New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

07/15/13

The Infection
I am in the sick bay of the tower on the moon. I am there with Janet and Washu. I am talking to Janet. She says she can check to see if I have actually been infected by a foreign virus, just lie down on one of the beds and she will do a scan. Right now my mind isn't particularly clear, so I don't remember what she might be talking about. What virus might I be infected with? Can it be cured? If it can't be cured, what will it do? I go over to one of the beds and lie down on my back while Janet goes over to one of the computers and initiates a scan.

She looks at the scan for a few minutes, reads a couple things on the output, and then looks at a couple graphs of some kind on a different display. She comes back to the bed and looks at me for a bit to be sure I am paying attention. She says it seems I have been infected by an interesting virus. She says it isn't immediately clear what the virus is meant to do, however, because it appears the virus is dying off even as we speak. I ask her how much of the virus is left in my dream body. She says it will be completely gone within another day or two. I ask her if she can tell why it is dying off. She says it looks like my nanites are eliminating it, probably because they are programmed to eliminate anything intrusive, and the virus was identified as intrusive. She asks me if I am actually wanting to keep the virus for some reason. I ask her if it could possibly have a beneficial effect. She says she can't tell without taking a sample and analyzing it for a while. She asks if I know where I got it. My mind is clearing now, and I can remember two possible sources of an intrusive virus. I tell her either it is the Mercer Virus as depicted in Prototype which I obtained directly from Alex Mercer after Witchblade failed to form and block an attack, or the fucking Templars actually found a way to get something past all of my defenses. She says we need to find that out, because if the Templars are coming up with new methods, we have to counter that. I get out of bed and go to one of the portal generators. I focus on locating the specific Alex Mercer that I think might have infected me. The portal opens and I go through. On the other side I am in a room with a couple of people. A woman, Dana Mercer, is sitting at a computer doing something. Alex is behind her looking at the screen.

As I appear Alex turns around and sees me there. He asks where I came from… and for that matter, where did I disappear to last time? I just disappeared into thin air… I say that must mean he has seen me before, which I figure is a good sign… He looks at me strangely and says of course he remembers seeing me before. I feel the dream slipping already, and I want to find out what I came to find out before I wake up. So I ask Alex if he infected me with a virus on my last visit there. He seems to hesitate a bit and then says yes. He seems surprised when I tell him that's a relief. I add that it is far better than the alternative… the idea that the Templars… err… you don't know the Templars here, so I'll just say Gentek since they're really the same people… found a way past my defenses and infected me with something. I tell him there's nothing to worry about, this is a complete non-issue now. A tiny mechanical mosquito lands on Alex and extracts a small sample of virus. He slaps at it and misses. It flies over and lands on my shoulder. I figure it was sent to get a sample for Janet. I tell Dana and Alex I will have to be going. Everything around me fades to black as I wake.

Note: Janet used the sample and ran a comparison, confirming my dream body has been infected with the Mercer Virus. She also confirms that it is quickly dying off and will be gone soon, though she has not identified why it is dying.

Note: During the day, MoSh said there was something wrong with Asuka, and he had a bad feeling she might die if something wasn't done as soon as possible. So the primary goal for the night was to heal whatever was wrong with Asuka, and that was my intent as I used my light / sound machine and slipped into a WILD…

I am in MoSh's inner world, which is right where I want to be to complete my primary goal for the night. I look around and see I am in the same place I am usually when I enter MoSh's inner world at the beginning of a dream. I don't figure now is the time to stand there looking around, so I go to the door and knock on it. MoSh doesn't answer the door, instead it's Data, and he lets me in right away, telling me that MoSh and Asuka are both upstairs in the bedroom. He says he has work to do on the shield. Before I can ask him what is wrong with the shield, he turns and leaves the room, heading down into the basement. I figure there is less importance on what Data is doing with the shield than there is on making sure Asuka is ok, so I head upstairs to meet up with MoSh and Asuka.

I find MoSh and Asuka in a bedroom, Asuka is in bed, apparently sleeping. Shawna is also there beside Asuka, and she looks quite upset, she is focusing on Asuka very intently, so much so that she doesn't even notice me enter. MoSh sees me enter and says he is glad I am there. He gets Shawna's attention by touching her on the shoulder, then points at me and says she should give me a chance to help Asuka. Shawna seems like she might cry, she says Asuka is really sick, but she can't quite get to the core of it, something that is causing the sickness keeps moving. MoSh tells her that he and I will make sure Asuka is ok, she should go rest, she has been putting too much energy into this. Reluctantly, Shawna finally leaves the room. Once the girl is gone I see MoSh doesn't look as optimistic as he had tried to look for Shawna, he says Asuka seems to be getting worse. He says it started a couple nights ago, but he had done a healing spell on her and she had seemed fine. But now it is getting worse again… and this time his healing spell wasn't working. He says he wants to take her to the healing glen, but he had wanted to wait until I got there so I could help with healing her. I tell MoSh that the healing glen would be a good place to do the healing, so let's go ahead and go there. MoSh picks up Asuka in his arms, she barely stirs, and is wet with sweat, she looks like she might be running a fever. I open a portal to the healing glen and MoSh follows me through it.

MoSh and I exit the portal into the healing glen, into the green grass area outside the Crystal Golem's cave, and I see the Crystal Golem is there as if he expects us. He says he sees we have a sick friend, and he is here to help in whatever way he can to heal her. MoSh lies her down in the soft grass, she stirs slightly again, but she does not wake up. I take a closer look at Asuka, and I see on some of her exposed skin that it looks like she has a tattoo… To get a better idea of what it is, I remove the rest of her clothes to find the tattoo is all over her entire body. The tattoo is black, and looks like a vine of some kind, with thorns on it. I sense dark energy from the tattoo, so I think that is very likely the source of the problem, or at least a symptom. The vines wrapped around her were emanating unstable dark energy. Scans done by my penticon computer show the vines aren't just around her, they are also growing through her body, she is pretty badly infected… it would take some work to get that shit out of her.

To get that strange shit out of Asuka, I start by focusing on drawing the dark energy out of those strange vine tattoos, pulling it into myself. The tattoos respond by coming to life, actually tightening around Asuka… the thorns somehow dig into her enough to draw small amounts of blood… Asuka barely stirs, though, it's not even enough to wake her. I get the idea it's more of a threat than to do any actual harm. So I change the method I use. Instead of just drawing dark energy out, I also focus on stabilizing it… and the tattoo vines loosen. The black tattoos also start fading, they aren't as dark… and soon they fade completely and are gone from sight. I wonder if that got rid of the entire problem, now that the strange vines are no longer visible. She doesn't look injured, the places where she had been bleeding are only tiny pricks, any bleeding has already stopped without me having to use any physical healing.

As I draw the rest of the dark energy out of Asuka, she sits up and yawns, stretching big, then she seems to realize she's naked and moves to cover herself. I immediately summon a kimono onto Asuka, it is the easiest thing to picture since that is often how I picture her, and she doesn't seem to be picky about what she is wearing at the time. MoSh is asking Asuka if she is ok, asking her how she feels, she says she just feels exhausted. While she is talking to MoSh I have my penticon computer scan Asuka for any remaining traces of dark energy. The computer reports that there is a tiny speck of dark energy still inside of Asuka, but the amount of energy in that speck is relatively insignificant. The computer reports that the level of dark energy in that speck is no higher than the ambient dark energy in almost every location in this plane, lower than many places. I am suspicious of that speck the computer reported, just like with a spark of an inner flame, all it takes is a tiny amount of unstable energy to grow into a serious problem. I tell MoSh that she seems ok for now, but I will want to take another look at her later, she needs to be watched to make sure whatever was making her sick doesn't come back. We don't want her having a relapse, after all. The Crystal Golem says he will keep an eye on her for a while to be sure it doesn't come back, then MoSh can take her home, as long as there will be someone there to watch over her. MoSh thanks me for helping, gives me a big hug, then he hugs Asuka close to him, muttering something about no one should dare harm Asuka.