SET Initiative

"I'm not sure... Y-yeah. Yeah I think it is. Why-"

He just looked at Addison and then shut his eyes as she combed through his hair with her fingers and commanded him to be still. He took a deep breath and then opened his eyes.

"Okay."

She sat back, once he was calming down. She didn't know what to do.

The kids were gone.

Austin was badly injured, and somehow, buzzing, not to mention he was panicking. She couldn't do this alone. She couldn't. She couldn't..

Stop. Breathe in. Breathe out. She did what she told herself to do, then grasped his forearms. "I'm gonna pull you over to your side so I can look, okay?" Unless he protested, she grunted, and pushed him to lay on his side, lifting his shirt to examine the spine.

Austin tried to get a hold of himself, but his grasp on reality was slipping. Everything was kinda blurry, and a numb, my-arm-just-fell-asleep feeling was spreading through his body.

"Go... Go ahead." He pressed his lips together and swallowed.

His back was not in good shape. There was a lot of bruising. But that wasn't the worst part. His spine nearly glowed a teal-blue color.

Addison bit her lip when she saw his back, and the odd glow his spine had. She was quiet for several minutes before she spoke.

"Austin.. your spine is glowing..it's this weird blue color.." She mashed the button for her helmet again, praying it would be able to help her help him.

"Please don't die on me."

Austin turned his head slowly to one side.

"You're... You're sure? It's glowing? ... Sweet." He giggled curtly.

Addison's helmet scanned Austin's back for a second before it directed her to grab her combat knife.

Exercise caution.

"I'll do my best."

Addison was terrified at this point. This thing was about to tell her to cut into Austin. No. She couldn't. She had no idea what she was doing. She grabbed her knife, holding it tightly.

"Austin, I think it's telling me to cut your back.."

"... Do what it says."

Austin was struggling to keep his breaths slow and even.

Carefully wedge thin end of blade underneath computer chip. Find main connection wire, and sever.

(The visor has a graphical overlay as well. It basically just shows her what she needs to do.)

Addison flinched, but nodded. She took a slow, shaky breath, then scooted forward. With one hand steadying his head and neck, the other gripped the knife, and ever so slowly, wedged the chip up enough for her blade to see the wires. The visor flashed over the main connection wire, saving her the trouble of finding it herself.

She took a deep breath, and after exhaling, severed the wire. She was anxiously.

Austin forced himself not to flinch as the wire was cut.

A larger "buzz" went down his spine, and he was almost instantly more coherent.

"What'd you do, inject me with Redbull?"

The visor's instructions continued:

Carefully pry computer chip out of neck, gently cut skin down spine. Remove wire.

Upon her doing so, she'd find a yellow wire running underneath the surface of Austin's skin all the way down his spine. It wasn't touching the bone, but there was definitely some kind of interference.

Addison sighed, as at least that much worked.

"Don't move, I have to cut down your spine." She shuddered.

Shifting the life's positioning, she began to slice down the length of his spine, shuddering as blood sprayed out. She found the wire, and very carefully tugged, and cut, the wire out of him, grasping the chip in one hand, shaking.

"Holy crap.."

Austin didn't say anything as Addison did as her suit directed. He winced as she cut down his spine, but he'd experienced worse pain before.

The wire's removal was what really stung.

It was over quickly, however. Austin felt all kinds of weird. Tingling, buzzing, painful, and numbing sensations danced across his body. He felt like he had just stood up too fast from sitting in a chair for an extended period of time.

"Is.. Are you done?"

Cauterize wound using Plasma Emitter.

Her helmet directed her to her pistol, which would shift itself to become a wand of sorts. It'd glow a purple color instead of the usual light blue. Pressing the button on the side would cause electricity to flow from the end to whatever happened to be grounded nearby. (Tesla-style)

Addison nodded, pulling out the pistol turned caauterizing tool.

"Two more minutes." With that, she pressed the tool again his new wound, and pressed the button. The plasma electricity swarmed into Austin, and as she guided it down the cut she had made, it cauterized wonderfully. She tried to steady her shaking hands, covered in blood. His blood.

"Almost done.."

"Mmph." Austin pressed his lips together and groaned as the electricity arced into his wound.

That hurt something awful. He just stared at the ground and gritted his teeth as she finished up. "You're doing, nng.. You're doing just fine."

The glow in his back was gone.

"Just let me know when I can sit up again."

Minimize strenuous activity, give water.

Addison sighed. "I'm gonna help you sit up, and get on the bed.. you aren't supposed to move at all if you can help it.."

She set the tool aside, grasped his arms, and once he was ready, she pulled him up, very slowly.

"Don't move your back too much, okay?" She draped an arm around him, and grasped him tightly as she guided him to sit carefully on one of the beds. Once he was secure, she moved to quickly move furniture in front of the broken door, barricaded the opening again. She paused once she was satisfied, hands against the wall, head hanging, arms shaking.

The kids..now Austin was laid up..

"Alright."

He took a breath and then nodded. "Okay, let's go." He let her pull him up, the strength of the suit taking most of his weight. He sat on the bed she helped him to and watched her as she barricaded the door again.

"Are you feeling good?"

She shook her head. Turning back to him, the tears started again. It made her angry. She wasn't weak. But she looked it now, and it made her angry.

"Oh, yeah. Fan-bloody-tastic, let me tell you." She snapped. Sighing, Addison shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to snap..you just..you died. You died, and the boys are gone..." She felt ill, and she took several breaths to calm herself.

Austin frowned and hung his head.

He didn't like this at all.

"No, it's okay..." He swallowed again. Every part of him ached, and he couldn't move. Addison probably wasn't much better off. "You've been through enough." He used his arms to push himself up against the headboard. "It's my fault anyway."

He didn't look up, and rubbed the back of his neck. "You've done more than you should have needed to do."

Addison shook her head.

"No, it's not okay.." She pushed the button on her arm to make the armor melt off of her. Once she was free of it, she moved to slide onto the bed, sitting next to him with a pained groan. She lifted her hand to gently comb back a few pieces of hair from her face, then very carefully, grasped his chin, and forced him to look up at her.

"I'm sorry, Austin. Please."

Austin just continued looking down as Addison sat down next to him. His hands were folded in his lap. Austin normally wouldn't let his emotions show so much, but with all of the electricity he's been dealing with recently, he didn't have much will to pretend otherwise.

He didn't protest when she grabbed his chin, and just scanned her face with his eyes, finally locking with her own.

"I'm not mad at you. There's nothing to be sorry about." His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his eyes were soft. His lips were barely bent downwards in a frown. "I don't like seeing you upset..."