It was only twenty minutes later that the car stopped in front of a small building that was three stories tall with a large sign saying 'Cloud City Animal Control', the door opened and the couple came out of the car with their daughter with the man holding the bundle still in his arms.
They hurried inside and went to the receptionist, "excuse me but I want to see a vet". The young woman was shocked when she saw the couple as they were smeared all over in color but their clothes said they were one of the well-off families. "I'm extremely sorry but our doctor just left, could you come back tomorrow, or if it's really urgent then I can call him but it will cost you 13 Jorals for a private treatment"
"THIRTEEN!!" he exclaimed "are you trying to rob us", his wife nudged his sides and talked to the young lady "its fine, could you please call him for us, we are willing to pay the fees"
The young woman smiled at them and said "well you could rest while you wait for the doctor, I'm sure he'll be here soon enough, you can help yourselves to some water or if you'd like to drink or eat anything we have a small food court, the second door on the right, bathroom is the first door to the left and if you need anything else, my name is Linda, you can call me anytime you want" the couple went to the resting area with their daughter while the receptionist took the bundle from the man's hands and put it in a container that released a beeping sound showing the current heart rate and other parameters of the animal she then proceeded to click a couple of time on the screen in front of her desk and a middle aged man appeared on it "Doctor we have an animal that needs your assistance, the owners are sitting in the rest area waiting for you, I told them about the fees for private treatment and they agreed".
The man on the screen said "I'm on my way then, send the animal to the ward and tell me its current status", the woman pulled a holographic screen showing the animal and its various parameters on it "the equalizer's preliminary diagnosis is showing severe blood loss and damage to the organs and surrounding tissues with multiple bone fractures and internal bleeding" the woman summarized the diagnosis to the doctor, "size?" he asked, "16.3 centimeters tall, 8.7 centimeters wide and weight of 321 grams" "What is the species" "unknown but from the feline family"
"Unknown ... hmm interesting, take a sample from the blood and send it to the lab for synthesizing, ask the owners where they found it and under what conditions then proceed to put it in the type 4 ward and prepare for surgery, I'll need the blood analysis when I arrive and call Karen, I'll need her to assist me" the man said.
The screen then turned dark and the lady called some men to take the cat to the ward with some instructions then pressed another couple times on the screen and a woman showed up on it "Hey Karen, the doctor called and he wants you to assist on a surgery he is having in 20 minutes, be ready in ward 4" "Linda, at least tell me what it is we are doing here", "be ready in 20 minutes" Linda then shut the call.
At the resting area, the family of three were sitting there when the man stood up "I'll be going to the washroom, do you guys need anything" he had one hand in his pocket to hide the blood that was on it from his daughter.
"No honey, we are going to freshen up as well, could you please get us some water and apple juice for Kate" the woman smiled sweetly at her husband and stood up and took her daughter to the washroom.
Once they were inside the woman opened the water then took another piece of cloth from her husband's jacket that was still on her shoulders and started to clean her daughters face and hands then her own. She stood up and looked in the mirror seeing the mess that was her dress and giggled a little when she remembered the state they were in just a mere hour ago, they were at a kids party and the parents were in a color fight with the kids.
Her husband was abused by the kids and they even ganged up on him throwing all sorts of colors and color bombs on him, he was a walking rainbow of colors. I don't think I've seen him have that much fun in a while, the job must be having a huge toll on him. She kept thinking of ways to make him more happy and energetic like today. A glint then went through her eyes as an evil smile came across her face.
...….
The man standing in the canteen paying for the water and juice felt a chill running through his back, he looked around "you should turn down the AC around here, its freezing", he then took the stuff and left. The cashier was confused as it was not cold and the AC is adjusted to optimum temperature.
...….
The girl was looking at her mom's face when she saw that smile "Mommy your face looks a bit scary right now" her daughter said hiding her face in her mother's dress, "sorry baby, It must be the lights playing some tricks on you" "why don't we go and see where your dad has gone off to"
"Mommy is the kitty going to be alright" the girl asked pulling her head from her mom's dress.
"Of course it is, as long as you believe it is then it's going to happen, so you must encourage it to be alright and help it and it will be just fine" her mother said patting the girls head then took her hands and went to the resting area.
...…
Meanwhile in ward 4, a middle aged man was sitting in a control room with two holes in the wall that control the surgical machines and multiple holographic screens showing the kitten in multiple viewings from the damaged area, its outer body, the inner organs, where blood was clotted and much more. A woman's voice came from the speakers in the room "It's a miracle that animal is even alive, from the blood analysis we found an unknown anti body that is helping with fighting the infection better than its feline cousins, the wounds are not bleeding as much as they should have with those cuts, the tissues showed resistance to trauma and injury, makes you think the amount of force going into each hit to turn it to this mess and it also has a much better heat regulation than its feline cousins. If I'm not mistaken then this should be a pure blooded descendant from the mutation explosion that happened more than a thousand years ago and they say they found it in a bush, god who is the idiotic psychopath that actually tortured that animal, it's worth millions, if they dislike it that much that they cut it with knives to the brink of death then they should've just sold it to me, I'll pamper that baby to heaven" the woman's voice was a little emotional at the end.
"Karen, stop talking about unrelated topics, think about how we're going to save it first then you can curse that idiot to oblivion if you'd like" the man said with a frown.
"Fine, but I'm telling you, based on the statistics and its conditions, I'm not even hopeful about a 10 percent success and even less for a complete recovery, they really messed it up" Karen said with a sigh "I've sent it to LaLa land and the machine is ready, we can start when you are"
The man then proceeded to put his hands in the holes and he felt a viscous fluid flowing around it, a helmet came down from the sealing suspended by cords, he straightened his back and put his head back slightly for the helmet to fit his head perfectly, an interface then started and his vision came to the other room with the holographic displays around him and the actual animal suspended in the fluid that is in front of him, he moved his hands and the animal flipped on its back showing the abdomen which had the most critical injury that hit the most organs then proceeded to do some hand gestures and tools appeared in the fluid near the animal as if they suddenly came to existence showeing up on the holographic screen, he tested his control in order to check everything is running smoothly then started to control the liquid near the animal, the picture zoomed in and the operation officially started.
That liquid is actually billions of nanobots that could control every fiber and could sense the microscopic movement of the blood elements, it could also build tools that the operator needs based on the image that is generated by the helmet reading the brain waves, the holes are just a secondary fail-safe because humans tend to get distracted sometimes so you need to move both your hands and think in order to achieve what you want and that minimizes any distraction and practically eliminates error.
The medical facilities at the central hospital are actually much more impressive. Minutes ticked by and the couple were waiting outside entertaining their daughter by playing, "you lose again muahahahahaha" a little girls evil laughter went through the resting area like a breeze when they were playing rescue the princess on the holographic table. It's a really simple strategy game that has two opposing teams, one is the knights that are on a mission to rescue their princess and the other is the evil dragon and his forces of darkness. The map has a lot of traps that can hold the dragon, slows him down or injure him while the knight went in bravely to kill it. But the picture here was of utter destruction as all the knights were either killed with the dragon's claws, eaten whole or directly burned to cinders with its flames as the couple sat there utterly confounded by their daughter's lack of morality and compassion, at least leave some of us some leeway of escape but no she decimated them till they wished they were never born.
"Sometimes I think our daughter is a devil incarnate" the man said as he looked at his wife "she definitely got that from you", "you're saying I'm a devil incarnate" the woman looked at her husband lifting an eyebrow, the man wasn't flustered as he said "Jane baby, you're an angel incarnate, I just tainted you to the mortal realm". She didn't notice the drop of cold sweat that appeared on that man's forehead as he secretly wiped it.