Steve Burnside (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
craaazyisland) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trans_92010-10-31 02:43 pm
craaazyisland) wrote in trans_92010-10-31 02:43 pm
I'm So Sick [closed]
[OOC: FURIOUS MUNCEST ALERT. This log is the precursor to THE STEVENING, which starts tomorrow! More details will be up later this evening.]
Veronica was getting worse, slowly tightening its grip on Steve's body to the point where he was only coherent half the time. He still felt like he was fighting through a hazy fog, and clear thoughts were hard to come by. The fever was rolling off him in waves of heat and he looked like hell, pale and sweating and clearly sick.
There was one hope, a treatment the Science staff had come up with. It wasn't a cure, but if it worked, it would effectively neutralize the virus to the point where it wouldn't be a concern anymore. It had been tested. It had been simulated. It had been run on a virtual him a hundred times and each time, it turned out.
That was, understandably, not enough to make him feel comfortable with the idea.
From the moment he laid down and they strapped his wrists down (for safety) he was shaking like a leaf... though that also might have been the fever kicking itself up again. He closed his eyes and tried not to listen to Luis shuffling around and preparing in the background.
What's the worst that could happen? he kept reminding himself. I die?
Like I've never done that before.
Veronica was getting worse, slowly tightening its grip on Steve's body to the point where he was only coherent half the time. He still felt like he was fighting through a hazy fog, and clear thoughts were hard to come by. The fever was rolling off him in waves of heat and he looked like hell, pale and sweating and clearly sick.
There was one hope, a treatment the Science staff had come up with. It wasn't a cure, but if it worked, it would effectively neutralize the virus to the point where it wouldn't be a concern anymore. It had been tested. It had been simulated. It had been run on a virtual him a hundred times and each time, it turned out.
That was, understandably, not enough to make him feel comfortable with the idea.
From the moment he laid down and they strapped his wrists down (for safety) he was shaking like a leaf... though that also might have been the fever kicking itself up again. He closed his eyes and tried not to listen to Luis shuffling around and preparing in the background.
What's the worst that could happen? he kept reminding himself. I die?
Like I've never done that before.
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Partially because she wanted to support Steve, and partially to provide security. Though she'd been careful to keep it out of Steve's line of sight, the table she was leaning against at the moment had the Linear Launcher laying on it, charged and ready to go, just in case something went wrong. Not that she had any intentions of using it.
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He regretted that they couldn't sedate Steve to start with, but they couldn't predict what the sedatives would do mixed with the treatment. It was this first time that was the scariest. If it ended up working, this would be the new weekly routine, but they wouldn't need to worry about an already-weakened Veronica going haywire.
"Ready to do this?"
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"You'll be okay, Steve. Dr. Sera's run these numbers a million times."
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"You won't let anything happen to me," he muttered, as though confirming it.
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Luis came over and placed two wired patches against Steve's chest, looking resolute. "Like I said before, first we give you a very mild electrical stimulation to stun Veronica's regeneration. That will allow us to inject the suppressant without needing to worry about a rebound from the virus."
He paused. "It might feel a little uncomfortable. But it will only be for about ten seconds. Ready?"
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He heard Luis moving around and getting the suppressant ready, then froze up as he heard the click of a machine. A stinging, tingling sensation spread through his body and he winced in pain. Uncomfortable was putting it lightly. He felt his heart start pounding and his hands start shaking, and then everything started to get hot.
Hot... very hot. Then as abruptly as it started, the current shut off and the tingling was gone.
But the heat wasn't. And it was getting worse and worse. Like his blood was starting to boil.
His chest heaved and his body kept on shaking. "Something's wrong."
"It's okay, it's okay." Luis' voice sounded far away. "Easy there. Okay, now just..."
As soon as Luis put his hands on him, Steve convulsed violently and threw him off. "Ah... it hurts. I-I can't breathe..."
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"Steve, focus! Keep yourself calm so Luis can inject you with the drug! You can do this!"
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Luis recovered from the shove and pushed forward, grabbing onto Steve's arm and trying to hold him still long enough to make the injection. "It's all right, relax. Just keep calm."
"No, no, no..." Steve moaned and knew all too well the painful throbbing starting to spread through him. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, lowering his head and gasping for air. "I-I won't... no!"
Steve yelled out and his body rocked again, violently. His eyes had turned red, and as he shivered, his veins darkened and a greenish tinge began to spread up his arms and the side of his neck.
He screamed again, and it didn't sound very much like a human scream.
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Just before he could get the needle in, he heard a telltale snap and suddenly, Steve's hand was wrapped around his arm.
Luis looked up in time to watch Steve easily snap out of the other restraint, his body shaking and pulsing as the mutation spread. The kid's face looked stunned with pain, his teeth clenched together as the infection rippled across his skin. There was the sound of crackling bones as his hands changed shape and he bowed forward, growing rapidly larger.
All of a sudden Steve's hand tightened around Luis' arm, and there was a different sound of effortlessly crackling bones. Luis screamed and the needle dropped from his hand as Steve lunged and shoved him backwards, tossing him across the room and through a table like he was a mere rag doll.
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Meanwhile, Steve stumbled forward again as his spine finished twisting to fit his new nine plus foot stature, panting for breath. He straightened up, let out a low rumble in his throat, and turned around to face the other human in the room.
These eyes hadn't looked back at Claire in a long, long time. But they were no doubt very familiar.
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When the creature turned towards her she grimaced, shaking her head.
"No," she whispered, her eyes fixed on the creature while she carefully backed up, reaching behind her for the Linear Launcher. She was feeling foolish now, for having moved so far away from it. She remembered how fast this creature could be. It didn't have the axe now, which was a plus, but only a minor one.
"Steve, don't do this. You have to fight it!"
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For the moment he was only staring at her.
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She backed up a little further, and when the back of her calves finally hit the table the launcher was on she stood for a second, taking a deep breath, before risking spinning around to lift the heavy weapon off of the table.
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There was a moment where it was impossible to tell what was going on in its head, whether it was Steve in there or the Veronica virus having pushed him out of the way for its own primal instincts. He growled low in the back of his throat and took a few steps backwards. Did he recognize her?
One thing he seemed to recognize almost immediately was the linear launcher. As soon as Claire lifted it up onto her shoulders, he roared loud enough to echo all the way down the hall, then lunged at her. He knocked her aside and sent her flying across the room, then bolted towards the laboratory door faster than something that size should be able to move.
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