To Whom It May Concern... [closed to O.C.E.A.N members]

The Black Angel slipped out the door of one of O.C.E.A.N's several firing ranges. She carried an M-4 carbine in her hands, with a gun bag slung across her back. In that back was a Russian made An-94, a South African Vektor R4, as well as an American M-21 sniper rifle. Even with such a wide array of weapons, the Black Angel was starting to wonder why she even bothered to go to the shooting range. Every shot was perfect, every shot placed exactly where she wanted it, and every shot a kill. Though deep down she knew the reason why.... Shooting had always been therapeutic for her, as she even once joked, calling it "Ballistic Therapy". There really was no release like the release of the trigger, the explosion of gun powder, the bullet flying towards its target, then the sound of impact. For the Black Angel it made all the troubles go away, like shooting a basketball, a long jog, or a favorite CD did for some other people.

If she wasn't a perfect shot before, she certainly was now, and she imagined the destruction she'd be able to do on some of the battlefields she'd previously found herself on as a mercenary. She figured at this point she'd be able to take out an entire poorly trained rebel army by herself. If she still lusted after money as much as she once did, she knew she'd make a large future selling herself as a one woman army. She could even think of a few countries and clients who'd pay handsomely for her services right now, more then likely in cash, or better yet... Gold. But, she'd left that life for a higher calling.... One of sacrifice, honor, and remaining dedicated to her friends.

While she'd made any enemy or two in O.C.E.A.N, the Black Angel had managed to make more friends. Among the best were Sai, Nyx, and Shi. Sai would always be her best friend in the organization, but the Samurai seemed a close second. She'd certainly enjoyed working with him in NOLA, and he'd certainly defused the situation with Adam... The Black Angels right eye twitched slightly when she thinked of Adam. She didn't trust the brainiac as far as she could throw him still... But, Shi had adverted the two going at it in the sparring room. Even if she didn't like to admit it, the Black Angel knew it was best the two didn't go at it. It would have been bad for discipline, maybe even morale... Shi knew this.... Kept both of them focused on the end goal... Avoiding the end of the world.

Yes, she'd certainly made a friend in the Samurai... Though he was distant, as distant as she likely was to others. Everyone had a past, she imagined Shi was certainly no exception. What exactly his story was... She didn't know... He didn't ask or pry into the Black Angels, which meant that the Black Angel certainly wasn't going to ask or pry into Shi's. She trusted him with her life in a combat situation, that was enough for her...

The Black Angel was walking down one of the large metallic hallways of O.C.E.A.N HQ, when suddenly Sai raced by her, carrying Shi in her arms. Sai blew by her racing close to a 100 MPH, still it was plain to the Black Angel that Shi was in trouble.... "What the fuck could have happened to him??? A training accident? No.... Not to Shi... He must have been attacked." the Black Angel wondered. However, she quickly shook that thought off, realizing it didn't matter in this, the most critical of moments. From how Shi looked, the Black Angel knew his life was very likely hanging in the balance. The Black Angel then turned around, dropping her weapons, and chased after Sai, sprinting after them as fast as she could.

The Black Angel figured Sai had to be going to the medical bay, which was luckily better equipped then any hospital on this world. The Black Angel had received "Proper" training as a field medic when she was with SSI "Strategic Solutions INC". The Black Angel was bright, motivated, and interested, so she soaked the training up. As she raced after Sai, holding Shi who was clinging to life, the Black Angel figured she and Sai were likely his best chance for survival.... And luckily.... Thankfully he'd been injured close to one of the best medical centers in the world.

As the Black Angel neared O.C.E.AN HQ's medical bay, she suddenly became very nervous of what she'd find. The fact that whatever... Or whoever had done this to Shi was still out there not worrying her nearly half as much as the prospect of a dead friend. The Black Angel pushed the doors to the medical bay open, turning to Sai, saying "What can I do to help?". The Black Angel was ready to her friend as she knew he'd have helped her.

Sitting quietly in his quarters, a cadre of blond teenage boys were busy entertaining themselves with various tasks. Primarily the superhuman was working on his company looking for ways to improve upon its lofty goals and work towards the ends he had set out before the corporation. One of boy sat scrolling through expense reports from different portions of the company while another reviewed the reports from the numerous progress reports. Another still was flying through the writing of another government grant for further funds for some new project that he hoped was going to help prepare the world for its next leap into a new era. Slightly segregated from the others, another of the adolescents stood in the center of a holographic array of laser lights using his hands to manipulate the beams it was like he was amid designing a building, experimenting with just about any and everything that could go into doing such a thing from plumbing to electric to aesthetic archetecture and beyond.

However, the silence was abruptly interrupted by the sound of a warm male voice ringing out.

"Adam, I believe it would be apt for me to inform you that Saileyra was just identified moving through the compound at high velocity carrying Shi Ryurou in her arms. Cursory scans show that he has particularly critical vitals and that Saileyra is displaying symptoms of nervousness. Additionally, The Black Angel is in pursuit of the two. All three are en route to the Medical Bay," spoke the voice, essentially emotionless and almost clinical in its speech pattern.

The effect was beyond immediate however, as before the information was finished being imparted, the group of metahumans was in furious and rapid action. Work was being saved, items were being gathered and with a series of coordinated motions, the clones were absorbed until only 2 remained. Both sprinted through the door and down the corridors, one applying a pair of the hero's signature Multiple Goggles to his face while the other began compartmentalizing and restructuring his thoughts and emotions preparing himself steady work that wouldn't be clouded with irrational and essentially useless feelings. By the time the two skidded to stop through the Med Bay doors, the colder more logical one of the two was busy reviewing what Adam knew of Shi's physiology and medical files.

"How?" the second of the two simply asked, aiming to find out exactly what had happened to their friend. It would've pained him to ask such an inane question because it was so basic and cliche but there was no time for his usual over analysis and pretensions. It was also the necessary question for the situation because he wanted and needed as much information as possible about this.

"Angel, could you collect and warm some blood? Type doesn't matter. He's AB+ so he can take whatever. Just get whatever we have the most of for right now. The fresher the better. Sai start getting him out of his armor so we can staunch the bleeding and get to cleaning the wounds. I'm going to get an IV ready and probably an anesthetic," the goggle clad duplicate spoke after looking at the samurai for a few seconds, cycling through various visual filters compiling information, quickly discovering that the most grievous of the injuries was the shattered spine and several ruptured organs. He knew that in situations like these, someone needed to take charge in order to prevent anyone from falling apart and things devolving into a cluster fuck. In the back of his mind he was worried about Shi and he knew that Sai and Angel were as well but he wasn't exactly sure how either of them would hold up for the time being. Both were battle hardened warrior women but they were also both prone to bouts of anger and emotions were just going to get in the way at the moment so he wanted to keep them busy so their brains wouldn't have the time to process fully.

Breathing in deeply, both of the blonds set to work gathering supplies from around the room, one getting sanitary items for them to use, the likes of gloves and smocks while the other set about for saline and atropine to begin with.

They were in for a struggle, all Adam could hope for was that Shi wasn't going to give up on them.

From the sheer nature of Shi’s existence it would complicate things. His vital signs had to be monitored without machinery, as they for some unknown reasons could not pick up vitals or brain activity. Not to mention that Shi’s body was a rather impressive piece of armor in and of itself. Trying to fix this was going to be a nightmare, but if anyone in OCEAN could do it, it was the one working on him and the others alongside him. Shi’s body was a wreck, his muscles were all tense and hardened from the exercise of battle, and his heart was pumping rapidly from the exertion, which was pumping blood faster, and therefore causing him to lose blood faster. The external lining of the stomach was nicked, and gastric acid was leaking into the normally sterile body. His right kidney was missing an entire chunk, claw marks exposing the sickly colored Nephrons and the interior. The gastric Acids began eating away at Shi’s interior, all the while, Shi’s kidney was leaking out what normally would have been filtered from the blood back into him. Shi was certain to be in a state of total systemic infection, and most likely hypovolemic shock.

To make matters far worse, the location where Shi’s spine had been broken in half was leaking bone marrow throughout his body, causing a high risk for death, even if the other problems had been resolved quickly enough. It was apparent to anyone and everyone that Shi’s chance of survival was low. Less than single digits low. Shi was unresponsive, his mask was pulled off, and his eyes were fixated into nothingness as they seemed to glaze over like cataracts had claimed the crimson orbs. His breathing was shallow, and the breaths were very few, and very labored. As he breathed only once side of his chest rose, the other remained a but sunken, revealing a collapsed lung and a large mount of blood beginning to leak into his remaining lung due to a puncture Aorta. Shi’s survival was no longer even able to be considered. He was too far beyond what two men could do. Then again, if anyone could do it, it was plural.

Complications would only arise when reaching the spine, only to realize that it was an impossible fix. The severance sites of the spine were coated and radiating a strange form of energy, one that persisted, and nothing could be done about it. This energy was an energy none of O.C.E.A.N had ever seen before, and it’s origins could only be believed to be Zell. The energy was ne of the most enigmatic things to behold. “samples” could not be collected, as it seemed to disappear from the fabrics of reality itself, leaving no trace, and simply trying to observe the energy would yield boring results. The only thing for certain was that this energy made it, quite literally, impossible to fix and repair.

In the end, Shi was saved. He survived, but was far from out of the woods. He was constantly monitored until he opened his eyes the next day. He was wearing a hospital styled gown and he had been placed partially up on his side to prevent pressure sores from forming and causing further complications. Shi noticed an accordion styled fold rise up and down, and it seemed to be in parallel with the air he took in. he went to move, only to realize that that machine was down his nose, sending air into his one collapsed and partially repaired lung. He swallowed as best as he could with the tube down his throat, and he relaxed. He looked down as his bed, only to try and kick off the sheets. His legs didn’t move. His breathing began to pick up, a sign of stress. He tried and tried. For a good ten minutes he tried to kick off the blankets. He willed it, he wished it, he even silently prayed to his ‘siblings’ for it….but his legs did not move. He gave up, leaning back and a tear dropping from his eye as he realized the futility of his attempts. The door opened, he didn’t bother to see who it was. He just kept to himself, being as silent as he could. Eventually with a thought he raised his right arm, but it caught on the bedrail. Apparently the ‘Doctor’ or someone else ordered an SRD to keep Shi from trying to manually remove his new ‘hardware’ and surviving on his own. With as weak as Shi was he couldn’t move or break free, so he just lay there, wallowing in failure.

”So…you’ve come to visit Death on his own doorstep.” He said. He was trying to make an effort to joke, but it came out too weak and raspy for anyone to really pick up on a tone.

The Black Angel looked at Sai, just as she heard a voice from the back of the medical bay say "Angel, could you collect and warm some blood? Type doesn't matter. He's AB+ so he can take whatever. Just get whatever we have the most of for right now. The fresher the better.". It was Plural..... "Whatever.... He can help Shi..." the Black Angel said to herself. She nodded her head at Plural, then said "I'm on it...". She then raced across the medical bay, to where there was a refrigeration unit, which housed the temperature sensitive supplies.

The Black Angel pulled open the metal latch, slid the metallic door, then entered the col metal box. Once inside the Black Angel saw at least ten refrigerators..... Finding blood would take valuable time. The Black Angel opened each door, searched through the contents, then moved on once she didn't find any bags of blood. Finally after searching the sixth refrigerator in line, she hit pay dirt. The Black Angel pushed bags aside, looking for the freshest she could find. It seemed there was a wealth of A-, which had been cultivated just a few days ago. Luckily there were both platelets and plasma, which she figured he would need both of due to such massive blood loss. Grabbing as many as she could hold in her arms, the Black Angel turned, kicking the door shut, then ran out of the refrigeration unit.

The Black Angel raced into the medical bay again, which she scanned for a blood warming device. She found one in the far right corner of the room. Running to it, the Black Angel switched the device on, then began to place each bag in the device. She then began to ready the intravenous fluid pumps, making sure each pump was properly calibrated. When the first bag reached temperature, the Black Angel said "First bags at temp!". She took the bag out of the warming device, then rolled the bag on an intravenous fluid pump over to where Plural and Sai were working on Shi. The Black Angel then hung the bag of blood on the high latch atop the pump, then she began an intravenous line through the pump, into a vein in Shi's left arm.

The Black Angel didn't have time to think of bitter "Office" quarrels with Plural.... All that mattered right now was Shi, keeping him alive, then making sure he made a full recovery. Nothing else mattered.... Certainly not dislike for you know who... Because if their was one person who tried to bring them and all of O.C.E.A.N together in relative harmony.... It was Shi... And the Black Angel would certainly honor Shi by simply doing what she must to ensure that Shi not only make it through the night, but have a chance at recovering from whoever did this....