was that the doctors would be back soon.
Jeice gave himself a jerk: "Maiju?"
She opened her eyes: "Yes?"
"Do ... do you mind if I say Liel to you?"
The girl was surprised, but she smiled: "No."
He smiled back. Wordless eye contact. Their fingertips touched.
The door to the adjoining room opened, and the two doctors vigorously entered the room. The children started, Jeice flinched back in shock, their eye contact was broken.
Just as energetically as he had come in, the senior doctor approached the couch, startled when he saw that Maiju was awake.
"You woke up? How are you?"
"Good, apart from the fact that everything hurts me!" she muttered, half unconscious again.
With a contemptuous "Hmpf!" the doctor first turned to his subordinate: "Bring the little one to the observation room!" and then, as he pushed the couch away, to Jeice: "Did she say something?"
Yes, of course!thought the boy. But if he said that, the doc would want to know what, and that would be trouble!
"No!"
"Really not?"
Jeice shook his head emphatically.
The senior doctor left it at that.
"So did you find out what she got?" Jeice asked now, outwardly bored and just on the side, but inwardly he was afraid of the answer.
"You guessed well, boy! It really is the mutation! I never would have thought after three years!"
Jeice's stomach tightened. He's happy about it, he thought angrily, sure, he doesn't care about Maiju, he doesn't care if she dies! "And you think she'll survive if it starts like this?"
"Your condition will get better!" the doctor prophesied confidently "And if not, we still have the Medi-Tank!"
Will he help what? Jeice was skeptical. He would have liked to ask more questions, but the senior doctor just disappeared into the next room and left him standing.
Resigned, he turned around and left.
Her condition did not improve. He got worse.
Maiju lay in a vegetative state for days in which she reacted to external stimuli and from which she woke up at times, only for a few minutes at a time. But on the fourth day she sank into a deep coma in which she could no longer perceive anything. The fever also rose and her pulse quickened. The only thing that made the doctors confident was that the mutation in her hand was progressing slowly but surely.
On the sixth day it was locked: Maiju only had four fingers on each hand, but they didn't look deformed, but as if it belonged that way.
The doctors' relieved mood was clouded when their general condition did not improve at all.
They agreed to put the girl in the medi-tank and feed her artificially.
She stayed in the tank for almost a month - that's how long it took until her mutation was finally completed.
First of all, her legs changed until they looked like the back legs and the feet like the paws of the Liel cat, overgrown with light gray fur. At the same time it grew a tail that was narrow at first, but wider again towards the tip, ideal to strike with, and with purple fur.
Then their ears tapered, they got tufts like squirrel kittens, and their canines too became longer and pointed.
At the end, some minor changes took place: lilac streaks appeared on the side of her thighs, back, upper arms, and above her eyes, but they looked black on her dark skin. The wide strip above the eyes looked like the mask of a ninja and gave it a sneaky look, the fringe on the forehead and the foremost strand of hair also turned purple.
Maiju's transformation was complete, but her body temperature and pulse did not quite return to their normal values. That's why she stayed in the Medi-Tank.
In the meantime she began to move more and more violently, which the senior doctor saw as a good sign: "In this way she learns to control her new body, she subconsciously develops a feeling for her strengths and weaknesses!"
Freezer was extremely pleased.
4th
Maiju felt good. For a few days the feeling of leaden heaviness disappeared more and more from her body, her head became clear.
Carefully she began to move, clenched her fists, tensed her muscles, discovered that, even though it felt new, she quickly regained a good feeling for her body and had it more and more under control. But she was not yet in full possession of her abilities, so she waited. Nobody should know yet that she was conscious again. She waited for a suitable opportunity. Which she soon got.
Most of the soldiers were on space patrols - locating and conquering new planets - and Freezer's headquarters were unusually quiet.
In the room where the Medi-Tanks were located, the doctor who started the experiment with Maiju was busy maintaining one of the older devices. Again and again he disassembled the oxygen mask, cleaned it, reassembled it, checked the oxygen supply, cursed, disassembled the mask ......
After cursing ten times, misplacing all-round tools five times and kicking the medi-tank once ("You stupid-ow!"), He had made it. Tidied up, looked for and stowed the all-round tool and was about to leave, when he noticed a movement in Maiju's tank. He walked up to it and peered in through the viewing window.
The girl moved slowly, cautiously, in a way that suggested controlled force. But that couldn't be! She wasn't awake yet!
He had hardly finished thinking when she opened her eyes and looked straight into his face. The doctor froze.
At first Maiju thought she was back in time, would relive those first moments in Freezer's headquarters, this situation was so similar to the one three years ago.
Then she noticed the difference. Only one thing was alike: the same doctor.
Suddenly anger welled up inside her. Same doctor. But this time she would fight back!
The anger turned to hate.
Because of you, I had to go through this hell in here! she shouted at him inwardly.
All her muscles tensed, her eyes twinkling into slits. Her paws touched the bottom of the tank. She pushed herself off.
Pushed off with all the strength she could muster at that moment. The oxygen mask, the probes on her temples, the infusion tube tore off, it broke through the glass of the viewing window, hit the horrified doctor in the face with tremendous force. He fell like a felled tree, the force of her attack carried her over him, she landed, flipped around, hit his back a second time before he even touched the ground. Torn forward, it fell halfway through the broken window of the medi-tank, hanging there like a wet washcloth.
Maiju stood behind him, her body taut like a bowstring, still angry about to burst.
With a sudden movement she grabbed his shoulder, pulled him up, and threw him on the floor.
She could see that he was half dead, unable to even move.
Grinned angrily “Serves you right!” For a while she enjoyed his suffering, his labored breathing.
Suddenly she stood over him, one paw to his left and one to his right. Knelt down. And hit.
With the flat of his hand in his chest, the bone shattered, his eyes opened, his mouth opened in one last silent scream. Blood splattered Maiju's face.
She withdrew her hand from the doctor's chest and wiped the blood from her cheek with the other. She put a few drops of it in her mouth. The bitter taste filled her with grim pride. She had killed for the first time!
Maiju turned her victim on his stomach, kneeled next to it, supported himself with one hand on his back and the other on his head, bent down.Slowly, obeying instinct, she opened her mouth, showing long, sharp canine teeth made to kill.
The teeth slid down the dead man's neck, digging into his warm flesh.
She was enjoying the moment when she bit down, his neck splintered between her teeth, blood filling her mouth.
Footsteps, excited shouts in the corridor. Maiju straightened up in a flash when the door opened.
Freezer was startled when he realized what he was seeing: Maijutyree, in front of the backdrop of a destroyed medi-tank, standing over the corpse of a doctor, like a predator over the prey, one paw on his back, fists clenched, his eyes, speckled gold, flashed provocatively, blood dripped from their fangs. Her strong legs showed jumping ability, speed, her posture determination, her whole body signaled danger.
"Damn it, it's going to be really dangerous again!" Zarbon muttered from behind him, expressing his thoughts exactly.
Freezer caught himself again "Maiju, as I can see, you are fully operational again! I'm happy!" he said, exaggeratedly friendly.
She just nodded.
"Answer kindly when the master says something to you!" thundered Dodoria. Freezer waved off "Shut up!"
"Is that there," he pointed to the dead doctor, "your work?"
“Yes, master.” Maiju answered quietly, undecided about what he meant.
"Nice job! Clean and precise! How many punches did it take you?"
She relaxed, "Three, master!"
"Very good! You can go and the rest of the day is free."
Her expression brightened up, she knelt in front of him on the floor. "Thank you, master! Too generous!"
Then she jumped up and hurried to her cabin, made a mistake when she entered the code, hopped under the shower and slipped into a combat suit, which she had to cut a hole in the back to accommodate her tail. She was happy, happy with herself, and full of energy.The anger was gone.
As soon as she was in her combat suit, she left her cabin again, stormed through the corridors to the exit, where she stood for a few minutes and breathed fresh air. Then she shot away.