The Plague
In the town of Salem, Oregon, in spite of the season, things seem tense and grim. A few days ago, several residents of the town became gravely ill and were immediately taken to the local hospital. Once there, two things were discovered; the townsfolk that had fallen ill were all mutants or related to mutants, and they were not getting better. Over the next few days, more mutants and their relatives fell ill as well, leading doctors to think they were upon a contagious disease that only affected mutants. Now, the human residents of the town are on edge and highly suspicious of each other, not knowing who might be a mutant or a carrier of the disease... or it it might jump to regular humans any time soon. Knowing it's best to conceal their status as mutants right now, the second X-men team is dropped off by the Black Bird on a small farm belonging to a Xavier network collaborator, about 20 minutes out of Salem.
X-Men Time
December 23rd
Arthur's truck was an old pickup, however, it was well maintained and one could see the old man had given it a lot of love over his life. As the car rolled down the main street of Salem, the town seemed deserted, many stores and restaurants were open but empty, and barely a few people could be seen. There was an ominous feeling in the air, as if pressure and tension from something that was about to happen. Eventually, the truck turned the corner that led to the hospital, which seemed to be the most active place in the small town. Half a doze CDC vehicles sat on the parking lot, among the cars of the relatives of the 'plague victims'. The way to the ER, though, seemed clear, as most of the activity and the people coming in and out seemed focused on the main door of the hospital.
As the truck pulled in to the hospital parking lot,
René drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm his rapid heartbeat as the tension of the moment set in. "This is it," he murmured as he looked out the window at the bustling hospital. The CDC even seemed to be there, on top of all the sick mutants. This had to be something serious. Turning to look at Val, he tried to give the dancer a reassuring smile, but his own nervousness showed through. He glanced back at Sasaiya, who was riding in the bed of the truck, and gave her a nod.
Valerie fell into what appeared to be a catatonic state on the ride to the hospital. She sat ramrod straight in her seat and looked straight ahead, but saw nothing, for the duration of the car trip. It
looked like she was in pain-- she was pale, her eyes were slightly glazed, her pupils big and black in the middle of her blue irises. Tears collected at the corners of her eyes and her lips were pulled into a tight line. Like René, her heart was beating rapidly, too. Her last frightful hospital experience before coming to Xavier's left her, one could say, a little damaged, and she never fully came to terms with what had happened. Her breath was quick and shallow, and she said nothing.
Though
Sasaiya didn't go full on dog-in-truck with her tongue hanging out and everything, she did raise her head and close her eyes, enjoying the feel of the wind pulling at her fur and the particular smell of the snow surrounding them. Once they reached the hospital however, she found herself no longer enjoying it. The pungent scent of the hospital overrode everything else. It was smelled of sick- vomit and blood and bleach. She hated hospitals. They were bad enough when visited in human form, let alone going in as a creature with a nose sensitive enough to detect even the barest of smells. When the truck shut she hopped out of the back and landed with a soft huff on the snowy ground.
René frowned deeply at the lack of response from Valerie, and simply reached up to cut the engine. Stuffing the keys into his coat pocket, he looked at Val again, screwing his lips to the side and sighing. He would do everything in his power to make sure this whole trip went smoothly, if not for himself then for the two ladies he was with, and for Arthur. "Alright, darlin', we're here. Let's go," announced the man suddenly as he opened his door and jumped out. He rushed around to the other side of the vehicle, yanking open the door and reaching inside the cab. Slipping his strong arms under Valerie's legs and behind her back, he lifted the girl up and pulled her from the truck, being extra careful not to touch her arm. "We'll get you fixed up in a jiffy, don't you worry," he added lovingly, leaning in and giving the girl a small kiss on her forehead. He looked down at Sasaiya, announcing, "C'mon, Blackie," before heading straight for the Emergency Room doors. Reaching them, he shouldered one of the doors open and made his way inside and straight to the nurse's desk. "Excuse me, I've got an emergency!" he called out, rather dramatically and loudly.
At first,
Valerie tried to reach for the door handle with her right hand, but with her misshapen shoulder and lack of focus, she miscalculated her reach, and by the time she had it in hand, René had the door opened and was scooping her out of the truck. She placed her 'injured' arm so that it dangled unattractively over the man's shoulder, since that was the side that was already facing him when he opened the door. She smiled wanly up at him, peeked up over his shoulder to make sure that Sasaiya was indeed following them, then rested her head to the side and curled the top part of her body into René's chest, settling into position after her kissed her forehead. A strategic, pained (and hopefully convincing) whimper issued from the blonde after her teammate's boisterous entrance into the emergency room.
The hospital seemed rather devoid of emergencies at the time, so when Rene and Valerie walked through the door, they immediately became the center of attention. A nurse and an attending doctor quickly approached the pair, the woman was thin and short, she had grayish black hair on a curly bob around her face and her eyes were dark with circles around them, as if she had not slept in days. The doctor was youngish, probably in his early 30's, with short black hair, brown eyes and dark skin, he wore a pair of blue scrubs and noticeably winced as he saw Valerie's arm hanging on Rene. "W-what happened to her?" asked the doctor as he waved over to another pair of nurses who seemed to be idling around by a water cooler. "Are you in pain ma'am?" he asked, before the older nurse interrupted him "Of course she's in pain Doctor Roland! Look at her arm!" As the two other nurses approached with a gurney, the doctor looked up to Rene instead, probably expecting some background on the situation.
Taking just a moment to gather up the leash she'd dragged to the ground with her into her mouth and giving Arthur a quick bark and nod,
Sasaiya then trotted after her teammates, noting with some amusement how very much
into character they were getting. She followed behind them into the building, just barely making it through the door before it shut and for a moment went unnoticed by the staff as they gathered around, no doubt horrified, or, like her mother sometimes was about such things, morbidly curios and perhaps a tad excited about such a case. It wouldn't be long however, before someone noticed the hundred-or-so pound, wolfish looking animal, so she took her seat beside the gurney, looking up at her supposed master with the leash still bundled up between her teeth and doing her best to look the part of a well-trained service animal awaiting her masters command. Not having the proper vestment would come up as an issue, of that she had no doubt, but she hoped Rene would come up with a believable excuse as to why she wasn't wearing an animal service vest. If not, well, she'd just have to stick around outside to see if she could get any information on her own.
Thank god. The nurses and doctors seemed to already believe the story.
René didn't let his façade falter, however, and began speaking frantically as the nurses and doctor approached. "We were-were horseback ridin'. It's our honeymoon, and she's always wanted to ride horses, so I brought her. But the stupid horse just... It tossed her off, and she fell and snapped her arm in half!" explained René, looking incredibly frustrated and worried as she did so. "Please, you have to fix it. She-she can't handle the pain, and she has seizures when she's stressed," he rambled on, pretending to not even notice the gurney that had been brought out especially for his 'wife'. "Please help her," he added, giving the doctor a pleading look.
'My... my arm,'
Valerie contributed in a pitiful, reedy manner after René explained the nature of her accident. No matter how hard she tried to control it, her nervousness set her entire body shaking, and she clung to her 'husband's' coat by the lapels with her left hand and kept her face turned away from the nurse and the doctor. The fact that any moment she'd be on her own, playing injured with the hospital staff didn't help much, either. 'It hurts...
so much,' Val shakily added in a choked voice. Unfortunately for the blonde, her post-traumatic stress concerning her last hospital visit perhaps made it that much more believable that something was physically wrong with her.
"Ok let's just.. uhm.." stammered the doctor. He seemed quite young and like he wasn't used to handling the ER all by himself. In fact, the hospital itself looked understaffed except for the CDC people and those related to the epidemic that was going around. Suddenly, he was interrupted by the older nurse who was with him, speaking to the other two nurses they had called. One of the two new nurses was a man in green scrubs, he was slightly overweight and had short, spiky brown hair. The other was a girl in her mid 20s wearing a her strawberry blonde hair in a tight bun behind her head. Looking from below, Sasaiya noticed the name tag of the blonde's chest said 'Nurse N. Willard.'. "We just need to get the arm immobilized." said the older nurse as the younger ones took Valerie from Rene and laid her out in a gurney. "We'll take some x-rays and figure out what to do next-" said the woman before she suddenly stopped and looked down at Sasaiya. "-Sir, that better be a service animal." she concluded with a hand on her hip.
Sasaiya had to admit she was fairly impressed with both of their performances, up until she caught a whiff of actual fear permeating the air around Valerie as they moved her to the gurney. Frowning, as much as a wolf could, she moved closer and placed a paw on the edge, lifting herself up to give the girl a concerned look before nudging her cheek with a cold, wet nose and then dropping; back down. The stress Valerie was portraying was real enough to make Sasaiya think, based off of her own experiences, that maybe she had had a bad experience in a hospital prior to this. It worried her just enough to distract her momentarily, until Nurse Willard stood in front of her staring down with what the wolf-girl perceived as a
no nonsense expression on her face. Knowing that her presence here would be greatly scrutinized, Sasaiya put on her best face and edged over to Rene, nudging his hand with her mouth and the leash still trapped inside of it. It was up to him to sell them on her now, but as if she somehow believed he might be able hear her thoughts, she kept repeating in her head:
Yes, you know I'm supposed to be wearing a vest but in your hurry to get your wife to the ER you forgot to grab it from the house.
René looked down briefly at Valerie, his eyebrows stitching together in what could be discerned as true concern for the girl; either she was a damn good actor, or something might actually be wrong. Clutching her a bit tighter to his chest, a sort of gesture of reassurance, René offered her to the nurses, who he assumed would take excellent care of her. He looked Valerie in the eyes, a silent plead for her to get as much information as she could. He didn't know how her mutation worked, but he knew her first stop would probably be an X-Ray machine. The man could only hope she wasnt found out so soon, or maybe if she was, she would play along with it. Coming bck to the present when a nurse spoke to him, he stammered, "O-oh, uh... Yeah, Blackie here is my wife's service animal, to alert her when she's gonna have a seizure." He turned to look at Sasaiya and snapped his fingers, beckoning the dog closer. "If she can't stay with my wife, I'll watch her."
Holding onto René's borrowed coat's lapels with her 'good' left hand,
Valerie was no match for the seasoned ER nurses as they plucked her out of his arms. Her hand was clutched in a white-knuckled fist even as the fine woolen fabric was tugged from her grasp, and she maintained eye contact with the Cajun for as long as she could. Hearing Nurse Willard's comment about the dog present, Val tried to sit up and look for Sasaiya, who had apparently and thankfully made it inside the emergency room. 'Yes, I'd like her to stay with me, can't she stay with me?' the dancer implored of the present hospital staff with tear-laced eyes, although it was for her own peace of mind more than anything else.
Nurse Willard and the other young nurse seemed to stand by as Rene explained the situation with 'blackie' to the older, black haired nurse who had confronted them about it. Finally, the older nurse sighed and replied, "Yeah, that's ok, we just need to make sure. There's a strange sickness going about and we're trying to keep everything by the book." said the older nurse. "Doctor..." she then added, turning to the young doctor, "Do you want us to take the patient to the X-ray machine after splinting her arm?" asked the older woman simply. Once more, the doctor sheepishly nodded. With that, both the doctor and the older nurse left, leaving nurse Willard and the male nurse with Valerie and Rene. "Follow us, please." said the blonde nurse as her partner pushed Valerie's gurney to one of the sides of the emergency room, where they could put a splint on her arm.
I can't get any closer. Sasaiya thought, with a twinge of annoyance, but she pressed closer in response to his command until she was just about wrapped around his leg, the leash still dangling from her mouth. She made it a point to try and appear as dumb as possible, the nurse's comments serving as a reminder that these people would be more alert to any unusual behaviors. The last thing they needed was to arouse the local populace's suspicions. So, she stared up at her "master", her tail low, waiting for him to give her another command.
René reached down to retrieve the leash from 'Blackie', wrapping one part of it around his wrist and gripping it in his hand. He perked up a bit when the old nurse mentioned a sickness. "Like the flu or somethin'?" he questioned, trying to play it dumb. The Cajun glanced towards the doctor briefly when he was asked about X-Raying Valerie's arm, then he looked quickly at Val, sharing another one of those silent pleads with her. He then nodded to the nurse's command and followed the trio to the back. "Is she gonna be alright?" asked the man, his southern accent bleeding through in what could only be interpreted as worry.
If they managed to x-ray her arm,
Valerie knew the gig would be up, and she looked back at René fretfully. She gave her head an infinitesimal shake, hoping that he caught it and understood to at least some degree what she meant. After a moment, she tilted her head back to try and look up at the male nurse pushing the gurney, then glanced over to Nurse Willard, to whom she suddenly blurted-out, 'I have to pee!' in the desperate hope that maybe she would have to escort her to the bathroom. In the least, it might buy them a little more time. Her face certainly looked pained and she wiggled a little bit on the gurney to drive the point home.
"Not exactly like a flu." replied the young blonde nurse, whose name, N.Willard, only Sasaiya had seen so far. "It doesn't seem like it's deadly, but it might be contagious and we don't know much about it, so we're pulling all the stops. And I think your wife will be enough, there seems to be no internal bleeding.. which is rare for a break this bad, but good." added the young woman as the male nurse with her brought the splint as well as bandages. "You folks don't need to worry about that. The CDC has it all under control and the hospital is operating as normal outside of the quarantine area." added the man, looking at Nancy as if to indicate she had said enough. The blonde nurse quickly shut up until Valerie suddenly blurted out she had to go to the bathroom. "Uhm.. sure, let us finish the splint and then we'll go before your X-ray." smiled Nancy as the male nurse tightly wrapped a bandage around Valerie's now straightened arm and the splint.
Sasaiya padded after Rene and the gurney bearing Valerie, keeping the pace while keeping her nose raised in the air, the sensitive black organ quivering as it took in the surrounding areas. She wasn't sure what she was searching for. The scent of the sickness? A chemical that doesn't fit with the bleach and ammonia and the rest of the cleaning products? It was a long shot, but she wanted to help however she could. Valerie seemed to be stalling for time, she was assuming that the game would be up once they got her under the x-ray machine. If worse came to worse she would have to help stall it further.
René listened closely to the nurse as she briefly explained what was going on, though he was sure to never lose sight of his current acting role, giving Valerie a concerned glance every few seconds. "Sounds pretty serious if the CDC is involved," René commented, trying to push her for further information despite the shushing look that the young doctor had given the unknowing informant. The Cajun man nearly jumped out of his skin when Valerie suddenly cried out about having to pee, and he turned to look at the girl, knowing that she knew she'd be found out as soon as she was put under the X-Ray machine. "I'd like to take her, if that's okay," the man suddenly blurted out, figuring they could do a quick rundown in the bathroom if they needed to. If they said anything, he could play it off as if it were some sort of overprotective habit or something. He hoped she didn't
actually have to use to bathroom, though.
After the blonde nurse was silently reprimanded by her colleague and responded to
Valerie, the dancer smiled weakly up at her and she gave a quick, eager little nod of her head. 'Thank you so much, Miss--' Val started to say in a sweet manner, her eyes dropping from the woman's face to her chest, hoping to see an identification badge clipped somewhere. Briefly distracted, Valerie flinched upon the male nurse's touch and she uttered an '
Oh!' as she cast a wide-eyed look to him see what it was he was doing. Her arm was stiff as he manipulated it into the splint; well, there were just some things she wasn't going to be able to avoid . When René suddenly offered to escort his 'wife' to the bathroom, Val nervously looked back the attending nurses, her gaze flickering between the two of them as she awaited their response and she shifted around again on the litter, more out of anticipation than having to actually go to the bathroom.
"As he said, everything will be fine. We have many qualified doctors and the CDC is helping us out." replied nurse Willard with a small smile as the male nurse finally finished with Valerie's splint. "Your wife might need help in there, let me show you to the bathroom." said the woman immediately afterwards, almost trying to contain a small chuckle at the genuinely worried expression Rene had put up. "Blackie, is it? She can come too." she smiled as she looked down at the service dog Sasaiya was posing as. "Michael, please go tell the on-call doctor we're ready for the X-ray machine?" said the young woman to the other young nurse, the one who had reprimanded her. "Sure, best if you deal with the bathroom thing." replied the young man with a nod, putting away some supplies and then turning away and leaving as Nancy motioned the couple to follow her towards the bathrooms.
Sasaiya wondered, as she watched the proceedings and followed along with the group, how they were going to get any information if they were constantly surrounded by doctors, nurses, and hospital techs. They had to get over to the otherside where the CDC was stationed if they were going to- well, she still wasn't one-hundred percent certain as to what they were trying to accomplish here. Look for signs of foul play? Search for a cure? Maybe just get more information on the virus so as to return and give the rest of the mansion a heads up as to how high of a threat it was? Whatever it was, they weren't going to find it with all this hospital staff hovering about.
René nodded to the nurse in understanding, looking briefly over at Valerie. He was really worried now that they would be found out sooner rather than later, and he was eager to get to the safety of the bathroom with Valerie. He caught sound of Valerie trying to address the nurse, and out of curiosity, he looked at the name tag. "Willard..." he murmured quietly, trying to remember why that name sounded so familiar. It hit him suddenly - Arthur had told them to find Nancy Willard!
What luck the man thought, mentally high-fiving himself for accomplishing something towards which he had put no effort. "Oh, coming," he suddenly said as the male nurse walked away, leaving them alone with Nurse Willard. René carefully helped his 'wife' to her feet, wrapping an arm tightly around her waist to be sure she wouldn't topple over, despite the only 'injury' she had being on her arm, which was practically useless in aiding her stride. "Uh, miss Willard, would you mind waiting outside the bathroom? In case we need your help?" asked the man as they approached said bathroom.
With a nervous glance at Michael as he left to ready the X-Ray,
Valerie eased herself carefully off of the gurney, then leaned stiffly into René as he offered assistance, working her good arm that was momentarily pinned between the two of them out, so she could more comfortably position it behind his lower back. She looked up at him, the corner of her mouth twitching to the side, drawing an vaguely uncertain expression to her face. 'C'mon... mmmBlackie, ' she then said quietly, casting another glance to the large, black canine, before following Nurse Willard to the bathroom, unwilling to take the chance to say anything else until they were in the bathroom.
The mutants and their (for now) canine companion soon found themselves following Nancy away from the ER and into the mainly empty halls of the hospital. Much like they had seen outside, it seemed like the locals were actually avoiding the hospital unless they had some relation to the plague victims. It was unnerving, however, to walk through the halls hearing only the echo of their foot steps and Sasaiya's dog nails on the floor. After about a minute, the group arrive at the women's bathroom. "Normally I'd have to go with her if she needs help, while you stay out here." replied Nancy with a small smile as she let Rene take on Valerie's entire weight. "But I seriously doubt there's anyone in there." she added.
Their faithful companion dog,
Blackie, stopped beside Valerie and listened patiently. She was curious however, why Rene had asked Nurse Willard to stay outside of the bathroom. What was he thinking?
Sasaiya wished, yet again, that she could communicate with them properly and try to figure this out.
"Well... just in case," replied
René with a goofy smile, holding a finger up towards Nancy to indicate he wanted her to wait around for a bit. Luckily, the halls looked empty in this part of the hospital, which meant they could probably get away with a quiet conversation. Slipping into the bathroom, René made sure Valerie and Sasaiya were inside before closing the door and locking it. He wanted to make sure the girls knew what they were going to do before he invited Nurse Willard in. "Okay," sighed the man stressfully as he reached a hand up to run it through his chestnut locks."Are you alright?" he asked Valerie with a concerned glance. He couldn't tell, really, among all the ruckus, if she was just a damn good actor or if something was actually wrong.
Before she disappeared behind the bathroom,
Valerie gave Nurse Willard a very small, strained smile in thanks, but as soon as the intrepid trio was safely inside the bathroom, the blonde's already-crumbl
ing façade cracked even further. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' she uttered, more or less whispering the words, then pressed her still-gloved hands to her face. 'It's just... I'm like... I had...' she started three separate times before forcing herself to take a deep, shuddering breath in. Val dropped her hands, smearing what was left of the scant amount of eye make-up she had been wearing. She was in desperate need of a moment to properly compose herself, but she soldiered on with, 'I can't get X-rayed,' and shook her head to drive the point home. 'My arm's not actually broken or dislocated.' Pausing, Val glanced between Sasaiya and René to make sure they understood. 'And we need, like, an out plan. We need to find that, uhm... Nurse Williams, like Mr. Copprey said.' She paused after her whispered, hasty words, then closed her her eyes and pressed her fingertips to her temples, still looking pale and drawn, but feeling better after she said her piece.
So her keen senses had been correct when she'd picked up on Valerie's fear earlier, though it was good to hear it confirmed. Sasaiya just wished the girl had brought it up to them earlier. Regardless, she moved closer to the girl and sat down with her body and head pressed against Valerie's leg, tail thumping softly as she attempted to show her support. Her red eyed gaze moved to Rene, waiting to see if he had some kind of master plan in mind or if they were just going to continue to wing it. She could probably serve as the distraction Val needed for a short time, perhaps playing the over protective guard dog to keep them from going through with the x-ray, maybe even lead the staff on a wild goose chase to give the pair a chance to gather some actual evidence. All this though she could not really communicate to them, unless of course she shifted back for a few moments, but that could possibly leave her in a bad spot if she needed to shift suddenly later on.
"Hey, hey, hey!" René replied in a quiet, soothing voice. He reached out with both hands, stepping closer to Valerie, and placed them on her shoulders. He didn't know what was wrong, but the girl seemed a little more than just upset. He looked down at Sasaiya, then screwed him lips to one side with a sigh as Valerie explained that she couldn't go under the X-Ray machine. "I know, I know," admitted the man, tossing his head back a little. "Look, they've never put me in a lead position on these missions before, but I'm-a do my damnedest to get you girls outta here," said the man, trying to encourage his teammates, although he honestly had no idea how this mission was going to turn out. "Val, I wanted to tell you to just... well could you pretend you don't know? Like, if they realize your arm isn't broken, they might deduce you're a mutant right," questioned the man, wondering if he was on the right track here. "If they say so, couldn't you play pretend and act like you never knew?" With a worried gaze, he dipped his head a little to look Valerie in the eyes, then sighed once more. "Lemme just--... hold on," he said with a small shake of his head before he turned around, walking back to the door. Cracking it open a little, he peeked his head through and said quietly, "Nurse Willard, I think we need you."
N.Willard had been standing quietly outside of the bathroom as the trio of mutants held conference inside the bathroom. She had been swinging her weight back and forth and humming a random song with her hands crossed in front of her lap. Finally, when Rene peeked out and called to her, she quickly turned, "Oh, oh! Is everything ok?" she asked as she walked into the bathroom. She stopped when she saw Valerie and Blackie just standing around but looking fine other than Valerie's broken arm. It was certainly a strange situation, hanging out with a woman, her husband and their dog in a hospital bathroom. "W-what can I do for you?" she asked with an awkward smile on her face.
With an expression that looked more like a grimace rather than a smile, Valerie let her hand drop down to her side and she ruffled her fingers through the fur atop Sasaiya's ahead, momentarily letting the knowledge lapse that it was actually her teammate rather than an actual dog. The blonde then looked up to René, appearing like she was exceedingly uncertain about just pretending that she knew nothing. Her mouth formed a couple of words, but she never actually said anything, and just gave a wishy-washy nod and a little shrug as her male teammate left her to open the door. 'Where are you--' she started to say, then with soft surprise, rhetorically asked, 'That's who we're supposed to be looking for?' Could the woman have been standing right in front of her and she totally missed that tiny, little detail? With this realization, Val pressed her fingertips to her eyes again and shook her head, then pressed them into her temples and she huffed a sigh in frustrated disappointment at herself.
Sasaiya watched as Rene stepped closer to comfort Valerie and felt slightly uncomfortable by the near intimacy going on just overhead. Though she knew that he was just showing his support for her and trying to make her feel better, it was enough to cause their "dog" to shift her gaze downward so as to not be staring. Rene's idea wasn't a bad one as far as she could tell, but as she began to mull over how the staff would treat it, since they were now clearly aware of the mutant population living among them thanks to the strange sickness, he was calling in the nurse. Her head whipped around to watch as the woman in question entered the room who, not surprisingly, looked a tad confused. She had completely missed, or possibly had just forgotten, when Arthur had brought up the person they were suppose to meet once here. Her tail wagged slow and low of its own accord, reacting to her uncertainty, but she didn't move, save for the slight lift of her head against Valerie's palm.
René witnessed the apparent confusion on his teammates' faces, despite one of them being a dog, but said nothing, having figured the girls hadn't recognized the woman they were supposed to find. As the nurse came into the bathroom, the Cajun man stepped back a little crossing his arms over his chest and gave Valerie a nod. "Nurse Willard, do you know an old man named Arthur?" he asked, a bit afraid to push it too far yet, in the off chance that this wasn't the N. Willard they were actually looking for. Of course, this whole scenario would end up looking weird anyways, so the man silently prayed this was her.
When Valerie asked if she was the one the mutants were looking for, the confused look on Nancy's face grew even more intense. "W-what's going on?" she asked simply, forcing an incredibly awkward smile as she took turns looking at Valerie and Rene. Finally, when Rene decided to ask about Arthur, the girl cocked his head and echoed, "Arthur...?" as if she wasn't sure who they could possibly be talking about. Suddenly, though, something seemed to click with her as she added, "You mean Mr. Copprey? How do you know him? I used to date his so-" she began to say. Immediately afterwards tho, the girl stopped and her eyes widened a bit. "Is Ron ok?! Did the plague get to him? Is that why you know Mr. Copprey?" asked the young woman.
While Valerie remembered Arthur mentioning his son who was a mutant, she didn't recall him actually mentioning him by name, so the blonde simply regarded the nurse for a few moments as she went through the process of putting two-and-two together. Well, sort of putting it together. 'Ron? Well, uhm... Mm... Mmmister Copprey is who... he, euh... he actually, like, sent us here, ma'am,' she very quietly and hesitantly said. 'Because of the plague.' As Val eventually spoke, she idly fiddled with one of Sasaiya's canine ears, then glanced at René, knowing full well that he was their leader, and she didn't want to step on his toes. Otherwise, even if she hadn't completely verified that this was, indeed, the woman they were looking for, Valerie probably would have quite willingly revealed who they were and why they were there. Instead, she pressed her lips together then walked quickly over to the closest bathroom stall and flung the door open with her 'bad' arm, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary. Stepping inside, the you woman grabbed several sheets of toilet paper from the dispenser so she could blow her nose.
Oh, that's why. Thought Sasaiya as she realized that this woman might be their inside contact. The thing of it was though, was that nurse Willard didn't seem aware of this fact and was more concerned with the well being of Copprey's son. Her ears twitched as Valerie toyed with them absentmindedly while she spoke, but again, she didn't much mind. At least now they might make some progress on their mission. When she felt Val's hand leave her head, Sasaiya turned to look at her, still slightly concerned for her teammate, then stood and shook herself off.
René automatically held up his hands in a defensive posture as Nurse Willard immediately assumed that something had happened to her former boyfriend. "No, no, no," he tried to calm the woman down, but Valerie took hold of the reigns and began explaining the situation. He glanced at the blonde, sharing her questioning gaze, and gave her a short, approving nod, to tell her that she wasn't out of place. Not that that was something he was worried about. Looking back to Miss Willard, he continued explaining the situation further. "I don't think anything happened to, er, Ron. We're actually from Xavier Academy, and Mr. Copprey is one of our informants. We're all mutants, actually," said the man, pausing for a moment to gauge N. Willards's reaction to the news. "I don't thing you're any stranger to mutants. Anyways, Arthur sent us here to check things out and find out what's actually going on. He directed us to you as someone who could possibly help."
"But.. her arm..." said simply Nancy Willard pointing at Valerie, who had just opened a door with her broken arm. "You'd break it just to get in and find me?" she added, obviously a bit overwhelmed by all this. "Uhm.. I'm.. I'm glad Ron is ok. I was worried because the plague mostly affects mutants and... well.. I guess you know." sighed the girl was she took a few steps back and leaned against the wall, trying to collect her thoughts. "If Mr.Copprey sent you then... then you must be trustworthy." she finally concluded. "I'll help however I can. I've been here since it started, helping Dr. Isley, he was the first one who treated the victims... even the CDC was at a loss when they showed up, so he helped them and they kept him in charge." she continued. "I'm.. uh.. I'm Nancy, by the way. What are your names?" she finally asked.
Valerie remained turned away from the others, standing halfway in the stall as she blew her nose. She tossed the little wad of paper into the toilet bowl, turned back toward the others, then, trying to look casual even though she felt anything but, the Wisconsinite leaned back against one of the stall dividers. She stood quietly by, nodding slightly as René spoke, the way that people vacantly nod when they are trying to silently verify what someone else is saying. Val did quietly say, 'My arm isn't... it's really fine,' not wanting the woman to worry, then listened to what she had to say. For the moment she took mental note of the doctor's name, and when Nancy inquired as to their identities, the blonde glanced at their group leader, down at Sasaiya, then offered, 'I'm Val... Valerie... and this,' she paused to gesture down at the big black wolf, '...is Sasaiya. She doesn't always, uhm... you know... look like this...'
As Sasaiya listened to Nancy Willard her tail was swishing softly side to side, her red gaze locked on the woman, at least until Valerie spoke up. For some reason it didn't occur to her that Val was going to introduce her to, as if she'd expected to remain the pet dog to everyone but their little group and, in a way, she'd wanted it that way. So when her teammate gave out her real name and indicated that she was more than just what she appeared to be Sasaiya appeared alarmed, her tail ceasing its movement. Her head snapped over to look at the blonde girl, ears flattened against the back of her head as a low, soft growl escaped her and her red eyes narrowed. She hadn't meant to react so strongly, but it was sometimes difficult to control the natural instincts she had when paired with strong, human emotions. With a shake of her head she let out a huff and thumped her tail against the floor as a means of apology for her behavior.
Seeing Nancy begin to have a near panic attack over Valerie's arm, René began to shake his head in response to her questions, but Valerie quickly took the lead and explained things. "It's her mutation," he quickly added, giving Sasaiya a sidelong glance when he heard the uncalled-for growl. "I'm René," he then said, holding his hand out for the young woman to shake. "We need a plan. Like Val said, her arm ain't broken, and if they X-Ray her, she'll be found out," explained the man calmly, pulling his hand back and placing them both in his coat pockets. He gave Valerie a quick glance to be sure she was okay, after her small crying episode a few seconds earlier, then went back to talking. "We're here to help, but we also need to know what's goin' on. Why's the CDC not lettin' people in, first of all? And do they have any idea what the 'illness' is?"
Nancy managed to keep herself from fainting, turns out the girl could break her arm at will and the dog was not a dog but a Sasaiya. The most Ronald Copprey had ever been able to do was tell you what was inside canned goods without having to open them. Trying to gather her thoughts, the woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ok so... I'll try to help you guys with whatever I can.. things are getting out of hand here..." said the young woman as she opened her eyes again. "Things are very complicated... there's a lot of people who are angry and scared... a lot of non mutant kids got sick at first too.. most are ok but they are still being kept in observation..." confessed the young woman, lowering her gaze to the floor. "The CDC is only letting family in because... well they probably think the disease can jump from mutants to humans and viceversa... thought it seems to hit the mutants worse." For a second, Nancy hesitated, "There's... there's been talk in town.. they want to kick the mutants off of the town before more people got infected...." said the young woman. "At first everyone came to visit the kids, Dr. Isley was already worried, so he ran several tests on all of them... MRIs, bloodwork, the works. He said it was very weird for so many to get sick at once. The night though.. the norm-. uh.. human kids got better. For the mutants it wasn't so easy, not only they stayed the same but their parents and family fell ill too..." muttered the young woman. "Dr. Isley can probably tell you more." said suddenly Nancy. "So far the disease is not deadly, but if someone were to die I'm afraid of what the townspeople would do...they seem to believe the disease will kill their loved ones if it can kill mutants." added the young woman. "We'll have to disguise you though... patients... or dogs... won't be allowed upstairs."
With a flinch, Valerie shut her mouth tight and looked over at Sasaiya, her brow knitting in utter surprise and concern-- maybe even fear-- at her partner's initial reaction. She figured that Nurse Willard had asked a question, and all she did was answer. The blonde's lips trembled slightly and she held them together as she looked at the floor, allowing René to take the reigns of the conversation again without interruption. She kept her attention at her feet the entire time that Nancy offered what she knew, and, finally, after the nurse was through speaking, Val picked her chin up slightly. 'So...' she began very softly, but her volume eventually grew, 'Both mutants and non-mutant kids fell ill... but the non-mutants... just, like, got better during the nighttime?' Her face screwed-up, her confusion at the situation evident. 'And then the mutant kids' families, like... also got sick? That's like... like..' she didn't say what it was like, but it didn't look as if it made a lick of sense to the girl. ' But are the family members all mutants, too, or a mix? And what are the, uhm... the symptoms, and stuff?' she then asked, thinking the question necessary, but not wanting to delve into the entire 'going deeper into the belly of the beast' topic immediately.
Sasaiya lowered her head when she got Rene's sidelong glance, embarrassed by her outburst. Worse was the look that Valerie gave her, making her feel like she'd just kicked a puppy or something. Unable to apologize, she just sat, tail and ears low, and listened to Nurse Willard's explanation of the recent events. It did sound strange and not like what she had heard of other diseases. She really didn't know what to make of it.
René folded his ars across his chest as Nancy began to explain everything, though some of the details still seemed muddied. He was thankful that Valerie mentioned the symptoms of whatever disease was going around. He had his own questions, as well, but he wasn't sure if he should overwhelm the poor nurse, who seemed to have no clue what exactly was going on. He nodded when she suggested they disguise themselves, though he was curious as to how she planned to sneak them into the upper floors when several of the nurses already knew what his 'wife', with the 'broken arm', looked like.
"Well... I'm not sure why..." replied the young nurse as Valerie reacted to her account of the situation, "Might be that our treatments worked for the non-mutants and something about the mutant's genes that made them more susceptible?... The CDC and the doctor have more information though... I certainly don't think the families are all mutants either, but they probably have the gene in them... I've been asking Mr. Copprey to leave town, he is the father of a mutant after all, but he's too attached to the farm..." sighed the young woman and shook her head in dejection for a second, before looking up at Valerie and Rene again. She found herself treating Blackie a bit like a dog again, since it was hard to imagine she wasn't one. "A fever, mostly, vomit, then the mutants slipped into a sort of.. coma.. I guess? They've been stable but god knows how long we can keep it like that."
The blonde gave Sasaiya a lingering glance after her teammate fell into an admonished-looking silence before she returned her attention to the nurse. On the surface, Nancy's explanation seemed to make enough sense to Valerie, and the girl took a deep breath in before exhaling it softly and slowly between pursed lips as she thought for a few moments. It all sounded awfully grim, and her expression showed how she felt about the matter. 'Maybe we can, like... get a blood sample, or something. Take it back to Danger? I mean, if, like... if Danger can, you know... analyze it... or something.' Val understood that Danger could perform a lot of different functions, but exactly what that entailed, she didn't entirely know, although the medical facilities and lab under the school seemed very high-tech. She looked from Nancy to René for a response to either the blood sample question or the taking it back to the school question. 'Or... we can just go... uhm... talk to Dr. Isley, first,' she added at the end, since that was what Nancy had first advised.
Nurse Willard's words made all the sense in the world, but it wasn't until she mentioned mutant genes that René made a connection - and even then, his thought process wasn't incredibly fast. With widening eyes, he held up a finger, shaking his hand as things became a little clearer. "What if it's affecting the X-Gene only?" he suddenly announced, not intending to ignore Valerie's suggestions, but assuming he had a pretty decent claim to make. "I mean, Xavier always taught us about the X-Gene. I didn't pay a lot of attention, but I know that it is genetic, and not always active..." The man's voice trailed off, and after a few seconds of silence, he looked back at Valerie. "Getting a blood sample would be the easiest route to figger things out, but how easy would it be to get one?" he suggested, looking back at Nancy. "Am I making sense?" he suddenly asked, truly concerned with the question of it he knew what he was talking about.
Much of what Nurse Willard, Valerie, and Rene were discussing was going over Sasaiya's head. Having never made it to high school, her knowledge of genes, and in particular the x-gene that Rene seemed focused on, was almost nonexsistant, nor did she know who this "Danger" was that they wanted to bring samples to. As it was, it was far too easy for her to start tuning it out, her mind wandering to how they were going to accomplish any of this. Sneaking past the CDC would definitely be a challenge.
"You might want to talk to the doctor then, he probably has some samples he could give you!" said Nancy. "We're going to need disguises for you." said the young woman as she turned towards the door. "I'm going to go get you some coats or scrubs ok? If someone from the hospital asks, you're with the CDC, if someone from the CDC asks, you just started at the hospital. You'll know who's who from their badges." she said simply, opening the door before turning back to them. "Uhm... really don't think Blackie can go as Blackie... no dogs upstairs. Maybe she can.. uhh.. go back to being a Sasaiya?" she asked right before she headed out towards the hallway, hoping a sasaiya wasn't some kind of giant two headed reptile or something like that.
Valerie listened intently as René spoke, and she nodded in the vague way people do when they're listening to something and seem to be receptive of what was being said. Her face darkened slightly, however, when Nancy mentioned donning further disguises to go upstairs to see the doctor. It seemed like they had very little choice if they wanted their questions answered, though, so she nodded quickly in understanding of the nurse's instructions. 'Yes, ma'am; thanks,' she said quietly, offering a fleeting smile, then watched the woman as she walked out of the bathroom. When it was just the three of them, Val's brows knit, her forehead creased, and she took a deep, calming breath before allowing herself to speak. 'So, like, what else should we ask the doctor?' the blonde inquired, looking first to René and then down at Saisaya, even though the latter was unable to really answer her at the moment. 'And you're gonna need more than a coat,' she softly added, her voice laced concern for her currently canine team member.
Receiving... well, no response from the other three ladies on his musings about the X-Gene, René puckered his lips up a bit and looked around almost embarrassingly, deciding maybe he should let that subject die since no one seemed interested. He gave a courteous nod to Nancy as she announced her departure and exited the bathroom, then he looked back at Valerie and leaned against the wall behind him. "Can you change back?" he suddenly asked Sasaiya, turning his attention briefly to the dog. "Otherwise you'll be stuck sitting in the truck," he added as he crossed his arms. He grew quiet for a few seconds after Valerie asked what they should inquire of the doctor, then gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Beats me. Ain't never been into medical stuff, so I really got no clue what's going on," he answered, although he still felt he might have had some sort of lead with the whole X-Gene thing. "I reckon we just pretend to be interns and ask about... whatever comes to mind?"
Sasaiya seemed to let out a sigh after first Nurse Willard, then Valerie, then Rene, who was much more direct about it, indicated that they wanted her to change back. She stood, then glanced over at the stalls and wrinkled her nose- she wasn't about to go into one of those to change, she could smell everything on the floor, the john, and the walls surrounding it. Figuring that they would figure out the clothes thing when they came to it, Sasaiya shifted. Her canine body distorted, hips flaring out, legs and arms lengthening, her slender muzzle and the thick black fur that covered her rapidly receding, and in its place stood a fully nude Sasaiya who's caramel toned flesh was stretched taunt over lean muscles and marked with a plethora of scars, some puckered where she took bullets, others long gashes raking across her body like stripes. The largest was one a few inched thick at the middle that started on her left hip and ended just below her breasts, almost as if it were a seam, and another that would draw the eye was the much more recent bullet wound she'd recieved shortly before coming to the mansion a few months ago, still fresh and pink and showing signs of healing. Of course, Sasaiya thought after glancing from Valerie to Rene, they most likely wouldn't be looking at her scars. Though used to nudity herself, it was difficult to manuever out of clothing when one was on four legs, she was aware that others might be more preoccupied with it. "They know your faces aleady, but they don't know mine-" She said quickly, hoping they could get back on track, "I can't hide all of my mutation, my eyes will give me away, I could pretend to be sick though to get inside."
'Well, the X-Gene thing seems like a good start,' Valerie said in earnest, her voice going up a little bit at the end of the phrase. 'I mean, we could ask about any other common outside factors other than being a mutant or being related to a mutant, that, like... the victims and their families could have come into contact with, or something...' Val paused and her brow furrowed and she looked away from René and at the floor, wondering about the possible implications of what she'd said-- were the mutants being directly or indirectly targeted, perhaps? Shaking her head no in response to her mental question and frowning slightly, the blonde glanced back to Sasaiya in time to see her transform. At first, she didn't understand what was happening, but her eyes opened wide when the realization struck, and she was left staring at her naked teammate. As a dancer, Val was quite accustomed to nudity-- as a whole, a large percentage of dancers tended to have little in the way of modesty when it came to undressing-- she wasn't remotely used to what she'd just witnessed and wasn't prepared for it, however; after a second, Val looked down at herself and started to fumble at the unfamiliar buttons on her borrowed coat, but her still-gloved hands and kinked-up right arm didn't help the process of removing the garment, which she intended to offer to the other female. 'Well we can... uhm... masks, like... masks,' she twittered somewhat incoherently.
For a moment, surprise washed over René's face at the fact that someone actually seemed interested in his X-Gene theory, having previously thought his own idea to be useless, judging by the lack of reaction from the others. His eyebrows raised as he listened to Valerie, and for a moment, his mind made the same assumption as hers, though he quickly pushed the thoughts away, as well. Screwing his lips to the side, the Cajun faced forward as he tried to brainstorm any other questions they could ask, but Sasaiya's movements caught his attention, and he stared, wide-eyed and blank-faced, at the girl as she transformed from a hairy canine into a pretty hairless naked girl. Of course, as any man would, he caught himself staring as she stood there and had quite a hard time pulling his eyes away from the nude woman standing before him - sitting in the floor was certainly giving him a nice viewing angle. Blinking a few times, René finally managed to pull his thoughts together, and he looked to the side, coughing a little as a wordless gesture that indicated what Sasaiya was doing wasn't exactly appropriate. It took him a moment to respond, but he finally spoke up, answering her suggestion about pretending to be sick. "That's... we don't know what they would do to you. We should probably play it safe. Besides, red eyes can be attributed to, uhm, albinism, rather than just straight up mutation. Then again, your hair..." The man's voice trailed off and he looked up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts once more. He truly didn't feel safe sending any of his teammates into the hospital in a gurney, but he didn't know what else to suggest, other than what had already been said.
Just then, nurse Willard opened the door, carrying a couple of sets of doctor's coats and scrubs. Noticing Sasaiya, her eyes opened wide for a second as she let out "Oh! Sasaiya was a girl!", she said simply. She didn't seem to mind the nakedness too much, probably out of her background as a medical professional. "Ok guys, you can dress up in these.. uh.. we might have to get some sneakers or something for Black-uh, Sasaiya." Handing the clothes to Rene, she opened the door and peeked outside. "We don't want to run into the rest of the ER staff, so we'll go up through one of the service staircases."
As expected, she got stunned looks from both of her teammates. Sasaiya waited it out patiently, through Valerie's flustered response as she fiddled with her coat and Rene's out-right stare from his position on the floor that managed to bring a flush of color to her cheeks before she could catch herself. Of course, once he was done gawking, he shot her a look and cleared his throat in a way she found judgmental and it irritated her intensely. He fucking asked her to change didn't he? What did he expect? That clothes would randomly appear on her body when she changed back? She returned that look with a scowl, crossing her arms over her bare chest and narrowing her gaze before giving him a "what do you want me to do about it?" expression with a raise of her eyebrows. When he followed it with a ridiculous statement about her pretending to be albino she almost smacked herself in the face. Jesus Christ. And they put him in charge of the mission? Luckily for her the nurse walked in, who seemed the least bothered by her state of undress, and actually had a plan. At least someone here does.
Finally getting her coat off after it got stuck on the unnatural angle in her right arm, Valerie thrust the garment toward Sasaiya as Nancy returned and René was trying to figure-out what it was they could do. Hopefully, her teammate would stay still so that Val could at least drape the coat on the red-eyed girl's shoulders. As Sasaiya exuded an unhelpful attitude, Valerie back away, half-smiled and offered a, 'Thanks so much,' to the nurse, then turned to René and diplomatically said, 'Well... what we do kinda depends on, like... what we have to wear, right? And, maybe, like... Sasaiya can be reading someone's chart... so she doesn't have to look up at people... or...I don't know... something.' Val was at a loss, but she was nervous about the minutes ticking away-- the longer they were in the hospital, the greater the chance that something could go wrong, the blonde figured. 'Just something long enough so we can find Dr. Isley, get the information and whatever else we need, and then, like, get out.'
René caught the heated glare from Sasaiya but didn't really acknowledge it - no one had told her to change in front of everyone. Soon enough, the door opened and before the man noticed it was Nancy, he stiffened up bit, but then relaxed. Immediately, he pushed himself up from the floor and grabbed the clothes from the nurse with a nod of thanks. As Miss Willard explained the route they were to take, René proceeded handing out the clothes to the girls, giving the smaller scrubs and labs coats to them and keeping the larger set for himself. His mind was on the same thought pattern as Valerie's - get the information and get out as quickly as he could. So, he tossed the clothes over the side of a stall to hang while he stripped himself of his, or Arthur's, coat and jeans, leaving him in his underwear and an undershirt. "Agreed," he answered simply after Valerie had finished speaking, now in the process of putting on the scrubs and lab coat. "Nurse Willard, you'll get us straight to this doctor, right? That way we can get straight to the source of information and either get a sample and get out, or try to figure out what's going on A-S-A-P." Maybe he was repeating what had already been said, but he at least pieced it together into some sort of plan. "If possible, we could talk to the patients, too, to see if they have anything in common."
Standing there, listening to Valerie fumble through ideas on how to not be noticed and still get the information they need, Sasaiya swallowed down her growing annoyance and reminded herself that if she hadn't received any training then they probably hadn't either. Why would they send us in so unprepared? She asked herself. Again, she thought of the lack of authority in the mansion- the girls who had sent them out here, who seemed to be organizing everything had only looked to be a few years older than herself, and of the attack that happened the day she arrived. Something happened to those in charge; we're just trying to pick up where they left off. The red-eyed mutant took a deep breath and her gaze softened, she gave Rene a very brief apologetic look and even managed not to jerk away when Valerie approached her with the coat, though she stiffened momentarily as the girl place it on her shoulders. It felt heavy and uncomfortable against her bare flesh, now sensitive from the change, but she didn't have to keep it on long. She accepted the garments that Rene handed out with a nod, but set aside the scrubs and, after slipping off the borrowed coat, donned the lab coat and buttoned it up, then slipped on the shoes. She probably only had one more change in her, twice in such a short window of time was tiring and she could already feel the aching in her bones, but if they found themselves in any trouble she wanted the option to do so quickly. As the head of their group discussed his ideas with the nurse she folded up the clothes she didn't take as well as the coat, listening without adding anything until he had finished. "Well, we could pretend to be mutant-experts, though I'm not sure it would hold up under close scrutiny." Because none of us knows anything.
"That won't be necessary." said Nancy to Sasaiya, probably aware of their concerns. "I think we should just be honest with Doctor Isley. We'll tell him you're mutants and here to help, I'm sure he'll be happy to have you." added the young woman with a smile, waiting until Sasaiya was changed before she opened the door. "I'll take you straight to him." she added, this time replying to Rene. Opening the door, the young woman stepped out into hallway and simply motioned the trio to follow, quickly making a left turn and heading for the back stairs leading to the second floor.
As her teammates changed, Valerie turned away from the others to set her arm straight and proper again, with a snap and a pop. Since her uniform was akin to a second skin, the blonde simply took the scrubs and slipped them on over top, the bagginess of the new garments easily accommodating such over-dressing. She listened to René and Saisaya, but felt as if she had nothing further to contribute to the conversation. She looked stiff and uncomfortable again, but once Val was dressed, the young woman turned to Nancy for further instruction, which came in short succession. Valerie tipped her chin down, tugged the elastic tie from her ponytail, letting her long, flaxen hair cascade about the sides of her face, her back, neck and shoulders, in the hopes that it might afford her a bit of a disguise. Clearing her throat, she cast the other two mutants a quick glance before following their guide back out into the hallway and to the stairs.
René was once again about to offer his opinion to Sasaiya's suggestion, but he was overtaken by Nurse Willard, who seemed less nervous than the three mutants in the room. He gave a one-shouldered shrug, choosing to ignore the sickening pops of Valerie's bone, and simply replied, "Whatever you think is best, Nurse." Glancing briefly at Sasaiya with a raise of his eyebrows, the Cajun followed after Valerie and Nurse Willard, choosing to leave his clothes in a pile on the floor as he left the bathroom and walked towards the staircase.
Catching Rene's look, though unable to decipher it, the shifter pursued her lips and scrunched her brows together. "Honesty it is then." She replied, in response to him as well as the nurse. Who knew it would be so easy? Sasaiya set the folded clothes aside on the counter-top and fell in step behind Valerie as she followed Willard.
During the way up the hospital, no one so much as glanced at the strange trio being escorted by the young nurse, everyone seemed to worry and too stressed to really pay attention to anything other than what they were currently doing. Soon, they came to a small lab where blood work was done in normal days, not turned into a makeshift research center complete with centrifuges and other sensitive equipment plugged into a CDC generator instead of the hospital power grid. Dr.Isley was a tall, handsome man in his early 40s, if a bit lanky. He had short salt and pepper hair and seemed like the kind who would normally be very well groomed, but now his tie was undone and a small scruffy beard was peeking around his cheeks and chin. The group found him bent over a microscope, jotting down some numbers on a notebook by his side every now and then. The doctor's tired brown eyes looked up at the four as they walked in. "Ah, Nancy, nice to see you...." before turning his gaze to the other three. "...And you are?"
The lab somewhat made him uncomfortable, but René tried not to let his bother show too much. It was really only the thought of all the germs and diseases that could be floating around in the tiny room that they all had been cramped into , surrounded by blood and probably flesh samples. With an inner shiver, the Cajun nodded to Dr. Isley as the man addressed them. He gave a glance to Nancy, as if to be sure giving the man all their information would be okay, then took a hesitant step forward. "We're mutants. From the Xavier Institute. I'm René, this is Valerie and that's Sasaiya. Ar... an informant requested our help here, but right now, we're not sure what's really going on or how we can help. So, we need all the information we can get if we're going to help out."
Valerie followed quickly on the heals of Nurse Willard, and initially chose to keep her lips sealed after they were introduced to Dr. Isley, although she did briefly and haltingly open her mouth as if to say something. She was grateful that René took command of the situation and introduced the team. There were things Val wanted to say and ask, but wanted to gauge her line of questioning after hearing the Doctor's response.
As Sasaiya walked behind the group, she kept her head straight and avoided eye contact from the people around her, even while she was looking hard at each and every one they passed. It wasn't hard to do; she had a great deal of practice. When she was younger she had learned to look at her father, and then Caleb, without really looking at them, to quickly check their mood before they noticed. She wasn't sure what to expect- would they notice that there were strangers walking around? Then again, why should they? Why should anyone be on the lookout? Still, she felt nervous and wished she could hide in her other form again and, when they had finally reached where they were going, she was more than ready to get the hell of that place.
"Xavier... institute?" replied simply Dr.Isley, the older man seemed to have a taciturn streak to him, but soon perked up. "I'm sorry, it's just... its the first time I meet actual mutants... have your abilities manifested yet? what age did they first appear?" he asked as he quickly grabbed his notepad and pen and approached Rene and the girls, leaning forward and looking at the trio as if he was studying them. "What can you do? Do you have any noticeably physical mutations?" suddenly, he was interrupted by Nurse Willard, who admonished him with a loud "Doctor!". The man's eyes widened as he straightened out immediately. "I- I'm sorry.... I used to be a geneticist.. you know? Before I came here to work... on pediatrics. My timing couldn't have been worse... or better, depends on how you look at it. What can I help you with?"
René certainly wasn't ready for the onslaught of questions he received from Dr. Isley, and he felt like the slew of words escaping the man's mouth were cartoonishly blowing him backwards. "Oh, well, nice to.... uhm, yes... well," he stumbled, trying his best to keep up with the questions. "We, uhm..." he continued, but slowly grew quiet as he realized the doctor just wasn't going to pause long enough for him to answer. When Nurse Willard cried out, René nearly jumped, looking at the woman with wide eyes before looking back at Dr. Isley. "It's... it's alright. We uhm, we came to try to figure out what's goin' on here... So you aren't actually working with the mutants?" the man asked curiously. Unless the sick ones were all kids, he couldn't imagine that Isley had come into contact with many of the patients.
'Uhm, it's very nice to meet you, Dr. Isley,' Valerie quietly and politely spoke after initial introductions and inquiries were made, and after their team captain first spoke. 'We were also wondering what, like, related factors there were regarding the patients, other than the fact that it's mutants and their families falling ill.' She paused, pressed her lips together, and her eyes dart to each person present in turn before looking back to the the doctor.
The doctor's sudden gush of questions startled Sasaiya, causing her to take a step back when he approached, her eyes narrowed into slits. She was grateful when the nurse interrupted when she did. The story of when and how she discovered her ability only brought painful memories and she didn't think that she could give him the answers he was looking for without dredging them back up. Rene and Valerie were quick to get to the point with him as well, glad that she wouldn't need to add anything herself.
"Uhm.. well, the children are certainly mutants.. Or.. will be mutants... or... might be mutants." sighed Dr.Isley as he sat back down on his chair and slid into back towards a nearby drawing. "Like, we can detect the X-gene in them with DNA tests, but they're too young for it to have manifested yet, or to know if it ever will." he continued as he pulled a little black case from the drawer. "The only ones the disease seems to have jumped over to, though, are the families of the children with the X-gene. In fact, a lot of the children without it are showing signs of recovery, but the mutant children are not." the doctor opened the tiny black case, inside were about a dozen small vials of a honey colored liquid. "Nancy, dear, thanks for bringing these people, please go back to your station before the head nurse starts wondering where you are." he added with a farm, if tired smile as he turned to the blonde young nurse. The nurse nodded dutifully and wished the trio good luck before heading out. "You, my friends, are running a huge risk coming here." concluded Isley with another one of his long sighs.
Out of habit, René crossed his arms as he listened to Isley's explanation, nodding every now and then but choosing not to speak yet. It seemed that his assumptions about the X-Gene being involved might have been correct, but he wasn't quite sure what to add to the conversation just yet. He gave a nod of thanks as Nancy left the scene, then looked backed to the doctor. "That's sort of what we do," the Cajun replied with a small grin that pulled at the corners of his lips. "We get called places to help, so we help," he added before looking pointedly at the vials in the doctor's hands. "What are those?"
Frowning slightly, Valerie listened intently to the information that Dr. Isley had to relay, and that niggling, if unfortunate, idea she had before about the mutants and their families possibly being targeted, resurfaced. Several issues compounded her overall wariness, but the young woman looked even more uneasy after Nurse Willard was dismissed and the doctor produced the case of vials. Instead of falling into an overwrought silence like she had on the car ride from Arthur's to the hospital, the blonde spoke quickly, 'We have a special interest in resolving this ordeal... and nobody wants a far-reaching, like, epidemic, or anything. And, you're obviously really busy, and stuff, so we can be out of your hair real quick...,' in a tight voice. 'But, maybe if we could get, uhm, a sample, or something...?' She glanced between Sasaiya and René, as if to make sure that she hadn't overstepped her place. Her attention settled upon the item in Dr. Isley's hands and awaited a reply to both her and her team leader's questions.
what the doctor was saying now actually had Sasaiya's attention. Rene had suggested that it run in the family, that made sense of course, but the implication of which was that they all carried this "X-gene", it just sometimes never showed itself, made her wonder about her own family. As far as she knew her brother was normal, her mother and father too, and though she didn't know her fathers side and had only been told a little of the relatives she had in Mexico, she felt like someone would have mentioned if anything strange had happened to anyone else. At the very least, daddy wouldn't have treated me the way he did because my eyes were wrong. A part of her added with the strange sarcasm that didn't seem to belong to her. Her thoughts left her staring blankly ahead without actually seeing anything until she realized it and snapped her attention back to the conversation going on around her. Yea, let's get the samples and get back as soon as possible.
"If you have a lab, then it would be good to take some samples and analyze them. I can get some blood samples from the patients too, but... I'm worried about setting the disease loose in a mansion full of mutants though." sighed Dr.Isley. "You're in danger here too, because you could get sick .These vials here are something I've developed... they're my attempt at an inoculation formula, but I haven't been able to test it because I had no way of knowing who would fall ill and who wouldn't, and it has no effect on humans. I want to give you a shot just to make sure all you take of the disease are the samples, though, not a walking pandemic." he continued as he eagerly reached for a few medical needles and opening the first one. After braking the neck of one of the many tiny glass vials, the doctor quickly got the liquid within into the injection.
"We were plannin' on that. We've got a pretty great lab back at the school," René replied with an agreeing nod. "Yeah, we'd just as soon get the samples and get back, and try to figger out what's goin' on," explained the man, watching the doctor as he broke out one of the needles. The Cajun cocked his head, looking at the pale liquid, before automatically moving to roll up one of the sleeves of his scrubs. "So it's a vaccination?" asked René for clarification as he took a step towards Dr. Isley. However, a sudden thought occurred to him, and he turned slightly so that his bare arm wasn't near Dr. Isley. "Have you gotten those FDA approved yet, Doctor?" asked the man, only betraying a look of concern but not the worrying thought that had suddenly hit him. René also took a moment to glance back at Valerie, who he remembered just a short time ago looking pale and sickly at the sight of the hospital. He had considered that she was afraid of needles.
As Dr. Isley described the nature of the contents of the vials and what it was he'd like to do with it, all blood drain from the Wisconsinite's face. Valerie stood staring wide-eyed, her lips pressed together in a grim line until the doctor went to fill a syringe. To René , whom she erroneously assumed was looking at her for her opinion, she shook her head violently and said, 'No,' kind of under her breath, but not really, then repeated in short succession, shaking her head with each word, 'No, nonono', her voice getting high and squeaky with each word. 'A fifty-fifty set of odds with a disease that we don't know what's gonna happen now, and later we're quarantined and strapped to beds, being poked at like we're science experiments, or something. No way,' she spoke quickly and in a frantic, harsh whisper to Sasaiya and René.
It took a bit for Sasaiya to figure out what he was saying. Even as the doctor stepped towards them with the needle and as Rene asked if it was FDA approved it didn't quite register in her brain. Why would he put the sample in a syringe? We just need-- when it did finally hit her the young woman looked mildly alarmed, which was nothing compared to Valerie's response. Her eyes moved from the doctor to her teammate, watching as the girl went pale and frightened. She realized, as she listened, that Valerie had suffered some kind of trauma, and though she wasn't really certain what the ramifications of that injection could be, trauma was something she knew all too well and recognized. Sasaiya stepped closer to Valerie and lightly grabbed her shoulder, her eyes concerned but her voice calm. "Hey- its alright. We won't let him inject you." She reassured her, speaking in a soft low voice. "Nothing like that's gonna happen, it'll be okay." Her eyes drifted from Val's face to her own dark-skinned hand resting on the girls shoulders and seemed distracted for a moment. Slowly she pulled back, confused, surprised, and knowing that her teammates couldn't understand how big of a deal that one small action had been for her. Back to the job- She cleared her throat, then said, as firmly as she could: "Sir, I don't think its a good idea to test that on us. I think we should just take a sample and go."
Dr. Isley seemed really disappointed the trio did not want to try the vaccine he had crafter, the man's eyes looked downward and he returned to his work station, putting the vials and syringes back into their case. "That is most unfortunate...." he said, looking under his desk for something. "Most unfortunate... I was hoping we could do this in a more civilized way." he added as he turned around. The man had retrieved a silenced pistol from beneath his desk and now was aiming it squarely at Rene's chest. "I'm glad I brought this pistol, with all the crazy mutants out there... it was only a matter of time until some unbalanced individuals managed to sneak in." he added, closing the briefcase with his 'vaccine'. "And threatening to blow up the hospital, to boot! Your kind just has that kind of... feral temperament, I believe."
René's jaw went to the side as he gritted his teeth, obviously feeling unease at Valerie's strong objection to the vaccine. He watched as Sasaiya attempted to calm the girl and spoke the exact words he had planned to say to the doctor. Turning to look at the man, he placed his hands on his hips and sighed. "I'm sorry, Doctor," he began to apologize upon hearing the man's disappointment. "I think we'll be o-.... what?" stuttered the man as the Doctor suddenly took a turn for what seemed like was the worse. "What?" he repeated as the doctor claimed to have, and then pulled out, a handgun, pointing it right at René. The man fell silent, immediately raising his arms into the air. He stared in disbelief as Isley began talking crazy, apparently threatening to oust them as criminals. "Doctor, listen to what you're saying!" he said frantically, trying to get the man to calm down. He looked down at the gun, studying it carefully before looking to the side from the corner of his eye. "Ladies, I think you should leave," the man stated calmly, not wanting to alarm anyone, even though everyone was probably quite on edge by now. "And Dr. Isley and I should talk this one out." He sincerely hoped that Valerie and Sasaiya would both try to make their exit. If Dr. Isley tried to pursue them in any way... well, René was faster than he was and could sense his movements coming.
Sasaiya's attention had shifted back to Valerie for the moment, giving her a small, encouraging smile. It wasn't until the sound in Rene's voice changed that she turned her head to see Dr. Isley pointing a gun at him and her world seemed to slow dramatically. The silencer on the weapon and the look in his eyes, his words and what they meant all pouring together; he was a threat. There wasn't time for disbelief, only reaction. She pushed Val aside as she began to shift, not waiting for the change to take hold first to make a move towards him, one step- two- fur replaced fleshed and strong back legs pushed off the ground. Not even enough time to rip off the stupid lab coat, had they not been so close already she probably would have slipped on the sleeves and crashing into his legs, but her front paws only needed to hit the ground once before she was able to leap. Something inside of her had screamed go for the throat but as she came hurdling at him, snarling madly, she changed her course. No, not the throat, he might shoot Rene. Instead she came in gunning for his shoulder, ready to dig her teeth into his flesh until he dropped that goddamn pistol.
A small gasp issued forth from between the blonde's slightly parted lips, and as Valerie stepped back when the gun was drawn, her eyes widened in utter shock. When Sasaiya suddenly lunged at Dr. Isley, she took the opportunity to edge back toward the door to the lab-- it wasn't so much that that she wanted to escape, but she didn't want any of the CDC or hospital personnel walking-in to what could be a true catastrophe. With shaking hands, the blonde pushed the door shut to stand guard on the outside.
Before Isley could react to Rene's words, Sasaiya was already on the move. The doctor's eyes widened and he quickly pulled the trigger. The first shot was headed straight for Rene's chest. The second one grazed the top of Sasaiya's head and then hit the wall behind her. Had the girl not shifted into a smaller target at the last second she would've caught the bullet with her forehead. As the wolf barreled down the room, Isley had to use his gun arm to protect himself, placing it in front of his throat. Sasaiya weighted too much and came in with too much force, as she clamped down on Isley's arm, the doctor was pushed back onto the chair with the metal container. They fell back, knocking down the chair, several tubes, the microscope and anything below them. Isley landed hard on the floor with the wolf on top of him and tugging at his arm. The man refused to give up the gun though and quickly grabbing one of the 'vaccines' he had in the metal container (the vials now littering the entire floor of the lab) he stuck the needle hard on the side of Sasaiya's neck as he tried to pull his other arm away.
René had his eyes directly trained on the pistol, or more particularly the trigger of the pistol. If he saw even one movement from the doctor, he would know to move, to dodge the shot that he would try to take. From the side, he heard Valerie leave, and as the door clicked shut, there was another footstep. René cursed his mutant teammate in his head as he realized she was walking toward Doctor Isley. His finger suddenly moved onto the trigger. René immediately sidestepped the incoming bullet, the metal finding itself in the wall behind him. Before he could go after the man, another bullet had been fired at his teammate, and she, or rather a wolf, was on top of him, teeth piercing flesh. René acted fast, skirting around the object scattered into the floor towards the two wrestling for dominance. He watched as a needle was plunged into Sasaiya's neck just before he reached the couple. The Cajun practically dove in, grabbing for both wrists and giving them a crushing squeeze. He twisted his hands, hoping to hear the bones snap like twigs, as he attempted to dig a knee harshly into Doctor Isley's rib-cage.
With adrenaline pumping through her full force, the she-wolf barely noticed the bullet that grazed her and the quick sting of the needle as it plunged into Sasaiya's neck did little to stop her attack, in fact, it only pushed her further into her aggression. The taste of his blood in her mouth sent her back to the dog fights and fueled her quickly growing desire to take out her opponent for good. She snarled, bit down harder and shook, but when Rene suddenly appeared, snapped at him, forgetting for a split-second that he was her teammate and not just an intruder. Her teeth caught air, having pulled back at the last second, and she watched as he got a hold of the mans wrists. For a moment she just stood, letting herself calm down as he took over the situation, bringing herself back to the present. It was still too easy too forget herself in the heat of battle. With her senses restored she dove back in, this time going in for the doctor's throat. She opened her jaws wide, her teeth finding purchase on either side of his neck, but she didn't bite down the way she had before. Placing a paw on his chest Sasaiya let out a loud, purposeful growl. Stop or I will kill you.
Valerie stood with her backside pressed to the door to the lab, and even as her face was drained of color and her eyes were wide as she scanned the hallway, she tried not to look so obviously unnerved. She heard crashing and what she thought was growling from the inside the room, and the blonde prayed that they all made it out of the hospital intact.
The doctor was competently overwhelmed by the assault of two super powered mutants on a mere human. Rene quickly managed to take the gun away and pull the syringe holding hand away from Sasaiya's throat. Much of the liquid had still made its way into the girls neck, though. Once he was immobilized, he kicked around for a bit but stopped when the wolf managed to get his jaws around his neck. He obviously could not hear Sasaiya, instead he just looked straight at Rene with crazed eyes, "Burn in hell you mutie freaks!" he said simply as he bit down on something in his mouth. Isley's eyes rolled back into his head and he started convulsing for a few seconds before he finally stopped moving, frothing from the mouth.
As soon as he had seen Sasaiya's teeth wrapped around Isley's neck, René backed away, snatching up the gun he had pried from the doctor's hand and standing. He pointed the thing directly at Isley's face, but glanced briefly at Sasaiya. He would have to bring up her actions to her later, and at least mention them to Flame, to see if the woman deemed she be reprimanded. He didn't know what to say to the doctor, but as he made his last final insult and his body began to shake, René tightened his grip on the gun, unsure what was happening, and shouted, "Hey!" After a few seconds, the doctor's body stopped moving, and breathing heavily the Cajun man stared gun still pointed at the doctor.
She heard his final insult, and felt him do something but, unsure of just what it was, she held him even as he gurgled and choked. Sasaiya waited until she couldn't feel his pulse in her mouth any more before finally releasing him and stepping back. There was a faint smell and, as she leaned in for a closer sniff, she released it was a bitter almond scent on his breath. Suicide? Her head cocked to the side for a moment, then she looked to Rene still holding the gun and whined low in her throat. He's dead. She wanted to say, though of course she couldn't in this form, and now she was too tired to change back. Looking around, she spotted the syringe that the doctor had stuck her with and padded over to gently pick it up between her teeth and return to Rene, nudging him gently with her nose to get his attention. Dr. Isley had tried to get them to take it earlier, so whatever it was couldn't be good- and now it was coursing inside of her veins. She didn't feel anything yet but- We need to find out what he injected me with.
There was unsettling, accusatory yelling from the other side of the door, that much Valerie could make-out, and then... nothing? Trying to force her breaths to be steady inhales and exhales, instead of shallow, shaky gasps. Very carefully, the scrubs-clad blonde turned around and cracked open the door just slightly to peer into the lab. 'What's happen--' she started to say, but stopped short, seeing René with the gun and Dr. Isley on the floor, lying very and disconcertingly still. Quickly slipping inside the lab, Val shut the door and pressed back against it in a similar fashion as she'd done on the other side. 'What... he's...is he?' she asked in hurried, whispered succession.
René's tensed shoulder slowly fell as he realized Isley wasn't going to get back up. He let his arms fall to his side and breathed out a ragged breath still clutching the gun in case the doctor's dead body magically reanimated, or some other freaky mutant thing. He watched Sasaiya as she moved to pick up the syringe, bringing it to him. He bent down slightly to take the glass vial from the dog-girl, holding it up to his face to look at the now almost empty container. "God-damnit!" he suddenly shouted, turning and kicking the desk chair out of extreme frustration, sending the furniture tumbling noisily a few feet cross the room. He had sworn to himself that none of his teammates would get hurt on his first mission, but now one of them had some unknown substance in her. The man, jaw tense and lips spread in a thin line, looked to the door as Valerie came in. "He's dead. Lock the door," he commanded the girl after bluntly and directly answering her incomplete question. He looked back at Sasaiya, then, and spoke, voicing her thoughts, "He got whatever that stuff was into Sasaiya. We need to figure out what it was." The Cajun lifted his head and looked around the room, his eyes falling on scores of filing cabinets and rows of books. "We need to look through all of that," he added, raising his gun-wielding hand to point at the subject of his gaze.
Sasaiya looked up at Rene as he examined the syringe only to quickly stumble backwards when the man suddenly exploded with a cuss and a hard kick to the chair. Her ears flattened against her skull, her tail between her legs, and her body crouched as she kept backing up until her rear end met an obstacle. In that moment she looked for all the world like a dog expecting to get beat. The expression on Rene's face reminded her unpleasantly of Caleb as he ordered Valerie to lock the door, and his sudden outburst had caught her off guard. Even after he'd calmed down she gave him a wide berth, keeping to the opposite side of the room as she began to paw at the papers and look them over. Thing was, she didn't know what she was looking for and, every now and again, she'd glance over at him with a certain level of distrust in her eyes. She assumed he was angry at what she'd done, not knowing that what had upset him had more to do with someone getting hurt under his command.
Most of the papers Sasaiya could see on the floor seemed rather mundane and pedestrian, lab results for the infected, signed orders to use machines, nothing out of the ordinary for a hospital. It was unlikely the doctor kept any incriminating evidence out in the open though.
Valerie was already locking the door behind her by the time René barked at her to do so, and when she turned around, she cast a reluctant glance down at Dr. Isley and she pulled her lips together in a tight line. She then pressed her fingers to her mouth when the Cajun divulged that Sasaiya had been injected, and with wide eyes, she looked down at her canine partner. 'Oh, my gosh is she--' Val started to say when René said they'd need to dig through the doctor's notes. 'O.... kay,' she quietly and tentatively said, her eyes flickering to their team leader. 'Can you... stop waving that thing around first?' she meekly implored, knowing better than to walk in front of an agitated person wielding a gun.
René looked up at the gun he was holding out as Valerie brought it to his attention, and dropping his arm to his side, the man rubbed his other forearm over his face. "Sorry," he muttered before turning of the safety to the gun and sticking the barrel into the waist of his pants. The man looked around, glancing warily back at Sasaiya, who he was afraid might drop dead at any moment from the stuff the doctor had injected into her. "I'll, uhm," the man started looking back at Val, and then over to Doctor Isley's desk, "check the computer." With his shoulders slumped and quite obviously feeling bad about something, René stalked over to the desk, picking up the chair he had kicked over along the way. Taking a seat, he rolled himself under the desk and his the keyboard, trying to bring the computer to life and possibly log in to see Isley's files. Every few moments, however, the man would cast a glance to Sasaiya, checking to make sure she was still standing and alive.
Nothing that she could find on the floor was useful and Rene was continually glancing over at her, making Sasaiya nervous. She kept finding herself thinking I wish he'd just yell at me and get it over with, but eventually it dawned on her that the look on his face wasn't anger or disappointment, it was worry. About me? The concept was foreign to her, Rene barely knew her after all, so why did it matter to him? She glanced at Valerie as well who'd expression shock when he had told her about the injection Sasaiya had stupidly left herself open for her and wondered what she was thinking as well. Focus. We don't have time for this.She was really more concerned with what they were going to do now than with her own state. Shots had been fired, someone had to have noticed and, even if they didn't know for sure where it had come from, they'd be sure to check here eventually. She scanned the papers a bit more, but she had a feeling that if there was something to find it wouldn't be just laying out and, lacking hands as she was and feeling as tired as she was, she knew she wouldn't be much help at the moment. Her gaze wandered through the room,pondering what they would do if someone tried to get in, and what they would do with this mans body. We've left fingerprints and evidence all over this fucking room. It needs to be destroyed. A stressed whine escaped her as she started to pace, head down as she thought about it. There was no time to clean the place. No time for anything really. Then it struck her.But we could burn it. Her ears perked up, eyes brightening as she started looking around the room for a different reason; they'd need something to start a fire. It's dangerous, but if we pulled the alarm first they could evacuate everyone out before it got too bad.
There was no noises or anything else coming from the hallway, and Nancy HAD mentioned most of the upper floors were empty because of the quarantine, so it was a possibility no one had heard the gunshot. Rene didn't have to do much with the computer, as Isley had been using it before they came over and had still been logged on. When he moved the mouse though, he noticed the computer was hooked up to the microscope and was displaying what seemed to be an image of a single cell. In the meantime, Sasaiya began to to feel her nose dry up and her body temperature rise, almost as if she was fast forwarding into a fever.
'We'll...' Valerie said, watching René, trying to think of something positive to say. 'We'll set this right,' the blonde said, but it sounded a little hollow, like she wasn't so certain of that herself. She glanced regretfully at Sasaiya before hurrying over to the filing cabinets, looking immediately for anything that might pertain to the doctor's research regarding the serum injected into her teammate.
René stared at the computer screen, a blank expression on his face as what Valerie said suddenly sunk in. "There's a dead man on the floor and all the evidence in the world that we were here," he spoke aloud, his words slow and flat. The man raised his left hand to his chin, his thumb rubbing over the scruff that had grown in over the past few days. "This is bad," he added, his eyes nearly boring a hole into the computer monitor. He stared for a few seconds before he seemed to finally realize what he was looking at and his gaze slowly slid over to the microscope on the desk, the light on and a slide quite obviously in place. He glanced back at the screen, taking his bottom lip between his teeth and chewing on it thoughtfully, wondering if this might be a clue to what was in that liquid. He glanced again at Sasaiya, then back to the screen, wondering if anything was going to change, cells rapidly dividing or something of the sort, like he had always seen in movies.
Hearing Rene speak, Sasaiya lifted her head and nodded in reply. At least she wasn't the only one thinking about the implications. If they find even a hair or drop of blood, it could link me to... Her thought was interrupted as she suddenly felt warm, unnaturally so, and her nose become dry, prompting her to lick it with her tongue a few times. Is this it? Is it starting? But she couldn't be sure, it could just be the stress kicking in; it could just be her imagination. Giving her head a toss she returned to her search for a lighter or matches, but couldn't shake the feeling.
Valerie quickly opened the drawers and found several binders full of information. For the most part though, it seemed to be test results. The last two binders seemed to be labeled 'Plague Victims' and 'Immunization Attempts' respectively. There could be information to be had, but Isley probably wouldn't keep any condemning evidence happily stored in drawers anyone could access. In the meantime, Rene looked intently at the screen, but nothing seemed to happen with the sample. Whatever Isley had used on Sasaiya though, there were still several glass vials filled with the stuff on the floor, though a couple had broken. Isley's carrying case was also overturned, lying by the chair. Hanging from his neck was his hospital nametag, but he seemed to have a second cord around it which disappeared into the inside pocket of his doctor's coat. In the meantime, Sasaiya's four legs started to buckle and while sick, she felt as if she was about to revert to her original form.
As her fingers flew over the files, Valerie didn't say anything in response to René, but she sighed quietly, her shoulders slumped visibly and her hands slowed, her well-manicured nails flicking the end of one of the manilla folders. This was truly a nightmare, there was no way around that fact. 'Are you finding anything?' she said hollowly to René, pulling the Immunization Results binder out of the cabinet and setting it on one of the counters before glancing around the lab. She did her best not to look at Dr. Isley, but upon spotting one of the in tact vials on the floor, Val looked for a rubber glove or something similar with which to pick up one of the little containers. 'You hanging in there, Sasaiya?' she asked in a sympathetic voice as she focused on the task at hand.
René leaned back in the chair with an irritated sigh, his frown deep as he rubbed his palms on the legs of his pants. He was getting absolutely nowhere fast. With yet another glance to Sasaiya, the man opted instead to search the doctor's body, even if that meant leaving behind evidence. He figured it would be rather obvious that the doctor committed suicide, in the end. Getting up from the desk chair, the Cajun knelt in the floor next to Isley's body, looking at it with his lips screwed to the side. One of the unbroken vials was still nearby, and he picked it up, holding it up to the room's overhead lights and looking through the liquid. Placing it on the desk beside him, René then leaned over the body, beginning to pat down the doctor's clothes, searching in any pockets where he felt anything, but not finding anything other than some spare change and car keys, and a rather large wad of pocket lint. Finally, René decided to check the badges around the doctor's neck, first looking at his hospital badge, then pulling the hidden one from his shirt. From the corner of his eyes, he could see some movements from Sasaiya, and he looked up in time to see the wolf-girl's legs beginning to shake, and voice his concern, "Sasaiya? You okay?"
Rene trailed the second cord around Isley's neck, which lead to his breast pocket. However, the object hanging from it was not a tag at all, but a small, black USB storage device.
Oh god. With her legs threatening to give out from beneath her and her stomach giving a sudden heave Sasaiya could no longer deny to herself that something was wrong. It was happening, whatever it was. She retched suddenly, violently enough that she went down, and realized with horror that she could feel her body on the brink of a change that shouldn’t be possible in her weakened state. With the exception of her first shift, the process was a quick and easy one, sliding into a different skin like she would a sweater. This time was different. It was as if some unseen force were forcibly pulling her through it while her body fought it off, her muscles and bones forced into shape, spine cracking, and her thick black fur falling out in clumps. What usually took only a handful of seconds was dragged out much, much longer and Sasaiya let out an agonized groan as she panted and gagged until, finally, she was human again. Throughout the painful process she’d been oblivious to Valerie and Rene, but after throwing up a bit of bile looked over to them with a miserable expression on her face. “Have you- found anything?” She had to force herself to speak, it felt almost unnatural. What just happened to me? “Something’s wrong.”
Valerie tried not to looked too hurt when René gave no reply; she was already pretty certain she'd never get assigned to another mission again, anyway. After locating a pair of rubber gloves, she carefully tucked the sample away without touching it, slipping it into the pocket of her scrub pants With a glance at Sasaiya to check on her however, Val rushed to her teammate's side, but backed away a little when she realized what was happening. The transformation was grotesque, but not any more or less than what her own body could do, she rationalized. Still, the blonde winced in sympathy, not sure that she could really do anything for the woman. Looking a little green when the vomit came up, Val looked briefly away, but proceeded to say 'Shh, shh, shh,' as soothingly as possible, then slipped her lab coat off to drape it on Sasaiya's body. 'René , we have to go. Like, now.' Regardless of whether or not they got what they came for, she felt strongly about what she'd just said.
In truth, René had not even heard Valerie's question, too deep in thought and concentration, and worry as well, to realize much of what was going on around him, aside from what he was seeing in front of him and what Sasaiya was doing. As he found the USB drive, he simply ripped it from the dead doctor's neck and put it into his pants pocket. Watching Sasaiya suddenly collapse, however, panic began to set it. "Shit," he swore as he tried to scramble to his feet, but Valerie was at the girl's side before René could even stand. "Yeah, I know," he replied to both Sasaiya and Valerie, staring down at the former, then promptly looking around. Were they going to just leave the office like this, dead body and all, and risk being hunted down as murder suspects? "What do we do about this place? Can we just... leave it?" the man voiced his concerns.
"Burn it." Sasaiya rasped as she slowly pushed herself up off the floor. Her whole body ached, it was easily the worst she'd felt in years, but there wasn't time for her to recuperate. They needed to get out of here. "Pull the fire alarm, give them time to start evacuating people, block off the sprinkler, then light this room up." The dark skinned woman groaned as she eased herself to her feet clutching the coat Valerie had given to her tightly and giving her a nod of thanks for it. "She's right, we need to get out of here, but there's too much evidence lying around and not enough time to clean it." And if they find it and link it back to that murder in Chicago... "If we shut the door behind us it should keep the fire from spreading long enough for the fire department to get in and put it out."
'Well how did he die?' Valerie demanded of René, as she was outside when the man had committed suicide. He had a gun in his hand, but as it had a silencer, and Val was on the other side of the door when it had been shot in the middle of a commotion, she didn't realize it had been fired. Besides that, it didn't appear as if the Doctor had shot himself, anyway. 'Burn it!?' she then said with utmost incredulity to Sasaiya. 'And draw even immediate attention to the lab? Who else even knows we're up here other than Nurse Willard? Can't we like... like...' the dancer paused and ran both hands over her face, searching for something, anything that didn't require torching the room or otherwise. 'Can't we just make it look like Dr. Isley got, like... so fed-up with his, like... inability to find a cure that he, like...' What she was inferring was that they somehow stage the scene as a suicide, which it actually was, even if she didn't already know it; Val just couldn't bring herself to say it.
René looked at Valerie as she addressed him with her question, and he opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. He knew the doctor had died, but he honestly wasn't sure if it had been some form of suicide or if the old guy had just had a heart attack, what with Sasaiya tearing into his arm. But he knew he had seen him bite into something - cyanide? Hearing Sasaiya's suggestion as to what to do with the room, he looked at the naked girl, wide-eyed. He shook his head a bit, and soon began to pace in a circle, in a radius of a few feet near the desk. "I don't know. I'm with Val - we can't just burn the place. Then we'll be wanted for arson," the man began rambling, reaching up with a hand to run his fingers through his hair. For a brief second, he thought about contacting Shana or Flame and asking for their advice, but immediately put that thought out of his mind. They had a dead man on their hands, and whether it was their fault or not, he knew Shana and Flame wouldn't like it one bit. "Fuuuuuck!" the man growled as he slammed his fist down on the desk. With a hand over his mouth, he looked at Valerie, then Sasaiya, and finally his gaze trailed down to the man dead on the floor. "I mean... it looks like he killed himself, right?" the man slowly began, looking up at his companions once more and lowering his hand. "There's nothing that says any of us killed him. We just defended ourselves. We could just... leave."
Sasaiya gritted her teeth, fighting to not to yell. "You don't understand." She managed to say in a low voice. "My DNA is already in the system, they can't find me here. I'm-" Presumed dead. But she couldn't say it out loud. How would it look for her to show up five years later at a crime scene with another dead body? I need to stay dead. "If we stay we get dragged in for questioning, possibly arrested and God knows what they do with mutants in prison. If we leave they'll find evidence all over that leads them back to us and then we will go to jail for fleeing the scene of the crime." Her voice shook a little as she tried to get them to understand, almost pleading, and every part of her wanted to shift and bolt but- I can't. There was the other problem scratching at the back of her mind, she'd been forced to change back when she was far too weak to, and now she was starting to wonder if the good doctor's vaccine cured something more than the sickness. What if I can never change back again? Sasaiya suddenly found herself feeling more vulnerable than she had in a long time.
Waiting for a reply as to how the doctor died, Valerie watched René with attentive, wide eyes, as if she were just waiting on the edge of her seat for an explanation. She just nodded, obviously agreeing that that just sneaking out might be the best course of action, but her attention snapped to Sasaiya when she began to speak. 'You're... what?' she asked in breathless anticipation, but the blonde looked less than excited at the rest of what the shapeshifter had to say. 'So we... wipe the computer down and we take the files I touched,' she said, her hands rising up then smacking down on the sides of her thighs in defeat. 'But we can't just, like, torch the place!' She paused to think before the words started pouring out of her mouth again. 'Maybe we can, like, I don't know... plant something to explain the presence of your DNA here? Print something out and put it in the files? Dr. Isley was obviously involved in shady stuff...' Val was at a loss, and her suggestion was far-reaching, she knew that much, but they all had to get on the same page, somehow.
René really didn't understand what Sasaiya was going on about or why she was so intent on burning the hospital down, but if he could assume anything, it was that, like many other mutants, she had some sort of relatively shady past. Shaking his head, the man pursed his lips: they couldn't burn it down, they couldn't get rid of the doctor's body, they just had to leave. "We gotta go," he said to both Sasaiya and Valerie. "We get our clothes and we leave," he added, making his way over to Sasaiya in case she needed helped up. "Get dressed and let's get back to the mansion. We can sort things out there, where we'll be safe."
Luckily for the group, they managed to escape the hospital without running into any trouble. After explaining to Mr.Copprey what had happened and covering their tracks, they left in the Blackbird just as authorities were stumbling onto Isley's body. Over the next few days the plague victims, including Sasaiya, slowly got better (though the wolf girl spent a couple of days in and out of delirious fevers) and the official investigation into Isley's death discovered some disturbing facts. Though it was clear he had gotten into a confrontation, the cyanide capsule inside a cavity carved into the doctor's tooth was enough for a full fledged investigation. The death was ruled a suicide and it was discovered Isley had belonged to an aggressively pro-human organization and had somehow concocted the plague to kill mutants. The police knew that much but was at a loss as to who else was in on the plot. Using police information and the data recovered by Rene, the cajun man, Shana, Tory and Flame managed to piece together a pretty good idea of what the plan had been. The plague wasn't even designed to hit mutants, a human injected with the disease would have fallen ill all the same, that's why so many kids had gotten sick at first. When they were taken to the hospital, Isley, the head of pediatrics, had the excuse he needed to take blood samples of all of them, administering more of the plague to kids who turned out to be mutants (and their families, under the guise of inoculation) and letting the humans slowly get better. Everything had to be done quickly, over the span of a few days, before the CDC even had time to send samples to Atlanta and get results back. Eventually he'd kill off most of the mutants and, after some external agitators got the populace into a panic, let the plague 'jump' to a human as a fatal case. The idea was to rile up everyone into a fear induced, anti-mutant frenzy. Shana put out a request for information on the Xavier network on this dangerous new group, having at least foiled their plans for now.
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