Chapter 40: Body Reforging

Rick woke up slowly, first becoming aware of the quiet sounds of a hospital before he managed to open his eyes. He was lying in a soft bed with a sheet covering him, but it felt like he was wearing little underneath. The instant he tried to move, he felt deep aches all over his body, though he'd felt worse. The question was if anything had changed.

He managed to raise his right arm and wiggle his fingers. Other than the pain, he felt mostly normal. The sluggishness might simply have been him coming awake after the anesthesia, and there was certainly nothing abnormal that he could see. Did his blood look a little darker than normal? No, that was definitely just his imagination.

The clock on the opposite wall suggested that he had been unconscious for twelve hours. A moment later he realized that meant he'd missed two different doses of Formula T. If it was really addictive, he should be feeling withdrawal, yet he felt pretty good overall. Maybe Lisa had been wrong.

When he started to move his left arm, he felt it tug on something. Shaking himself awake, Rick realized that there was a needle in the back of his hand. The tube attached to it was golden... and he saw an IV drip filled with what could only be Formula T. He sighed and started trying to ease off the tape, eventually pulling out the needle. Compared to the deep aching, it didn't hurt at all.

Spotting his clothes neatly folded beside the bed, Rick decided that he might as well dress. It seemed as though they'd been cleaned as well, smelling faintly like a flower he couldn't identify. No sooner had he finished pulling on his shirt than Abril poked her head in the doorway.

"Hello! Glad to see you up and around already."

"Is this standard procedure?" Rick pointed to the Formula T drip, only then realizing that he was being too blunt.

"No, it was specific to you."

"Uh, sorry. Just got up and I'm feeling a bit off." He smiled back at her. "Did the operation go well?"

Her smile had gone back to that thin line, but he didn't think it was directed at him this time. "It did, but I wanted to speak to you about some-"

"Enough." H stormed into the room after her, looked Rick over, and grunted. "Even you couldn't spend more time in bed, huh? Come on, we have a lot of conditioning to do."

Abril gave him a helpless shrug and gestured for him to go. He sighed and followed H into the domestic wing of the building. He'd been distracted by thoughts of the operation when they arrived, but now marveled at just how massive the building was. And based on what he had seen, every floor and room of it catered to fighters in one way or another.

Though Rick expected his "conditioning" to involve getting the shit kicked out of him, H was actually rather gentle, if gruff. They began with his ordinary meditation, making sure that the serious operation hadn't damaged his lucrima soul. Rick had only heard a little about such complications, but it seemed that everything had gone well.

Over the next several days, he carefully tested himself. The deep aches in his body lasted much longer than he expected, even with regular supplements and additional healing. Based on what he read online, he was actually healing unusually quickly. He could feel the Dark Blood Kettle running along his bones and considered asking H about it, but in the end decided that it couldn't be doing any harm. It didn't seem to be attacking the new bone marrow, so presumably it was helping integrate everything.

The pain made him hesitate when physically exercising, but he slowly found that it actually didn't harm him. A few times a nurse helped him with physical therapy, which helped worked out the stiffness. He saw Abril occasionally, but they never had time to really talk.

Once he was feeling better, they began to spar again, but it was more like their old footwork training: H focused on his form and insulted him when he misstepped, but wasn't trying to beat the lessons into him. That more than anything helped Rick relax about the whole procedure. His mentor might be trying to control him, but H did ultimately want him to succeed as a fighter.

For a while, conditioning was his life, except for occasional studying and texts with Melissa. His sister had been quieter than usual, then out of nowhere sent him the potato drawing, now with the entire image contained within a duck's head. It was so nonsensical that it made him laugh, but he couldn't figure out how to follow up on it and just made sure he didn't ignore her.

Trying to contact Damian hadn't been successful, though he got one acknowledgment that his message had been received. It made sense that he wouldn't want to talk about anything strange over emails, even indirectly. Rick also spent some time working with Katenka, but they stuck to theory because she said he shouldn't push himself too hard.

Eventually he was sent back over to the medical wing for further tests, to confirm that he was producing the right kinds of blood cells. The test took much longer than usual, and for a while he worried that the operation hadn't taken somehow. But when Abril eventually walked into his room, she was smiling at the tablet in her hands.

"Only good news, Rick. There's some odd lucrim shadowing in your blood that slowed us down, but the marrow is doing its job. Every day for the next year or so you'll be just a little bit stronger."

"Lucrim shadowing?" Rick was usually familiar with lucrim terminology, even if he didn't know the details, but he'd never even heard of that one.

"Ah, that's medical jargon. Lucrim is... I don't want to say 'spiritual' but that's the tempting word." She paused, tapping a finger against the side of her face. "Some people also say 'metaphysical' but it's a physical reality. The point is this: usually your lucrima soul operates alongside your biological body. But with some techniques, or in some rare cases, the lucrim casts a 'shadow' that has a measurable impact on your biology, even when you're not using lucrim or generating aura."

"Is that... good?"

"It's great, in your case. We always scan portfolios for potential negative interactions, but positive reactions are much rarer. Presumably it's something about your Lucores or some technique you've trained, but you're adjusting to the new marrow faster than usual."

He guessed that had to be the Dark Blood Kettle and so simply nodded. "So the operation is a success. Do we do the skin part next?"

"You're not quite ready yet, and I actually wanted to talk to you about that." Abril pulled a chair over to sit opposite him and placed her tablet in her lap. "I understand that you're taking a high end combat elixir. Horatio wanted me to give you a specific type of artificial marrow that would have used it to work more efficiently, but I rejected it because it hadn't been approved for use in humans."

"H wanted my marrow to run on Formula T?"

"I wouldn't say that, but the results have yet to be thoroughly tested, so there could have been unintended side effects. There are many fighters who try untested procedures on themselves, but the elites usually won't, and we definitely won't perform any untested operations here. It would be hard to find a true professional who would."

Though the fact that H had tried such a thing left Rick cold, he was glad that Abril was looking out for him. "Thanks for letting me know."

"I suppose if you're not surprised, it's fine. But we need to talk about the next operation." Abril picked up her tablet and began bringing up several diagrams. "When it comes to your enhanced skin, you have several options. All of them have been tested safe, but that doesn't mean they're without drawbacks. Your mentor is pushing for this last one, but it's ultimately up to you."

"What are the differences?"

"There are some extreme options, like the X1 or X2 models. Those harden your skin substantially and permanently, but they also deaden your sense of touch and can encourage melanoma. I said those were out of the question for now, so just be aware that he'll push for it later."

Given their conversation, Rick wasn't surprised. He gestured to the lower set of diagrams. "So we're looking at this set? T1 through T3?"

"That's right. All of them increase your ability to channel aura through your skin, which in practice will make you much tougher. T1 is the weakest, but it's self-sustaining. The T2 model allows you to channel your special elixir directly and produce an even stronger defense. I mean shrugging off lucrim bullets, that sort of thing. Now, T3 is even more durable, and it doesn't have any health disadvantages, but it requires a nearly constant stream of lucrim in specific forms."

"And if I run out?"

"Well... your skin wouldn't fall off, but it would start weakening and discoloring. Wouldn't be pleasant." Abril shook her head slowly. "I don't think I'd recommend that one, not unless you think you can keep Horatio happy forever. But between T1 and T2, that's up to you."

"T1." There wasn't really a question in his mind: this was another ploy to make him dependent on Formula T and the Showdown in general. If he had a choice, he'd take this one. "No question about it."

"Great!" Abril smiled her usual polite smile, but he thought he saw her relax a little. "I thought that would be better for you anyway. Now, today all we need to do is take a few skin samples and test your lucrima portfolio, but you'll be back in a week or so for another operation."

Rick spent that week preparing, both with increased supplements and more intense training. Though H wasn't brutal yet, he made it very obvious that he wanted Rick to be able to fight at peak condition soon. Apparently the skin procedure was much less invasive, as the effects would slowly appear over time, so it was just a matter of making sure his body was fully recovered by the time of the competition.

He finally got a reply from Damian, but it was infuriatingly vague, just saying that the two of them should meet in Brazil. Rick wasn't sure how to respond to that and just set it aside. If Damian was brushing him off, he wasn't worth the time, and if he intended to make something happen, that was well within his capabilities.

Other than his sister and a few emails with Uncle Frank about body modification, Rick didn't get any messages... until he suddenly started receiving appeals from his family. Uncle Alan and many of the others didn't come right out and say it, but they were begging him for money. So many sob stories about broken vehicles, health problems, and debts.

Rick deleted all of them as soon as he received them.

Presumably they must have seen him participating in the Showdown and were now trying to beg money off him. He'd seen it before, anyone in the family who got a little money instantly acquiring several leeches of the human variety. The only question was how they managed to get his contact information, but they could be resourceful when it came to certain very specific things.

Once Raggest showed up in the building, trying to recruit Rick for some harebrained scheme, but this time H ran him off. His period of recovery and preparation actually went very smoothly, and on the day of the operation itself nothing went wrong. He was unconscious for a while as they used the DNA therapy Lucore, then he woke without any symptoms.

Despite the fact that he knew nothing had changed yet, Rick still stared at the skin on his arms. They looked the same, and supposedly they would continue to look the same even once the process was done. But from that day, as dead skin cells flaked away, they would be slowly replaced by skin better designed to channel aura from his defensive cores.

Abril pronounced him healthy and free to go afterwards. He was no longer her patient, but instead of saying farewell she said that she'd see him around. Rick spent a while trying to figure out what she meant by that. It might have been a threat, or more flirtation, or possibly just the suggestion that he'd return for more operations.

Possibly. Though Rick disliked the idea of optimizing his body so much that he abandoned everything but a specific goal, the idea of optimizing for his life overall still appealed. It might be far beyond him at the moment, but maybe one day he and Melissa could achieve immortality, or at least long and healthy lives.

Since he didn't participate in any events in Brazil, Rick was beginning to think that he'd never get to see the country. H was watching him like a hawk, insisting that he stay focused, so there was no time to sneak out and do anything else. Once more, he regretted that his focus locked off so much else.

But before their time ended, Rick heard another helicopter arrive. They weren't so uncommon, as many warriors used the helipad, but this one was solid silver and looked more like a futuristic hovercraft than a helicopter. It got attention from some others and H wasn't around, so Rick decided to go find out who was inside it. At the very least, he could see something in the building other than the training chambers.

It took him a while to reach the roof, and when he did, he saw what he'd almost expected. Damian stood in his usual perfectly-tailored suit, but this time he had his arms around two women wearing bikinis. When Rick walked up, Damian immediately grinned.

"There you are! You just missed the bikini competition, but I have the winners here with me. Come on, let's have a night on the town!"

Rick smiled flatly and hoped that calling Damian hadn't been a mistake.