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Post by Captain Admin on Jan 17, 2017 12:32:23 GMT
Within its historic walls, St Bart's is a thoroughly modern hospital, struggling against all the pressures on the NHS that are threatening every hospital.
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Post by UraharaSteph on Jan 20, 2017 2:49:33 GMT
It was night time. Aurora entered the hospital confidently. She looked as though she knew where she was going and that she was meant to be there. With a friendly smile to nurses, they smiled back, not questioning her presence. Her footsteps echoed down the corridors. The conflicting smell of sterile equipment and sickness clung to the heavy air. There was an eerie hum of medical equipment and lights. As she passed consultation rooms she could hear a consistent beep. Beep. Beep.
Beep.
She reached the bathroom at the end of the children’s ward. There was no nurse present in the ward itself, they were going through paper work at the wing’s reception desk or making their night rounds. Inhalers every four hours for one girl. Cleaning up vomit from a little boy. Sampling the urine of another child. Aurora slipped into the bathroom and switched into her white outfit.
Carefully, she left the bathroom and quickly disappeared behind the curtain of the first cubicle in the ward. A young boy was asleep in the hospital bed. He looked cold beneath the thin blankets. She picked up the clipboard at the end of his bed. Her sapphire eyes scanned over his details.
‘His name is William Arnold. Preference; Billy. He is seven years old. In for overnight monitoring due to suspected cardiac fibrosis, caused by MD. Muscular Dystrophy’. Aurora soaked in the information. For once, having a father who was a doctor was useful to Aurora. She placed the clipboard down. ‘If I take away the MD, then I will have to act fast. If my muscles start to give out on me then I’m not going to be of use to anyone. Still, this will be a good test of how far I can push my body.’
Aurora took a step forward. Not used to the mask and boots, she suffered a misstep and kicked the end of Billy’s bed. She covered her mouth. There hadn’t been a lot of noise, but the jolt was enough to make the seven-year-old stir. The little boy sat up groggily in his bed. He rubbed his tired blue eyes and his mouse-brown hair was all over the place.
Billy slowly started to register Aurora, who stood a little off guard. “Oh-“
“Shush!” Aurora put her finger to her lips. “Whisper.” She encouraged.
Billy was silent for a moment. “Are you an angel?” He softly asked.
Aurora felt a smile naturally curl her lips. Her heart felt warm and fluffy. She crouched by the side of Billy’s bed, so she could keep eye contact with him. “Not quite.” She spoke in a motherly tone. “I’m more of a… Good Omen.”
“What’s one of them?” Billy scratched his head.
Aurora started to fuss with the placement of his hair as she spoke. “A good omen is a symbol or sign or something else that appears before something very good happens to you. You can get bad omens as well, but I’m not one of them. Not for you.”
“I don’t get it. You mean, something good will happen to me now you’re here?” Aurora nodded her head. “Like I will get ice-cream for breakfast?”
Aurora giggled. “I can’t say what the good thing will be, but it will happen.”
“… I want to get better. That would be a good thing.” Billy mentioned sadly.
Aurora took his hand into hers. “I’ll see what I can do.” She patted the back of his hand. “Right, you should go back to sleep, okay?”
“Do I haff too?”
“Yes!” Aurora cooed. “Or else the good thing won’t happen.” She helped him settle back down into the bed, still holding his hand. “Night night, Billy.”
“Night night Miss Angel O-thing.”
Aurora’s hand let go of Billy’s. She could feel the disorder eating away at her muscles. ‘I’m not sure how long I can hold this off for.’ She headed back to the bathroom to pick up her bag and to switch the costume from white to black. Instead of leaving the way she came in, she slipped through an open fire exit, her phone in hand.
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Post by Zero on Jan 26, 2017 18:00:19 GMT
A grim look was on Alex's face. Sid Ainsley was lying in a hospital bed in front of him, unconscious, hooked up to a heart rate monitor, his face a mess of ugly purple bruises. Sid had been one of the thugs Bulmer had used to keep his tenants in line. But Sid had never asked for that life. He rarely, if ever, carried out an attack himself. He was more of a messenger, an informant, who had been bullied into that line of work when he had been unable to pay his own rent. He did what everyone in those flats had done - whatever he had to do to survive.
Zero had spared him from his assault, telling him to go to the police, tell them what Bulmer had been doing. And that had made him a target.
'Hey, Alex.' It was Jess's voice. Alex turned to her. She had let herself into the room, sporting a black eye and a sling on one arm.
'Jess...'
'Not as painful as it looks,' she said, dropping into the seat next to Alex's. 'How you doing?'
'What happened?' Alex asked.
'Your friend was the guy in the mask, right?'
'Yeah... Zero... yeah.'
'He beat the shit out of Gregory and the others,' said Jess. 'Then told Sid to run to the police, to tell them everything. Said the rest of Bulmer's musclemen couldn't do anything about it anymore. Turns out they all had other friends on the streets. And these guys were pissed when they saw what had happened to Gregory and all the others. And then there's Sid, unharmed, released by the police after a few days of questioning. These guys reckon Sid tipped off your mate in the mask. I got in their way, but... not for long.'
Alex looked down into his lap.
'Shit. I... I did this. This is my fault.'
'Bullshit,' said Jess. 'The guy in the mask started this ball of crap rolling.'
'This is on me,' said Alex. He turned to Jess. 'Because I am Zero.'
Her eyes widened.
'You serious? Holy shit. Alex! Mate!'
'Yeah. I know. If I hadn't tried to take down Bulmer, this wouldn't have happened.'
'You're a fucking superhero!'
'I am not a hero,' he said.
'You didn't know this would happen,' said Jess. 'Yeah, okay, shit was always going to kick off when you start fucking around with the muscle on our estate, but... you kicked Bulmer's arse! He's gone down big time!'
'At what cost?' said Alex. 'I thought I could just take out all his goons, chuck them into hospital beds and he'd have nobody else fighting his battles for him. But this-'
'Hey, whoa,' said Jess. 'This has nothing to do with Bulmer. You get that, right? The guys who did this to Sid... they couldn't give two shits about some slumlord. Otherwise they probably would have been working for him too. Nah, these guys, they were just friends with his minions. That's who they were sticking up for, not Bulmer. You took him down good.'
'And look at what it's done. I didn't stop to think about collateral damage. I was pissed off and thought I could do something. And I was reckless. I'm not cut out for this.'
'What? You're going to quit?' said Jess. 'Throw in the mask after one job? Well, fine, that's cool, I guess Olympus will be looking out for us.'
'Jess-'
'Because you know they're so fucking concerned with what goes on down here in the shit pits!'
'Maybe it's better nobody gets involved if the alternative is people getting hurt!' He glared at her. 'What's next? You, lying unconscious in one of these beds? Or on a slab? I keep doing this and people are going to get hurt. People are going to die.'
'People are going to die if you don't, Alex. People are dying. There are dark little nooks and crannies in London that don't get no protection from Olympus or the police or anyone! We need someone who gives a shit about us.'
'I know,' said Alex. 'I know.'
'Sid got beat up because nobody was around to protect him when these guys showed up. They weren't scared of any backlash, they didn't know what the fuck had gone on. You need to keep going. Get guys like this scared shitless of you. Let them know this is your territory.'
'And how do I do that, Jess?'
'Well, I'd start by taking out the competition.'
'What?'
She pulled out her phone and passed it to him. A news article Alex had glanced over earlier was open.
'You don't want people dying if they don't have to, right? Even the scumbags? Some vigilantes out there don't feel too strongly about that.'
'What makes you think this was a vigilante?' he asked, looking over the report again.
'The guy he took down was another sack of shit. Sort you'd probably be after.'
'So you're suggesting I start protecting the scum of London from vigilantes like me?'
'No,' said Jess. 'What I'm suggesting is they get you instead of a bullet. What I'm suggesting is people start realising these streets are yours and you're the only one dealing out justice around here. Some psycho wants to go on a murder spree because they're pissed off at someone...'
'Then first they'll have to go through me.'
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Post by Lullaby on Jan 27, 2017 8:42:30 GMT
Signe kept swimming in and out of consciousness, her stomach writhing. They were going to put her into emergency surgery... She thought. Something about her brain... She didn't know. Signe closed her eyes and waited...
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Post by Lullaby on Jan 27, 2017 12:17:11 GMT
They had tried to keep her awake during surgery. The wanted her to keep her responsive die in everything but it was hard with blood seeping between the brain tissue. The Doctors didn't know who the girl was. The students who called the ambulance said she was "the Danish girl on the first floor" but nobody could tell the doctors ger name and the girl could only speak Danish from what they gathered. Maybe whatever has hit her head had affected her ability to remember English?
The surgeons removed most of the blood and looked into the unfocused green eyes. "Do you know where you are?" There was a long pause then... "No..." Dr Rajj sighed. So she could speak English. Hopefully. She may still be repeating a word. "I'm Daria Rajj. I'm a doctor in St. Bartholomew's. You hit your head. So you know what happened?" The girl raised her hand and Dr Rajj stopped her. "No. Don't touch. We've just closed the wounds. "Was it a fall? Did you walk into something?" "I... don't know..." "Can you tell us your name?" "My name?" The girl looked like she was straining to remember something. "...Aurora... Aurora... Ross..."
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Post by Mittens on Jan 27, 2017 16:59:39 GMT
"... so there I was, barbeque sauce on my nipples-ah, here we are!" Lucio said as him and Aurora entered the reception area. Thankfully it wasn't too busy, it still being morning, so they didn't have to wait long to reach the desk. "Hello there, how can I help you?" The young lady asked the pair, "Hello, my name is Lucio Bellatore, I think my friend was dropped here sometime last night. She suffered a bad head injury. She's short, blonde, Danish and her name is Signe... Uh. I don't actually know her last name, to be honest." Lucio admitted, glancing at Aurora. "We're really worried about her, so were wondering if anyone had been admitted who matched that description?" The woman nodded; "I'll have a look, but could I please see some form of ID?" Lucio agreed and whipped out a card from his wallet. The woman gave it a cursory glance: "Alright, I'll have a look no. Take a seat and I'll let you know when I find something."
The pair moved to some free seats, Lucio struggling to get the card back in his wallet. On it, one could see a disheveled looking Lucio with a shaved head, along with the words MILITARE DI TELLASI stamped across the top. He finally got the card into its proper place, before grinning optimistically at Aurora.
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Post by Plague Doctor on Jan 27, 2017 17:11:19 GMT
Aurora walked into the hospital, following Lucio who was going about some inane nonsense. She watched as he talked to the receptionist, and whipped out his ID, showing a militarised version of the guy. She sat down at one of the free seats, and raised an eyebrow at his antics. "Is that the only ID you own?" she asked "because you look a bit like a golf ball in that picture" she said with a slight smirk. "Hopefully we can get her out quickly, or you can get to her quickly before something bad happens".
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Post by Mittens on Jan 27, 2017 17:45:12 GMT
"Golf ball? How rude." Lucio joked, but he was glad when the receptionist called them up barely a minute after sitting down. "Ok, Mr Bellatore, there is someone matching your friend. She can't remember much, so the doctor in charge of her has asked you to come up and see her, might jog her memory." She gave Lucio directions to the cranial ward.
It took the pair a few minutes to get there. Once there, they spotted Signe easily and approached her. "Hey there Signe. How are you feeling?" Lucio asked gently.
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Post by Lullaby on Jan 27, 2017 17:51:18 GMT
The girl looked up. "Wow," she grinned. "Do I know you? I hope I know you. You're both very beautiful."
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Post by UraharaSteph on Jan 27, 2017 18:44:26 GMT
Aurora gave Lucio a concerned glance. She then looked back at Signe. “Yeah, you know us. I’m Aurora and this is Lucio; we met at the beginning of last week in café Go on campus.” She looked at the doctor who raised their brow and pursed their lips to the side.
“She says her name is Aurora Ross.”
Aurora looked at the doctor. “No, her name is Signe. Aurora Ross is my name.”
The doctor relaxed their stance. “I’m Dr Rajj. Do you know how your friend happened to get into this state?”
Aurora looked at Signe. “We were in the woods after having an argument the night before. I thought doing some climbing of trees might help us bond again, but she fell and hit her head against a rock.” Aurora looked at Lucio as if to say ‘please don’t mention my power’ then continued to talk to Dr Rajj. “I’m afraid I fell from the tree after and blacked out, so I didn’t know what kind of state she was in until I came here.”
“Right. Well while we saw no damage to the skull itself, Signe suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. She’s undergone emergency surgery but as you can tell; she’s lost her memories.”
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Post by Lullaby on Jan 27, 2017 18:50:27 GMT
"Aurora..." Signe looked confused. "Your name is important... why? It matters more to me than 'Signe'."
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Post by UraharaSteph on Jan 27, 2017 19:07:07 GMT
“We were really close, Signe. We were like sisters. In the space of a week we had been through so much and had become so close.” Aurora said with quivering blue eyes. "Does she have her student ID on her?" She looked at the doctor.
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Post by Mittens on Jan 27, 2017 19:12:35 GMT
Lucio decided to remain quiet. Signe had clearly clung to some memories, mainly of Aurora. If anyone could could break through to her, it would be Aurrie now. He also waited in case the doctor left, in which case he'd suggest something he'd been thinking about for a while.
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Post by Lullaby on Jan 27, 2017 20:00:20 GMT
The doctor shook her head. "She only came in wearing these clothes." Dr Rajj indicated he clothes on the chair. "Why were they so badly torn?" Signe looked amused. "Ha, well now I feel bad for saying I thought you were fine." She laughed loudly. It was interesting. Signe had had a Danish accent before. It was now entirely English.
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Post by UraharaSteph on Jan 27, 2017 20:07:14 GMT
Signe was like an entirely new person. Aurora looked at Dr Rajj. “I don’t know why her clothes are ripped. She fell, I tumbled after her and didn’t wake up until this morning. My clothes were fine though.” Aurora explained. “Did she have any cuts or anything? Like an animal attack? Bruising from a person? Did she have a full body examination from you?” Aurora asked the doctor, looking concerned that they weren’t doing their job.
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