Chapter 9

(Sanura)

It was another long day at the office, looking after the worlds elementals is tough job but someone's got to do it. I was just about done and looking forward to getting home to Amy and the kids almost on time for once when one of my alerts flagged a news article for my attention.

I pulled up the information on my screen and saw it was from some trashy tabloid news outfit in the UK. I sighed expecting it to be another celebrity seen out with an known MORFS survivor or some probably misleading story about an attack or some other waste of my time.

The headline read, "Man Mutilated By Half Human Half Scorpion!" I braced myself for another bigfoot esq story.

'Mr Gavin McWalter a local construction worker was brutally attacked by a half human half scorpion monster. Mr McWalter was walking home from a local pub when he was set upon by the beast completely without provocation. The monster, by Mr McWalters description, was 15 feet tall generally human shaped but covered in jet black plates with a lethal tail and pincers for hands, attacked Mr McWalter who was able to fend off it's physical attacks but then fell victim to some terrible power. The skin on half of his face and one of his hands has been changed into what appears to be black shell. Mr McWalter is in constant pain as a result and is confined to the local hospital. Doctors are baffled and even the staff bioelemental was unable to reverse the change claiming the damage is too extensive and that it was done at a level beyond their own abilities. Speaking off the record a doctor at the hospital said they also found the changes bear an energy signature that suggests a very powerful bioelemental made the alterations. Mr McWalter now hopes to see a specialist bioelemental at the St Giles MORFS special medical unit in London.'

The article then went on to talk about his problems as a result and how he had lost his job and girlfriend and so on. I looked at the pictures of a man with a face half covered in black plating. Something about this trashy story reminded me of something else I had seen earlier in the day. Then I noticed the name of the village where the construction worker lived it had also been listed on an unusual new entry in the database. A young woman outside the usual age range of MORFS suddenly being entered as a very powerful bioelemental. It had struck me as strange when I saw it and I'd made a note to investigate. But a powerful bioelemental suddenly turning up in a small village where a man is attacked seemingly by a powerful bioelemental, that couldn't be coincidence. I looked up the entry and another piece of the puzzle fell into place it listed her as a Scorpion Hybrid only 5 foot 8 as opposed to 15 feet tall but still I would have to investigate.

I sighed, another trip away, Amy was going to be miffed. I checked my watch, it could wait till tomorrow no one would be awake there for a while yet. Another rampaging elemental was not what I needed right now.

I decided if tomorrow was going to require overtime then the rest of today's work could wait. I packed up and told the various staff that I would be out of the office tomorrow.

I got in the front door and was ambushed by a cute bundle of white fur, "mama!" cried Faline leaping into my arms, she was getting heavy.

"Hey Kitten," called Amy as I walked into the dining room, "what gives you're almost on time for a change. You get time off for good behaviour?"

"I decided to cut school early today, I've got another business trip tomorrow," I replied depositing Faline in her chair having some trouble with her tail that had wrapped itself around my arm and gripped me possessively. I ruffled little Blaze's hair affectionately as I passed his high chair.

"Where to this time," sighed Amy tolerantly.

"England looks like some Bioelemental running amok."

"Well you better bring me a souvenir this time," admonished Amy.

"Will do."

"Well since you're here you can help me with dinner. Come along kitten," she ordered with a smile. I followed her quickly into the kitchen, I never could turn down her commands not that I wanted to.

Ludicrously early the next morning I got up trying not to wake Amy. I dressed got my briefcase then quickly formed a disk of dark matter and spun it focussing on my desired destination. Space twisted in front of me and a picturesque village appeared at the other end. I took a breath and then prepared to jump through, I never seemed to get used to travelling this way. I jumped through landing neatly on a cobblestone road. I sealed the portal behind me and strolled down the road to get my bearings. It almost immediately started raining and I cursed myself for forgetting to bring an umbrella, this was England after all. I compromised by forming a shield above me that kept the rain off.

First stop would be the local testing centre which seemed to be attached to the same hospital the victim of the attack was in. Hopefully I could kill two birds with one stone, find out about this new bioelemental and find out something about the condition of the man who claimed to be attacked. The local police might be helpful but it was always a job to explain who I was and why they should talk to me, when I was acting in a medical capacity things always seemed to be much smoother.

I made my way into the post morfs testing centre and headed for the reception area.

"Hello can I help you?" asked a nurse from behind the desk with a pleasant smile.

I pulled out my ID, "Hello I'm Dr Miller with the international MORFS registry we received an entry from this testing centre into our database that tripped a few flags and I've come to investigate the particulars."

"Right," said the nurse looking a little surprised, "We don't usually get many visitors from the registry, I'll see if I can get you some time with our Doctor."

She went away into the back and after a short while returned smiling. "Doctor Howard is just on her lunch break but she's got time to see you before we get our next wave of appointments in," she turned to indicate where to go, "If you go through this door make a right then the break room is first door on the left. She's just in there."

"Thanks very much," I said and made my way through, the break room turned out to be just a room with a single table a few chairs and a sink with a kettle and an assortment of mugs next to it. Sitting at the table was a young woman with brown hair, dark eyes, and a Mediterranean complexion dressed in a white doctors coat.

"Doctor Howard?" I asked.

"Yeffs," she replied with a mouth full of sandwich.

"I'm Doctor Miller from the International MORFS Registry, I look after entries on elementals and one of your recent entries tripped a few flags a young woman outside our normal age range very powerful bioelemental scorpion hybrid."

The woman swallowed her sandwich, "Oh yes Jamie," she looked away for a moment, "such a sad story and yet such a lovely young woman if a little scared of people."

"I don't know any details beyond what was in the entry," I said wondering what she meant.

"Living in the forest all those years like a wild thing," said the doctor seemingly not hearing me, "Lost thought dead then chased away by her own mother, tragic really. To think there was a little kid living out there for years and no one knew."

"I..."

"Hard to imagine that she managed to survive out there, even more amazing that she isn't a complete basket case as a result. Then to come back only to be attacked by those anti-morfs nutters. She put one in hospital you know, did some pretty nasty damage to his face with her elemental abilities, not that she realised she could do that poor dear. Still at least it had a happy ending what with her finding her family again," She paused then shook her head and looked back at me, "Oh here I go again rambling on when you had something you wanted to ask me. What was it you wanted to know about?"

There was a great deal I wanted to know about from her little monologue but where to begin.

"So you're telling me that this woman Jamie, was living in a forest?"

"Oh I assumed you knew?"

"No this is news to me."

The woman then went on to tell me a fairly fantastical tale about a young girl going missing thought dead who had actually undergone MORFS and was living in a cave in the forest then being rescued by a hiker.

"That sounds like something from a fairy tale!" I told her.

"I know, but it checks out as far as I can tell. The poor dear was trapped in a cave while she changed. Made her way back but she got chased off by her mother. Spent the next decade and a half living in the woods."

"She must have been pretty young?"

"Ten."

"How did she survive?"

"Some of it is down to the new body MORFS gave her, it's very very tough, and it came coupled with some senses and instincts that helped her hunt and survive. She's armoured like a tank incredibly strong equipped with a number of physical weapons, a set of pincers a venomous tail. Add to that her bio elemental powers make her immune to toxins pathogens and any physical damage she did receive would be regenerated."

"How powerful is she?"

"Well we don't get a lot of morfs survivors with powers due to the incidence rate being low and the relatively small communities around here and even then I'm not sure we've had a bio ele like her before. But even given that I'd say she's incredibly powerful. One of our staff had an old leg wound that she received as a child very deep damage her parents were anti morfs types so refused her MBE care and she's never had the money to have it fixed. Jamie saw the damage from two rooms away through several meters of concrete and fixed it without even moving. Gave the girl quite a shock, but her leg is as good as new no sign that it was ever damaged."

"Impressive, so she was relatively unharmed by her experiences in the forest?"

"Well I wouldn't say that, physically she is fine but mentally is another story. I've recommended she see someone more qualified to judge how to help her. She has been basically alone in the forest for most of her life, she's missed schooling and a lot of the normal social development that would go with that. As such she's going to have a difficult time reintegrating into society."

"Is she a danger?"

"She could be dangerous as could a lot of people, she's had to fight to survive so she has a fairly refined killer instinct. She's had to hunt and kill to survive at a level most of us are never likely to experience. But she also longs for companionship and family. While she has that I think she will be happy and make the effort to try and fit in."

"What about this incident where she attacked someone?"

"Well that's an interesting case. They're still not quite sure what she did to him most of the MBE's they got to take a look ran out screaming."

"Really?"

"Well ok no, though one did turn rather green and had to get some air, but take my word for it it's not a pretty picture. Anyway as for an attack it was a little more complex than that, there were four of them holding her down while this guy attacked her with a bat. She reacted and fought back did something horrific to his face and one of his hands. The guy tried to have her done for assault but with the witness testimony and the circumstances they didn't prosecute she's got to get some training to know more about her powers though so that sort of thing doesn't happen again. The medical people will figure out how to reverse it at some point, and until then the guy can just eat his meals through a straw."

I raised an eyebrow, "That's not a very sympathetic view."

"No I guess not, but the guy was basically trying to trap her. He even left a man trap in the woods for her so I hear, wanted to sell her as a slave to one of those overseas circuses or something. He was a low life anti-morfs bigot before she did this to him I've no doubt he'd be the same if we removed it tomorrow. We don't look too kindly on his sort round here, we're a very close nit community."

I got a few more details about this girl then decided it was time to head over and to see what she had done to her attacker.

"Thank you very much for your help Dr Howard," I said.

"Oh call me Ruth, it's been my pleasure anything else you need just let me know Dr Miller," she replied with a warm smile then went back to eating her sandwiches.

"That's most kind and please call me Sanura," I said preparing to leave.

The doctors eyes suddenly bugged open and she went bright red and nearly chocked on a bite of sandwich, "Not the Doctor Sanura Miller the famous elementoligist head of the elemental database!" she squeaked once she was able to breath again.

"Yes that's me, take care now," I gave her a wave as I walked out she was looking mortified like she had made some terrible faux paux. It was nice to know she was that helpful to anyone and she hadn't realised who I was in advance.

The doctors were a little reluctant to let me see him until I told them I was an elementologist they told me they had been having quite a lot of issues reversing the damage. Surgery would have meant removing half of his face then having to find new skin to graft back on. With the hand they didn't even have that option they found it almost impossible to remove the shell it being too tough for most of their normal tools to cut. With the face they had an edge they could go under if need be. Most of the MBE's they had brought in didn't really know what to make of the changes to the tissues, some had tried reversing the effect but lacked the power to do much more than small changes.