Night 65: X-Ray Room

[damned_intercom]

Once again, a couple of bursts of static greeted Link as he entered the room, but there was no audio message waiting for him. Strangely, the drawing from last night remained largely intact, as if it had been impossible for their captors to remove. The only thing different was that the vibrant glow from before had diminished, and the image was mostly reduced to a faint, green outline.

But more than that, a companion clue had apparently been set up for whoever entered here. This one required a flashlight to fully examine, but a well-aimed beam would illuminate a framed oil painting hanging from the wall. Beneath that were words written in the same green, glowing paint from last night:

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

If that wasn't odd enough, though, whoever had arranged the clues also left a small pile of dried leaves beneath the painting. The leaves themselves were unremarkable, and were likely pulled from a common tree. Was it another message, perhaps?

Despite the cryptic clue, though, the person who had come before did not want the patients' troubles to go unrewarded. A first aid kit with these items was perched on the table in the center of the room.

Comments

[baniichan]

"I doubt they left these here by accident," Barnaby pointed out. What it actually meant, however, was a different story. While Kotetsu vented his frustrations, though, he kept silence as he tried to mull over the possibilities.

Why the clue was complicated wasn't so difficult to figure out. After all, if they were given an easy riddle, then it stood to reason that their captors could sabotage their chances for a cure. On the other hand, that was assuming they hadn't sabotaged it already...

As he opened his mouth to add more, though, the room began to spin. Blinking rapidly, he gripped onto the edge of his wheelchair until his knuckles turned white.

[oyaji]

"Okay, so what do we--" Wild Tiger stopped talking when he turned around and found that Barnaby wasn't paying attention to him. In fact, he was intensely focused on staring at his lap it looked like. Bemused, his partner moved closer and then he realized something was definitely wrong. An unnerving shiver set a course up his spine as he placed his hand over the blond's. It felt like Barnaby was holding onto that chair for dear life.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even despite the sudden anxiety attack that threatened to take over. "Bunny?"

[baniichan]

Pain lanced through his abdomen so sharply that Barnaby almost thought he'd been stabbed by a knife, and he suddenly clutched his stomach with his free hand. His chest tightened to the point that it felt like is lungs were pushing the air out of him. Kotetsu would also find that his skin was starting to grow clammy.

As his ears began to ring, he became aware of his partner's voice. Are you okay? Swallowing hard, he shook his head no. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that it was bad.

After leaning forward in his chair, Barnaby tried to tuck his head between his knees so he could ward off the disorienting dizzy spell. He was practically curled in on himself, but that was all he could do until this passed.

[oyaji]

"Bunny? Are... Are you gonna throw up?" He really didn't know what else to think. Wild Tiger gave the young man some room, moving out of his partner's way so he could do... Whatever it was he needed to do.

"It's okay, just take your time..." Too bad there wasn't some kind of bag or trash can in here. The former Hero was pretty sure Barnaby wouldn't be too happy if he hurled on his expensive red boots. As he waited in trepidation, Wild Tiger placed his hand on his partner's back, rubbing gently to keep him calm, and to keep himself calm.

[baniichan]

Barnaby shook his head again. This wasn't nausea so much as the feeling that his internal organs were waging a war. "It hurts--" he ground out between clenched teeth. The pain was so intense that he could barely think about anything else.

To make matters worse, a sheen of sweat had started to form across his forehead, and an unpleasant chill settled into his bones. His body began to quiver beneath Kotetsu's palm.

The Head Doctor had said five people would change tonight, Barnaby faintly recalled with a jolt of horror. This had to have been related to that awful thing they had found inside of him yesterday. With that thought blaring through his mind like an alarm bell, it was by sheer willpower that he began to push himself up again.

"Get it out," he rasped with eyes squeezed shut.

[oyaji]

"It hurts...?" Whatever was holding his anxiety crumbled broke like a defective dam, leaving his heart rattling against his chest and his palms sweating. He remained frozen for a moment, too overwhelmed to make any kind of decision, until Barnaby's determination could no longer be ignored or he could hurt himself--Well, more than he already was.

"W-Wait--Bunny!" Moving to the front of the wheelchair, he grabbed the blond under his arms and hauled him bodily out of his seat. "It's okay, you're okay, Bunny..." Tiger reassured, though he was sure it sounded like white noise to Barnaby the same way it did to him. He had nothing else to give at this moment. He wasn't sure everything was going to be okay. They were all alone without support once again. Stifling bleeding was one thing, but abdominal pain was quite another. He was no doctor or surgeon.

Laying him out on the floor, Tiger held him up by his shoulders as he struggled to unzip the blond's jacket quickly. Just how exactly did Barnaby think he was going to get that thing out of him? His bare hands were useless and there was nothing in this room that would change that!

[baniichan]

With the way the room kept spinning, Barnaby only fully realized that Kotetsu had moved him to the floor once he felt the cold tile beneath him. His partner was no doubt doing whatever he could to make him more comfortable, yet there was just one pressing need on his mind.

"Get it out," he breathed again, this time more insistent. Every nerve in Barnaby's body screamed to stop whatever was happening to him. At this point, he didn't even care if they had to tear him apart to do it.

Without thinking, he balled his hand up into a fist and brought it down into his abdominal muscles with all of his might. The force knocked both the wind and a wet-sounding choke out of him. He couldn't breathe, but that didn't stop him from raising his arm to do it again.

[oyaji]

"Bunny!" What in the hell was he thinking?! He immediately grabbed the blond's hand out of reflex so he couldn't hit himself again. Barnaby was beyond desperate and Wild Tiger was the only one left with any kind of sense left; he needed to come up with something better than this futile violence. At this angle, all he was going to accomplish was suffocating himself.

"Wait, wait! Turn--If you're gonna do this, turn over!" Getting back up on his feet, Wild Tiger turned his partner over on his knees so he could throw up safely. God almighty, this was what they were reduced to: Barnaby punching himself in the stomach while he supervised. In a dark recess of his mind that was generally reserved for shoving the unwanted truth into, he realized this would be more effective if he did it. From the angle of the blond's fist, it wasn't going to work as well.

[baniichan]

Although he had Kotetsu's help in sitting back up, Barnaby wobbled as he tried to maintain his balance. He knew that his partner was right, but that didn't mean it was necessarily more effective this way.

Yet his stomach was being eaten from the inside. Everything burned. He aimed another fist at his abdomen, gasped from the impact, and...nothing. Barnaby shook his head, his chest heaving.

The muscles in his legs visibly twitched, which was abruptly followed by an involuntary jerk of his shoulder. The panic began to well up once again, and it showed in Barnaby's wide green eyes. "Get it out of me!"

[oyaji]

"Alright, alright!" Damnit, this was not supposed to happen! Sci-fi shit like this was reserved for horrors movies! And then when it got too scary all you had to do was turn the lights back on or cover your eyes. You weren't supposed to watch your partner suffer from something alien eating him inside out and be unable to stop it!

"Stop, I'll do it!" It wasn't often he had a leg up on Barnaby's broad spectrum of knowledge and it soured his mouth knowing he had to use it against his partner. He'd practiced enough martial arts and watched enough boxing to know the most effective places to make someone bring their lunch back up. He didn't have padding, though, but he figured a broken hand was a sufficient penance for hurting Barnaby. God, he hoped it was worth it. He hoped he wasn't making a mistake, trying to finish this as quickly as possible. All it would take was the right amount of pressure at the right angle and he could break the man's ribs or tear his internal organs.

Saying one last silent prayer, Wild Tiger placed his left hand on Barnaby's shoulder to steady him. He balled up his his fist and aimed the punch below his sternum where the network of cartilage connecting his ribs was a bit more forgiving than solid bone. A good liver blow could clean out someone's stomach in one hit, if they were lucky, but he had his doubts tonight.

[baniichan]

Look at them, Barnaby hazily thought as Kotetsu's hand tightened on his shoulder. Reduced to this, with nothing left to do except try to make him vomit the horrid thing stuck inside of him. With the room spinning, he barely registered the throbbing pain in his wounded thighs, much less the fist hurling straight into his stomach. As soon as Kotetsu's fist made impact, the pain rocked his ailing body, and managed to push a choked gag from the back of his throat.

Instead of bringing the relief he desperately needed, though, his muscles began to tense so much that it almost felt like they were going to shatter his bones.

"Kote...tsu," he manage to gurgle. Tears stung his eyes as a million questions rushed through him at once. If he died, who would help his partner? Who would find his parents' killer and put them to justice? What was his life even good for if it was going to end like this?

An awful noise pierced the room -- a low, guttural cry that sounded like a dying animal. With a jolt of horror, he realized it was coming from him. And though he wasn't wholly aware of it, streaks of red began to spread across his body like spiderwebs.

His pale skin was cracking and splitting apart, as if he were turning into a rotting corpse.

[oyaji]

"B-Bunny--!" The inhuman noise shook Wild Tiger, freezing the blood in his veins. His tremoring hands pulled Barnaby's head up to tell if that sound had truly come from his partner, but what he saw on the young man's face was far worse than any howl. The skins between his dark hands was sloughing off like it was made out of paint and the blond had gotten caught in a rainstorm. Blood began to pool and dribble down the back of his hands and it was suddenly too much to take.

The hysteria Wild Tiger had kept at bay behind a thin veil of denial and desperate hope broke and he began to cry. "Bunny!" he sobbed, unable to form any other words. "Bunny, Bunny, I'm sorry!" It all came out before he could stop himself or even understand why he had needed to say it. Perhaps he was sorry for not being a better partner. If he had been more serious or if his powers hadn't been in recession he may have been able to stop this before the infection destroyed Barnaby from the inside out. Maybe it was for the fact that now his partner would die without ever knowing who killed his parents and that was his fault. He should have told him immediately! He knew he was being an ass, but he was too selfish and cowardly to tarnish their friendship now that they had been reunited.