Starring:
Guest Starring:
Date Set: August 9th, 2009
Summary:
As the debris of the museum is combed through, Micah and Cam are unexpectedly split up, and someone oversees the damage done.
Six Months Ago…
"The Damage Assessment"
Ruins of the Nevada Museum of Science & Technology
Las Vegas, Nevada
The Nevada Museum of Science & Technology has been demolished. It lays in ruins in the bright, hot afternoon sun, the desert and hazy mountains in the distance.
All of the vehicles were also subject to the sudden damage, their windows blown out, tires askew in their parking lot. Unharmed are the vehicles of the mass amount of authorities who have arrived on scene. Police, fire trucks, ambulances. Authorities swarm the area.
A few people died in the building collapse, but it's going to take awhile to find them. Some were rescued— like a certain pair of teenagers, who have been given bottled water and told to sit on the back of the ambulance.
And silently, Micah sips at his water — still caked in layers of dust. His muddied face frowns through the devastation, staring at the debris that was the Museum of Science and Technology. Sniffling he turns to peer at Cam. With a sigh, he drips some of the water on his scratched legs, removing the dust and exposing his glass splinters.
Cam, for once, isn't sweating in the Nevada heat, surrounding himself with cold air. He was given a blanket when the medics felt his skin was like ice when they got him out, but he doesn't have it on. His emotional state is pretty obvious not only by the cold air around him, but by the fact he gets maybe a sip of water before the whole bottle is frozen solid. He just sets it aside, and glances to Micah, and the glass in his leg makes him frown a bit. He hasn't even really noticed his own wounds yet. He doesn't say anything right yet. Still not quite sure what to say.
A lot is happening at once all around them.
A good deal of noise comes from the museum as machinery and tools are used to dig through the debris. "Got something!" calls an EMT from the midst of the destruction.
A news van rolls in, determined to report the story.
And along the perimeter of the nearby parking lot, a group of figures dressed in black have just arrived. To put it simply, they lurk, watching it all. While they're out of place — militaristic, minus any weaponry — they go mostly unnoticed. Some speak in cell phones, others in radios.
An EMT comes around the van — maybe to take a look at the teenagers, to make sure they're not wounded more than they look. At least… he looks like an EMT, in uniform, but what he really looks like is a giant. Seven feet tall at least, with a scar on his head, Jensen stands by the ambulance but, in fact, ignores the boys. He simply observes the devastation.
Micah spies the perimeter and frowns a little. Who are these men? Why would they care about an earthquake. He glances at the tall EMT and then back to Cam. The notion that they got something is too much for the teen to bear. He can't handle the reality of bad news, in fact, he refuses to, and so he quietly creeps out the open door as best he can.
Cam isn't paying much attention to the rubble. His eyes are going to those military-esque figures arriving on the scene. He's watching them so closely he barely takes notice of the giant paramedic. But he does notice when Micah starts to move out of the ambulance, and he gets up to follow.
The tall man doesn't seem to care that the boys are sneaking away without being treated, making him a bad professional… or not an EMT at all. What he does seem to care about is how cold it is. Turning the corner around the back of the ambulance, he eyes Cam and the bottle of frozen water, and moves back behind the ambulance. The cell phone he then brings to his ear looks doll-sized in his hand. "…think we have one of them here, of all places… " he murmurs, gruffly.
One of the black-clad men with a phone to his ear seems to respond, looking in the direction of Micah and Cam. They start to move closer.
At this moment, Micah reaches into his own pocket, and closes his eyes, but just for an instant — Jensen's cell phone will likely be dead. As the black clad men begin to move closer Micah stops creeping and begins to walk faster away from the ambulance. "Cam — quick!" His speed walking very quickly turns into a jog after several paces.
Cam, as soon as he hears Jensen's words, crouches to ice up the ground between Jensen and the path they're running. Then he turns and hurries after Micah, trying to be casual and fast at the same time. This puts him a bit behind Micah, though, and he starts to speed up more to try to catch up.
Dead cell phone. Jensen gives the thing a blank look before putting it away— the teenagers have his attention all the more now as he hears footsteps. Running away is a sign of guilt, boys, don't you know? He stomps after them, only to fall solidly on his back, boots in the air, with a thud.
The black-clad men begin a jog toward Micah and Cam's escape, running with the precision of a military march. One in the lead tries to get in the way, running between the two boys, facing Cam.
The police in the area are alerted to the situation, but as one of the mysterious team talks to them, they strangely do nothing.
Ironically no one's cellphones, radios, or walkie-talkies are working as Micah clutches his phone one more time. His pace increases to a virtual sprint as the black-clad men are in hot pursuit, and the man running in between creates space between the foster brothers, creating a growing space between them.
If there's one thing that Cam is excellent at, it's running from cops. He's been doing it since he was nine or ten. And on a pretty regular basis, until he went to live with Niki and family. Sure, these are soldiers, not cops, but same basic principals. First step, distraction. Cam sends a handful of snow at the face of the cop that jumps in front of him as he suddenly changes directions. Step two, change the trail. He dives under an ambulance, creating enough to slide past it without having to crawl, and scrambles out the other side, coming back up to run again. And on he goes… a totally different direction than Micah, but figuring they'll meet up at the hotel, since it's not in their name for these strange cops to know where to look.
One of the men goes after Micah while the other tries to cut off Cam, but the boy's ingenuity with ice prevents that from being a success and the team's impromptu attempt at capture basically falls apart.
Meanwhile, Jensen clambers to his feet, angrily hitting the side of the ambulance (somewhere, a paramedic yells). The towering man seems to make a judgment call. Too risky, with Cam showing off his ability. "Abort," he shouts. No one chases Micah any longer. By now, everyone else in the area is wondering what just happened. Thankfully, the news camera hasn't started rolling yet. "Beta Protocol is the mission. Resume damage assessment."
* * *
Unlike Cam, Micah has no intention of returning to the hotel room. Not even for a happy reunion. After he lost the black-clad man, he wandered the streets somewhat aimlessly for an hour before finding his way to a local YMCA that happened to be undergoing renovations. While the gym itself is closed, he unlocked the electronic door and managed to enter the locker room with a touch of his hand. Fortunately no one is here; no one is even working. He extracts his phone from his pocket and swallows before shutting it off. He'll investigate the black-clad men, later.
Shaking his head he pads over to one of the showers and turns it on. Fully clothed he steps underneath it and lets the water run down his hair, cheeks, and get absorbed in his clothes as his chest heaves between loud solitary sobs, distinct and pained in their staccacto'd echo. He leans his back against the wall of the shower and slides down to a seated position as he bawls. The fear that haunted him for the last few years has come true: He's alone.
Cam, as planned, ends up at the hotel. He doesn't go in the front door, all covered in dust and blood and pieces of glass, he slips in the back when someone steps out for a smoke. He goes upstairs, and arrives at the room, only to find it empty. And he waits. It probably won't occur to him until he wakes up the next morning, that Micah isn't coming. Until then, he's left with his thoughts, just quietly trying to work through everything before he freezes the bed solid.
And Jensen, the rubble, flashing lights and police tape around him gone…
… stands in a dark room beside a figure slumped ahead on a chair. The woman's hair is matted to her face by the sweat of strenuous work, of pain, of exhaustion.
The woman, Lilian, looks up at the tall man who watches over her again, her nose bleeding from pure exertion. Pale as a ghost, there are dark circles under her eyes, and she's crying. She may not be able to see the damage she caused, but she can feel it. "How many— ?"
Jensen shoves her head back down. "Quit your puppy dog eyes. You done your job. Congratulations — the boss's gonna count this a success. How's it feel to be the first successful weapon of the Beta Protocol?"
(END)