Part 21: - Sticking it to the man

21 - Sticking it to the man

(Music: They're Calling My Flight, by Cliff Martinez- just kidding, it's still On the Cutting Edge of Medicine. Too bad.)



"-Angeles Bay, City Hall-"



"Everyone's... Ugh..."

"Mr. Secretary, is something wrong?!"

"Ugh...! It's my chest...! Ughh.."



"We need help, here! Someone call an ambulance!"



"...Is this some kind of prank? Wait, could this be a--"

"Chief!"

"What is it?"

"It's Richard Anderson..!"

"Then, this..: 'Pempti - Thursday. As each death is sacrificed, man furnishes his dwelling in Hell. But who will take record of the sins of our modern age?' D-Does this mean... What is the Secretary's condition?!"

"We haven't got test results back yet, but... It's most likely GUILT."

"How could this happen?! They infected Secretary Anderson! ...We need to formulate a plan with Victor. Call in the entire staff! I hate interrupting his day off, but we may need Derek here, as well."

"Yes, sir!"





"..It's another new strain of GUILT. We've tried a number of treatments, but nothing works."

...I'd give the patient a little more than just a couple of hours to respond to treatment, there, Chief...

"Dr. Clarks has been with Anderson since his arrival. You'll be taking his place."

"I understand."

"Victor, we need instructions."

"Okay... We'll be working together on this one, Stiles."



"I should have been more careful... I'm sorry about all this."

"Don't strain yourself, Mr. Secretary..."

"What are my chances, Victor?!"

"...."

"Tell me the truth. I can take it."

"I'd say around 25%... But, even that's being generous."

"Victor!"

"It's alright, Sidney. I want to know what's happening to me."

Doctor-Patient transparency, as I understand, is not a common thing in Japan. A patient is usually kept in the dark about their condition if it is discovered to be fatal. It might seem strange to us that Sidney is getting angry with Victor for being honest, but Victor's behavior is probably a radical thing for a Doctor to do from a Japanese perspective.

"...I need to, in order to make the right decision. No matter what condition I'm in, I'm still the Secretary of Health- *cough!* ...Victor, can you figure out some sort of treatment?"



"After all, you're the first victim of this particular strain."

"I see... So I'm the first one. Then, my treatment is even more crucial. Sidney, use me as a guinea pig! Find a way to stop this GUILT! I give Caduceus full discretion over my treatment!"

"But, Richard! That's-"

"...Are you sure? I can't promise you the treatments will work."

"Yes! I understand. In return, use my results to find a cure. Can you do that?!"

"......"

"......."

"...I accept your challenge, Mr. Secretary! I've decided I will save you."

Victor is a pretty great character. He's no tenderheart; patient's illnesses are just new challenges for him to beat. This is the beginning of his and Anderson's story arc, which will last longer than any arc thus far.

"...But, it might sting a little."

"Heheh. Do what you must."

"...As long as you're prepared for the worst... I'm going to find a cure. I'm too smart not to!"

(Music: Patient Profile)



Except that it's actually in the lung. Not sure how the translators botched that one.

"I've done enough tests to know how bad this bastard can be... But I have no idea how to treat it. Honestly? I think it's hopeless. But hey? Every disease has to have a cure, right? So it's up to you to find one. That's how medicine advances. But, you know that. That's why you joined Caduceus."

It might be surprising, but this mission? It's going to be human experimentation. Instead of killing samples in the lab, we're going to be doing it right to Anderson's body in hopes we can come up with something quickly.

"Anderson said worst case, at least his illness can be used to advance our understanding of GUILT. I assumed he was just some crusty old bureaucrat... But, when you think about that, I guess he's not so bad. So, we kind of owe it to the guy to make this work out."

One last thing. Normally patient charts aren't important... but take a good look at this one. Remember it for later.

"I'd say you have one main objective: - Do everything I tell you to."

"...What kind of objective is that?!"

"There's no known treatment yet. Would YOU like to think one up? I'm the one with all the research, so just listen to me."

(...We'll see about that....!)

This also somewhat evolves into a pissing contest between Derek and Victor, whose personalities clash.

"What's wrong?"

"...Nothing. Let's just do our job..."

"Good attitude. I sure hope you can handle this."



Watch This Operation: Mission 4-6, S Rank.

As I mentioned before, Victor is voiced by Spike Spencer, and it suits him well.

(Music: Gangliated Utrophin Immuno-Latency Toxin (GUILT))



"Oookay, let's start. This gelatinous fluid is filling the Secretary's left lung. Anyway, you're going to have to do exactly what I tell you! Let's try to detatch it. Try cutting that stuff with a scalpel."





Victor is a tough mistress to please. If you hesitate, lift your stylus at all, or just plain don't do it how he likes it, he yells at you. Hilariously, you need him to yell at you in Second Opinion before the XS Rank (a spiffier S rank) unlocks. For some reason.

"...So that didn't work. Onto plan B. How about the laser? Let's try incinerating that bad boy!"



Damn it, Victor, I'm a doctor, not a psychic! ...Wait...

"So that didn't work either? Huh. Onto plan C, I guess. Time for some antibiotic gel. I tweaked the formula a bit."



I put that shit on everything.

"Still no use? ...Damn, this is starting to annoy me. This time we mean business. I have one last trick up my sleeve. It's effective, but it's still being researched and adjusted. It's not very good for the human body, so.. be extra careful. Start out with the blue vial on the far right."



..Um. Those sure are a lot of jars.What are you making me do?



NOW what? I even got a "miss" for using the syringe like he told me to! Maybe I should have named this thread "Shut Up, Victor."

"See that hazy object inside the fluid? That's the highest concentration of Pempti cells!"



Easier said than done. It moves around, and doesn't appear for a set time: it will disappear anywhere between 2 and 5 seconds. What most people don't know? You only need about half of a dose of the blue and pink for the medicine to work. I usually put a tiny bit more in just to be sure I got enough.

"Hmm. It's reacting, but there's not much of an effect. Try the pink medicine instead."

It does nothing.



"If those don't work... I'm afraid the medicine is ineffective. We'll just have to devote this procedure to collecting data. I'm worried about Anderson's condition. Let's hurry up. Let's see how he reacts to the orange medicine..."

You only need 3/4ths a dose of the orange and white. The game will never tell you this, by the way: if you inject a full syringe, it won't stop when you have enough, you'll just be injecting more than you need. It's up to you to figure out yourself. Anyway, we inject the Tang, and then...:



The Pempti begins to expand and contract rapidly, taking a hit at the vitals each time it does.

"The white medicine is a neutralizer! Use it, now!"

Except we won't be touching it.



Derek is feeling... disobedient, today.



Tired of being bossed around by his whiny nurse and pretentious staff, he allows the patient's vitals to plummet long enough to make a point: He is the one controls who lives and who dies, around here!



..Actually, one of the requirements for getting the S Rank is to let Anderson suffer a bit here. You need his vitals to drop below 70 at least. Good luck figuring that out without a walkthrough!



Muahahahaha.

"You have to inject it into his body! Injecting it into the lung could make the fluid worse!"

Yet another thing Victor won't bother telling you until you've already done it. This is definitely one of the hardest missions to S Rank, even harder than the X Missions.

"That should do it. What if we mix an increase dosage...? Alternate between blue and orange." "...TOO SLOW! It won't have an effect unless you inject them much faster!"

Screw you!



"This is our last step. You need to alternate between the pink medicine and the neutralizer."



I think that's an increase in Hematocrit, the percentage of whole blood made up of blood cells. It's not clear. I assume the game has used these notations to put you in Derek's shoes: to make you feel like an idiot compared to the genius that is Victor.

"That's all the data for now. He's gotten weaker, so we need to hurry. Quick, snag a sample."



"...You weren't bad. Let's close him up and finish the operation."



In the video, you can watch me S-Rank the level in a technique I like to call "Reading Victor's Mind". At the dropping vitals point I actually left to grab myself an icecream cone from the freezer.



"We're depending on you, Victor..."

Now that I've S Ranked that one, I'm confident I can S Rank the rest of this entire game. Also, no bonus until we face off with Pempti properly. When will that be? Who knows?

Next Time: Everyone gets in line to take a shit on Derek.