InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Are you coming or going? Or co"

kate freelander (soundsmadeup) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-12-14 03:01:00

Entry tags:

kate tesla, nikola tesla

Who: Kate Freelander and Nikola Tesla. Special guest appearance by the Source Blood.
What: Reckless tomfoolery...FOR SCIENCE, part deux. (AKA the actual reckless tomfoolery bit).
Where: Tesla's creepy mad scientist lab.
When: Tuesday afternoon.
Rating: TBD.
Status: In progress.

There were moments, a lot of them if she was being honest, when Kate acknowledged that she was being really stupid by helping Tesla with this venture into mad science. But it was like he'd said. Who would say no to an opportunity like this? Nobody. Besides, the guy was a friend and she felt bad for him. After getting shafted as many times as he had, it seemed cruel not to help him get back something that meant so much to him. Not to mention, he had to have received the Source Blood for a reason. If he wasn't supposed to do crazy vampire experiments with it, then what?

And anyway, if she didn't help, someone else would and there would be mutant pigeons and zombie college students by Christmas. No thanks.

"So I just sit here and let you stick things in me and wait for something to happen?" she asked, teasing. "Normally, I'd have a guy buy me dinner first, Nicky."

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 08:30 am UTC (link)

It had been a long process, making sure that the blood hadn't been tampered with, that the serum would come out uncontaminated, that the simulations showed a high probability that this would work how he had anticipated, but even then, it wasn't until now, as he loaded the syringe with the final batch of serum that he'd made, that he felt that he was actually making strides towards his ultimate goal.

"If this works, I'll buy you dinner after," Tesla said, a vaguely amused look crossing his features as he made sure to clear any air out of the needle before turning back to Kate. "You're going to feel a little prick...and perhaps a great amount of pain. Nobody said DNA structuring was ever pleasant. So I'll ask you one last time, are you sure about this?"

Like hell he was going to be libel if/when Helen found out and tried to skin him alive. He was making sure that she was completely agreeable.

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soundsmadeup
2010-12-14 08:39 am UTC (link)

"I'm holding you to that," Kate said with a grin. Like she was going to complain about spending more time with Tesla? The guy was fun and smart, like a crazier, vaguely more evil Hank. It made her miss him more and less by turns and it was nice, having someone to hang out with. Not that he was her only friend. She had Ash and Parker and Lestrade, and others besides. But Tesla kept things interesting, that was for sure. And Kate had always liked living a little dangerously. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have got far in her old job.

At the 'little prick' comment, she raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on," she said. "Don't sell yourself short. I'm sure it's perfectly adequate." Those kind of comments were fun, mostly because she knew nothing would ever come of them. Tesla was safe in that regard and, for whatever reason, she trusted him at least a little. Certainly enough to jab her with possibly fatal serums.

"I told you already," she said, her tone becoming serious again. She pulled off her jacket and set it beside her, rolling up her sleeves. "I'm sure about this. I'm not a kid or anything. I know what I'm getting myself into here. So let's get this show on the road."

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 09:06 am UTC (link)

"Perfectly adequate. Now who's under selling?" Tesla asked, a touch of mirth dancing in his eyes as he nodded his understanding. Getting the show on the road was a simple enough thing to do, carefully jabbing the needle into her vein and pushing the plunger down, watching as the purified blood left the needle and infused itself into her blood serum. Withdrawing the needle and setting it aside, Tesla stepped back towards Kate, settling his hands on her shoulders to hold her upright.

He remembered all too well the sort of transitional effects that they'd all suffered, and he was hardly going to allow her to hit the ground because he wasn't vigilant enough to keep some of the tremors from overwhelming her.

"How you do feel?" Then again, there was always the possibility that his calculations were wrong and nothing was going to happen. Then he'd kick himself and go right back to the drawing board.

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soundsmadeup
2010-12-14 09:28 am UTC (link)

"Perfectly adequate is the best you're getting," Kate said, laughing. "It's a positively ringing endorsement, I promise." She quieted down and settled as he found a vein and inserted the needle, injecting the serum into her blood stream. Okay, that wasn't so bad, even though the needle was bigger than his comments had suggested. Just a little prick my ass, she thought to herself. She really hated needles. But she seemed to still be alive in any case. Not dying was always a plus.

For a moment, nothing happened. She wondered if maybe it hadn't worked, if it would end in a trip back to the drawing board to start over again. Then she felt a sort of pain spreading through her, and even 'great amount' seemed to be underselling it from where she was sitting. Then again, she supposed it was very difficult to be objective about pain when you were the one feeling it. The tremors weren't all that fun either. She gritted her teeth and did her best to soldier through it. She had agreed to this, after all.

"Fuck!" she swore. Did that answer his question? Because that was seriously the best he was going to get right now. If this didn't work, and this was just a fun way of dying slowly and painfully, she was going to murder his skinny Serbian ass. She lost consciousness briefly at the end, slumping against Tesla, and if he ever told anyone about that part, she'd seriously hurt him. Yeah, this had definitely better work.

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 10:02 am UTC (link)

Tesla had expected most of this and had managed to hold on through the worst of it, but as she slumped forward, a mild panic settled over him that he suppressed, hefting her up as best as he could with one arm, flicking his other hand and using his ability to clear most of the clutter off of a table, before shuffling her up onto the table and laying her down. "Come on, kiddo. No dying on me, all right?" Tesla said, fishing a light out of his pocket and lifting her eyelids, shining the light into her eyes. Responsive, so that was at least something. And she seemed to be breathing, shallow but still there.

At least the worst of it seemed to be over. The tremors had calmed, and even though she was slightly unconscious at the moment, there was no involuntary yelping or yowling to indicate that she was still in pain. With any luck, it might have actually gone as smoothly as it could have. Now, all he had to do was wait for her to come to in order to view the results, and...yeah, waiting was so not his style.

"No time for naptime," Tesla said, gently tapping on Kate's cheek. "Wakey, wakey."

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soundsmadeup
2010-12-14 04:30 pm UTC (link)

Kate definitely wasn't dying, but she was unconscious. It was kind of embarrassing, considering she dealt with danger on a daily basis, and pain didn't usually bother her like that. Then again, to be fair, it had been more pain than she was used to. Really, it hadn't been as bad as she'd been expecting. After all, she was still alive, she still had all her limbs and no extra ones, and she hadn't burst into flames or anything crazy. Blame Hank for getting her into comic books. She'd seen the crazy shit that could happen when you messed around with fictional science.

She would have been happy to stay unconscious until she came to on her own, but Tesla seemed to have other plans. She came to with a groan, swatting at his hand. "I'm up, I'm up," she said, pulling herself into a sitting position. "You definitely undersold the fun of that experience," she teased, even though she still felt a little wrecked by what had happened.

"Well, I'm not dead," she said cheerfully, "so that's one point for this thing."

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 05:16 pm UTC (link)

Tesla couldn't suppress the amusement that crossed his features as his hand was swatted away. That was definitely a good sign, if she was feeling up to being a sassmouth. "Hey, I gave you fair warning and a chance to back out at the last second," Tesla said. "I think my end of things is well covered in this case. And like you said, you're not dead. The rest well ease in a few minutes, once your body settles into its new chemistry and starts coping with the changes."

Which were... It was hard to say. Nothing had been outwardly visible with most of them, the exception being him and Nigel. John had figured out his gift not long after them, and James had deduced his by a few days later. It was Helen's that had taken them the most time to puzzle out as it hadn't become apart until some time and several tests later exactly why she wasn't experiencing dramatic changes like the rest of them.

"How are you feeling? Aside from the obvious."

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soundsmadeup
2010-12-14 06:05 pm UTC (link)

"I know, I know," Kate grumbled good naturedly. She really had expected it to be a lot worse. "You're good. Not liable or anything. Blah blah blah. Your ass is covered. All I have to say is it better have actually done something, because if that's a failure, I'm not sure I want to see what a success feels like." But even as she said it, she knew she would try again if she had to. This was way too interesting to just back away from it. Plus, she kind of liked seeing things through, and being in the Sanctuary had given her this weird desire to keep her word. Stupid white hats.

"Any idea what those changes are going to be?" she asked. Did he have some kind of test or something. How had they figured out their gifts when they did this back in the 1800s? Well...Griffin was probably pretty obvious. And Tesla too, the more she thought about it. Watson probably knew his own mind well enough to notice the change, and it wouldn't take long to work out Druitt was a teleporter. Maybe they had just known. Well, that definitely wasn't the case here. All she knew was that her heart felt like it was racing, either from nerves or the serum working itself out.

"I feel okay, I guess," she said. Except that sitting still was driving her insane. She fidgeted, wanting to move or do something. "I mean, I don't really feel any different. Should I be feeling different."

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 09:19 pm UTC (link)

"Not necessarily," Tesla said. "It would depend on what abnormalities were activated in your DNA just how severe the change would be. I felt drastically different afterwards, myself, but I'm hardly typical." Though, atypical in situations that were as unusual as they come was an unreliable indicator of anything. "Try doing something. Focus outward, see if you can find anything in your mind that wasn't there before. Jump, run. Do a little dance. It could be anything."

Natural born abilities were easier to pin down because they often stemmed from a family legacy. Empaths bred empaths. Telekinetics bred telekinetics. But activating dormant carrier traits was less predictable. All Tesla could hope right now was that it wasn't anything that would turn out to be dangerous, for her or for the rest of them. They already had one Johnny running about. They didn't need two.

"If it's not obvious now, it will be in time."

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soundsmadeup
2010-12-14 10:11 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, well, you were a vampire," Kate pointed out helpfully, "so it's not exactly the norm. And that's definitely not the case here. Sorry I can't help you with your plan to further the vampire race." Only not really, because that would have been a little much for her to take. Some small difference, or even a big difference, was one thing; becoming a whole separate species was something entirely different.

She closed her eyes and just focused on what she felt. That on-edge feeling was still there, her heartbeat was still faster than usual, but she couldn't place anything. She figured it probably wasn't mental; it wasn't that she thought she was dumb, she just knew she was no Watson or Will. So something physical, or maybe nothing at all. She couldn't figure out what it might be, but she figured going for a jog right now might be a waste of time. "We'll figure it out," she said. "As long as it's nothing dangerous, there's no real hurry."

"For now, isn't it time to shoot you up with the serum of possible doom?" And okay, she was sort of looking forward to that part.

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oncemighty
2010-12-14 11:58 pm UTC (link)

Not a vampire. Not that that was surprising. There were likely other individual out there with vampire ancestry. Humanity's best, he liked to think, those minds that were so brilliant that they contributed leaps and bounds to the human existence. But whether his theories held to be true was impossible to see. The only way to provoke the traits was with the Source Blood...and there was so little of it left with the race extinct. No, he'd have to be content with his theories and leave it at that.

"My turn, then?" Tesla asked, a quirk of his eyebrow aimed in her direction as he grinned. "I suppose I don't see why not." After all, if he delayed it and it worked, he was only putting off the time until he was immortal again, indestructible, without the constant worry of being slaughtered at every turn. Even by accident.

Crossing back to the lab set up, he carefully extracted another sample of the serum, loading the needle and staring at it for a long moment even after he got it ready. Then again, if it didn't work, his delays were just the postponement of his disappointment. This was the true Source Blood that he was working with, the real thing, and there were no other solutions to the loss of his vampiric traits if this failed him. Then, his genius truly would have worked too well, removing all traces of his heritage from him, and he would be... disgustingly normal.

And he'd have to find yet another way to achieve immortality, a more complicated way than he had before.

"Well. Here goes nothing," Tesla said, taking a breath and trying not to let it show just how...scared he was as he injected the needle into his veins and waited.

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