Yousef sat back as the orderlies came and picked him up, grunting at his weight all the while.  "Come on, little man, I lift three times my weight daily."  He joked at them, knowing that it was difficult to move him with his legs being nonfunctional as they were.  He poked at one absently as he lay back on his bed.  Nothing.  Out of curiosity he snatched the needle back and stuck himself... nothing.  "Look at this.  Nothing. Not even a twitch."  He kept poking at various spots and tried to find at least one that had feeling.  Suddenly his head rocketed upward and he grabbed the primary doctor.  "Doc, tell me... can I still... You know... will it?" He motioned at his genital area with his hands and then made an uplifting motion.  The doctor looked at him confused for a second then got what he was trying to ask.  "I'm sorry son, but... I don't think so.  It is possible that it might react to stimulus, but you will never know..."<br/><br/>Yousef's face fell... he looked at Gerad. "Shoot me.  Now.  I'm useless..." He could not work computers, his fingers were too bulky to type.  He hated paperwork and usually used the voice recorder to make his reports for mission debriefs.  The worst part, is that he was serious.  He could not be a man for any woman, even if Mea did harbour feelings before, he doubted she could now.  He was a talking vegetable and that is how he saw himself.  Finally, the Impervious Tank, the Obnoxious and Mighty Yousef was taken down by the very thing that had sought to get him so many years before.  "I don't hear a slide clicking..." he intoned again at Gerad.<br/><br/>Remembering the needle in his leg, he pulled it out and tossed it across the room, anger flooding him once more as the knowledge that he was rendered useless by the enemy finally settled in.  But all he could do was yell and that was it... He could only ball his fists and scream at the outrage of it all.  "I CAN'T EVEN MOVE TO HIT SOMETHING!!! WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THIS?!!"  he screamed skyward and held his arms out wide.  The rage left him as quickly as it had come.  Useless... "Useless..." Useless... he heard it echoing throughout his mind as his face fell into his hands.  For the first time in his life... Yousef cried... he didn't care who saw or heard, he no longer had an image to uphold... he was just a broken man... and useless...