//------------------------------// // Spreading the Gas... // Story: Interdimensional Transfusion // by The card holder //------------------------------// Previously, on Interdimensional Transfusion...* "One of my mercs is taking a vacation, eh? I'll have to fix that..." --- "Mmph mph mphmph!" "Whaddya mean I'm da fatha?!" --- "Dash, what's gotten into you?" "I won't rest until I have that drink!" --- "You know, a pony like me could learn to love somepony like you..." "*beep boop* What is love?" --- "It's only a matter of time before the inhabitants of the other dimension know the name of Gray Mann..." --- "I don't care about the casualties, general! Bring me Scout's head on a stick!" --- "Heavy?! But you vere dead!" "Nyet. Was twin brother. Recap over now." And now, we return to All My Fortress Interdimensional Transfusion... *Disclaimer: Some or all of the events covered in the recap may or may not be completely or partially fabricated within a degree of the truth. The Scout awoke around noon with a slight spring in his step. He was off to go to a party hosted by a tiny horse where other tiny horses would greet the first (well, technically, second) human they had ever met. Surprisingly, this wasn't the strangest thing he had run into in his time as an employee of Reliable Excavation Demolition. The teleporter was still up and running, so the Scout simply got his stuff together, ate half a sandvich, and left for Ponyville. Absolutely nothing bad was going to happen today. An hour later, a figure came through the teleporter in the Scout's house. Soon after that was another, much larger figure, this one carrying various tools and implements on a cart. "Why is Doctor wanting to go to pony land?" the large one asked in his Russian accent. "Because I'm tired of vaiting for Scout to give us results," was the German-accented reply. The Russian simply shrugged in response. "Where put dese things?" "There should be a basement in the house, let's set up there." There was, in fact, a basement, although it was more like a large underground closet. Still, it was enough room to work with. The Heavy placed the cart down, and the Medic began taking larger parts off of it and spaced them around the cramped room. Last of all, he set up a fold-out table, complete with medigun mount situated at an angle to it. "Vell, everyzing's in place..." He chuckled evilly. "Now we need ze specimen..." The Scout had a few hours to kill when he entered the town, so he spent it on the gingerbread roof of the building where he was supposed to be, napping. The ponies of the town had been surprisingly accepting of him, although an outside observer could see their nervousness. The Scout, however, only saw the admiration, as apparently the story of him saving three fillies from a manticore had spread around. Once it was the appropriate time, he leaped off the roof, double-jumping to avoid breaking his ankles, and strode into the shop's front doors. Naturally, he was met with a certain group of mares shouting "Surprise!" The ringleader of the festivities herself stood front and center, an unnaturally wide smile on her pink face. As greetings were exchanged, the Scout couldn't help but notice an absent member of the group of friends. "Say, where's Rainbow Bright?" "Rainbow Dash," Twilight corrected. "That's what I said." "She said she couldn't make it, since she had so much work to do," Pinkie said, sadly. The sadness was replaced with joy as she added, "But she said she'll try to make it later, so in the meantime, let's PARTY!" And party they did. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe it. Here was another one of Pinkie's parties, held for the supplier of one of her new favorite things ever, no less, and she couldn't make it because of all this weather patrol duty that had been piling up! Aggravated, she kicked another cloud, moving steadily outwards to the edge of the Everfree. She was actually near Scout's house, now. He probably had a few cans of that stuff laying around, so she could go in and have just a sip.. But no, that would be both breaking and entering, and stealing. Both of which things that, among other things, can easily deny you entry to the Wonderbolts. But then again, the rush she felt with that drink felt so- Her internal conflict was interrupted by a sharp pain in her flank. She yelped in surprise, but then it turned to a whimper as she found she was losing feeling in her body. She plummeted to the ground, which, luckily for her, wasn't too far away. As she landed, she looked up, seeing a bipedal figure silhouetted against the sun. It seemed to be holding some kind of small device, and she turned to see an arrow sticking out of her flank. She wanted to cry out in a mixture of pain, fear, anger, and confusion, but that came out was a strangled cry. She could feel that she was losing consciousness, but she fought it to the best of her ability. The figure laughed. "Looks like ve have un volunteer," it said, in a strange accent. "Heavy, give me a hand with zis." Before she could find out who this "Heavy" was, she passed out. The party was rather fun, actually. The Scout figured he would never play stupid party games (unless it helped him hit on single moms), but he actually found himself having fun. At least, until he started losing at everything. Then that fun turned into grumpiness. The others tried to convince him that winning wasn't everything, but he would have none of it. Pinkie was obviously cheating at Pin the Tail on the Pony! Regardless, the party went on for about another half hour, until Applejack happened to look out the window, and all the happiness drained out of her. "Uh, girls, and Scout," she hastily added, "y'all should come look at this." Confused, they did, save for Scout, who was still trying to break a pinata while blindfolded. All at once, they gasped and started murmuring. A crash marked the Scout finally hitting the pinata. He started to celebrate, then he saw all the ponies gathered around the window. "Hey, what're y'all lookin' at?" None of them answered, so he went to the window himself to see just what it was. What he saw was a massive blue vessel parked outside of Ponyville, towering above a thick section of the Everfree. He recognized that tank. "Aw crap." "Fascinating..." The Medic was already partway through with his dissection of the pony. The medigun had accepted it with minimal tuning, letting the doctor focus on inspecting the inner workings of his specimen. Already, he had extracted the heart and the lungs, and he was busy inspecting the former. On a board next to him were x-ray pictures of the pony, showing bone structure, as well as a few quick sketches of the organs, both extracted and still in place. From what he had found so far, these ponies seemed to be similar to humans in many ways, yet at the same time they were similar to normal equines from his world. In fact, if humans had evolved from horses, rather than apes, he might say that the ponies would be the missing link in that case. The Heavy, meanwhile, simply stood off to the side and watched. He personally did not like what the Medic was doing, cutting open an innocent creature like this, but he wasn't exactly one to talk on moral standards. After displacing a few ribs (while also finding out that the pegasi subspecies of pony had lightweight bones, not unlike a bird), the Medic came across a rather unusual organ. Immediately, he set to work cutting it out, and soon held it in his hand. It was... odd, to say the least. It looked to be similar to the heart in shape and size, yet it seemed to... sparkle, for lack of a better word, and it secreted a strange, gooey, purplish substance, which oozed out when it pulsated, also similar to a heart. Curious, the Medic looked at one of the many displays hooked up to the pony, and found that whatever he removed would prove fatal if the medigun was taken off of it (or her, rather: it actually took him this long to finally remember to look at the creature's gender). At least, fatal alongside the missing heart and lungs. Cutting open the organ with his trusty bonesaw, the Medic found that the surface of the organ was tougher than it appeared, and it took a considerable amount of force before he split it into two halves. It was filled with more of the substance, which the Medic dipped his finger into, inspecting it. As he looked close, he noticed small multicolored sparks traveling throughout the liquid, yet no shocks were felt. In fact, those sparks reminded him of... Hit with inspiration, he inspected his saw: The cutting edge was covered in the stuff, and it, too, had sparks traveling throughout it. Turning to the Heavy, he prepares to swing. "Sorry, mein friend." The saw hits the Heavy in the arm, causing him to yell out in pain. He looked at the wound; being the Medic's test subject for some weapons wasn't new, but this hurt more than even a crit swing from the saw. He took a bite of the sandvich he always carried, healing the wound right up. The Medic grinned sadistically. This substance wouldn't just give crits... it would amplify them, too! On top of that, when he turned back to the fileted organ, it seemed to be overflowing with the substance slightly, as if... "...it self-replinishes, even when out of ze body," he finishes the thought giddily. If he could harness one of these organs for his medigun, he could makes whoever he's healing into an unstoppable killing machine. Despite this, he didn't want to kill the pony, if he could help it. After all, he was still a man of science, and it's generally not good science to kill your specimen, especially if it's the first one of its kind you've ever studied. "Uugh..." It's also not good science to have your subject wake up while you're in the middle of dissec- er, "operating". The pony's eye's shot open and scanned the room. Undoubtedly, she saw: A. The gaping hole in her body. B. The strange human covered in her blood up to the wrists. C. The aforementioned human standing over a set of organs on a table. D. Those same organs, particularly the heart and lungs, decidedly missing from her open body cavity. And last but not least, E. The other, large human, who simply shrugged at the pony when she looked at him. When all these factors are taken into account, it is a perfectly reasonable reaction to, say, scream uncontrollably while struggling against the bonds you just now noticed were there on the table. She only stopped when the bloody human covered her mouth with a hand (a hand covered in her blood, she realized with a fright) and said, "Come, now, how can I vork when you insist on keeping up zat racket?"