Sunny was the first to react. Steel rasped over steel as she darted to stand protectively between Adam and the manic naked man who had just decked him. With the butt end of her spear, she rammed the stranger back into the wall, before flipping her spear around to lay the blade point end at the base of his throat.
The stranger huffed loudly as he was thrown back against the wall, wind knocked partially from his lungs, but when he finally regained his breath, instead of speaking, protesting or otherwise, he simply began to laugh.. The laugh was long, loud and rather manic leaving Sunny a bit unsettled.
She snarled, pressing the speartip hard against his throat, cutting off the laugh. Her eyes darted to Krill's lifeless body which lay dangling under one of the man's arms, "IS he dead?"
The man giggled.
Sunny snarled, "You better think of your next words very carefully, or I'm going to run you through like a kebab."
Behind her on the floor, Adam was just beginning to regain his senses.
The punch hadn't been strong enough to knock him out, but he flexed his jaw experimentally as he sat up, a woozy hand to his head.
"WAIT!"
Some of the pressure eased up on Sunny's spear, and she drew back slightly, turning her head only far enough to be able to see to the end of the hallway, while still being able to keep an eye on their attacker.
She was certainly surprised to find Dr. Katie dressed in full surgical scrubs come puffing up the hallway, followed closely by Celex and Conn in similar states of dress. Katie held out a hand, "Don't hurt him."
Sunny frowned, glanced down at Krill's limp body and then back at them.
It took her a few seconds to weigh their friendship, determine how much she trusted them before stepping back and lowering her spear. The man relaxed somewhat, breathing hard as his head fell forward. She had nicked the skin of his neck a bit, causing a gentle ruby to begin forming against his russet skin.
Slowly, the man reached up, passing a hand over his neck before drawing his hand away to examine the blood now staining his fingers. Instead of being fearful like she might have assumed, he was almost gleeful.
Sunny turned towards the end of the hall, the question plain on every line of her face.
Who was this madman? For a moment she assumed it was a crew member who had had some sort of psychotic break due to the anesthesia. She wasn't sure if that was possible, but it was plausible enough to keep hr from murdering him just on prinicpal.
Adam was still holding a hand to his face when the stranger's expression finally began to resolve itself away from manic .
In the space of a moment, the stranger went very still, the manic light in his eyes died away, replaced by something that was unnervingly like cold calculation. He turned his expression back to Adam, who still sat on the floor looking back and forth between the stranger and the surgical team searching for answers that were not forthcoming
"You have no idea how long I have waited to do that." Adam frowned and Sunny frowned with him. Somehow that voice seemed, familiar, vocal tone, or cadence or something that she couldn't place.
The familiarity of the voice only served to deepen Adam's confusion.
"I'm sorry have we-"
The stranger didn't bother to answer the question, but kept going, "For all the stupid, idiotic, dangerous, numb skulled bullshit that you have put me through over the years." The stranger was gaining some momentum, slow deliberate words devolving rapidly into a no holds barred rant that echoed up and down the hallway, "For all the cuts, burns, poisonings, gunshots, electrocutions, stabbings, abrasions lacerations, contusions and concussions because you are the dumbest, most foolhardy, self sacrificing dumbass with the world's most rotund savior complex, and all the time you are leaving me there to sit and worry, and twiddle my antenna on principal-"
"Krill!"
Adam got it a second before Sunny, whose mouth dropped open in a stupor of shock and confusion.
Bruised jaw forgotten for the moment, Adam scrambled to his feet eyes wide as he stared at the man.... At krill , who glowered up at him, and now that she knew, sunny wondered how she had missed it before.
She couldn't have explained it, but this man.
Couldn't have been anyone else.
The facial expressions, the way he spoke, the way he moved, the defiant jut of his chin. She almost felt stupid for not seeing it before.
Adam inched forward leaning in to examine Krill like he was a specimen in a jar, "Woah."
Krill tried to bat Adam's hand aside, but Adam caught him easily by the wrist, "You got one free shot on me, but that's it." He turned to look at the others, Katie, Celex, and Conn standing at the end of the hall and shuffling their feet like naughty grade schoolers, "I think someone needs to explain to me what's going on."
***
Twenty minutes later, they reconvened. Celex had tried to instruct Krill on the fine art of manifesting clothing to go with his Anima shape, but that hadn't really worked out, so instead he had borrowed a pair of scrubs and an old white lab coat from medical storage.
As soon as the coat was pulled on over his shoulders, everyone could feel as the missing piece clicked right into place. It was almost as if those clothes had been made specifically for this form.
Together, they all sat or stood in various stages of shock and confusion inside the medical wing. Krill's non-anima body lay lifeless on one of the med bay cots, though Katie had determined, with some relief, that the body wasn't dead, but in something like a persistent vegetative state.
Dr Katie herself sat rather sheepishly on one of the nearby beds. She had taken off her surgical gown and hairnet, allowing her long, dark hair to fall in gentlewaves around her shoulders. Celex stood a few feet away from her with an expression of amusement rather than sheepishness.
Conn almost seemed bored.
At the far end of the room, Krill stood in his new clothing staring down at his very human hands, flexing them slowly open and then closed, watching as the tendons on the back of his hand moved and rolled beneath the skin
It was hard to tell the perceived age of Krill's Anima body , but after some deliberation Adam might have said late thirties or early forties. Were it not for the subtle lines around the eyes, he might have said late twenties. It was however, the subtle dash of silver in Krill's reddish hair that convinced him, though makers know Adam wasn't one to judge a man's age by the amount of grey he had From head to toe Krill still wasn't very tall,, though he wasn't that short either, maybe 5'9 at most. His skin was a dark russet with visible undertones of red which either matched or clashed with his dark reddish orange hair, sticking up around his skull in an untidy mess.
Like celex, Only his eyes marked him as inhuman, the irises themselves a rather disconcerting shade of orange not possible on any other human.
"So,.... you did an animectomy.... On a vrul?" Adam said, turning to look at Katie who still sat shuffling her feet at the edge of the cot.
"He insisted...." Katie said feebly
Adam rubbed the back of his head, "I'd call you reckless if I weren't so impressed." he shot a glance at krill, "Even he hasn't attempted a surgery that hard." Krill frowned at him, and gave him the finger, a gesture that seemed to delight him immensely.
Adam snorted, "What possessed you to.... Do this?"
This time the question was directed at Krill, who finally looked up from playing with his newly acquired hands.
Bruises were already beginning to develop over the back of his knuckles, a surprising turn of events considering the body was his anima. Every Animectomy they had done had resulted in different outcomes for everyone. Adam and Sunny had been given the ability to communicate telepathically and occasionally use the power of the anima. Maverick, it seemed, had regained all her memories and thus was able to use her powers in full, though she hadn't been able to disconnect herself from her body, and now there was krill, who seemed disconnected from his body but also tethered.
So far, his human form had shown no signs of overt anima power.
Krill himself hypothesized that all of the anima energy was being used to maintain the human form he now held.
He couldn't read minds.
And he wasn't indestructible.
Krill reached up and ran a searching hand through his hair, blinking his eyes at them, "It's so.... Strange.... The way you see things its... precise."
"Krill-" Adam prodded.
Krill frowned at him, taking full advantage of his new human face to make the expression, "I was sick and tired of being useless."
This time it was Adam's turn to frown, 'Who said you were useless/'
"No one." Another voice announced to the doorway,and the group of them turned to see Riss scuttle into the room. He paused for a moment to look krill up and down, having made the connection more rapidly than the rest of them. His expression was vaguely thoughtful, "He has a complex, thinks helping only matters if it's on the front lines. Apparently saving lives and helping people isn't good enough." he turned his gaze to krill studying him with a critical expression, "You're short." He said finally.
Krill frowned at him again, an expression that was going to start leaving lines on his face if he did it anymore, walked over and picked Riss up, like he was picking up a toddler.
Riss seemed surprised and krill seem rather pleased with himself, "I wouldn't sass me anymore." He smiled showing off two rows of perfectly straight, white teeth,.
Riss simply patted his cheek, "yes yes, of course." He said in a bored voice.
Annoyed, Krill set him back down, turning his head in slow circles, then closing his eyes, "It feels so.... Strange." He muttered
The rest of the room exchanged looks. Then turned to Celex who was the only one in the room who had any sort of experience in this matter.
He waved a hand, "Becoming human can be.... disconcerting . I imagine its even worse for Krill. All of a sudden the way you see things changes, sharpens out. Your hearing becomes better, and so does your vision, when a gust of air rushes past you its like.... Feeling particles against your skin. You can hear..... everything , and when your body moves it's almost, narcotic, the pull and push of muscles and tendons." He frowned again, "And then there is this, feeling, a subtle need to move, to run...." He paused, "I don't know if that's just me though. Being human..... Its addictive."
Krill hummed, similarly to how he might have hummed in pleasure as a vrul but the sound was strangely inhuman.
And watching Krill, they all had to admit it was almost like he was high. His eyes were closed and he rocked gently from one foot to the other as if swaying to music only he could hear.
Of course it was to all of their surprise when parts of Krill's body began to flake away and evaporate into sudden starbursts of light.
Adam rose from his seat, and so did Katie, but by that time Krill's body had winked out of existence, and the body lying on the cot jolted suddenly awake, shooting upward in an aattempted movement that was far too human to work on a vrul body.
Vrul Krill groaned.
They all hurried to cluster over next to him.
WHen he finally began to focus, Adam thought his expression might have been mildly
Disappointed.