QT: Against My Will

487 8.04 – Mutant Freak – Monster Heist

Silvia’s hair was matted with sweat. Her face was distorted with discomfort as her skin was getting redder and more swollen, with an obvious malady spreading across her body. Her once the petite and slender figure was now bloated. Her body grew in size, swollen and distended. She was hooked up to various machines and tubes, monitoring her vital signs and administering medication.

|You can move now,| Nathaniel poked her wiggling toes with a pen, |It’s just a cosmetic issue.|

Bing Shi groaned, trying to sit up against the hard mattress and failing miserably. She collapsed back down, her legs spasmed as a wave of nausea swept over her, |”The exoskeleton...”| She coughed, |”It’s not working.”|

|”Ziek is working on a new one.”| Nathaniel cleared his throat as he looked at Silvia’s swollen body. He noticed that her legs had grown chubbier, causing the exoskeleton that was supposed to keep her stable and help her move to break.

A female doctor came up beside them, “We’ve done everything we could to control the overproduction of growth hormones in miss’s body,” she said, her expression sympathetic. “But unfortunately, our efforts to reverse the growth have failed, so we are now considering other options. We believe it was an allergic reaction to a foreign allergen. Sir Hauxley may have some ideas or theories about what the allergen could be.”

“Did I end up as a cripple again?” Bing Shi raised her big chunky hand, seeing her nails growing into the length and thickness of Nathaniel’s pen, |”What about my beauty privilege?”|

Nathaniel grabbed a clipboard that had some papers stapled together at the bottom with notes written in black ink, |”It’s gone.”| He flipped through several pages until he reached the last page, “You are not a cripple, it’s your body which is too heavy to move around.”

The doctor nodded in agreement, “We can sign miss up for a liposuction procedure to remove the excess fat and skin.”

Bing Shi let out a long sigh as she lay on the bed, “I don’t want to see myself until my beauty gets restored.” She fiddled with her hair which grew exceptionally long, reaching her feet.

.....

“Well, you should look at it this way, Miss LeClére,” the doctor said, “Your… deformity has actually increased your overall health and fertility.” But the question was, who would want an offspring with such a monstrous-looking person?

“So...I’m not a cripple but a mutant freak?” Bing Shi asked, letting out a longer sight. Someone was trying to hit her where it hurt Silvia the most: her vanity.

Thinking Silvia was still in a state of shock, the doctor sent her a smile, “Miss LeClére, none of us wants to see you in this condition. We all hope to see you recover.”

“Excuse me, may I know who you are?” Bing Shi’s gaze alternated between Nathaniel and the doctor, who appeared to be in her late thirties. She added, “You look familiar to me.”

“My name is Dr. Eleanor Rinaldi, I’m the one who took Sir Hauxley as my new apprentice,” she offered her hand for a handshake.

Dr. Rinaldi had nothing particularly striking about her features. Her hair was a mousy brown, styled in a simple bob cut. She wore glasses that sat low on her nose, and her clothes consisted of a plain white lab coat over a simple blouse and slacks. She carried herself with a sense of purpose and efficiency, but otherwise blended into the background.

“I’m envious,” Bing Shi accepted the handshake, “Dr. Rinaldi must be an amazing person for him to accept you as his mentor.”

Nathaniel returned the clipboard to its place, “Dr. Rinaldi, our time is up. We still have other patients to attend to.”

Before Dr. Rinaldi rushed out to follow after Nathaniel, she heard how Silvia sniffed in a snot, “...” Anyone would be devastated if something similar happened to them.

Blowing her dirty nose into a napkin, Bing Shi closed her eyes. She wanted to see how Dai An altered Silvia’s dreams.

Silvia began to have nightmares of Bertha doing horrible things to her when they became friends, so Bing Shi made Dai An switch Bertha’s face with Nathaniel’s, ‘No wonder you never got bored inside that little cage. It’s like watching TV.’

‘~It’s fun until you find out you just became a Peeping Tom.’

Bing Shi was immediately kicked out of the dream by Silvia, “Aren’t we a part of the same soul? Why did I get kicked out?”

‘~Because you have no experience,’ grinning, Dai An made the scene more horrifying and gory, exposing Silvia to the thing she feared in a controlled setting, in order to help Silvia learn to cope with it.

Dai An got some inspiration when she was slowly returning Stinky Bun’s fears one by one, and thought of using something similar on Silvia too, ‘When I enter someone else’s dream, it’s usually with their consent. I have more freedom to move around like that.’

‘Ooh,’ Bing Shi nodded in realization. She wouldn’t like people messing with her mind, even if it was for good reasons.

Stinky Bun grew by an inch as an aftermath. One could say the modified version of the technique Dai An used to entertain herself and the prisoners was a great success.

· · ────────── · ???· ────────── · ·

Dr. Rinaldi wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, dropping on her office chair in exhaustion.

Victor, {Did you find anything suspicious?}

She fiddled with two round balls in her hand before sending them out of the building in different directions.

Victor, {Nora, I asked you something.}

Nora, {Nothing suspicious. He bought me a bouquet of flowers for my birthday, and we had dinner together in public afterwards. I can’t think of any reason why he’d do that unless he wanted to ask me for a favour.}

Dr. Rinaldi was a widowed mother in her late thirties. Even if Nathaniel was notorious for buying a gift for his future wife, she wouldn’t fit in those priceless dresses, but the jewellery? Maybe.

Victor, {He is looking for someone and you have to find out who.}

Nora, {I’m not your servant. How many times do I have to repeat it, brother? You are not the one to monitor people twenty-four-seven. I’m.}

Dr. Rinaldi opened her drawer to take out a box containing a syringe. She might be thirty-nine, but without her glasses, she would look like a twenty-five-year-old woman. Rolling up her sleeve, she injected the youth shot into her veins. It would get rid of back pain, headaches, and every other issue that came with ageing.

Victor, {Nobody would invest two billion in a servant’s research. You are not my servant, just keep your eyes on him.}

Victor knew better than to reveal what he really thought about the subject. They both came from the same world — by some strange circumstances, his sister became the first human to take on a system’s job, while he was the first human to be put under her wings.

Nora, {Fine, fine.}

They were both exceptional, but that was where the similarities stopped. Their personalities were polar opposites. Nora had no interest in any type of relationship and refused to follow her brother’s method of finding a soulmate.

What Victor and Nora didn’t know was that they didn’t become a system and host duo by accident. Their strong sibling bond was an energy-producing battery for the HQ, and this was the only way to keep them together forever…