"What happened," Mimi said, rushing into the medical bay. Shin lay on the operating table while Dr. Grey and her automated assistants carefully realigned his shattered elbow. The holo had two screens: one highlighted what it looked like when he came in, the other showing a real time feed. The trauma was extensive, but Dr. Grey was basically finished.
Shin turned his head towards her, but otherwise was motionless. "Nothing to worry about, I fell down some stairs and bumped my arm," Shin said.
"Cough, cough," Dr. Grey said, her face carefully blank.
"Stairs? Shin, it looks like you stopped a grenade with your arm!"
"That is much closer to the truth, I'm sure. However, Private Shin insists he had a tumble down some stairs," Dr. Grey said. She looked carefully at the remaining damage, the auto assistants were already stitching everything up and injecting more anti inflammatory and anti bacterial drugs into the arm. They finished by applying the blue exo bandage. It looked like a plastic mesh, but when it dried it was harder than steel and provided protection and support.
"Well Shin, I wouldn't fall down anymore stairs. The surgery was successful, and the wrap will protect it. You will still be in pain, but should be able to perform your studies and training fine." Dr. Grey said, as she put away her surgery tools and stood up. "Feel free to get dressed Shin. Mimi, follow me, I want to show you something."
Over by one of the lab benches, Dr. Grey turned to Mimi and looked her in the eye. "Mimi, I know you're fine, and hated spending so much time in the lab. I want you to look at something though." Dr. Grey put a slide under the microscope and directed Mimi to look. "This is a normal blood sample. I think you can see the different cell types pretty clearly there. Now, look at this one," she said while switching the slide.
"What is this Dr. Grey?" Mimi said. She pulled her face away from the microscope, her eyes wide.
"That is also a blood sample, Mimi, but clearly not normal. A new substance has been introduced, and the cells have organized into complex lattices, supported by this foreign substance. It seems to still function properly, somehow. I need to do more tests of course."
"Interesting Dr. Grey, but why are you showing me? I just came to check on Shin."
"Interesting indeed, especially because it is your blood sample," she said, letting that sink in. "I took it the last time you were here, and it looked as normal as the first one I showed you. After only this much time though, and your blood is mutating Mimi." She reached out and touched Mimi's shoulder, softly. "Mimi, I want to help you. Tell me what is going on. Please."
Mimi looked back, pretty calm, but her eyes were still wide and her shoulders were shaking a little. "I don't know. I don't know what's happening to me." She grabbed Dr. Grey's hand. "Please, don't tell anyone. Keep this between us for now, and I promise I'll let you do more tests, or whatever. Please. I have so much going on, and I promise I'm not doing anything weird. Maybe your sample went bad? Maybe I'm going through self augmentation?" Mimi's eyes were large and bright, her anxiety almost bursting out.
"Ok Mimi, ok. You seem healthy, despite this. You are going to come back tomorrow for a follow up, we need to make sure this isn't something dangerous. Ok?" Dr. Grey wanted to hospitalize her right now, run every test she had again, and tell the General. Maybe that wasn't the best move for Mimi though, a star student who was clearly under enough stress. It helped that her blood appeared more than stable, this new structure seemed to improve her resiliency and healing potential by an exponential amount. It could be a breakthrough in biologic armour, or just a very specialized P level power spontaneously expressing itself.
"Yes Dr. thank you, thank you," Mimi said, her smile genuine as the tension dropped from her shoulders.
"Tomorrow, 07:00. Don't be late."
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"Guys, Shin is out. It sucks, but his injury is too severe to go into the team battle," Cpl Dale said. He knew of Shin's injury before he'd even made it to the infirmary, the tale of the fight had spread through the student body quickly.
"Damn. I thought we could take it easy and let the newbie tank all the damage for us", Zach said, winking at Dale. Zach was on the shorter side, and was the first one to go in and take the enemy's attention in any battle.
"No, Shin's more delicate than that. He'd swoop in and pick people off when they weren't expecting it," Darrin said. He was following along with Zach's joke, because that is exactly the role Darrin liked to fulfill in a fight.
"Ok, ok, I get the point. We don't need Shin to do well in the class battles." Cpl Dale said. "Still, it would have been a great experience for him. We've trained him up well and it would have been nice to have his old class see the improvements."
"Well, maybe he'll be ready by the time the Inter-Academy tournament happens?" Able said. Everyone went a little quiet then. The Inter-Academy tournament was a big deal, and the Northern Empire Academy hadn't performed very well the last few years.
"One thing at a time, right Corporal? Let's clobber our opponent in the class battles and get a good grade. We have more time to train for the Inter tournament afterwards," Kyle said, always the voice of reason.
"Great point. This year is just getting started." Cpl Dale said, and they all smiled. "Lets get out there and kick some ass."
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The multi sports Arena of the Norther Empire Academy was packed. It wasn't mandatory to watch the grading tests of other classes, but this was one of the only times classes were pitted against each other. The fact that the Shimin class was fighting right now had something to do with it too. The rest of the school didn't see much of them outside of the classes that overlapped. They weren't secretive, just so busy that they were a little apart from the rest of their peers.
"The Shimin are doing well this year. I guess that is true most years though," Emperor Gertand said, surveying the arena stage where the Shimin were matched against the top ranked junior class of this year. "I notice that our special case, Shin, isn't participating. Why?"
"My lord, Shin injured his arm earlier today. He is fine, but the Dr. has ordered a medical release for these battles," General Hamish said, his eyes also tracking Shin on the sidelines. 'Had he grown taller in these last few weeks?' the General wondered. Well, boys shoot up at this age for sure. A little bit of confidence goes a long way too, maybe he just wasn't hunching his shoulders as much, the General thought while smiling.
"That boy is interesting General. Continue to keep an eye on him. He has hints of a talent that are worth investing in. It is a shame he registers as a 0 on the HPA scale though, we have had some spectacular gains in the augmentation process lately." Gertand wasn't known for being jovial, but Hamish could tell by the tilt of his eyes and slight upturn of his mouth that he was very pleased.
"So the augmentation process has been sped up?" This was the first Hamish had heard of any improvements in the augmentation process, of course he'd be interested.
"I can't go into all the details yet Hamish, but 75% of the last cohort achieved their full augmentation potential."
"75%, Sir, that is incredible." Hamish was stunned. He himself didn't achieve his full A potential, though it hadn't affected his career. Or did it. Would he be in charge of an Academy instead of leading one of the armies in the Capital if he'd achieved his A9 potential? "If this is repeatable, it will change the face of the army in just a generation."
"My thought exactly. We have to prepare for a wellspring of more powerful soldiers, and it will be up to us experienced and talented ones to carefully aim them," Gertand said, all business.
Hamish had been with Gertand a long time, though really, the world was destroyed less than 2 decades ago. The emperor wasn't a despot or something, but he didn't shy away from gathering power either. "I look forward to working with you and the other Generals, I appreciate having the right weapons to aim," Hamish said. He saw Gertand's eyes widen, the violet going completely still.
"I'm sorry Hamish, something demands my immediate attention," Gertand said, cutting the general off. He stood up, the violet of his eyes swirling madly as he pulled his cloak tightly around himself. The air around him seemed to shimmer and he was gone.
"How the hell does he do that?" It wasn't the first time he wondered at the awesome powers of the Supers, and he was sure he'd never learn the truth either.