The Upgraded Wolf: Chapter Two
Alec groaned and wiped the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up slowly. He was still in his business suit, though it was considerably more wrinkled from him sleeping in it. He stood, and felt the cold tile floor on his feet. He winced slightly and walked around a little bit to wake up faster. The room he was in was designed originally to house one patient. It had a hospital bed, a bed stand, a small table and cushioned chair to furnish it. Alec walked over barred window the bars were meant to keep the more unruly patients from escaping, though now there wasn't anything to see thanks to the plywood that boarded up the windows and nearly every other window for the building. Beams of light, like tiny rays of false hope shined through the spaces between the panels. It was light out, that was all he knew, which meant that he had slept later than what he had wanted to.
He sighed, softly and walked back to the door for the room and flipped the light switch next to it. The incandescent light jumped to life and bathed the room in a yellowish light. Alec grimaced seeing the grime and decay. The paint was chipped and peeling on nearly every surface. Even though a cleaning crew had been in here earlier to do a basic job; sweeping, dusting, and new bed sheets, he was thankful for that at least. He got his socks and shoes back on and tied the laces tightly. The tiger looked over to his luggage. He might be late, but that was no excuse for looking unprofessional. He had a small spray bottle tucked away and pulled it out from underneath a spare change of clothes. Alec sprayed down his suit, coating it in a fine mist and then straightened out his suit. The chemical soaked in and helped stiffen the fabric. The well groomed tiger smiled. "Ah...better living through science. " He quoted the motto of one of their subsidiary companies that made the spray bottle. He stood straight and found a cracked mirror to adjust his tie and suit collar. Feeling better already, he moved over to the table where he set several stacks of files.
The one on top was of the current patient, the wolf. Alec could only guess that phase two was proceeding normally, if it was not already complete. He went through the stack of file folders and found the folder with the dossiers of the team's medical staff. He flipped through the Bio's and found the metallurgist, Dr. Howard Chomsky. He was no doubt in one of the buildings right now crafting the new claws and other replacement body parts. He didn't know which building, operational security after all.
Alec shifted some, eagerly wanting some coffee. He gathered up the relevant files for the second, third, and fourth phases. Tucking the files under his arm he exited his room and headed down to the cafeteria. The hallways of the old hospital were just and aged as h is room. The tile was cracked and broken in many places with just as much grime. The tiger moved past some of the support staff moving in the opposite direction and then went through some large double doors and into the cafeteria.
Many of the original tables and chairs were still piled up in the far back of the room. There was a serving area and some newer tables set up. The cooks working nearly round the clock to keep the facility fed with their limited equipment. The meals were a bit above the standard MRE's that the security teams usually got. Still, they had coffee and right now that was all Alec wanted.
Ten minutes later the tiger was on his second cup of coffee and heading out of the cafeteria. He sipped the black fluid and smiled, glad that he was getting coffee and not that Strontium solution that patient was getting. It was a nutrient rich compound; theoretically, a person could simply live off of the slush. It was designed to promote stronger bones, morphicmetabolisim, and faster reactions and neural synapses. He'd never tasted the drink, but from his understanding, the taste was horrible.
The tiger moved through the decrepit corridors, past the shattered doors and flickering lights back to the observation room. Only that he stopped outside as his senior executive and one of the doctors were discussing the progress of the day and the next phases. He recognized her from the files he had been studying before. She would be conducting phases three and four on the patient.
The large reptile turned looking sternly to Alec. "Phase two is complete and the patient is resting for the time being." The executive started. "Phase three will begin a few hours, according to Dr. Reinheart; the pain tolerance of the patient has already begun to rise. If it follows predicted models then we may actually finish ahead of schedule." He said and turned looking to the feline doctor.
Alec smiled to the female doctor, pleased to see another feline about the facility. She simply ignored him focusing on the reptile executive. Alec sighed, and looked down to his files as she talked about the advanced techniques learned from previous patients.
Tirran groaned slowly waking up. The first thing the wolf realized that he was no longer laying flat on the table, and that it had in fact, been tilted up. The wolf was lying at a forty five degree angle. He had a bit more flexibility in his neck, and coupled with his new vantage point could look over his body. The first thing he did was open his maw and scream horrified at what had happened to him. From his upper thighs down his legs his fur had been completely stripped off and replaced with the slick black coating that seemed to have faded to a dull gray. His legs looked to alien and foreign to him, despite the fact that he retained the tactile feeling.
The other thing that evoked his fear was the series of tubes running into and out of his chest. He shifted his body slightly, and could feel them about inside of him. He shuddered; one of the tubes surged with brown slurry and shot into his stomach. It was cold and he could feel in moving through his stomach. He was struck with a powerful taste in the back of his mouth. He didn't understand how he could actually taste something inside of his stomach. He wanted to vomit instantly but that seemed to be denied to him. The wolf winced as another tube kicked in and began to pump in a clear liquid. He whined and whimpered as his amber eyes looked around. His eye sight was better adjusted to the darkness now despite the bright surgical lights overhead. There were trays and small carts surrounding his table. He could see where some of the tubes lead off to, a series of metal tanks with pumps attached to them. He saw a series of wires leading away to some where, and there was a screen out of the far corner of his eye.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and tried to asses his situation. His muscles were a bit sore, and to his knowledge he hadn't been released or really given a chance to move other than his ineffective attempts to escape his restraints. There was disembodied light that appeared some distance away from him. It was rectangular and it dawned on him that he was on the other side of some kind of window. The light flickered a little bit and he could see two figures moving about inside though he couldn't make them out. Suddenly he heard the sound of a door opening. His eyes started to the sound though it was beyond his vision. The sound of boots, or was it heels, moved from the door sound and entered his vision. The sound became a figure, dressed in surgical gowns and mask, though the wolf could tell instantly by the raised chest that it was female.
"I'm Dr. Reinheart. I've been told that your screams are rather disturbing. If you scream then I will be forced, to put a muzzle on you. "She said. It wasn't that she said it, it was how, the inflection on forced made it seem like she was almost eager to do so. The wolf gulped as he looked back up into her bright eyes. She picked up the steel pliers. "Let's begin shall we? "
Tirran shut his eyes tightly as he felt it clamp onto the first claw on his finger. He felt her paw hold on to his finger, holding it back as the flesh started to give up the claw. His teeth grinded together and his body tensed more and more as he felt the claw separate. The wolf kept his mouth closed, but his eyes flew open and seemed to bulge as he swallowed back the scream. He felt a chill run through his body and his eyes drifted back to her as she deposited his claw into the metal tin with that particular clanking sound. He could almost see her vicious smile behind that mask as she came in for the next claw.
His adrenaline was already running through his body as he felt the clamp press on his second claw. His eyes watched her every move as she pulled his claw out, slower, more deliberate. She was trying to get him to scream. His teeth ground together, as he tried to deny this maniacal person her twisted joy. Tirran didn't realize that twelve years of physiological study and a double doctorate were against him.
Panting heavily the wolf hadn't screamed by his third claw but now she had decided to get creative. She clamped on to his fourth claw. The wolf went to tense up his body, and mentally prepare himself for the oncoming pain, but she was quicker on the draw. Dr. Reinheart twisted the claw sharply and yanked it out and with expert skill whipped the tool at the metal tray and the claw shot in, clanking inside as it ricocheted off the sides.
The scream out of the wolf seemed to rattle the rafters of the surgical room, technicians down the hall were frozen in place and Alec almost broke down on the spot. Dr Reinheart was the only one who didn't seem phased by the scream at all. She looked at him with a spark of evil in her eye. "Tsk, Tsk, I was expecting you to do much better than that" She teased him. "I suppose we'll have to muzzle you now. "
The wolf panted some more, amber eyes looking down at his bleeding fingers. "You fucking bitch! I'll tear you apart!" The wolf yelled to her. He snarled as his eyes locked on to her as she stepped into the darkness surrounding the table and picked up a leather muzzle common among security forces.
"Oh my," she giggled. "That is amusing. After me you won't be able to tear open a wet paper bag. "She grinned moving behind him and out of his sight. He looked about rapidly for the first bit of her attempts to muzzle him. It came suddenly, the leather harness slipping around his head before he could properly react. His response was shaking his head as much as possible. It was inevitable as she tightened the straps down one by one restricting his jaw until he couldn't even move his jaw. His nostrils flared as his eyes narrowed. She moved back around into his sight. She had that twinkle in his eye that Tirran knew would bring more pain to him.
Indeed she proceeded to remove his remaining claws in such painful ways, studying his reactions to hone her craft. She made the removal of each claw more painful than the last. The wolf panted heavily by the time she had removed all the ten claws from his paws, believing that this particular bit of the operation was over. There was a quick schick of metal that shook him out of his mental state.
The scalpel reflected in his eye moved straight to his upper arm and circled around his muscle with such speed that the wolf believed it to be a single stroke. It didn't even hurt right away. The pain crept in slowly like a whisper on the wind and then like and explosion. He tried to scream out, the muzzle keeping his scream in his throat. Like a crimson armband blood filled the wound and marked the starting point of the doctor's next incision.
She cut down the length of his arm from the first wound down to the arm restraint and then moved beyond it and continued down to the wrist restraint. She turned to his hand now, and brought the blade upon each of his fingers cutting down the length. He rocked his head back. His eyes looked to her, he wanted to attack her but his muscle atrophy, fatigue and then inflictions hampered his eagerness. The first arm restraint came off and then the second on the same arm. He lifted his arm and looked at it, flexing his wounded and mutilated paw. He didn't know that he was playing into her intentions. One of her hands grabbed on to his wrist, a thumb pushing down on the inside of the wrist on the nerves and veins. Her other paw reached up to the wound and pulled on his flesh like a child peeling back the rind of a banana.
The leather harness on the wolf's muzzle creaked as it stretched from his attempt to scream. She worked his pelt down his arm husking off the fur with ease. The wrist down she was mechanically delicate making sure not to damage the workings of his hand. That only made it hurt so much more. Finally his fur was removed from his arm; he looked up to his flesh as she hung it up like she was examining the latest fashion style. She set it aside on a large metal tray and then came back to place a series of plastic plugs to fill the space were his claws were.
There was a numb sensation that started to over take his arm; it was the same feeling that his legs had gone through. The wolf whimpered a bit, a tear rolling down his cheek as he watched her pick up a series of small electronic components. She set them on his arms and started to work them into his muscles. The feelings of pain seemed to be lost, his muscles just moving about as the electronics were worked in. He didn't understand them but she seemed to be forcing them about to specific spots about his arm.
His amber eyes tracked her as best as he could as his blood smeared over her surgical apron and gloves. He watched with a frozen terror as she began to coat his arm in the black paste. Like his legs, the compound began to constrict around his arm as she made sure his arm had a smooth even coating of it. She smirked as the compound began to dry and she lowered his arm down and secured the restraints again. He panted softly glad that it was over, until he remembered that he still had another arm to go through the torture.
â€