'll book you down for an MRI and CT scan, and I'm going to need to draw a blood sample to look at it."
Alex sighed, holding out an arm for the needle.
Doctor Rivers took the arm, examined it for a moment, and shook her head. "... no, we're going to have to get creative."
"How so?"
"I can't find your blood vessels. And the imaging showed your blood as very thick. I'm not sure I have a needle with a bore wide enough to capture the cells swimming around in it."
"So what does 'creative' entail? Bigger cut and stick a funnel on it?"
"Basically!" the doctor chirped.
Alex sighed. "Peak of the medical art, here."
"It basically is," the doctor pointed out, bustling about to collect the necessary materials. "Not to put too fine a point on it but we essentially have to reinvent the entire field of medicine for every metamorphic parahuman we deal with. The boffins in Boston got easy mode with Weld, he has so little biological activity they got to give up immediately, but you are going to be fun."
"I'm glad you enjoy your work," Alex drawled.
Doctor Rivers set down a tray full of materials, and stood over Alex with a scalpel in one hand, and a funnel in another, pulling the collar of Alex's medical gown down. "So," she narrated. "I'm going to make an incision underneath your collarb… collarcoral, where I shouldn't be cutting into anything too important. I'll need you to stay sitting up straight. Gravity and blood pressure will get the blood out, through the funnel, and into the vial. We're only going to take one vial today, and we'll see the rate at which you replenish the blood and repair the tissue and calibrate for further tests later."
Alex nodded. "... go for it." She relaxed as much as possible. She wasn't sure if it still applied, but with normal biology, tension increased the density of muscle in the area about to get cut and just made it worse.
The blade was cool and slid through with ease, and the doctor set the funnel into place.
The blood dripping out immediately caught Alex's attention. Well, to the extent it could be called blood. It was black, but glowing with points of light, like a night sky filled with stars in red, blue, and green. Mostly red. And there was an internal flow to it - the lights were moving, and not just swirling from the gravity of their fall. The blue lights were moving up towards the top of the vial, while the others moved towards the center.
"... seems your blood cells are bioluminescent," Doctor Rivers said after a moment. "And self-propelled."
"... okay, having an alien internal biology might be kinda cool," Alex admitted.
The doctor grinned. "Oh, this is very cool. I love my job sometimes." Soon enough, the vial was full - the later flow seemed to be more and more filled with blue light, rather than the other colours. She pressed a tuft of cotton against the incision. "Hold pressure on this while I get the bandage ready."
Alex did so, and it didn't take too long before she was bandaged up.
"Now, there are some tests you'll have to do on your own, because I don't imagine you're nearly open enough to have me doing them."
"That sentence has an extremely threatening aura."
"I'm told you maintain good fitness, so I'd like you to see where your limits are, once you've healed up from the blood test. Strength, range of motion, endurance, basically everything. Compared to where you were prior to your trigger. You had a phenotype switch in addition to the changes in your internal biology, so it'll be tricky to work out what changes owe to which factors, but more data is always valuable. Rate of improvement over time, as well, if that seems faster or slower than you're used to."
Alex nodded. "Gym time, easy enough."
"Come in tomorrow, same time, and we'll change your bandage, see how your rate of recovery is doing." She paused. "So, some advisories, points to be careful about. I know everyone loves exchanging bodily fluids, but, don't for today. Not until your tests come back. No sex, no kissing, nothing even more creative. I have tests running to make sure you aren't poisonous, and that you aren't going to be poisoned by human saliva or have it disrupt your pH level, but it's best to play safe until we know."
"Th-that wasn't going to be a concern!" Alex protested, face red.
"That's unfortunate and you have my sympathies, but in the context it's convenient," Doctor Rivers said. Why did she have to say it like that?! She paused. "Now, about that threatening aura. We need to talk about sexual health."
"What?!" Alex squawked.
"Your gonads literally flipped, Ripple," Doctor Rivers said calmly. "There are all manner of anomalies that could be going on in there. So, while you're masturbating, do it gently, assess it all as you go. Keep on the lookout for feelings of wrongness, physical discomfort, pain. Some discomfort and pain are inevitable as you're exploring, but record them all and pass it to me, I'll tell you if that's normal or a sign to be concerned with."
"I-I-I wasn't why are you talking about it like masturbating's inevitable?!" She hadn't even considered it and now a very dangerous idea had been put in her head!
The Doctor shrugged. "Not inevitable, but likely. Most people like sex, and that's perfectly normal. Teenagers especially are new to it and even more interested in exploring. So it's entirely possible you're asexual, but if you aren't, it's inevitable." She paused. "It's better for girls, by the way. So you have that to look forward to."
Alex just stared down at the floor, face flaming, hoping this'd be done soon. There was no way she was winning this. It's not like she hadn't ever been curious about it. It was just easier to keep herself from doing weird stuff with her body if she didn't think about it and now the thought was bouncing around vigorously.
"It should go without saying, make sure to do this sort of testing before you do anything more ambitious. Penetration is great, but it's a lot more demanding on the bits down there, so test-run them lightly before putting anything in there other than your own fingers."
"Th-th-that wasn't ever going to be a problem!" Alex shrieked. Who would she even-?! No! Wrong question! Very wrong! The wrongest question!
"Oh, I believe you if you say you don't have any specific plans, but sexuality tends to be impulsive, and teenage sexuality even moreso. And this applies to guys or girls, anyone else's fingers are going to be rougher than yours, and a penis, strap-on, dildo, they're all about as demanding on your endurance as each other."
Alex was emitting a low-key wail as Doctor Rivers kept talking. This ongoing "uuuuuuuuuuuu" from the back of her throat.
The Doctor kept going. "So, if things seem to be heading in a direction where it's a possibility, test it. If you start thinking you might like to in general or with someone specific, test it. And if the moment comes and you're on the brink of sex, try to stop and test it first."
Alex just nodded obediently in the hopes this'd end sooner. It was not going to be a concern but the medical advice would continue just in case, so… best to just take it.
"And, while I'm not going to give you the talk at length right now," that 'right now' also had a very threatening aura, "if you do get to the point of penetration, it's not supposed to hurt. Not even your first time." Thinking about her first time was terrifying. Wait why was she going to have a first time?! She kept getting caught up in this terrifying woman's pace. "A lot of people who grew up girls mislearn this, let alone if they grow up boys. The hymen isn't supposed to break. The reason it does is specifically because a lot of men are too rough and don't do enough foreplay before plunging in, so it isn't ready for the stresses. So if you feel pain in sex, report it. That's either a partner doing a bad job, or a potential medical alert. We'll have to assume the latter for safety's sake."
"i'll bear that in mind," Alex managed to reply in a choked whisper, with what energy she had left from forcing her mind away from the topic Lillian Rivers seemed determined to bring it to.
"With that said, you can potentially break it with vigorous exercise, and this may be something you run into sooner. So make sure to get your stretches in and don't push beyond your flexibility with any vigor. If you do feel a sudden sharp pain in the nethers while you're doing the splits, it's probably just your hymen, but come for a check anyway just in case."
"... got it." Still embarrassing to talk about things down there but at least this was something that could actually happen and needed to be kept in mind.
The Doctor nodded. "Right, so, last advisory. Food." Thank god, a new topic. "I'm not going to tell you to keep it bland, I'm not bloody John Kellog. But keep careful note of your physical responses. Again, you have a new biology, and we don't yet know how it'll handle certain things. Salt, pepper, any kind of spices, anything with some acidity to it. I won't say don't, but do it carefully, and take notes. And if you can, hold off on anything too exciting today, until our first-round testing comes through and we confirm common items aren't poisonous now."
Alex grinned, finding it easier to relax and just lean into this topic so she could forget the prior one. "So, no sauerkraut?"
Doctor Rivers grinned back. "I wouldn't advise it today." She paused. "Or ever, really. Bloody Germans."
"I'm Czech! That's Slavic!"
"If you eat sauerkraut, you're German. Those are the rules, I don't make them. I don't make sauerkraut either, for that matter." She was being way too smug about food for an Englishwoman.
"... Slavic Germans," Alex grumbled. There really wasn't any way to deny that a member state of the Holy Roman Empire was German, whether or not its people were Germanic. Sauerkraut was part of the traditional diet.
Soon enough, the doctor left, and Alex got dressed in her newest PRT-issued outfit. It was mostly pretty boring, but there was a black sweatshirt to replace the hoodie that didn't fit anymore. Red lettering across the front in a cursive so abstract she couldn't tell if it said 'Costco', 'Cocoa', or was just art that resembled letters.
When she headed out, still a bit red-faced, Armsmaster was there waiting for her. "... I understand your physical had some surprises," he eventually said.
"... honestly I'm not too bothered about the internal changes?" Alex shrugged. "No one can see it, it's always been kinda gross in there, and at least now it's a cool kind of gross? No one knowing how to medicate me ain't so great, though."
"It may not be as bleak as you think," Armsmaster said, leading the way through the halls. "You're a tinker, and metamorphic parahumans usually have powers and mutations that support one another. Odds are your power will supply you with tinker-made medicines that work on you, even if it isn't your primary specialty."
Alex nodded. "That's good, at least."
"Is the sweatshirt comfortable, by the way? You always wore a similar one, so I thought you might appreciate a replacement that fits."
Alex blinked, looking self-consciously down at her clothes. "I, uh, yeah, it's pretty comfortable…" She paused. "... always?" She'd only met Armsmaster two days ago. He shouldn't know how she always dressed.
Armsmaster turned around, coming to a halt in an empty hall. "You actually know my secret identity. It's normal for Protectorate and Wards to be unmasked to one another. While normally it just sort of happens as we deal with one another and take the masks off for comfort, our prior acquaintance merits a bit more ceremony than I was able to take opportunity for until now."
Alex looked up at him. She knew him? While the concept was hard to fit into her head - that the coolest superhero out there was just someone she knew - she also knew instantly who he was. It was obvious. Armsmaster was too skilled with weapons to not do a martial art to keep in practice. Halberds and polearms specifically, you were looking at European or Chinese martial arts, and from the video clips, Armsmaster had clearly pulled a lot from Flos Duellatorum and Le Jeu de la Hache, both texts Bay HEMA studied. Le Jeu de la Hache had specifically been added to the curriculum by Bay HEMA's pollax master, one of the free schollers: Colin Wallis. Who had a bearded chin very, very similar to Armsmaster's. Strong and firm.
"... Colin?" she asked, in a whisper. Voice low to keep anyone else from overhearing. It was a strange thought. She'd focused on pollax under Colin specifically to emulate Armsmaster, and she'd been learning from Armsmaster himself?
A small smile graced his face for a moment. "You always were a bright student."
A warmth coiled in her belly at the praise, and she flushed, looking away. "... thanks."
They continued down the hall in silence, before entering a meeting room. Once the door was closed, Armsmaster turned to face her again. "I wanted to give you an update on the investigation."
Alex looked back up at him. "... how's it going?" She wasn't sure what answer she was hoping for. 'All resolved', 'your dad's in the clear', 'we need your help'...
"Preliminary questioning at the university confirms the Persephone Duensing people know is the one you identified. However, the file photos are of the one presently living at that home. Which means the official records were tampered with, very thoroughly. Whatever this conspiracy is, it has a great deal of reach."
Alex swallowed, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer. "... is there a replacement for me?" The thought that someone could just be trivially replaced by someone else was terrifying. And she couldn't escape the thought her father would take the opportunity to replace the juvenile delinquent son that always got in trouble, that he was never interested in spending time with…
Armsmaster paused. "... We had not investigated that. A moment." His lips moved a bit as he navigated his computer systems, before he shook his head. "No, your records and your father's records are unaltered. He has submitted a missing person report to the police, though we're neither inclined nor required to assist with that unless our investigation decisively fails to affirm his guilt."
Well… that was comforting in multiple ways, none of them particularly normal or useful.
"... has there been any luck in finding Persephone?" The daughter of the murdered woman was the one who needed the most help here. Fuck, she'd been too out of sorts to even tell her there was a conspiracy. As far as the older girl knew, it was just her mother's murderous boyfriend.
Armsmaster shook his head. "We're more limited than we'd like. The level of access this conspiracy clearly has limits us to only the most trusted personnel. We just don't have enough people that we know won't bend to whatever this is. It limits the rate we can work on this. We can't do a mass search without risking alerting the conspiracy to our interest. We're keeping a lookout for her, but we can't do much of a dedicated search."
Alex licked her lips nervously. "... could I go out looking for her?" She hastened to explain, "I mean, you know I'm not beholden to the conspiracy, and I'm not a trained investigator for all the other stuff, but I'm at least pretty familiar with the town." School bored the fuck out of Alex, so she often skipped. Sometimes to go to the library, sometimes just wandering around.
"Mmn." Armsmaster frowned. "You're still our only witness in this matter, and you're being searched for. I would rather you not be spotted by someone who reports to the conspiracy and taken. Or otherwise injured in the Brockton Bay cycle of villainy."
Alex grinned. "You trained me, Colin. You know how good I am in a brawl. If someone comes after me, that's someone to beat unconscious and interrogate." Bait was an entirely valid role to play in this whole thing.
Armsmaster shook his head. "You're a new Tinker. Underequipped. I could trust you to handle most of the riffraff even now, but I doubt they'd be sending riffraff, or in particularly small quantity… Hmn." He went silent for a moment, lips moving.
Alex didn't disturb him. It was obvious she'd given him an idea and he was checking to see if it would be feasible.
After a little while, Armsmaster spoke again. "Four conditions."
Alex nodded, waiting for him to elaborate.
"One: Complete a suit of power armour. When you're out doing this, I want you armed and armoured, or able to become so at a moment's notice."
This'd be before her debut, but if he said it was fine, it should be fine. Real basic and minimal stylization, since she hadn't done Image meetup yet and she didn't really have time for art. And not much in the way of bells and whistles. Alex nodded. "Understood."
"Two: I'll make a beacon telling me where you are at all times. It'll be small enough to ingest, do so." Alex nodded. "And carry a comm system at all times when you're outside HQ. I'm not picky whether it's incorporated into your armour, as long as it's available."
"Yeah, I figured that was a given."
"It is, but I still have to state it. Three: You'll be accompanied at all times by your minder, whoever it is at the moment. Listen to their orders, they're much more trained and experienced than you are."
Alex grinned. "Figured I wasn't getting away from him that easily."
"You will, who's minding you will rotate. Four: I'll provide you Ward and Protectorate patrol schedules and routes. Stay close to them during your searches. They'll be your first backup if anything happens."
"Got it." It'd limit her search area, but it was better than not having a search area at all. It wasn't an unreasonable limit, considering it was in exchange for having backup available.
"I would prefer if you were better-armed - it's better for a tinker to use their own gear - but I'll settle for 'at all' right now. My halberd will do to start. Improve your equipment as fast as you can."
Alex nodded vigorously. "Of course!" You didn't turn down your idol when he told you how to go about it, even if she didn't already want to make and explore all that stuff herself.
Suddenly, Armsmaster frowned. "Just a moment, I have a call from the Director." He strode to the far end of the room, where he engaged in a quick and hushed conversation.
Alex tried not to listen in. He trusted her discretion enough not to leave the room, she had to answer that trust.
It wasn't very long before it finished, and Armsmaster turned to her. "We spotted Persephone Perrine," he said without any preamble at all.
Alex's eyes widened. "Really?! Where?"
"We were running a stakeout on the Duensing house, to watch the fakes. An unknown parahuman attacked them just a few minutes ago. Shortly before, Persephone was seen in front of the house. The agent didn't recognize them at the time, but after a review of the footage, the girl in question very much resembles the sketch. We'll want you to check the footage."
She nodded. "Yeah, of course." She pursed her lips. "Is the parahuman Persephone?" Persephone had definitely been through something that was bad enough to be a trigger event. And she'd definitely have a motive to attack the people squatting in her house, pretending to be her family… "Is the family okay?"
Armsmaster nodded to the last question first. "Just bruises. As to whether it's Persephone, we can't confirm. But they are a partial match to a cape that appeared yesterday called Ereshkigal. And the parahuman was very close to Persephone at a very similar time, so while we can't confirm, we do suspect it."
"And the 'queen of the dead and the underworld' naming theme matches," Alex noted.
"Yes. A Thinker would probably confirm it, but we don't have any available. WEDGDG is completely untrustworthy in this matter." He paused. "And several other matters, Thinkers siphoning money and getting arrested for it is basically a monthly occurrence."
He probably wasn't supposed to tell her that. Alex decided to pretend he hadn't.
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