Starring:
Date: January 14, 2010
Summary:
Micah is unconscious and hospitalized while Gabriel performs some heroics!
"Hold To Justice"
Hospital — NYC
The wreckage had been immense. The Prius had virtually crumpled under the weight of the white van. Emergency vehicles were on the scene moments later — witnesses had called into EMS upon first impact. Multiple ambulances were called and multiple bodies were transported.
The streets clear as the white ambulance treads frantically towards one of the many public hospitals in New York City. Furiously the sirens blare, providing plenty of warning for other cars to get out of the way — and, god willing, not create another accident like the one just left.
It's to the annoying high pitched sound that Micah's eyes groggily drift open and then back closed, half-confused about where he is — and how he got there. He tries to open his eyes fully, only to shut them moments later, a surge of pain pumps through his head. He scrunches his nose around the tube within it and for an instant he thinks he's back in Building 26, caught again, but the fear is fleeting as he doesn't remember sirens from the last time. He tries to sit up, but he's firmly attached to the gurney-like structure he's on in the back of the ambulance. He isn't going anywhere. Not at this moment. But instead of drawing attention to himself he does a silent check. First he wiggles his toes and thinks they move before realizing that maybe he wouldn't know if they weren't moving. Silently he waits.
The ambulance driver glances to the back of the vehicle to his partner, "Does he have vitals?!"
"Yeah, I think our patient will be okay… just a severe bang to the head and multiple lacerations!" The other calls back after carefully inspecting Micah's external injuries. "We'll see what the doctors say —"
Good. Relief. Things are positive on the not being paralyzed front. After several more moments the ambulance comes to a stop and the pair of paramedics unload Micah's fake-unconscious body from the back of the vehicle. There's a clang as the ambulance door opens, but Micah doesn't dare move. For this moment, he lets them think he's still unconscious.
In a much different situation is Gabriel, who is currently being dragged down a nearby alley by Alpha Protocol agents, his form limp as the two keep one of his arms in each of theirs, the scraping sound of Gabriel's feet against the concrete amplified oddly against the building walls. With time to only get one of the unconscious occupants of the wrecked vehicle, the senior agent made a judgement call and decided to take Gabriel, perceiving him as the greater threat. Micah may be safe and sound in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, but Gabriel is far from safe.
Dropping the ex-killer's body on the ground once they feel they're at a safe enough distance from the carnage in the street, the two agents lean up against the wall, one wiping sweat from his brow. "What should we do with him?" the younger agent speaks, eyes turning to the other. "We're going to call it in, sit here and wait for backup, and make sure he doesn't get away. That's what we're going to do," the other responds, kneeling down to inspect Gabriel up close.
"You mean we're just going to.. to.. sit here with him? This freak? What if he wakes up?" the younger agent responds, clearly nervous about standing in the alleyway, alone, with one of the Evolved, with only another agent for backup. Clearly taking some sort of offence to this, the senior agent leaps to his feet, turning to the younger agent. "Let me deal with it! I'm the ranking agent here, and you're going to do WHAT I say!" He proceeds to fly off on a list of reasons they're going to do /exactly/ what it is they're going to do, the younger agents eyes growing wider by the second. While the ranking agent might think it's because the younger man's fear of him is growing… he's deftly mistaken. Directly behind him, Gabriel rises from the street, eyes narrowed, forehead tense as he stares down the two agents— and suddenly strikes, forcing the older agent into the younger one and slamming them both into the wall, knocking the pair of them unconscious.
With the two of them taken care of, Gabriel turns towards the street, the sounds of ambulances already flying their way through the streets of New York City falling on his ears. He'll need to check the wreck, perhaps while invisible so no one sees him, but he has a good idea already that Micah won't be found. He's just hoping that he's in one of those ambulances, and not the back of an Alpha Protocol van…
A team of Protocol agents isn't far behind Micah by this point: the back-up teams on the ground that they'd been running from. An ever-present force, one of the governmental black vans tails the ambulance, keeping back just enough so as not to raise suspicions; not that it matters. They could have stopped the ambulance, taken the wounded and had the sway to do so. They don't. They wait until it stops, because it's easier. As the "unconscious" teenager is moved, the van slides into an Emergency Vehicles Only spot.
The paramedic team pull the gurney-cot out of the back of the ambulance on the count of three, and wheel the gurney into the white hospital with white walls, white floors, and white lights. It's so white that patients returning to consciousness might think that they've crossed over to the other side.
As they push him down the hall, the paramedic team explain the case to the attending emergency room doctors. "Unconscious teen found at a multiple vehicle crash. Multiple lacerations. Strong vitals. Likely a concussion. Hasn't returned to consciousness. No identification. Head was found slumped against the wheel of the car —"
The doctor raises her eyebrows, "He was driving?!"
"Yes ma'am." At this the paramedics' job is taken over by the medical staff as they move him from the Paramedic's cot to a more permanent gurney, and hook Micah up to a series of machines.
"He's breathing and appears to be doing fine. Monitor him, order CT and check on his status. We'll have more patients soon enough if this was multi-vehicle —" That said, the female doctor disappears back into the hallway to attend to more patients in her emergency room.
Micah feels himself get hooked up to a monitor of some kind that attaches to his pointer finger (which he quickly realizes is monitoring his heart beat) as well as a new oxygen tube — once again it's not shoved down his throat, just into his nose; there's no reason to intubate him. The intern on the case turns to the nurse and instructs, "Page me when he wakes up," before disappearing down the hall to order the tests she's been told to examine. Moments later the attending nurse is called away to one of the other patients in her pod, leaving the young Micah Sanders alone.
All the while, Micah has managed to stay still. Extremely still. Only now he opens his eyes and tries to sit up again. Only to feel that same pounding in his head. He moans quietly and lays back before reaching into his pocket to touch his phone to access the building schematics.
The medical team and their newest patient have had eyes on them. An agent lingers in the ER, and he watched to see which room Micah was taken to, slipping past doors not meant for "visitors". The instant the buzz around the boy has died down, he radios in to the rest of the team, and moments later a group of men and women clad in familiar, dark military garb are standing in the hallway outside the room Micah Sanders has been placed in. One of them even thanks the doctor; they'll "take it from here."
One lucky break for Gabriel— the ambulances all seem to be from one hospital, and more than likely the nearest one. It wouldn't make sense for one of the outlying facilities to respond to the call. The closer the hospital, the quicker people can get help. Leaving the two agents in a tangled pile on the concrete, Gabriel shakes his head to clear some of the cobwebs, his injuries from the crash already healed. He'll come out of this perfectly fine, the same way he was before. The same can't be said for Micah, and the ex-killer doesn't even know what injuries the kid has suffered. It's time to go find out.
Getting lost in the crowd on the other side of the buildings, Gabriel quickly and surely makes his way towards the nearest hospital, bumping into people, offering apologies, all but running as fast as he can to the hospital. The closer he gets, however, his pace increases, and it isn't long before he's full-out running through the crowds of the city, booking it to the hospital.
Sits up again, but only for a second before lying back down. The Alpha Protocol is already here. There must be something he can do to stop them from carting him out of here. With a smirk, he closes his eyes and touches his phone again, speaking silently to the hospital mainframe. There are things he can do; things he can make happen that won't necessarily be easy to reverse even if gets a dart of the solution. His eyes glance to the side and catch sight of a defibrillator. Pressing his lips together he takes a deep breath and rolls off the side of the gurney — phone in hand at the same moment the hospital emergency sprinkler system kicks in outside his room — dousing each of the agents in water.
He tugs at the paddles of the defibrillator and using his ability charges them as high as he can. Micah doesn't really know what will happen, but it doesn't take a genius to know electricity and water don't mix…
It isn't very much time (but still too long by what Gabriel wanted) before Gabriel finally arrives at the hospital. In an alley off of the side of the building, he makes sure no one is watching as he disappears from the world, invisibility shrouding him in broad daylight, quite literally. All he has to do is wait for a set of doors to open for someone else, and he can slip inside. Once there, he can locate Micah's room off of a patient list, and hopefully make it there before it's too late.
What Gabriel arrives to will be chaos, but the agents do their best to contain it. Shouts erupt in the hall, not only from the AP team, but the hospital staff, not to mention an old man in a hospital gown being wheeled past in a wheelchair.
"Someone get those sprinklers shut off!" an agent yells. The door to Micah's room is shoved open, a soaking wet agent unaware that the kid has a weapon of sorts — until he's already inside, facing Micah. His team members follow and they draw their weapons. "Stand down! STAND DOWN!"
But the young Micah Sanders doesn't stand down. He's been caged before and while he's adamantly against anyone getting hurt… if he's captured he'll never find justice for his dead parents. And somehow, these people, or whoever they work for killed his parents. At least, that's what the voice in his head said, and right now isn't the time to question it particularly as he can feel the device she'd described under his skin. Instead of surrendering, he backs up before using the paddles on a small puddle of water that's formed under his gurney — a puddle that leads right to the agents.
Zzzzzzzzap. Even the many precautions the agents have taken with their gear can't prepare them for electrocution, just like it didn't stop them from freezing on the roof. Four agents with their boots in the puddle, and their clothing soaked, are shocked enough to jerk and stumble, falling, stunned.
Two in the hall immediately step back, rifles — tranqs, tasers are less than safe outside in the rain, and just as dangerous inside in the rain — raised through the door, ready to to fire any second.
It may not look good for Micah. Although the agents inside the room are taken down by the defibrillator, the ones outside the room are not. With rifles raised and ready to fire on the young teenager, all the agents are waiting for is the final go ahead to open up on the boy.
The sprinklers continue to rain down water in the ward, the agents getting more soaked by the second. Fingers itchy, ready to pull the trigger, they fail to notice the sudden disturbance in the water behind them. If they did, they might be a little scared. Something is displacing the falling droplets, as they connect with someone who is invisible, the water clearly outlining the shape and features of the man. At the last possible second, one of the agents notices it, turns his gun on it, but it's too late.
Two of the agents suddenly lift up into the air, their shouts punctuating the frenzy going on around them. Their guns clatter to the floor as they begin to struggle against the hold on them, but before they can do anything they go slamming into the wall on either side of the room. Gabriel finally reveals himself, the water pouring down and sluicing off of his features, his hair matted against his head. "At least you don't have to get any shots?" he says, turning to Micah.
And the raising of the guns has one effect on the teen, Micah clamps his eyes shut and winces as he begins to feel the weight of his impending failure in the pursuit of justice, but then the men are taken out. His eyes reopen to the sound of Gabriel's voice as he sighs with relief. He offers a lopsided smirk, "I'm glad… In more ways than one." Beat. "Thanks." He purses his lips together and plants his feet on the ground, still sitting, "We need to get out of here…" It's only now he glances at his bandaged arms as he attempts to push himself to his feet only to dizzily crumple back to the ground. With a groan he forces himself up again. "I'm okay! I just —" Yes, he's dizzy and that pain in his head surges, but he manages to stand now, but he's not going moving fast.
It's becoming quite clear to Gabriel that Micah is going to slow them down— he has no intentions of leaving him behind, like he would have in the past, but it could lead to trouble. Glancing around the room, Gabriel spots a wheelchair, and quickly makes his way to it, pulling it open and setting it up. "Hop in," he says, turning to Micah. "I have an idea."
Micah takes direction easily this time; there's no point to arguing. Besides, his aspectabund face doesn't hide his thoughts or his dizziness. He sits in the chair and nods. "Game on." He tightly grips the arms of the wheelchair, ready to follow Gabriel's plan.
Pushing the wheelchair to the door, Gabriel stops for a few moments. "If anyone tries to stop us, I'm your doctor. I was… called in to deal with a special case. You're that case." Makes sense, right? Of course, Gabriel is pretty sure that it will never fly, and at best, will buy them only a few moments should they be stopped. He doesn't exactly look like a doctor. "There was commotion in this wing, and I'm removing you because you shouldn't be around it." With that said, he pushes the wheelchair in the hall, immediately turning to the left and heading in the general direction it takes to get to the exits. So far, so good.
"Awesome," Micah agrees as he holds his phone in his hand, reaching out through the security system and killing cameras as they pass. "This is a brilliant plan." He turns off the sprinkler system before they leave the room and clutches the sides of the chair's arms while still trying to look semi-casual.
Of course, it's not long before someone is onto them. It's brilliant for a little while, until…
"Excuse me, sir, you're not— " The words of an aging doctor emerging from a room just ahead of Gabriel and Micah, who he gestures to, are cut off as he stares down the hall being them. Some agents — three, to be precise — have come to their senses after being shocked or thrown, and they come running after the man and teenager. This time, they fire tranqs right away at Gabriel, the biggest and closest target — and the most dangerous.
The longer they go without getting caught, the more Gabriel thinks they might just make it out of here without any more distractions. Of course, right about the moment he thinks it, it ceases to be true. The doctor who begins addressing him, even if his words are cut off by the sight of the agents, would have never been able to finish his sentence anyway. Suddenly lashing out from pushing the wheelchair, Gabriel uses his right arm to force the doctor back into the room, the length of his forearm buried in the man's throat. An effective way to get someone to start moving backwards.
The next thing he knows, darts are fired and two of them slam into his back. Letting out a muffle grunt of pain, Gabriel leans forward, pushing the the wheelchair down the hallway as hard as he can, away from the agents. "Go, I'll catch up!" he says as he falls to a knee, the powerful sedative already beginning to work as he reaches around and pulls the darts out of his back. Let's hope his regeneration can keep up with and beat the sedative, forcing it out of his system before he passes out.
"B-but!" Micah objects as he's pushed down the hallway, although there's no way he can stop himself. In fact, before he knows it, he's at the end of the hall where he stands from his chair. Fortunately, his adrenaline is pumping again and will push him through — for now, anyways. There's no way the rush will last. There's a moment's hesitation. Gabriel needs his help, but then, how is he supposed to spread what he knows if he gets caught too? He takes his phone out of his pocket and searches for the nearest exit — it's not far, in fact, he runs for it.
The exit itself is the hospital's main entrance — entirely glass at the front in an effort to let in natural light. Micah darts out the front door and onto the street. And there, illegally parked in front of the building is another blue Prius. There's a moment's hesitation before Micah touches open the door.
Touching the ignition, Micah's face is pure determination as he puts the pedal to the metal and drives up on the curb. Within seconds the glass entrance of the hospital is shattering into millions of tiny pieces as a blue Prius drives into the hospital. Doctors and nurses gasp and exclaim in horror at the commotion and many pick up the phone to try to call the police, but the phones are dead…
Fortunately for Micah, the hallways are unusually large.
The blue Prius turns down the hallway, headed towards Gabriel and the guards. He lays on the horn.
Struggling to his feet, a happy, groggy feeling begins to come over Gabriel, and he wants to do nothing more than drift off into a peaceful slumber.
Scratch that, he wants to get the hell out of here.
Out of nowhere, the sounds of something crashing through the front of the hospital reaches Gabriel's ears, and it's more than enough to give him a few seconds where he's jolted awake by the sudden realization of what it must be. "Oh, god," he says, just before the blue Prius comes tearing around the hallway corner, barreling straight towards him. "This is NOT what I signed up for!" he yells as he turns around, running towards the agents, or at least doing the best he can with the sedative still in his system. It isn't quite out yet, but it shouldn't be too long. That, plus the adrenaline from the fact he's literally running from a car, inside of a hospital, towards the very people he should be running from is doing a damn good job of keeping him on his feet, too.
Wait— wait, why is he running towards them?! And there's a car! Even the well-trained agents can't disguise their surprise, but they rapidly take stock of the situation and back up, sliding against the walls and bracing out-of-the-way in doorways. "Switch to the Solution!" one yells, and more shots are fired at Gabriel — this time while he's looking at them face-on.
The car stops midway down the hall as Micah waits. He doesn't turn the vehicle off, but he lets it idle for now. Waiting. He's dizzy, but he's also something else: feeling angry. All of his fury his balling inside him. He lost his parents because of them. Because of Beta Protocol. When Micah closed his eyes at the crash something happened; something changed.
If the Alpha Protocol thought they'd found problems in Rebel before, they ain't seen nothing yet.
The last of the sedative wearing off, Gabriel is running full speed down the hallway. Fortunately for him, the solution dart misses, pinging harmlessly (in reality, it probably isn't harmless for the fact it might just make Micah that much more angry) off the Prius' windshield. Realizing his choices are slowly dwindling, Gabriel abandons his head-on charge at the Alpha Protocol guards, and suddenly dives to his left into one of the empty patient rooms.
More agents are trailing onto the scene, a group of them jogging toward the out-of-place blue car in an attempt to surround it, one trying to follow Gabriel into the patient room; others are forced to herd the hospital staff away from gawking.
(So not their job.)
As Gabriel dives out of the way, Micah's foot covers the gas again, and he applies even pressure. He wants blood. He can feel his teenage hormones demanding it and every urge within him calling for it. But then, in his own feelings of hopelessness, something strikes him:
You can hold on to justice.
He swallows before hitting the brakes hard, squealing to a stop just in front of the room which Gabriel has disappeared. He scootches to the passenger seat as he shakes his head, "Revenge and justice aren't the same. A hero seeks justice, Micah. Always seek justice." His jaw is tight as he waits for his comrade to get into the car.
The guard that comes in after Gabriel gets punched right in the face, which effectively takes him down. By the time he can get his bearings back to him and get to his feet, Gabriel is already closing the driver side door of the Prius. Throwing the car into reverse, he wastes no time at all in backing up, the sound of metal scraping on metal filling the hallway as Gabriel gets just a little bit too close to the walls. They finally break free of the hallway, the car coming around the corner widly, nearly upending itself onto two wheels. Pausing for a moment, freedom and the shattered doorways of the hospital in front of them, Gabriel looks over to Micah. "Where to?"
As Gabriel asks, Micah reaches up and pulls down the sun visor, flipping open the mirror. His face is scratched… embedded with glass. His arms are likely the same, but they're still covered in gauze so he can't see them and the damage that the accident caused. "I need to get patched up," Micah says honestly as the dizziness begins to take over again. "And… this is not what I thought it was. We need to regroup — they… they're more powerful than I thought and…" he frowns as he stares at the shattered entrance in front of them. He touches his phone and focuses his energy, reaching out to find the easiest way to get to Cass and Lachlan's apartment. He rattles off the address and takes a deep breath as he fights to keep his eyes open.
(TO BE CONTINUED in On Your Side)