Starring:
Guest Starring:
Summary: The group convenes at Beth Israel Hospital. With both Manny and Trina brought to ICU, Ramon and the gang start pooling their resources together to retrieve the missing Elena.
Date It Happened: July 9, 2007
To Syracuse
Somewhere in New York State
July 9th, 2007
1:00 am.
When she opens her eyes, the light over her head sears them back shut, Elena rolling on her back and rubbing her face. Whatever she was laying on, it was something soft. And when she lifts her body upwards, she'll find herself sprawled out on a cot. She's unbound at least, but her surroundings are unfamiliar. She doesn't remember the last few hours. "Where…?" she groans, finding the floor with her feet and burying her face in her hands.
No one responds of course, but when she looks up she'll find herself in a dimly-lit, enclosed concrete space is empty, save for a small table with a pitcher of water and glass. There were strange, slitted panels around the rear wall. A metal door sealed her in where she is. She walks over to it, a little unsteady, and she tries the doorlatch. Locked. She pulls. She pushes, but it doesn't budge. The door outweighed her in spades.
"Shit," she mutters. She doesn't curse often, but the situation called for it. She rubs her face again, and lets it stay there, thinking. She had to think. Clear her head. She dumps some of the water in her hands and rubs her face even more to clear her eyes. And then, she investigates the panels, peeking through. Maybe they're vents….maybe she could crawl out through there…
What she sees beyond is discouraging. "…" Grabbing onto the edge of one, she braces her foot on the wall and pushes back, trying to tear it out. Eventually, it gives way, and she tosses the covering to the side. The small open tube jutting into her room stares at her in the face. Ripping the other panels off frantically, the same tubes become visible, the wall drilled through to make way for them, and the open ends pointed right into her room.
She stands up and backs away from the rear wall, looking at all seven of them.
Realization dawns on her face.
"….oh my god…" she whispers.
Beth Israel Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
The ER was as always crowded, but the waiting room is not. In some bizarre twist of fate, two men who are connected but never met each other are inside it. There's still no word on the condition of Trina Mah, who is -still- in the OR after her fourth hour on the table. Word on Manuel Gomez is pending. Finally, when the double doors on the other end of the hall open up, a tall surgeon that Lachlan (and Peter if he was in the same waiting room) would probably recognize if he was present, walks up to the tired looking man on the other side. "…Mr. Gomez?"
Ramon has been sitting there, all this time, with no shirt. He's got a nasty burn and bruise combo on his left shoulder that he's refused to have seen. The lines in his face are longer and deeper than they are, and tonight has put more grey in his grizzled head. Said head snaps up when the surgeon speaks to him. He looks up with that look that is peculiar to hospital waiting rooms everywhere: hope and fear in a painful twist.
The waiting room does indeed have a young man by the name of Peter. Not a Mr. Gomez by any means, he can't help but look up as the man's name is called. He's barely moved from the wall since he leaned on it instead of sitting down, waiting for the chance to get inside and try and touch Manuel since he heard he'd been taken here too. Trina… he snuck a touch on her before they took her away, but he's not sure how much it did for her. In fact, he's not sure he did anything at all. After the surgery, he'll try again. That's one of two reasons why he's waiting around, instead of off running off trying to find someone who disappeared under his nose. After taking Heidi out to the car so that she could get home to the boys, with promises to call as soon as he hears anything, anything at all, he hasn't said much to either of the men with him in the waiting room.
Things are bad. So very, extremely. incomparably bad. Trina is hurt. Elena is missing. Julia has been destroyed. The only way tonight could get any worse for Jack is if somebody burned down his bar. He's been treated for the injuries he received during the accident with the big rig, but only because people were getting annoyed with the way he was bleeding on stuff. He did decline painkillers of any kind. The back of his borrowed scrub top bulges with thick layers of gauze and tape, and much of his exposed skin is heavily bruised. One of his eyes is partially swollen shut. A large patch of his hair has been sheared off so a gash in his scalp could be stitched and bandaged.
When someone steps out from the OR and into the waiting room, he half-rises from the chair he's been slumped in. There's a wild, desperate look in his good eye. News? News about Trina? He bites his lower lip hard enough to draw blood when he realizes that there's news, but it's not for him. The name Gomez is familiar, but it's not uncommon. Distraught, he lowers himself back into his seat. All he can do is hope this Mr. Gomez is getting good news.
The surgeon looks at Ramon, and reaches out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Manuel was just wheeled out of the OR. They're trying to find space for him in ICU right this moment - it's a little full up, but we're doing our best. It will take several moments more. The good news is there won't be any permanent damage…there'll be a few scars, of course. But….erm. His tattoos will cover most of them." His face turns rather grave. "Your boy was very lucky, Mr. Gomez. If the shrapnel had been two inches north from where it hit, it would've punched through his liver. Given how traffic is in this city, if that had happened, we wouldn't have been able to save him."
He exhales a breath. "I'll try to have him settled in as soon as I can. I'll have a nurse bring you a shirt if you want one."
Ramon looks like he's going to throw up at how close that was. He squeezes his eyes shut and looks away, his mouth taking on an extremely odd set. He exhales a breath and says, "Si. Gracias." His rumbling voice has the edge of strain and the break that comes from doing too much shouting. He swallows again, then grits his teeth. "I'm going to have to get out of here soon. My girl, she's in some trouble. I gotta go get her. Your people, you can page me if something — I'm needed or something?"
Listening in, Peter inhales in relief, glad to hear he's going to be okay. Even if the young man they're talking about killed him once, he's carrying no real hard feelings. There's just the mild worry of walking into his room and causing more damage than he fixes… so if he doesn't need to, he'd like to avoid that. No permanent damage. That usually means they'll be okay. He's looking for that tick that some doctors get when they're trying to give the good side of things… but this one seems genuine. Stepping over, he touches Jack's arm. "That's Elena's dad," he informs, with a nod, since the man doesn't seem to know that much. And it doesn't look like he's going to wait—
Manny Gomez is hurt? Any doubts Jack had about Ramon's identity are dispelled by Peter's confirmation. For a moment he's completely shocked. Hearing that another member of his favorite dysfunction family has been injured weighs on him. He's especially fond of lil' Manny. He sighs and drags his fingers through his hair. "I'd better introduce m'self." He staggers back to his feet and moves to stand a respectful distance from the Gomez patriarch. He inclines his head briefly and offers a hand to shake. "I'm Jack. M'friends with 'Lena and Manny. Glad to hear your boy's gonna make it."
"I understand, Mr. Gomez," the surgeon remarks. "If Ms. Russo returns with anything, I'll have her shuttled off to where we settled him in. He's going to be alright. He'll have to stay here for a week or so, until we're sure nothing comes up that we haven't seen." He nods to the doctor, and flips his chart over to another one. A Jack Derex. It's a LONG night for him. With an exhaled breath, he turns around to move where Jack is….only for him to come around to approach Ramon. Wait. They know each other? He'll wait then, letting the two men get acquainted while he looks at Trina's chart in his hand. And by the look of his face, it's ….not as good as Manny's prognosis.
"Elena has mentioned you," Ramon rumbles, gripping his hand. Now his blurry eyes focus on Peter. "Mr. Petrelli," he says, with the grave respect he reserves for those whom he has decided have proven themselves as fellow Men. But he doesn't charge off just yet. He has thought of something. Instead he says, "Looks like he wants to talk to you too," and jerks his head at the surgeon.
Despite the respect of sorts that he receives, Peter fails to meet Ramon's eyes for more than a few moments as he steps up to join Jack. "Mr. Gomez," he returns the greeting, jaw tight and voice deeper than normal. He's not in the best of moods, and— well— he has some reasons why he feels unable to meet the other Man's eyes at the moment. And it's not because of the doctor. Though his eyes do shift to look up and await the news.
Jack focuses his good eye on the surgeon as soon as he realizes that the man has more to say. His distraction doesn't keep him from squeezing Ramon's hand heartily in return. Nothing interrupts a Manshake. Still, when he speaks, it's to the surgeon. "If'n you got somethin' to say, say it." The command lacks Jack's usual robustness. He sucks in a deep breath and holds it, steeling himself.
"Ms. Mah is…" The surgeon pauses. He's courteous enough to let the man draw in a deep breath before continuing. "I won't bother you with medical jargon, Mr. Derex. Fact of the matter is, she's alive. We pulled her out of surgery ten minutes ago. We're going to try and put her in a private room for 24/7 monitoring as she's…" He pauses again. "She survived the table but she's not out of the woods yet. Truth be told….we don't know when she's going to wake up. But her vitals are promising. She's a strong woman."
Ramon eyes Peter, catching that nuance even in his ragged state. Or perhaps because of it; it's put him on hyper alert. His mouth draws into a thin, tight line. He crosses his arms over his chest and waits with narrowed eyes, listening.
Ragged would be a good word for it. Peter's breathing is slow, but shaky, and at least he can let out faster one when he hears at least her vitals are promising. He can try again soon. But now… he really wants to go find Elena. "Mr. Gomez. We— I suppose you know some of what's going on already. But… I'm…" Sorry? Yeah, that too. Taking in a slow breath, he looks at Jack, and unsure if he'll want to stay with his own sunshine or not, before he looks back at the missing girl's father. "She had a way to find her in case she went missing." He remembers, and it took the possibility of those who might need him here to keep him from trying anything on his own.
Trina's alive. Those are the words Jack has been waiting to hear. He can deal with being in the woods. He lets out his pent-up breath and closes his eyes for a few seconds. A lesser Man would weep. When he opens them he's breathing normally again. He's not thrilled with the situation, but he can accept it as long as his lover isn't dead. With a flick of his wrist, he produces a business card and shoves it into the surgeon's shirt pocket. "If there's any change, call that number and leave a message." He moistens dry, cracked lips with his tongue. "And thanks, Doc."
Jack has a limited ability to worry about things. Reassured that Trina is at least stable for the moment, he's able to turn his thoughts to Elena. He glances first at Peter, then at Ramon. "I got the news I was waitin' for. If we've got a way to find 'Lena, I say we fuckin' go and find her."
"Some dude put a GPS in her once, but I can't remember who. Her boss. Or some guy associated with her boss." Ramon rubs his hand all over his lower jaw and looks at Jack with the eyes of the hopeful lost. "You know who that is?" Please know who that is. "Cause that will be the most straightforward way. The psycho, the serial killer. He's got her." He lowers his voice for that one. "He's got her." Maybe he will lose Man points today after all, because his voice does a skip thing that's distinctly like a break.
Wow, the waiting room of Beth Israel. Bad memories. But at least this time, Lachlan and Cass are here to visit rather than, say, get operated on and almost punch out a doctor or two. They got a call from Peter saying something about Trina being in the hospital, a car accident, all that. Naturally, there's concern. Spotting the group, the pair move at a hurried pace towards them. "Wha's goin' on?" Lachlan asks, glancing from face to face.
The surgeon nods, when Jack dismisses him. He takes a step to the side…only for the group to get bigger as he turns around and nearly comes nose-to-nose with……..Lachlan 'Scottish Surge' Deatley. His jaw drops open, and he points at him. "Y…y…" HIM. THE GUY WHO ALMOST BEAT HIS FACE IN. Sensing that the tension at the group is escalating, he turns around and walks quickly -away-. Before he gets hurt. Peter saved him the last time, and Peter doesn't look like he's in a gracious mood right now.
"I have… a— very good idea who it is. But I don't know his number," Peter says, grimacing a little with additional tension. There's a problem when he never exchanged numbers with the guy who brought Terminators to save the day that one time. And R2D2 that other time… and let's not forget all the stories he's heard about him. "Did she leave her cellphone at the bar? I know she uses… code names for her phone books, but maybe we can figure out which one it is. And with this set jaw, he definitely doesn't look in a gracious mood. And then he glances over towards the voice and Lachlan and— yeah, he looks tense. "Jack's girlfriend Trina's in the hospital…" He'd said so on the phone. "Manny— Elena's younger brother— is too, and Elena's missing. I need to find Gene's phone number." The first name he's heard a bunch of times, but he couldn't recall a last name for the life of him. The guy with the robots.
Right next to Lachlan is Cass. This place doesn't exactly hold good memories for her, either. Or, well, they do, but those were memories laced with morphine. Car accidents, Jack and Trina, she's not sure what all is going on here, so the Scot's question is a valid on. She sees Jack there as well as the rest of the crew. "How is she?" The surgeon gets a funny look, as she wasn't conscious the last time they saw each other. However, she can assume that this was the same guy from before. But, there's a question that she can answer and she leaps on that. "Gene? I have his number. He gave me his card when he offered to beef up Enlightenment's security. Why do we need Gene?" Already she's pulling out her phone.
Ramon's voice broke? Nuh-uh. Men don't notice it when other Men do things like that. It's in the bylaws. "We're gonna get her back, boy-o. You can betcher ass that we're gonna get her back." Jack narrows his unswollen eye and cuffs a hand reassuringly against both Peter and Ramon's shoulders. They all have a strong attachment to Elena. They are gonna get her back.
When Lachlan and Cass approach, he elaborates, "Shit's bad. We just found out everybody's gonna be okay, though. At least for now." His expresssion darkens. "But Elena's is MIA, like Peter said. If you've got this Gene's number, call him up and tell him to meet us here ASAP. We think he can find her for us." He pauses to blink owlishly. "Wait. Gene? The kid wot has the ninja fetish and the pet robot? That's just awesome." Sarcasm? Maybe. But right now he'll take all the help he can get.
"If he can find Elena, I'll fucking dress up like any Superhero he or whoever that guy is wants," Ramon says tightly. He looks over at Cass, pleading. Please have Gene's number, please let Gene be the guy, please call Gene so he can go get his daughter.
There's really only one thing Lachlan can say to that: "… fuck." The surgeon gets a raised eyebrow, and it doesn't take much for the Scotsman to recognize him. Oh. Uh. Yeah, he better run. Stupid doctor. The Scot glances to Cass, as all eyes appear to be on her.
"Gene can find Elena for us," Peter says, closing his eyes for a moment with some relief that Cass has the phone number. Now he just has to pray that nothing happened where the man who controled her, and took her, might have removed the tracking device. If he did… From the way his hands are gripping and his shoulder shaking under Jack's touch, he's barely containing some anger of his own. Anger. Guilt. Name it, he's keeping it under wraps. At least he's not glowing?
All eyes /do/ seem to be upon Cass and she's a little unnerved by it. "I…uh…I'll just go use the payphones over there…" Because using cellphones in a hospital are really not a good idea. While coming to this operation late, she's starting to put things together slowly. Elena missing, Trina in an accident, Manuel in the hospital… "What exactly /happened/. How did Elena go missing?" Because that's the important part that she's missing right now. She's walking as she asks this, though, Gene's number pulled up on her screen. Rummaging change from her purse, she drops the coins in and quickly punches in the correct numbers and waits for Gene to pick up. She can multi-task and, well, things need to move quickly.
Ramon says, bitterly, "She went missing because I didn't protect her well enough. I tried to plant the protection in her mind. I don't know if it didn't work, or if he'd already gotten to her and I just made his instructions conflict with my protection. Either way…"
As he always does when he has to wait for something urgent, Jack crosses his arms over his chests and shimmies in place like a little boy doing the pee-pee dance. "Elena is bein' controlled by that murderer guy an' ran off," he explains to Cass. "Trina an' I got in a wreck while we were chasin' her. That's why Trina's hurt." He pauses to breathe in and out. Bad emotions. He was driving. He asked her to come along. He stuck a gun in her hand. There are so many reasons that her being hurt is his fault.
Murderer guy? "… this the one tha' had the necklace and knife shit, righ'?" Yeah, Lachlan has a good memory for important things sometimes! Hope Gene gets here soon, because now he's real antsy like Jack to go looking. And speaking of Jack, he offers the other man a sympathetic glance. "She'll be a'righ'," he states. And to Ramon he adds, "We'll find 'er."
Gene's Super Secret….Living Space, Somewhere in New York
"You know you want it, Luke…"
"Oh, I know I want"
"Come here and give me some of that hot Force of yours."
The scene started out with Gene dressed in a leather vest and a nice white shirt. He looked pimp. Then Elle came out in a slave girl Leia outfit. Gene had a sense of what was going on. Then Peter came out dressed as Luke. Then they started kissing.
"Um, Leia, you are kissing your brother here. They kinda edited the kiss out from Empire Strikes Back for a reason. This is creepy. How about Luke go to the swamps to bring balance to the Force and we can find that other Leia and you can bring balance too. One for each knee."
Suddenly, Karoliina appears on the other side of Elle, looking just as mad as Elle does as she turns toward Gene. "How dare you get between me and my incestuous relationship with my twin brother!" With a case of their hand, both of them are sending force lightning upon Gene.
The young man falls to the ground, confused and in pain. "This isn't… right!" he calls out as he Shatners his lines due to the pain. "Leia doesn't get… Force lightning.. Ever! And… Jedi can't make… clones! And-" Suddenly, Gene finds himself standing up face to face to Pete, both in the Enlightenment Book store. Pete's behind the casher and Gene in front of, tossing down a book with a Disney-sque heart on it. "BOOK MAN. SELL ME A BOOK," Gene demands. Peter reaches for a gun behind his back as Gene does the same, both looking like they want to kill one another.
CUE THE 'LOST' WOOOOOSHING SOUND EFFECTS
Sweat dripping down his brow, the young inventor gets up with a start. "What the hell was that…" he offers as he gets out of bed, surrounded by darkness. "Night lights on." The vocal command causes Gene to climb out of bed. Was the dream psychological, prophetic, or just an odd and random set of neurons firing off to be put together in the brain? Whatever it was, Gene doesn't like it. Climbing from his bed, the shirtless wonder gets out of bed, his simple black pajama bottoms gathering around his feet. Shuffling toward the edge of a cubical wall, the young man gets his robe and slides it over his body, covering an odd large red marking on his back. The phone is ringing? Or was ringing. The end of some violin solo can be heard before the beep of 'missed call' can be heard. "Who the hell is calling me this late?" Gene wonders as he moves toward his work desk, the screen saver of Gene photoshopped as Conan the Barbarian still on. Reaching the phone, he sees the name. "Cass?"
Beth Israel Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
Cass gets the beginning of Gene's voice mail: "Hey, this is Gene, I'm currently doing something really important. I can't tell you what it is, but if you leave your name, number, time, and what you need to talk about-" As she's hearing this, she'll be having another call on the line. It's Gene.
"She'd been having headaches since you did that to her," Peter says in a tight voice. "I told her to talk to you a dozen times but she— things kept happening and I guess she never got around to it. They were throwing her powers out of control…" There's definitely self-blame to his voice. "I was right there when she— whatever it was— when it clicked on. And I couldn't do anything. You did more than me, Mr. Gomez. Whatever you put in her head snapped her out of it— for a little while. Allowed Heidi to tackle her so Jack could get the gun out of her hand." There's so much he should have done differently, that would have kept Trina from getting hurt… maybe kept Elena from being in that man's hand for five hours…
"/Dammit/." Cass smacks the wall angrily. "That's why she was having the headaches. It was mixed programming." It makes so much sense in retrospect. Hindsight being twenty twenty and all that. The phone is just ringing and ringing and it's making her more and more frustrated. "He must have gotten to her before the safeguard. That's why she couldn't control her abilities at the club." Right now she's just thinking aloud because she's stressed and now worried. "Why didn't I—" she cuts off when she hears Gene's voice and takes a hopeful breath, but it's just the voicemail. "Dammit!" she repeats. But, then, she presses down on the cradle and picks up again. "Gene?" She's hopeful. "Gene, it's Cass. We really need your help. Peter said you could find Elena somehow?"
"I thought she was just stressed out," Ramon says, dropping back to the chair. He leans forward, and he grasps his head in his hands, and he rests his elbows on his knees. There's this long moment where he won't look at anybody at all.
Jack cups both hands over his face, also averting his eyes. "I thought the same," Jack agrees with Ramon. "I know she's had lots on her mind lately." He gives his head a slow shake, then reaches up to touch the half of his scalp that's been shaved. It feels strange and prickly and he doesn't like it. He winces when his fingers bump into the stitched gash. "I'm a bit banged up, but I'm good to go whenever we get her tracked."
Gene's Super Secret Living Space, Somewhere in New York
"Peter said…" Gene's mind goes to how Elena shouldn't be telling everyone that she has a tracking device on since that defeats the purpose of it being made all secretly. "…Yeah, I can," he admits. They wouldn't be bringing this up if they didn't have a reason, so he just begins to get to work bringing up the program and starting to bring up the systems that can let him use various satellites to track her in the area. "I had a GPS installed on a gift I gave her. Hopefully, she's in New York. I should feel bad that I didn't tell her that I made sure it gave off a ping every once in awhile instead of just manually turning it on. I figured you'll be telling me what the heck you want this for though."
There's nothing for Lachlan to do but stand around and nod and wait for the part where they need someone to beat the shit out of somebody. That's what he gets for being a tank.
Somewhere in New York State
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.
The water is spent, splashed on the fabric. She's sacrificed the comfort of the cot and her shirt for this. In her bra and pants, Elena's untying her hoodie so she could pull it on her and zip it up to keep her decent. "Damn it. Damn it. DAMN. IT," she hisses through gritted teeth. She turns her Casio around her wrist. How did Gene tell her to use this again? If the arms reset back to twelve she did it right. So she depresses the buttons, and waits.
There is nothing at first….but then the arms slowly circle around each other to point towards 12.
"Yes!" she mutters, closing her eyes. "Work your magic, Gene."
She turns back to what she's doing. Having soaked through stuffing and fabric, she goes to the pipes, grabbing wad after wad and STUFFING the openings with them as tightly as she can.
"Gas me, will you?" she growls under her breath, more pissed off than anything. "We'll see about that."
Beth Israel Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
There's a long pause and then Peter glances towards Jack. There's some hesitation, but he moves towards the man again and actually reaches to find his wrist. Just a touch is all he needs, and he hopes to at least make some of that go away for him. With a slow breath, he's glad to see he's not passing out, and he moves over towards Elena's father next.
"She's missing," Cass gets right to the point, relieved to know that Peter was correct. "We need to find her fast. I don't know what you know about the guy who can control people, but he's got her." Her breath catches in her throat when Gene mentions not leaving New York. "The city or the state? Jersey isn't that far from here. What happens if she leaves New York?" It might not work any more and their best chance of finding Elena is gone. The conversation that is happening behind her is filtering in through what she's talking about with their resident tech genius, but she doesn't want to hear any of it. Over her shoulder, she adds, "Just stop feeling sorry and guilty. All I'm hearing is coulda shoulda woulda. Gene's gonna find Elena, we're going to go and get her back and wasting energy about the what ifs is /not/ helping. Start thinking of an attack plan. That's the /is/ of this situation now." She is /not/ losing Elena. There are no coulda shoulda wouldas about that. "Going into this without a plan is not a good idea," she ends a little lamely.
Ramon looks up as Peter comes over. He hastily scrubs at his face. The fact that he was having a little breakdown over there is given scowling denial. Those were not tears, his eyes are not red, and this is a glower, not a look of desperation.
The kind thing to do would be to believe it.
The man still has no shirt, because the surgeon got scared off.
The nurse arrives, and hesitates when she sees the tense and angry looking group. "Ah…" she hesitates, but then she goes to the shirtless man. "Mr. Gomez? Dr. Korvan Cindair just asked me to deliver this to you," she says, handing over the folded shirt.
Jack glances at Cass and his hands clench and unclench spastically. Suddenly, he's feeling better. Less achy. His bruising seems to fade slightly, and after blinking his bad eye, he's more or less able to see properly from it again. "Attack plan? We lock an' load, that's what we fuckin' do. We saddle up." He smiles humorlessly, his lips barely curving upward into a cold, merciless smirk. He waits for the nurse to scurry away before he continues. "I'm thinking grenades. An' I've got a couple o' Thompsons stashed if anybody wants to borrow one."
Lachlan raises a hand helpfully. "'ll take one o' those." He likes big guns.
Jack says, "WHAT."
Lachlan says, "Said I'd take one o' those. Jesus, Jack."
Jack says, "My bad. I was thinkin' about Cass' buttcheeks an' I got distracted."
Lachlan promptly socks Jack in the arm.
Jack says, "OW. WHAT? I'M IN A BAD PLACE, I NEED TO THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS."
Cass says, "MY BUTTCHEEKS ARE NOT YOUR HAPPY THOUGHTS. Thank you, though."
Lachlan eyes Cass thoughtfully. "Nah, baby, I'm with 'im: they are."
Jack says, "See?"
Gene's Super Secret Living Space, Somewhere in New York
"Missing? Her last location… Den of Iniquity. Jack owns that place, doesn't he? Maybe he'd know where she-Wait. The watch was just used. Getting the current location now. It's out of city and upstate; have to find the proper link for the area…" There is a short pause. Hopefully, someone up top won't notice Gene moving a satellite for a short time. He just needs to get a location, that's all. "Syracuse, she's in Syracuse," Gene replies, still typing a storm despite the information already popping up. "If she's in an unrestricted area, should be able to pull up some aerials." A couple of seconds later, Gene sighs in relief, but he gets what he wants. He speaks, pausing as he squints as the screen from time to time. "There we go. Looks like the area she's in seems to be rather vacant. An abandoned warehouse. Seems to be for working with metal… Not sure for what or why …that's all I can tell you. Sorry. I'll be sending out some recon to the area. I'll ask if one of amazing friends can teleport everyone to the scene of the battle to NOT do so until I've checked it out. It'll be twenty minutes before it'll be there."
Gene overhears Cass talking to Pete and decides to add his helpful two cents. "Tell whoever is whining like a little baby to SUCK IT UP. I'm Gene Jack Kensington, I find who I want to find. If Elena is still alive and people aren't stupid, we'll get her back safe and sound. Just that simple." Gene's the people's choice for inspiration. Except not really. Sighing as Cass mentions a lack of plan, he already knows what to do. "If he wants to help, meet me at the location I'm gunna text you at. I'll have a car with some equipment there for your people. It's just radio and com-sets with video, but at least it'll allow people to have some semblance of proper teamwork. I can patch the feeds into here so I can see three people at once. It'll be a crappy feed, but better than nothing. Besides weapons, which I don't have much of save that I might be sending, is there anything you think you'll need?"
Beth Israel Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
"They'll be fine, Mr. Gomez," Peter says, though his voice remains rather tight as he reaches out and touches the man's bare shoulder. A surge of minor healing passes through his hand again. They might as well have as many people in top condition before they get to where they're going, especially with Cass yelling about plans, and other things, even when he'd been quiet again. The extent of his plan? …They might have a hard time keeping him from flying out of the place and going there as soon as they find out where it is— that's how good at planning he is. "You've got a small army ready to— go after the man who did this to your children." And now he has a shirt too. Good thing, too. Peter might be wearing a light leather jacket-vest over his shirt, but he's a little on the compact side of things. It likely wouldn't fit. But yes, a small army. With grenades, Thompsons, possibly robots and an unstable nuclear weapon— who will try not to go nuclear.
"That's not a plan, Jack," Cass sighs. "That's chaos. Tossing in a grenade is just as likely to kill Elena as it is to kill the bad guy." She doesn't think that just talking this out is going to work, either, but she doesn't think bullets and grenades willy-nilly is going to work. "This guy is organized, well researched and really smart. He's going to expect us to go in guns blazing. He'd have us mind controlled in a second since, because he's got Elena he now knows our names and can get into our heads." Switching the phone to her other shoulder, she starts rummaging through her purse for something to write with just so she can be ready when Gene is ready. However, he's going to text the information to her. So, she puts it back. She's not exactly yelling, she's just worried and is bad at hiding that worry.
Gene gets her full attention though when he speaks. "…twenty minutes? To Syracuse? What, do these things beam up or something?" That's normally a six hour drive. "I'll tell them. They're not whining. We're just all worried." Which is an understatement. "Don't worry about arms. I think Jack can make sure everyone is outfitted. I'll tell him to meet you…." her phone beeps at the exact right moment. "There. Just…some luck if you've got any to spare."
"Peter's right, Ramon." Jack meets the Elena's father's eyes and nods once decisively. "We might be a bit ragged, but we're well armed and uniquely talented. We can do this." What he means is 'we have to do this.' They have to save Elena. He already came within a hair's breadth of losing the first woman he ever loved. He's lost his beloved Julia. He can't take much more. When it comes to to the topic of planning, he just shrugs. "I'm open to suggestions, but I find bullets to be a very effect form of persuasion."
"Earplugs," Ramon says. "I can keep people in contact with telepathy, so we can plug our ears and then he can't command anyone to do anything." That problem, at least, he has solved. "If we can't /hear/ him, he can't take control."
The idea of going in with his ears plugged sorta doesn't sit well with Lachlan, but … well. He doesn't want to get controlled either. "Wha' 'bout dogs?" he asks plainly.