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Your Hollow Heart	By : KyuKitsune Category: G through L > Hollow Man Views: 3682 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hollow Man, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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~oooOYOHOHOooo~

Chapter 05

Joey was busy checking Isabelle while Sebastian and Matt were standing there and keeping their eyes on the area where the invisible gorilla should be. They could see the dart was standing erect on the invisible platform that was Isabelle's chest and seeing it moved up and down with each breath she took.

Matt didn't seem to mind that she won since it was only a few bucks and had to throw in a free lunch her way, well him and Sebastian both had to since those were the terms of the bet. He was okay with that and in all honesty prefer to be her who got it as she didn't really have that strong competitive streak like Sebastian when it came to this sort of thing. Back when they were still in college, the guy could be such a glory hound with his achievement and even now attempting to do the same here.

Yet then when it came to him losing, he became such a prissy grouch and wouldn't let it go until he came back on top over everyone else. Which is probably why Matt sometimes let him win when it came to their friendly wagers just so he didn't have to deal with him being a goddamn prick about the whole situation.

He took a quick glance in Sebastian's direction and instead of seeing him being sore about not winning this time, saw the passive look on his face. He had his eyes on the passed out gorilla and seeing Joey was still in one piece and having no harm come directly on her person. He was greatly relief to see she was okay, though if anyone had taken notice of his immediate concern, he would've said that it was so they didn't have to worry about any wrongful lawsuits or the fact that Isabelle was still good to go and didn't have to delay things today.

Yeah they wouldn't have to worry about Isabelle causing them any more trouble as the drug was already kicking in and she would be out for a long while.

Joey had figured the confrontation didn't go so well on their end and knew that Isabelle would be soon upon her as she was heading in this direction. She heard the loud roar and judging from the sound of it, she'd say the primate was pretty damn piss and knew she'd be too if she was in her place.

Also the fact that she could easily render her to pieces and wouldn't hold back as she wanted to get out and damn anyone that got in her path. The corridor had one opening which had the steel door that was right behind her and thinking there was no way she could get through there even with her bashing at it all day long. Just when she thought that she suddenly had a idea which could go down as probably pure genius or the dumbest move she ever come up with.

Either this works or I'm as good as dead. She had made to get into position, standing there with the gun in hand and taking the safety off it. She was waiting for her quarry to show itself on the infrared sensor as she immediately turned her goggles on and took a look around her surroundings. It didn't take long to see the heat signature that took on the bulky mass of Isabelle's form rushing towards her with rage set in her beady eyes.

Okay c'mon Izzy, right this way, come right to mama sweetheart! She stood perfectly still, waiting until she got a clear shot and when Isabelle close the distance between them open fire.

She saw the dart made impact on what was solid flesh and Joey quickly jump out of the way as the invisible gorilla hit the steel door headfirst with enough force to knock her down. She visibly winced when Isabelle's skull hit the titanium door with enough force to knock her unconscious and was lying on the ground by the time the others showed up. It was a good thing too since she didn't need to fire a second shot as a single dose plus a bump to the noggin should be enough to keep her out of commission.

Hopefully Isabelle would be all right, probably wake up with a killer headache when she comes to but didn't wan to go overboard with the sedatives and last thing they needed was to pump more drugs into her than what was necessary.

Yeah that and we don't want to have another unfortunate 'incident' after what happened to the previous Isabelle. She inwardly shuddered when she thought back to the first gorilla and what had transpired because of all those different components while in the midst of testing the latest batch to reverse them.

There had been the standard local anesthesia they used along with two strong sedatives when Isabelle was starting to come around while the serum was going through her system. It was not something they had been expecting, seeing the combination of all those chemicals had an unusual side effect and the results had been very disturbing in itself.

Though they had used these drugs before and the animals seem all right after but guessing that something within this latest batch that must had an adverse reaction while it was momentarily surging through the body. It certainly wasn't a pretty sight and was enough to keep her off red meat for a few days, especially after they had to wipe the mess down and toss whatever was left of the gorilla.

Now that they learned what had been the cause and seeing to subtract the component from there and finding what other alternatives they should try. They didn't want to repeat that mishap since buying Gorillas were not so cheap and not to mention the paperwork that had to be filled in in order to purchase one, through legal means of course.

But now, Sebastian seem absolutely certain that this time it would work for them, despite all the other previous attempts which by her last count had been over sixty-two this month alone so far. She thought he wouldn't be so pleased should anything happen to this Isabelle before they got the chance to test the new batch because someone had accidentally had her OD on the wrong dosage. Joey had taken the necessary precaution and used one of the lower calibers but still had enough kick to knock out someone like Isabelle for a few hours or so.

She'd be fine, Joey try to reassure herself this even though she considered their chances of being successful this time were 50/50 and that either Isabelle come through in one piece or wind up turning her into a big pile of goo.

Yeah no pressure really, not when you're doing all this in the name of science. But still it would be best to keep her under for the moment. Joey had seen the bite-mark on Matt's hand and could only imagine what else the gorilla could sink her teeth on if they didn't keep her fully restraint.

When she was finish, she stood up and went to go stand in between the two men. Then they heard the echo of someone's sneakers coming down this way and Joey seeing who it was that was approaching them.

Oh boy this doesn't look too good. She heard Matt said something to Sebastian when he also took notice who it was and seeing that she was looking for one of them and knew was definitely not him or Joey. "Sarah's on the warpath Sebastian, so play nice."

Joey had to fight back the urge to roll her eyes when she heard his nonchalant remark to Matt's warning, "Don't I always." She decided not to make any comment on that but sure Sarah would have plenty to say and wasn't all that disappointed when she started yelling out loud for all of them to hear, "This is bullshit, Sebastian, bullshit!"

"Good morning to you, too!" Sarah ignored him but was turning to the others and having her eyes set on Joey herself. Uh-ho she knew that look and really she wish she didn't have to go and deal with this kind of stuff so early in the morning.

"Joey help me out, explain to Sebastian here why I think we shouldn't be going through with this so soon. Don't you think this is a little unethical to be attempting something this big before you inject Isabelle with this latest batch?"

Oh god here we go again. Sarah was like her when it came to arguing with Sebastian and though she like to agree on most but since she and Sebastian gone over the data and thought that everything look perfectly accurate and didn't see any room for error. She just hope she would see reason and not think she was trying to be on either side as she was more firmly on the one she trust in herself.

"Sarah I know how you feel; believe me I would be just as upset but we seen how far we made in the last few months. But these results are overwhelming and I check them at least a dozen times over and we've done the calculations carefully and feel confident that this will work."

Okay so maybe it was slightly exaggerated but she knew it was the only way to keep Sarah from getting so worked up over this. She knew how she felt about their experimentation on the creatures they worked with and wouldn't be so forgiving if anything should go wrong with Isabelle here.

Sebastian couldn't help smirking as he slung his arm around the aggravated redhead and said, "Yeah have some confident in me why don't cha? I mean how many tissue samples have we successfully regressed? Hundreds, right? How many have gone on to work on the full system? None as of yet but will soon see once we get Isabelle ready."

Sarah gave Sebastian that incredulous look and Joey trying to suppress the groan that was right on her lips, 'Not helping here.' She should've know better that he couldn't resist pushing Sarah's button whenever he got the chance to.

Joey could understand her concerns as she was the best vet in the D.C. county and that she was the one who had to deal with evaluating and monitoring the animals' behavior during the phasing stages. Also after what happened with the previous gorilla and knew she didn't show that much trust in Sebastian from making the same attempt even with all the calculations proving otherwise that it should work. Yet instead of going over their finding over with the team which would've made things go so much easier, Sebastian decides that the only way to see this through was to test it while it was good and hot.

Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered if he was just going to pull this kind of shit on them…

Sarah pulled back and was scowling in his direction as it was obvious she didn't believe him, "That's besides the point."

"No, that is the point. I'm not going to waste another six months of my life on an outmoded testing procedure. This will work. I know it. I feel it in my gut and Joey here agrees." Great now he was involving her in this which she thought was so typical of him to do, though then again he was using some of her notes and she had no doubt that everything would turn out all right like she hypotheses.

But Sarah couldn't help making one final remark, "Fine but you can mop up afterwards." Sebastian raised a brow and asking her in a skeptic tone, "You really think I'd go as far to kill Isabelle."

"Kill? More like liquefy." Sebastian thought she was overreacting about this whole thing a tad much and didn't hear anyone else make any complains about it. Why of all people did she have to be such a pain in his ass when they were trying to make the attempt and out of everyone seem to not want to follow through. Well it was about time to remind her on who was in charge of the whole project.

"Well, your objections have been duly noted and summarily overruled but thank you for your opinion, but remember I'm the project leader and I what I say goes. Understand?"

She glared at him before muttering sarcastically, "Yes sir!" Before turning and storming off in an angry huff, leaving them and the unconscious gorilla in the hallway.

"How come when she says 'Yes, Sir' it kinda sounds like 'Fuck you!'" He was asking this to the others still there and Joey simply shrugged, "Maybe because in a way it is. Especially with your oh so charming personality towards her concern to the animals and your lack there-of."

"It's not like I'm running a goddamn zoo here but still how did they convince me to hire her I'll never know."

Joey said nothing but decided she better go get change and left them to deal with the still sleeping Isabelle. She would see if Carter could bring a gurney for them as she doubt they could carry her all way to the lab without having her coming around. She told herself that everything would be fine and just hoped that Sebastian was right and that they weren't making a colossal mistake like last time.

~oooOYOHOHOooo~

Everyone was in the lab and were getting ready for the experimentation and seeing that the equipment was set up and everything else was turned on and fully activated. Joey was doing a double check on the read out when Isabelle finally showed up and was laid out on the medical slab and strapped in. She was still asleep which made it easier to tie her down as it would've been more a hassle if she wasn't.

They didn't want to risk having her injure herself or getting out of her binding. Many of their previous test subjects had to be under anesthesia since the few times they had tested these, there was always the same reaction to them panicking during the testing phase. But thankfully the tranqs were still keeping her calm and having no trouble with securing them tightly around her invisible form.

The few failed attempts they had manage to see some sign of the formula working only to have the test subject couldn't take the intensity and their hearts gave out halfway through the procedure. She wondered if this time would be different or be just as similar to when they are phasing out and just reverting back to visibility. Only one way to tell.

She saw Sebastian finally arrive with Linda in tow, wearing his lab coat over his scrubs. He was heading towards Matt seeing as he was near the cyclotron where it finished spinning and pluck one of the vials out seeing it glow an illuminating orange.

"Protocol is hot." Sebastian nodded while asking how Isabelle's vitals were. She and Sarah check the monitors and saw that everything was normal. Her heart beat and blood pressure were stable at the moment and Sarah would keep a close watch on them while going through the procedure.

Sebastian lifted his gaze up towards the upper level where the observation booth was, "Heaven."

There was a loud static crackle and then a booming voice spoke over the intercom, "THIS IS GOD. YOU ARE DISTURBING THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS AND WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED FOR ALL ETERNITY. GOD HAS SPOKEN."

Joey try to keep from laughing as Frank seem to be getting into the spirit of things and was laying out some humor for this moment. She couldn't help when Sebastian made the response, "How many times do I have to tell you, Frank you aren't God. I am."

"Oh lord help us." Now Sarah was chuckling at her comment and though Sebastian heard them and couldn't help quirk at the two giggling women, "Now ladies let's be mature here, especially you Joe."

Joey couldn't help giving him the 'Don't call me Joe' look. Though she knew he was doing that to get back at her for earlier. But she was too excited to care as they were ready to roll and heard Frank start the recording.

"Subject Isabelle Two. Currently in phase shift... 126 days, 18 hours."

Linda came over and was carrying one of the vials from the centrifuge and holding it in her hand, "Testing De-Phase protocol. Injecting serial protein Caine 1-2-5."

Joey heard Matt muttering to Sebastian about how they might have better luck if they weren't named after him. She knew that he wouldn't call it anything otherwise as this had been his project from the beginning and whatever name he gave them would go down as his work and nothing else.

She tried to keep her focus on the bigger picture and seeing Matt with the hypodermic needle and jabs it into the vial and drawing the colored liquid slowly until he got every last drop in there.

Well here goes nothing…she wished she could be confident saying that it'd work but she like everyone was waiting with bated breath for how this might go down as. She saw Sarah wrapped the bungee cord around Isabelle's forearm and pulling it tight. "Spray."

Joey pass the can to her where she then covered a small area with blue dye. She searched around for a vein and slapping it a few time before they saw the outline of a bulge appear. "Okay she's ready."

Sebastian looked to everyone and seeing they were all ready to make history. Matt was lining the hypo to the vein and was ready to inject when Sebastian grab hold of his arm and stopping him in the process.

"Ah-ah nice try but you know that as team leader I get to do the honors." Everyone watched as Matt relinquishes the needle to him and Sebastian went to give Isabelle the reversion. He pressed down on the plunger and releasing the dye into her bloodstream.

They watched as the liquid was twisting into a long snaking tube up and down the limb, taking on the shape of a vein. Joey could see that the serum was having quite a reaction as it made its' way through and making the vein visible to the naked eye.

She heard the telltale sign of Isabelle's heartbeat as it started to speed up but were still in the green at the moment. So far so good…The glowing liquid was now changing from gold to red as the complex webbing of a bloodstream appears. It was long before it was spreading out from the bloodstream and soon the shadow of a skeletal system was starting to show itself.

"Do you see this?" Joey could only nod as she was thinking it was working, the serum was actually working. Soon they saw the beginning of the muscles appear along with her eyeballs which were looking around in fear.

Oh no this was good, she heard Sarah saying her heart rate was going up and she went to calm her while Joey decided to make sure to watch the monitors and seeing that there were increase activity which could elevated if they weren't careful.

"Subject began manifesting almost Immediately. Protocol is reacting quickly." The moment Sebastian said those words, Isabelle started howling and was struggling to break free from her restraints.

Joey saw that her levels were skyrocketing as blood pressure was elevating and her brain activity was going through the roof. It was obvious that Isabelle was going through a lot of pain and was scared out of her mind.

She whirled around and saw the brain forming right before her eyes, seemingly growing from the inside out. Then the shape of a large half-formed monkey grows from the inside out. It was very disturbing and knew wouldn't be getting any good night sleep after this. They heard Isabelle howling in pain, in horror and turn to the monitor to see what the problem was.

"Shit, Sebastian, her heart, it's going into cardiac arrest!" Everyone turn their eyes to the chest cavity and seeing the actual muscle that was beating erratically and needed to do something otherwise she was a goner!

"Carter get the crash cart now!" He didn't need to be told twice as he quickly race over and rolled it over towards Linda. Joey checked the monitors and saw they were losing her as the machine flat line.

She turn to see the body on the slab and saw it was only half there and look as if its caught in the stage of decomposition. Linda smeared the goo onto the pads and rubbing the cardiac paddles together.

"Clear!" Linda slams the paddles on Isabelle's chest. The jolt of electricity made the giant monkey visible for a brief moment. Then the skin and flesh fade away again. Joey check the monitors once more but this time seeing the heartbeat starts up again, slowly but surely.

Soon the body continues its march toward visibility though its' heartbeat was still erratic.

Come on Isabelle. Come on. You can do it. You can fucking do it. Joey was praying along with everyone else and then saw that it the levels were stable again and was no longer in the danger zone.

Muscles were spreading out like an open rash on bone while Isabelle kept twisting and turning, scared out of her wits and Joey didn't blame her. Then the next layer to show was the skin and covering the muscles and sprouting dark fur all over until there was a living breathing gorilla in their midst.

Joey could see that they had done it and smiling while reaching to stroke the fur, "Glad to have you back Izzy." She turned her head to where Sebastian was and saw him put his arm around Linda, probably thinking how the military was going to be in for a shock when they hear the news.

~oooOYOHOHOooo~

Isabelle had been pretty calm when they took her back to her cage and watching as she was going about while everyone watched.

"If I didn't know any better, you'd think nothing had happened to her…" It was obvious that Sarah was pleased to see Isabelle was okay and that she no longer showed her aggressiveness now that she was normal again.

However, Sebastian wanted to do a complete through examination and was working on scheduling a vivisection and this did not go well with Sarah who seem pissed and ready to have a throw down with him in front of everyone.

Now Joey could have just sit this one out and let them duke it for all she care yet knowing Sebastian wouldn't hold anything back and seeing no one else seem to be jumping in to intervene.

God why me, sometimes she hated how she was too much of a good Samaritan and couldn't let this be on her conscience. She quickly stepped in and making sure that she was standing right in front of Sebastian while trying to pacify this situation.

"Hey hey look it's been quite an exciting day for everyone here and we just got Izzy back in one piece." She looked to Sarah who was still glaring daggers over at Sebastian. If looks could kill he would've probably been buried six feet under by now.

"The way I see it, is that the reversion is a full success. There were some close calls of course but she managed to come back fully intact yet we still should run a few more test to be sure there aren't any likely side effects and play it safe."

This time she was looking to Sebastian and keeping her gaze set on him and making sure he understood what she was trying to get through to him, "If we are to be a 100% certain then we should get at least get all the necessary data and also check her stability before we go any further than we need to, wouldn't you agree Sebastian?"

She could see that he wanted to make a snarky retort but when he saw that everyone was waiting for his response and looking back at Joey with a narrow glare.

"Fine but only because we have to make sure that all samples are accurate and will run through every exam available until then."

That seem to settle things just as well and once Sarah and the others left, Joey turn to Sebastian and was shaking her head at him. "Geez Sebastian I don't know what it is that drives you to go and try to wedge things and make it harder on the rest of us. Just do me one simple favor and don't ever let me get involve in this again. You are both adults here, so learn to sort it out like one."

She didn't give him the chance to say another word as she took her leave and was heading straight for the lab to work in some remote peace without anyone bothering her, especially Sebastian. She was down there for maybe fifteen minutes and taking her time looking at some samples when Sebastian showed up.

He was leaning his form against the frame and watching her with his arms cross over his chest. "Really and here I thought you and I had a mutual understanding about this and would see I was in the right."

Joey chose not to look at him but did comment, "I didn't say I wasn't but the fact is that you were just telling everyone that you wanted to dissect Isabelle without considering that we need to get all the fact straight before slicing and dicing her to bits."

This time she did lift her head and stare over at him, "Isabelle was in that state for at least four whole months and we just got her back within the hour. Now you and I both know that in certain cases, sometime there are after-effects which show later on once you properly analyze them. Many have different reactions and she was the only one so far and we have no idea if there's anything that we shouldn't consider to be highly probable or wind up missing an important factor in this. It's better to get all the fact and leave no stone unturned."

Sebastian hate to admit but she did make a valid point about it but that didn't mean he was going to let her get by undermining his authority.

"You may be right but you should've let me handle this. Sarah would've eventually come around and understand as it's all about getting results, that's what we've been hired for remember? We can't go to the board and present them with just one half because some people can't handle openly dissecting a brain to see what's there."

Joey was trying to fight the urge to rub at her throbbing temple and wondering how she was ever going to get some sense into him if he kept acting the way he was.

"Yes but really would it kill you to try and at least act like a sensible being and not so much a jerk. Just give us a chance to do a few tests to make sure there aren't any likely possibilities, that's all I'm asking you to do at the moment."

It was really getting frustrating and Joey sometimes couldn't understand what was going on in that head of his and figured she didn't want to know, not when dealing with a migraine like this. She reached for the mug to take a sip only to find that the coffee was lukewarm. Great now she was going to have to heat it up which means getting by him.

She made to stand up and heading for the door, waiting for him to move but saw he wasn't budging. "Sebastian look I only said that stuff is because in all things to consider, we follow the ground rules that we as scientist use to get the results we need. Surely you don't want to go before the board with half the deck in your hands now do you? I mean that wouldn't be a very smart thing to do."

That seem to do the trick as Sebastian took what she said and finally seeing reason to it, "Fine, but once you got all that out of the way, one week is all I'm giving until then."

Joey could deal with that and just as she was ready to exit the room, Sebastian had one final thing to say to her, "By the way, I hope you don't have any plans for tonight as we're all going out to celebrate so better wear something nice."

She already knew that as Linda came by and gave her the heads up on it before he did. "Don't worry I'll be there and I'll be sure to remind Carter before we leave." Sebastian was surprised yet didn't let it show though wondering why before he got his answer.

"Carter lives about a few miles out which is sorta close to my neck of the woods and his car is in the shop getting a tune up. I told him I'll give him a ride instead of letting him pay cab fare as we figure it would save him the cost of going back and forth plus I didn't mind helping him out."

Sebastian didn't know why this was bothering him, it left a bitter taste inside his gut but try to play it off as not caring what she and Carter did, "I see…well then just make sure he doesn't go wearing cargo pants and a Hawaiian shirt."

"Of course and Sebastian." This time she decided to be nice and give him her congrats for their success, "I just thought you should know that I'm glad this all worked out and congratulations is in order for you, for all of us." She then walk out of the room and Sebastian stood there watching her and couldn't help grinning as he did.
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Your Hollow Heart