Cole was ready to begin healing someone immediately to demonstrate his abilities. With Panacea the world's best healer, looking over everything he figured the PRT would be a bit more trusting; she could easily fix any mistakes he might make within a second after all.
However, after enduring numerous tests on powers they did not even care about, he should have known better than to expect something like that. Instead of being led to a patient, he was handed a box of crickets. Cole paused looking at Panacea, who wore a wry smile as if enjoying the misery that was about to fall on him.
"Seriously?" Cole muttered, eyeing the box of crickets that were chirping incessantly. He then looked over at the mousy brunette and gave her a flat look. "This is going to be my entire day isn't it?" He asked with a wry smile of his own.
He was being too much like himself at this moment but he figured that the annoying tests that were being thrown at him earlier would explain the shifting personality.
Panacea just gave him a smile that was far too innocent to be genuine. She knew what was about to happen to him and she was going to enjoy every second of it even if she too would have to put up with this bullshit.
While these tests were annoying to deal with they were better than what she was dealing with earlier. Countless hours of sitting in a hospital healing people she had no interest in to satisfy her adoptive mother was not exactly fun for her. It was not like those mind numbing hours ever really satisfied the fussy blonde, no matter what Panacea did it just did not seem enough to Carol.
That was just the story of her life as far as Panacea was concerned.
At least here she could slack off a bit and draw amusement from the suffering of her fellow healer. Anyone who believes Panacea was a saint who could do no wrong clearly never met the girl.
"It is standard protocol to run tests like this Cole, I understand that it is alot but we need to make sure your power is safe well before we even think about human testing." Armsmaster piped in from the side clearly reading the room for once. A truly miraculous surprise, but maybe Cole's mood was blatant enough that even the emotionally stunted man could pick it up.
Panacea let out a snort and Cole looked over at her with another flat look. She just smiled innocently at him again.
Miss Militia had left to soft sell Tammi while he was doing this. It annoyed him that he was not going to be there as support for her but they clearly knew how to divide and conquer. Vista had left with her as well as the small girl was stiff around him for the most part and she probably wanted to go check on Dean.
"Trust me, you are getting it easy. With me around the tests will be much faster. When I had to do this they did not have someone like me around to speed things up so I had to wait hours for the results on something as simple as healing a cut on a squirrel." Panacea spoke out with a wry smile and a shudder running through her body from the memories of those mind numbing moments.
Cole was surprised from the sudden surge of support from the snarky girl but he figured she was feeling a sense of comradery. They both had to put up with this bullshit after all.
Maybe with Cole around she could actually have some time to enjoy herself as well instead of burning herself over and over again even if her wick was nearing its end.
"That should make me feel better but I'm still going to be here for a long time right?" Cole asked with a wry smile and she said nothing but gave him the same innocent smile she had been sporting earlier.
Even Armsmaster knew that the tests were going to be a bit much as he coughed awkwardly from the side and looked off into the distance.
"Right, I should have expected this. Fine. Might as well get started on this. To save myself some time I got two forms of healing. One floods the body with positive energy that I can use to heal in a more in depth and controlled fashion and the other is me inflicting a regeneration factor on someone." Cole explained as he picked up one of the crickets who was missing a limb.
Technically he had one more way of healing but he was not going to tell them about the Clone technique. It could only heal himself so there was really no need to bring it up. Two forms of healing were already a lot considering the response his words got.
Armsmaster stood a bit more stiffer at the declaration and Panacea let out a grimace as she saw even more tests being thrown at them. She gave Cole a good long look but he just gave her an innocent smile in return that was a mirror of the one she gave him. After a moment of that she snorted again and got back to smiling at him.
"Really wished I had another cup of coffee before dealing with this but fine, this should not add too much time we just have to run through each subject twice." Panacea finally spoke out and gestured for Cole to get started already.
For a brief moment he paused as he was going to offer to use RCT on her as she clearly needed it. The rush would take the fatigue away and it would heal the stress her body was being put under but Cole gave up on it for now. They were having him test his powers on freaking crickets right now, they were not going to let him heal the very valuable Healer without making sure the process was 100% safe.
He could always offer the same thing later.
So Cole got started on healing the Cricket first by inflicting Regeneration on one of them as he inversed the Decay technique. He put the Cricket down on the table as the flesh slowly started to grow out of the thing and reform the lost limb. It was not the fastest process but he did not throw a lot of energy behind the technique.
Panacea poked at the thing as the process was going on while Armsmaster stood watching stiffly over everything.
"Hmmmm, well you were right in calling this Regeneration. Its body is healing in a natural way even if the healing itself is unnatural considering the Cricket would have no way of regrowing the lost limb. Whatever energy you are using to heal is taking up some of the burden of healing in this way but the subject is still likely to need to eat quite a bit to recover fully. Similar to how I heal for the most part but in a more automatic way." Panacea spoke out her findings as she looked over the Cricket with a seriousness that was not there before.
She seemed a bit too focused on this and it worried him for a moment but there was not a lot he could do about it.
"If the rate of healing was increased the body would overdraft and devourer itself as it tried to keep healing at a rate that simply could not be kept up. Is the rate of healing changeable or is it static? Can you increase the output of energy you are placing in it as well?" Panacea asked with the same sort of serious tone that had alarm bells ringing in his head.
Armsmaster was as stiff as a statue as he went over what he was hearing. The guy probably never thought Healing could be so dangerous but he could see where Panacea was coming from.
Before changing the variables of the technique were impossible but with Six eyes the Impossible became plausible. He could certainly inflict a massive healing factor on someone and watch as they consumed themself to sustain it.
Hell, he could effectively give someone cancer with a touch if he really wanted to.
"I never thought about it before but yeah I can increase the rate of regeneration without increasing the energy I give them. Usually the power increases the rate of healing with the amount of energy I throw into it so the subject would never reach the state of eating itself to sustain the healing rate but I can edit those variables separately if I tried." Cole spoke out after a moment of contemplation.
While this might draw more worry about him showing the lethal side of his powers were not exactly a bad thing. It would give the PRT more reason to keep him as the nice safe Healer they needed instead of the lethal menace he could become. The power he was throwing around earlier had already pointed to the fact that he had more than healing in his bag.
Panacea nodded along as if she expected that but she seemed to be in a bit of a daze as they continued the tests. RCT was next as he poked at another Cricket and instead of a slow process the cricket's flesh bubbled as its new limb formed in an instant.
Once the healing was finished the Cricket was moving about with far more energy than the rest of the box and it was making far more noise. Panacea paused for a moment before touching the Cricket with that odd look on her face.
It only took her a moment before she let go of the thing and gave her evaluation.
"There is no sign of the body needing to consume energy to support the sudden healing. In fact the Subject is in a far better state than it was before ignoring the lost limb. On the other hand the Subject appears to be experiencing a rush that is affecting it." Panacea stated clinically as she looked over the Cricket with a frown on her face.
"Yeah, this form of healing is far more effective and can treat disease and other more tricky subjects but I am flooding my target with energy which has side effects of its own to consider. My energy is emotional in nature." Cole started to explain but the stiff statue that was Armsmaster seemed to freeze even further in place which was a surprise.
Cole did not even think it was possible to be that stiff but the guy clearly proved him wrong.
"Since I am flooding the target with positive emotions it's a lot to take in. In fact I would say it's overwhelming. I can limit that rush from its overwhelming nature but that would make the process take longer. So it's either a rush of overwhelming positivity or a minute of pleasant contention." Cole explained calmly as if this was not an issue.
Before when he just had Sukuna's mastery of RCT the rush was far more to deal with but with Six Eyes his control skyrocketed. So now he no longer felt like a drug addict when he was using RCT but it was still possible to have that rush for an instant heal.
He could try to hide this aspect of his power and he should considering the response he got from Armsmaster over it but it would be difficult with Panacea here. No matter how much control he used here, the emotional aspect of RCT was still going to be clear. So the side effect was always going to be a problem, but he figured that it was better to just be clear and open about everything.
Panacea bit her lip as she looked over the Cricket with a dazed expression that had him worried for a moment but she seemed to recover. There seemed to be a hint of longing in her gaze for a moment but it faded quickly.
Cole gave her an odd look but figured it was not something he should be too hung up on.
"The testing process on Subjects with similar emotional capabilities to humans is going to take a little longer as we need to test that part thoroughly." Panacea spoke out clinically and Armsmaster finally moved as he nodded quickly but stiffly.
Cole wanted to roll his eyes as he figured that was going to be the case but just nodded instead. His own snarky nature will continue to lay dormant for now.
So they continued their testing with Cole being run through test animals over and over again. From Chipmunks to Pigs anything the PRT could get their hands on needed to be tested and they needed to be tested well. Thankfully the more exotic creatures were off the table for the most part. So no Tigers or god forbid a fucking elephant.
Cole figured it was a budget issue. Healing was important and the data they could gain from running those tests were vital but the only form of data right now was Panacea and she was more checking if things were safe for the most part. So they could not afford to throw expensive animals at them right now.
They might do so later when they could pull him back to the testing grounds but that was a question for later.
Panacea seemed to fall into that a lul over and over again as they ran through tests and it had Cole worried every single time it happened but Armsmaster did not seem to be that concerned.
Cole thought he was overreacting but he stiffened as Armsmaster was not really a good judge on someone's emotional stability. To him her falling into a daze during experimentation was normal as that was an issue Armsmaster himself had to deal with but he did not think about the difference between the two. Armsmaster was a Tinker and the fugue they go through was notorious but Panacea was just a healer but Armsmaster never pieced together why her daze should be a concern.
Cole was a bit worried that he was scratching the itch the Shaper Shard was begging for. Panacea was already on the brink of an explosion; he did not need her power pushing her for more after it finally had a taste for new Data.
Thankfully her state did not dip into an obsessive or negative direction. She just seemed contemplative for the most part. Still, it worried Cole the entire time they were experimenting.
Oddly enough that worry made those tests go faster even if they ran through far more tests than he would have expected from them.
"Well, it's clear that this form of healing does have a Master effect as the rush of emotions has an influence on how the Subjects feel." Panacea spoke out in a dry tone as she released the monkey who went back to bouncing around the cage it was set up in.
Cole grimaced but nodded along as that could not be hidden. Armsmaster himself had a frown on his face and the guy was stiff but he remained silent. Panacea looked over the monkey before looking back at Cole.
"The effect is minimal when you take your time healing and even when you heal at maxed output the effect is not too much of an issue. As long as you don't make a point of healing the same person over and over again with a maxed output the Master effect should be minimal. I advise taking your time with healing as there really is no need to risk Mastering someone, You also have the Regeneration to fall back on if you need to heal someone urgently." Panacea spoke out her verdict and gave Cole a small smile. Cole gave her a stiff one in return.
Some tension coming from Armsmaster was released from the guy as that verdict was far better than he was expecting. They needed a Healer desperately but having a Healing Master would be an issue. They would still take Cole as having him as an enemy would be a literal nightmare but they would have kept his healing to a minimal for the most part.
Thankfully that seemed to not be an issue.
"Will do, I would make a pretty shit master as the rush of emotions is pretty blatant." Cole spoke out stiffly as he pointed at the bouncing monkey which had Panacea snorting again.
She just nodded along giving him an out even if the both of them knew he could be far more insidious if he wanted to be. Sure, the high his max output would be visible but a slow take over was certainly possible if Cole wanted to take his time to pull someone to his side.
He had no plans on doing something like that but it was certainly possible.
"So can I finally start healing some patients?" Cole asked with a buzz about him. He really wanted to show his worth instead of messing around with animals. Panacea snorted again as if baffled anyone would want to do something like that.
Cole wanted to roll his eyes at her but her life was just healing over and over again so she had every reason to feel the way she did. Thankfully, Armsmaster stepped in.
"Your healing is deemed safe for now but please refrain from healing. The PRT needs to discuss how to handle your…unique situation before we can clear that." Armsmaster spoke out quickly and Cole let out a sigh as he should have expected that.
Even Panacea looked disappointed at that verdict as she really needed someone to take the load off of her but Cole was not that person. At least not now.
"Back to the trenches I go then." Panacea spoke out dryly, clearly in a less pleasant mood at the notion of going back to healing like she was doing earlier.
Cole paused for a moment unsure if he should even offer but Panacea really could need what he was about to say. So he mustered some backbone and took the shot.
"You want me to heal you before you leave? Your power does not work on yourself right? Figured, the least I could do is offer to heal you considering how much of your time I took up." Cole offered with a small shrug trying to make it clear that he did not mind if she rejected his offer.
Armsmaster stiffened again as he wanted to deny Cole this as the PRT needed to talk about this but he could not exactly forbid him from it. He was not technically a PRT Ward just yet. He could only suggest Cole refrain for now.
Panacea stood still for a moment before giving Cole a long measured look before she smiled wryly at him.
"Sure, why not. I could use the pick me up. God knows the coffee at the PRT is shit anyways." Panacea spoke out with a snarky look on her face. Cole paused as he did not think she would want the emotional healing. He was offering the Regen one but if she was fine with the RCT he was fine with it as well.
He could do more throughout healing with that anyway.
Cole put his hand out and had an idea pop into his mind as he looked over at Panacea with a small smile building on his face.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" Cole asked with a bright tone as he held his hand out. Panacea paused for a moment before snorting again.
"Think you're funny do ya? Fine, you got your permission but I'm telling Vickey about this." She threatened with a genuine smile on her face this time. It was nice seeing it as her tone and voice had been so low before even when she drew some amusement. It always felt fleeting but in this moment she felt a little happy.
So Cole reached over to her and channeled RCT into her in a slow pace to not overwhelm her.
This was probably not the best idea….