Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 290
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 22:04:03 +0000 UTCSaint stepped into Absolom Clinic. The bell rang loudly overhead, announcing his presence. Nael, the old Medek, stood over a bald unconscious girl. Shiro was slumped over on the far side of the room on a chair, finally taking a nap. It was about time. He knew for a fact she lied to him earlier… at least she was out in one piece.
”Saint, right?” Nael called from the surgical chair. He pushed aside a set of scanners. “If you’ll give me a sec, I’ll be right with you.”
”No rush. Here for her anyway.” Saint offered a smile and looked around the clinic. He hadn’t really gotten a good look back when he first came through.
Nael set up some kind of machine above the KO-ed girl and stepped away to let it do its work. “Working with Shiro, huh?”
“You know how it goes…” The reporter nodded his head to the girl slumped over in one of the waiting chairs. A file was still grasped tightly in her hands. “She tell you what happened?”
Nael rubbed a hand down his face and looked back toward the bald girl, Mira, presumably. “Savant Lab. Can definitely see traces of those maniacs. Is it still up?”
Saint leaned against a counter on the far side of the room, keeping his voice low and quiet so as not to wake either of the two. “Crusade came in a while ago to clean up. Probably be on the news any minute.”
“Of course it will.” Nael moved over, likewise leaning against the counter. “Can I get you anything? Coffee?”
”No… how’s she look?”
”Not good. Either one of them, in fact. I don’t even know what stuff they put in her, let alone how to take it out.” Nael sighed deeply. “Worried about that halo. Chrome attached directly to the brain like that is hyper dangerous to extract even on Medtech’s models.”
That was saying something since Medtech was generally renowned for their safe chrome. Saint shifted from foot to foot. “What’s wrong with Shiro, then?”
“Looked like a soldier tweaking out on stimulants when she walked in. You know how long its been since she slept last?”
”A while.” Probably since they first started moving to find her chum. She was always busy running around one place or another. Not that he could blame her. If it’d been one of his chums or sister in a similar situation, he wouldn’t have rested either. Not that there was any point considering such a situation with what happened.
Nael just shook his head, sitting in silence for several long moments. Eventually, the machine working on Mira beeped loudly and he moved over to check her one more time. His chrome hand shifted, turning into a full suite of surgical tools. “I’ll have to readjust some of the nerve connectors. The best I can do for now to make her comfortable. You planning on sticking around?”
”For now.” Saint pushed off from the counter and approached Shiro. He moved slowly and carefully, gathering up the papers scattered around her bag.
Nael glanced over his shoulder. ”Go get her a blanket, will you? They’re in the back.”
“Right.” Saint set down the important looking files and moved toward the back. When he returned, Nael had already set up a sterilization barrier around the chair. His hand twisted and whirled, carefully making incisions around the chrome exoskeleton.
Saint watched for a moment and then took the blanket to Shiro, carefully draping it over the sleeping girl. He settled down on the far side of the room and carefully looked through the files. Most of them were medical and technical jargon that went over his head, but he was a Saint of Sorrow. A little bit of confusing jargon wouldn’t keep him from getting what he wanted to know.
— — —
I bolted upright, nearly slipping on a blanket that’d been thrown over me. Mira. My eyes darted around erratically, taking in the clinic. Nael stood over a man, lightly wrapping his knee with a bandage. He waved at me, and then motioned to the far side of the room.
Saint, surprisingly, sat on the other side of the room, typing away on a laptop. A satchel sat open next to him, spilling out dozens of files and documents. No Mira.
My heart picked up speed. Was it all a fever dream? Did I not actually- no, deep breathes. She was probably just in the back. I hesitated for a moment and then moved to the far side of the clinic. “Saint.”
“Shiro…” He looked up from his laptop and then gathered his stuff back up. He stood up, motioning for me to follow after him. “C’mon, she’s back here.”
We went out into the long-term patient stay, down a few doors. He easily popped it open, letting me see my sleeping mikata laying down on a cot. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. It wasn’t just a fever dream then. I really found her.
Relief washed over me in waves. I- I never wanted to admit it, but a large part of me thought she was dead and I’d never find her. “How is she?”
”Nael adjusted some nerve connections. Should be a lot more comfortable, but removing that chrome? Not going to be possible without a specialist.” He motioned to the halo atop her head. It glowed with a faint red light.
”Is there a specialist?”
He pulled a file out from the bundle and handed it to me, avoiding my question. “They called it the Halo Cortex—multi-thought processing chrome. Cutting edge enough to do more harm than good… if it's pulled out, there’s no telling what kind of damage it’ll do to her mind. Nael was worried about her slipping into a never-ending coma at best.”
I looked through the file. It had a blueprint of the chrome, one that I immediately broke down. Not only would it cause issues with her brain, the chrome itself was set to self-destruct if it was ever removed. I looked through it several more times. If we wanted to remove it, I’d have to figure out a work around for that.
I shakily handed the file back. “W-what about the exoskeleton?”
“Shift ExoCore.” He handed me another document. This one was short, with just a name and brief description of the chrome. “No idea what it does. This was all you pulled on it.”
Damnit! I should’ve stayed longer- no, then what about Mira? And I burned all the research that was left… unless the Crusade found digital copies? But stuff like this was usually kept strictly on paper so it’d be easier to dispose of. I’d have to check the case files when I went back to the Crusade.
”Outside of the chrome,” which was potentially already a big issue, “was there anything else?”
”Some biological mutations. Nael managed to prevent the worst of them. HMV off shoots, basically. Some bruises… lots of scars.” He waved a hand to Mira. “She’s in a medically induced coma. Should wake up in half a day.”
“Nova.” I moved to sit in the room next to her. “I’ll stay-“
Saint stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. I barely managed to avoid lashing out at the man who’d been nothing but helpful since I brought him in. “Go clean up. You reek of blood and sweat.”
”But-“
”I’ll keep watch just in case. Think about it, though? If you were in her position, would you rather wake up with your chum covered in blood or clean?” He waved a hand at me.
I- I wasn’t covered in blood, but he had a point. I was definitely a mess at the moment. I was scared to look at a mirror to see just how bad it was. “I’ll be back in forty- twenty minutes.”
”Take your time. It’s not like we’re going anywhere. I’ll call you if she wakes up prematurely.” Saint moved to take the seat, propping open his laptop. “Oh, and your keys are on Nael’s counter. I moved your bike up to the roof to be a bit less conspicuous.”
”Thanks—f-for everything.” I didn’t even know what I would’ve done if he hadn’t helped me figure all of this out.
The reporter haphazardly waved a hand over the top of his laptop. “Don’t mention it. We still have three more labs to hit, so take a rest while you can.”
“Chek.” Right, there was still all of that… I really didn’t want to leave her side for even a moment, though.
I paused at the door, looking back to check on Mira one more time. It was almost like I was afraid she’d vanish if I looked away for even a moment. Now that she was safe, the focus and rage that’d kept me in one piece shattered. My heart ached and throbbed with sorrow and pain that I couldn’t even quite put into words. It was a cocktail akin to grief, and yet not quite.
She was safe though. That was all that mattered. I forced myself away on wooden legs, grabbed my keys, and headed up for the roof.
While I moved, I tried to give Uncle Ezra a call. It went straight to voicemail. The damn Eternal Sandstorm must still be causing connection issues. I gave an update about finding Mira, though kept some of the deets to myself. All that mattered was that she was safe. They’d just cause him to stress even more.
I ran by the BC Gym to shower and clean up in my Crusade apartment. While I was there, I checked the files on the Savant Lab raid. It was kept pretty hush-hush, surprisingly. The lead Inquisitor on the case, one Inquisitor Naitieva, was concerned about it linking to several other recent cases.
For now, even that investigation was under lock and key. I wouldn’t be able to see what this Naitieva found or was investigating without way higher permissions… and asking for higher permissions might just put me in the line of fire. Best I kept my distance from the whole thing.
What I did find wasn’t exactly reassuring. Most of the experiments were beyond saving. There were a few that survived and were in the Crusade’s Savant Intensive Care Keep. I’d have to keep a close eye on the survivors and see what the Crusade did to help them just in case something could be used for Mira.
The Savants themselves… Most of them didn’t make it out of the lab. Who would’ve thought, but experimenting on super soldiers was extremely dangerous. As soon as said super soldiers slipped the confines of the Savants, they went on a killing spree.
The few that survived the entire thing and were ‘rescued’ by the Crusade didn’t last long. All of them were found dead in their cells. Likewise, Visceral Cybernetics lost a corporate takeover and went completely under within a few hours of the lab vanishing. Whoever was behind the lab was covering their tracks.
I returned to Absolom Clinic exactly thirty-one minutes later. She was still passed out. I replaced Saint on watch. He had some sources to go check and contacts to meet about the other three Savant Labs and the parent corporation of Visceral Cybernetics. With them covering their trail so much, it apparently left plenty of gaps for him to exploit to find them.
Mira slept through it all, fitfully fidgeting in her sleep. I held her hand tightly in my own. It helped somewhat. I flicked the interface back out of my view and settled down settled down next to her and got to work on blueprints of my own. Once I figured this all out, could take a look.
If we couldn’t remove the two pieces of invasive chrome, I needed to know just what they were and how they worked. I built and rebuilt the pieces of chrome mentally dozens of times, pulling them apart to figure out their inner workings. Several pulses of Technical Expertise got me exactly what chrome she had and the state she was in.
The Halo Cortex was mainly a heavy number of processors that linked directly to the brain. There was some weird bio-tech to get it to work, but it was pretty straightforward once I found the trick. It also acted as an Neural System Interface, which meant they removed the one she originally had.
The Shift ExoCore, though… It was chaos. The exo-skeleton was partially filled with a liquid of some kind. I couldn’t figure out much more without cracking a piece of the chrome open, and that wasn’t an option. I’d have to wait and see if she remembered anything about it once she woke up.
I drifted back to sketching ideas and devices that might help remove the chrome. Caught up as I was working through the tech, I didn’t notice the rustling of a blanket next to me. Not until a faint voice called out to me. “S-Shiro?
Comments
kreiverin
Thanks!)
UnderwhelmingBird
wooo mornin sleepy head figures this'd be what it takes to have Shiro act like an actual proper kiddo I wonder what they're using in place of hemolymph in that exo setup. Unless it *is* hemolymph. that'd be funky. Ya know, with the existing hemolymphatic system in blood and lymph instead of em cozying up with one another like a little grasshopper or mantis.
lenkite
Should take a long nap before hitting the other bases. People should already be pretty used to Savant Labs by now - Mira's Dad should be able to find consultant specialists.
Minlett
Yaaaaaaay! Also I'm glad Saint pulled through for Shiro in a big way. This made me happy
