Prowling the Night (Invite Only)

“Mr. Mankar, Ms. Daniels left a message for you to hear when you came back home.” Gun HOlogram SysTem greeted him as Sachin walked toward the door to the apartment. Rather irritated by this new annoyance, he frowned. “Well, what the hell is it? I want dinner.” Sachin said, getting ready to scan his thumb and get inside to get his dinner.

“Sir, it is of the utmost urgency. Ms. Daniels specifically said ‘Tell that Indian asshole to get his ass down to St. Thomas’ Hospital as soon as possible.’”

Sachin froze. Was someone injured? Andree? It was likely, she had been gone for a while, on her regular romps around Chicago and some such…oh damn, his healing would be needed, wouldn’t it? It must be serious if Gracie had left in such a rush and told him to go as well. Oh crap, he needed to move.

“Alright, GHOST, err, you go call Pizza Hut and ask them to deliver a large sized cheese pizza to St. Thomas’ Hospital. From Sachin Mankar. They know me. I’m going to go run.” Sachin said, running outside in a far greater hurry than he had come back home. He jumped on his motorbike, strapping on his helmet quickly and then roaring down Chicago’s highway with no real fear of getting hurt. However, it started drizzling lightly, causing Sachin to curse and say ‘fuck this shit’ multiple times.

He finally arrived at the hospital, drizzling wet, shaking aside a nurse as he barged in. “Where is Andree Jones or Gracie Marie Daniels?” he barked, and a surprised nurse pointed him toward a twenty four hour waiting room.

My god. The intensive care unit? And it was high up in priority. Sachin had to run quickly, hoping against hope that it wasn't as bad as he had thought...

He ran in there quickly, seeing…Nate and Chelle, Nate with mild injuries. Well, not mild, considering it was right through his shoulder and he was clearly bleeding, but Sachin had no real love for Nate and the injury is less than the horrific images that had been flying through his brain as he went to the hospital.

So he was annoyed. “Andree is back together with you?” he asked, trying to keep this irritation from showing. He rushed all the way here for this? For God’s sake…Now, Nate was clearly and severely injured, but Sachin had expected more and worse. In this case, he just placed his hand on Nate's shoulder and allowed the healing energy to flow in, largely repairing the shoulder with incredible speed.

"Gracie, you dragged me out of my room. You've barely slept in days, you've barely set foot outside the lab. I was going to drag you out kicking and screaming soon enough anyway." Andree told Gracie, she was obviously irritated. "And you know I don't like using guns unless it's life or death." Now she was annoyed at Gracie. "First, I'm sure that most of them would be dead. Second, I'd protect you ifone of your many enemies came after you. And third, what if whoever is behind this attack hurts other people? I'm getting the information out of him whether you like it or not." As they left the room, she caught Nate calling her his wife. A blush spread across her cheeks as he did so. It was sweet. Maybe Gracie would realize that he did like her and wasn't faking it. Because it was obvious he wasn't thinking straight, definitely not enough to lie, she believed him. Hopefully Gracie did too. As they walked up the stairs, Andree mumbled to Gracie. "Thank you, it was also getting awkward being alone with them, mostly Chelle."

Once on the rooftop, she ignored Gracie's comment and waited for her to wake up the assassin. Once the electricity had finished and he woke up, she grabbed him by the neck and held him over the edge of the building. "How much do I have to hurt you?" She asked, her voice modified into a deeper, man-like voice. "I'm not telling you anything."

"You sure about that?" She asked, her angry gaze hidden by the one way mirror effect of the lens on the mask.

"Yeah, I am." Came his reply. It was followed by a yelp of pain as she broke his left leg.
"Ready yet?"

"No....she'd kill me." Came his weak reply as he winced from the pain.

"She? Now we're getting somewhere." She said as she broke his other leg. A blood curling scream came from him. "Tell me more." She ordered as he dangled in her grasp.

"Okay, okay! I don't see her, I swear. She just wires the money to my bank account. I don't even know her name!"

"She had to give you something to call her."

"Root. I called her Root." His replied were still weak as tears came down his cheek.

"Where can I find her?" She asked in an authoritative tone. This man deserved no mercy. He was a gun for hire, an assassin. He probably killed many people. He got no sympathy.

"I swear to God, I don't know!"

"Is that everything?"

"Yes! You crazy bitch! Yes! That's everything!"

Andree pulled out her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1. "Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?" Came the dull voice of an obviously bored female operator.

Voice still gruff and disguised, Andree replied. "I found a man. He has two broken legs, multiple broken ribs, suspected skull fracture, possible punctured lung and multiple other injuries." She spoke slowly, making sure the man heard every last word.

"How did he get these injuries?"

"He fell off the hospital roof."

"What is your loca-" The operator's voice was cut off when Andree hung up the phone. The man still was held in her grasp over the edge of the roof. Her grasp loosened until he fell to the ground, landing in the planter outside of the window of the room Nathaniel, Chelle and now Sachin were in. He would live, the fall wasn't enough to kill him.

"Let's go." She said to Gracie, armour phasing and breaking down to hide in her body once again. Her feet padded along the stairwell until they arrived at the ground floor again. Once there, she led the way back to the room. "Done." She informed them, nodding to Sachin as a silent hello. Her eyes glanced out the window to admire her handiwork. "Now I'll wash up." She said as she walked over to the bathroom and soaked her blood covered hand in the warm water and rubbed the drying blood from her face. Once satisfied that she was clean enough, she walked back into the main room to join the others again.

Sachin nodded with a slight smile when Chelle thanked him, and then another one when Nate did. He never really had very much bad blood against these guys, having barely known them. As guys do, he forgave Nate pretty quickly since he had looked at it logically- Chelle was the one who had been linked to Nightkill, not Nate. Therefore, he did not care much about Nate though he was a bit wary about Chelle and her connections. "It's all right." Sachin told Nate. "Andree's a friend, but she forgives you, that's enough for me too." And it really was.

Sachin grinned upon seeing his girlfriend in the doorway. "Ah, yes, pizza. I ordered that. Cheese, of course, to make up for the fact you guys had ordered pepperoni last time for all of us, forgetting about me." he said, sticking out his tongue a bit. He placed a hand on Gracie's neck, blasting his own healing energy into her, which should recharge her and get rid of the exhaustion. "In any case, you guys can all eat cheese so I don't think it's much of a revenge plot anyway." he continued.

"Ah, here's your cheese pizza." said a familiar voice, and Sachin glanced to see his friend Pablo in the doorway, holding a box of a large cheese pizza. Taking it gratefully, Sachin placed on the table and pulled out his wallet. The Puerto Rican delivery guy came to their home at least once per week, and ended up on first name basis with all of them. The sight of all of these people in the hospital room didn't much faze him since he often walked into far weirder things at the Nerd Herd house.

"So, you'll come over to watch Euro with me next week?" Sachin asked, handing over the money. "I'll invite some other folks over too, we can all watch Spain win."

Pablo shrugged. "I'll see if I can make it. See you later, Sachin." he said, walking off with the money and shoving it in his pocket.

Sachin turned to the cheese pizza and frowned. "Ten slices and five of us, two slices each. Ah well, that's acceptable enough." He didn't need to eat, but it nourished him and he liked it, so why not? Besides, this was good pizza. He sat down on a chair in the room, the chair just a few feet away from Nate, pulling up a chair for Gracie to sit down next to him at. He knew Gracie felt edgy around Nate, and he wanted to try and encourage them to all be friendly.

Hearing Nate's question about whether or not the man that now lay in a crumpled, but still breathing, lump on the ground outside the window was the man that shot him, Andree called back from the washroom. "Yes it is." Her hands reached down and straightening her tank top a bit at the bottom, Andree walked back into the room. She dried her hands off on her thigh and stomach. Then she realized that the tank top was white and now practically see through at her stomach. At least her pants were black, that would be even more embarrassing. An embarrassed look was firmly in place on her now beat red face.

Quickly, she snatched two pieces of the pizza and sat down on the side of Nate's bed opposite Gracie and Sachin. There was a chair wide enough for the two of them to curl up in together and eat and there was a smaller chair on her side. It was shorter, allowing her stomach to be hidden behind Nate's bed so that Gracie and Sachin couldn't see it anymore. Nathaniel still could if he was rolled over to face her though. "Thanks, Sachin." She said in the Indian man's direction.

When they were finished here, she had important stuff to do. She assumed that the number in her pocket was for that mysterious Root woman that was behind the attack on Nathaniel. She wasn't going to give the evil woman a chance to hurt anyone else. Once they got back to base, she would trace the number to the location and pay the woman a visit, assuming she was still there. Or maybe she'd give the police an anonymous tip instead. Whatever. Either way, this woman had started a war with Andree, something that she was going to seriously regret.

"Bye." Andree replied to Chelle. It was short and bitter, she still hadn't fully forgiven her for working for that monster. But she claimed to have a change of heart. It wasn't enough for Andree though. She was still suspicious of Chelle. Noticing that Chelle left her cell phone, Andree's arm snapped out and grabbed it before anyone noticed, hopefully. Quickly, she pulled off the back of the phone and pulled out the micro SD card. The data was being copied already using the other SD card she inserted. Unknown to her, it copied a virus as well. The data would be wiped out as it was copied, leaving some barely recoverable stuff. Only a few photos would be left when it was inserted into the computer. Once finished downloading the photos and virus, she slipped it into her pocket and tossed Chelle's phone back where she had left it.

(Skip me.)

Andree quickly finished her pizza. She had a heightened metabolism and just simply devoured food to fill it. Plus, the pizza was fucking great. Nate's comments about feeling much better fell on Andree's deaf ears as she threw the phone back over to where Chelle had left it. "Oh, look." She said with a hint of mock surprise. "Chelle left her phone behind." Grabbing it once more, she placed it on the small white table next to Nate. Damn hospitals, everything had to be all white and sterile.

"Sure." Andree replied to Nathaniel, a tad reluctantly, when he asked her to sit on the bed beside him. Her shirt was still wet at the bottom, over her tummy, so she crossed her arms to block as much as she could. Her arm reached out and grabbed the blanket once she had taken a seat beside Nate on the bed. She pulled the blanket up and over her tummy to avoid showing off skin. She hated doing that with a passion. Deep brown eyes wandered up to his scars that had been covered up by tattoos. They did a pretty good job, but the scars that lay beneath were still slightly noticeable. I'll have to ask him how he got those one day.


*Thread closed*