Participants:
Scene Title | In One Piece |
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Synopsis | A situation is discussed and an agreement is reached. |
Date | September 26, 2009 |
An old mental hospital which partly burned long ago, but still has usable cells in the basement.
It's been a difficult night, what with helicopters firing into the crowd and fighting for her life with the behemoth they'd finally subdued, and it isn't over. Carolina was gracious with sending a portal they could evacuate through with this unconscious captive, and they had help dragging him along. Cat is wounded and bleeding a bit still from her leg wound.
In the basement areas of this former hospital, most of it burned to rubble long ago, there are still usable cells and keys to operate the locks were found. Her guitar case which contains things other than a musical instrument is propped against a wall, she left no armaments behind. The unconscious Douglas is unceremoniously dropped to the floor inside one of those cells, and she sets about covering a few basics. Searching the man for weapons, looking for identification, taking fingerprints and securing a DNA sample.
While doing so, she quietly suggests something to Helena. "We should call Delilah and ask what went on at the church. It seems a foregone thing to me, but one never knows. HF might've had people on the ground waiting to shoot and kill anyone arriving. Then we should also call Elisabeth, see if she's free to come take charge of this guy."
After a few beats of silence and a deep breath, she adds "Fuck. I almost think my name is Sarah and I should've had a metal press to crush his skull. But he doesn't look like Arnold and I'm not knocked up by some guy from the future."
Helena sits in a chair, watching the crumpled form and frowning. She's been frowning all night long. "We can't keep him." she announces abruptly, almost angrily. "We don't have the facility, or people who are adequate enough to guard him, and Humanis First will probably be worse than the Vanguard."
Finishing her search of the man, Cat hobbles away and comes out of the cell. She swings the door to it closed and locked, then leans on it to rest. In her hands are the sniper rifle Douglas had, his pistol, and the DNA sample consisting of hair she pulled from his head. "Damn," she mutters. "No ID, and I think the axe got left behind at the scene."
The items taken from him are set on the floor, Cat then settling into a chair of her own and rolling up the bloodstained pants leg. She lifts the limb so she can examine the wound. "You're right, Storms," is offered in reply to Helena's words. This would be why we call Elisabeth to come arrest him." And since Helena didn't, Cat fishes out her iPhone to do just that.
Helena is amenable to this plan, and keeps her eyes on the curled up form. "I wonder why he reacted like he did." she says. "After the thunderclap, it's like he turned into a little kid, going all fetal like that."
Brittle leaves and twigs blown into the hospital's interior over the course of the last winter crunch under encroaching footsteps, peppered with the occasional tinkle of broken glass and other debris as a shadow creeps down the stairwell and makes no attempt to conceal its presence. The women's voices carry easily through the building, sucked through narrow halls and into the ventilation system, filling the upper floors with the sibilant sound of whispers, and although it's taken Eileen some time to locate their source, she eventually appears around the corner.
"You could have Harrison arrest him," she agrees, "but don't forget that Humanis First has friends in high places. Any charges they decide to press probably won't stick."
With the phone at her ear, Cat's tending of her leg wound is delayed again. She's waiting for the other end to pick up, but it just rings a few times before the voicemail message is played. "Damn," she murmurs. "But not surprising. With all that went down, she's got to be busy." Another few beats pass, then she leaves a message. "Elisabeth, it's Cat. Call me soon as you can. Got a package for you. A really nice one, all caged up and everything."
As she lowers the device and taps the screen to end that call, her eyes swing over to Eileen. "Quite possible. They've themselves claimed to have infiltrated the police, and, well…" She gestures at the unconscious man whose very attire proves the point. Then she turns attention to Helena. "I don't know. Maybe the Terminator here has it plugged into his cyborg brain to turn infantile at the sound of thunder. Did you see any other fake police helping HF out there?"
Another number is brought up on the screen. "Calling Dee now, she hasn't checked in. Might've been people on the ground being shot at the church too."
Helena repeats herself from earlier, "There was a black woman in uniform who looked like she was taking shots at people who were firing on HF, but it could have just been friendly fire." They're in the basement of the abandoned Sea View hospital that burned the year before. Douglas is on the floor of a locked cell, seemingly unconscious. Eileen has just walked in. Helena turns to her. "I don't know where else to take him. Or what to do with him. Holding hostages," Helena's tone is grimly ironic, "Is not our forte."
Yeah. About that. In comes Leo, in full thug couture - he's changed out of his rent-a-cop suit into hoodie, jeans, boots. He doesn't seem all that surprised by what's going on, but it might just be an impressive pokerface.
Cat's mention of the Guiding Light draws a small sound from Eileen, inaudible over her footfalls combined with Leonard's. She presses a breath past pursed lips, keeping an eye on the new arrival in her peripheral vision, and shifts her gaze from Helena to the unconscious man on the floor. The clothes she wears on her back are soaked through with moisture. Rainwater dipping from her dark mane carves paths through the ash and soot caked to her face, exposing the pale skin beneath. "So kill him," she suggests quietly. "Or let Harrison do it. If anyone's earned that right, it's her."
Ring ring, ring ring, Bananaphone. Or not, really. Dee's phone chimes on her end, and the first sound coming through when she picks up is the light buffet of wind on the receiver. A few background noises- cars- voices- nothing exploding, no gunfire.
"Cat! Oh, thank goodness. I'm sorry I left- I thought you guys would've been able to follow me- is everyone okay?" Delilah's voice plummets out of Cat's phone like a siren into her ear, the redhead on the other end way too loud for the mood in the cell area on the opposite end. "We got here and there was a few people hanging up- Mona's dead. Felix is barely there, Joe's gonna be perfectly fine. Can't say the same for the church, it's a total loss. I don't think anyone was inside." A pause. "I hope not…"
The device is held to her ear, and she listens. Cat's face shifts when the other end picks up, she seems about to speak a reply to something Delilah's reporting, but the words die out unspoken on her lips. She looks surprised and saddened at the same time. Silence persists for some further seconds, well after Delilah's account is given.
But she does break it, eventually. "That's good and bad," Cat comments somberly. "We didn't follow. I called out for you to come back, but it was too late. I'd expected with the church being blown up, any captive they had would've been inside and set on fire by the explosion, to make their claim of death by fire true. And there was no way to know they weren't planning to carry out killings at the Center too."
Helena is glanced at briefly, then she turns her head to stare at Douglas. "We're all good. The helicopter that fired at people got forced down, one of the news aircraft was shot down and crashed into the third floor, and it was hit by an RPG. But I expect it'll still be open."
Helena blinks over at Cat briefly, looking at the expression on her face in concern. "What?" she asks quietly, and notes to Eileen with some distress, "We can't. If we kill him, that puts us in direct conflict with HF, which is exactly what Raith and Cardinal and a million other people have been screaming into our ears not to do. And we wouldn't be able to wipe our hands of it, after all's said and done."
"What good can he be to us?" Leo asks, quietly. He's pulled a pack of Camels out of his hoodie pocket, is idly toying with one of them, but not lighting up. "Information? Maybe some. But you're right. They want to kill us, but if we kill this guy, it's the opening salvo of a long exchange. So, we hand him over to the cops, or someone else as might want him. As soon as we can," he advises, somberly.
"Humanis First never has to find out what happened to their field agent," says Eileen, wiping her palms off on a handkerchief produced from her back pocket. "You could burn the body. Dismember it. Feed it to the feral dogs here on the Island and grind what's left into bonemeal for your garden. And even if they should somehow happen to? There's nothing they can do in retaliation that they wouldn'tve done anyway. You're fighting a war, Helena. There's no room for weakness, no room for mistakes. He knows what you look like, and if the police don't follow through, you'll be more fucked than if you'd slit him ear to ear here tonight."
She smudges at the soot on her face with one of the handkerchief's cleaner corners. "Whatever you decide to do, I'd like to have an hour alone with him before you do it. Gabriel has ways of extracting information that could be useful to us all."
Delilah's voice chirps up, shrill and electronic. "What in the hell is going on over there? I can hear Helena and bits of someone else…" There is a pause as Dee's mouth moves away from the phone and she garbles something off to someone apparently nearby before coming back. "So nobody's missing a leg or anything then?"
"We've got a guest," Cat replies, "a psycho fake cop who went around trying to chop people up with an axe. We're deciding what to do with him. No missing legs," she provides. "I'll be in touch again soon, got to get back to the conversation here." The button to end the call is tapped, she pockets the device and continues to stare at Douglas.
"He's insane, all the way through," she mutters. "Elisabeth is busy, I left her voice mail. Not surprising, given the night's events. Probably on duty for several more hours."
"I shot this man several times already. He kept going, like the fucking Terminator after Sarah Connor. I clearly need better ammo. I don't intend to shoot him again. But I also don't care if he dies. If you'd like some time alone with him, Eileen, maybe you can stand guard until Elisabeth comes to collect."
Then she turns to face Helena and Leonard, speaking in a subdued voice. Hints of anger being contained show on her face and in her eyes. "Delilah says Joseph Sumter and Felix Ivanov were rescued from hanging at the church. Mona Rao was hanged. She's dead."
"I wish people would stop tugging us in opposite directions," Helena mutters, noting to Eileen, "I'm fine with it, if Gabriel wants to…do whatever." That's before she hears about those that were taken, and her gaze over to the man, and abruptly, he becomes the face of Humanis First for her. Danko and her father are behind this man's face, and she starts walking toward Douglas' helpless form like she's going to do something to him. Something not nice.
For all his eagerness to hurt and cause pain on previous occasions, Leo's rage is firmly banked. With deliberate slowness, he lights up that Camel, watches Helena stalk towards him like she's about to sink in claws and teeth. He doesn't argue against their anger, protest about mercy. It's long past that point. But nor does he seem eager to rush in.
She has the keys to the cell Douglas is locked in her hand. Cat deposits them on the edge of the chair she occupied as she moves to open the guitar case she'd carried. Visible inside are two silenced pistols, an M16 rifle, ammo for both, a few grenades, and some medical supplies. From it she extracts an instrument or two useful in digging out bullets, then a topical anesthetic and a suture kit with bandages.
Returning to her seat, she applies the anesthetic and begins to examine her injured calf for the presence of a bullet. It seems she intends to remove it if possible; the angle might be bad. "That man was at the Frontline Ball," she remarks. "I saw him getting into the ice cream truck, and remember him from the crowd. He never drew attention to himself until Minea Dahl tried to arrest Danko."
A few moments later comes a quiet comment. "I don't know if Mona had family. I'll look into things and see about arranging a decent burial if needed."
It's the cell itself that stops her, because the realization that comes when she pauses that she needs a key to go in gives her a moment of focus. The rage had no where to go. She stops. She breathes. She turns to face the others. "Who would have a use for him, be able to actually keep him in check or get what they need out of him before doing whatever they need to do? I'd consider turning him over…but only so long as Liz gets a chance to do whatever she wants to him."
Leonard just looks sad. He flicks the cigarette to the corner of his mouth, lazily, watches Helena head for Douglas like he can't quite muster the emotional momentum to make a decision. "If," he says, quietly, "We get what we want out of him, and Liz doesn't want to deliver the coup de grace, I will."
Phoenix> ** Sailor Venus ** Delilah climb in Teo pocket. mmnghh fiiire.
Eileen, meanwhile, is turning to leave, her back to the cell as she directs her eyes up the stairwell from whence she came. It's been a long night for all of them, and while there's nothing she'd like more than to feel cool sheets on her bare skin and a soft pillow under her head, Helena's body language is sending her a very clear signal. If the Remnant wants any time alone with Douglas, she needs to leave now.
"I'll be back in a few hours with my people," she says to no one person in particular as she brushes past Cat on her way out, the smell of burnt wood and cinders wafting off her sodden clothes. Her voice is thick. Hoarse. "Make sure he's in one piece, if you could. We won't need long."
"You smell like fire, Eileen," Cat remarks to the woman as she passes. Her examination of the leg injury is thus interrupted, she seemed to be having trouble tending it anyway. Something in the way it's at the back of her leg and toward the outside is challenging her flexibility. Assistance may be needed. "Were you around fire tonight?"
She aims a glance at Douglas through the bars he's locked behind, remarking "I don't plan to open that door." But she can't speak for anyone else. Her next act is to rise and extract the iPhone again. It's extended through the cell exterior and aimed at his face; when the image shows on screen absent anything that obscures his features she takes a photo of Douglas and retreats.
Helena backs away from the door, swallowing hard, and then turning to nod to Eileen. "Sure." she says after a moment. "He'll be here. In one piece." Her gaze goes to the door again, and abruptly, she turns and walks over to Leo, her head down, brow wrinkled.
Leonard puts out an arm, sweeps her in to an embrace, even as he pinches out his cigarette with his other hand, vanishes the stub away. Hugs, not so good when you're getting ash in your hair.
A nod to Helena serves as a farewell in place of words, and Eileen mounts the first step leading up to the hospital's ground floor. If she was at the Guiding Light tonight, she makes no outward indication, letting her silence speak for her.
With no one offering or attempting to assist her in the act of tending the leg wound, Cat returns to dealing with it on her own as best she can. Silence is kept to; she won't let on her feelings over Mona being hanged and the connection to Dani. Nothing said of Father's body not being recovered from Pinehearst, or of Dani's still unscattered ashes.
It's Cat's way. If any of it is let out, it'll happen when no one is around to bear witness.