Ατέ Ελεθέρια and his schemes
Deep Injection woke up wet to the bone and with a tattered lab coat : he didn't knew where he was, but he was sure that he didn't woke up at home, and instead he woke up... somewhere else.
As first thing, Deep tried to define where he woke up, and how go out from there : he touched what was his bed until few moments before : a bent cardboard box with some styrofoam in it, and with some old newspapers tore apart on its side : they were probably the “blankets” of the “bed”.
Deep Injection looked for some light in that darkness, but found none, and since he wasn't sure where the nearest hole was, he simply sat down, and waited to gain some visibility thanks to the adaptive vision.
Deep Injection slowly began to see where he was : in a dark room, with some broken water tubes on the ceiling, what seemed paint falling apart from the wall, empty boxes and used syringes scattered all over the place : Deep adjusted his glasses, and scanned again the room, looking for the exit : after all, he surely arrived from somewhere in that room, and Deep Injection wasn't for sure a pony capable to pass throughout the walls.
After a long and accurate inspection by eyes and touch , Deep found the door : it was a metal door like the one protecting the bank's caveau, and it seemed opened, meaning that somepony passed from there not too much time before.
After stepping in a much more brighter room, enlighten by three petroleum lamps, Deep saw one of hospital's nurse, Redheart : she was sitting on the ground, reading something engraved on the floor :the words weren't totally clear, but the contenet was clear :
“I, Atè Eletheria, want to experiment something with you, Deep Injection and Nurse Redheart... you will see more when you will activate the intercom on your left”
Deep Injection, while walking towards the comrade, said “Alright, Nurse, it seems that our freshly-disbarred madpony has gone wild and wants to “play” with us... I fell something of bad in the air...”
The Nurse Redheart said with a surprised tone“Oh, Deep Injection, didn't saw you. Care to explain what's going on ?”
“I have no idea, Nurse Redheart, but I can guess that Atè Eletheria wants to get revenge on me for have disbarred him two days ago, and along with me, wants revenge on you too, for some reason.”
“Got it... but why he was disbarred ?”
“Alright, long story to tell :
TWO DAYS BEFORE
It was a cloudy day in the town, and what seemed the normal work day for the doctors working in the Ponyville's hospital : dismissing and accepting patients; handling medical care and things like that.
In the Microippoiatria, Dr. Deep Injection was doing his routine of check ups of the little patients hosted there : his zealous way of work almost scared the ones to visit, but that didn't mattered much for Deep Injection : he was trained to do not feel sympathy unless required, and in his 15 years of work he never broke down in pity for anyone, no matter how the situation was stressful for both parts.
When Deep Injection arrived near the bed of a gray and black filly, he was greeted warmly by the patient: the doctor ignored that and simply did his job.
After doing the control, the latter asked :
“Doctor ?”
He counter-asked with an annoyed tone “Yes ?”
“I will be operated today... will it hurt ?”
“No, it won't, the anesthetic, if works, shall make you feel no pain.”
The filly widened her eyes at the phrase “if works”, but Deep didn’t cared much about that : after all, he was saying the truth, because surely he wasn't going to operate her, nor he was going to give her the dose of Novocaine...
The hours passed, when Deep encountered Atè Eletheria dressed for a surgery : Atè Eletheria was a mad genius of medicine : he could find the cure for every disease, but he needed some unnecessary pain on the test subject before going to work on it.
Deep Injection was the only one that wanted Atè in the hospital : after all, with the right combination of moral education, medicines and things like that, what could go wrong ?
Little he knew that his choice was going to be fatal in the future.
After some time, while passing near the Surgery Room, Deep Injection heard an acute scream, and a whirling sound : both the sounds were very familiar to him, but they were never mixed... worried, Deep entered in the room, and saw Atè Eletheria using an extracting pump over the filly seen before in the patient's room, and in Deep Injection an ancient feeling woke up and drove him : the wrath.
He bursted in the Surgery Room, got off the extracting machine from the mad pony's hooves, and screamed :
“VHAT YOU VERE DOING, YOU BLOODY IDIOT ?”
Atè Eletheria stood calm and answered with his trademark sarcastic face“From there, the internal seemed very messy, and I wanted to clean it”
“Well, and now I need to clean up this hospital's reputation by reporting this act and disbarring you !”, then Deep Injection watched the ECG of the filly : it was flat like a cold, untouched desert.
“Atè Eletheria... you are in big troubles with the law... and no, I don' t think that all your family's money is going to save you from the dungeons...”
Atè Eletheria ran away screaming “We will see, and we will meet again
PRESENT
“And so this is the reason for why kidnapped you ? Well, I think that he could kill you straight away, no offense”
“Atè Eletheria wasn't and surely isn't for simple plans : more a plan is complex, more is difficult to stop. Or, at least, he thinks so... anyway, I will activate that intercom and see what he wants to say”, that said, Deep went near, and pushed the button labeled as “Doom Call” : on a smooth wall, a projection of the Atè face appeared : his eyes were pure yellow, like the ones of the blind and the mad; one of his ears was half-ate and was rotting away; the teeth were white like the the snow... and somewhat, all over his fur, some black dots never seen by Deep before appeared and they changed position as Atè spoke.
The kidnapper said :
“Good morning, gentlecolt and gentlemare, I have took you for experiment two things : one, what is the limit of pure pain that a foal can handle before dying of too much heartbeats ? And, secondly, how much is delightful the grief for who watch ?
For the first one, I left to me the liberty of “borrowing” some foals from their parents, saying that were going to test a new medicine or going to be cured.... they are going to pass under your “loving” hooves...
For the second, well, guess what ? If you try to ignore the pain of one of this kids, or you try to cheat my traps, the patient will be killed by a fast-acting venom... and after killing the foal, I will frame the scene of crime for moving the suspects of the police on you, Deep Injection, so think well, and play by rules”
Deep screamed “You sick bastard ! How dare you taking away the foals from their parents only for your pleasure ?”
He didn't expected an answer
“How hypocritical : your methods of “curing” cause more deaths, both moral and physical, than mine pleasure”
“It's not true ! You are trying to device the nurse ! But, ok, go ahead and say who is the first “lucky one” to be cured by us”
A spotlight lit up, showing the way to the next room, signed by a smashed wooden door :
“In the next room there is all-setted up surgery room”
Deep thought that “setted up surgery room” could mean everything, if that words came from Atè's mouth, considering that he wasn't properly a one for procedures, but Deep hoped for the best about that.
“Your goal is operating the foal, getting off the debris and the objects stuffed in his body, now, I leave you a choice : let him take the anesthetic, and you cut blindly in hope to find all the objects before he wakes up and I release the venom, OR you can take an X-ray with the dedicated machine on the right, and, since all the objects are made of metal, know their positions, but then operate the foal while he is awake.
Do your choice : if you step right, you will make the tray with the Novocaine explode by the means of a thread trap. If you step left, then some very heavy shutters will close the other passage.
Choose wisely” then the video fade away.
Nurse Redheart kept looking shocked to the wall, while the dark green medic pony murmured :
“If it's all he can do, then he kidnapped the wrong medic... in both cases, with me and the Nurse cooperating, we can do it...”
That said, Deep touched gently the Redheart's back, when she went out her shock, he said :
“Alright, my unlucky comrade, our fallen doctor wants to operate an underage patient with the choice between having the subject awake but knowing the position of the anomalies, or having the aforementioned anesthetized, but not knowing the anomalies position. Since we are in two, and I, honestly, don't care, since both routes are doable for me, what's your choice ?”
The white mare moved her eyes over Deep, and said :
“I...I.. d...d...don't know : both ways seems bad to me... I'm devoured between avoid the suffering of the foal and see him die if we take too much time in doing it, or make him suffer and have more possibilities of survival...”
“All in your hand : I can do both”
Redheart stood in silence for three minutes, then sighed and said “Alright... better suffer than die... if we manage to get out from there, I will reward him.”
Deep Injection said “Alright, Nurse, let's go practice medicine...”, that said, Deep trotted to the next room.
The Surgery Room prepared by Atè Eletheria was surrounded by two hallways, both going to the central round room: the hallways were clean, compared to the filthy found in the rooms before, but the hallways weren't still clean as the ones of a proper clinic, since endless stacks of rubbish were stacked on the floor.
In the walls on the right where was a visible and yet thin thread: it was indeed the one that triggered the explosion of the tray of Novocaine; while on the other hallway, a big part of the floor was slightly up compared to the rest: it was a pressure plate for trigger the shutters.
Deep Injection snorted and said : “Well, I'm impressed that he could even CARE about painting the walls of this place : judging from his rotten ear and his tendency to do not clean up his fur from the blood and the floor from rubbish, Atè seemed a more dirty guy to me. Plus, I prefer don't know how he could set up this systems... now I don't want to know the fate of the architect that projected this...”
Shortly after wards, Nurse Redheart entered in the room, took a look of the surroundings.
She commented “Now, I don' t remember what is the hallway to take for have the access to the X-ray machine, care to say it again, Deep ?”
“On the right, Redheart, now, prepare your ears for the explosion”, after he said that, Deep Injection trotted in the right hallway, and when he broke the thread, a quite loud boom was heard on the opposite part of the room : the white mare ducked and ran towards Deep instinctively, while the dark green medic pony stood still, and sniffed of apathy, then he said :
“It's alright, Redheart : now let me find some surgery supplies, while you enter in the true Surgery room and see how our “friend” entertained himself using some metal objects and the flesh of a foal”
The Nurse Redheart nodded and entered in the room, and she saw disturbed her : on the operation table, there was a foal : the foal had many razor blades placed deeply in the wounds; his body had, along with the brown spots of the fur, was covered in bruises; and some very thin steel tubes were stiffed in his anus, giving an hint about how most of the objects entered... while she approached, the foal started to move away from the nurse slowly, while he said :
“P..p...p...l...l...l..lease, d..d..d..o...on...n..n 't hurt m...me”
Nurse Redheart tried to keep the cool, and said with the most soft voice that could pull off :
“Don't be afraid, little one, soon we will liberate you from what that bad doctor placed in you...”
“H...h...how ? Y...y...y..ou will c...c..ut me o...o...open ?”
“Yes, and I'm sorry to say that you will be awake, fear not, thought : once we finish, your bravery won't go away unrewarded”
The little colt did a unsure stare to Redheart : he wasn't trusting the words of the Nurse, and he wasn't going to be collaborative in the procedure...
After few minutes, Deep Injection returned with some surgery provisions on his back : put them on the floor, proceed to place on his mouth the surgeon’s mask, the cap and a decent coat.
After he prepared, Deep said to Nurse Redheart to do like him, and she obeyed.
After both the doctors were ready, they prepared to take the foal in the Radiology room : while they tried to place him on a gurney, the foal kicked the air, afraid about what was going to happen.
When they finally reached the Radiology room, Deep let down the gurney carefully, then he proceed to take the foal and place him on the table, while the patient screamed “Do not want ! Do not want ! Let me go ! Let me go !”
Deep answered “We can't : if we set you free now, you will die.”
When Deep said that, the foal went nut, and the Nurse looked the green stallion with a dismayed gaze.
The Nurse went near the crying foal, and said :
“Come on, come on, we are here to help you, not for hurting you more... just relax, and we will see what we can do”, then the white mare went behind Deep entering in the Technician room : Redheart pinned Deep Injection on the wall with her hooves, and said :
“Deep, do you have any idea about the impact of what you said ?”
“No, do you rember that I am trained to be frankest as possible ? I mean, I came from a medical school whose motto is “Without emotions and sympathy, no mind suffering, without mind suffering, no errors, without errors, no death”, and I follow it fanatically, how I could even THINK that my words COULD have lead him to think “You die and stop” ?”
“The zeal isn't an excuse, but now the damage is done : now we are going to carry out this.”
Deep lit up the machine, setted the intensity, then asked to the white mare to adjust the position of the foal, and place a lead protection on the pelvis: the Nurse obeyed.
Deep activated the machine, and after few minutes, the sheet was done, and what Deep saw somehow disturbed him : Atè Eletheria managed to stuff many things in the foal's body : the mad doctor had stuffed in the foal around ten bars in the anus; two spiked balls in the upper torso, and nails in the stomach.
Deep Injection hissed, then he said :
“Alright, it seems that we need to cut him end-to-end : from the pelvis to barely before the throat.
I hope that he doesn’t try to escape.” , meanwhile Nurse Redheart took the foal on her back, placed him on the surgery table and hooked the little colt to the ECG, few moments the dark green doctor entered in the room.
Deep Injection raised a bit the mask for placing the scalpel in his teeth, and started to cut the foal : the patient started to scream again, kicked the air again, in hope to push Deep away, and he seemed panicking, judging from the fast beeping coming from the ECG, the little patient calmed only when Nurse Redheart placed herself by his side, and murmured in his ears words reassurance:
“Keep calm... it will hurt less... I know what you have passed... but now be a good foal : stand still and he will free you from that things in your body... come on, do not cry...”
The foal kept weeping of pain, and tried one time or two to escape, causing a unwanted cut in the intestine : Deep Injection was forced to sew that up.
After twenty tense minutes, when the needles and the spiked balls were out, the hard part came : getting off the bars.
Deep Injection said to the foal :
“Now, we are coming to the hard part : getting off the bars from your anus. Since the bars cannot be extracted by external pulling, I will try to keep your anus open with one of my hooves : do not try to block it, or it will hurt, a lot”
The foal said : “No sir. I wish to go, now !”
Deep facehoofed “Do I really need to remind you the dire consequences of doing so ? Let me do this and the sewing and you are good to go”
The foal said “No can do” and tried to escape: the bars started to roll in him, causing some blood to drip out the hole where they entered.
Deep, took by a sudden anger, started to pull out one of the bars for stopping the patient from escape : it worked, because the foal stopped dead in his tracks, rotated, and started to cry like a river.
Deep Injection got off the ten bars in the foal's body, closed the wounds, disinfected the whole foal and wrapped him in bends.
Soon after finishing the sewing up, from an hidden speaker Atè spoke :
“Very good, my ex-coworkers, I'm impressed : now take him to the pneumatic post station, then I will show you your next task”.
That said, the Nurse looked immediately for the pneumatic post station in the room, and after ten minutes she found it near a big pile of rubble : She gently placed the trembling foal in the station, pulled the leveler, and waited to see the tube sucking him.
Shortly afterward, another spotlight lit up, showing a rusty metal door locked badly with a rope and a broken padlock.
“Your next patient is deeply wounded... and you must fix him.
It might seems stupid to say, but this isn't what are you hoping it is : I freed some worms and flies over him... needless to say, the said animals will start to feast over the wounds, and will infect them. Your task is avoid the visible infection of the wounds... otherwise... well, I will kill them once you get off from this room by some lethal gas. Clean and close”
Deep Injection spitted on the ground and said “I saw better medical horrors in an Amusement Park...”
Nurse Redheart answered “But rember that there always the mind factor... the patient isn't a machine for sure”
“I know, but honestly he seems ridiculous in his choosing, anyway, more time we waste here, thinner will be the chances”, that said, Deep Entered in the room.
The room itself seemed a butchery : blood was everywhere on the walls; pieces of rotten meat where everywhere in the corners; occupied body bags where everywhere; and an eerie lamp with candles was hanging on the ceiling... it seemed that the problem wasn't the operation por se... the challenge was keep the calm of both the parts in such an ambient.
Deep looked in the center of the room, and finally saw the patient : a filly, with a suine look and a very irritating voice, a voice who screamed :
“How dare him to cut me all over y beautiful body and let me in this room with all this filthy insects ? He must pay ! PAY !”
Deep Injection agreed with the message, but not with who said it... he remembered her now: she was a very annoying patient to treat at the time : when the filly went under the knife, she didn't stopped to complaint about the quality of the sheets and of all the furniture... he stood sane for the training received, otherwise he could lost control and strangle her with his bare hooves.
But Deep dismissed very fast that thoughts for keep focusing on the present : the filly was doing a quite good job in driving away the flies from the wounds, even if she was tied to a table.
Deep said “Nurse, could you please find for me a thread, a needle, a roll of bandages and some disinfectant ?”
The Nurse Redheart nodded in an affirmative way, and ran in search for the kit, while the stallion got near to the filly, and said :
“Nice work there, puella, now, could you please listen to me ? The supplies are incoming, and we don't have the anesthetic, so we need to close this wounds while you are awake.”
The filly did a disgusted look “What ? Are you kidding me, right ? No way ! Get some some anesthetic !”
“We can't”
“NO ! AND I SAID NO ! GIMME SOME ANESHTETIC, OR ELSE...”
Deep said with sarcasm : “What, are you going to call your papa ? Well, pity that everyone but we here wants you dead, so obey to us, or die”
The filly did a unamused face, and when the Nurse Redheart arrived with the supplies, she tried to break free and escape, but in vain : the Deep's grasp was too strong for her, the filly finally stopped to run away, and fall tired on the table.
The Nurse Redheart started to apply the disinfectant with a piece of cotton, saying “If it burns, it's good for you” to the now-moaning filly, while Deep placed the thread in the needle and at the same time tried to splat on the ground the worms and the flies.
Soon after placing the thread, Deep took off with the a hoof the maggots of flies in the wounds, tested with the hoof the deepness of the wounds, then he started to sew the wounds of the filly, ignoring the screams of pain and the insults of the patient directed towards him, and few minutes later the operation was done : the filly had now his legs bandaged, but she was going to live and get off from that hell.
That done, the Nurse looked again for the pneumatic post station, placed the whining filly in the tube, and waited some second before see her sucked by the system.
When finally the two medics finished the task assigned by Atè Elethèria, Deep Injection sighed, and took a look of the while room, in search of useful things; hints about what was going to happen next, and so on : for what he could get, the room was just an empty room turned in a butchery not too much time ago, with some words on the wall, written with some kind of orange-yellow paint :
“Go ahead, escape, and I will cure you with a rusted saw”
“Run away from the syringe won't do a crap”
“Anesthetic... pfff, the anesthetic is for weaklings, let's cut off part of your stomach while you are awake”
“Your bones... they are beatiful... can I take one ?”
And the last one... was something of weird...
“My story is far stranger than you think... and the lucky foal will get my legacy...”
Deep Injection looked at the writing confused : what did it meant ? It was a threating phrase that used sometimes with the patients, or it was a hint about what was going to happen next ?
Deep didn't know, so he asked to the companion :
“Oh, look, Redheart, seems that our madpony likes to play with our mind even in a WAY more softer way : I found this writing, and I wonder what does it mean...”
The white mare, who was looking at the angles filled with rotten body parts with a disgusted look, moved towards Deep Injection, scanned the wall full of writings, until she changed her expression to the one of atention to the one of curiosity.
She read it two times at hight voice, then affirmed :
“It's talking about one of our next procedures... but I am not sure about how is going to happen...”
“Quite naturally”
“But I guess that it will be about one of his many scars... wonder what one”
“I bet that is talking about the belly one, considering his passion for cut open the ones under his hooves..”
“That doesen't mean anything... maybe it's a little, stupid scar, that caused a complete turn in his life... but good luck about find out WHAT ONE IS IT”
“True...” then the speaker finally spoke up.
“The pause is finished, doctors, is time to move to your next patient : he is a young colt with some heart problems... concidentially, I condictioned him to fear the red hairs of the ponies... and if he is scared for too much time, he is going to die for overbeating. Guess what you should do”