Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - [First Phase: Beta Segment] Subject: C-00

[Shirayuki]

Melissa, put out by all of this, but not wanting to leave them sighed. "Alright, we can bring him to mine. We're a pretty good ways though, it's near Central Park."

"If the blackout's widespread, there's gonna be alot of stairs involved."

[SalmonMax]

Tomoe sighed, but nodded. "Lets get started then." She manuevered her grip on the injured man to shoulder more of the burden as well.

As they walked, her dog finding a place to trot warily beside her, she asked, "So...I'm Tomoe. Who are you?"

(Using the upper body focus option from her TK pool to increase effective strength for this)

[Shirayuki]

Melissa nodded shouldering her part of the burden. "Melissa, Melissa Archer." The trip to her appartment was slow, the man was heavy, and the streets were filled with people franticlly running about due to the blackout.

"Town loses it's mind without power, it never fails."

[SalmonMax]

"It's not even DARK out," Tomoe complained. "Why panic if it doesn't even...bah, it doesn't matter. The real problem is what to do after he's at your place. We still won't be able to call for help, and we still don't know how to help him ourselves."

She shrugged awkwardly under his weight. "I guess I can go on foot to get help. But he says he doesn't want a hospital. You think he's in trouble with the law?"

[Shirayuki]

"Or those people who were chasing him."

She nodded. "We could try one of the small clinics here, they're not hospitals, and most of the doctors aren't traditional. Still, they would know more than we do."

[SalmonMax]

"A clinic would still have to report bullet wounds to the police," Tomoe said smartly, repeating the sum total of what she remembered about criminal medical law from some show on USA Network. "We need some kind of, like, black market doctor."

[Shirayuki]

"I don't really know any of those, and the person I know who might is too far to walk to, and would want far more of an explanation as to why we need one."

She had a feeling her dad could help, but he was the last person she wanted to talk to. "I don't suppose you have any friends who are at least Pre-med students?"

[jameson (ST)]

A few hours later they stumbled into Melissa's apartment, exhausted and sweaty from the walk up the stairs with their unconscious guest. The city was largely still dark but they had found that the street lights and power in Times Square had already been restored. They had even been able to flag down a cab to take them the rest of the way to Melissa's apartment on the other side of Central Park. The cabbie had required a rather stiff bribe and had had to force his way through the slowly clearing streets but his old Checker Cab had carried them and the wounded man more easily than they could have managed on foot.

They lowered the man to the couch as gently as they could which elicited a groan from both him and the couch. Melissa located some candles and a flashlight and shortly the dark was pushed back by the warm yellow light of fire, and the meager white light of a small flashlight. As the two girls sat down and tried to recover the man began to stir.

OOC: Awarding a hero point to you both for the double whammy of the power outage and having a player drop

[Shirayuki]

"He wakes up now..." Melissa groaned. Part of her was mad, the other part happy, since maybe now they could get some explanation about all of this from him. "Can I get you both something to drink?"

The apartment was well furnished, and obviously it was the home of a very clean young woman, one who was used to having the finer things in life. "I've got a pretty good range of drinks, though I'm willing to bet the milk, juice and all is bad by now..."

[SalmonMax]

"Shouldn't be," Tomoe said absently as she sat down in the first chair she found. "It's only been a few hours, and fridges heat up slowly. I'll have some water though. Filtered, right?"

She glanced at the groaning man and tilted her head slightly. In the partial light coming in through the gaps in the curtains he looked a little familiar. In fact he looked kind of like that weird guy from the other night. Warehouse guy. Pet guy. What was his name again?

"Isaac!" she blurted, as if out of nowhere. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"

[Shirayuki]

"Isaac? What are you talking about?" She had already gone to get them water, and come back with a glass for each of them, plus another for the strange and heavy man they'd brought with them.

"Is that a friend of yours who can help us at this time?"

[jameson (ST)]

"Unng ... water ..." the form on the couch moaned. Melissa poured three glasses of water and brought them into the living room handing one to Tomo and placing one on the coffee table before putting the third into the man's hands and making sure he could hold the glass. His eyes fluttered open for a moment and he regarded Melissa before his hands tightened around the glass. "Thanks," he murmured barely audible.

[Shirayuki]

"You're welcome." She waited patiently for him to recover, watching as he seemed to savor the cold liquid. Once he seemed a little more aware before nodding. "Can you at least tell us your name, since you're in my home?"

[SalmonMax]

Tomoe nods, then takes a long gulp of water before replying.

"Isaac is a guy I met...he's kind of shady, but he gets hurt all the time! He must know a doctor who does shady kinds of injuries. Only problem is my phone's dead. Hey, do you have a landline? Maybe they're still working!"

She darts past her host into the kitchen and dining area, looking around for a phone in a cradle.

[jameson (ST)]

The man's eyes focused on Melissa's face for a moment, "I don't remember. Who are you? Where am I?" His complexion seemed better, less ashen, and his voice wavered less and his speech was more steady. "How'd I get here?"

[Shirayuki]

"My name is Melissa Archer. As to where we are, this is my home North of central park. You got here because We carried you all the way from Chinatown."

She nodded. "Any other questions?"

She looked to Tomoe and nodded. "It's in the kitchen by the fridge, if it works."

[jameson (ST)]

He tried to sit up and immediately winced, "What happened to me? What am I doing here?" Pulling his hand from his side he saw was slick and wet but in the flickering candlelight the blood looked dark, almost black, like oil. He was clearly completely out of sorts and as he slowly forced himself to sit upright despite the girls' protests he began to survey the apartment. "Where? Your apartment? What happened to the medical facility?"

[SalmonMax]

"You wouldn't let us take you to one!" Tomoe called from the kitchen. She spied the handset in the cradle there and snatched it up, putting it to her ear to listen for a dial tone.

"You said 'no doctors, no doctors,' so we brought you here."

[Shirayuki]

Melissa nodded. "You were very emphatic that we not, despite our lack of medical training." She speared him with an icy glare. "I don't know what medical facilty you speak of. Perhaps you should start with what you do remember friend."

She refreshed his glass of water, and nodded. "Take it slow, You were shot near as i can tell, but the fact you're still with us is a good sign."

[jameson (ST)]

"Shot? No ... I was in a crash ... during a training exercise. I was in a ... a medical facility." He put his hand to his side and it came away sticky once more, but the fluid, dark and of indeterminate color in the flickering light of the candles, was less, his wound was closing. He stared at his hand and then at the both of them before he brought the bloody hand to his nose and inhaled deeply. "This isn't blood," he pronounced matter of factly.

"What?!" both of the women asked though the tone of one was questioning and the other was of shock.

"It's ... it's some kind of lubricant, a silicone compound with carbon spheres I think. The ... bring the light here, I need to see." He sat up the rest of the way and pulled his shirt, wet with whatever the fluid was, up above the wound. The skin was puckered and inflamed, the edges dark with coagulated blood, like a minor cut left to close on its own.

The two women brought the candles and flashlight close and peered at the wound itself. The hole was slowly oozing the dark fluid, but within the circular injury the flicking candlelight and the blue-white LED light showed a glint of metal, possibly the bullet since no exit wound was present.

[SalmonMax]

Tomoe sucked in an astonished breath, then blurted, "You're a robot! Wait, is that you, or the bullet?"

She leaned closer, trying to see.

"It's weird, your skin's bleeding, but then there's this oil stuff too. Maybe you're like one of those terminator things from the future," the Japanese girl joked.

"Does it hurt still? We need to see what that metal thing is. If it IS the bullet, then it needs to come out."

[Shirayuki]

Melissa withdrew from him, but not too far. "Cyborg perhaps, but not a robot. She looked at the wound and shook her head. "That would explain there being only one hole."

She was nervous now, and her eyes met his. "You hesitate every time you mention a medical facility, why?"

[jameson (ST)]

The man recoiled, "I'm not a robot or a cyborg! I think I'd remember that. Though ... I don't remember anything clearly after the accident and before this evening, waking here." He looked at the two women, "Where are we? What city? Why is it so dark?"

[SalmonMax]

"New York City," Tomoe replied. "It's dark because there's a power outage. A big one. It happened right about when you ducked into that alley, in fact."

"What accident do you remember? Oh, and there were a couple of guys with guns chasing you too. Remember them?"

[Shirayuki]

"We found you in Chinatown, and managed to get the guys after you to leave. Now we're here in my apartment."

"If you're not a robot or cyborg, then who are you, and why are you so damned heavy?"

[jameson (ST)]

"New York? What? How? How long was I out? What's the date?" He hauled himself to his feet, a grimace of pain crossing his features as he did so, and stumbled across the room to the window that looked out onto the park and the city beyond, only lit by occasional light sources, the street lights and most buildings still powerless.

"Chinatown? How ... I remember ... I was in an accident, the helicopter crashed ... What the hell happened to me?" He turned away from the window, his hand at his side, and stared at the two women appearing as little more than a dark silhouette against the slightly less dark background of the window. "Who was after me? Did they know who I was? Maybe they can help me?"

[SalmonMax]

"They didn't look like they were going to help you," Tomoe commented, dropping down into a chair by the couch. "They looked like the kind of guys that clean up loose ends. And you were the loose end they were looking for."

She considers. "Still...a helicopter crash. There can't be too many of those around New York. If we knew more about that, it might give us more to work with about you. Do you remember where it came down? It can't have been too far from Chinatown."

[jameson (ST)]

"New Mexico," he replied, his voice flat as he spoke into the glass, his face pressed to the window looking out at the night. "I don't understand. None of this makes sense. I don't even remember being in Chinatown, or New York for that matter, let alone why I would be running from somebody with a bullet in me."

[Shirayuki]

Melissa nodded. "Well, you are here. Do you remember the faces of the doctors or their names?"

She was starting to worry, this guy was obviously in need of more professional help than what she as an actress can manage. She had been dancing around the obvious question, one she was fairly certain of. He had to be like her, at least in some way.

[jameson (ST)]

"No," he replied morosely, "I don't remember anything between waking up here and the crash, which is only hazy." He turned from the window, still clutching at his side, "I need to get this bullet out of me and get this stitched up. That means either I need your help or I need to find a clinic. Either option is find but I can't just sit around anymore."

[SalmonMax]

"I'll do it," Tomoe decides. She looks at the woman who's apartment she's in. "Got any rubber gloves? And, some newspapers or a tarp or something. It might be a little messy."

[jameson (ST)]

"No, it's dark, you aren't trained, and it's not so bad that I cannot travel. I should go. I'll find a clinic, or a hospital, someplace where I can be properly seen to." He turned from the window and started for the door, his jaw set and his hand still clutched to his side, the fluids now leaking out more slowly, even as he moved. "Thank you for your help, but I shouldn't inconvenience you any further."

[SalmonMax]

"Well, hold on a second," Tomoe says, putting a hand on her hip. "At least let us look up which clinic is closest, and give you directions. You're not going out there and just looking around at random."

She glances around, then looks at the apartments owner.

"Where's your phone book?"

[Shirayuki]

Melissa produced it after a moment. "Here. There's a clinic a few blocks from here, but as we came here it was dark, so there's no telling whether it will be up and running yet, or just how busy it will be."

[SalmonMax]

"You're healing really fast," Tomoe says bluntly. "Are you sure you even need a clinic?"

She scanned the man's face, trying to place his age. He seemed a little old to be an 'indigo,' but that was far from conclusive. Fast maturation might be part of his ability. Or he might just look older than he was.

And after all, if he wasn't indigo...what was he?

[jameson (ST)]

"If I have a bullet in my then I need a clinic, if not for fear of more damage then at least for fear of infection." He looked at the two young women, "Listen, Thank you for helping me, I don't know what's happened but I appreciate it. But," he let that hang a moment, "if I'm messed up with something bad, which is seems given that I was shot, I don't want to pull you girls into it."

[SalmonMax]

"Seems to me we pulled ourselves into it," Tomoe points out. "We could have left you in the alley after all. Or told those men where to find you."

She shrugged. "But if you want to go, I can't stop you. Just be careful, okay?"

[Shirayuki]

Melissa nodded. She was nervous since he'd know where she lived now. "We're involved now as it stands. We can take you to the clinic, to make sure you get there."