Yelena watched Faye closely. The young woman wasn’t used to taking charge of situations that involved more than herself. That much was obvious, but Yelena wondered if Faye realized the potential she had within her to do so. One thing was for certain, the Russian would discuss it with Faye as they made the trip back to New York to hopefully rescue Robert. Looking over at Tim and the others, she took a deep breath and finally laid out plans she hoped they liked.

“Let’s get disguises loaded up and ready to go. Zoe is right, less vehicles the better. We change into them when we reach close to hospital Robert is located. I go in using doctor disguise with Cassius pretending to be patient. Is only way to get to burn unit.”

Looking over at Void, Challenge and Lyrix, Yelena smiled slightly.

“When we get ready to bring Robert out, we will need distraction to take attention away from area we are bringing Robert out of. Think you three can give us what we need?”

Looking over at Tim and Takashi, Yelena smiled again.

“Tim…I think assault vehicle would be good idea, but keep it well hidden. Make sure you keep face obscured from cameras and like. If they see your face and cover is blown, we lose. With your eyes on the inside, you can feed info to Zoe so she can ell us what we need to do through ear bud communication devices. Takashi….while I know you not like to use powers, is important for you to use them and create smoke screen for us when time comes. We make sure you not overdo it and possibly hurt someone.”

Takashi looked around nervously at the others.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea? What if I screw things up and end up killing someone…like I have already?”

Yelena gave the young man a warm smile.

”Is why Faye and Shawn will be waiting for signal if something happens.”

Looking over at Faye and Shawn, Yelena nodded.

“Faye….you and Shawn will be scouts on perimeter of hospital. Your force field may come in handy if operatives for government get wind of us and try to stop us or if Takashi cannot stop self. Shawn’s infrared sight will be huge asset in dark not to mention fact he can defend self rather well.”

With another look around at the group, she nodded again.

"Ready?"

Tim , nodded and looked to Takashi "Saddle up 'Smokey' yur riddin with me in the assault vehicle ." he said as he started towards the back door, pulling his hair back into a pony tail and out to the barn where the vehicles were stored. "Yur gonna do jus' fine, thar boy. I've worked undercover fur years."
Tim thought he could boost the young man's confidence on the ride back to New York City, with a little man to man talk and giving him a familiarity ride in the assault vehicle.

Siege grabbed a box of costumes to load into the back of the ambulance, and took a moment to translate to Shawn that they would be scouting the outside perimeter of the hospital while Yelena and Cassius found out when and where Di Vine would be transported. ‘Will have to finish tactile sign lesson in back of ambulance,’ she added.

They piled into the ambulance and Lyrix’s more inconspicuous car, with Cowboy and Takashi ready and waiting in the assault vehicle. Soon enough, they were spaced along the breezy motorway, headed south. Sitting in the back of the ambulance, bounding long with a gurney and the swinging cables of a defibrillator, Siege suddenly thought of Antimatter Woman and how much riding into battle without her felt like jumping into a well: dangerous, dark and stupid, and possibly resulting in death. She licked her dry lips and focused on repeating the signs Shaw showed her back to the palms of his hands.

It was a long ride, but the clustered, glittering buildings of the Big Apple seemed to appear far too soon. She wasn’t sure she had a good grasp of the letters after ‘S,’ but it was hard to worry about with thoughts of the swift-approaching mission taking over her mind. She updated Shawn, ‘passed the last toll, and officially are in NY,’ she typed. ‘You can be patient going through rehabilitation on hospital grounds, and I will be your nurse. Should be inconspicuous that way. We keep eye out for trouble and wait as backup. I am hooked up to O through hidden earpiece for instructions. If all goes well, we don’t do a thing.’

She hesitated, looking at the sightless face of the boy, the too-young boy who read Machiavelli—which made her shake her head, but the choice in literature was all the more evidence of his cynical teenaged world. ‘You don’t have to come,’ she typed to him. The label-maker tape ran out and she began to fuss with it. Shawn took over, inserting a new roll of the glossy tape that came out dimpled with brail after she typed into it. She sighed, and wrote to him again, ‘You can wait in ambulance to receive Di Vine, if want to. You didn’t sign up to fight Riggs Act.’

Just then, the ambulance pulled to a stop. The small rectangular windows, painted with the rich tones of a dying afternoon, showed that they had turned into a small parking lot overshadowed by ancient brick structures all leaning against each other. They were not on the hospital grounds, and would not drive up with the ambulance until it was time to fetch Di Vine. From here they had only a short walk.

Toril had used the Paul Carson identity in the past. Surge must have remembered that Carson's birthdate, address and workplace were all related to significant events and statistics to Toril's own life and thus it was an alias that he knew well.

A small bald headed man in his late forties, who had the look of gopher, popped his head up over his monitor when Toril entered the lab. "Yes? How can I help you?"

"Doctor Paul Carson." Announced Toril.

The man's face stretched into a warm smile at the announcement. He hopped off his stool and marched toward Toril with his hand extended. "Pleased to meet you Doctor Carson.", he greeted shaking Toril's hand exuberantly. "We don't get many visitor's from the west coast, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Toril just smiled, curious of the man's zealous welcome then it became all to clear as he introduced himself.

"I'm Doctor Bourne. You know I've applied several times to the Seattle Children's Hospital, you have an amazing facility which is why I am curious why they would even be interested in our little gene in the pool."

The doctor snickered at his little joke and Toril feigned a laugh. At least, he was friendly and looking for a good reference he considered, ditching Bourne should be easy.

The small man, shrunk even more by comparison to Dr. Carson, scurried back over to his computer and beckoned his colleague to follow with a fervency that denoted that he had something of importance to reveal. "See here, Doctor Carson," the doctor said as he pointed to an enlarged picture of a cell's genes. "I have isolated another mutation that can be associated with the meta-syndrome."

Toril took a good look at the screen and checked the location of the genes. "Colour blindness?", questioned Toril.

"Yes, very good." Replied Bourne impressed, or possibly just acting that way to make a good impression. "But this patient is not colour blind. This could be another replication associated with the syndrome."

Toril knew without a doubt the doctor was right, his own research had revealed it a year ago and RAID was naturally aware of it as well. Bourne's discovery only meant that more and more meta-humans were going to be flagged in the next few years and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it.

Toril knew that there was no one particular gene that attributed to the powers of a meta-human and the so called 'meta-gene' was only a myth created by some comic book writer. It was through a process of accelerated genetic recombination that 'homo-sapien-meta' developed several mutations in their code producing markers that could only be identified as a syndrome, however, many of these mutations also appeared in the general population and so it was not possible to make a conclusive identification of a meta-human from just a DNA sample. Colour blindness, was just one of the many mutations that a meta-human's code replicated in error during recombination and there were many more, some so subtle that with the current technology scientists remained unsure whether in fact they were part of the meta-syndrome. Every meta-human also had a different variation of the syndrome, a different combination, and so long as geneticists could not without a doubt map these mutations and fully define the syndrome, children with meta-abilities could be flagged but not labeled until their powers manifested.

"So are you, biochemical, Doctor Carson?" Asked Bourne as he sifted through some files.

"Molecular genetics." Answered Toril.

"So then you are quite familiar with meta-syndrome genes."

Toril nodded. If the doctor only knew just how familiar.

"Perhaps then you would like to review some of our own research?", the doctor pulled out a pen and wrote something down on a pad of paper then handed the sheet to Toril. "Here's your account information to access the hospital records. I am afraid I don't have much else prepared for today, I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"That's quite alright." Toril told him and wandered over to a spare terminal.

"Just be careful what you look at." Bourne warned, and prompted by Carson's curious expression he continued to inform him that RAID was in the building and that rumours were that they had captured a powerful meta-human that was severely injured.

"Really?" Toril responded, acting surprised. "Have any blood samples been sent your way?"

"I wish." Doctor Bourne snorted. "No, they got everything locked down pretty tight around here, and I'd have better luck drawing blood from stone, than getting anything from them."

Toril nodded and logged onto the system. While he browsed through the database testing his access privileges he couldn't help notice that Bourne kept looking over at him with a questioning stare until he just came out and asked, "So, do you work out or something?"

"Never a day in my life." Quipped Toril with a sparkling smile. "You?"

Yelena was silent the whole trip to the city. So much was going through her head she had trouble focusing on just one thing. Was Robert alright? What sort of resistance were they going to encounter? Was RAID going to bring out the heavy guns? Did they have something up their sleeve? Would she be able to pull this off long enough to get Robert away from these people who saw him as nothing but a lab rat? And if they hurt him in any way, she would NOT be happy.

Of course, along with all of that, Yelena was going through the rescue plan. Zoe had given her the credentials she needed to get into the hospital and she was confident in the young woman’s abilities. Of that she had no worries. It was the other doctors and nurses she would inevitably come in contact with that she was concerned about. Of course, with this hospital being a teaching one, she wasn’t worried about others questioning her presence. It was some of that medical jargon she knew she would have trouble with. Hopefully she’d heard enough throughout her life she would be able to have SOME clue as to what they were talking about.

As Yelena sat in the back of the ambulance with Fay and Shawn, she wondered if the young man would be able to handle things when the going got bad. And it was going to get bad. There was no doubt about that. Yelena just hoped it didn’t get bad enough people lost their lives. Even the RAID agents she knew were going to try and thwart their plans.

Closing her eyes, Yelena visualized the floor plan Zoe had shown them. The easiest way in and out, at least in theory, were the D elevators just off East Blvd. through the rehab area on the bottom floor. That would bring her right up to the thirst floor on the other side of the burn unit Robert was being treated in. Of course, if things got bad, she would have to find an alternate way out and that’s where the stairs would come in handy. Or the roof entrance that would lead to the helipad.

All too soon the ambulance came to a halt and when she opened her eyes, Yelena blinked and saw the setting sun reflected in the windows of the nearby buildings. She detested this city. It was way too crowded, way too dirty and way too dangerous for people like her and the friends wither her now, both old and new, risking their lives to save one of their own.

Giving everyone a quick glance, Yelena morphed into her doctor disguise. For a brief moment, her true self was glimpsed as her skin turned blue and her eyes turned gold. Never lasting for longer than a few seconds, her disguise was in place with the next blink of an eye. Looking like she was wearing scrubs and a doctor’s coat, she sat next to Cassius, who was gathering up the hospital gown he would need to change into after he got into the hospital, and looked over at Fay. Giving the young woman a soft smile, she spoke in the voice she was going to use. It was accent free and it had a softness to it.



“Well. I suppose we’re ready. Be careful, you two. If things go south, and there’s no chance of getting Robert, high tail it out of here, meet up with Tim and the others then get the hell out of the city. I’ll be sure to keep them occupied enough so they won’t go looking for the rest of you.”

Looking out the back windows, she saw Tim, decked out in the security guard uniform, complete with hat in place, and Takashi walking towards the ambulance.

“Everything OK so far, O?”

Zoe’s voice quietly sounded in her.

“Ready when you are.”

Yelena took a deep breath then slowly stepped from the ambulance and closed the doors behind her. Glancing around, she looked for anything out of the ordinary. Once more Zoe’s voice spoke to her telling her all was clear. Joining Tim as he walked towards the hospital entrance, she put on a bright smile and tried to look the part of an energetic, young doctor. Truth be told, she was very concerned and not the least ready to smile brightly at anyone or anything. She just wanted this to be over with and Robert safe and sound, back with his friends. Looking at Tim and Takashi, she nodded.

“Another night shift for you too, huh?”

Shawn read the label and let a sneer curl the corners of his mouth.

“Yes I did,” he replied, his hands moving with a suddenly incomprehensible speed now that Siege had begun her rudimentary sign training. “When you told me who you were and I agreed to come. A lot more fun than my old job.” There was a pause in which Shawn adjusted the strap on his label maker, his head turning slightly as though he were scanning the view out the windshield and on either side of him. As he felt the ambulance slow to a stop, the smirk faded and a look of businesslike seriousness fell over Shawn’s face.

“You’re going to cover my eyes?” he asked, “so I can use my powers?” Straightening expectantly, he turned and ran his hands along the wall behind him, ensuring there was no window. He then made sure to face the wall and let the shocking green glow take over his eyes before turning and scanning the figures in the vehicle with him.
He watched as two others slipped out and walked with long, purposeful strides toward the enormous building that was now a hive of movement among very distinct pockets of hot and cold.

Watching Cassius put on a heavy limp as he walked along beside Yelena, his shook his head, another grin curling the corners of his mouth. This was an interesting group he’d fallen across indeed.

“Okay,” he said, “just show me where to go.”

For the last couple of hours, the two geneticists had conversed from behind their monitors, sharing their research and even trading off some of their recent discoveries. Toril was careful not to tell Dr. Bourne too much, else he let the cat out of the bag, but he found the man quite pleasant to be around and had learned quite quickly that he was both a man of science and morals. He disagreed with the flagging of children just because they had the potential to become something that the world feared, especially when at least eighty percent of all tagged infants only shared the common mutations of the meta-syndrome.

Dr. Bourne also shared some stories that Toril had never heard before. He told him that R.A.I.D. had barged into his lab a year ago and went through all is records without a search warrant. 'They could so whatever they wanted when it concerned a meta-human', he repeated and went on to tell him that not three days later, one of his patients born with a genetic heart defect was taken away in the middle of night from his home and his parents. When he was done the story, the little man's face was red and Toril thought he was going hit something but he cooled off quickly, embarrassed that he was ranting to a man he had barely known for an hour.

Toril lifted his head toward the doctor then with the solemn look of a man who seemed much more than a researcher. "Don't ever be ashamed about speaking your mind, Doctor Bourne. We can't let organizations like R.A.I.D. dictate their versions of the law to us. They have to be held accountable for their actions."

Doctor Bourne nodded and for a few moments just stared at Doctor Carson as if he had seen a ghost then forced his eyes back to his monitor and continued typing. He peeked his up though and said, "My name is Chris by the way."

For a brief moment there, the doctor's reaction had worried him but he chalked it up to his nerves just making him edgy. Toril smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Chris, call me Paul."

Toril returned to checking the hospital records for anything that might give him a hint when Perovanini's unscheduled move might be, but it was like surfing a mind field. He had to be careful not to make any direct inquiries to room 305 in the burn unit, else he was sure R.A.I.D. would come screaming into the lab in a matter of moments. After another ten minutes of fruitless searches Toril finally gave up and realized that his current cover wasn't going to get him anywhere at his rate. He leaned forward and ran his hand through his hair out of frustration, and perhaps he was just being paranoid again but he could have swore that Doctor Bourne was steeling a look at him from over his screen.

Toril wasn't sure what his next move should be. A second operative was supposed to be activated but he hadn't the foggiest idea who that would be and he wasn't even sure if this other team of meta-humans were even in the hospital. With so many unanswered questions his training had taught him that he would be considered a liability to this mission so he had reached a quandary. Folding his hands behind his head, Toril leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling as if the answer might come crashing through and land in his lap.

"Doctor Carson." Called Bourne.

Toril pulled his eyes from the ceiling and found the doctor standing at a counter on the far side of the room. He had his back to him and was gathering up some vials and placing them in a tray, so Toril got out of his chair and strolled over to where he was working.

"You know I found it a little odd that a doctor from Seattle would come here," Bourne began, he eyes remaining fixed on his work, "and I found it even more odd when that doctor ended up looking like he could be tight-end for the New York Giants."

Toril could see where this was going and quickly looked to the doorways of the lab expecting to see R.A.I.D. agents barge in.

"I haven't called anyone." The doctor stated and continued putting together his tray of vials, samples, syringes and q-tips.

Toril was puzzled, but since his cover was blown he didn't seem any harm of speaking frankly. "So what now?"

"What now." Repeated Bourne. "What you are going to do now is go to room 304 in the burn unit and get some samples from Mr. Green.", he told him as he handed Toril the tray and gave him a key for the service elevator.

Toril took the tray and was unable to utter anything else but, "Why?"

Doctor Bourne gave a slight smile. "I consider myself a pretty good judge of character and you don't seem at all like one of the bad guys, Paul. I happened to see the man that R.A.I.D. brought in and he just didn't seem like a criminal either.", he began to slowly stroll back to his computer and Toril walked along with him listening intently. "You were right when you said we can't let R.A.I.D. dictate their version of the law to us, sometimes we have take a stand."

"You can get in trouble for this, Chris. This isn't your fight." Advised Toril.

Doctor Bourne stopped and turned toward the large man. "Oh, but it is. You see the boy that they took in the middle of the night was my nephew."

Toril understood then. "Thank you.", he said as he reached out and shook the man's hand.

"You better get going." Bourne told him, "If I suspected you, I am betting that R.A.I.D. may not be that far behind."

The fourth floor was mainly labs and offices, and Toril was pretty sure they wouldn't be wasting their physically monitoring the area, they would review the images later so he made sure he kept head down and eyes on the floor most of the time. He took the stairwell to avoid the elevator camera and from experience he simply avoided them.

When he opened the door to the third floor, a man in a dark blue suit appeared in front of him.

"Identification please."

Yelena’s credentials and key card let her through the normal locked doors of the hospital and sure enough, no one stopped to ask her what she was doing. They all assumed she was just a new intern reporting for duty. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Once she got inside, she looked around casually, seeking out all the surveillance cameras the hospital had in place as she helped Cassius towards the ER. All hallways and areas were pretty well covered, not leaving room for error. But, as Yelena knew better than anyone, where there was a will, there was always a way.

As they got close to the ER a nurse saw her helping Cassius and walked over to help her with her ‘patient’.

“What’s happened to this fellow….Dr..?”

“Martin….Angela Martin….I’m starting my first shift tonight. I’m to do my internship in the burn unit. Just so happens this fellow has burnt his leg pretty bad when he ran into a charcoal grill and the hot bed of coals ended up on his leg.”

The nurse quirked a brow and looked up at Yelena.

“Burn unit, huh? Good luck with that. Especially right now. Those dark suit goons have that place locked down tighter than a frogs ass right now. But they can’t keep it locked down to new patients. Not without looking for a hefty law suit from a patient who gets an infection because he wasn’t given proper treatment.”

Yelena quirked a brow.

“Dark suit goons?”

The nurse brushed her question off.

“I haven’t got the slightest clue what’s going on up there, all I know is that they are the biggest assholes in the world.”

Yelena furrowed her brows then.

“So what am I suppose to do with this poor soul?”

The nurse snorted and grabbed a wheelchair then handed Yelena a blank chart.

“We don’t even try to treat burn patients here in the ER. It’s too risky. There’s too much of a chance they’ll get an infection. We wheel them right up to the burn unit so they can be treated in a sterile room. Properly. And since your interning in the burn unit, you can escort our guest right on up. When you get up there, the duty nurse at the station will take this chart from you and get all the guys info while you prepare for his treatment.”

Yelena blinked and took the chart from the woman looking completely flabbergasted.

“You…..don’t treat them….in the ER?”

The nurse chuckled softly and wheeled Cassius into the elevator and more or less guided Yelena into the elevator with him.

“Welcome to Our Lady of Mercy, Dr Martin. We’re not your typical hospital. After all, our name DOES have the word Mercy in it.”

Yelena was confused for good reason. If Cassius couldn’t get changed into his hospital gown right away, what the hell were they going to do? She didn’t dare say a word as they rode the elevator up to the third floor. She was too worried about what she was going to do when she got up there and the elevator opened to a floor full of federal agents.

Of course she didn’t have the chance to make an alternative plan for all too soon the doors of the elevators opened and she came face to face with three dark suits. All of them looked poised to attack at any moment. Giving a yelp of alarm, she quickly jumped back and gave a wide eyes look to all of them.

“Don’t shoot!”

One of the agents, still looking like a coiled snake, reached his hand out to her.

“Identification, please”

Still looking like a deer in the headlights, Yelena blinked.

“What?”

The agent, not being too inclined to repeat himself, stepped forward and yanked her badge from around her neck. Thankfully the lanyard was designed to come apart if were ever yanked like that.

“Hey! You didn’t need to do that.”

The agent studied her credentials then spoke into his comm. unit.

“We have a Dr Angela Martin here. Looks like she’s bringing up a new patient.”

Before the agent could get a response back from anyone, there was a voice behind him that caused all of them to look back.

“No shit, Sherlock. He’s a burn victim and he needs to be placed in a sterile room. Right now. So move your asses out of my way so I can assist the intern, Dr Martin, and get this guy situated in his room.”

The petite, older woman addressing all the suits looked like she could have been a sweet grandmother, but there was no doubt she didn’t take any lip and she was in charge of the unit, regardless of what ANYONE said.

The agent, still holding Yelena’s credentials furrowed his brow.

“I’m under orders to verify all personnel. I can’t let her or the patient pass until I’ve got confirmation.”

The woman put her hands on her hips and looked over the rim of her reading glasses to the man.

“Yeah? Well my heart bleeds for you. If you don’t move your ass out of the way and let this patient AND doctor pass, you’ll have a law suit from the patient AND the nurses union for interfering with the treatment we’re ORDERED to give by FEDERAL LAW. You can verify the identification as we’re getting this patient prepped for treatment. Besides, the doctor here is late. If we hold her up any more, she’ll be docked half a days pay. I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell don’t want a pissed off doctor on my hands. I’m nothing compared to them.”

The agent swallowed visibly then. Obviously he’d had to contend with this nurse before. He looked at Yelena then and held her credentials up.

“Fine….but I hold onto these.”

Yelena furrowed her brows and finally nodded.

“What ever….just let me get this patient to his room.”

The agents slowly moved aside to allow Yelena and Cassius to pass. As she walked out into the lobby, she saw the dark suits, the nurses…and the tallest, broadest doctor she’d ever seen before. Not to mention the fact he was about the most handsome man she’d ever seen. Finally tearing her eyes from the blond man, she looked around again. They were headed towards room 305. The nurse turned them into a large room with several beds in it. This set Yelena and Cassius up right across the hall from Roberts room.

Trying not to look conspicuous, Yelena looked into Roberts room and all she could see was a large, hyperbaric chamber. And more dark suits. Looking at the nurse who escorted them into the room, she inquired as to what was going on.

“Is this place usually this secure? If it is, I’m surprised anyone comes here for treatment.”

The nurse began gathering up supplies and huffed.

“No. Apparently there’s a special guest in our presence. Don’t know who it is, though. Rumor has it he was part of that group of freaks that blew up that warehouse. His buddies left him behind to fry. How do ya like that? Those freaks can’t even take care of their own right.”

Yelena tried to smile but she just couldn’t get herself to do it. Was the world really that tainted against her and her friends? Obviously. Look at the way they were treating Robert and how this woman felt about them. The woman rummaged around the area then muttered a curse under her breath.

“Ah shit….I’ll be right back. We ran out of visors. I’ll be right back. Go ahead and get him prepped.”

The nurse left the room and Yelena helped Cassius up to the bed and had him stretch out then pulled the curtain around his bed to give some privacy. As she pulled the curtain closed, she caught sight of the Adonis like doctor. For a brief moment their eyes met before the curtain was closed completely around Cassuis. Hopefully Zoe’s devices were picking up all the audio and visuals they could. Of course planting the button sized camera on the OLOM pin of her coat lapel was a good idea.

Quickly helping Cassius out of his clothes and into the hospital gown, Yelena quickly donned her yellow treatment gown and gloves then took a roll of gauze and quickly covered a portion of the young mans leg and doused it with saline water, making it look as though she were in the middle of treating him when the nurse returned. As she worked, she spoke very softly to Zoe.

“Looks like we’ll need something to keep the nurse occupied. Think you can handle that?”

Toril handed the FBI agent his identification and the man scanned it with one of RAID's hand held data-link devices. His picture, name and all information pertinent to the hospital appeared on the screen.

"Visiting from Seattle, huh?" The agent commented, as he perused Doctor Carson's file and made a note that he had been cleared by Doctor Bourne who had been on staff for over eight years.

Toril nodded, and patiently waited his clearance, holding his tray in front of him. There was an old nurse making a scene not to far away from him and she was making the agents edgy. In his experience, edgy agents could be just as bad as alert ones and he was relieved when the woman finally said her piece.

The agent's eyes looked up at the large man, then back down to his screen. "What do you bench?"

The question surprised Toril. He hadn't prepared himself for gym talk and he quickly calculated what a normal man his size would be able to bench. He was pretty sure that if blurted out that his usual was around 1300 lbs, he'd have one hell of a fight on his hands. "About 425.", he answered nonchalantly.

"Got me beat buddy, er, uh... doctor. Sorry. I thought all you doctors played golf in your spare time." Quipped the agent to cover-up his faux-pas.

Toril smiled. "Not my kind of past-time."

"Nor mine." Added the agent, "Sorry for the formalities we have a situation. There's no need to worry though, we have everything under control. You can proceed on to," he had to check his screen to jog his memory, " Mr. Green in room BU-304."

"Thank you, agent."

The agent stepped aside and Toril continued on his way, following behind a blonde haired intern, with fairly decent legs, pushing a scruffy looking young man in a wheel chair. When he stopped at the nurses station for Mr. Green's file, he lost sight of her and focused on the task at hand.

"This is I.C.U. 3000." The nurse told him. "You want to go to the Burn Unit, through those doors". She pointed behind him.

Toril thanked the nurse and followed her direction. An honest mistake, but a wake up call nonetheless, he had to concentrate on what he was doing.

With the proper paper work, Toril then proceeded down the aisle of the Burn Unit to room 304 and he could see at the end of the hallway, the blonde intern walking past the room and taking a peek inside. As soon as she left, two concerned agents exited the room and watched her return to the 300 ward.

The agents who were stimulated by the inquisitive intern now had there suspicions raised and Toril could tell that they were beginning to question things they normally wouldn't give a second thought. "Crap!" Toril thought, and just did his best to behave like any other doctor that might have to fight for his life in an enclosed space with only one exit. The agents stared at him with the ferocity of two doberman pincers and the personality of them as well and with a slight nod, slipped into room 304 before they could consider questioning him just to appease their heightened states.

Toril was glad to see that there was only his patient in the room, and he was unconscious. He needed to think. "Who was that intern?" Toril wondered. She had made a bee line right for room 305 and then beat it back to BU 300, where he had noticed she had left her patient. Could she be one of the team? If she was, Toril hoped that those agents didn't pick up on her scent or his for that matter.

Special Agent Simon Henkel walked quickly down the hallway while trying to sip his coffee on the way. He opened the door at the very end and entered into the darkened room illuminated only by the glow of computer screens. He closed the door behind him and wove his way into the crowded surveillance room that was still being run by R.A.I.D.

"What ya got?" He asked the tall man sitting with his back to the door.



Supervising Agent Blake Birkshire of R.A.I.D., was not used to being addressed in such a manner but between Henkel and his recent phone call from an irate Michael Eden he was getting used to it.

He swiveled around in his seat to allow Henkel to see the monitor and pointed to the two small screens in the top left hand corner. The FBI agent leaned in, gulping his coffee and studied the the tiny images.

"Can you make these things bigger?" He grumbled.

Birkshire clicked the mouse a few times and split the screen into two larger videos. On one side was a pretty, blonde haired intern peeking in to room 305 and the other a large fair haired man entering room 304. There was no way they could have been aware of their micro-cams, that were all over the burn unit.

"Who the hell cleared that guy?" Henkel expressed, gesturing to the large man on the screen with his coffee cup.

"They both check out." Birkshire informed the agent. "Doctor Paul Carson, visiting from Seattle and the intern is Angela Martin, she's just new."

"Check out my ass!" Exclaimed Henkel.

Birkshire agreed with his colleagues assessment, although he wasn't so colourful with his words. He just calmly leaned back in his chair pondering their next move.

"Where do you think the rest of them are?" Henkel wondered.

"Probably doing what we are right now, agent Henkel." Surmised Birkshire still contemplating their next act. "We don't want to spook them off. This is our chance to get them all with one net."

"Agreed." Nodded Henkel. "Should we proceed with the plan? We already have Di Vine preped."

Birkshire checked another screen to his right, where there was the familiar face of reddish haired girl, the name above her head simple read 'Zoe'. "This is a sensitive matter, agent Henkel. Someone is very interested in this girl and it would be in our best interest to not let this one get away."

Henkel studied the file for a moment. "I'll have my men do a perimeter sweep."

"I've already taken care of that." Advised Birkshire.

"I thought I was supposed to be in control of this operation." Countered Henkel.

Birkshire looked up at Henkel. "And you are, but my men are specially trained in these matters. They are equipped with state of the art equipment designed specifically for missions of this nature." Birkshire then looked back to the screen with the images of the two doctors. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance for some heroics soon enough."

Henkel looked back at the screen displaying two meta-human that had infiltrated the burn unit. "I'll alert my men to keep an eye on them but not engage. We'll proceed with the plan and take them all together." He chuckled, "They won't even know what hit 'em."

“Looks like we’ll need something to keep the nurse occupied. Think you can handle that?”


For a moment, the woman called Killswitch said nothing. Moving images around on the screen in front of her, she concentrated a little harder until the endless lines of code seemed to reflect back into her very retinas. Finally, the cool feminine voice sounded in Cassius’ and Yelena’s ears.
“Alright,” she said, “first, that nurse’s elevator is going to stall. I don’t want to hold that one for more than five or ten minutes to keep from looking too suspicious. When she gets to her floor, every computer on the floor is going to blue screen. Don’t worry if that means nothing to you, it’s upsetting to the average person.”

At this, Cassius chuckled to himself which he quickly turned into a convincingly pained moan. “Dude…” he said, looking helplessly to Yelena and speaking loudly enough for his voice to barely carry out into the hall, “you got any pain meds?”

“You’ll have probably no more than 30 minutes from what I’ve seen of that nurse,” came Zoe’s voice again, “so work quickly. Too many things go wrong an those agents are going to get nervous.” Back in her hidden basement, O lit a cigarette and leaned back in the chair, her hard eyes boring into the screen. The urge to travel and seek out more hidden information pulled hard at her, but she was the group’s only background support and she couldn’t afford to disappear even momentarily and risk seeing the big picture.

Glancing over to the laptop, she scanned the tiled videos transmitting from the cameras on each of their collars, pausing on Cassius’ which was showing just a white wall.

“Dominic,” she said after another moment, “if something happens, don’t hesitate.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From outside, standing with Fay, Shawn squinted from behind the gauze over his eyes, tracking with silent focus as the two figures that were Yelena and Cassius mingled among the many other colors. He was fairly certain he’d managed to keep an eye on them as they moved through the hospital but the movement and many walls was beginning to wear on his head. Rubbing his temples against the dull ache and waited, watching.

A flat black coloured armoured transport rumbled into the docking bay of Our Lady of Mercy and backed into the third loading bay so that it's back door was level with and butted up against the cement platform. The heavy back doors swung open and four RAID enforcers stepped out and secured the bay door while the driver called his superior on his secure walkie talkie to alert him of their arrival.

"We're in position, sir."

The Supervising R.A.I.D. agents 'palmtop' sounded. It had a specialized secure phone built into it, but under the circumstances Birkshire's responses were still short and cryptic.



Henkel had been waiting for a call from the armoured transport and when Birkshire confirmed it's arrival with a subtle nod, he immediately contacted his partner.



Jameson was literally begging one of his fellow agents to swap scrubs with him when he got the call from Henkel.

"Jameson" He answered, while looking in disgust at his reflection in the mirror over the wash basins. He couldn't figure out why his costume was lavender while everyone else had the usual hospital teal.

"It's arrived." Henkel told him.

Jameson turned to the other agents and made a sign with his free hand to get the ball rolling when he got the news. Immediately all of the F.B.I. that were dressed as hospital personal checked their weapons and prepared for DiVine's arrival.

"How does he look?" Asked Henkel, and Jameson walked over to and took one more look at the cadaver that they borrowed to replace DiVine. He couldn't believe how lucky they were in finding a body that resembled the old guy so much. Not that it mattered, since he would be covered up, but one would be hard pressed to spot the differences at a distance.

"Perfect." Said Jameson, grimacing as he caught sight of himself in another mirror.

"By the way," Mentioned Henkel "Is lavender your colour?"

Jameson just shook his head angrily when he learned that Henkel was behind the colour mix up and he knew then that the bastard had been probably watching him the entire time. He turned around and sneered in the direction of one the micro cameras.

Henkel laughed as he watched his partner on the screen in front of him. "You watch your ass.", he told him.

"Isn't that your job?" Quipped Jameson before the call ended.

Kidding aside, Jameson pulled out his glock and made sure it was ready for action, then he made one last sweep of the spare operating room they had borrowed to make sure that everything was in place so that they could make the switch and then proceed with their pretend surgery.

The limo ride to the hospital proved to be one of the most interesting car rides Jeb had ever experienced. The man who had introduced himself as "Surge" spent the majority of the ride talking, explaining to Jeb that his "interview" had been completely staged and setup by BEACON, an organization dedicated to the protection of meta-humans. And apparently Surge or someone at BEACON had found out about Jeb's unique abilities and had arranged for his move to the U.S. via the interview that Jeb now realized was not going to happen.

Surge spent almost the entire limo ride introducing Jeb to the events that culminated in the scenario he was now being recruited for; the Riggs Act, R.A.I.D., BEACON, Surge's role and interest, the band of meta-human heroes even now arriving in the city to effect the rescue of "Di Vine", Toril's description and mission, and why the subterfuge regarding Jeb's interview and the need to bring him to New York City. By the time the limo arrived at the hospital, Jeb felt he had a fairly good overview of the situation at hand.

"And what if I simply say no, and get out of the limo right now?" the young Canadian inquired of Surge.

"That certainly is your choice," Surge replied, "but keep this in mind: right now, the Riggs Act and R.A.I.D. are burdens to those of us in the U.S. But their ambition won't keep them there. Before long, they'll sway governments around the world to pass similar legislation. If you choose not to act now, you may have no choice down the road."

"Damn!" thought Jeb. "He really knows where to hit me where it counts."

Surge directed the limo driver to park in the back of the hospital, next to a door clearly marked "Roof Access". Surge handed Jeb a makeshift architectural drawing of the hospital, and an identification badge. The badge had Jeb's picture positioned just above the words "Jeb Corvus, Kinesiology Intern". Jeb chuckled. "No fake name or persona?"

"You're Canadian, R.A.I.D. won't know about you." Surge responded. "Yet." A sly grin crept across the older mans face. "Plus, the less lies you have to keep track of, the better for you should you become discovered. Toril should be in Room 304 of the Burn Unit, you should be able to make your way their across the roof. As usual, both R.A.I.D. and the FBI are overly confident that their internal security is enough to retain possession of "Di Vine"."

Jeb departed the limo and accessed the stairs to the roof. Following the map, he quickly traversed the top of the hospital to a spot that should be directly above room 304. He phased himself through the roof, dropping down into the room unnoticed by its two occupants. Solidifying only the bottoms of his shoes to keep himself from continuing to drop through floors, Jeb realized that beside himself, the only occupants of the room were the patient in the bed, and what was quite possibly the tallest man he'd ever met apparently taking a sample from the man in the bed.

Jeb made the rest of his body corporeal, which drew the attention of the of the tall man. Slowly approaching the bed, Jeb introduced himself. "You must be Toril. Your friend Surge said that I might be of some use to you."

As Yelena looked like she was working diligently on Cassius, she spoke softly to Zoe again.

“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

A prickling of warning ran through her. Knowing they were doing the right thing by trying to rescue Robert from the hands of the authorities, she couldn’t help but think of the Spartans and how they held off a huge army only to fall after wearing themselves down so much they had no fight left in them.

“Something tells me we’re getting ready to run straight into a hornets nest. Get ready for just about anything now.”

Cassius actually winked at Yelena. Either he really was an adrenaline junkie or he had no idea what they were going to be up against. These guys didn’t play well with others. When the flustered, agitated nurse came back, she was fit to be tied.

“That stupid elevator got stuck – again. I’ve told maintenance about that thing I don’t know how many times. One of these times it’s gonna get stuck with a patient in it and we’re gonna have our asses handed to us.”

As she walked over to check out Yelena’s work, she raised her brows when she saw that Yelana had the wound wrapped up neatly and the patient was apparently resting comfortably.

“Well…..that was pretty quick work doc. And you wrapped it loose enough so it would get some air but tight enough to keep dirt out.”

The nurse looked around and nodded.

“And I see you used the silver sulfadine from the fridge. That stuff’s the greatest. Let’s get sleeping beauty to his room. We’ll have to take him to room 303, right across the hall. I’ll clean this place up when we get him settled.”

Yelena held her breath the whole time and didn’t let it out until the nurse said it was time to move Cassius. Giving a nervous laugh, she nodded and stood up, pulling the curtain open and seeing the two other suits in room 305 she blinked.

“Goodness….two more men in that room to watch over an incapacitated patient? Is he really that dangerous?”

The nurse furrowed her brows and looked over her reading glasses towards Roberts room and snorted.

“No. He can’t move. I think their just trying to put on a good show for a pretty blond. But that’s just my opinion. Don’t take it for gold.”

Yelena looked at the nurse with a blank expression then realized what she was referring to. Again she laughed nervously and waved off her words.

“Nah….I think they are just trying to give you a hard time.”

The nurse laughed this time.

“Honey….they’ve done that since they arrived same time that poor soul did. I can’t wait for them to leave this hospital and let us return to normal. If there even is such a thing anymore.”

The nurse opened the door of the room and called for a couple of nurses and orderly’s to help wheel the bed Cassius was on into the room the nurse said he was to go into. Little did Yelena or Cassius know the ‘nurses’ and ‘orderly’s’ were really RAID and FBI agents in disguise.

As they helped wheel Cassius into the room, Yelena noticed the way all the people on the floor seemed to glance at her and Cassius. Not just a normal glance and a nod hello, but more of a suspicious glance and taking note of where she was going and how she was moving. Like she was being sized up. Needless to say, the prick of warning became more noticeable.

Ignoring the looks she was getting, Yelena helped get Cassius into the room and when the extra personnel left the room, she looked over at the nurse and pulled the yellow treatment gown off her.

“Could you go get some water for our guest? I’m sure he’ll be thirsty when he wakes up. At least, all the other patients always tell me they are when they wake up. I think the sedative makes get a dry mouth.”

The nurse nodded and smiled.

“Sure…and your right on your thinking. The sedative does give them dry mouth. An unfortunate side affect. I’ll get some ice too.”

Yelena smiled back.

“Thanks.”

When the nurse left the room, she closed the door behind her. Yelena made sure the door was fully closed before she spoke to Cassius and Zoe.

“Cassius…I have a feeling their getting ready to move Robert. We need to be ready to move. And if things start going bad, remember the beds have steel bottoms. Are we all in place and ready to go, O?”