Planning A Hospital Visit

Summary:
July 27, 2014: The raid on Hydra General Hospital has to be planned.

Somewhere in New York City

A warehouse, nondescript neighborhood, nothing special.


Characters

NPCs

  • Iceman (alt conflict, so NPC'd and not interactive.)

Mood Music:
Styx - Nothing ever goes as planned


It's an old supermarket distibution hub that's been converted over to machine shops, living quarters and a few other things. There's some aircraft parked in the open and a several cargo containers locked up laying around the yard. This was the place Jericho told everyone to meet. He's inside himself, cooling his heels next to Partisan and going over several holographic displays of the old hospital.

"Had to bring May in on this just so SHIELD didn't muck everything up, but we should be good now." He says as he waits for folks to arrive.

~

Partisan puffs irritably at her cigarette as she eyes Jericho.

"I'm not bringing no fucking SHIELD assets with us, Our birds or no birds. The last thing we need is any more signature than this is already going to generate. I mean we're gonna be making headline news, there will be people with cellphones snapping pics everywhere. The absolute last thing we need, is any logo besides our own in the mix much less a VTOL. We get pawned off as a SHIELD front org, and we're going to get our credibility with the prolitariat destroyed."

Finally easing back to rest her boots on the table.

"Oh and I keep forgetting to ask, do you need me to get you a car or what? I see you driving that beater and I'm worried you're gonna get popped for an out tail light or something."

~

These are the meetings Sara doesn't invite her partner to. It's not that she doesn't trust him. It's more that she doesn't trust him to trust anyone here. But hey, while she's still on suspension while the department figures things out, she at least has the time to come to the super secret clubhouse and involve herself in occasionally questionable operations. Even if the whole getting here part is complicated. There's a zip car involved.

~

It's been almost too long - the Seraph is pacing in the back of Angelo's mind, but the doctor has been resistant to putting on his other persona after his visit to the Partisan's conversation nest in a construction site. The whole 'being a puppet' thing is not at all a welcome sensation. Still. Jericho sent him the location and time, so he's wrapped himself in that cloak of impenetrable light (such a USEFUL cantrip) and (not feeling the need for anything more "classical angel") lands and de-cloaks in a clean pair of sweats.

"Credibility with the proletariat? Seriously? This is about getting people out of a mad engineering project - there's no science there - and you're worried about your image?" Angelo shakes his head. "Are you trolling? Please don't troll."

~

Driving up in her new car, Nancy finally arrives with Bobby in tow. She hops out of the car, her signature lollipop in her mouth as she makes her way to give Partisan and Jericho hugs.

"Okay, so… I guess introductions are in order?"

~

"Right. I think everyone here knows Partisan and myself. Sara, this is Nancy O'Neal and Angelo DiLucci." There, introductions made.

"Well, let's get down to business… and no one quote Disney on me." Jericho pulls up his holographic display and nods to Partisan.

"Wanna give an overview before I get into specifics?"

~

"Yes, Credibility with the proletariat. They're playing checkers and we're playing chess, think long term," Partisan offers Ange just a glance, a signal she may be entirely more permissive about dissent tonight than she was at the construction site. She offers Nancy a snug and a smooch on the forehead before clearing her throat and rising to her feet.

"Alright, this is the hospital in question. For the sake of keeping shit clear, this is to be called 'Site one'. Site one is an apparently abandoned hospital, and it was built back in the day when they still built things to last so we should expect the essential structural underpinnings to be very robust as backed up by the blueprints we obtained from the planning office. At this location we have at least ten and not more than thirty hostages, research subjects and torture victims. We expect no less than twenty, and no more than sixty on site security personel who, whilst poorly trained, are highly motivated, highly paid and well equipped. We can furthermore expect that the interior of the hospital may have seen some significant security upgrades, making conventional ground-up breaching impossible. I'll give you the most general overview of the plan, before we break it down in detail. Also, please hold questions until the end."

Pausing to ask Jericho for the hologram to swap over to those thermal scans they took, before she began.

"We will assault from two helicopters, making entry into the upper floor by way of explosive breach. From there we will move and secure the top floor, securing entrances and exits. The third element will remain here and operate the door, that will be Bobby and Nancy. 3-1 and 3-2 respectively. We will systematically work our way down, sealing entrances to prevent flanking actions as we go. Element two, will focus exclusively on ferrying patients who are not mobile to the top floor. They are to focus on keeping those willing and able to move under their own power safe and calm. That will be literally everyone else here, except for Sara. Jericho is 2-1, Angelo is 2-2, and so fourth. I will continue downwards, drawing attention and eliminating security elements as I go. Within twenty minutes, we will have cleared a route down to the first floor. At this point we will begin moving anyone mobile to a waiting bus, driven by Sara who is now "4-1". We load the bus up, and depending upon conditions we may augment her with 3-1 or 3-2 or all of element 3. From there the remaining hostages are moved into the helicopters, which will extract with team. Both helicopters are quite armed, and will follow 4-1 and provide overwatch until we meet at our mission objective and transfer the hostages. Is that clear?"

~

"I've met O'Neal," Sara nods to Nancy, though there's a bit of a dry look to it, before pausing when Jericho introduces Angelo. She starts to reach out a hand, then pauses when the bracelet at her wrist suddenly sends feelers up her fingers, strands of gold and silver that wind along the digits.

"Uh." She takes her hand back, holding it behind herself and frowning as she eyes him. "Hi."

But then it's debrief time, and she looks back to the report at hand.

"Sounds good," she nods at the end.

~

Angelo shakes his head at the whole "proletariat" thing; they can have that discussion over beers or vodka (which will affect neither of them very much if at all) at some other time maybe.

He quirks an eyebrow at the Witchblade, eyes going white for a moment, and nods to it, and then to Sara. He looks over to Nancy, studying her for a good half-minute.

"So you're the famous number 13. I talked with Hank McCoy, but we didn't get around to … OK. You need to keep your blood sugar up. If you go low, you will become too controllable. It's similar to what they did to your mother, but more refined."

Having been in the hospital before it closed down and Hydra took over, Angelo notes the places where the plans and what he remembers differ; if they've confirmed their map, then it will not matter.

"How well have you confirmed this map? I was in that hospital twice when I was younger and those sections," he points to the second and third floor where they had replaced some places marked for beds with shops, "were walled off as mercantile space. Do we have a protocol for describing changes so we can update as you make your way through?"

~

Nancy smirks over to Sara and raises her shoulders in a shrug.

"What was I gonna say? Hi, I'm the apprentice to the Punisher with tits? I think that would have gotten me in jail or an asylum."

Nancy then raises a hand to indicate she wants to speak.

"How are you getting the numbers of hostages and security staff? Or that the Hydra security is poorly trained? For all we know, these guys could be ex-FBI or stuff. And also, what makes you think the other N subjects are gonna wanna go? For all you know, they may be part of what you are fighting."

But Angelo gets her attention. "Wait, what? My blood sugar?"

~

"They're not going to want to go, we have to assume. And they're the X-factor in this, pardon the pun. We've got IR imaging, basic body counts and the old floorplans but you're all right in that this could have changed. The biggest worry that I have though is that Hydra will start executing 'incentives'. Or that one of the mutants will have a power that's… more troublesome than usual.

Jericho causes a holographic map he projects to highlight the likely locations of both the N mutants and the hostages. "Two separate locations. Hostages in the Psych ward, N mutants near the old ICU. Both are well away from the exterior walls. It's possible we may have to modify on the fly. In fact it's even likely. In that case Partisan is still drawing the heavy fire, whatever that happens to be. Sara, Ange and Myself will move to support if we have to. Nancy, you may get called in if we need you to lock down a troublesome mutant. Theres one other thing, I need captives to interrogate. Head doctor and his aides. And any files we may find."

~

"Everyone else dies, and yes there will be a lot of them. I am going to do everything in my power to draw as much of their attention as is possible, to give you guys as much time as I can to figure out what's going on and work around it. That's why you'll be sealing doors off after I move down to the next floor, as it's not going to be likely that they'll have breaching gear on site."

Pausing to puff at her cigarette, Part dives back in, "the birds combined can carry twenty persons, not counting the pilot and copilot. They are effectively self flying, so those two seats can be occupied by us. Everyone else we find though, needs to be put on the bus for extract. We may have to sedate some or all of them, and we should expect as much as ten percent civilian casualty rate. We can expect hardened security doors and similar, so we'll need to make use of explosive breaching where necessary. I do have some less than lethal weaponry on hand, TASER makes these twelve gauge fired tasers which will give folks the ability to respond to the situation as it develops and go immediately lethal if necessary. The biggest danger we have to the success of the operation however, is two fold."

"Firstly that somone in this room, or at Xaviers says someshit to somone and it gets back to Hydra so they move the patients. Two, fire. Theres going to be heavy fighting, explosive breaching, busted electrical circuits and so fourth. We have to be mindful of the possibility of an aggressive fire we cannot contain. Also, we're going to be making extensive use of things like tear gas so gasmasks are not optional. Based on the training we've seen before from hydra, and based on other facilities we've raided we've never seen any evidence that they have any capacity to combat anything like teargas or intense smoke grenades. This however will also mean we are not going to be using fragmentation grenades, flashbangs, thermal lances, thermite or related thermal weaponry."

"Abort abort abort, means stop what your doing and get to the roof or otherwise away from the structure. If your issuing that command, you need to include a descriptor. Like, Abort abort abort fire fire fire. Repeat single word messages three times for clarity's sake. If you encounter a fire, call fire three times but understand that is not an abort in and of itself. If you need a breach for a locked door, call out "breach". If you've secured the floor, call out "Secure" three times and that floor. If they break a perimeter, you need to let everyone know immediately. We're already marginal on manpower here, so if we lose the ability to lock down floors we're going to have a hell of a time with this."

~

Sara is quiet as the Partisan explains the plan, finding something to lean against with her arms crossed loosely over her chest. At the mention of civilian casualties, she grimaces, but she doesn't say anything just yet. She agreed to do this. She'll at least hear out the full plan.

~

Ange answers Nancy first. "Your metabolism was deliberately mutated. You require a blood sugar range between 120 and 160 as your norm, and you can range as high as 250 before it begins to be harmful. If it goes below 100, your brain stem releases modified forms of enkephalin, orexin, and dopamine, and your cerebral circulatory system undergoes selective routing changes, resulting in a state of heightened alertness, suggestibility, greatly reduced emotional processing, and a willingness to do nearly anything you're told to do, whether or not you would do them normally. So keep it above 120."

That bomb delivered, he listens to Partisan's description of the plan impassively. He is going to try not to kill anyone, but he's also not going to try to save them because they are (as far as he can tell based on what he got from "Bob") actually willing and not unusually brainwashed, which is to say, brainwashed as hell but they asked for it.

He speaks up then, "As far as dealing with possible resistance from other subjects, after my discussion with Partisan I did a bit of reasearch. I can provide a short-duration power blocker for these mutants based on my analysis of Anabeth's genomic changes. Using subcutaneous injection, it should hold for about an hour. I've prepared ten epi-pens, each one good for five shots, that can be used on the subjects who are resistant. I'll be the primary person administering this, because I'll be able to tell when it isn't safe, or effective, to use, but I can and will tag the ones who aren't safe, so Nancy, you'll get to carry two of the pens. And I can use my personal light-taser to make anyone either unconscious or fairly friendly, for at least ten minutes. In general."

~

Nancy watches the holograph of the hospital, impressed. She's still getting used to fancy tech like this.

"Wouldn't I be more useful where the mutants are? Turning them off? I can push my range up to 20 feet now if I focus on it."

When the good doctor tells her about her metabolism, she smirks and takes out her lolly, shaking it at Bobby.

"You heard the man. I need these for medical reasons. No more teasing me about my morning coffee." She winks at him and leans in close, popping her lollipop back in her mouth.

~

Jericho nods. This is all good. They needed nonlethal options and between Angelo and Nancy they should have just enough.

"Okay, so that about covers it. Are there any questions with the plan itself and is anyone going to need any kind of gear? We have a few days before we do this so Parti and I will have time to find or make stuff."

"We'll have to get in and see what we're dealing with Nan. Depends on how they're all situated."

~

Partisan shakes her head, "I want you back away from the fighting, your not a combatant Nancy you know that. We're going to be as absolutely marginal on manpower as possible here, if you get popped that means your down and somone who will have to care for you. Thats two people down, and that's going to be mission ending. I'm going to have my hands full taking on all of security by my lonesome, I can't protect you guys."

~

Sara lets out a slow breath, looking around the group again as she tries to gauge what they're working with. "If you get to the point where an extra body might mean fewer civilian casualties, call me in," she finally says with a look to the Partisan.

~

Angelo nods to Partisan and quietly says, "Thank you for that," and considers - will Bob or the Hunter be properly trained and available? Not… nope. Dammit. They'd be perfect, but if his "mysterious boss" hasn't gotten them ready in time, they won't be. Oh well.

"This still feels dicey. Partisan, I think you are going to need backup, besides this officer. I think you're likely to run into a heavy hitter that we don't know about."

~

Jericho nods to Ange and Sara. Hey if folks have reservations its best to get them out now. That's the point of doing this.

"I'd love to bring in others Angelo. We might one or two others coming from my contacts but sadly other than that maybe one or two of Nancy's friends friends are all we're gonna get. Don't ask me why, they just weren't interested in helping out with the rescue itself. I'd love to turn it over to the NYPD or SHIELD in an official capacity but if this gets out, they'll move the facility and we'll lose our chacne at rescue and our chance to unravel the who where how and why. I know it's not ideal… it's jsut what we've got."

~

"I will most assuredly run into a heavy hitter, as well as kaibiles and potentially other werewolves all at the same time. I'm going to be fighting very hard and moving very erratically as well as fast. If I have somone with me who hasn't trained with me, they're going to slow me down and we're going to get overwhelmed. Once my battle tempo dips, we will be surrounded and killed. I'm doing it alone not because I'm big and tough and awesome, I'm doing it because it makes for good tactics. If I fall, you can lock that floor down and evac through the roof with several ferry flights of the choppers. If we have Sara down there, we may not have anyone to secure the bus."

Partisan shrugs, and seems if anything somewhat subdued.

"This is going to sound terribly egotistical of me, but you're all newbies and very soft. Jerry is the only other soldier here, and super powered or not I don't bring him with me. He'll tell you exactly what I'll tell you, that you can't keep up with me."

~

Nancy takes a deep breath and sighs, nodding. Yeah, she's not the most experienced combatant. She's soft and squishy and tastes good with ketchup. She crosses her arms over her chest, accepting her fate as being doorman.

~

Sara has had some recent experience in how much she isn't a soldier. Which is probably the only reason she isn't protesting more stridently. "I'm just saying. We start taking on civilian casualties, we're defeating the whole purpose of this operation. We're saving innocent people, not throwing them in the crossfire."

~

The Seraph squirms about trying to say something, but Angelo shuts it up. You be quiet. We have a different task to do. Unless you can exist outside my body, just let the wolf do what it wants to do.

"Of the two groups, there are the subjects, and the hostages used to force their compliance. Some of the subjects will be eager to help out Hydra. Some of the hostages will either BE Hydra or will be brainwashed by them. So it won't be easy. But, I can break some of the conditioning, and I can keep them alive. If I have them before two minutes pass, they're as good as if they never died," Angelo says, in flat tones.

Someone ELSE is sounding egotistical? Or, has tested this out.

~

Limited ressurection? That's a new one. "Alright. So noted. Can you do that for long?"

Jericho folds his arms. Okay, they've laid the plan out.

"I don't disagree Sara. I think mostly Partisan is simply prepared for the possibility. Ideally we could secure both the hostage site and the N mutant site simultaneously while Partisan wrecked the security forces. If anyone has any ideas along those lines…"

~

"Keep in mind," Nancy says, "when I first found out about having a power, I nearly called them to get myself back with them. These guys paid my mom a lot of money for her and I to be test subjects. There are gonna be people there, like me, who went perfectly willingly, just for the paycheck. Not all of the N subjects are gonna be prisoners." She frowns as she looks at the group. "You really think a small group like us can handle this big a mission?"

~

Partisan nods sagely towards Sara.

"Which is why I don't want anyone who isn't properly trained along with me, we're fail zero here. I offered to let you join up Sara, training would have come along with that. You made your call, which I do sincerely respect as you had your reasons. That ship however, has sailed as it relates to this operation. I do not have enough time to do it now, and you likely wouldn't like it anyway."

Thumbing after Nancy, "Just ask her, it's a lot've philosophical shit mixed in with getting your ass schooled by a hundred and change year old werewolf resistance fighter. As for can we do it, yes. Will it be easy, no. I'm gonna get my ass shot to ribbons down there, and you guys are going to have all manner of madness to address."

~

Sara quirks a brow at Angelo, head tilting curiously. Well. It's something, at least. She doesn't make any further comment, though the way she crosses her arms and sets her jaw suggests she's at least got some thoughts.

~

Angelo answers Jericho's question: "I can do it for long enough. I don't get the feeling I'll need to do it more than three times. I'm going to need the cursebreaker for the conditioning at least four times, and heal at least six times, and that'll drain me halfway. Anyway, to answer Nancy, I think anyone that's actually there, is aware that there are hostages, now. Our captured Hydra goon told us a good bit about that. They might still be brainwashed, or have a thing like yours with the sugar. I can fix some of that. I'd be down to shields, light-blasts, and my staff, if it goes on for more than an hour. Frankly, if it goes on for more than … fifteen or twenty? It's too long."

"Would REALLY be nice to have a speedster or a brick along, though," he mutters.

~

Nancy nods in agreement with Partisan, looking over to Sara.

"She's not wrong. I was totally on board with her mission, but the training was tough. Every day after school. And I had finals! At least she respected that I needed my hands, but performing with a black eye for your finals piece… ?" She snorts then.

"I told the instructor it was a statement of how the music of Shostakovich was brutal and angry in it's passion. I got an A. But still, even training every day, and keeping up my training even now that I'm not with her, I know I now more then about 80 percent of people out there, but inside that building is gonna be some of the 20 percent that is better then me.

~

Jericho sighs.

"Angelo, with what you just said about the blood sugar for Nancy, I think it's safe to assume that similar, if not identical methods are used for their compliance these days. Maybe hostages for one or two who didn't turn out right. Not that it prevents them, I'm sure from inflicting a lot of psychological damage in the name of conditioning. And I can do a passable brick if we need a second. We have what we have at this point, aside from our extras not present."

There's a pause. "Sara you look like you're thinking."

~

Partisan slips back down into her seat, before propping her boots back up and lighting a fresh cigarette.

"Wish the kaibiles were on our side, I'd rattle this off in an afternoon without a problem. Everyone in America wants to do their own thing though, which I guess I understand but this is the result."

~

"Yes. Ten years NYPD is roughly equivalent to, what, two years of music school?" Sara arches a brow at Nancy. "Thank you for explaining to me how training is hard."

She pushes away from her spot, waving a hand.

"Whatever. I'll leave the planning to you professionals and take my amateur ass back to the city. Call me when you need your bus driver."

~

"My numbers come from the ghost in my head, Jeri," Angelo says. "From my better-be-temporary adviser who's apparently here for this mission. Anyway …"

He looks up at Partisan, "wait. Why can't they be on your side, Partisan? What's keeping that from happening?"

He paces a bit, or rather, the Seraph does, and he lets it. The body language is … rather unlike his usual. Tighter, more military, not so unconsciously physical. He salutes Sara, saying «"Be safe, Witchblade"» … in a very old language. Indo-European. One of the old bearers spoke that one.

~

Well that could have gone better. But… then again, it could have gone worse.

"They tried to kill me, Ange. And will again. Oh and the rest of you if they find out you're connected to her. Luckily. she's jumped bodies twice since the last hit."

Jericho nods to Sara. Nothing really for him to say here and he does certainly understand.

~

"Wow, taking this a little personally, much? I wasn't saying you weren't better then me. Hell, everyone in this room is better then me. I get it. I was saying that Partisan will take whatever level you are at and then push you like you're a $20 whore! My level was just lower than what yours would be. I don't like the fact that people might end up dead any more then you do. And if you're being all pissy cause you're in a bus, stop whining, cause at least you're not sitting around getting to watch the fucking door."

Nancy leans back and frowns, "Fucking prima donna."

~

Partisan sighs "Sorry I'm such a bitch Sara, I don't mean to be. I wouldn't have invited you along if I thought you were a punk, I just don't want you getting hurt."

Puffing a bit more irritably now. "Everyone chill, alright? We can argue after this is done, but for now we have to think about somone more important than ourselves."

~

"Because I'm in the bus?" Sara turns back toward Nancy, incredulous. "Yes. Yes, little girl, that's why I'm pissed. I'm pissed about my personal glory here. Not about the potential for dead civilians while I sit around and do nothing to keep them safe, because the extent of what I can do for some other innocent civilians is drive a damned bus. But yeah, I'm pissed about waiting in the bus because it hurts my feelings. You go with that."

She shakes her head to the Partisan, grimacing.

"Stick with the not able to keep up, Part. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. It's everyone else that ends up getting hurt. I gotta go, I'm going to run out of time on the rental. Call me when it's time."

~

Partisan snaps, and holds a single finger up to Nancy. Making direct eye contact, before looking back to Sara with a frown.

"Until then Sara, keep in touch alright?"

~

"That could've gone better," Angelo says to himself. "I don't know why I thought it would go better though."

The Seraph seems to agree with him, but then, ten thousand plus years ago? The ghost didn't understand women all that well, and these ones are all crazier than priest-kings. Who were pretty crazy.

He sighs, and walks over to the equipment racks, looking for something he's pretty sure won't be there. A spring-loaded, extensible quarterstaff. Such a thing has to exist, right?

~

Jericho rubs his temples. Oy. Yeah. Okay.

"Sara before you go is there any gear you'd like me to collect that might be handy for you?"

Lets all hope the rescue goes better than the planning session. That's the only thing Jer cares about.

~

Nancy is about to retort to Sara when Partisan gives her the 'Shut it' finger of doom. She crosses her arms over her chest and thrums her fingers on her elbows, keeping her comments to herself. Yep, this is gonna be greeeeeeat!

~

"Yeah, I'll keep in touch," Sara promises, then shakes her head to Jericho. "I'm good. You want to pack a few extra guns I won't say no, but I've sort of got my own armory," she says, raising her right hand to jangle the Witchblade at her wrist. And on that note, she steps back outside. At least warehouse doors don't really lend themselves to slamming.

~

Partisan nods softly, waiting for Sara to depart.

"Your heart was in the right place, but your aim was wide of the mark Nancy. If you wanna play games upfront you need to be much more comfortable with violence, but that isn't the sort of person you are and I promised you I'd support you in whatever decision you wanted to make. You're doing something important, if I was going to bring you along in name only I'd leave you to babysit the birds which fly themselves entirely. You can go google if it you don't believe me, but the rearguard is the most trusted position on this little team. You have a profound personal stake not just because of who it is we're freeing, and I know you won't fail as long as you are alive."

~

"Are we finished with this briefing? If so, I have … apparently I have a visit to Gotham to make, before I get to come back and sleep for four hours," Angelo says in a frustrated voice.

"And, hey, do you have anything in the way of an extensible quarterstaff, like that one they had on the TV show with the Rangers? I keep finding myself without a useful weapon and I end up wasting energy on wing attacks."

~

Nancy says, "It's not the violence I have trouble with. It's the taking of a human life. But… fine. I realize she wants to be more helpful to this then watching a bus, especially if she thinks she can help save a life. Hell, if we could just gas the place and waltz in with our gas masks, that would be ideal."

She looks over to Angelo and smirks. "You don't look like the Bab 5 sorta guy, but yeah, the staff rocked."

She sighs and links her hand with Bobby and gestures with her chin to the car.

"We should get going. Bobby has work in the morning and I have a second audition."

~

Jericho laughs somewhat lightly.

"I'll look around Ange. Possible I can scare something up. I have a few tricks." He nods over to Parti as if to say, I think we're done here, right?


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