After heading home and resting for a bit, Eris soon returned to the Sanctuary with several suitcases full of her medical and scientific equipment. She found a small room in the far back corner of the living floor, and decided to claim the room for herself. Entering with the briefcases in hand, she dropped them on the bed, and then made a call on her cell phone.

Within a few minutes, some of her servants entered the room and began to prepare the room. Everything except for the bed was converted into a laboratory. They constructed a large counter in one corner, and made a lot of other necessary adjustments, including setting up all of her equipment and installing a high-tech computer system.

Everything looked ready. Eris dismissed the men and made sure they exited the Sanctuary without being seen. Perfect...

She looked around and then finally began her mission for the day. Drawing out the plastic bag that Thorn had given her, she placed it on the expansive counter and then dumped it's contents out. She then drew a large bucket from below, filled with a sticky dark silvery substance. Titanium. It had been hard to find, but Katran's resources were endless, as was her cash. Anybody with the right ammount of money can find anything they want.

She looked at the titanium and then placed the bucket on a large instrument, which heated the bucket and it's contents very quickly. She had already pre-heated it at home before she came here, and it took a little while to cool, so it was already half-way there. In a moment, the liquid metal was bubbling and boiling. Perfect...

Eris without a flinch used a ladel looking instrument to pick up the thorns and simply drop them into the liquid. She dropped every single one in except for one. This one she would use to study Thorn's DNA. After a few seconds in the titanium, she used the ladel to pluck them all out, and then set them to dry on a pre-determined conditioned surface. The air around the thorns pushed excess titanium away, and left only the coating, leaving to less sticky cleanup.

Eris walked over to her bed and hopped in after she had put the boiling titanium in a good place to cool, and put her instruments away. She slept for a good few hours.

When she woke, she walked up to the tips and found they were cool as ice. Perfect... Now that the thorns were titanium tipped, all that remained was to insert them back into Thorn. This was the tricky part of the whole thing.

Eris took the untipped thorn and placed it on a electrical mat. With the click of a mouse on her computer, thorns DNA was read by the mat and displayed on the screen.

"Hmmmm..." Katran said to herself, as she studied the DNA profile. It seemed that Thorn's mutation was natural, and actually built inherantly into her genetics. If Eris could somehow modify the DNA here. She could. Clicking the mouse a few times, she then removed the normal thorn and set it aside. Drawing from a shelf a cube of titanium that she had prepared earlier, she placed it on the mat and immediately got the specs on the component. Then, she uploaded the titanium, writing it into the DNA like a computer program, being careful to note that the titanium was only on the outer coating of the thorns.

All looked ready in that area. So she picked up one of the coated thorns and dropped it onto the mat. A rough reading came up with similiar specs to what the original thorn had. Eris remembered what one of her professors had taught her, The body needs to be taught to adapt. Not through speech, humans are far too stupid for that. No, it needs to be shown... physically. And so now Eris would show Thorn's body how to adapt.

She hit a few button and literally electricuted the tipped thorn on the mat, changing it's DNA to the one that she had created. She did this with every thorn, but added a special code to the final one. The code would cause Thorn's body to recreate the titanium DNA, rather than her original DNA. If the thorns were practiced enough, the body would eventually never know there was a difference. Eventually Thorn's DNA would outright change over to 100 percent titanium tipped thorns.

Eris stood from her computer and smiled. All was ready. Now all that remained was to re-insert them into Thorn's body. Picking up her cell phone, she gave Thorn a quick call... asking Thorn to meet with her here in the lab.

Thorn had been sitting out on the steps, smoking. She hadn't drank, no, didn't have much of a reason to, but when her phone rang out, she opened it and answered with a quite "Hello...I'll be right there." With a sigh, she stood up, took one last drag, and threw it out into the street.

The time had finally come, she would have titanium tipped thorns instead. So she stepped forth and entered the building before she found Eris's room, well, now it was a laboratory. Her eyebrow raised as she entered and glanced around at all of the materials.

"Interesting." She nodded. "Have you already tipped them?"

Eris looked up from her notes when she saw that Thorn had entered the room. She was just going over a few important things before they got started, or rather finished this task. It was imperious that she did it right the first time. After all, if she failed, Thorn could be permanantly damaged, her DNA one big mess. That was the last thing that Eris wanted right now. She wanted to avoid failure. Shut out the noise...

She stood and walked to the windows, shutting them and casting the room in darkness. Then, she walked to the center of the room and turned on a large light there. "Yes, it is interesting isn't it?" The room was now definitely bright, too bright if one stared at the light. Light enough to do the job, yet fake enough to shut out the noise. Perfection.

Katran had prepared an operating table of sorts. It was in the center of the room, and more like a large slab of steel than an opertaing table. But it would do the job, and help Eris tremendously. The steel would keep the room the right temperature so that she wouldn't be distracted. Her old professor had often believed and taught that the right kinds of metals gave off a certain positive energy channel. Strange for certain, and definitely fake, but Eris took a little comfort in it as she thought of the surgery.

"Yes, the thorns are tipped. I am ready to begin at once. Let me give you a brief overview. I'm going to give you a sedative and then carefully surgically insert the thorns back into your body. The DNA for each thorn has been changed, ensuring that the titanium will stay on the outer coating. A final thorn has been modified to actual program the rest of your body to recreate these titanium thorns. In other words, you will soon be producing nothing except titanium thorns. This specific thorn I have to carefully insert close to your brain, so that the genetic order processes quickly. The other DNA's will want control too, but if I insert this one first and closer, I think it will work."

She stepped around the table and then continued, "I will insert this modified thorn in the back of your head, the rest I will insert into your back. You will be sore for the next few days, especially if you extract any thorns from your body. But eventually you will adapt and be a much more powerful fighter."

Eris stopped and here and decided that chatting was over. She walked to her tool table and stared at the thorns, and then turned back to Thorn. "Ready?"

Thorn nodded in understanding as Eris overviewed what she was about to do. A thorn being inserted near her brain? Quite odd yet understandable. So she was going to be sore? Very well, small price for stronger and more deadly powers. "How long will I be sore?"

As Eris asked if she was ready, she merely smirked and took the sedative. She sat down after the injection and soon laid on the operating table, on her stomach. The metal felt cold through her clothing yet she did not mind, as a matter of-fact, she did not mind anything. She had taken off her corset before she laid down and had went ahead and stripped off her shirt, leaving her black bra. Unconcerned about whether or not she needed a shirt, her eyes began to droop and her world began to blur.

She allowed her head to lightly drop on the table before she blinked twice more and tuned out. Her world slowly turned black and within seconds, she was sedated, leaving Eris to do what she would with her mutation. Was Eris trustworthy? Too late to decide that now... So the unconscious Thorn lay at the mercy of her unpredictable partner.

"How long will you be sore? Hmm... probably until your body adjust to the new changes, or maybe longer. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure." She walked over to her table of instruments while Thorn prepared and placed herself on the table. "Good night."

She turned back around to find that Thorn was completely out. The sedative had worked well, and had worked fast. This was the way Eris liked to work. Quick and simple. No distractions. No noise.

She stepped toward Thorn with a small surgical knife in her hand. After preparing the entry point carefully, she made a small incision in her back. Carefully she inserted the thorns one by one into her system, spreading them out by cutting an incision for each of them. Eris' work was flawless, and after the surgery there wouldn't even be a scar anywhere on her. Eris was simply that good.

Finally, she was done with each of the normal thorns. Now she had to move on to the more important one. She slowly reached up and pulled Thorn's hair upwards, and held it down there. She extremely carefully made a tiny cut at the base of the back of her skull, and slipped in the thorn.

Relieved, Eris let out a sigh and began to slowly sow the girl back up. After a few minutes, the work was completed. The surgery had taken only about forty minutes, and there had been no noise. Good...

The girl would definitely feel like crap when she awoke, but that would be normal. If Eris' prediction and medical work was correct, Thorn would have an altered mutation by the end of the week.

Before the girl awoke, she made one final adjustment. Pulling a microchip from her nearby purse, she made a small incision in Thorn's lower back, and placed the chip deep inside. She quickly sowed it up and stepped back.

She was done now, and Thorn would wake unnaturally and painfully in about an hour. Until then, she would read. She pulled a small book from her purse and continued where she had left off. The title read, 'How Trust is Fake: Learning to Protect Yourself.'

OOC: The chip isn't like a mind-control device or anything, it's just more of a bargaining 'chip' if they ever have an argument or falling out down the road. Basically, it ties Thorn to Eris in that, if Thorn does not help Eris when she is unconscious during battles and things, and she let's something happen to Eris, the chip will start to do bad things...

If you don't like the idea, let me know and I'll pull it out of the RP. Just thought it would be interesting to throw in, and probably fairly realistic because these two have trust issues. The crazy part is that Thorn should have no idea.

A few hours after the operation had begun, Thorn's eyes slowly opened and she came to in a world of pain and soreness. "Merde" She muttered under her breath. Her arm raised up and rubbed her back. She felt the stitches and she inhaled deeply and removed her hand from the pain. It hurt, it hurt alot. She muttered more before she placed her arms under her body and lifted herself up in a push-up.

Then, she pulled her knees under her sore body as she rose to sit up. Slowly, her hand reached back and she placed a cigarette to her lips before she lit a fire so she could smoke it. Then her eyes looked up and she saw Eris, reading a book.

"Shit. You're right, God I am sore." She moaned before she extinguished the fire and left her cigarette between her lips, almost teasing herself with the sweet nicotine that could fill her lungs and her apetite. However, she did not light it in respect for Eris, but she did not remove the cigarette to show that she does not have full respect for Eris. Yet she was sore, and all that knew her could see for Thorn was not one to curse unless she really needed to in order to show how upset, in pain, or angered she was, so it was quite rare. "What is it that you are reading?"

((It's fine, I do not mind the chip))

((OOC: Sorry to crash this party, but in regards to the chip, what happens if Thorn TRIES to help Eris, but doesn't make it in time? Will it be able to distinguish between her trying and not trying? I know this is kind of fastidious, but I'm just curious.))

OOC: The chip is smart. It knows the difference...

IC:

Eris glanced up when she saw Thorn stirring. She didn't like the girl at all, and the operation had made her even more tense. The girl could get on her nerves easily, and Eris could snap even more easily. It was a dangerous situation, as things usually starting tearing apart when Eris got mad. She was bi-polar to an extent after all. But for now... she was calm.

"Welcome back to earth..." She said softly as Thorn sat up. She watched as the girl removed a cigarette but didn't start smoking. It was making Eris uneasy, but she didn't lose her cool. She just simply said, "Don't smoke in here." And stood to her feet.

Putting the book away, she turned back to Thorn, "It's a book my childhood mentor gave to me. A present. I've read it six times and I'm working on seven. It's about Psychology and the cognative. You probably wouldn't like it." She flipped her hair back with her hand and walked to the corner.

A buzz sounded, and Eris grabbed her cell phone. A text message from Dorian, 'We've begun' was all it said. Eris turned back to Thorn and spoke quickly, putting the phone away and walking to the door as she spoke, "Looks like we're getting underway. Your body should adjust quickly, and you'll be shooting metal thorns within the hour. The operation to get Haywire has begun... let's go do our job."

Without another word, she strode out of the lab. Her normal air of supremacy was taking shape once again.