The Work of a Scientist (solo)

ooc: This is a continuation of the A Call to Arms thread
Ryouta followed Professor Kelly through the labyrinth of hallways until they came upon a pair of large metal double doors. She pushed them both open to reveal a large complex that was bustling with men and women in lab coats, busy doing whatever it was they were doing. It was hard to miss; suspended in the center of the room in a giant tube of liquid was the corpse of a minion, looking more or less identical to Sal when he changed. "OK," Professor Kelly took Ryouta's arm and dragged him across the room to the other side, where she opened another door by inputting a code and swiping her ID card. Seeing as his eye gave him X-ray capabilities, Ryouta saw that the code was a simple numeric one: "22512024325472".

The door slid open, and she gestured at him to step through with her. Inside, he found a smaller room and more scientists, each seated at an array of terminals, each displaying all kinds of information. "What have you discovered so far?" Ryouta asked.

"The term Hybrid is an apt one," she responded. "They appear to have melded so perfectly with their human origins that they are clearly visible to normal humans without the aid of equipment. We believe that the virus is actually a retrovirus - however it mutates quickly enough so that the antidote we synthesized from this dead one was next to useless. Other than that, physically a Hybrid is composed of a great deal of dense muscle and metallic skin - they're hard to kill. They appear equally comfortable attacking in packs or alone and-"

"Wait," Ryouta cut her off by raising his hand. "When they attack in packs, is it as an uncoordinated horde, or do they employ tactics?"

Her brow furrowed. "Tactics. But why should that matter - we already knew that we faced intelligent enemies."

"I'm not finished. How adept were they at countering strategy used against them? How quick?" Ryouta pressed her.

"Almost as if they could anticipate our every move - why?" Professor Kelly asked.

"These beasts should be just that, beasts. Look at the cranium - the frontal lobe is tiny compared to the rest of the brain. And look at the enlarge amygdala - something like that shouldn't be able to come up with anything beyond 'grunt' and 'kill.' Yet you say they countered your every move perfectly. I hypothesize that they operate as a sort of hive mind, controlled by the Twelve." Ryouta was exaggerating the 'grunt' 'kill' aspect of things, but that didn't really matter.

"If that's true, then we've got our work cut out for us. How are we supposed to fight something that can easily adapt to anything we throw at them? And besides that, what if you're wrong and that's not how they communicate?" Professor Kelly said. "Do you have any evidence to support your hypothesis?"

"Yes," said Ryouta. "And what's more, I know of a way to disrupt, and in fact completely stop their communication."

"Really!?" she exclaimed. "Well can I see it?"

"No," said Ryouta. "That is classified information. However, I am told by Mr. Norongachi that you developed a weapon that produced a field that disrupted reiatsu particles to the point that they could atomize Hollows. Correct?"

"I- uh...yes. But-"

"I would like to make some modifications to it. You will then copy these modifications on all other units, and perhaps produce more of them. When this war comes to a head, you will have every advantage I can possibly confer onto you, understand?"

"Where do you get off ordering m-"

Ryouta's reiatsu built up suddenly - for all the humans in the room, there was a sudden sensation of drowning, as if water was filling their lungs. As quick as the sensation came, it was gone - Ryouta unclenched his fists. "I apologize. I am accustomed to my orders not being questioned. Please - this is of the utmost importance."

Still clutching at her throat ineffectively, Professor Kelly could only nod dumbly as she called out orders to people in the room. Five minutes later, Ryouta was tinkering with the humans' equipment on the floor. It was really rather ingenious - but considering it had come from a 12th Division member's contribution, it was really no surprise. Perhaps he should get to know his subordinates better - while this device's purpose was useless to a Captain, it might've served to save more lives of the common Shinigami. Not that that was something Ryouta cared about, but still, it showed the potential that his squad members had beyond pencil-pushing and what Ryouta had more than once referred to as "science fair projects."

The mechanism worked sort of like kido; it created a field that acted like a microwave. Basically, it caused the reiatsu particles within to 'heat up' and vibrate against each other so violently that the organism itself would disintegrate. Of course, strong individuals would be able to resist the field's effects, but it was great if you wanted to just kill Hollows. Now, he knew that the telepathic messages the Hybrids sent were disrupted by dense reiatsu particles. So what he needed the field to do was generate pure reiatsu in such quantities that it would obscure even his own prodigious sensing capabilities.

Ryouta smiled as he picked up a crescent wrench. Machines were so much more pleasant to work with than humans.

To Be Continued...
Total Word Count: 920

There. With a few major modifications, Ryouta had adapted the human technology to generate vast amounts of pure reiatsu to interfere with the Hybrids' telepathy. The fields would be effective in an area about the size of a football field, which might prove problematic in the long run, but was the best that could be hoped for. Additionally, the reiatsu would not take the form of fog as Ryouta's technique did, so it would certainly be possible to lure the Hybrids into a trapped area. Of course, the generator had to be constantly fed energy in order to produce the reiatsu field, so their portability wasn't ideal but...again, the best that could be hoped for.

Ryouta stood and addressed Professor Kelly. "All right, it's done. I've detailed the modifications I've made; go copy them. Now, I want to take a look at the biological aspects of the mutagen retrovirus that you isolated."

Professor Kelly nodded - she had learned not to question anything Ryouta said, and instead showed him to a group of terminals.

"As you can see," she began. "The virus works by injecting its DNA into a host cell and getting the cell to replicate it. Normally, the replicated viruses will build up inside the host cell until the host cell bursts, thus letting millions if not billions of new viruses into the organism. What is strange though is that this retrovirus appears to act all at once, when every cell in the host has already been affected. It doesn't make sense - the virus shouldn't be able to spread without damaging host cells! We're at a loss."

Ryouta spent a good five minutes staring at the screens in front of him, their blue light reflected off the lenses of his glasses. "I have come to a conclusion," he said at last. "The virus, as you call it, is not actually a virus. Rather aptly, it is a hybridization between a bacteria and a virus. Normally, once the virus injects its RNA into a host cell, its protein husk floats away. This 'virus' doesn't have a normal protein husk - that protein husk is actually an organism in its own right, a bacteria that also helps replicate the RNA. I can only assume the vaccine you created was ineffective because the protein tags on the complete 'virus' change too quickly for such a vaccine to be effective."

"You can tell all that from this?" Professor Kelly asked incredulously.

"More or less," Ryouta responded. "I am employing Occam's Razor and deductive reasoning, but I would say I am 95% confident that my hypothesis is correct."

"So...how do we create a vaccine?" Professor Kelly asked.

"You don't," said Ryouta. "You're thinking too small...or perhaps not small enough. Unfortunately, this problem requires a complex solution. One that is highly impractical. I suggest you focus on creating weapons capable of punching through that Hybrid armor. You'll live longer that way."

The idea that Ryouta spoke of was nanobots that were specially designed to take out these foreign invaders. However, he didn't want the humans to get their hands on this sort of technology, and he also didn't want to so cripple the virus that he would be unable to use it for his own benefit later. Much better if he simply helped them develop conventional weapons.

To Be Continued...
Total Word Count: 1474

Ryouta was at a loss for what to do. Although he could clearly see why giving the humans powerful weapons would be advantageous, the costs to him were something that were holding him back from giving them the technology. Firstly, he didn't want Soul Society to investigate him when they found out about it - giving the humans technology might not result in execution; but it could result in exile, something that he did not need to add to his list of problems. He needed to be a Captain, just a little while longer for his plans to be at their maximum probability level of success. Secondly, his sense of pride was deterring him. These humans had done nothing to deserve his ingenuity. Why would he give them power when they were hardly even noteworthy in his eyes? Bah. He had to wonder why Sal even cared to enlist them as allies. Even Las Noches would have been preferable, in Ryouta's opinion. At least they had the power to back up their arrogance.

Finally, he settled on simply upgrading their existing weaponry. Their power would be paltry compared to his own mechanical arm's capabilities, but quite a sight better than what they used to have. And so Ryouta called for the weaponry the humans were currently using, scoffing at their simplicity. Honestly, he had no idea why anyone would bother accepting this kind of trash. At least with his upgrades, they'd be approaching some form of mediocrity.

Anyway, by the end of his tinkering, Ryouta had modified all of their weaponry to have higher power capacity, automatic fire, as well as the ability to charge a shot for more punch, though doing so repeatedly would drain the power source very quickly. He felt little need to do more, and they should be damned grateful for the aid he had already provided them. Plus...Ryouta and Stein combined both didn't like the Captain very much. He would gladly have seen the man get his head ripped off by a Hybrid. Such undeserved conceit.

Total Word Count: 1815