[DETOXIFYING COMMANDER DAX, ALLOCATING BLACK MATTER FOR CLEANUP STANDBY… ALLOCATION COMPLETE, COMECEING CEREBRAL CLEANUP, RESETTING TISSUE.]Walking towards the inner wall as the sun slowly rose over the city, he suddenly grasped his head in pain and fell to his knees, disturbing Alice that he carried on his back.
"Fue?"
"It"s okay, go back to sleep~"
"Fine~"
(Is she"s drooling on my back?)
(AFFIRMATIVE.)
(That was a rhetorical question ICI… Show me what happened while I was blackout drunk.)
(SYNCHRONIZING MEMORY BANKS AND CLEANING UP CORRUPTION, STANDBY FOR TRANSFER..)
While some of his missing memories slowly returned, Dax visibly cringed.
"I"ll have to apologize to Lillian for the extra work… But she should be pleased by the extra income…"
Remembering that he had donated the rest of his gold coin he had tossed to Lilian, Dax figured that it might make up for the noise he had made all throughout the night into the early morning when he had left to bring Alice home and perform the operation to attach a mechanical arm to Terra. Walking through the street in the early morning traffic while carrying the sleeping and drunk Alice, Dax caught enough judging stares for a lifetime.
"Ehhhhehe~"
"Go back to sleep Alice"
"No."
"Please?
"Noooo~ You"re mean!"
Breathing a sigh while considering just dropping Alice on the street and leaving her behind, Dax sat Alice down carefully and sat down next to her.
"What"s up Alice?"
"..."
Trying to find out what Alice was upset about Dax was only meet with a silent frown from her.
"Would you please tell me?"
"Noo~ You"ll be mad!"
"I won"t."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You promise?"
"I do."
"-ess"
"What?"
"It"s my dress! You never complimented me on it! Even though I speed all of yesterday finding it you never said a thing about it!-"
"Please calm down Alice"
"No! Give me compliments!"
Standing up while considering once more to leave Alice behind, Dax was meet with warm looks form the elderly predestiends, while the younger men cursed silently.
(s.h.i.+t…)
Deciding that he couldn"t just leave Alice behind, (or gag her to lessen the noise) Dax took a look at Alice"s dress. Alice wore a green one piece dress, complete with cutesy flower embodiments and frills and really matched with her free flowing hair that usually was tied up in a french braid.
"It"s really cute."
"Really?"
"Extremely so."
"Ehhhehe~ Then prove it~"
"How?"
"Pat my head~"
(ICI how many beers did she have?)
(15.5)
"... Can we do this somewhere else?"
"No! Pat my head now! You did it to Laura!"
(Did I?)
(RECOVERING MEMORY FROM DATABANKS..)
(I did…)
Remembering back to sometime after Blue Phoenix had arrived, Laura had suddenly sat next to him while he was in the progres of drinking one of the older patrons under the table. She had silently looked at him with the facial expression saying "pat me" and Dax had instantly caved in, his ability to resist adorable things having completely disappeared as he started to feel the alcoholds effect.
"Can"t we please do this some other time or place?"
"No! Dax you meanie head!"
(Are you a kid!)
"..."
"Meanie!"
"Fine…"
With an extremely troubled expression Dax slowly placed his hand on top of Alice"s head.
"Ehhhehehe~ Finally~"
(What the h.e.l.l do you mean finally!!)
(THAT QUARRY IS OUTSIDE OF MY PROGRAMING.)
Continuing on for a bit, to Alice"s apparent enjoyment as her face lossended and she showed a large smile Dax found it hard to concentrate as his head was filled with the sound of ICI warning him about the bloodl.u.s.t he was incurring.
"Go Die!"
"Why the h.e.l.l does he need to do that out here!"
"Ah youth…"
"I wish that was me…"
"Dude…"
Hearing multiple comments, some with a bit problematic elements, due to his enhanced hearing, Dax found the whole thing extremely tiring.
"Is that enough?
"More~"
"I need to fix up Terra in a bit."
"Then just a bit more please~"
"O-okay…"
---
(Where!?)
Frantically running around in the morning fog, the head maid Elise was confused as she ran around looking for something, someone.
"Where is he!?"
Dax had been missing from the Williams estate since yesterday, then there had been a disturbance at the temple, someone had even claimed to see a archangel fighting a demonkin, and it didn"t take a an idiot to connect the dots. Russell had ordered Dax to be found, and Elise had spent all the day looking for him, along with some of the other combat able maids. Looking for Dax all throughout the night without result, Elise had promised her master that he would return in the morning, but he didn"t seem to have returned.
"Don"t tell me he was killed by that angel?"
"By Solaris~? I only played around with her for a bit, we"re friends now~"
"Kyaa! Where the h.e.l.l have you been Dax!"
Having silently appeared behind Elise, Dax properly removed half a year from Elises lifetime by surprising her that way.
"Sorry I"m late, Had a bit more to luggage so I"m a bit behind schedule~ Where"s my dear patient?"
"Miss Terra is still sleeping. Also what the h.e.l.l are you carrying?"
"Extra luggage~ Her name is Alice, I belive you know her?"
Showing Elise his "luggage" the had the from of a sleeping and happy looking Alice, Elise suddenly recognized her.
"I-is that the green death!?"
"What the h.e.l.l is "green death"?"
"Ah, s-sorry. Green death is what miss Alice is called around town, she"s probably the best Ranger in town after miss Terra retired, but why are you with her?"
"I was out drinking~ She had a bit too much and this happened, could you prepare a room for her and then bring Terra to the storeroom?"
"Certainly."
"Then here you go~ And make sure there"s a bucket in her room, she"s going to have a terrible hangover, in a variety of ways"
(Well if she remembers it"ll be adorable in a multiple ways…)
Carefully handling the sleeping Alice over to Elise, Dax left for the storeroom after giving the loyal maid instructions. Getting to the storehouse, a drone opened the door for Dax as he went in side and inspected the progress they had made.
"Status?"
[COMSAT-1 ONLINE.]
"Why didn"t you inform me of that immediately?"
[QUOTE: SHUT UP AND WATCH ME DOWN THIS BEER]
"... Sorry. What else?"
[6 ORBS DISCOVERED BY COMSAT-1, ALL PROSTHETICS FOR SUBJEKT: "DISAPPOINTMENT" DONE, CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE.]
"6? Seems like more of them survived than expected… sync me the comsat-1 mapdata"
[UNABLE, SATELLITE BELOW THE HORIZON]
"Yeah it"s in a orbit non geostationary orbit so of course it"ll go below the horizon at some point.. Time to satellite rise?"
[SATELLITE ABOVE THE HORIZON AND ABLE TO RELAY INFORMATION IN 6 HOURS.]
"Good. I still feel like I need the Guardian-R04 special so continue prioritizing that, and after that I want communications to the base camp at the second orb that doesn"t require the sat."
[DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED, STARTING SCHEMATIC WORK FOR LASER COMMUNICATION NETWORK.]
"Oh she"s here, ICI temporary encrypt all coms."
[[[***]]]
As all the drones answered in a short series of low pitched sounds, Elise opened the door to the storehouse while supporting Terra walking with the help of a walking cane.
"Good morning~ Please lay down in the bioprinter and we can begin."
"Good morning Dax, what are we doing?"
"Installing your temporary limbs"
"Temporary?"
"As in they"re made of metal and not flesh and blood. Metal prosthetics are easier to adjust relatively painlessly and are therefore works as a prototype for the flesh and blood ones, so we"ll start out with them. First is the arm, being more simple, and the leg following in 5 days."
"Can we do them at the same time?"
"That would be extremely painful~"
"That"s fine, I"ve been thinking about what you said, I will prove myself and make you take back those words!"
"Hoooo? ***"
Responding in a completely alien language to Terra"s statement, Dax smiled greatly.
"Miss Terra, what words are you talking about?"
With a serious expression Elise reached for her knife.
"She"s talking about when I called her a disappointment and not worth the time I waste on her."
"WH DIE!"
Flaring in rage, Elise rushed forward with blade in hand, to reap the life of the man that insulted her master.
"***"
"What! Let go of me now!- MMMMmm!"
"***"
With a command from Dax, one of the drones gagged Elise and 2 of them carried Elise out of the room together.
"Was that really a good idea?"
"I don"t really care what Russell thinks of me as long I show results, now are you sure that you want both the prosthetics at the same time?"
"Yes."
"It"ll be a million times worse than when you lost them~"
"I-I"m sure, after that I"ll have you respect me."
"Immediately after?"
"Yeah! I"ll put you in your place!"
"Then anesthetics are not possible, the procedure will tear your flesh slowly to open up and expose your nerves, you won"t be able to move but you"ll feel all of it~ Is that really fine?"
"Let"s get this over with!"
"Okay, in that case come over here, I don"t really feel like carrying you."
"f.u.c.k you!"
Throwing her walking cane at Dax, Terra broke her own balance and fell on the ground
"I still don"t really feel like carrying you"
"Guh! f.u.c.k you!"
Crawling on the floor, it took Terra a bit for her to make her way over to Dax.
"Well you"re good at crawling.. here"s the bioprinter"
Walking over and dragging Terra up in the bioprinter, Dax closed the lid on it and a small mechanical arm quickly stabbed Terra in the neck with a syringe.
"AW! what was that?"
"A nerve blokker, I don"t want you moving about and messing up the operation~ Now final warning: Once I start nothing you say will make me stop, this is the last time I"ll ask: do you need anesthetics?"
Unable to move, Terra slowed her spit and answered.
"P-please stop me from biting my tongue if that comes to it.."
"Fine~ Commencing operation~ Be glad you can"t see"
"What are you- what the h.e.l.l is happening!?"
"The printer is removing your clothing, don"t worry I"m only looking at what needs to be operated on~"
"I hate-!!"
"yeah yeah you hate me~ Don"t bite your tongue"
Not getting the time ask why, Terra suddenly felt her skin being ripped open on her arm and leg, and she screamed out in pain
"Link me in, I"ll oversee it personally."
[***]
"[Connection to bioprinter established, commencing first step of operation: removal of unnecessary tissue. Can I do both at once~?"
"T-t-this is nothing! D-didn"t you say this would hurt!!?"
"[We haven"t started, I just removed the outer layer of your skin to prevent infection. But I"ll take that as a "yes"]"
In concert with Dax"s speech, Terra heard the sound of multiple small motors starting to spin up all around her.
"W-what is that?"
"[That would be the mico saws that"s gonna remove all the tissue you won"t need, I"m starting now.]"
As Dax said the sources of noise seemed to move closer to Terra"s arm and leg. What followed was about half an hour of Terra screaming out in pain, as the excess tissue was systamacily and slowly cut away in layers approximately a few millimeters in thickness. what followed next was the nerves, Terra felt like her whole buddy was on fire, as the sensation of flame spread up her nerves as they were cut down and adjusted. After an hour of that Terra"s voice had turned corse, and she mostly screamed in short bursts, mixed with hyperventilation.
"[Good job Terra~ I"m really impressed you didn"t pa.s.s out, now for the painful part, please don"t resist the pain and pa.s.s out as fast you can~]"
"W-what….. Do… You…. M-mean.. Painful p-part..?"
As Terra felt some sort of collar attaching itself around her neck, Dax took the time to explain.
"[What I attached just now is a test equipment for nerve calibration, I"ll need to tweak the sensitivity on nerve feedback to your nervous system. The test equipment will take most the overflow but the leftover feedback will be severe. Now here we go~ attaching substructure to nerves, confirming test equipment, all green. Every system ready for calibration, all systems go~]"
"A!! AAAAHHHHH!!! AAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!!!!"
As if something forcefully entered her brain, Terra screamed in pain while the unknown power forced her body to send and endure nerve impulses far beyond its limit.
"AAAAAAAaaaAAaaaAAAHH!!!.... ha! AHA! HAHAHAHA!!-"
Seemingly pa.s.sing out, Terra lay frozen with her mouth wide open as she turned silent, before starting to laugh.
"[You finally see it? Pain is a reward in this cold world. It appears when we"re about to do something that matters, when we truly try and change ourselves and strive for greatness. You have nightmares right? Where I"m from they have meaning, a nightmare is the brain"s way to tell us we made a mistake, or there"s something we fear. You have just taken the first step into a crucible that will forge you into a special existence: There will be nothing from this world that can touch you after this, the world is yours!]"
After Dax had explained Terra continued laughing until she pa.s.sed out a short while after.