Shaking things up in New York (Thor)

It wasn’t supposed to be this warm, especially during the morning in New York, in the middle of winter. While it didn’t bother much, the warm weather was a much welcomed addition to Lucy’s morning run. The tiny bit of extra heat meant she wouldn’t have to cover herself from head to two in layers of heavy clothing. New York’s newest super hero was a lively, energetic, young woman who enjoyed nothing more than to hit the streets first thing in the morning and get a nice healthy jog in. Stepping out of her home, Lucy took in the soothing sound of the light snow crunch beneath her shoes.

She did a few stretches on the steps of her home, using the raining to assist her. Satisfied with her pre-jog warm up, Lucy was ready to hit the road. The young woman placed a pair of wireless earbuds in her ears and hit play on her MP3 player. The second the first note of the synth pop playlist kicked in, Lucy was in motion.

Despite being relatively early in the morning, many New Yorkers were on the streets. Lucy passed by a couple that was taking in the morning delights while sipping hot coffee on their landing. The nice couple flashed the young hero a smile and raised their mugs in a makeshift way of waving hello. Lucy returned the kind gesture with a wave and smile of her own as she briskly passed them by. Lucy’s morning jog continued to be filled with pleasant smiles and happy greetings as she trekked along the snowy city sidewalk. Lucy’s early morning run took her further out of the suburbs of New York and deeper into the city.

Because of her inquisitive nature and the hero in her, Lucy was ever observant of her surroundings while she was out jogging. She peered down every alley way, every shop window, every passing car, even windows to people’s apartments. Lucy barely made any stops along the way, but she always did stop at this one little shop to pick up a donut and a cup of coffee for the road. After leaving the shop, Lucy would take it easy by taking a mini break from her jog to enjoy her coffee and sugary snack. As she walked along the street, the young woman continued to take in the sights around her. Eventually her eyes caught something and caused her to do a double take.

A beat up brown van sat in an alley way with the back doors wide open. Inside the van was a bunch of stolen goods. Lucy only made this assumption based on the fact that two rather suspiciously dressed men were loading the cargo into the van. Their leather jackets and black balaclavas gave them away. Letting her curiosity and her overwhelming sense of justice take over, Lucy began to approach the two thugs. She dropped the empty coffee cup at her feet and put her wireless earphones in her pocket before calling out to the two men. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” She said.

The two thugs jumped at the sudden outburst and quickly turned around to see the small girl approaching them. Without hesitation one of the thugs approached her, the disparity in their size was made abundantly clear as the mountain of a man drew closer and closer to the slender young woman. Lucy’s first instinct as a hero and meddlesome do-gooder was to fight back, but the man was quicker than she expected and he quickly reached out and grabbed her by the arm, which was another disadvantage to her. Before she could say or do anything, the thugs life flashed before her eyes, she experienced all of his memories in a singular flash and absorbed all his skills at the same time. The mental strain was enough to hinder Lucy’s movements long enough for the thug to get a better grip on her.

The monstrous thug began to drag Lucy to their getaway van. He wrapped one arm around her body, pinning her arms to her sides and then placed a hand over her mouth so she couldn’t call for help. “I wouldn’t struggle if I were you girly. Play nice and me and my partner might take it easy on you.” He whispered into her ear. The mental overload had finally begun to wear off, but Lucy had a new problem, she began to feel extremely hot. Memories of the thug discovering his meta power filled her mind. The discomfort of the sudden increase in temperature was something she couldn’t bare. With all her might, Lucy bit down into the man’s hand, her bite strong enough to pierce his leather glove and inflict serious pain. The large man instantly let go, gripping his fingers in pain and shouting obscenities at the young girl. “YOU BITCH I’LL MAKE YOU PAY!”

“How…how do you make it stop?” she said gasping for air and clinching her chest tightly. The thug look at her with confusion until he noticed an orange glow to her eyes and a slight aura forming around her. “GO! GET IN THE TRUCK NOW!” the giant thug shouted to his smaller partner in crime. He didn’t know why, but the smaller of the two just agreed and hopped into the car as quick as they could. The engine turned over but it was too late. Lucy let out a colossal yell as a concussive wave shout out from her body in all directions. Innocent bystanders walking along the sidewalk, and many passing drivers would have their quiet morning briefly interrupted as the brown van was ejected from the alley end over end, but crashing down into the street upside down and sliding several feet before coming to a stop after barreling into a storefront across the street.

A few moments later police and emergency staff would arrive on the scene. A group of officers were met outside by the owner of the shop the thugs had attempted to rob. The suspects her pulled from the wreckage of the van shortly after. Another officer took to investigating the source of whatever it was that had sent the van flying through the air as though it was a hacky sack. In the alley he found Lucy unconscious in the center of a large crater. The trash cans that had lined the wall next to her hand be compressed and smashed to within a 5th of their normal width. The emergency personnel on the scene were called to aid the young hero immediately.

Lucy was then rushed to a nearby hospital where she would spend several more hours unconscious, before being woken up by the rhythmic beeping of the heartrate monitor she was currently hooked up to. Her steely blue eyes fluttered open. The harsh florescent lighting of the hospital cause Lucy to squint her eyes and wince in minor pain from the migraine that still plagued her. Despite finding herself in the middle of an emergency room, all Lucy could thing about was whether or not she had successfully stopped the robbery or not. She sank her head back into the less than comfortable pillow and put her arm over her eyes to shield them from the light.

Keeping up appearances is exhausting Dressler mentally complained as the phone in his pocket began to quietly buzz. It was the hospital of course, a somewhat mutualistuc relationship he had set up long before he had secured even his first den. He despised the place, loathed the wretches that felt themselves worthy to practice medicine. They were idiots, all of them. Some were there for financial gain, others because they wanted to save lives, a goal he found truly laughable. It was just like humanity to nurture and raise up the sick and the dying, to expend exorbenant resources to artufucicially extend a life that will die in months regardless. Like so many other things, hospitals spoke to Dressler of the fall of the once great human race. But it was for these reasons that he could take advantage of the flawed establishment and make them believe that they too were benefiting.

For a handful of the major hospitals in the New York area, the good doctor functioned as somewhat of a consultant. He would be called in as a specialist on particularly difficult cases, usually those involving metahuman abilities that made traditional medical treatment difficult or outright impossible. On Dressler's part he gained access unquestioned access to lab equipment and the genetic material of patients. With his own goals he was clearly getting the better end of this deal, but that did not mean he could avoid the necessity of playing doctor with the children.

Dr. Dressler speaking he responded sharply, putting the phone to his ear and commanding a get to the point tone in his voice. The voice on the other end seemed flustered, a state he was familiar with from these people when they consulted him. The usual was super durable physiology or an aberrant organ system but Dressler's haw nearly dropped as the man on the other end of the line explained the situation. The hospital currently had in its care a woman who took on the genetic makeup of anyone who came in physical contact with her. Before letting letting the physician say another word Dressler said that he would be on his way and immediately left for the hospital.

He was nearly drooling the entire way there as the hospital forwarded him her case info. The woman's abilities were first documented after a medical incident in which her blood type had changed from what it previously had been. Something similar had recently happened to land her in her current position in the hospital. But even more interesting about the latest incident, she had taken on metahumans abilities. That was the speculation at least as she was found passed out in a fresh crater in an alley, garbage cans and other scattered items pushed out around her and crushed into the walls. This was marvelous, like stumbling into Bella in the alley a second time he now had the opportunity to not only study and learn about this marvelous ability but even better, he had the ability to bring its owner into his pack. That was the hope at least as his van arrived at the hospital. In a rush he entered his small office in the facility and donned a long white lab coat. Then he snagged a clipboard from his desk and printed out a quick checklist to place on the clipboard contains various questions he'd be asking to get an idea of just what had happened and if there were any symptoms she had not yet communicated. Granted he'd have a pretty good idea what was going on once he entered the room, but it was best that the rest of the hospital staff not know of his own abilities. So procedures had to be followed. Finally he moved himself to a mirror and fashioned his ID badge reading "Dr. Alexander Dressler" to the front of his coat. Situating it to ensure that it was legible and straight he exited the room and made haste to his patient.

Knocking on the door to Lucy's room twice Dressler would enter the room. Immediately he noticed the woman covering her eyes and went to the wall, adjusting the fader to make the brightness less intense before turning back to the woman. His eyes were already at work analyzing her genetic makeup and it was marvel to behold. It appeared that she could indeed absorb not only the physical capabilities but mental data stored in a person's brain. That part hadn't been in her file and his eyes went wide as he processed this. Suddenly she went from intriguing to potentially dangerous. All the information in his head released on her at once could potentially scare her from his glorious cause. Then again, with all of his knowledge perhaps she too would see the light. Yes, how could she not? Regardless he needed to maintain his facade for now and so introduced himself.

Hello Ms. Summers he began, pulling up a chair next to her and sitting down in it. My name is Dr. Dressler and I'll be your attending physician. The hospital has called me in considering your special medical needs he informed her, alluding to the difficulties her abilities could present to someone tying to treat her. With that out of the way, how are you feeling?

Lucy continued to look towards the ceiling with her eyes covered. It only took the slight increase in volume and clarity of the noise outside her room, to know that someone had come in. She peeked out from under her arm, with her steely blue eye to see a relatively young physician sitting off to the side of the bed. The room seemed noticeably darker and so the young woman slowly and cautiously moved her forearm away from her face. She kept her eyes closed for several more seconds before slowly opening them. The second the dim lighting hit her retinas the pain in her head flared up, prompting a slight recoil of her head deeper into her pillow before finally easing her eyes fully open.

The doctor sitting off to side had been patient with her and for that she was grateful. Finally, with a deep sigh, Lucy rolled her head over to look at the blonde doctor. Her wavy brown hair fluffed up against her face, defiant to be held down by the pillow. A small chuckle escaped Lucy’s mouth when the Dr. Dressler asked her how she was feeling. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had a doctor ask me that, I’d be rich!” She joked with a smile before turning her gaze back to the ceiling. “I feel like a freight train just barreled through my skull, and I still feel uncomfortably warm.” she said, tugging at the collar of her hospital gown and fanning herself to cool off.

Lucy’s body ached all over, and each pump of her arm only brought more discomfort which was made apparent by the occasional wince she would give while attempting to cool herself off. Eventually she mustered up enough strength and forced herself into an upright position. Despite the pain, she seemed to remain in high spirits, flashing the good doctor a large grin once she had repositioned herself. Her gaze dropped down and locked onto her hand as she raised it up. Her palm hovered there in the air for several seconds and was shaking uncontrollably. The event brought on by what she assumed was the thugs power she had used earlier.

The thug’s memories were still fresh within her mind, and she could recall with crystal clear accuracy the scene that had played out just mere seconds before the two had come in contact. Of course this then made the girl think about the shop keeper and the two thugs. “Tell me something Doc. Did I stop the thieves?”
In true Lucy fashion she was proving to be more worried about the state of someone else, instead of on the fact that she was held up in a hospital emergency room having her condition evaluated.

Dressler chuckled and have a soft smile as Lucy joked about her frequent visits to the hospital. It only made sense. With an ability as wild and unstable as hers the potential for injury was great. Her indication that she was suffering from a splitting headache only furthered that. Her abilities it seemed were easily as much a danger to herself as they were to those around her. But, Dressler thought, that didn't have to be an inherent characteristic of what she could do. He could teach her, train her, mold her into an ideal drone in his ever growing Highform army. All he needed was her trust. So first things first, he needed to treat her.

As he watched Lucy race her hand, he focused on on her. The heat she was experiencing was most definitely from forgein genetic material. Most likely this was the ability she had absorbed that wasted everything in the ally. It was interesting however that she was still experiencing its effects, and it seemed had little control over them.

How long do yo-- he began before a look of startled realization crossed the girl's face. She was curious about the thieves she had exploded on in the alley. Again Dressler laughed, her desire to "do good" it seemed was very strong. One of those he made a mental note, thinking back to his first encounter with Bella and her rampaging wolf form. She too had been concerned about what had happened in her uncontrolled state.

The men from the alley are both under police guard in this very hospital. he said plainly, feeling that would suffice to let her know it had been a job well done. I trust you aren't thinking of causing them any further harm? He leaned in as he said this, giving a sort of knowing smile, figuring that she was the type to let the legal system do its thing instead of wanting to kill the men who had wronged her. He'd have to teach her otherwise. Then leaning back his eyes would fall once more to his clipboard.

Now where was I? Oh yes, your abilities. How long do the side effects normally last? This would be important not only for how he'd ensure her health but also for his own purposes.

Lucy’s body continued to ache as it adjusted to the additional genetic information it had taken on in order to copy the thugs power. Sitting up was becoming less of a curtesy to the doctor and more of a pain to the young woman. Rather than lay back down, Lucy wanted to remain upright while she spoke to the physician, as it was easier to maintain eye contact. While Dr. Dressler answered her question about the thugs, Lucy fiddled with the buttons on the side of the hospital bed, a loud rumble of machinery filled the room as the top part of the bed rose up. Eventually the head of the bed was brought up far enough to support Lucy’s back and she continued her conversation with the doctor.

“Whether or not I cause anyone problems is entirely up to this power and if it wasn’t to misfire again. Though seeing as how I’ve probably been unconscious for a couple of hours and we’ve had this little chat, I don’t see that happening.” she said with a slight chuckle as she turned her gaze away from the man and looked out the glass wall of her room. “So long as the shopkeeper is safe and the goods were returned to him, my quarrel with those thugs is over. You got nothing to worry about here Doc.”

Lucy continued to stare at her hand as it continued to quiver uncontrollably. This whole situation was foreign to her. Well not the, being in a hospital part, but more the, being checked out by a specialist. This was definitely a first for the girl, so it came as no surprise when she was asked a question that she didn’t rightly have an answer. “I wish I could tell you. These things don’t come with a manual unfortunately. If I had to guess, they seem to last for a couple of hours at least.”

The room fell silent for a moment after that as Lucy seemed to be deep in thought, or completely lost altogether. Memories of the thugs continued to fade in and out, causing Lucy to try and mentally sift through her own mind for the information she needed. She suddenly snapped out of her trance and turned her attention to the blonde haired doctor. “I’m sorry. This is the first time I’ve been seen by a specialist. Usually the other doctors just give me some pain killers and send me home after a couple of hours.”

Dressler nodded in acknowledgment as Lucy informed him that she wouldn't be looking to cause any further harm to the thugs she had stopped in the alley. Truthfully Dressler couldn't be troubled with their current condition or even if they lived or died. These were stepping stones that had brought him to her, a gem of a metahuman. Perhaps she wasn't even a metahuman. Her abilities were not that dissimilar to his own. In fact, all she seemed to lack was control along with the added benefit of taking on the memories of those she came in contact with. He chuckled again as she informed him that her abilities didn't come with a manual. Of course they didn't. But Dressler had an advantage in this situation that she didn't, and he was certain that he could unlock the potential hidden in the girl's genetics, let her spread her wings as it were.

No, I'm sure you've never been looked at by a specialist. Despite the number of people like you in the world, people like me are rather rare. Dressler smiled as the last bit passed through his teeth. Then he'd turn to the door and quickly stand from his chair. Opening it, he'd peek his head out quickly, ensuring that no one was immediately approaching the room. Seeing no one, he'd once more close the door and lock it behind him. Now standing in the doorway, he'd turn back to Lucy and lift his right hand. Slowly it would change from an ape's hand then a larger version of a bird's talon and finally back to its normal human form.

In more way's than one he'd finish the previous thought as he approached the bed once more. The hospital staff doesn't know and I'd prefer to keep it that way he informed her. This was the truth. You see, I took this position to help people like yourself, struggling with their powers but wanting to make a difference. You strike me as that kind of person. Dressler would wait a moment, letting the girl absorb the information he had just put in front of her. He had after all just revealed to her that he was not human and that the hospital staff didn't have a clue. Obviously information like that could be startling and Dressler did not want to create any unnecessary tension. After all, he had meant what he said. He wanted to help her. Once he felt that she had adequate time to process what he had just put in front of her, he spoke again.If I haven't scared you off yet he chuckled I'd like to teach you to control your abilities like I can.

Lucy gave the doctor a look of curiosity as he stood up from his chair and made his way for the door. The feeling of confusion only got stronger as he exhibited more strange behavior, by poking his head out the door, looking both ways, then locking the door behind him. Everything became somewhat clear to the young woman when the specialist proceeded to turn around and show off his shapeshifting abilities. Lucy found it odd that the blonde physician was so hush, hush about his abilities till he answered her next question before she could even ask it. “Oh neat, you can shape shift!” she said with much enthusiasm to the doctors abilities.

She found it a bit odd that no one at the hospital knew about his gift, but figured it was a complicated manor to discuss, instead she focused her attention on another fact. “Why would I be scared? I’ve never met a shapeshifter before.” she said, Perking up in the hospital bed, as she now found something to take her focus off of the pain. Lucy listened intently to every word of Dressler’s proposition as he slowly approached the bedside. “You know, it actually makes a bunch of sense, I mean the rest of the staff may not know it, but it would be practical to have a meta doctor helping other metas get better.” said said with a rather large grin, as if Dressler’s cover story was flawless.

The issue of controlling her power came up and forced Lucy to look back down at her hand, though it was still shaking, it wasn’t as severe as it had been just moments ago. She thought for a moment on what the doctor was offering. It all seemed too good to be true. Of course she had no idea if the doc could make good on his offer or not, but that wasn’t the question she was now thinking over in her head. Of course, she’d love to rid herself of this insufferable pain she experienced every time she touched someone, but could that really be controlled? And what about the powers she could potentially absorb? How would she or Dr. Dressler know ahead of time about the powers she’d come into possession of? She had to know more about this ‘training’ before she made up her mind. “The offer is tempting doc, but how would you know where to start? And how could you possibly teach me to control powers I don’t have yet?”
Lucy’s decision rested on the answer the specialist would give to her question.

Dressler's little gamble had payed off. Lucy was in no way frightened by his admission. Instead she seemed fascinated by what he could do. That was good. He could use that moving forward. For now however he seemed to be at a crossroads in his time with her, the way to proceed with teaching her to control her abilities and gain her trust. There were a few options, some of them requiring months of rigorous and potentially harmful treatments. Exposing her to neural inhibitors while introducing various metahuman genetics seemed the most promising option at first glance. But it didn't provide the certainty that Dressler needed in this situation. He could not be sure how her mind would react to absorbing an ability under an altered state of conscious. This path also ran the risk of boring her, or having her come to distrust him through weeks of no results.

Option number two would be an attempt to alter her metagene itself, granting her a shortcut to control of her abilities. This would certainly yield the quickest result but seemed inherently impossible to Dressler based on his knowledge of her physiology. In order to mold her with the Highform Mutagen, he'd need to come in physical contact with her, which would mean that she would absorb his abilities, which would make her immune to the mutagen. It was a shame really. If he could get inside her genetics he could not only give her total control over her abilities but also implant in her very cells the agent of subservience to himself as he had with Bella.

Dressler mulled all of this over as he sat next to Lucy's bed after she had posed her final question. With options one and two out of the question, it seemed that he would have to go with plan number three. Well Lucy he began, scooting his chair closer to her as he spoke. I have an idea. You see, I possess control over my own biology, down to a cellular level. Within my cells is the potential to become any creature I've ever encountered or studied which believe me is quite a lot. The way I see it, if I allow you to take on my Highform genetics and teach you to master control over something as chaotic and vast as they are, you'll master your own abilities in the process. Dressler would then offer out his hand to her. He knew he was taking a risk. Giving her his genetic code would also allow her access to his mind, his memories. She'd see all the things he had done that the humans found repulsive or inhumane. At the same time, she'd be gaining his knowledge of why he had done it all, the means to the end of saving mankind from itself. She had to believe in his cause if she possessed the information in his brain, she had to. So what do you say? Are you ready for your first lesson?

Lucy kept her steely blue eyes locked on the doctor as he scooted ever so uncomfortably closer to her bedside. It wasn’t that she thought he was creepy, but the last thing she wanted to do was accidently touch him. One trip to the ER today, was more than enough for the young girl. The things Dressler mentioned about his abilities peaked Lucy’s interest. If he had control over his own biology, then just maybe he could indeed help her control her volatile powers. Taking a look at his outstretched palm, Lucy now had several options to weigh in her mind.

The young girl was fully aware that there would be some negative side effects to coming into contact with the doctor, and the headache was the least troubling. She could only assume the fit her body would have trying to process an ability like shape shifting. The other problem was there were still in the ER, if Lucy took the doctor up on his offer, she could be very well placing everyone here at risk. Lucy raised a trembling hand to her face and began to bite her thumb nail as she processed everything. “Geeze Doc, you make a very convincing pitch but, we both don’t know what’ll happen if I touch your hand. I could hurt a bunch of people.”

Lucy continued to nibble on her thumb nail, the shaking in her arm getting progressively worse. As she pondered about the numerous repercussions of her different choices, she began to get riled up. With the buildup of nerves came a familiar feeling of heat. Lucy had felt this sensation right after she had come in contact with the thug. The sensation only continued to fuel her, which in turn, caused her nerves to become pure panic. She could only assume what would come next seeing as how she was told the thugs ended up here in the ER with her after she blacked out.

In a moment of pure desperation, she saw her only option. She quickly reached out and grabbed Dressler’s hand. The heat she had been feeling in her body instantly subsided, but her mind was bombarded with all of the doctor’s memories and knowledge at the same time. The flood of information assaulted her mind like a series of small powerful jolts to her head. Her grip tightened around Dressler’s hand as she tried to power through the initial burst of pain. Her jaw clenched tightly shut like a steel trap and she arched her back. The monitors connected to her for her blood pressure and heart rate all began beeping and pinging as her vitals spiked.

All of the blonde doctor’s memories flashed before her. The thoughts and memories played in her mind like some sick twisted viewmaster. Each scene was worse than the last, visions of the mad doctor experimenting on ill patients he had ‘procured’ from the various hospitals he worked at, the twisting torment of another female as he drove her to kill a man, the many different layers scattered beneath the streets of New York and the murder of Phoenix. These were just a few of the horrors locked away in Dressler’s mind that bulldozed their way through Lucy’s head.

In sheer disgust and distrust in the moment, Lucy relinquished the doctor’s hand and rolled out of the bed as she tried to distance herself from him. Her body landed with a sickening thud that couldn’t have been made by her own body, and it wasn’t. In the time it took for the young girl to roll of the hospital bed and hit the ground, her body had already begun to react to Dressler’s power. Various parts of her body rippled with a rainbow of different animal parts and skins.

Lucy writhed around on the ground letting out grunts and growls of pain as her body continued to shift uncontrollably. Eventually subconsciously Lucy’s mind had settled on a form. Her torso had elongated significantly, her legs had taken on a feline appearance, her arms resembled that of a gorillas, several tentacles sprouted from her back, a large scorpion tail protruded from the end of her tail bone, and her head had taken on a feline appearance as well, though it still retained some humanoid aspects. Pain continued to course through the girl’s body as it continued to get acclimated to the new power. “Make it stop! Make it stop!” she cried out, her now giant hand grasping her head, as if it was somehow going to elevate the pain.

As Lucy reached out for his hand, Dressler felt a rush of excitement. This would be her first step towards joining him ans he unlike the others would have the fortune to gain full insight into his grand plan for the world. But almost instantly as she grasped the doctor's hand, her head shot back and her grip tightened. Dressler could see and feel that her genes were changing, taking on more and more of his own genetic code. The process however must have been incredibly violent. Lucy's grip became like a vice, restricting the blood flow to his own hand. Any minute now he willed to her you'll see it all and see the glory of what is to come.

But in the meantime, Dressler had a problem to deal with. As Lucy underwent the grueling task of altering her own genetic makeup, her body was struggling. The monitor's still hooked up to her next bed began to go haywire. Heart-rate, blood pressure, all it spiked simultaneously into dangerous levels. Instantly Dressler was kicking himself. Why had he not foreseen this, disconnected her from the devices before they made physical contact? Unfortunately that didn't matter now. The hospital staff likely had already been alerted to her spiked vitals and would be on their way to make sure she wasn't going into cardiac arrest.

Rising quickly from the bed as Lucy released her grip of his hand the good doctor raced to the door. Already he could hear the staff clambering about outside the room. Acting preemptively he would push open the door just enough to lean his head and chest out from inside, meeting the oncoming nurses head on.

Out of the way doctor, we have to- the nurse started before being interrupted by Dr. Dressler.

I'm sorry but I can't let you in here his tone was dark and grave. The patient's situation has changed, her metahuman abilities are acting erratically and it would be dangerous for anyone other than me to be near her. With that he would slam the door shut. That excuse he knew was not going to fly for long, maybe it would even make their desire to come in worse. So, taking a few steps back Dressler would spit a steady stream of thick spider silk from his mouth around the edge of the door. That would hold it for long enough.

Turning back to his patient, Dressler was astounded by the changes she had already undergone in the few moments he'd been away from her. A wonderful chimera of various beasts lay writhing on the other end of the bed, feline, primate, arachnid and even cephalopod. His mind turned back to Bella, who had struggled moving beyond mammals but Lucy seemed to have already managed a rather complex form. There were areas of course that she'd need improvement on, the clear distinction between animal pieces of course being one of them. But that was nitpicking, for now Dressler stood in utter awe at the product of his genes thrust upon another lifeform.

That of course was the physical end of things, Dressler had little idea what was going on inside her head. Whatever it was though it definitely wasn't going well. Her gorilla-like arms pressed hard against her head as the girl screamed out for him to make it stop. That probably wasn't a good sign, perhaps she hadn't taken in enough of his mind to understand fully grasp everything. Kneeling down next to her, Dressler would gently reach out to grab her shoulders. Focus Lucy he commanded in a tone that was both firm and warm. You'll make it through your first transformation just as I did. The truth was that he understood what she was experiencing currently, well at least he thought he did. Look at me Lucy, focus on me. You're now going to fall apart, you're not going to dissolve, you're going to be fine. And I'll be right here to make sure of it.

Lucy’s body continued to pulsate with pain second by second. There was definitely more to the doctor than he had let on, and it wasn’t just bodily pain that was driving Lucy’s vitals off the charts, it was the memories. For someone who tried to always see the good in things, it was awfully hard for Lucy to sift through all the horrific visions she was seeing to remotely find any traces of Dressler’s ‘noble’ intentions. While she continued to writhe around on the ground she could hear a commotion going on behind her. The blonde doctor had leapt into action and prevented any of the hospital staff from entering the room.

Lucy could only assume he didn’t want her spilling the beans, that and what he said was partially true. She was a danger right now, not only to herself and Dressler, but the hospital staff and patients as well. Through her massive apelike hand’s Lucy could hear the doctor doing something near the door after he had slammed it in the faces of the emergency room nurses. Once the strange noise had stopped, she could hear the doctor quickly approaching her. Still reeling from the flood of memories, Lucy wanted nothing more than to put distance between herself and Dressler. As soon as he knelt down near her, she immediately began kicking and wiggling her body in order to position herself closer to the wall and away from the concerned doctor.

It was apparent by the look on his face that he had no idea why Lucy was freaking out as much as she was. On the surface he more than likely believed that She was experiencing a panic attack as her body acclimated to his power, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Sure, her body was in a serious amount of pain, but it was her mind that had experienced the full shock of coming into contact with the doctor. Lucy was finding it difficult to focus her vision and wasn’t entirely sure if it was her or the power that was preventing her from doing so. Despite the blurred vision Lucy did her best to stare at the blob she could only assume was Dressler.

Through labored breaths and a constant stream of pain, Lucy held up her right hand trying to signal for the doctor to keep his distance. “S-stay…Stay away from me!” she commanded, still trying to push herself further and further away from the so called meta human specialist. She wasn’t going anywhere, she had already backed up into the wall, yet somehow in this moment her failing attempts to put distance between her and the doc were the only thing keeping her remotely calm. Her arms went back to clenching her head tightly as she let out a small whimper. “I can’t take much more of this!”

Even through Dressler's attempts to calm her, Lucy was still at her wit's end. Her feet fluttered furiously against the tile floor as he drew closer to her, getting her as far as the wall to her back. And even then she seemed to struggle futilely to put distance between the two of them. What as wrong with her? Dressler could not figure it out. She seemed to be avoiding him as though he had caused her some grievous injury or was the most vile monster imaginable. What exactly had he done? What was she seeing? The words came from her in shunted gasps. "Stay away". The words seemed to click together the situation in Dressler's mind. It was not the struggle with her physical transformation that was causing her pain, it was her mind.

Dressler's memories were now racing through her head like a bat out of hell. But something must have been missing from them. How could she not see that what he was doing was the only thing, the only option? He stared intently at the girl as she once more clutched her head, proclaiming that she could not take anymore. His face darkened and the good doctor became not harsh but firm. Listen to me he commanded as the sounds of banging and yelling at the door intensified. I don't know what parts of me you're seeing and living at the moment, but I can assure you that any horrors that I've committed have been done with nothing less than the best of intentions. Perhaps that was the issue. Maybe Lucy was only getting the physical memory, not the mindset or the intent behind it. You have my memories which means you have my knowledge, so use it! His voice was growing more intense, half yelling half pleading with the girl. She had to see reason. Do you think that I would have to step in, to do what I do if the human race had not created a stagnant festering cesspool of a world in which they are slowly drowning every last living thing on this planet? They need nothing less than a rapid course correction. And the world resists rapid change. IT can only be brought about by revolution, a sudden and violent shift. Look into my memories and know as well as I do that this is the undeniable truth! His final words were punctuated by a loud bang on the door to the room. Dressler's head would turn quickly. A large dent had formed in the door. They're trying to break down the door he thought, the consequences of that running uneasily through his mind.

The tension within the small ER room only continued to escalate. Somehow, someway, Dressler had come to the realization that Lucy was scared of him, not because of his powers, but because of the person he was. He entered this longwinded and passionate speech about how mankind was rotting and how they needed a swift kick in the ass. With the memories and knowledge flowing through her head, Lucy could somewhat sympathize with the doctor’s thoughts. That being said, he was definitely going about spurring inspiration in the wrong way. The things he wanted to do, the methods by which he sought to achieve that end, it all seemed like one giant nightmare to the young girl.

Even with the pain starting to subside within the girl’s body, her head still screamed in pain. Dressler’s animated tone and the excessive pounding drove Lucy to wince and clutch her head tighter and tighter with each repetitive knock on the door. Lucy’s manic breathing eventually came to a crawl as she calmed herself down. Eventually Lucy lowered her hands, letting her enlarged forearms land with a thud against the cold tile of the hospital floor. Her once playful crystal blue eyes, now narrowed into an angry scowl. Her elongated body slowly rose, the writhing tentacles on her back dragging up the wall, hoisting her up onto her hind legs. The unholy unification of animal parts that now made up Lucy’s body had added a significant boost to the young woman’s body. Now looming over Dressler, Lucy hunched down a bit, that angry scowl never leaving her face for even a moment.

“You want to talk about using knowledge doc? Let’s put that shoe on the other foot. For someone with so much potential floating around in their mind, you’re pretty damn dense. How can you not for a moment think how horrible your plan is? Not even from a moral stand point, but from a logical one?” Her tone had shifted from being bubbly, to aggressive and dark, it was almost like something else had taken over the young woman. With so many thoughts, memories, and knowledge building up within her mind, it was hard for Lucy not to take on the personality traits of her victims as well. This is what was happening, the shock to Lucy’s system jarred lose some of her less ‘appealing’ traits and now she was taking it out on Dressler.

The hulking monstrosity that had become Lucy, treaded ever so slightly closer to the doctor. “How could you possibly think that completely rewriting the human genome was the way to go? Doing that only serves to do the very thing you’re trying to prevent. You’d be single handedly eradicating mankind. They don’t need to be saved! They need to be inspired!” She abruptly concluded her sentence by slamming her ape-like appendage into the hospital bed, causing it to collapse from the force of the strike.

Dressler rose to meet Lucy's gaze, a fire seeming to light inside her. She was fighting, gaining control, he could see that. And she was mad, seething at him, there was passion in her voice as she spoke. Yes Dressler lot, listening to her berate him let it out, feel that rage I feel. However his joy was undercut by what exactly the girl was saying. His plan was horrible from a logical standpoint, doomed to fail, identical to the sort of thing he was trying to prevent. Thin smile crept across Dressler's face as he listened to her and an unnerving calm overcame his demeanor.

I'm not looking to rewrite the human genome he started, smoothly, calmly. Mankind's time has reached its end just like so many creatures before it. Creatures like you and I are popping up more and more every day. The human race is doomed one way or another. What I am trying to do is preserve what I can. His form began to bulge in response to Lucy's display of strength. Muscles rippled beneath his skin, bone and sinew cracking as they accommodated new structures. Then his skin began to harden into a smooth and deeply contrasting white and black shell, parted only where necessary at the joints. Rising to the same eye level as Lucy, his jaw receded into his head leaving behind a spider-like set of mandibles. His voice now hoarse and breathy he continued. Inspiration will do them nothing. They need a return to nature, to the basest of forms when life was hard and survival a daily ruthless struggle. Only then will the remnants of human-kind learn to rise above the mess they've created.

Just then the door came busting open, a group of four orderlies clinging to a loaded down medical bed charging through the open space. I admire their spirit! he barked to Lucy as the bed collided with his back, forcing him to take a step forward. A twisting sound came from his neck as it spun a full 180 degrees. A pair of hunstman spider eyes blinked open in the back of his head as to not lose sight of Lucy. And I hope to preserve it into the future. Then he opened his mouth, letting loose a thick spray of bombardier beetle spray. Almost instantly the men and women began to choke on the concoction as it burned their eyes and clogged their throats. Reaching out, Dressler would snatch one of them up by the leg, dragging them forward and holding them up in front of Lucy as he turned back to her.

But their bodies and minds have been made weak from decades of sloth and luxury he spoke, contempt in his voice. To demonstrate his point he squeezed on the man's leg, his vice-like grip shattering the bone beneath. The man screamed out in pain. Please he begged through coughs and sharp breaths just let me go. Dressler's eyes then fell back on Lucy. See how it begs for its life instead of fighting tooth and nail for everything it has. This is not a creature that could survive without the constant life support that human-kind's technology brings. So you see, I intend to carry forward the best parts of this species into my own, allowing the human race to die off slowly, naturally in the face of a better suited creature. And you Lucy, I want you to be a part of that glorious future.

The pounding in Lucy’s head was beginning to be outweighed by the pounding of her heart. Caught in the heat of the moment and otherwise locked in a heated debate with a person she deemed to be out of their damn mind, it was an understatement to say she felt anxious. She lifted her large apelike arm off of the now decommissioned hospital bed and recoiled a bit as Dressler began to shift into a new form and fire back a rebuttal to Lucy’s previous statements.

Just as soon as Dressler had attained his new form and finished speaking, the door was broken down and several orderlies rushed in only to be terrified by the sight of the two grotesque beasts now occupying the small ER room. Lucy turned to them, the scared look on their faces being reflected in her own as one of Dressler’s arms reached out and clamped down on a male orderly’s leg. The cracking of bone was audible to all and so were the screams and pleas of the orderly as Dressler’s grip continued to constrict around the man’s leg.

Feeling a sudden burst of courage Lucy motioned forward. She didn’t attack nor did she try to pry the man from the monstrous doctors clutches, fearing she’d only further the damage. Instead Her head poked out a bit further than her body, putting her face to face with Dressler’s bug like mug. “PUT HIM DOWN NOW!” she let out a bestial growl and began to prowl around Dressler, almost stalking him, like the animals they were. The fire was back in her eyes, shades of various personalities all working together in this moment to give the young girl the strength she needed to confront the blonde doctor.

“You want to judge humans, you want to cleanse them….who gave you such right? What have you done in your lifetime to deserve such an honor?” Lucy’s prowling continued, the tentacles sprouting from her back violently lashing out at the space around her. “You are no one special. You live in a world where people like us are a dime a dozen. Just because you have powers…control over genetics does not warrant such behavior. Someone with as brilliant a mind as yours should know better.”

Lucy had completed a full circle around Dressler before coming to a stop in the same spot she had started in. She posture showed that though she might have been scared and confused, there was a new found sense of courage and anger and it was being directed in Dressler’s direction. “The last person that should be trying to preserve the best traits of humanity, is someone who lost there’s long ago.”

Lucy was beginning to feel herself and though she may have been going a bit overboard with her tirade she was far from through with letting Dressler off the hook for all his past transgressions. “Also! You say humans have become laid back and soft in today’s world, relying so heavily on technology, but are you no different? Look how quickly you were to use your powers to prove your point. Your no different from the very things you condemn. Rather than use your mind you’d so easily fall prey to your own power in an attempt to win an argument….hell any meta would. That makes us no different than them.”