[ Unfortunately, so much falls on deaf ears once Gamora succumbs to the fever. Some distant part of her thinks she can hear— something, that tug at her senses that tries to rouse her, to push her past the heat and overwhelming intensity of what's flying through her nerves. Her modifications are still trying to scramble for damage control, repairing cells that have been burnt to a crisp thanks to the toxin in her system. It quickly becomes clear to the techs that bioaugmentations done to her body are responsible for keeping her together as long as she'd held out, but given the viciously aggressive nature of the toxin itself, it had only been a matter of time before the fever started to override her healing factor; Thanos hadn't made her invulnerable, after all.
Various safeguards are put in place to avoid contaminating anyone else as they transport Peter and Gamora off of the Quadrant. The medical technicians associated with Nova take the time to explain to the other Guardians what's happened – that Peter and Gamora have come in contact with a powerful (and dangerous) weaponized biological agent. There had been suspicions that Cryon was dealing in more than just Dust, but given the unconfirmed nature of the intel, they hadn't seen fit to warn the Guardians about something so potentially sensitive.
Just the Guardians' luck that Gamora had fallen right into what Cryon had stashed away.
The Quadrant would have to undergo a thorough decontamination process, along with all of the others, even if they hadn't yet displayed any symptoms of the volatile toxin.
"The hell does this shit even do?" Rocket demanded, his eyes narrowed and his tail twitching with agitation. He isn't the only one put off by the lack of warning from the Nova Corps before taking this job, and the others all stand around with varying degrees of concern and anger on their faces.
One of the technicians takes the time to delicately explain the agent to them. Apparently, the toxin was built to overload a subject's nervous system, to cause an organic body to continuously overheat while flooding them with a form of norepinephrine to cause arousal in said nervous system. How a victim responded was nearly idiosyncratic in its own right, determined purely by the individual and their surroundings – though it purposefully manifested in a way to motivate anyone infected with the intense desire for physical contact (in order to spread the affliction), whether through violence or other means.
The more the infection of sorts is described, the more distressed the Guardians look.
"But... they will recover?" Mantis asks in a timid voice.
Fortunately, they'd returned quickly enough that the prognosis is far more positive than it might have been given any longer stretch of time.
Relief sweeps through the Guardians, but they have nearly no opportunity to savor it as they're all swept off to be decontaminated and given a precautionary dose of antibiotics to avoid any potential symptoms.
Peter and Gamora are both brought to a medical facility for a more serious round of treatments.
Gamora wakes partway through when her fever starts to subside, and her automatic reaction is to fight against the hands on her body, against the pain still running through her. Thanks to her disorientation and remaining weakness from the toxin, it's— easier than it might have been otherwise to restrain and sedate her again. Unfortunately, the bulk of the treatment will require time and rest, and once she and Peter have been seen to and properly dosed with antibodies, they're put in a joint room with beds side-by-side.
All that's left for them to do is sleep.
Gamora finally starts to wake days later when her body stirs, the sedatives slowly filtering out of her system. She feels wrung out, groggy and slow, and coming around takes more time than she would normally like. When she opens her eyes, she's staring at a blank ceiling and dim lights, and—
—she bolts straight up in bed, nearly yanking the IV right out of her arm.
She hisses out a curse, pressing a hand over the crook of her elbow and looking blearily around the hospital room. It's late, dark outside the tiny window, and the room is empty except—
Peter. In the bed across from her.
Oh.
Her eyes go wide as she tries to steady her breathing, staring at the heart monitor and its constant, steady beeping. ]
no subject
Various safeguards are put in place to avoid contaminating anyone else as they transport Peter and Gamora off of the Quadrant. The medical technicians associated with Nova take the time to explain to the other Guardians what's happened – that Peter and Gamora have come in contact with a powerful (and dangerous) weaponized biological agent. There had been suspicions that Cryon was dealing in more than just Dust, but given the unconfirmed nature of the intel, they hadn't seen fit to warn the Guardians about something so potentially sensitive.
Just the Guardians' luck that Gamora had fallen right into what Cryon had stashed away.
The Quadrant would have to undergo a thorough decontamination process, along with all of the others, even if they hadn't yet displayed any symptoms of the volatile toxin.
"The hell does this shit even do?" Rocket demanded, his eyes narrowed and his tail twitching with agitation. He isn't the only one put off by the lack of warning from the Nova Corps before taking this job, and the others all stand around with varying degrees of concern and anger on their faces.
One of the technicians takes the time to delicately explain the agent to them. Apparently, the toxin was built to overload a subject's nervous system, to cause an organic body to continuously overheat while flooding them with a form of norepinephrine to cause arousal in said nervous system. How a victim responded was nearly idiosyncratic in its own right, determined purely by the individual and their surroundings – though it purposefully manifested in a way to motivate anyone infected with the intense desire for physical contact (in order to spread the affliction), whether through violence or other means.
The more the infection of sorts is described, the more distressed the Guardians look.
"But... they will recover?" Mantis asks in a timid voice.
Fortunately, they'd returned quickly enough that the prognosis is far more positive than it might have been given any longer stretch of time.
Relief sweeps through the Guardians, but they have nearly no opportunity to savor it as they're all swept off to be decontaminated and given a precautionary dose of antibiotics to avoid any potential symptoms.
Peter and Gamora are both brought to a medical facility for a more serious round of treatments.
Gamora wakes partway through when her fever starts to subside, and her automatic reaction is to fight against the hands on her body, against the pain still running through her. Thanks to her disorientation and remaining weakness from the toxin, it's— easier than it might have been otherwise to restrain and sedate her again. Unfortunately, the bulk of the treatment will require time and rest, and once she and Peter have been seen to and properly dosed with antibodies, they're put in a joint room with beds side-by-side.
All that's left for them to do is sleep.
Gamora finally starts to wake days later when her body stirs, the sedatives slowly filtering out of her system. She feels wrung out, groggy and slow, and coming around takes more time than she would normally like. When she opens her eyes, she's staring at a blank ceiling and dim lights, and—
—she bolts straight up in bed, nearly yanking the IV right out of her arm.
She hisses out a curse, pressing a hand over the crook of her elbow and looking blearily around the hospital room. It's late, dark outside the tiny window, and the room is empty except—
Peter. In the bed across from her.
Oh.
Her eyes go wide as she tries to steady her breathing, staring at the heart monitor and its constant, steady beeping. ]
Peter...?