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Just As Planned (Catalog SI, Worm Start) by Throwaway1971
Books » Private Rated: M, English, Parody & Romance, Words: 154k+, Favs: 136, Follows: 153, Published: Aug 6, 2024 Updated: Dec 3, 2024
3Chapter 9: Worm 9 (Interludes: R, MN, S)
Riley
She looked at the list she'd been handed, tilting her head back and forth as she considered it all. Some of it would overlap a bit, but...she could get it all. Still. It was...a lot. More than anyone had ever requested on their own – Jack had told some of the Nine that they'd receive more, and she might have snuck in a few extras here an there, but nobody had ever asked for this many implants or transplants before. It was...odd.
"This is...a long list," she muttered quietly.
"It is. Is there too much? There's a few I can do without, if it would be too difficult. Here, I'll –" he stepped forward, holding out a hand for the list.
She stepped back, squeezing it to her chest. "No! No, no, it's all manageable. I'm looking forward to it, actually!" He looked at her, patiently, and she swayed back and forth as she thought. "I have just enough material to do all of these. When do you want me to work?"
"Whenever is convenient for you," he shrugged, appearing completely casual about the surgery.
She frowned. It was just...odd. He reminds me of Jack, a little bit. But...not, at the same time. "Then we can start now?" She produced a scalpel from a pocket of her apron (how the house had multiple outfits that suited her tastes already, she had chosen not to question).
"Sure. Which table is most convenient for you?" He strode over to the selection of surgical tables, removing his shirt as he went. Don't think about it. Don't don't don't don't. She shook her head slightly to clear it.
"This one in the corner. It's closest to the - to Saena's samples, and they'll be more viable the faster they're transplanted."
"All right."
Deep breath. "Also, you'll need to be naked, so, um..." Don't think about it! "I'll just leave –" His pants dropped apparently of their own accord, and she trailed off into a squeak. He rolled his eyes, glancing pointedly at the corner where the S - where Saena hovered expressionlessly.
For just a moment, though, Riley was sure she saw the corner of her mouth twitch. She chose to ponder that instead of – instead of what she was looking at, while she strapped him down. "This will take a little while, but you're lucky! I have some anesthetic that should make this pass in a flash for you. Most people don't get that privilege, you know?" Her eyes started dipping down – no!
He smiled, apparently unperturbed at being spread out on a table. "How fortunate." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes as she prepared a needle. "...Thanks, Riley. For this."
She stopped. "Huh?"
"For the upgrades. I appreciate it – this will be very helpful going forward."
She stared down at him, then silently inserted the needle. Almost immediately, his body relaxed, and she reached absentmindedly for the tool she'd need to start – only to find it hovering close at hand. She blinked, looking up at the form of Saena, suddenly standing much closer and staring down at Michael's form intently.
Her eyes flicked to the blade in her hand...well, if she wants to help. As she worked, she found part of her mind wandering a bit. It was just...
'Thanks, Riley.
When was the last time she'd heard those words? Even ignoring the fact that she hadn't been called Riley in many years, when had she last been genuinely thanked by anyone? The Nine tolerated her because of how useful she was, but even some of them were afraid of what she could do. What she did do. Jack cared about her in his own way, but with Jack...there was never gratitude. He'd praised her, certainly, with plenty of 'Well Done's and 'Excellent job's and even the occasional 'Perfect!'
But never gratitude. Doing what Jack wanted was just expected.
...
...
When she'd finished, you couldn't even tell that anything had been done. Not from the outside. She had taken a very careful look over Mich – Majes – the subject to make sure of that. Now, he was recovering quickly – one of her most successful viral projects was hard at work in his bloodstream, binding the foreign tissues properly and preventing his body from rejecting the implants. The fact that it slightly boosted tissue regeneration was just an added bonus.
He took up little space in her lab, quietly creating and dismissing constructs of different shapes with his power as he listened to something on his phone, mouthing words with his eyes closed. It was...distracting, having him nearby. Left her feeling...off-balance, and her eyes kept darting in his direction whenever her focus wavered.
She just kept hearing those words in her head.
'Thanks, Riley.'
...She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not, when he'd fully healed.
Moord Nag
When Aasdier's black, serpentine form wrapped around her protectively, with canine skull bearing its fangs to the sky, she was already prepared. It was rare, today, for him to react so harshly – there were few that were willing to challenge the two of them anymore, and those that did typically did not represent such a significant threat.
Aasdier clearly believed otherwise about this shadowed thing that descended upon her domain from above, so she would trust him.
"Murder Night," the shadow said in barely accented Afrikaans. "I have come to test myself against you and your Scavenger."
She tilted her head at the polite tone those words were delivered with. "You have invaded my home for this small thing? There are many who would grant you battle, if that is your wish."
The obscured face bowed forward slightly. "Yes. But there is only one of you."
She considered that as she watched him. He remained still, head lightly bowed, facing her. Her soldiers, her subjects, had recovered from their shock and pointed weapons at him...but he ignored them all. As though they were beneath him.
"...What is your name, shadow of the sky?"
"I am Majesty, Murder Night."
"I see."
And with that, Aasdier lunged, fangs wide. A six-sided shield of golden light blossomed in the air and her shade collided with it like a ringing gong, biting down with its fangs...but the light did not budge.
The inky blackness that made up her other side split into many pseudopods that lashed out around the shield, carving fissures in the ground when Majesty soared up between them. They began to give chase, only to abort partway through as Aasdier sensed something.
As Majesty's hand flicked forward, extending a whip of shimmering gold, the canine skull rose into its path. The whip wrapped around the skull and began to squeeze – and in response, Aasdier's body coalesced in a sphere around the flying figure.
The whip became an enclosed shield as her shadow crushed down on the arrogant figure from all sides. The shield held, but the darkness simply continued to crush down.
The shield grew spines, great and small, piercing holes in her shadow. But when the spines retreated, the darkness simply reformed.
The shield pushed, attempting to disperse the darkness, but her other remained solid, crushing the shield smaller and smaller with each passing second.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Then she felt the shield spin through their connection, faster and faster, grinding away at the darkness around it – and Aasdier began to lose mass. Shadows dispersed and did not return. She called it back and it condensed back into a serpent –
– and the cape blasted out of his shield like a bullet, straight for her.
The pistol in her hand barked once and his head jerked slightly backwards, his momentum momentarily halted, hand extended as though to reach for her. Aasdier's body surged forward to consume him. He darted to the side to dodge.
"-Ghk!" Aasdier's body ground away at his right side, stripping the flesh from him.
Or...no. Her eyes widened just a fraction. His costume and skin on his arm and ribs had been torn away. She could see the blood running down his body. Yet...scarred, pale flesh stood there, stitched together in barely perceptible patterns.
Aasdier intercepted another whip of light, body surging forward once again...
...and the ground beneath her exploded in golden light, tiny cords wrapping around her ankles and her wrists, coiling around her waist and dragging her down.
Winding up her torso, squeezing tightly, pulling her back down into the darkness and the grave and Aasdier lunged for her, body expanding to its maximum to grind away the bindings
but they squeezed as they wrapped around her face, blinding her, burning her, sinking into her flesh.
She felt Aasdier crash against the light that cocooned her body,
and then she felt nothing more.
Saena
Operation: Success.
Analysis: . . . Damage suffered. Primarily superficial. Momentary pain experienced before modifications engaged. Moment of pain will engender caution and drive to improve. Future injuries prevented / mitigated.
Outcome: Host 'Moord Nag' subdued and captured. According to projection, budget will allow for additional purchases. Likelihood of Master improving defenses: extremely high.
Projection: Survival odds improved. Experience acquired. All goals achieved.
...
Her eyes narrowed the tiniest fraction as her focus tightened. Master's right arm was mauled, degloved entirely of human skin and displaying only the implant of her own pale flesh. It had been the best possible outcome of the fight without her own intervention, which was undesirable as per the operation's goal. She had accepted this as the optimal outcome given Master's desires.
...Yet he had been hurt.
...Yet he had been injured.
...Yet he had been damaged.
...Yet he /Loop detected, soft reset.
...Yet it bothered her nonetheless.
She watched as the Shroud breached the space between them and he touched down on the floor in front of her.
She watched as Bonesaw/Riley began retrieving ingredients to restore his damaged body. She nudged her subtly while she attached the restraint so that their hands brushed together.
She looked into his eyes when he glanced in her direction, having perhaps sensed some of what passed through her mind. He could not process the information in her mind; this was an immutable fact for the current time.
But he still knew, somehow.
'Sorry, Saena. I messed up a bit. I guess that was the point of the practice run, though, wasn't it?'
{Affirmative.} Regret, she didn't broadcast. Fool, she didn't broadcast. Selfish, she almost broadcasted.
/Loop detected. Soft reset.
She considered the hole in her sight, some dozen planetary rotations in the future, where the Command Shard would once again direct one of the active weapons.
She continued moving pieces to maximize her Master's success.
It made the sight of him on the table less painful distressing unpleasant.
Sold Moord Nag (T5) (Plus) 20C
Balance: 23C
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