Curing Noelle!

"Let's begin!" I said, smiling deviously.

Of course I knew no one had probably grabbed themselves any note taking instruments. After all, all media devices across the world were under my control and any physical, analog options were unlikely to matter soon enough when I start giving the instructions.

This was first and foremost a PR stunt meant as a set up for the final stage of my plan.

"Now if you remember my last stream, you'll know that the source of parahuman powers, a shard, is an alien brain parasite that drives people to becoming more and more violent as time passes. But it is also the source of the strange mutation that causes people to turn into Case 53s. So the first thing we will need to do is to extract the brain parasite from Noelle down there, before we can start to help her turn back into a normal girl again.

And as a start, just to prove to all those conspiracy theorists out there that I'm not mind controlling her, let's give her a dose of Clearhead Plus." I said, as an arm injected the serum into Noelle.

She gasped, her eyes dilating and refocusing, as she looked back up at us.

"Wasn't that supposed to put me under? Doctor?" She asked.

I turned to the camera and gestured at her.

"As you can see, she's not under mind control. Now, that that's squared up, let's proceed with the actual operation. And keep up, cuz we're going fast!

First step, put the patient under advanced anesthetics, preferably a continuous dose via a tube up their wrists.

Though here I'm using a microdosing medical nanite set up, for obvious reasons."

The reasons were of course not obvious to anyone but me and maybe a select sharp minded individuals.

I continued.

"This is because the whole process of removing a parasite from your brain is unbearably painful. Like you'll want to die levels of painful. But remember, this is completely necessary to the procedure, otherwise even with cosmetic surgery, the shard will change the host back into their mutated form, perhaps even worse this time as an overreaction.

So, you know, bear the pain. Don't skip it. And there is anesthesia after all, so you probably won't feel a thing. Maybe a pinch at most.

Small price to pay for salvation.

Now for step two, inject the patient with a generous dose of CodeRed to stimulate the post op healing process.

This makes sure that no patient dies on the operating table. A hundred percent. You will walk out of here alive and on your own two legs. Consider it a GameBreaker guarantee. Though I can't say how well other doctors might handle this so no guarantees there."

A little seed of doubt.

Will you make it out alive if someone else performs the procedure?

Who knows? Maybe, maybe not.

But will they want to take that chance?

Risk their lives at the hands of someone not me?

I doubt it.

I smiled.

"Once the CodeRed healing serum has spread throughout the body and the patient is out cold, the most crucial part of this process begins.

Use a shard extractor, like this, on the back of their neck."

I turned Noelle's head with a robotic arm and exposed the shard extractor to the camera.

"You press this button here, and....."

The extractor buzzed, and Noelle's body twitched and spasmed, as the vial on the extractor filled up with prismatic fluid.

I used the robot arm to gently pull the extractor out of her neck and exposed the tendrils of the shard digging into her brain.

"You see those mini strings sticking out from her head? Those are the neural hooks that the parasite uses to dig into your brain. Notice the pincer like portrusions in there? Those are neuroreceptors. They send out signals through your brain with those, subtly fucking with your head, making you choose the more violent option in any given situation. So what we're going to do, is take a pair of scissors and clasp around there, okay? And gently, and note this.....very gently, pull these out.

Then just snip off the nerve endings, right....there." I said, cutting off the little bits of tissue that the tendrils were hung on and showed them healing right up via the CodeRed.

"See how they heal right up. That's the CodeRed healing serum at work. No damage to your brain or memories. Perfectly intact and healed right up. Now let's put this shard extractor on the table, and take a closer look at the cavity it opened. You can see it visibly healing back up. There's the skull regenerating, and the hair, aaaand she's fully healed up. See? Easy peasy lemon squeazy. Nothing to worry about.

As I said, it's a simple process.

Now what's next? Oh yes, the big tentacle monster that's growing out out her bottom.

For that, I have another simple solution. Though this solution doesn't apply for all cases. Noelle is a special case, in that her lower half was entirely subsumed by this tentacle thingy. So we'll have to amputate it whole and make her a new pair of legs.

This probably won't happen to most of you. Some of you will need only basic reconstruction surgery but that's all.

As for Noelle, I chose her precisely because she was such an extreme case. I want to show you, all of you. Everyone can be treated, no matter how bad their condition may seem. So when this is over, don't hesitate to contact me. If I can turn Noelle back into her normal form again, I can certainly do it for you." I explained.

"Now the next part here is a bit tricky, because technically, Noelle is Master 10 and Brute 8.

She has the ability to make unmastered clones of anyone she touches. And those clones? They are forced to speak the truth. Like literally. They can't lie. That's what's special about the clones she makes." I lied.

They were totally liars.

Evil Clones even.

But the sheep don't need to know that!

"She was actually the final proof I was going to use against Cauldron and their ilk. She'd make clones of the Triumvirate and then they would confess to their crimes in full, including the stuff I didn't get from their secret base servers.

But unfortunately, we never got to see that because Eidolon...well he confessed and then second triggered like a bitch.

Ruined my plans honestly. It would have been so much fun revealing the whole truth about them. But eh, I'll settle for what I can get for now." I shrugged.

"Where was I again?....

Oh right. Amputation. Normal amputation methods won't work on Noelle here as I just explained. So we'll have to do something drastic. We'll use a nanofiber oscillator in conjunction with a disintegration beam to separate her lower and upper halves. And for this part, how about we let Riley do it?" I turned to Riley, and patted her back.

"Riley, are you up for it?" I asked.

"Yes! Please let me do it!" She replied enthusiastically.

Could I have done this on my own?

Sure.

But this was going to be a good learning experience for Riley and not only would it help improve her reputation and that of others like her, it would also let me see if her skills had declined with her redemption or not.

"Alright. Now follow my instructions. See that arm with the glowing blue wire? That's the oscillator. You use that to cut the affected area. The controls to that are here." I pointed at a joystick and a dial on the panel beside her.

"Once you're done cutting, check to see if there's any mistakes or uneven parts and smooth them over with the disintegration beam. Set it to a radius of 20 microns as a start and then enlarge it slowly as needed. Got that?" I explained.

Rikey looked down, focused on the task at hand.

With one hand she grabbed the joystick and fiddled with it for a moment calibrating it, before doing the same with the disintegration beam.

She looked back up at me and nodded.

"Alright. Get on with it then." I said, and she went to town.

Her hands moved with skill surpassing even my own, if only by a bit and with one clean stroke, she separated both parts of Noelle. She didn't even need to clean it up with the disintegration beam, and just calmly proceeded to pull the two apart with the robot arms I had used previously, without me needing to intimate her.

Below, I watched Noelle's lower half regenerate slowly, as the first tint of green and brown showed up again.

"Riley!" I called out.

"On it!" She replied and leveled the disintegration beam at the regenerating parts, destroying them.

"Well, my dear viewers, it looks like Riley's shard had altered her genetic code permanently. She will be needing prosthetics, unfortunately.

But worry not. I have prepared the best of the best for her. She'll be... "

"Um... " Riley interjected.

"Do you have anything to say, Riley?" I asked.

"No.... Yes. Maybe." Riley hesitated.

"Just say it. Don't worry about it. I won't scold you or anything." I assured her.

"Umm.... won't it be possible to change that if we operate on her corona pollentia and corona gemma? They handle the parts that are causing the problem, so we can just incise them, right?"

"Well yes, technically. But that's a dangerous job. It could regrow just as well or maybe worse. And if we cauterize the tissue, it could lead to brain damage. It's a very delicate process. There's no room for error here, Riley." I replied.

"But it can be done, right?" She asked.

"Yes. It can be done. But I... let's just say I'm not comfortable with...." I mumbled.

After Offee had died due to my ineptitude, I had developed a sort of complex about operating on people.

With animals and the monsters I made, I could do it, sure. But when it came to humans? Especially in risky moves like these.....

It...I just became a bit more twitchy. Guess trauma will do that to you. I could operate on myself just fine, but Star?

If something happened to Star and I failed to heal him....

I couldn't bear to lose another person I loved like that.

It's the whole reason I was bringing Riley aboard.

Until I dealt with the trauma of losing Offee and got back to full capacity, I'd need a healer as a backup. Not for me or for my experiments, but for Star.

"Then...can I do it?" Riley asked.

It gave me pause. She was taking the initiative?

After all that had happened to her, she was still willing to take that leap of faith?

I'm impressed.

Maybe I'll get that therapist appointment earlier than expected. And one for me too. I need to get over my problems too.

I smiled.

"Are you sure you can do it?" I asked.

"A hundred percent!" She replied, repeating what I had said earlier.

Cheeky little brat!

I like it!

"Alright, Riley. It's your call." I said, patting her shoulders.

"I won't disappoint!" She replied and got to work.

With three swift strokes she reopened Noelle's brain, and plucked out a portrusion. Next, she brought forth the disintegration beam and sheared off the mutated bits of her brain, before cauterizing it ever so delicately, the machines moving in her hands so deftly you'd think she was using technokinesis herself!

Through trial and error and a bit more of poking around in Noelle's head, Riley fixed the problem completely.

Now, it came the time to watch, as Noelle's lower half began regenerating again. And this time, what grew out, was decidedly more human.

Riley put down the controls and cracked her knuckles after the hour long surgery, looking up at me.

I looked back at her, and pet her head gently.

"You did good, Riley. Thank you." I said, as she squinted and giggled happily.

Having a cute little daughter wasn't so bad. I thought.

Guess I'll lower the amount of commando droids that shadow her too. Maybe I was being a bit too paranoid about her intentions.

Though, I still won't give ger access to most facilities just yet. After all, this could very well be a long con.

I looked down at Noelle sleeping without a worry in the world and a back at the camera, clearing my throat.

"Ahehem! So as you guys saw. Case 53s can be healed and returned to a semblance of their former selves. And that is more than you can ask for, given the circumstances.

But wait. There's more!

Just for today, if you contact us for our service, I'll be more than happy to include a one way ticket, back home for you guys. Yes. You heard that right. Home. I have the coordinates of your home realities, or at least I have the ones that Cauldron most frequently kidnapped from. If you guys want, I can do it for you.

But first, let's just put the finishing touches on the patient.

Now for the viewers at home, I want you guys to watch this carefully, because it's the most crucial step to the operation!" I gestured.

"For this part, you take a pen, preferably a permanent marker, and carefully..... " I said, using a robot arm to pick up the permanent marker, bringing it to Noelle's face, and drew a penis on her face, "...give them a souvenir to remember you by!"

Riley snickered beside me, as I finished drawing the tip of the dick onto Noelle's lips, and capped the marker.

"Now let's wake her up and see what she thinks!"

I pulled away the nano swarm from Noelle and slowly, she stirred to wakefulness.

"~Uhn!" She stretched her legs, and popped her back as she yawned.

Then, the realisation set in and her eyes shot open, as she jerked up on the table.

She looked down at her feet with disbelief and with shaking hands touched them, poking at her thighs, twitching her toes, running her hands across her knees.

She looked at the mass of tentacles that lay on the floor beside the table tears pooling in her eyes.

She began to sniffle, shaking softly.

"Is..is this real?"

"All real, Noelle. A hundred percent. As promised. You're back to normal!" I said over the speakers blowing out a party popper with a robotic arm, raining confetti over her.

Noelle though broke down into choked sobs, wiping her tears, before she looked up.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" She cried, as she began to get up and slid off the table, trying to get back to her feet.

"Noelle! Hold o-"

And she slipped, her legs giving way beneath her.

Her head slammed hard against the table and she fell to the floor, clutching her head.

"Ow!" She cried out.

"That's what I was trying to tell you! What did you expect? You haven't walked in years. No way you'll just be able to get up and run a marathon. Jeez. Hold on. I'll help you up." I said, using a robotic arm to pick her up and place her back on the table.

"Sorry." Noelle mumbled, embarrassed.

"It's fine. Now just stay there for a minute. I'll send a droid over with clothes for you." I said, laughing.

Noelle looked down and finally realised she had been completely naked.

Instantly her hands went to her chest and she crossed her legs over, hiding her private parts, a furious blush spreading across her face, ear to ear.

She looked up at me, huffing angrily, though that only made me laugh even harder.

"We'll help Noelle back to her feet, and get her walking again soon enough. Then tomorrow, I'll return to Brockton Bay to start taking appointments.

So be there or be square. For those who can't come to Brockton Bay, worry not. I'll open portals across all major cities everyday at eight in the morning for any capes, Case 53 or otherwise to come to Brockton Bay and get their brain parasites removed, for the small, small price of me getting to keep your shards for research.

Until then, that's all folks! Ciao!" I waved at the camera, and Riley followed, before I shut off the stream.