Begin The Procedure, OC/Canon fic, Chapter 7
Author's note: Yay, Chapter 7! :D Thanks for your comments once again, amideadn0w , getting them always makes me happy <33 I love writing Guy Davidson, he's so cheesy. x'DDD And here's more plot related stuff, yay! Oh, and the stabiliser is from the game :U That's what they call it. I couldn't think of anything else to call it OTL And as for who those two random dudes are, well... let's just say they're working for someone. C: Once again, hope you enjoy <3
Chapter 7: A New Enemy
Caduceus headquarters was a flurry of activity as usual early in the morning. People were dashing about with arms full of papers, bumping into each other, apologising, trying to get past each other, all those kinds of things. A lot of people from the research department were exchanging papers before hurrying off elsewhere, looking anxious. Markus just assumed they were busy studying the Avaritia Valerie had removed from that woman yesterday - that would account for the nervous air they seemed to have about them.
Then Nicole ran into him by accident. “Whoa!” she cried, before nearly falling over.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, taking her hand and helping her regain her balance.
She blushed a little, embarrassed. “S-Sorry. I guess I haven’t exactly recovered from the all-nighter we had to pull.”
“You were up all night over Avaritia?”
“Yeah. We had to test and retest it to make sure we got all the results right, then we had to start writing a report about it.”
“Geez. I bet that was fun.” Markus chuckled.
“Oh yeah, it was great, really.” Nicole grinned, still somewhat red. “And how about the operations you had to do?”
“I zoned out in the middle of one, did fine in the other.” he shrugged.
“You just spaced out in the middle of an operation? You seem like you’re always so focused...” she murmured.
“I suppose everyone has their moments.”
“Was the patient okay?” As soon as she said it, she blushed again. That just made it sound like she didn’t trust him at all.
“Yeah, it was only for a couple of seconds, and all we were doing was resetting his arm.” he smiled. “Nothing lifesaving.”
“Sorry... That probably sounded like I was majorly doubting you, didn’t it?”
“Most people would’ve been the same way.” Markus replied calmly. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“I’d better head back.” Nicole said, brushing herself off a bit. “See you later! And I promise I’m going to watch where I’m going next time!”
“Good to hear.”
“Hey, Markus!” Valerie called to him. “Good to see you! You look a lot calmer than yesterday.”
“Maybe I just needed sleep.” he replied.
“Maybe.” she said, shrugging. “We’ve got a meeting this morning with Dr. Cromwell anyway.”
“Really? What’s it about?”
“Avaritia, I think. He wants to tell us what he found out.”
“So we should go see him then.” Markus said, getting straight to the point.
“Long story short, yeah.”
“Do we need to get Elena as well?”
“Considering she’s part of our team, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.” Valerie teased.
“I’ll go look for her, then.”
“Meet you on the third floor!”
The two of them split up, heading the opposite way. After a few minutes of searching, he saw Elena talking to a couple of the other nurses.
“Well, it’s certainly interesting isn’t it?”
“It’s almost kind of exciting.”
“I don’t know about that, I mean what if it’s as bad as GUILT?”
“Hey, Elena.” he said, interrupting their conversation. “We’re needed up on the third floor. It’s some kind of a meeting.”
“Oh, okay! I’m coming right now, Dr. Vaughn!” Elena answered, before quickly turning to the others. “I’ll see you guys later!”
A chorus of “Goodbye!” carried behind them as they set off to go meet Valerie. By the time they arrived on the third floor, she was already there, standing with Dr. Cromwell.
“Wow, Val. You obviously got here in a hurry.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t miss anything.” she said, but not unkindly. “Dr. Cromwell was waiting for everyone to get here.”
“Thanks, doctor.”
“It’s no bother.” Dr. Cromwell replied pleasantly. “I wanted to discuss what we’ve found out thus far about the pathogen. You see, we did get a faint chiral reaction from Avaritia, but it’s far below the normal levels for a GUILT virus - what we’re assuming, therefore, is that Avaritia, and therefore what we’re dubbing ‘SIN’, stems from GUILT itself. When we tested it for a Stigma reaction, there was nothing.”
“I see. So whoever’s responsible for Stigma has nothing to do with SIN.” Elena said, testing the name.
“That certainly appears to be the case, Miss Salazar. As well as this, its DNA is nothing like Stigma - it’s far closer to GUILT than to anything else.”
“How contagious is it, exactly?” Valerie asked.
“That we’re not sure of yet. However, a new case of Avaritia was admitted today, so we can only assume that it’s starting to spread.” Dr. Cromwell said, his expression serious.
“A new case?” she echoed. “Then that means we’re assigned to it, right?”
“Yes. I believe the operation is quite soon - about fifteen minutes from now in Operating Room 1.”
“Okay, we’ll do our best, Dr. Cromwell!”
He smiled. “I have no doubt that you three will do fine. If I or my team find out anything else, we’ll be sure to let you and the others know.”
Valerie thanked him, and the three of them left the research department.
“Another case of Avaritia, huh?” she said, partially to herself.
“We can handle this. If we can handle Stigma, we can handle this.” Markus said. That was the way he had decided to try and think of these things. If they could handle it before, they were certainly capable of handling it now.
“That’s a good way to think of it.” Elena was walking beside them, her usual pleasant mood unchanged despite what they had just heard.
“Well, I figure that in the end this is all the same. It might be a different virus, but it’s still a virus. And we can eliminate it.” he pointed out as the three of them got into the lift, which as usual had plenty of people in it.
Valerie nodded. “That’s true.”
“I’ll go fetch the patient’s chart.” Elena said to them.
“All right, see you in the operating room, Elena.”
When the lift arrived on the first floor, Markus and Valerie left Elena and made their way to Operating Room 1. While they were waiting for Elena, they got everything set up and got ready to begin.
Elena soon arrived with the chart. “Are you ready to begin the briefing?”
“Of course. Go right ahead, Elena.” Markus replied.
“Okay. The patient is 28 year old Michael Jones. Recently, he began complaining of similar symptoms to our other patient, Anita’s - pain in his chest, and a bad cough. Then he suddenly collapsed. The weak chiral reaction indicates the fact that he has Avaritia. His vitals are stable, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“We’ll do our best. None of us is going to lose to some virus.” Markus said, before making the incision.
Just like the last time, there were many cuts visible all over the lung. Markus and Valerie took turns suturing them, and then the first Avaritia swam into view.
“Nice to see it seems to be working just like last time.” Valerie commented. “I was worried it was going to have changed again.”
The laser once again sent the Avaritia packing, and a couple more cuts appeared. More Avaritia were obviously hidden below the surface. Elena used the ultrasound, which revealed another two. Valerie cut them out quickly and hit both of them with the laser.
A few moments passed, and then a large cut appeared.
“That would be the mature Avaritia, wouldn’t it?” Markus sighed. “Obviously the mature form of these things is spreading.”
Using the ultrasound, he managed to find it and cut it out. A hit with the laser sent it diving back into the organ. With the help of Elena and Valerie, he found it a second, third, and fourth time. Elena turned on the Chiron wavelength equipment just to make certain that they’d eliminated it. A few nervous moments passed while the machine bleeped, and then went silent.
“Chiral reaction is negative!” Elena said brightly. “We did it!”
Valerie sighed with relief. “That’s good to hear. Want to close him up, Markus?”
“I’m on it, Val.” He swiftly and easily sutured the Avaritia’s cuts, then sutured and bandaged the incision. “There we go - operation complete.”
Elena turned off the machine. “I think you still have a couple more operations this morning, doctors. I checked the schedule earlier.”
“Okay, Elena, thanks.” Markus replied.
“No problem. The next one’s in an hour.”
“We’ll be fine, right Val?”
“Like you even have to ask, Markus.”
Meanwhile, a pair of tall men in grey jackets were walking along the street downtown. They were getting odd looks from a few passers-by due to the long jackets and black clothing they were wearing, but they seemed completely oblivious. One of them, a blonde man with wavy hair and dull grey eyes, was carrying a dark grey box in his hands. Wires spiralled from its top and connected to the sides. The other, a man with dark brown hair and blue eyes, was looking around shiftily.
“Are you sure this’ll work?” the blonde man asked his partner, who nodded.
“Of course, that’s why I chose the downtown area. Maximum spread potential.”
“Well, the boss did leave you in charge. He’d only do that if he knew he could trust you.”
“Did you arm it?” the brown-haired man asked.
“Of course!” the blonde man replied, somewhat snappishly. “I’m not stupid.”
“Never implied you were.” His partner looked around nervously. “Look, here’s an ideal place to set it. Hide it as well as you can.”
The two of them set the box down and did their best to disguise it. Once they were done, they straightened up and brushed themselves off. The blonde man grinned triumphantly.
“Those sinners will finally get what’s coming to them.”
“You said it. Let’s head back - we don’t want to be caught hanging around here when that goes off, even if we do have some pretty talented people back at base.”
“Boss would kill us for getting infected, you know that.”
“Yeah. Come on, let’s go.”
The two strange men headed back up the street and away from the site.
At Caduceus, things were going smoothly as usual - or at least as smoothly as they could considering the undercurrent of anxiety that was spreading around the building. Plenty of operations were being completed, paperwork was getting done, and the researchers were continuing with their work.
Markus and Valerie had just finished their next operation, and were taking a break before the third. They were sitting in Markus’s office, watching the news on the computer. During all the time they’d worked together, the two of them had gotten used to even just sitting calmly and doing stupid things like this.
Then suddenly, the screen changed. As soon as Valerie recognised who it was, she groaned and put her head in her hands. Guy Davidson, the infamous host of Miracle Surgery, who had insulted them in front of the entire population of the country and then proceeded to set them up against Leonardo Bello - an overconfident, arrogant surgeon who shared their power of the Healing Touch.
Even though, in the end, they had to step in and save the patient Leonardo couldn’t cure, the surgeon hadn’t been pleased with the outcome. And, since Wish Come True: Miracle Surgery had been taken off the air due to the fact they’d won Guy’s little challenge, the man had had to find another job. And of course, he’d chosen the news - another format in which he could be as dramatic as he often liked to be.
Behind Guy, there was a picture of the local downtown area, and the man was gesturing desperately as he spoke. “Here at News 24, we’ve just received an update of a dramatic event unfolding downtown! Several people have collapsed in the area from some mysterious cause, and the patients are being sent to any hospital that will accept them. In fact, most of them are being sent to our country’s foremost medical centre, Caduceus!”
Markus raised an eyebrow. “At least he didn’t try and fit in as many comments about us being ‘government-funded slackers’ as he did on Miracle Surgery.”
“I’m just glad he - wait, the people who collapsed are being sent here?!” Valerie squeaked, surprised. She turned off the computer and stood up. “Markus, we’d better - ”
She was cut off by Elena, who entered the room without knocking. “I-I’m sorry to come into your office like this, but... We’ve received several patients who are in critical condition! We don’t have time to wait, you need to get ready as soon as you can!”
“Relax, Elena, we’ll handle this. Come on, Val.”
The two doctors and the nurse rushed out of the office.
“Which room have we been assigned to?” Markus asked her.
“Number 5! I’ll work with you this time, Dr. Vaughn. They’re trying to get as many people working together as they can so the patients can be treated effectively.”
“I’ll head there now. What about Valerie?”
“Dr. Blaylock has been assigned to number 7.” Elena answered. “I don’t know who she’s working with.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure whoever it is I can handle them.” Valerie said confidently. “Good luck, you two.”
“Thanks, Val, same to you.”
As he and Elena split up from Valerie and headed away, they saw various others that they recognised. Dr. Everett, Dr. Tsuji, some new surgeons, Dr. Cromwell, even the director was ready to lend a hand. A lot of people from various departments were dashing around, heading for the operating rooms as fast as they could. After all, if they couldn’t operate, they could assist.
When they entered the operating room, they were grateful to find out that everything had been set up for them. Elena picked up the chart and read through it quickly.
“It seems that this patient has a low chiral reaction that matches that of Avaritia. His vitals are pretty low, so we should definitely hurry, Dr. Vaughn.”
“It’s okay. I’ll do my best to save his life. You’ve got stabiliser in case, right?”
Elena indicated the container of green liquid with her hand. “Of course, Dr. Vaughn.”
“And I’ve got the Healing Touch. If worst comes to worst, I’ll use it.”
The incision, this time, was over the man’s stomach. Apparently, the lungs weren’t the only places this new virus could infect. The usual Avaritia cuts were present, and he quickly sutured them. When the Avaritia appeared, it began making more lacerations, as did the other Avaritia underneath the skin. Markus had to stop multiple times to inject the stabiliser, but despite that he managed to eliminate the virus’s immature forms relatively easily.
The large slash that signified the presence of a mature Avaritia appeared. Once again, Markus cut out the bigger virus and hit it with the laser. Every time it dived back into the stomach he cut it out, and soon enough the mature Avaritia was gone too. As soon as he had sutured and bandaged the incision, he sighed with relief. At least that one was over with.
The second and third patients were also suffering from Avaritia. During both operations, Markus felt everything else fading away as he concentrated only on the patient. The fourth patient, however, was a completely different story. Because what was in the fourth patient wasn’t Avaritia at all.
In the fourth patient’s stomach was something else entirely. At first, when they opened her up, nothing seemed to be wrong at all, apart from some oddly-coloured diverticula. Markus had given Elena a confused look, and the nurse hadn’t looked any more certain than he had.
“We did get a reaction from this patient, Dr. Vaughn, but then it faded away again... It seems to keep disappearing and reappearing, and the chiral reaction doesn’t match Avaritia.”
“So this could be yet another new strain. Great, we’re going in blind yet again.”
“I’ll try and see if I can find anything with the ultrasound.” Elena replied helpfully.
The ultrasound revealed a large shadow inside the stomach, and Markus sliced across it. What appeared was an odd, jelly-like form, a very light blue in colour. It didn’t seem to be moving, or in fact doing much of anything.
“Try using the scalpel, maybe?”
“Yeah, I’ll see if that works.”
A quick slice of the scalpel and the virus split open, spilling out many smaller viruses. There were red, blue, and yellow ones, all wriggling oddly.
“Didn’t see that one coming...” he muttered. “Do you think these little things have anything to do with the diverticula formation on the stomach?”
“I think so...” Elena replied.
“Then wouldn’t that mean we might need to make a new kind of medicine to treat this?” Markus said.
“Maybe. But at least her vitals are stable. She should be okay.”
“I’ll close her up for now, then.” Markus’s tone was disappointed as he sutured and bandaged the incision.
“You did your best, doctor.”
“I know.”
Valerie was doing well with her operations in room number seven. At first, she’d been a bit surprised that Nicole was going to be assisting her, but the two were managing to work together quite well. The first patient had the immature form of Avaritia, which Valerie had managed to get rid of easily. The second patient had a mature Avaritia, which, though a bit more troublesome, was also not so bad.
Unfortunately, in the case of the fourth patient, his vitals were very unstable and kept randomly dropping, even with the stabiliser. He had mature Avaritia as well. Eliminating the immature Avaritia was easy enough, and suturing the wounds they left behind was also simple. But when the mature Avaritia made its first slash, this sent the patient’s vitals plummeting.
Yet Valerie was still perfectly calm. That was what stunned Nicole the most. Valerie obviously noticed the other woman’s shocked expression, because she smiled.
“It’s okay. I’ll handle this.”
Nicole heard her mutter something - “Concentrate, let the rhythm guide my soul.” - saw her draw the shape of a star, and once again, there it was. That incredible focus. The other strange part was that, although she was moving with just as much precision as before, the patient’s vitals were remaining stable. When Nicole found the mature Avaritia and Valerie cut it out and attacked it with the laser, the patient’s vitals didn’t seem to drop at all. Was this Valerie’s Healing Touch?
When Avaritia was cut out for the last time, the patient’s vitals suddenly jumped. Nicole stared at the equipment for a few moments, completely disbelieving.
“Is that right?” she asked Valerie, who nodded.
“That’s my Healing Touch. It’s not the kind that slows things down for me, not like Markus’s, but it brings up the patient’s vitals a bit.”
“Wow... So there’s more than one kind?”
“Yeah.” Valerie replied. “How many patients do we have left?”
“This one, and then one more.”
“Good. I’ll finish up here, then.”
She hit the Avaritia with the laser one last time, and it disappeared. Another quick injection of the stabiliser, and then she sutured and bandaged the incision.
“Are you okay?” Nicole asked, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, since you had to use that Healing Touch and everything...”
“Oh!” Valerie exclaimed, suddenly understanding. “I’m fine, seriously. Using the Healing Touch doesn’t give me a headache. I’ll be able to operate on the next patient as well.”
“Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure.”
“No problem.”
The final patient had immature form Avaritia, luckily enough, which wasn’t too difficult to handle. Soon enough, the cuts the Avaritia made were sutured, and the virus itself was very quickly eliminated. Valerie sutured the incision and bandaged it, smiling when she was done.
“There we go! Operation complete!”
“Well done!” Nicole cheered.
“Thanks. And thanks for your help as well.”
“I’m a member of Caduceus as well, right? I should do my best to help.”
“Let’s go see how everyone else did.” Valerie said cheerfully, and the two of them headed out of the operating room.
Everyone was gathering together on the main floor, and there was a lot of excited chatter. Dr. Tsuji was telling Julian that he had done a good job, but his focus could use work, and Dr. Everett was praising Dr. Cromwell for his help. The director was chatting to a nurse, Lesley, who was looking pleased. Markus and Elena were watching from a short distance.
“Hey, Markus, Elena! How did it go?” Valerie asked, walking over to them.
“Well... I couldn’t cure the last patient.” Markus muttered.
“Couldn’t? How come?”
“Because what she had wasn’t Avaritia, Val. It was something else.”
Valerie looked at him. “Something else? Something like what?”
“It wasn’t anything I’ve seen before, believe me.” he replied. “It was some kind of weird, jelly-like virus. And inside it were more viruses.”
“So what you’re saying is, there’s already possibly a second strain?”
“Looks like it.”
“Shouldn’t we tell the others?” Valerie asked.
“I’ll discuss it with Dr. Cromwell later.”
Suddenly, someone’s loud voice cut above all the chat.
“Madame Director, as always we’ve seen some fabulous work from the talented surgeons at Caduceus. I heard you were operating as well! Tell me, how did it go?”
Valerie and Markus rolled their eyes, and Nicole looked at them. “Who’s he?” she asked.
“Guy Davidson. Former host of Wish Come True: Miracle Surgery, and now a news reporter, to cut a long story short.” Markus explained.
“Miracle Surgery? That got taken off the air, didn’t it?” Nicole replied. “My friend always kept telling me to watch it, but I didn’t see the point. She was really upset about the whole thing.”
“Really?” he grinned.
“Yeah, she kept complaining about how these two doctors, a guy and a woman, managed to beat ‘the famous Leonardo Bello.’” Then she paused. “Wait, do you know anything about this?”
“Let’s just say we were involved in the whole thing.” Valerie said.
“Pretty deeply.” Markus added.
Nicole stared at them in confusion, and then the penny dropped. “No way!” she almost yelled at the pair of them. “You guys were on Miracle Surgery?! You beat Leonardo Bello! And the show had to be cancelled because of that!”
“You got it. We had to go on the show.” Markus glanced at Valerie. “Because somebody didn’t know a taunt when she heard one.”
Valerie smirked at him. “Yeah, whatever. We won, didn’t we?”
“Well, the operation went perfectly fine, Mr. Anderson, and I can assure you that no complications have currently arisen in any of the patients.” they could hear Director Quatro telling Guy.
“What about this note found at the scene?” Guy wanted to know, as he read out the transcript. “You may think you’ve overcome your first sin, doctors, but the second is still to come. Your gluttony will swallow the world, which will fall into darkness. This is your second sin, Socordia. Can you tell us anything about that?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything about this.” the director replied. “But if there has been a patient who has caught some kind of new strain of virus, we will do our best to find a cure.”
“Thank you, Madame Director!” Guy replied, with his best winning smile, before turning to the camera in front of him. “This was your special News 24 report, live from Caduceus headquarters!”
As he led the various crew members out of the building, the chatter started up again.
“Guy Davidson, huh?”
“What does that note mean?”
“Wow, this must’ve been pretty important for Guy to show up here.”
The director turned to the noisy group and cleared her throat. “I assume from that note that someone must have seen something strange while they were operating. Is that the case?”
Pretty much everyone muttered that no, all they’d seen inside their patients was Avaritia. Then Markus spoke up.
“I did. There was some strange virus inside my last patient, which I couldn’t do anything about.”
“So that must be what they’re calling Socordia.” the director pondered. “Is the patient stable?”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Then tomorrow we’ll organise a research operation to help find a cure for it.” she said with finality. Then she turned to the others. “All of you, well done today. That was impressive work. But this incident shows that we can’t let our guard down - whoever is sending out SIN is obviously organised and has planned this whole thing carefully. I expect all of you to be vigilant from now on, especially if you notice suspicious symptoms in your patients.”
“Yes, ma’am!” came the reply, and then the group slowly dispersed. The main excitement of the day was over, and now they could all get on with regular work. That didn’t stop everyone chattering about the whole thing, or people feeling excited. Sure, this whole thing was dangerous, but in a way they were living through an adventure - what some of them had joined Caduceus for. At times like these, the forefront of modern medicine was an exciting place to be.
Next chapter
Previous chapter
Chapter 7: A New Enemy
Caduceus headquarters was a flurry of activity as usual early in the morning. People were dashing about with arms full of papers, bumping into each other, apologising, trying to get past each other, all those kinds of things. A lot of people from the research department were exchanging papers before hurrying off elsewhere, looking anxious. Markus just assumed they were busy studying the Avaritia Valerie had removed from that woman yesterday - that would account for the nervous air they seemed to have about them.
Then Nicole ran into him by accident. “Whoa!” she cried, before nearly falling over.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, taking her hand and helping her regain her balance.
She blushed a little, embarrassed. “S-Sorry. I guess I haven’t exactly recovered from the all-nighter we had to pull.”
“You were up all night over Avaritia?”
“Yeah. We had to test and retest it to make sure we got all the results right, then we had to start writing a report about it.”
“Geez. I bet that was fun.” Markus chuckled.
“Oh yeah, it was great, really.” Nicole grinned, still somewhat red. “And how about the operations you had to do?”
“I zoned out in the middle of one, did fine in the other.” he shrugged.
“You just spaced out in the middle of an operation? You seem like you’re always so focused...” she murmured.
“I suppose everyone has their moments.”
“Was the patient okay?” As soon as she said it, she blushed again. That just made it sound like she didn’t trust him at all.
“Yeah, it was only for a couple of seconds, and all we were doing was resetting his arm.” he smiled. “Nothing lifesaving.”
“Sorry... That probably sounded like I was majorly doubting you, didn’t it?”
“Most people would’ve been the same way.” Markus replied calmly. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“I’d better head back.” Nicole said, brushing herself off a bit. “See you later! And I promise I’m going to watch where I’m going next time!”
“Good to hear.”
“Hey, Markus!” Valerie called to him. “Good to see you! You look a lot calmer than yesterday.”
“Maybe I just needed sleep.” he replied.
“Maybe.” she said, shrugging. “We’ve got a meeting this morning with Dr. Cromwell anyway.”
“Really? What’s it about?”
“Avaritia, I think. He wants to tell us what he found out.”
“So we should go see him then.” Markus said, getting straight to the point.
“Long story short, yeah.”
“Do we need to get Elena as well?”
“Considering she’s part of our team, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.” Valerie teased.
“I’ll go look for her, then.”
“Meet you on the third floor!”
The two of them split up, heading the opposite way. After a few minutes of searching, he saw Elena talking to a couple of the other nurses.
“Well, it’s certainly interesting isn’t it?”
“It’s almost kind of exciting.”
“I don’t know about that, I mean what if it’s as bad as GUILT?”
“Hey, Elena.” he said, interrupting their conversation. “We’re needed up on the third floor. It’s some kind of a meeting.”
“Oh, okay! I’m coming right now, Dr. Vaughn!” Elena answered, before quickly turning to the others. “I’ll see you guys later!”
A chorus of “Goodbye!” carried behind them as they set off to go meet Valerie. By the time they arrived on the third floor, she was already there, standing with Dr. Cromwell.
“Wow, Val. You obviously got here in a hurry.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t miss anything.” she said, but not unkindly. “Dr. Cromwell was waiting for everyone to get here.”
“Thanks, doctor.”
“It’s no bother.” Dr. Cromwell replied pleasantly. “I wanted to discuss what we’ve found out thus far about the pathogen. You see, we did get a faint chiral reaction from Avaritia, but it’s far below the normal levels for a GUILT virus - what we’re assuming, therefore, is that Avaritia, and therefore what we’re dubbing ‘SIN’, stems from GUILT itself. When we tested it for a Stigma reaction, there was nothing.”
“I see. So whoever’s responsible for Stigma has nothing to do with SIN.” Elena said, testing the name.
“That certainly appears to be the case, Miss Salazar. As well as this, its DNA is nothing like Stigma - it’s far closer to GUILT than to anything else.”
“How contagious is it, exactly?” Valerie asked.
“That we’re not sure of yet. However, a new case of Avaritia was admitted today, so we can only assume that it’s starting to spread.” Dr. Cromwell said, his expression serious.
“A new case?” she echoed. “Then that means we’re assigned to it, right?”
“Yes. I believe the operation is quite soon - about fifteen minutes from now in Operating Room 1.”
“Okay, we’ll do our best, Dr. Cromwell!”
He smiled. “I have no doubt that you three will do fine. If I or my team find out anything else, we’ll be sure to let you and the others know.”
Valerie thanked him, and the three of them left the research department.
“Another case of Avaritia, huh?” she said, partially to herself.
“We can handle this. If we can handle Stigma, we can handle this.” Markus said. That was the way he had decided to try and think of these things. If they could handle it before, they were certainly capable of handling it now.
“That’s a good way to think of it.” Elena was walking beside them, her usual pleasant mood unchanged despite what they had just heard.
“Well, I figure that in the end this is all the same. It might be a different virus, but it’s still a virus. And we can eliminate it.” he pointed out as the three of them got into the lift, which as usual had plenty of people in it.
Valerie nodded. “That’s true.”
“I’ll go fetch the patient’s chart.” Elena said to them.
“All right, see you in the operating room, Elena.”
When the lift arrived on the first floor, Markus and Valerie left Elena and made their way to Operating Room 1. While they were waiting for Elena, they got everything set up and got ready to begin.
Elena soon arrived with the chart. “Are you ready to begin the briefing?”
“Of course. Go right ahead, Elena.” Markus replied.
“Okay. The patient is 28 year old Michael Jones. Recently, he began complaining of similar symptoms to our other patient, Anita’s - pain in his chest, and a bad cough. Then he suddenly collapsed. The weak chiral reaction indicates the fact that he has Avaritia. His vitals are stable, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“We’ll do our best. None of us is going to lose to some virus.” Markus said, before making the incision.
Just like the last time, there were many cuts visible all over the lung. Markus and Valerie took turns suturing them, and then the first Avaritia swam into view.
“Nice to see it seems to be working just like last time.” Valerie commented. “I was worried it was going to have changed again.”
The laser once again sent the Avaritia packing, and a couple more cuts appeared. More Avaritia were obviously hidden below the surface. Elena used the ultrasound, which revealed another two. Valerie cut them out quickly and hit both of them with the laser.
A few moments passed, and then a large cut appeared.
“That would be the mature Avaritia, wouldn’t it?” Markus sighed. “Obviously the mature form of these things is spreading.”
Using the ultrasound, he managed to find it and cut it out. A hit with the laser sent it diving back into the organ. With the help of Elena and Valerie, he found it a second, third, and fourth time. Elena turned on the Chiron wavelength equipment just to make certain that they’d eliminated it. A few nervous moments passed while the machine bleeped, and then went silent.
“Chiral reaction is negative!” Elena said brightly. “We did it!”
Valerie sighed with relief. “That’s good to hear. Want to close him up, Markus?”
“I’m on it, Val.” He swiftly and easily sutured the Avaritia’s cuts, then sutured and bandaged the incision. “There we go - operation complete.”
Elena turned off the machine. “I think you still have a couple more operations this morning, doctors. I checked the schedule earlier.”
“Okay, Elena, thanks.” Markus replied.
“No problem. The next one’s in an hour.”
“We’ll be fine, right Val?”
“Like you even have to ask, Markus.”
Meanwhile, a pair of tall men in grey jackets were walking along the street downtown. They were getting odd looks from a few passers-by due to the long jackets and black clothing they were wearing, but they seemed completely oblivious. One of them, a blonde man with wavy hair and dull grey eyes, was carrying a dark grey box in his hands. Wires spiralled from its top and connected to the sides. The other, a man with dark brown hair and blue eyes, was looking around shiftily.
“Are you sure this’ll work?” the blonde man asked his partner, who nodded.
“Of course, that’s why I chose the downtown area. Maximum spread potential.”
“Well, the boss did leave you in charge. He’d only do that if he knew he could trust you.”
“Did you arm it?” the brown-haired man asked.
“Of course!” the blonde man replied, somewhat snappishly. “I’m not stupid.”
“Never implied you were.” His partner looked around nervously. “Look, here’s an ideal place to set it. Hide it as well as you can.”
The two of them set the box down and did their best to disguise it. Once they were done, they straightened up and brushed themselves off. The blonde man grinned triumphantly.
“Those sinners will finally get what’s coming to them.”
“You said it. Let’s head back - we don’t want to be caught hanging around here when that goes off, even if we do have some pretty talented people back at base.”
“Boss would kill us for getting infected, you know that.”
“Yeah. Come on, let’s go.”
The two strange men headed back up the street and away from the site.
At Caduceus, things were going smoothly as usual - or at least as smoothly as they could considering the undercurrent of anxiety that was spreading around the building. Plenty of operations were being completed, paperwork was getting done, and the researchers were continuing with their work.
Markus and Valerie had just finished their next operation, and were taking a break before the third. They were sitting in Markus’s office, watching the news on the computer. During all the time they’d worked together, the two of them had gotten used to even just sitting calmly and doing stupid things like this.
Then suddenly, the screen changed. As soon as Valerie recognised who it was, she groaned and put her head in her hands. Guy Davidson, the infamous host of Miracle Surgery, who had insulted them in front of the entire population of the country and then proceeded to set them up against Leonardo Bello - an overconfident, arrogant surgeon who shared their power of the Healing Touch.
Even though, in the end, they had to step in and save the patient Leonardo couldn’t cure, the surgeon hadn’t been pleased with the outcome. And, since Wish Come True: Miracle Surgery had been taken off the air due to the fact they’d won Guy’s little challenge, the man had had to find another job. And of course, he’d chosen the news - another format in which he could be as dramatic as he often liked to be.
Behind Guy, there was a picture of the local downtown area, and the man was gesturing desperately as he spoke. “Here at News 24, we’ve just received an update of a dramatic event unfolding downtown! Several people have collapsed in the area from some mysterious cause, and the patients are being sent to any hospital that will accept them. In fact, most of them are being sent to our country’s foremost medical centre, Caduceus!”
Markus raised an eyebrow. “At least he didn’t try and fit in as many comments about us being ‘government-funded slackers’ as he did on Miracle Surgery.”
“I’m just glad he - wait, the people who collapsed are being sent here?!” Valerie squeaked, surprised. She turned off the computer and stood up. “Markus, we’d better - ”
She was cut off by Elena, who entered the room without knocking. “I-I’m sorry to come into your office like this, but... We’ve received several patients who are in critical condition! We don’t have time to wait, you need to get ready as soon as you can!”
“Relax, Elena, we’ll handle this. Come on, Val.”
The two doctors and the nurse rushed out of the office.
“Which room have we been assigned to?” Markus asked her.
“Number 5! I’ll work with you this time, Dr. Vaughn. They’re trying to get as many people working together as they can so the patients can be treated effectively.”
“I’ll head there now. What about Valerie?”
“Dr. Blaylock has been assigned to number 7.” Elena answered. “I don’t know who she’s working with.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure whoever it is I can handle them.” Valerie said confidently. “Good luck, you two.”
“Thanks, Val, same to you.”
As he and Elena split up from Valerie and headed away, they saw various others that they recognised. Dr. Everett, Dr. Tsuji, some new surgeons, Dr. Cromwell, even the director was ready to lend a hand. A lot of people from various departments were dashing around, heading for the operating rooms as fast as they could. After all, if they couldn’t operate, they could assist.
When they entered the operating room, they were grateful to find out that everything had been set up for them. Elena picked up the chart and read through it quickly.
“It seems that this patient has a low chiral reaction that matches that of Avaritia. His vitals are pretty low, so we should definitely hurry, Dr. Vaughn.”
“It’s okay. I’ll do my best to save his life. You’ve got stabiliser in case, right?”
Elena indicated the container of green liquid with her hand. “Of course, Dr. Vaughn.”
“And I’ve got the Healing Touch. If worst comes to worst, I’ll use it.”
The incision, this time, was over the man’s stomach. Apparently, the lungs weren’t the only places this new virus could infect. The usual Avaritia cuts were present, and he quickly sutured them. When the Avaritia appeared, it began making more lacerations, as did the other Avaritia underneath the skin. Markus had to stop multiple times to inject the stabiliser, but despite that he managed to eliminate the virus’s immature forms relatively easily.
The large slash that signified the presence of a mature Avaritia appeared. Once again, Markus cut out the bigger virus and hit it with the laser. Every time it dived back into the stomach he cut it out, and soon enough the mature Avaritia was gone too. As soon as he had sutured and bandaged the incision, he sighed with relief. At least that one was over with.
The second and third patients were also suffering from Avaritia. During both operations, Markus felt everything else fading away as he concentrated only on the patient. The fourth patient, however, was a completely different story. Because what was in the fourth patient wasn’t Avaritia at all.
In the fourth patient’s stomach was something else entirely. At first, when they opened her up, nothing seemed to be wrong at all, apart from some oddly-coloured diverticula. Markus had given Elena a confused look, and the nurse hadn’t looked any more certain than he had.
“We did get a reaction from this patient, Dr. Vaughn, but then it faded away again... It seems to keep disappearing and reappearing, and the chiral reaction doesn’t match Avaritia.”
“So this could be yet another new strain. Great, we’re going in blind yet again.”
“I’ll try and see if I can find anything with the ultrasound.” Elena replied helpfully.
The ultrasound revealed a large shadow inside the stomach, and Markus sliced across it. What appeared was an odd, jelly-like form, a very light blue in colour. It didn’t seem to be moving, or in fact doing much of anything.
“Try using the scalpel, maybe?”
“Yeah, I’ll see if that works.”
A quick slice of the scalpel and the virus split open, spilling out many smaller viruses. There were red, blue, and yellow ones, all wriggling oddly.
“Didn’t see that one coming...” he muttered. “Do you think these little things have anything to do with the diverticula formation on the stomach?”
“I think so...” Elena replied.
“Then wouldn’t that mean we might need to make a new kind of medicine to treat this?” Markus said.
“Maybe. But at least her vitals are stable. She should be okay.”
“I’ll close her up for now, then.” Markus’s tone was disappointed as he sutured and bandaged the incision.
“You did your best, doctor.”
“I know.”
Valerie was doing well with her operations in room number seven. At first, she’d been a bit surprised that Nicole was going to be assisting her, but the two were managing to work together quite well. The first patient had the immature form of Avaritia, which Valerie had managed to get rid of easily. The second patient had a mature Avaritia, which, though a bit more troublesome, was also not so bad.
Unfortunately, in the case of the fourth patient, his vitals were very unstable and kept randomly dropping, even with the stabiliser. He had mature Avaritia as well. Eliminating the immature Avaritia was easy enough, and suturing the wounds they left behind was also simple. But when the mature Avaritia made its first slash, this sent the patient’s vitals plummeting.
Yet Valerie was still perfectly calm. That was what stunned Nicole the most. Valerie obviously noticed the other woman’s shocked expression, because she smiled.
“It’s okay. I’ll handle this.”
Nicole heard her mutter something - “Concentrate, let the rhythm guide my soul.” - saw her draw the shape of a star, and once again, there it was. That incredible focus. The other strange part was that, although she was moving with just as much precision as before, the patient’s vitals were remaining stable. When Nicole found the mature Avaritia and Valerie cut it out and attacked it with the laser, the patient’s vitals didn’t seem to drop at all. Was this Valerie’s Healing Touch?
When Avaritia was cut out for the last time, the patient’s vitals suddenly jumped. Nicole stared at the equipment for a few moments, completely disbelieving.
“Is that right?” she asked Valerie, who nodded.
“That’s my Healing Touch. It’s not the kind that slows things down for me, not like Markus’s, but it brings up the patient’s vitals a bit.”
“Wow... So there’s more than one kind?”
“Yeah.” Valerie replied. “How many patients do we have left?”
“This one, and then one more.”
“Good. I’ll finish up here, then.”
She hit the Avaritia with the laser one last time, and it disappeared. Another quick injection of the stabiliser, and then she sutured and bandaged the incision.
“Are you okay?” Nicole asked, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, since you had to use that Healing Touch and everything...”
“Oh!” Valerie exclaimed, suddenly understanding. “I’m fine, seriously. Using the Healing Touch doesn’t give me a headache. I’ll be able to operate on the next patient as well.”
“Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure.”
“No problem.”
The final patient had immature form Avaritia, luckily enough, which wasn’t too difficult to handle. Soon enough, the cuts the Avaritia made were sutured, and the virus itself was very quickly eliminated. Valerie sutured the incision and bandaged it, smiling when she was done.
“There we go! Operation complete!”
“Well done!” Nicole cheered.
“Thanks. And thanks for your help as well.”
“I’m a member of Caduceus as well, right? I should do my best to help.”
“Let’s go see how everyone else did.” Valerie said cheerfully, and the two of them headed out of the operating room.
Everyone was gathering together on the main floor, and there was a lot of excited chatter. Dr. Tsuji was telling Julian that he had done a good job, but his focus could use work, and Dr. Everett was praising Dr. Cromwell for his help. The director was chatting to a nurse, Lesley, who was looking pleased. Markus and Elena were watching from a short distance.
“Hey, Markus, Elena! How did it go?” Valerie asked, walking over to them.
“Well... I couldn’t cure the last patient.” Markus muttered.
“Couldn’t? How come?”
“Because what she had wasn’t Avaritia, Val. It was something else.”
Valerie looked at him. “Something else? Something like what?”
“It wasn’t anything I’ve seen before, believe me.” he replied. “It was some kind of weird, jelly-like virus. And inside it were more viruses.”
“So what you’re saying is, there’s already possibly a second strain?”
“Looks like it.”
“Shouldn’t we tell the others?” Valerie asked.
“I’ll discuss it with Dr. Cromwell later.”
Suddenly, someone’s loud voice cut above all the chat.
“Madame Director, as always we’ve seen some fabulous work from the talented surgeons at Caduceus. I heard you were operating as well! Tell me, how did it go?”
Valerie and Markus rolled their eyes, and Nicole looked at them. “Who’s he?” she asked.
“Guy Davidson. Former host of Wish Come True: Miracle Surgery, and now a news reporter, to cut a long story short.” Markus explained.
“Miracle Surgery? That got taken off the air, didn’t it?” Nicole replied. “My friend always kept telling me to watch it, but I didn’t see the point. She was really upset about the whole thing.”
“Really?” he grinned.
“Yeah, she kept complaining about how these two doctors, a guy and a woman, managed to beat ‘the famous Leonardo Bello.’” Then she paused. “Wait, do you know anything about this?”
“Let’s just say we were involved in the whole thing.” Valerie said.
“Pretty deeply.” Markus added.
Nicole stared at them in confusion, and then the penny dropped. “No way!” she almost yelled at the pair of them. “You guys were on Miracle Surgery?! You beat Leonardo Bello! And the show had to be cancelled because of that!”
“You got it. We had to go on the show.” Markus glanced at Valerie. “Because somebody didn’t know a taunt when she heard one.”
Valerie smirked at him. “Yeah, whatever. We won, didn’t we?”
“Well, the operation went perfectly fine, Mr. Anderson, and I can assure you that no complications have currently arisen in any of the patients.” they could hear Director Quatro telling Guy.
“What about this note found at the scene?” Guy wanted to know, as he read out the transcript. “You may think you’ve overcome your first sin, doctors, but the second is still to come. Your gluttony will swallow the world, which will fall into darkness. This is your second sin, Socordia. Can you tell us anything about that?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything about this.” the director replied. “But if there has been a patient who has caught some kind of new strain of virus, we will do our best to find a cure.”
“Thank you, Madame Director!” Guy replied, with his best winning smile, before turning to the camera in front of him. “This was your special News 24 report, live from Caduceus headquarters!”
As he led the various crew members out of the building, the chatter started up again.
“Guy Davidson, huh?”
“What does that note mean?”
“Wow, this must’ve been pretty important for Guy to show up here.”
The director turned to the noisy group and cleared her throat. “I assume from that note that someone must have seen something strange while they were operating. Is that the case?”
Pretty much everyone muttered that no, all they’d seen inside their patients was Avaritia. Then Markus spoke up.
“I did. There was some strange virus inside my last patient, which I couldn’t do anything about.”
“So that must be what they’re calling Socordia.” the director pondered. “Is the patient stable?”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Then tomorrow we’ll organise a research operation to help find a cure for it.” she said with finality. Then she turned to the others. “All of you, well done today. That was impressive work. But this incident shows that we can’t let our guard down - whoever is sending out SIN is obviously organised and has planned this whole thing carefully. I expect all of you to be vigilant from now on, especially if you notice suspicious symptoms in your patients.”
“Yes, ma’am!” came the reply, and then the group slowly dispersed. The main excitement of the day was over, and now they could all get on with regular work. That didn’t stop everyone chattering about the whole thing, or people feeling excited. Sure, this whole thing was dangerous, but in a way they were living through an adventure - what some of them had joined Caduceus for. At times like these, the forefront of modern medicine was an exciting place to be.
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