Summary:In which Beau, Jimmy & Thea face off against a clockroach and a clockwork Ferret! Eye bits included gratis! Log Info:Storyteller: hank-mccoy |
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Pushing ninety-degrees and humid, yeah, even with the sun mostly down it is STICKY. This close to the disaster zone there's not a lot of people out and about, though there are some boxes that look like they might be someone's flop in the vacant lot, and there's a single homeless guy roasting something…unidentifiable…over a fire in an old oil drum labeled 'Penzoi', a dent and scuffing having eradicated the 'l'.
There is a number of people inside the clinic, actually something of a line, the overworked staff doing their best to keep up with the demand.
Jimmy is here, volunteering his part to help. He's not qualified for the actual medical work, but he stays in the reception area; he keeps things flowing, and provides a comforting presence for those still waiting. Clinics like this always end up overworked: too much demand, not enough resources.
Thea doesn't have any sort of medical degree at all. She just volunteers, taking information since she can do so in several languages. Quietly, on the side like, she will heal those that she can without there being anything drastic to notice. Infections, mostly.
Beau Sartre has come to volunteer, as well. Today was supposed to just be an interview but with the crowd and the heat and the fact that Beau is an actual MD, the director kindly asked for his assistance and Beau couldn't refuse. Legal issues prevent some treatments but he is rocking triage, at the moment. He slowly cruises the waiting patients and asks them what's wrong, chats with them. Keeping the misery low and actually sending some folks home with some cash for some medicine or equipment. This is culling the crowd.
There's definitely no lack of things to do, not for any of the volunteers, the poor living conditions many of these people live under are appalling and the heat and humidity just exacerbates that to whole new levels of ick. The staff, especially the administrator are delighted to have more people, for once they're not horridly short handed - only slightly so, and with Thea and Beau both doing their covert best to assist folks on the sly, things are actually moving along, especially with Jimmy's masterful direction of the flow to the appropriate people.
All eyes turn to a young man, looks to be homeless, early teens-ish as he staggers into the clinic. He's been positively /mauled/ by what looks to be small claws. One of his eyes is presently covered by a none too clean rag soaked with dark red blood, so he's been bleeding a while. He gets about two steps, then falls to one knee, and only keeps from face-planting on the floor by a grimy and blood smeared hand on one of the plastic chairs in the fairly packed waiting area.
Poor kid…can't even ask for help at present!
Jimmy doesn't need the boy to ask for help aloud; he feels that pain and fear almost before he even enters the clinic. He ducks into a supply closet to grab a much cleaner cloth and some disinfectant, which he carries out to the boy. There's no point in asking him how he's feeling, so he starts with: "What happened?", with concern warm in his tone.
Thea's gaze will leave the patient she'd been taking information from, eyes wide. She will pass off the clipboard, crossing the reception area in her basic black pants and pale coral blouse. Her hair is currently a deep auburn hue, caught up in a neat twist to keep it out of the way. She will move to slide a hand under his arm holding the rag to his eye to help him up to his feet. She is already working, albeit not as quickly as she could, to keep as much of his blood /in/ him as she can.
Beau doesn't rush to the poor kid's side. He clearly notices and seems concerned but Beau was an ER doctor once. There is still some jaded part of him that holds a wait and see attitude. Also, he is sending someone out with money for an air conditioner and a case of water.
To their credit many of the people in the waiting area make room, and others offering supporting hands to the kid, his other hand pressed to hold that foul and bloody rag to his eye. The other eye is pale blue, the kid looking to be hispanic so that probably indicates mixed heritage. He looks to Jimmy, needing to swallow a couple times, but calming as Jimmy's kindness, and that of the others present helps him get a handle on his pain and terror.
"My pet…'e…he went nuts." The kid grates out, afraid to let the rag off his eye just yet, though the efforts from Thea do help a little, the kid's clothing is a total write off between shredding and blood. Frankly, this is one stubborn kid to get to the clinic /at all/, considering how messed up he is! Goes to show that the will to live can be VERY strong. He winces a little as Thea gets him to his feet. Not even noticing as she helps with is bleeding, kind of out of it, honestly. "He…just a ferret…I found him. I called him Tavi because Rikki Tikki Tavi was too long." Okay, what sort of a ferret can do THIS to a teenager? Unsteady, but standing, he goes wherever he's being led. And to their credit none of the waiting folks say a -thing- about him jumping line. Hell, if there was an ER that's probably where he should've gone!
The kid's condition is pretty borderline, though he seems determined to make it. A path clears itself to get him to the nearest examination room, which just happens to be Beau's, of course. The woman he sent out to get the AC and water is one of the regular staff, she'll be back - not immediately, but as soon as she can manage, a worried look over her shoulder at the blood kid on the way out.
Jimmy frowns darkly, but does his best to keep calm; he focuses on the boy's determination, letting that flow through him as well and keep his head clear. "A ferret?" He stays by the boy's side, offering an arm to help him keep balance. He's made it this far on his own, but he doesn't have to do the rest the same way. Part of him looks ahead, to dealing with the creature; something that does /that/ can't be left free. "Where did this happen? Is Tavi still out there?"
Thea focuses on keeping the blood in, before she will slowly try to start making the worst of the wounds close up. She looks a little skeptical about the idea of a ferret inflicting this much damage. She's trying to help him heal up, but she doesn't want to make it obvious. "You said you found this ferret? So you don't know if it had shots, or anything?" She will turn her gaze to slide up and down along the young man's body, looking for infection or disease.
Beau is still paying attention, even if he doesn't seem to be. He doesn't move until he sees the kid being moved into his exam room. He shrugs a little. "Alright." He mutters and starts behind the others. "A ferret did this? Those are illegal in the city." He sounds almost as if he doesn't believe the young man but again, his ER doctor past is showing. Then it turns it up but giving orders, "I have to look at the eye so do not put him on the actual exam table. Sit him in one of the chairs." He lists off basic supplies he might need as well and quietly asks Thea the moment he can, "Don't close up any infections in there, alright?" He finishes his spiel with an introduction to the kid. "Hey, I'm Doctor Sartre. I used to be an ER doc, alright? What's your name?"
The kid is all kinds of stubborn, so yeah, good source for that clarity. He accepts the help by the two kind strangers, his steps more of an awkward shuffle. "N'my flop…jus'down in th'basement…builin' across th'lot." He answers. "But…" His hand lets that rag go finally, and grips Jimmy's arm back. The rag stays stuck to his eye. "He ain't right! Don'go, man, get like…the Army or somethin'! I hit him with a pipe and it didn't…didn't do NOTHING!" Okay, he's not so calm after that.
He's not infected, though his body is malnourished, so his resistance is low. Considering the filth of his clothing, and the literally dozens of cuts he's definitely at risk if that goes untreated. "Tavi? Yeah…found 'im, 'e was in a box, like…thrown away, found him by m'waterin' hole…" He answers Thea.
Strangely, Beau's semi-cold but definitely professional demeanor actually helps the kid calm a bit. "Nando Nunez, doc." He answers, then blinks the non-rag covered eye. "FER-nando, lo siento…m'sorry." He sits where he's put, more collapses really. "Si, Tavi's a ferret! Guess…could be a weasel or somethin', maybe an ermine!" Okay, wandering wits much?
Jimmy can, at least, follow those instructions: he helps Fernando into the chair, and then gets the supplies requested, all while still listening. Building across the lot, right—
And then he finds his arm gripped, his eyebrows lifted as he feels the ferocity, the lack of calm from the young man. "Alright. I'll call for animal control, and make sure they send the big crew." A city like New York has to have /some/ kind of souped-up animal catchers, right? Or at least, that'll be the excuse for when he disappears, after the kid's tended to.
Thea will give Beau a long look with eyes that are bright with colored contacts. There is a hint of a lifted eyebrow. "What sort of idiot do you take me for? But this wasn't just an animal. Unless ferrets are electric powered, these days." She murmurs to Beau, a glance at the kid. "Damage inside says electrical something was involved." She will move off to get the supplies for Beau. She can play fetch girl.
"An idiot I don't know all that well?" Beau answers, brows knit. Her additional information gets a dry, quick "Good work, thank you." Beau's manner is cool and professional, yes. He is also discreet and quiet around the patient. "Fernando, if I may call you that, I wanna see that eye, alright? That is dark, nasty looking blood and all I can think of is infection. And infections that close to the brain have the potential to be dangerous. Speaking of infections…can someone grab a gown for Fernando? I want his clothes off and bagged up. And uh, paper this chair because the table's too high and I can't do shit with it." He sighs digging for his penlight. "So, let's just call it a long animal. Whatever. It was a critter that did this? Your eye too?"
Between Thea and Jimmy, Doc Sartre gets the supplies he needs, or as many of them as can be found. The regular staff mostly stay out of the way, working with the other patients since Nando seems to be in good hands. Nando takes Jimmy at his word. "Ain't right, no more. Hit him with a PIPE!" Another surge of adrenaline, and then he settles back down until Thea mentions the electricity. "Si-Si-SI! Like…not Tavi-smell, but…like, after a storm, y'know? An'he -sparked-. That's…that when he got all crazy, we were…I want'd to watch the TV we found…"
"Si, Doc Sar-trur, Fernando is okay." Clearly, not a bit of French, though the written forms of Spanish and French are very similiar, the sounds? Way different. He shudders at the mention of the eye, but being essentially a brave kid, he nods once about the eye. He cooperates as best he can with the disrobing and gowning, and his body has innumerable small cuts, and yes, the size and spread are consistent with something about the size of a ferret - if ferrets were prone to being berserk savages, that is. Several of the wounds upon closer examination are semi-cauterized, and the damage deeper in seems to be electrical. When the eye is uncovered it proves to be…a mess. Out of the seeping remains of where the eyeball should be, a blood spattered Roach leaps /across the entire width of the room/ to hit the far wall with a moist splat, and a chunk of..yeah..definitely that was eyeball that plops to the ground. The roach mantles the wings under its carapace, buzzing them with an almost mechanical whirring as it scuttles in a drunken looking circle.
"The f—" Jimmy cuts himself off before actually swearing, as the Roach leaps past him. He's too slow to intercept it, but surprise doesn't keep him off it for long. As he lifts his left arm, a shield appears, made of white light. With an effort of will, he inverts its round shape, turning it concave instead of convex; this forms a bowl, and he rushes the wall to cover the roach with it. During a situation like this, 'pretending to be a normal human' isn't a high priority.
Even for someone with her experience in training and travels.. the roach and part of an eyeball is sickening. She's about to move to stomp on the roach, before Jimmy moves in. She will glance at him, shrugging before she's moving to help Beau.
Beau is from Louisiana and has practiced medicine there, in Baltimore and now, New York. He's seen a lot of shit. He's seen roaches come from unexpected places. But, even for this doctor, a gaping eye wound is the last place to see one appear. He doesn't startle, as if the strangeness froze him in place instead. He just sits and stares at Jimmy. Light shield and all. "Please do not let that leave or die." Beau says, firmly and there is a distance in his voice. Some part of Beau isn't home right now. The rest of him is still functional and he turns back to 'Nando. "The eye can't be saved. You need to go to the hospital." He looks to Thea, as he snaps on some gloves. "Please call an ambulance for Mister Nunez." He reaches down, picks up the remainder of the eye and after a moment, decides a nearby clean specimen cup will have to do. "Are you in any pain, Fernando? May I touch you?"
Nando is indeed looking a little on the woozy side, and Jimmy's empathic sense can surely feel the lad's horror spiral into near collapse. The shield-dome does trap the thing, and just in time, it leaps into flight, bouncing off the thing again and again, repeatedly with sufficient force that it takes some small effort to keep the shield in place. Several of the patients freak out, two faint outright, and the bulk of the room clears in a panic stricken rush for the exit that probably injures a few on their way out. One young girl just…watches, trying to figure out what the heck she's seeing, and not able to make it match. Between Thea and Beau, Nando swallows several times, and manages not to pass out.
"No…not…don'hurt none, Doctor." He nods, shock probably. "S'okay, can touch…just…yeah, doc…"
Jimmy grits his teeth as he feels the critter's force. He adjusts his stance, the better to lean against the wall. Deep breaths clear his head, as he tries to put a wall up between his own feelings and Fernando's; he'd rather not pass out along with him at a time like this. He nods to Beau's instruction, even while keeping his eyes on the shield. "I'll keep it here. Or, could someone pass me one of those specimen jars?"
Thea will whip out her cellphone to call an ambulance, even as she's almost sleepwalking to get Jimmy a specimen jars. She seems just a little separated from the insanity at hand, but it's more that she's splitting her focus. Phone, jar, and healing.
Beau reaches out and takes Fernando's arm. "I'm one of /them/ alright? Mutant. Powered. Me and Professor X fight over parking." He jokes, lightly. "So, I'm going to stabilize you the fastest way I know how. In the meantime, I might not look so good. But I will be fine, so don't worry." As Beau was talking, his powers were working. The small electric wounds clear up, close and vanish on Fernando while reappearing on Beau. It's all done when the blood vessels in Beau's eye burst, leaving the whites of his eye red. Intact but gruesome looking. And painful from the sweat on Beau's brow and trembling hands that part from the kid. "That's all the bleeding out. Can't do anymore.." He whispers.
Seems unlikely that a standard specimen jar is sturdy enough to deal with that roach thing — but the point becomes moot. After repeated attempts to batter free, the thing lands on the wall, and then shudders a few moments before it literally explodes! The explosion is both kinetic energy and electrical, and it sprays -shrapnel- into the shield. The force is roughly that of a gunshot, and the electricity that of a non-military grade stun gun or taser! The wall is blackened, whether or not the shield holds is yet to be seen, either way it will keep anyone else from harm even if it fails.
Insanity is definitely a good word for exploding cockroaches that jump out of bleeding eye sockets! That's not normal, that's not even -freaky-, it is beyond freaky.
Nando blinks. "Mutie? S'okay…cousin, cousin…was one. Could move plastic around, not much, but some…" And then Doc Sartre takes away most of the pain, closing up the wounds for the most part, stopping the bleeding. Sadly, nothing he can do about the burst eyeball itself, though the socket is less horrible. I mean…still a gaping wound, but less raw.
The explosion surprises Jimmy, but while it shoves him back half a step, the shield itself holds. "What the…" He lets the shield dissipate, and the formerly-roach shrapnel drops to the floor. "The hell even /is/ this thing?" He stares, bewildered and shaking his head. "Doc, couldn't keep it from… blowing itself up." A roach. That explodes out of an eye and blows itself up. That's going to take some processing. "Want me to gather up the bits?" He finally turns away from the shrapnel… and winces when he sees the state Beau's in now. He takes the jar from Thea and starts putting the bits and pieces into it.
Jimmy is not the only one surprised and confused. She will stare a moment, before she will step on past. She will walk closer to Beau, holding out a hand to him. "Now see, you could have let me just lay hands on and saved yourself the pain, Doc." She will say softly. "Let me help you both out."
If Beau takes her hand, his healing will speed, and at the same time, she's finishing what can be done to heal Nando. She can't regrow the eye, but she can lessen the rawness, make sure he's at a much lesser risk of infection.
The bits Jimmy collects are—odd. They are mostly shredded, but it seems to have a lot of gears and springs, something like an old pocket watch, yet made of some sort of bronze-like metal. Again, not quite bronze - stronger. But no signs of any kind of micro-circuitry or advanced tech. The biggest pieces are from the chiton covers over the wings, those appear to be coated in some sort of resin that is nearly a perfect match for a normal roach. Very sophisticated camouflage, though the electricity seems to have mostly melted it there's enough to spot the camo.
Nando will definitely take the healing offered by Thea. She'd find a myriad of problems - vitamin deficiencies consistent with malnutrition, then there's the cuts, and yes — infection was very likely to be a problem, especially the eye socket, the not-roach apparently still went to roach-y places, aka FILTH. Doc Sartre's concern about the dark blood and infection near the brain was a very real one. 'Was' being the operative word once Thea finishes her work. Fernando looks up, his remaining eye clear as the pain just…dulls, and fades considerably. "I…thank you, /three/ supers? You're all three of you mutants or something? Thank you."
Jimmy pouts to himself when Fernando gets the count right; apparently, he /had/ seen the shenanigans with the spirit shield. Jimmy just can't keep a secret, can he? "Something like that," he answers as he rises back up, the jar holding everything he could gather. He holds it up for Beau and Thea to see, too. "Most of it's unrecognisable after that explosion — probably some kind of 'in case of capture' failsafe. But what's left looks kind of… steampunk."
"Me? No. I've got a friend who just calls me Angel." Which is totally true, Spiderman does call her that. The teasing in her voice will expose that she doesn't think that she's anything close to Angelic. "Healer, heal theyself, or something."
Beau can finally speak once Thea's finished with him. His own healing factor is very quick but it still hurts. A lot. More than usual but everything is /more/ and /extra/ right now. "Yep, Fernando. You've been Super'd. I, personally don't do capes. Gets in all wound up in the axel." He says, dryly. "You've gonna be fine now. I'll see you in the hospital, okay? I'll be your buddy. Advocate." He says to Thea. "I want that bug in the lab so bad." He whispers.
The ambulance actually shows up in pretty good time, and soon Nando and Thea are both on the way to the hospital that he needs so badly, fortunately with Beau's advocacy the kid will be able to get decent care despite being homeless and either a runaway, or an orphan.
One of the staff at the clinic approaches the pair of Beau and Jimmy. "So…won't say anything about what we saw here, but what do you plan to do? If young Mister Nunez's 'pet' is still out there it is a menance and I'm not sure Animal Control is equipped for it." The man is the administrator, a middle aged native New Yorker of probably Chinese descent. He's clearly anxious, not sure if he should have approached, but…that kid was MAULED, and there's a burn on the wall from the exploded bug-whatever-the-hell-thing it was.
Jimmy grumbles internally. Another who's seen him in action. At this rate, he may as well put it on a billboard… but he's still not going to stop jumping in and helping when the need comes. To answer the question, he turns towards the door. "I'm going to go stop it. Ideally taking it alive" To get it into the lab, if nothing else. "but the important thing is stopping it." He nods to Beau. "Are you with me?"
Beau stares at the administrator like he's doesn't understand English. At the same time Jimmy eagerly announces he will stop the critter, Beau says, "The fuck do you think I'm gonna do? Do I look like Animal Control to you?" His Cajun cadence slips into his words. But Jimmy is asking him if he's in and Beau sighs. "I-I-I…I mean, yeah. Yeah—I. I just didn't want to go into it alone. I mean…I can be defeated by stairs, man. But I'm in. Let's fuckin' go 'fore I change my mind."
No doubt there are boards available in the immediate vicinity and for cheap, Jimmy! Regardless, once both of Jimmy, eagerly, and Beau, with clear reservations, agree to help the administrator looks greatly relieved. "If you need anything, I'll keep the back door open, in case of…accidents."
Jimmy gives Beau a wry smile. "I have no idea. I don't look like animal control on the surface either, but looks can be deceiving. But before we go." He holds up a finger. "If we can, I want to /capture/ this thing, not just kill it. We already lost the robot, so I think you'd want to get the ferret into the lab while it's still breathing. But I'm not exactly an expert in that kind of capture. You're the doc; anything here you think would be useful for pacifying or binding the thing, or should we just get some tubes and hope for the best?"
"Uh…fuck. I am not a pharmacist or a vet but I am thinking that, uh, we're probably dealing with something that lacks a circulatory system." Beau says, carefully. "So, we'll have to make it up as we go along. I can take hits from it but I can't fight. I mean, you see I'm tougher than I appear, yeah?" He starts out but pauses and chuckles. "If it's a fucking Pika-ferret then even a standard metal trap would be out of the question. So. Let's brute force this bitch."
"Brute force," Jimmy says. "That, I can do. Hopefully, it's not some crazy Asgardian-strong kind of ferret as well as lightning-y." He ducks into the supply closet and grabs a few stiff, sturdy IV tubes; better than going in only with the zip ties in his pocket. With that, he heads forwards, to head across the street. "I'll take point on this. I'm not a healer like you, but this is what I /am/ good at."
Having set forth under the ever wonderful auspices of the 'BF&I' Plan (Brute Force & Ignorance), the two can proceed. 'Nando did provide a rough location of where he was crashing, so it is a fairly simple thing to get across the lot to the falling down building he described. Surprisingly, there's handicapped access to the basement and as it is one of the basic machines - an inclined plane - it is still in good working order.
The basement is fairly foul, it smells of old and stagnant water overlain with a delicate bouquet of unwashed humanity tinged with more than a hint of rotting or nearly rotting food. It is also fairly dark, the drip-drip-drip of water faintly echoing.
"Nope. None of this is creepy at all." Beau says as soon as he gets a look at this basement. Beau carries a backpack everywhere so he has a few useful things on him. Beau is armed with mace that is clipped to his shirt and a LED headlamp. Simple, bright, always handy when you use your hands to move. "At least the fucking access worked. It's terrifying, sure, but ADA-Compliant." He rolls his eyes. "Watch for pools of water. Don't get shocked. Are you wearing rubber soles?" He pokes his one of his wheels. "Oh, whew. Rubber tires today. Smaaart. Lead on, you."
Jimmy grimaces by reflex just from the scent, but he keeps his focus on the task at hand. Once they're inside the basement and away from prying eyes, he changes: a glow streaming from his skin and especially his eyes, helping to beat the darkness. His left hand holds the tubing, and as his right lifts, a baton appears, made of solid white light. He nods to Beau's question about his shoes, tapping one toe against the ground. "Yes." In his current form, his voice is different, sounding like two voices speaking almost in unison. He stays in front, sweeping his shining gaze around the basement to seek the creature in question. If it even /is/ a creature.
The LED lamp does provide some good illumination, but then Jimmy quite literally becomes a living lightsource and floods the room with his radiance casting the the revealing white glare almost akin to fluorescent lighting to the place and laying bare the horrible conditions that prevail. The room thus revealed has piles of trash and detritus, and an old oil drum that seems to have recently been used as a primitive stove. There's a filthy sleeping bag off to the side with a bunch of rags in plastic bags under it to serve as a crude mattress. The dripping water is revealed to be an old and broken pipe, and it seems that whomever, presumably 'Nando, lives here has gathered a bunch of 20-oz soda bottles to store up some reserves of water against future need.
And it is at that point that an older model flat panel TV is seen, and it is hooked up to what looks to be an old power junction box, but that is visibly gooey with some strange green stuff that fluoresces in the light.
And that is when the first sign of Tavi can be seen. Theres a creature twitching near the power source, and yes, you can hear the whirring of gears and the like as it does so. The light draws its attention, the ferret-thing twisting at great speed to GLARE, eyes backlit in red as it makes a sort of a hissing-chirp sound, clearly a challenge as it flattens, coiled to spring.
Beau's first act, upon seeing the glowing Jimmy is to turn his light down a notch. Just a notch. When the creature appears, he startles and covers his mouth to bite back the yelp he would have made. "You can hear it crankin' up. What the fuck, man?" He mutters from behind his hands.
Jimmy levels a hard stare at Tavi. Mechanical whirring, backlit red eyes… "That Is Not A Ferret." Really, that Nando even confused it for one says shocking things about the education system. 'Animal control' would be the wrong group to call.
Either way, it's clear the fight is begun. He tries for the first strike, throwing his baton straight at it.
The thrown baton flies, and the definitely not a normal ferrert is a near streak as hit leaps to attack the thing! There's a titanic impact, and Tavi is kocked into the old TV screen with enough force to knock it over and crack the screen. When it rises a moment later to hind legs, standing in a rather meerkat like stance, you can both see where the fur adorning it has been torn and beneath that can be seen a bewilderingly complex set of clockwork mechanisms. It should be noted - ferrets have a very distinctive smell, especially if their scent glands are intact. This…construct? Clockwork horror? Whatever it is -does- smell right. And it looks like the face of it got burned, probably by electricity, right across the eyes. All the same, it ducks out of tight then, scrambling through one of the trash piles.
Great.
The baton disappears just after impact, and with a flex of his wrist, Jimmy's holding an identical one. He growls, low and echoing, as the thing slips into a trash pile. Well, he's not going to catch anything just hanging back. He rushes forwards to start pulling things off the pile with his left hand, digging through to seek the creature. Yes, it gets him a bit overextended into the front line, but that's what healing factors are for.
"Holy shit, dude." Beau mutters, post attack. He is at sea here until he starts to move. Beau is a nimble wheeler and he's getting into a position of sorts. "Run him here. It'll corner him." Beau might have a theory. He did pick the darkest corner and he switches his light down again. We's removing power sources. "I'll tackle it if I gotta. I mean..I don't want to! Just run it here!"
The critter is revealed soon enough…Jimmy's efforts soon reveal the thing, and it leaps to the attack, trying to rend the crap out of his arm holding the baton. It is shocking how fast the thing is, clearly several times faster than a normal ferret, and stronger too! Should it get hold of the arm it will cut with hard, metallic claws in a frenzy of slashing, inside the body there's brief flickers of arcing electricity, which is weird considering the clockworks too.
Jimmy's strong, not fast. Tavi gets the drop on him, and he lets out a roar as the claws tear across his arm. After a second, he gathers his wits enough to change his 'sword', turning it into a shield to push the critter away from him. Hearing Beau, he turns as he makes the change, so the growing shield pushes Tavi in Beau's direction.
Tavi comes towards Beau and Beau…opens his arms as if welcoming a long lost relative. He is going bodily catch this damn thing and pin it. It shouldn't kill him. Just hurt. And he knows it.
The creature is flung free of Jimmy's now lacerated arm - which is surely consistent with the wounds that 'Nando took, so that's one mystery cleared up. Regardless, when it is launched towards the wheelchair bound doctor, it twists and tries to sink multiple sets of claws into the man's chest and shred. And though it is many times stronger than a ferret, even so a man is stronger still - especially when you consider that the man moves around primarily by means of the arms being used to pin it. Writhing, attempting to rend, it is for the moment pinned as well.
Jimmy winces at Beau. The trap springs, but there's no way that trap is pleasant. Jimmy lets his shield vanish, instead coming forwards with the tubing, ready to grab and start tying. "Can These Hold It?" Beau would know better about how strong the thing is, and whether they'd instead need to rely on raw strength, where materials are… limited.
Beau's all upper body strength and it shows. He's holding it down, at much pain and injury to himself. He's cursing and yowling but he doesn't let up. Not even when he falls backwards, barely avoiding a cracked skull. He's a well practiced faller. "Please…get this. Try anything."
Thea has rushed back from the hospital, seeing Nando into other, more licensed hands. She may have hastened the kid's healing, but there's still more he needs. She comes back to.. chaos. Her eyes widen just a bit as she takes in the scene, before she will rush towards Beau, heedless of danger, in order to start healing him even before she reaches him.
Jimmy just goes for his bare hands, then. He trusts that he can keep those together a lot better than plastic tubing — especially when Thea arrives. He swoops down with both hands to grab the 'ferret' and pull it away from Beau's chest, holding it at arm's length, as best he can.
Across the way from the clinic, down into the basement of the partially collapsed building - then yes, chaos. The little ferret is writhing, it is very likely that all three present will bear marks from its keen claws. They LOOK like animal parts, but they feel like metal…and the torn hide sheathing it is definitely slipping and tearing more with the struggles, the critter revealed even more as a clockwork mechanism.
Regardless, it takes a few moments to pin it…and then it it goes very still, the much like the roach did, just prior to exploding…
…that…yeah, that augurs ill!
Beau seems to be in a profound amount of pain but Thea is a balm, truly. As Jimmy pulls the Pika-Ferret away and the creature goes still, Beau's eyes go wide. "Throw that motherfucker! It's gonna blow! And in his position, on his back not unlike a turtle, the best Beau can do is shield his face with his arms. He needs all his parts but the face? Not the face.
Thea is already working on healing Beau. "It's not really alive! Throw it as hard as you can!" There's no blood circulating in the thing, that she can detect. And then, like an idiot, she will move to sheild as much of Beau as she can with her body, her back to Jimmy and whatever that thing is. There is cursing in Arabic flowing from her tongue.
Jimmy doesn't like talking much while he's like this, but his face is quite expressive. When Tavi goes still, his face radiates 'son of a bitch, not again', even more clearly than it radiates white light. But the basement they're in is derelict enough to begin with, and an explosion in the wrong place could cause all manner of disaster.
So rather than throw it, he slams it down into the floor, and does like he'd done for the first explosion: an inverted shield, covering it so the blast only hits a small area.
This clockwork critter has a much greater mass than the roach did, putting it under a shield is a good idea! Unfortunately the explosive force released is commenserately greater as well, cracking the foundation and pulverising cement with the burst of kinetic force and arcing electricity. It is doubtful that the shield will hold, but it will at least diminish the force of the blast. Even so, there's a lot more shrapnel in the offing here as well! This is going to be quite unpleasant for the three heroes. One good thing - the area is enclosed, so there's no chance of anyone -else- being hurt! So..there's that.
Beau sits very still after the explosion. And Thea's on him and honestly, this could have turned into a rolling race to shield one another, had Jimmy not acted so intelligently. Beau gently pushes Thea away and struggles up to his elbows. "Status? I'm okay. Sore. Thea? Jimmy?"
Thea tenses at the sound of the explosion, but it could have been so, so much worse. She'd expected to have her pretty blouse shredded and have a lot of her own healing to focus on. But thanks to Jimmy's quick thinking, that's not the case.
She will move aside, brushing hair back as she tries to get up to turn and look over at Jimmy. "Don't have to worry about me. I can heal myself, too." She's already working on herself, and Beau's attack wounds. "Let's get you upright, if you trust me?" She'll move to right Beau's chair, ready to use her powers with her adrenaline to be able to lift it and Beau upright.
Jimmy may have acted intelligently for containing the blast… but he did so in a way that kept it uncomfortably close to him. The shield groans under the shockwave, but contains most of it; when the light does dissipate, the remaining shockwave strikes him directly, especially the arm, and it launches him back to strike the wall. With his positioning, he'd been /right there/ to soak up the force and shrapnel — which means he has a couple of big pieces in that forearm and one shoulder.
He grits his teeth, but then Beau calls for them to sound off. "Here. Hurt." Between pain and boomy-voice, he keeps his wording clipped.
Beau is fine with the assistance getting back on four wheels. He's heavy but his chair is ultralight. As soon as he's up, he's moving to Jimmy. "Talk to me. What's the matter?" Beat. "You're smart. But the same kinda stupid smart that bravery comes from." He looks to Thea. "You too. Same cloth. Big damn heroes."
Thea snorts. "This is not the Serenity. You're the doctor, you were already hurt. I was just trying to keep it from getting worse." She makes the Firefly reference, even as she's moving with him to help Jimmy. She'll reach out to touch him lightly. "I can keep you from bleeding, and between me and the Doc here, I think we can heal up the worst…if you trust me."
Jimmy lets the glow fade, casting the basement into darkness as he returns to normal. He doesn't need his strength or his wings right now. He gives Beau a lopsided, tense grin. "The term is trouble-seeker." He just floated that one last night, and it went over well. Not as charged as 'hero'. He takes a breath as Thea approaches, nodding to her. "I can heal myself, but something like this… it'd take a couple of days." Better than taking a few weeks, which that shrapnel alone would take for most people.
The remains of what used to be Tavi are largely consumed in the conflagration that Jimmy's shield manages to mostly contain. Even so there's significantly large fragments left over. As Thea rights Beau and get him in his chair once more, the healers three would see an odd sight. At several points around the room there's three roaches just…watching, after the explosion they scatter, and further out, a flicker of something clearly metallic, about half the size Tavi was skitters deep into the dark, going down a broken section of pipe in the case of the larger thing and the roaches various cracks in the walls.
Jimmy's dimming of the light doesn't make it any easier to see them, and they're all gone very swiftly.
That's not creepy at all, right?
"Fuck clockwork pests. And fuck…" Beau gestures wildly at Jimmy. "All of this. I can heal faster. Let me take it." And Beau gets to work. Wound exchange begins. Shrapnel is being pushed out of Jimmy and Beau starts to bleed. "I'll be fine. Promise…" He whimpers.
There's another snort. "And you call us big damn heroes. Martyr much?" Thea will lay a hand on Beau, And she will use her powers to keep the blood in his body, trying to heal him even as he takes on damage.
"You don't have to—" Jimmy tries to interrupt, but Beau already is. He doesn't need to be a mind- OR heart-reader to see that the guy's not going to stop, so he just accepts it. "Thank you." He wrinkles his nose. In the grand scheme of things, he's really not the fastest of healers, huh?
"How do you think someone who can heal like I can is in a wheelchair?" Beau says, once Thea's magic is working and he's not grinding his teeth. "My mutant insurance policy doesn't cover the nervous system. And I learned that the hard way when I gladly saved my husband to be from…this fate. And I got better…except the spinal cord. Lazy fuck. Better, Jim?"
"It could have been before your powers, how the hell would I know?" Thea's voice is a little thinner, her cheeks a tiny bit paler as she pushes her powers into Beau. "I've never tried to work on a spinal cord before." It's almost an abstract thought, just something to ponder over later.
Jimmy grimaces at Beau's explanation. "That's awful. Brave of you, but… an awful way to learn." He nods. "Much better, thank you." He looks around the darkened basement. "There are more of those things out there, but… they're miles away by now. And I can't /feel/ them like I feel people. But…" He lights up again, making it easier to find the fragments of Tavi. "More For The Lab."
Working together once they get the lights back on, the trio can gather a fair number of bits of the ex-ferret, Tavi. It is amazing how lifelike the fur is, though the bits of gearing and such are definitely not organic. And yes, there's more of them out there. But what are they up to, and why?