MAU: Infinite Crisis

Part 4

It was well into the afternoon when the team Johanae was waiting for
arrive. While she waited she decided against immediately recovering the
alien machine to keep whatever evidence there may be.

So instead she questioned the neighbors. After knocking on the door of
the center apartment a teenage girl wrapped in a bed sheet opened the
door slightly, "Yes?"

"Hello Miss, my name is Johanae Mars. I work for CSIS and I'm here
investigating a possible abduction," she said while showing her
identification.

"So, you're like a cop or something?" the girl asked, seemingly just
woken up and still in a daze.

"... Yes I suppose so. If it's alright with you, I would like to ask
some questions about the previous day till now."

"...Hmm? Oh I'm sorry, I just woke up with this huge headache so it's
hard to think. But, um, sure just gimme a minute to get dressed ok?"

"Sure, I'll just be waiting out here then."

"Ok," said the girl as she closed the door.

A few minutes later the girl opened the door and invited Johanae in. As
Johanae walked in, she was surprised that the teenagers apartment was
literally just one room with a little alcove in the back for a bathroom.

"Well I'm Trish," she said sitting on the pull out bed. She then pointed
to the still sleeping boy behind her. "And this is my boyfriend Greg."

"Alright Trish. What can you tell me about Noel Arthur?"

Trish was still rubbing her temples wincing periodically, "... Who?"

"The person that lives in the apartment next door."

"Oh him! He introduced himself once after bringing my mail after it was
put in his mailbox by mistake. And another time he let me know I left my
keys in the door and... Oh shit, my keys!" She got up suddenly only to
sit back down, "Ow, my head. I didn't think I drank that much," she said
wincing again as she rubbed the temple on the right side of her head.

As she did that, Johanae noticed where Trish was rubbing that it had the
colour of a bluish, purple.

"Excuse me Trish, but would you mind if I had a look at that?"

"Oh, um, ok I guess,"

Johanae bent down closer for a better look. Pulling Trish's hair back,
she could see a bruise a little bigger than a toonie. Standing back up
she wondered whatever made that didn't come from bedtime flings, "Trish,
what do you remember about last night?"

Trish thought a moment, "Well, me and Greg had a few drinks at a bar,
then we came back here to um, make out."

"Are you sure? You don't remember anyone else being in your apartment
last night?"

"No, we were just making out and then... Oh my god! They shot me!" At
that Trish broke down in a state of shock, weeping about her being shot.

Johanae was about to sit down beside her to console her when her cell
rang. Exhaling sharply, Johanae stood back up and answered it, "What?"

"We've arrived. Where are you?" asked an annoyingly calm male voice.

"I'm in the apartment next door," she said as she walked to the door.
There, at the end of the driveway stood a man in a casual business suit.
Four more people wearing disposable forensic coveralls were busy taping
off the area in front of the converted motel with police tape.

Johanae gave Trish a reassuring pat on the shoulder, telling her she'd
be back and went out to meet the man.

Hello Miss Mars. I'm Lawrence Fault," he said while shaking her hand,
"So what have you found out so far?"

"Well, I was just in the neighbors apartment and according to her, both
she and her boyfriend were assaulted by one or two with guns. Luckily
for them, whoever shot the the two were using nonlethal ammunition. The
girl's pretty shaken up about it."

"And the boyfriend?" he asked.

"Still out cold, possibly from the drinking they had prior to the
attack, or a combination of that and a shot to the head."

"Alright, we'll have someone check them out. In the meantime lets have a
look at the box and see why it decided to shut down. According to the
report we should have had at least a full day to recover it," Fault
said.

"So either Noel had it longer than she said she had or somethings
changed on the device. Excuse me a moment," Johanae said as she
reentered the middle apartment. "Okay Trish, I have to go now but my
colleagues will be in here to make sure you and your boyfriend check out
alright," she said to the girl, her eyes still red and misty.

"T-thank you miss Mars."

Johanae gave her a reassuring smile before pulling out her card from her
coat pocket and handed it to the still sniffling girl, "If you have any
questions or you just want to talk, then give me a call."

Trish nodded, taking the card and looked up at Johanae managing a weak
smile.

Johanae started walking towards the door and before she left she turned
back to give Trish a final wave before walking out.

Taking a quick breath she only needed to walk six steps before entering
Noel's apartment. On entering the apartment she saw that Lawrence was
already crouched over the collapsed alien machine.

"There's puddled footprints around the apartment. Judging from the
partial evaporation, whoever left them was here in an eight-hour time
period. And also from the spacing of the puddles around the box, it was
active at the time as well," Lawrence said without looking up.

Crouching down beside him she poked the claw-like marking on the box
before saying, "It still doesn't explain why it shut down earlier than
the other ones."

"It could be that whoever abducted Noel may have swapped out their own
for Noel's version. But that wouldn't make much sense unless Noel's
wasn't activated yet but it was. Also there's the fact the door frame is
a size too small to move it out of here anyways," Fault said.

"So we're back to square one then," Johanae said standing up as her legs
stated to tire from kneeling.

Lawrence only grunted as he pulled out a small grey box from his pocket
and flipped it open and began running it over the alien box.

"what's that?" Johanae asked.

"A tricorder, confiscated from a Trek fan."

"He must of been sad to hand it over."

"Regardless of wether or not he was "sad" didn't matter. He was using it
to remotely hack into various bank computers in his home town. We also
found a phaser on him that was set to kill after we jumped him."

"My god, if he used it..."

"Then he would have burned a hole through several people or vaporised
them. Either way it would have been an unpleasant way to go."

"I'll say," she replied.

Lawrence continued to scan the device, then stood up, staring at the
tricorder looking perplexed.

"What?" asked Johanae as she looked at the display on the tricorder but
couldn't make heads or tails of what it meant.

"Well to start, it's not a real tricorder. The kid designed it to find
wi-fi signals and hack computers. It's constantly updating itself with
the latest invasive programs. I was hoping that it would be able to
interface with whatever computer the machine uses. So far, every attempt
I made has been unsuccessful. Either these don't have wireless
capability or the operating system is completely alien."

"So you're saying that we have no idea about anything here then."

"Pretty much," Lawrence said slipping the tricorder back into his coat
pocket.

Meanwhile, back at Tonoan Industrials headquarters...

Mike had just finished debriefing Peter and his team. The information
they gave him was more or less the same as what the science team told
him minus Nelly's overt description of the teenagers she incapacitated.
And stopped briefly to check his ID with the guard posted outside the
ships hospital suite before stepping in.

As with the rest of the ship no expense had been spared. Being large
enough to hold two complete examining rooms that could be partitioned
off or opened for emergencies. It even had a full operating theater
including an MRI and X-ray machine. The partition walls of both rooms
were tucked away in the recessed alcoves in the walls. The girl Peter's
team brought back was laying on one of the beds apparently still
unconscious.

Nicolette, the ships doctor in charge, looking over her. Nicolette was a
Russian immigrant that moved to the US to study psychology where she met
her late husband. During her first year she met Clint Trent and the two
instantly fell in love and six months later were married. Because
neither were rich enough the wedding was little more than wearing fancy
cloths and signing a marriage certificate at the court house.
Unfortunately a year later into their marriage Clint was striken with a
stroke and was diagnosed with an inoperaperable brain tumor. He died a
few short months later. Nicolette was understandably devastated by this
and took a year off her studies to grieve. When she came back she
transferred to a medical school and threw herself into her studies and
graduated second in her class. A few weeks later she was scouted by
Tonoan Industrials under the promise for near unlimited resources in her
research of brain cancer. That was nearly seven years ago. And she's
kept almost everyone at a professional distance.

Even though Mike was in a hurry he still took the sight of Nicolette in.
As always she wore the white lab coat normally associated when one
thinks of doctors. And under that he could see the dark brown skirt that
just barely covered her knees. Even with her lab coat on Mike could see
the very feminine curves of her fantastic ass. Looking further down Mike
was a little dismayed that she once again wore flats. "If only she wore
heels now and then," Mike thought, "If only she weren't so cold."

He had stopped beside her as she continued to read from her clipboard at
the foot of the bed the girl was on. Mike was about to clear his throat
to get her attention but she beat him to it.

"What the hell have you brought me Givings?" she asked, her accent had
waned somewhat over the years of living in the states but was still
clearly present.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked sneaking a glance down the front of her
lab coat and was disappointed to see she was wearing a turtleneck
sweater today.

"This girl is a walking contradiction! Do you want to know what I found
out when I examined her?"

Mike exhaled sharply, "Please," he said gesturing for her to continue.

"She has a pulse but no heart beat. I tried several times to find one
but there isn't one! And when I check her pulse, there it is, strong and
healthy!"

"Maybe she has an artificial heart?"

"Nyet, machines make noises when they move. All I heard was her
breathing."

"Well is that it or what?" Mike asked clearly annoyed.

"No. When I put her through the MRI machine it didn't work. Well it did
but it's weird. When I injected her with the dye it didn't move through
her blood stream, it stayed at the site where I injected her. It doesn't
make any sense! I know she has a pulse, I counted them, I got a vein!
How else could I have injected the dye without one?" She then moved to a
wall-mounted light board and clipped two sheets on it before turning it
on. "These are her X-rays, for some reason the head and chest area are
completely opaque."

"And..." Mike urged her on even though he was at a loss when it came to
medical jargon,

"And from what the X-rays ARE showing me she's missing several vital
organs! There's no liver, pancreas," she pointed to a small blob, "This
might be a kidney but it is the wrong size. There isn't even a digestive
track! And finally, she does have a vaginal cavity but no uterus or
ovaries. It's as if someone made a human using a children's book!"
Nicolette said in exasperation.

Mike stared at the X-rays for a few moments, more for effect than
actually trying to understand them, and turned to Nicolette, "And what
about these metal things sticking out of her body?"

Nicolette let out an annoyed sigh before walking back to the foot of the
bed the girl was sleeping on, "I don't know. They weren't surgically
implanted otherwise I would have seen scar tissue in the skin or slight
abrasions to the bones they're attached to. And from what the X-rays
show, there is some sort of wiring running from them through the
skeletal structure to the chest area. Which for some reason we can't see
on the X-rays," Nicolette said. Her accent seemed to thicken the longer
she went on. "The last thing I did was take some blood. It's currently
being analysed and I should have the results in a few hours," she said
as her accent returned to a more understandable level.

"So you won't be open to exploratory surgery then doctor?" Mike asked
moving to the side of the bed and leaning over slightly.

"Not without knowing the general layout of what I'm cutting into. On a
normal person I would if only to find out what's blocking the X-rays,
but from what I am able to see... I'm sorry, there's just too many
changes."

Mike only grunted at that and turned back to the girl.

It was almost scary how innocent she looked. If she was in fact the
source of energy the satellite picked up those few times during the past
couple of days. Who or whatever was obviously brilliant to create an
energy source powerful but small and stable enough to fit in something
so fragile as this little girl. But then again it could be why there
were those exoskeletal suits in the room with her. There were two suits
though, so either one was a prototype version or there's another one out
there.

Mikes inner reverie stopped when he thought he saw the girls eyelids
flutter. Leaning closer for a moment, he was back up when the girl
suddenly bolted upright smashing her forehead into Mikes face uttering
nothing but a deep gasp. Mike, both being surprised and suddenly
receiving a broken bloody nose, fell backwards onto the floor with both
hands cradling his face as he landed on his rear. Blood was seeping from
between his fingers.

0000000000

Peter and Nelly had long since left the boardroom after their debriefing
and were on their way to the ships galley. They had just passed the
doc's office nodding to the armed guard when they suddenly heard a shout
followed by the sound of several objects hitting the floor. As the guard
moved in, his mp5 ready, Peter and Nelly followed him in. When they
entered they saw Nicolette trying to calm down the girl Peter and his
team brought back while trying to hold her down and Mike who was sitting
on the floor holding his bloody face.

Seeing the three come in Nicolette immediately shouted at them, "You
two," referring to Peter and the guard, "Hold her down while I give her
a sedative! And you Nelly, get Givings off the floor before he bleeds
over the rest of it."

Peter and the guard rushed to either side of the screaming girl and held
her down by the arms and legs while Nelly begrudgingly trudged over to
Mike still clutching his face and seemingly without much effort picked
him up and walked him over to a chair. He moaned loudly in protest as
she unceremoniously dropped him onto it.

Nicolette was busy looking through the cabinet for the correct sedative
to use. Finding one she stuck the needle of the syringe in and pulled
back on the stopper filling it with the clear liquid. Once she withdrew
the needle she gave it a few flicks with her finger and push some of the
liquid out to ensure there weren't any air bubbles. Turning back to the
struggling girl she had Peter move so she can inject the girl properly,
"Hold her still!"

Peter and the guard did so putting more force down on the girl to keep
her immobilized. As Nicolette was prepping the girls arm for the
sedative, the girl looked up at Peter with tear-filled eyes, "Please
stop. You're hurting me," she pleaded as her voice broke with a whimper.

Peter hesitated as he looked at her oddly colored scared eyes and
softened his grip slightly. Wether intended or by accident the girl
renewed her struggle just as Nicolette began the injection. The sudden
motion caused the needle that was in her arm to snap off from the rest
of the syringe. Nicolette said something in Russian, the inflections she
used indicated a likely possibility of it being a swear.

"Hold her still! If I don't get the needle out in one piece will damage
something vital."

Peter complied and held the girl down firmly as this time he was willing
to give the girl a few bruises if it meant saving her from deeper
injury. The girl kept struggling as Nicolette checked the injection site
hoping that the needle was still partly out. Seeing nothing she swore
again and felt the immediate area and suddenly became confused. She
couldn't feel it. Her mind racing thinking of what to do she nodded to
herself and looked straight at the girl, "Okay miss, I'm going to need
you to listen to me."

The girl was still tense and still had fear in her eyes but she looked
back at Nicolette and nodded.

"The needle I used to inject you with has broken off in your arm. I
can't find it so I need to take an X-ray to see where it is so I can
remove it safely. Do you understand?"

The girl nodded. With a sigh of relief Nicolette gave the girl a
reassuring smile and gestured to Peter and the guard to let her up.
Getting to her feet they lead her to the X-ray machine. On passing Mike,
he waved to Nicolette with one hand, the other holding a clump of
tissues to his face. "What about me doctor?" he asked with a plugged
nose.

Nicolette knealt down and pulled the tissues back. Looking at Mike's
nose from different angles including up it she then stood back up, "You
are fine. There are no signs that it is broken. If you were in any real
pain then you wouldn't let me touch it. The girl just got a one in a
million hit."

"So, I still have a headache! Couldn't I just take an aspirin at least?"

"There's no signs of a concussion so it's probably just from caffeine
withdrawal. Just relax and take it easy for now and it will go away soon
enough," she said before catching up with the others in the X-ray room.

Since the room was fairly small for four people, Nicolette had the guard
stand outside. Turning around she instructed the girl to lay down on a
bed that was under the machine and ushered Peter into a smaller room
which held the controls for the machine. Since Nicolette was the only
one trained to operate the machine she sat down in the only chair in
front of the computer leaving Peter to stand behind her with his arms
crossed.

She then leaned forward to talk into a microphone which allowed her to
speak to the girl without having to keep the door between them opened,
"Okay, I'm going to turn the machine on now and it will let me know
where the needle is. Are you ready?"

The girl nodded staring up at the machine. Nicolette typed in a few
commands on the keyboard of the computer sending the X-ray machine to
work. When the image came up on the monitor Nicolette was confused and
dismayed that while she could see the outline of the girls body, the
details of her insides were blurry and unfocused.

Nicolette swore in Russian, "This doesn't make any sense!"

"What's wrong?" Peter asked looking over her shoulder at the monitor.

"When I took an X-ray of her earlier, only the head and chest area had
this distortion. Now the entire body is unreadable. I'm going to have to
take another one, maybe it will turn out," she said as she retyped the
commands.

Once again the image came up distorted. Nicolette grumbled and retyped
the command. As she did so Peter looked at the girl through the glass
and saw her visibly wince as the X-ray machine activated trying to take
a picture as if it was causing her pain.

Peter then put his hand on Nicolette's shoulder, "Stop the machine," he
told her still looking at the girl.

"What? Why?" she asked as she turned to look at him.

"She's in pain," he said.

"Of course she's in pain. She has a broken needle in her arm! That is
why we're doing these X-rays, to find it," she said as she turned back
to the computer.

As Peter turned Nicolette around to argue some more, the girl had slunk
off the bed and proceeded to move to the exit while keeping an eye on
the two in the control room. On reaching the door she saw through the
window of the door that the guard was standing right in front of it.
Fortunately he was distracted from talking to the two in the main room.
With little thought, other than escape, the girl crept over to the door,
careful to be low enough so the people the guard was talking to wouldn't
see her. Testing the door slightly she gave a silent thanks that it
moved easily as well as that it swung out into the hallway instead of
inward.

With a deep breath she pushed on the door with all her might catching
the guard off balance, knocking him over. As she began to bolt, the
guard kicked the door back hitting her heel causing her to stumble. This
gave the guard enough time to jump and grab her legs. Trying in vain to
crawl forward on just her arms, she was easily dragged back by the guard
who then trapped her in a bear hug pinning her arms in front of her. She
tried getting loose kicking her legs wildly till the guard wrapped his
legs around hers effectively immobilizing her.

She was still struggling against her captor as Nelly walked up with a
grin on her face from thinking of the innuendoes the two presented for
her.

She stopped just in front of them, "So, this is what you do to get laid.
Can't say I'm impressed or all that surprised," she said to the guard
mockingly.

"Ha ha, very funny. Now go get some handcuffs or something, she keeps
squirming around so much it's hard to hold on," he told Nelly.

"Mmmhmm," she responded with a catty grin once more before bending down
to unclip his mp5. Unfolding the stock of the gun she turned it around
and before the girl could react Nelly gave her two quick solid hits to
the face with the butt of the stock causing the girls head to snap back
suddenly almost hitting the guard in the face. And once again the girl
was a limp doll.

Almost as an afterthought Nelly checked her pulse. Seeing it was fine
she got up and handed the gun back to the guard after he untangled
himself from the girl. Looking past him Nelly saw the shocked doctor as
well as Peter with a grim expression on his face. "What?" Nelly asked
innocently, "She was trying to run off and I stopped her."

"You could have seriously injured her!" Nicolette shouted.

"It's alright. I checked her pulse and she's fine. And the love taps I
gave her didn't break any bones and I'll doubt it'll leave much of a
bruise either," Nelly replied nonchalantly.

"I don't care if you think it's "fine". She is different and I am not
going to have anyone in my ward assaulting my patients, regardless of
circumstance. Now, everybody OUT!"

As everyone marched out Nicolette kept the guard long enough to help her
carry the girl back to the bed before shooing him out as well. Sitting
down at her desk she messaged her temples as she mumbled something in
Russian till she heard the door open.

"I said go away, I'm busy!" she said before turning around to see a shy-
looking nurse at the door holding a clipboard in front of her as if to
hide behind it. "Oh Crystal, please come in. I'm sorry, it hasn't been a
good day," she told her.

Crystal hesitated before stepping in and closing the door. Because of
her shy nature, large rimmed glasses, and some minor dental work in the
form of braces. When asked about her personality many would describe her
as "mousey". And while she was far from being unattractive she always
dressed and acted in an apologetic manner and didn't seem to have much
self-confidence. Even as she walked up to Nicolette's desk her steps
were unsure and tentative.

"Um, I have results oo your research tests you asked for Dr. Flint EEP!"
She winced as she dropped the clipboard before Nicolette was ready to
accept it causing it to clatter on her desk. "I-I am so sorry! I don't
know what I was thinking. I thought you were holding it and when I let
go..."

"Crystal, it's ok. I doubt the clipboard will hold it against you,"
Nicolette reassured her.

"Er, yes ma'am," Crystal said looking at the floor sheepishly, doing all
she could to avoid eye contact.

"So these are the test results then?" Nicolette asked picking up the
clipboard and flipping through the pages.

"Um, yes. They did a full work up like you asked."

Nicolette nodded when the phone on her desk rang. checking the extension
number she saw it was Franks lab. "That's funny. They should still be
working on the girl's blood sample," Nicolette thought to herself as she
picked it up, "Hello."

"Is this some kind of joke!?" an angry voice belonging to Frank shouted
causing Nicolette to pull the phone away from her ear.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You had someone mess with my equipment didn't
you?"

Nicolette's eyes narrowed in confusion, "I don't know what you are
talking about. Is there something wrong with the blood sample I sent
you?"

"Assuming you didn't screw up my stuff the blood you sent me isn't blood
at all!"

Nicolette sat straight up in her chair, "What did you find?"

"Just come over here and see for yourself. If you really didn't do
anything with my equipment then you'll want to see it. You just sent me
the holy grail of medicine and everything else that revolves around
this."

Nicolette hung up and was out the door barely spending enough time to
tell Crystal to watch the sleeping girl before running down the halls to
Franks lab.

0000000000

Jeffrey and his team had the day off and were having a game of two on
two basketball. Jeffrey and Andria were behind five points to John and
Major.

"Face it Jeffrey, there's no way you'll catch up with with us. I've got
two hearts so I won't be getting tired anytime soon," John said as he
dribbled the ball around Jeffrey trying to send it to Major as she
ducked under Andria. As John shot the ball Jeffrey intercepted and ran
down the other side of the court.

"You might have two hearts John, but your girlfriend's the one that's
been carrying you," Jeffrey said as he sunk a basket.

John picked up the ball and walked to the center of the court to start
again, "Maybe, but you're still behind," he said wiping his face on his
t-shirt.

Both teams scoffed the other boasting how the other was going to lose
horribly when the phone in the kitchen area began to ring. Jeffrey made
a time-out sign as he walk to the phone.

"You're only delaying the inevitable Jeffrey," John said jokingly.

Jeffrey waved him off with a smile as he pick up the phone, "Hello?"

"Mr. Donalds? This is Agent G. Noel has been abducted sometime last
night."

Jeffrey lowered the phone, his good mood instantly drained from him.

The others came over as they saw Jeffrey grow somber.

"What's up?" Andria asked with a half smile.

Jeffrey turned to the others, "Noel's been kidnaped."

Major, who had been holding the ball dropped it and fell to the floor
herself as her legs gave out. Holding her hands around herself she began
to shake, "Henry's got her!" she cried as she began sobbing, "He got her
and he's going to come after me!"