by P. S. Power
She gave him a funny look. "You can promise things for the IPB?" She sounded skeptical.
"Oh hell no. But I can get this done anyway. It's part of the "they owe you people" thing. If Bridget wants her grandmother, no one in the world will stand in the way of that right now. Besides, Moore thinks you're hot. I don't think having you around in the halls is going to really hurt his feelings." Smiling he tried to wink at her, which didn't hurt, but didn't really work either. It was more of a strained blink than anything else.
The agents got him back to the base safely, the only problem coming when a police car drove past them and he drew his gun instantly, holding it out of sight. The driver saw the action in the rear view mirror.
"Easy now. Just some local guy going to get his late night Crispy creme or whatever it is they eat around here. No need to kill him for that. Let's give him a chance to mess up a little first."
Nothing happened of course, because it really was just some guy out on patrol. Just because he may have personally helped try to kill Brian before, that wasn't any reason for him to worry now, was it?
Of course not.
He held the side arm in his lap, pointed toward the side of the car, until they were safely through the gates. Before stepping out of the car he considered holstering it, but something felt wrong, so he kept the weapon out. Things were too quiet. Yes, it was the middle of the night, so maybe Brian was just being over cautious, but... He signaled by looking around and pointing at the nine in his right hand to the agents who brought out their own weapons. He had to admire these guys a little, even if it was just him being paranoid, they hadn't hesitated at all to give him backup.
To the right a half dozen people lay on the ground, writhing, another form standing over them, arms spread palms down, as if holding them in place. Whoever it was wore an orange jump suit and since he didn't look like a stork, that meant Itch had escaped.
Goody.
Brian pointed the weapon and moved forward smoothly, so the gun didn't bounce while he walked, not planning on calling out or anything, just shoot the man until he wasn't a problem anymore. It was about time after all.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a form in a light blue outfit, hunched over as if trying to sneak, walked slowly up behind Denis, something in his hand. From the frosting of white on top of the blue and the glint from the man's glasses, it looked to be Doctor Clinton.
Denis started to turn, sensing or perhaps hearing something, so Brian shouted at him. "Freeze Denis. I'll shoot if you try to do anything but stop what you're doing and lay face down on the ground. Now." He walked forward rapidly, trying to get the man's attention focused on him alone. It worked, he knew, because it suddenly felt like he was on fire. He kept walking, reminding himself that the pain wasn't real, no matter how much it hurt. The curly haired prisoner focused everything he had on him, every kind of pain, burning, freezing, discomfort and even a sense of tiredness oddly enough, overtook him all at once.
Smiling Brian kept going, Denis's eyes going wide.
"Seriously? Do you think I would have survived this long if I was willing to give up that easily? Lay down on the ground now. Do it or I will shoot in three, two.." On two the doctor leaped forward and hit Denis in the side of the neck with the needle in his hand and pushed the plunger home. The man slapped his neck and spun around suddenly, taking his attention off of Brian for a brief moment while he frantically worked to do something to the doctor.
The distance between them was only about sixty feet by the time he started running, about twenty meters. Even injured he could sprint that in about three seconds, which was slow really. A running elbow to the chest took Itch to the ground, the armor having stiffened nicely, turning his arm into a fairly decent weapon. Once down Brian kicked him in the head several times with his left running shoe. Hard. The man didn't stir at all after that, the drugs coming into play, Brian guessed. If he was just knocked out there would probably have been tremors or shaking. Worst case, he'd be dead. On second thought, that might be the best scenario, all things considered. Looking closely Brian could see his chest rise and fall.
Well... darn.
The people on the ground had started to get up, two agents and four members of team two, including Tobin. He straightened his lean Goblin body and smiled darkly. Instead of kicking the already downed man he turned to help the others find their feet and then picked Itch up and carried him, face down, into a little shed about two football fields away.
The agents started to explain what had happened, but it was clear that they'd just been too nice to the guy, took the hood off so the he could eat and he'd used his powers to escape. Brian wasn't in charge of things like that, and the agents didn't answer to him, so they got a shrug in response. He couldn't blame them for not being monsters and it wasn't their fault that Denis was a prick. Looking around for a moment Brian asked what Doctor Clinton had given the man, it looked to be working pretty well and the way things worked around the base he may have to know what the names were on things like that for future reference.
"Midazolam. It should help keep him calm and prevent him from remembering this. I just happened to be near it when I noticed what was going on..."
Putting his side arm away finally, he smiled at the doctor and told him that his being there had saved the man's life. Brian didn't know if that was actually a good thing, but Clinton smiled about it, as if he'd done something heroic.
Which, of course, he had.
It wasn't easy to run up on a person that could cause you intense pain like that. Everything in your mind screamed at you not to do it, even while you made yourself move. He'd have to mention it to the director the next time they talked... and Burrows. Get the guy a bonus or something. Brian thanked the man and walked away shortly after that, wondering around, trying to see where everyone had gotten too. One great thing about this job, no one made him do the paperwork.
Brian finally found Penny in the front section of the armory, she'd made a barricade of boxes around herself in a darkened corner that no one else wanted. Probably to keep anyone from stepping on her Brian realized. She'd grabbed an extra sleeping bag and made a little nest on the floor, like almost everyone else. He walked over and shook her shoulder a bit, causing her to wake with a start.
"Brian? Oh, hey." She rubbed sleep out of her eyes. "Is everything all right?"
He looked at her little corner and thought there may be room for two, but wasn't sure, not knowing if she was one of those people that couldn't stand someone near her while she tried to sleep.
"Can I sleep here too? I missed all the good spots and I'd like to crash for a bit. It's OK if you don't want me to. I..." Without even waking up fully she made room for him and then threw half of a spread out sleeping bag over him, already warm from her body heat. He didn't have a pillow, but the pain meds had gotten him this far. Now if they'd just hold for a few hours. Brian slept a lot more easily than he'd figured would be possible. He woke up a few times, but something about having someone near made him feel a lot better. Plus it was warmer, which helped. When he woke up daylight spilled through the open door, along with cool, but fresh, air. Everyone else had started to stir already.
Penny lay pressed against him, warm and comfortable. When he sat up her eyes opened and she asked the time. He didn't know himself, watches not really fitting his current lifestyle, so Brian asked the man walking past if he could tell them. It was the groundskeeper from the day before, Emanuel. The small tan man kept walking and didn't even look over at him. He tried again with similar results. Was everyone mad at him or something? He looked at Penny who laughed, getting it way before he did.
"You're invisible. Well, technically "really-not-noticed", but same difference as far as most people are concerned. If you stop touching me for a while it should fade. I don't know how long, with Bridget it was about fifteen minutes, you're bigger so it that may change things. What is it she said? Quick, let's go to the showers?"
Brian sniffed his shirt,
which wasn't too bad, and stood up quickly rolling the sleeping bags and setting them toward the wall so they wouldn't get in the way if they had to move any more gear in or anything. Penny followed suit. No one else was doing it, except the one agent that he could see, Agent Burke if he remembered the name correctly from the night before.
They stumbled out, carefully not touching each other so that he'd come back to being noticed eventually. They walked over to the food area slowly, Penny's ankles feeling a little sore still. Since no one could see them Penny just had him cut in line and take what they wanted, finding a case of tooth brushes someone had liberated from the store set up with tubes of toothpaste. They each took one and loaded the bristles on the new brushes, Brian's having a pink handle just like Penny's and brushed their teeth before they ate, washing their mouths out with bottled water and trying to clean their faces the same way, the water cold from sitting out all night.
They sat next to the space that seemed to have been established as the makeshift HQ, since talking to the director as soon as he got the chance seemed like a good idea. The man sat eating a donut out of a pink bakery box. No one else had them, but this area had several dozen that someone had picked up in town. Privileges of power or something. An MRE was good enough for Brian, since that's what everyone else was getting.
Pulling a high fiber cracker from its vacuum sealed wrapper, and opening a small flat pack of strawberry jelly he ate, leaving crumbs down his front and his fingers sticky. It wasn't tasty, but beat eating bugs. Snorting he remembered that it also tasted better than Jackal.
He'd been a little salty.
Penny sat quietly a little ways off from him, about fifteen feet, because they didn't know if proximity made a difference or if the not being noticed effect required contact to maintain. He listened to the conversations that the people were having around the Director as he ate. The big topics of concern for the day, so far, seemed to be getting the building checked out and what the Chambers were going to do. The big bet was that they'd go directly to the press. Charlot would probably have Hooper calling for an end to the IPB before lunch according to one man, who looked grumpy and unshaven. Almost everyone did, look grumpy, at least. Penny didn't look like she needed a shave. Feeling his chin he noticed he didn't need to overly yet either. He had a bit of stubble on his chin, but not the full face growth most of the white guys did.
When he finished the food, he cleaned up after himself and threw what he hadn't used into an open top box in case someone else wanted it later. Everyone had been pretty good about cleaning up after themselves so far, or else someone had been going around getting the trash up for them.
He noticed that Clark and Peggy asked everyone to please throw their trash away when they were done and had set up bags for it. Good. No need to litter after all.
Occasionally people walked over and spoke to Peggy directly, but no one did with Clark. Killing a person was all right, as long as you had a good reason, but having sex with a young girl was evil, seemed to be the message.
Brian couldn't really argue the point. Irrational or not, he held about the same beliefs as everyone else on the matter. Clark creeped him out a little. Not like, scary monster in the dark freaked, but the man made him uncomfortable. He was a little funny looking, sure, but in a tall skinny way that didn't preclude him from ever getting a date or anything. Why would he pick a twelve year old girl? There had to have been other women that would have slept with him, right?
Brian sat on the ground near Moore waiting to be noticed. No one looked at him yet, but he doubted it would be long, another few minutes or so. The Director said his name, making Brian look up. The man talked about him, wondering where he'd gotten too.
"Does anyone know where he is? God I hope he didn't have to go fight someone else after yesterday. Did he stay in town?" The man looked at the people around him like they should know, which of course they didn't, probably because everyone else had been sleeping when he'd gotten back. An agent, the one that worked with the Chambers a lot, Burke, mentioned that he'd come back, having been in on the Itch take down.
"Davis and Royce came back with him." The agent said with a shrug.
One of the few women in the group of about fifteen people opined that the world might be better off if Itch had an "accident" complete with quotation fingers. The IPB director looked at her sternly and told her that was not appropriate to say, ever, even as a joke. He grinned at the end of it, spoiling the effect of the reprimand. Everyone laughed, which made Brian think it might be an in-joke of some kind.
After about fifteen more minutes, a full half hour after getting up easy, maybe longer, someone finally noticed him. Agent Lancaster walked over to the area and waved to him, so he stood up and went to see the man. The agent approached the director, which is where Brian figured he needed to be as soon as possible anyway. Lancaster said something to Moore that Brian didn't hear, not being close enough yet, the voices having gone low and secretive, then after scratching his nose the agent hurried off toward where the vehicles were kept.
The director, in a not unkind tone, asked where he'd been, so he explained the thing with Penny quickly. Then he filled the man, and all the people listening, in on the whole situation with the Chambers family and waited for an outburst or to be told they already had a better cover story.
Instead the older man beamed at him. "Brilliant! Better than I expected by far. I kind of wondered if Prime was going to start picking us off in our sleep or something. Yes, of course they have our full cooperation. Did they... I suppose it's too much to ask that they might stay, isn't it?" The old man sighed and then scowled for a bit, not saying anything.
"Well, I asked Rachel to stay and offered her a room here and moving costs if she wants it, and I think if that happens they may be willing to at least consider the idea. I won't lie, if you want them to stay we - and I do mean all of us - need to do a lot of apologizing and groveling for a while. We messed up and we owe them. As an organization we failed them so drastically I don't have words for it and we need to make that right. Oh, I think Rachel plans on coming out here around noon, so if we could send a car for her and, I don't know if we can do it, but if we can get some of their clothes and things? That might be a good gesture... Some notes from their friends, ones that didn't try to beat them up, Hobbs from team two maybe, and if anyone can find Bridget's emerald bracelet? That or tell me how to get a new one. She's a little worked up on that score. Hers is missing."
Brian left them after a bit, not being needed for anything pressing and having nothing else to do he walked to the medical section to find Burrows and tell her about her hero doctor. She raised her eyebrows and looked... impressed.
"So he really was needed here after all. I thought you were just blowing smoke. Hey wait here for a second..." She came back and washed his arm with an alcohol swab and gave him several shots. "I know you must be in agony, sleeping cold, on the ground, after wounds like that. I know that none of us wants you to turn into a whiner, we couldn't handle it if you did, but you can mention if you hurt, all right?" Brian felt tempted to kiss her, just on the cheek, for having thought of it.
He did hurt, ache more accurately, his head still rang, a deep pain inside that made him feel slightly ill. They didn't have that kind of relationship so he refrained, but he did thank her and tell her all the symptoms.
She let him go with a smile that didn't look real at all, more like she was incredibly sorry about something. Probably the inevitable brain damage she hadn't mentioned yet. Then again, she just may not have gotten her morning coffee. Some people didn't function well without it at all. The best they had right now without a thirty mile run into town was the coffee packets out of the military rations. Brian felt better after all the shots, something in them being more energizing than what they normally gave him.
At about ten Dharma showed up to let him know another "fight" would be coming up in a few seconds, against a single regular person with no weapons. The Goth girl shrugged.
>
"I don't know, maybe... just stand in place and play this one by ear?"
When he shifted locations he found himself facing an angry and frustrated young woman in a blue terry cloth robe, with dark, matted looking hair, who screamed and jumped back, then looked at him and screamed again.
"Don't hurt me! Where's my baby, what happened to my baby!" The woman freaked for a while, Brian finally made her sit down and explained why he was there.
"So you were going to kill him. You obviously don't want to, but it was going to happen and probably not by accident... So what we're going to do now is get some help. I can't leave until the baby's safe, and... Well, just showing up and talking to you hasn't seemed to fix it yet. That means that even if you promise to be good right now, within a few days you'll still do something bad. On the good side this lets you get help on your own terms and when you get some sleep and help you can go back to normal again. Maybe at least. So, do you want to go with me, or just go?" It would look better if she went with him, but all he needed was a hospital or fire station, even a restaurant with honest people.
She had a car, an automatic, so he drove them to the closest hospital and explained things as carefully as possible and explained to the head nurse who he was. Then he sat on the floor as the tingling started, which brought him back to the compound at just about noon. Marcia noticed him and walked over, looking for wounds, limps or derangement. He smiled at her.
"Canadian zombie creatures?" She tilted her head quizzically. It looked cute with her lopsided hair cut.
"American postpartum depression. First time mother that needed help, not killing. Kind of a nice change up, you know? Anything new here?"
The engineers had come to test the building, which they said would take about a day. A little over an hour per level. Because they weren't cleared to be in the building unattended, someone had to stay with them the whole time. Mark got stuck with that detail, so Brian offered to go do it himself, or as well, since Mark needed to be there for real safety. Then suggested that Marcia and Lis from team two help out as well. It turned out that he and Marcia couldn't be spared for some reason, but Lis got the job along with Dave and a very normal looking girl named Kerry. She was cute in a snub nosed way really. Brian wondered why she wasn't on team one, but didn't ask.
