10384/The Secret of the Sisters: Dead to Rights

The Secret of the Sisters: Dead to Rights
Date of Scene:	07 March 2022
Location:	Level 1 - Medbay - The Roost
Synopsis:	Phoebe, Tim and Jonathan Sims confront Gabby about the irregular vital readings they received during her meeting with the others she tagged in to help find her missing clone sister. The severity of Gabby's deteriorating condition is discovered and she's grounded for her own good.
Cast of Characters:	Gabby Kinney, Phoebe Beacon, Tim Drake, Jonathan Sims

---

Gabby Kinney has posed:
It wasn't that long ago that Tim had pulled Gabby aside for a heart-to-heart of sorts to figure out why she was so upset, and distracted, as of late. His urging for her to reach out to accept help was heeded though: She'd finally sent out a few invitations to team members, and a few outside the Outsider roster, to ask for help. Due to that she'd had the original meeting at one of the abandoned rooftop gardens in Gotham so that all could attend without giving away the Roost's location. It went almost without a hitch, except.... One small, very important hitch.

While in costume, Gabby's vitals had ceased for over two minutes.

It was the first time she'd been in costume in over a week otherwise similar issues may have been noticed before this. For now, unaware that her vitals were monitored through the equipment of the suit, she had just returned to the Roost assuming only those who had been at the gathering knew of that unfortunate event.

Which makes her think she can get away with sneaking down to the medbay in search of an epi-pen to keep on hand in hopes of staving things off in the future. As well as raid the candy drawer.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    And right about when Gabby has her hand in the candy drawer, full of its vegan-friendly all-natural pectin sharks, various bags of skittles and the sour skittles marked "PHOEBE'S SKITTLES DO NOT TOUCH" -- the door to the medbay opens and Phoebe is there, wearing a nicer jacket, designer jeans, and nice shoes instead of her regular second-hand-store T-shirt and jeans.

    "*Gabrielle Zelda Kinney* what in the HELL happened that you were dead for two minutes?! Like not only really dead, but really most sincerely dead?!" Phoebe asks, readying a battle stance in case Gabby tries to make a run for it. She has a pair of blue acetate glasses perched on her nose, though they're mildly askew.

Tim Drake has posed:
    By all accounts, Tim has been out of the country and basically incommunicado for two weeks now, because the only way to get a workaholic to cut himself off from everything completely is to just do it for him. There'd been confusing information on where precisely he'd gone. Was it Ireland or Iceland? Then somehow, someone had got it into their heads that he was in Italy. The details remain sparse even when he'd rather unceremoniously returned to the Roost.

    So, yes, Tim's back. Red Robin hasn't made his official patrol debut yet, because it's kind of important to make sure civilian and cape disappearances don't sync up, but there are alternate processes in place to ensure anyone trying to connect those dots together will have plenty of conflicting evidence to throw them off the trail. He's pouring through the logs at the moment, on catch-up duty, in his computer lab. And the door's cracked open, which means he hears Phoebe yelling.

    Tim is on his feet in an instant thanks to battle reflexes, but the words process at the same time so as he jogs across the lab level towards the medical bay he's scrolling through Gabby's bio telemetry data on his phone. "What do you mean dead?" he asks as he does a fairly good Batman impression from behind Phoebe.

    The loom is unfortunately less impressive given that Tim's in an oversized wool sweater and basketball shorts, with a pair of knit socks slipping down from mid-shin.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Her full name? Gabby had never. Ever. Been yelled at by her full name before. The ingrained sense of 'OH SHIT' that most children have encountered in their lives was never something she had herself dealt with. Which makes it's impact all the heavier as she goes wide-eyed freezing in light of Phoebe's terrible worried wrath. She stands there, half hunched over with her hand in the drawer staring at Phoebe as her mind scrambles to come up with an explanation amidst questions flitting through her own mind.

"H-how did you--" Then Tim joins in earning a deep inhalation of breath. For another half moment she freezes as she's caught unable to answer properly.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, she withdraws her hand from the candy drawer to lift a single Skittle to pop into her mouth.

"Um. I... Uh. Died. Is why? In my defense," she blurts out suddenly far quicker with both hands lifting to offer palm out toward the pair, "I thought I was only having blackouts otherwise I would have told everyone way sooner I swear."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Because I have a monitor feed and your outfit has biomonitoring in case I'm needed so that you *don't* die." Phoebe comments -- and then she motions. "Up on the gurney, I'm taking some scans." she states, as she reaches into another drawer to pull out a headwrap to wrap her hair back and then reaching for the white lab coat with BALM written on it in sharpie.

    "I mean heart and brain activity stopped for Two. WHole. Minutes. One hundred and eighty five point three seconds it read she was down. I shouldn't have gone to--" Phoebe begins to admonish herself, but she shakes her head.

    "How long have you been having blackouts? UNder what conditions? Why didn't you mention it to anyone?" she asks sternly.

Tim Drake has posed:
    In the intervening seconds of the Phoebe-Gabby standoff, Tim has managed to scroll his way to the spike of biometric data where Gabby last had her uniform on. He's silent, studying the readouts, his gaze shuttered but focused. It isn't until he's clicked his phone off and tucked it into his pocket that he steps forward, one hand on Phoebe's shoulder. "We all struggle with asking for help sometimes, I get it," he says, and by the sound of it, Tim really does.

    His brows draw together, a tiny furrow between them. "But now that we know, we need to get to the bottom of this. I can start working on a timeline for these episodes." Then Tim glances at Phoebe, and gives a subtle tilt of his head towards the medical bed. Just before his phone makes a reappearance. "When do you remember it starting?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon was still getting back on his metaphorical (and physical) feet from his own extended absence when Gabby sent out her message, so he didn't make it to the initial meeting. So he takes some time to come down to Gotham and check in at the Roost to see what's going on.

    Given the standoff between Phoebe and Gabby it's possible nobody notices the ping of a visitor entering the Roost, making his way toward the Medbay. He looks way more relaxed than any of the Outsiders have ever seen him, wearing a Doctor Who t-shirt and a light jacket, jeans, /sneakers/. The shouting alerts him to the idea that it might be best not to just... walk on in to everything, so he hesitates a little ways off to one side, frowning slightly.

    "Do you remember anything, or did you just... black out for those two minutes?" His voice is quiet, trying not to startle anyone.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney keeps her hands held up as blow after blow of verbal guilt-trips hit her. Ow. Ow. Ow. She winces faintly while looking guiltier and guiltier as Phoebe insists on examining her, and Tim then steps in to be the voice of reason to calm her. "I *was* asking for help--" she begins only to lower her hands in absolute defeat. There was no getting away from this it would seem.

Silently she turns to march herself toward one of the beds where she hops on only to slouch over draping her arms over her knees. Raising her gaze to the pair again she clears her throat lightly. "About a week and a half ago. They've become more frequent with less time in between them. And I know what's causing it, probably," she explains with her voice just dropping with a hint of uncertainty. She shifts to sit up straighter when she becomes aware that Jonathan was here now as well. Gripping hold of the edge of the bed her head shakes slightly.

"I just felt really tired. A bit out of breath kind of, and just like I was about to nod off. Then nothing till I 'woke up' again. That's how it was all the times it happened."

Biting down on her lower lip she sucks it into her mouth chewing on it as she determines how to proceed from here. Carefully, obviously. "The sudden exhaustion is what happened to my sisters when it started killing them, too. They just didn't have my healing factor."

An idle leg swing comes, and she stills herself again. "You know how I can't feel pain? It's because of Alchemax's last experiment on us." Her hand lifts, pointing to a spot at the back of her neck near the base of her skull. "Injection. We didn't know what it was until later. After it was too late. They put nanomachines in us to turn off our pain receptors when necessary." A deep breath is drawn, and she lets it out slowly, "That's why I'm so desperate to try and find Bellona before it's too late for her. She was on a mission when they gave us ours, but hers came later. There might still be time if we hurry. If we can find her." Nevermind herself.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe sits down on a swivel chair, and she starts the process of a scan on Gabby as she listens. Her brain is already turning as she looks to Tim, and to Jon with his arrival, and then back to Gabby.

    "Bellona is the last one out there, then, who may start having these blackouts soon?" she asks with more gentleness.

    "Lay back please, Gabby, I'm going to do a brainscan."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Once Jon appears, Tim slinks back to stand against the wall. "A week and a half," he mouths to himself, and for that brief moment Tim can't keep the anxious concern from coloring his expression. But then just as fast it's back to business, and his attention returns to his phone as he starts working on a timeline.

    It's an effort, to keep it up. When Gabby drops the revelation about her sisters' death, there's a stutter to the tapping of his fingers against his phone's screen. "You think the nanomachines are to blame?" he asks. He looks up, glancing towards Gabby before an immediate redirection occurs, and then Tim is staring a hole into the monitor where the brain scan results will eventually appear. "Presuming we can find some of Alchemax's technical documentation, maybe we could reverse engineer their design to the point we could neutralize them."

    He tucks a piece of hair behind one ear in a distractedly thoughtful gesture, before he shakes his head. "We'd need something to start from, at the very least," Tim eventually decides.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon listens to Gabby's explanation with a frown. "Alchemax...?" His expression goes distant for a moment and then he shakes his head. Nothing in the Archive, but that's not surprising. He can put two and two together, at least in a general way, and it makes his brows draw down into a deep furrow. None of those implications are good.

    He steps forward, so he can see the scanner, frowning at it. "Hypoxia might cause fatigue, but I don't... are these nanomachines still in your blood? Could you reverse engineer from that?" A glance to Tim.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Right, sorry," Gabby mumbles to Phoebe in response to being ordered to lay down again. Right. That. Swinging her legs up onto the table she stretches out lacing her fingers together over her stomach. Then unlacing them to stretch out at her sides. Then back to crossing over her stomach. What should she DO with her hands anyway?

"My sisters started dying awhile after the experiment. It seemed to effect the older ones worse than the younger ones," Gabby explains to the best of her ability. "It was until later, after we escaped, that I learned they were nanomachines from Dr. McCoy's scans. They weren't causing me issue though and we didn't have any schematics. The lab we escaped from burned down."

Her gaze slides over to Phoebe watching her work while the scans are done. There's nothing currently going on it would seem: Gabby is in as good of health as she has always been. Yet there WASS something in her brain that showed up oddly on the scans. Scarring? Or something else cluttering up the in-between places.

"I've got some info on the Alchemax execs that Catman got when I was, uhm, house sitting for him. Deadpool is using that along with some contacts of his own to find another of their locations, and layouts."

"I'm hoping we can find info on them and a way to maybe reprogram them or... I dunno. Yeah, they're still in me," she agrees with a nod before reminding herself to hold still for scans. "... Bellona's not mutant like me. If hers start doing the same, she won't just 'black out.'"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "If they're still present in her body we can find a way to draw them out. If not medically then... maybe I could try something." she bites on her thumb a moment as she pulls up the scans, keeping one eye on the computer screen she's working off before she ducks down into her candy drawer and pulls out the sour skittles and gives a toss of them to Gabby.

    "THere's some abnormalities up here -- the scarring might be the damage left behind. I'm hesitant to take an actual MRI in case there's anything in there that could be removed and cause additional damage -- letm e see if I can..." she frowns a moment "This, admittedly, is out of my league yet." she turns back to Jon, Gabby and Tim. "This is way more yours, Tim." she admits, but she motions to the possible scarring on the brain, "If they're still present, the best place to look may be up here. WIth the blood-brain barrier it's far more likely they hadn't been removed thorugh natural elimination."

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Something in their blood or biochemistry might have accelerated the decay of the nanomachines," Tim is saying as he walks around the bed to stare up at the scans. "Normalizing of hormone levels, possibly. Human growth hormone peaks during puberty."

    He's definitely staring, but now it's focused, intent. And it takes him a moment to pull himself away. "Sorry, running theory. Either the nanomachines are malfunctioning for some reason or this is, uh..." Tim's feet shuffle against the medical lab's floor, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "Some sort of planned obsolescence. It's possible Alchemax were aware of the issue and either couldn't solve it or chose not to, as a failsafe."

    Tim doesn't say anything for a moment, after that. Instead he nods along as Phoebe suggests other scans, and then looks to Jon for his input as well.

    Then his attention is brought back to solving the problem, rather than uncovering the mystery. Of the two, he knows which one is more important, even if his brain immediately leaps towards the other one. "With enough time. But I don't know if we have any to spare. I can start working on it, but," and then he snaps his head sharply towards Gabby. "Right. If we can find more information, that might give us something to go off of."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    'Planned obsolecence' gets a noise of irritation from Jon, almost a growl, though it's not aimed at anyone in particular. "I don't know enough about neurology to do more than guess. Dear gods." He reaches up to rub at his face for a moment. "Back of the neck, though, would be a quick way to get something into the brain and I suppose the easiest way to interfere with pain receptors is right in the central nervous system."

    He nods to Tim. "Even with a healing factor... at some point that's not going to be able to overcome this, and dying..." A pause. "It's not /bad/, but it's not anything you want to deal with before you must. What's your idea for drawing out the nanomachines, Phoebe?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... finding out if they're made of ferrous material and either magnetizing a microfilament or having Tim create a tiny joystick controlled claw machine and set it up like a competition -- who can get the most Nanos out of Gabby." Phoebe states with the Utmost Seriousness, and then turns to Gabby "We'll have VR and everything."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney starts to huff quietly as she listens to the brainstorming going on around her. "I'm not worried about--" Oh Skittles. They're taken from Phoebe and she unravels the edge to dip her fingers inside blindly stealing a few of the sour ones to pop into her mouth where she tucks them into her cheek like some sour-sugary chipmunk.

"I'm not worried about ME. I mean yes it's serious I KNOW, but it's more important to find Bellona and help her first. I *have* a healing factor--She's human." Crunchmunch. Swallowing the mouthful with just a little sour-twist of her lips which she licks clean, she pushes herself up to sit unless someone keeps her down.

"I know we'll deal with mine too, but please let's focus on that first. I don't know if we can get them OUT, that was the main issue Dr. McCoy was having too. He suggestd reprogramming though. I'm hoping if we get the original programming we can do that and maybe even track her using their signature or something. Conner, and Bart and Red Arrow, Laura and Deadpool have all offered to help get the info."

"... but I mean, once she's safe, maybe VR crane machines."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Please stay reclined until the medical scans are complete. I might not have Dr. McCoy's medical background yet -- but I know not to open the microwave door until the bags done poppin'." Phoebe recommends, and she breathes out.

    "... I could call in a favor but... mmnnng. Blood magic and necromancy are so messy and gross and take a lot out of me."

Tim Drake has posed:
    At some point Tim's head has ended up cradled in his hands. "We can't Innerspace a team member, Phoebe," he says, because despite that being reference well beyond his years, he's enough of a geek to have watched it anyway. Then he rubs his face, because his hands are already there. "Chances are they're made of biological material of some kind rather than metal, anyway."

    And while Phoebe tells Gabby to stay on the bed, Tim reaches out to put his hand on Gabby's arm and still her, though he's still looking at the monitor. "Right. We have no idea what the timeframe is here. The solution is the same if the nanomachines in your body are the same as the ones in Bellona. We're going to figure this out." He gives Gabby's arm a quick squeeze. "And we're going to find your sister."

    He glances back over his shoulder, then. "At this point, maybe some magical intervention might be useful in locating her. I've had the Roost's computer searching through public," and some not-so-public, "Records trying to find her, but nothing conclusive, not with the chaos of the invasion. Either of you think you could pull off something like that?" He makes a face at Phoebe. "Preferably with no blood magic."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "We can do both," Jon says gently to Gabby. "And moreover, we need to figure out how to get the nanomachines /out/ of your sister once we find her. Or reprogrammed, if we can't play Innerspace." He manages to mostly supress a grin at the reference he's /definitely/ old enough to get, if only barely. Mostly from VHS.

    He chews on his lip as he peers over the scans Phoebe's gathering, drumming the fingers of his real hand on his thigh. "Tracking spells are relatively easy," he replies to Tim. "Depending, of course, on whether you..." A pause, and then he glances over toward Tim and Phoebe. "'Blood' magic is a misnomer. It's easiest to track people via their blood, though some other sort of body part will do--hair, fingernails, skin scrapings. Fueling magic with one's own blood is... mmm. Messy, literally, but a common enough practice. Magic requires a cost; easier to pay it up front."

    He clears his throat. "Point being, if you've got something of hers--a hairbrush, a toothbrush, a bit of blood--tracking her down will be fairly easy unless they have wards or... well, sometimes magic can't get through certain high-tech systems. If you /don't/ it becomes harder. Possible, but harder. Are you a blood relation, Gabby?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney lays back down when guided to do so though she finds staring at the ceiling rather aggravating. A single blink comes when Tim holds her arm, and she reaches up to catch at his hand giving it a squeeze. Maybe she needed the reassurance in spite of her bravado.

It's Jon's question at this that causes her to glance up again with a rogueish grin. "We're clones. We're identical. Mostly. I've got the x-gene, and she's an albino. Otherwise, yes, we're 'blood related' as much as we can be. Blood isn't an issue if you need it. I got lots."

There's a pause before she adds, "In retrospect talking about bleeding right now is probably not a good idea, but my point stands. I can regenerate still."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Mostly in order to get it done I would need about a half pint and I think the Golden Bowl is in the tchotchkies I pulled from the Laughing Magician's store room, I'll just have to get the proper syntax. It's how we were able to track down my cousin's work." she explains to the room, and her hand reaches up, and pats on Gabby's shoulder, and then holds there a moment.

    "I would like you to stay down for this trip, though Gabs. So that we can monitor your spells." she gives a small huff out.

    "So, I'm going to give you a monitor bracelet, and I'd like you to keep it on. I can link it up to my watch."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim pushes the sleeves of his sweater up to his elbows, then folds his arms against his chest. At this point he's probably not still looking at the scan readouts. It's just a comfortable place for his gaze to focus, something that he can stare at and do his best not to let his mounting concerns show on his face.

    "I'll keep digging through the feeds from Manhattan. The search algorithms are reliable but maybe something slipped through the cracks. And I'll stay close, in case it happens again." The corners of his mouth visibly turn downwards before his expression twitches back into forced blankness.

    He finally turns away from the monitor, but it's only so that he can step over to the medical bay's computer terminal, tied into the Roost's systems, saying, "I'll leave the magical dowsing up to the experts," as he logs in.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon frowns thoughtfully. "Do you have any other clones out there, Gabby? So we can, umm, narrow it down and filter them out. Unless that's not an issue for you, Phoebe? My spell would get a feedback on Gabby herself if I didn't screen that out."

    He doesn't hesitate before saying, "Otherwise, just... tell me where to go, and I'll be there. Whatever needs doing. This is..." He shakes his head. No need to say it sounds awful, because it does indeed sound awful.

    "I suppose I'm going to have to get up to speed on nanotech, aren't I?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney blinks a moment as she settles back on the bed staring straight ahead. It seems the weight of the words and concerns of the others were sinking in. Even while it seems obvious she would protest being left out... She instead lets out a deep breath squeezing her eyes shut. "... Okay. I know I'd be a liability in the field right now. I can't stop it when these 'spells' happen." Of the blacking out and DYING sort, not the magical sort. It was still a hard pill to swallow. Maybe she was maturing some. So she just nods.

"Yeah, Laura. X-23. We're technicaly clones of her. They stole the DNA to make our batch anyway from what I understand." Again she goes quiet, before clearing her throat. "Thank you. I'm sorry to worry you all."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe adjusts her glasses. She looks over to Gabby, and she sits down, and scooches her chair up to her side. She crosses her arms on the guard rail of the bed, and she regards Gabby with a gentle expression.

    She sets her chin in her arms.

    "I worry because you're part of our family, Gabby. You're an Outsider. I've fretted about you since we met at Madripoor. You're extrordinarily special to so many people. That's why we want to help."

Tim Drake has posed:
    "To be fair," Tim begins, and he's almost aggressively typing at the terminal now. Definitely redirecting any and all feelings into the keyboard. Deep inhale, slow exhale, before he continues: "To be fair, Gabby, I worry about you all the time, because you're my friend and that's what I do." His hands freeze, and he pulls them back, letting them hang at his side for a moment.

    They ball into fists and then release. "I know why you didn't want to tell anyone. I'm not sure I would have, either. I'm just glad we know now so that we can help, before it's too late." He doesn't look back, and within the space of the next breath he's returned to whatever it is he's looking up, though this time without the accompanying CLACK CLACK CLACK of the keys. "I'll let you into the Lego stash so you can keep yourself occupied in the meantime."

    Then, as an aside to Jon, Tim adds, "I can forward you some reading material," without looking away from the computer monitor.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon nods in agreement with both Phoebe and Tim. "People are going to worry, because we care. I... know it's hard, asking for help. Admitting you might be a liability." He makes a face. "Letting someone else do the... caring and protecting and rescuing and whatever it is. But it's not a bother. If anything, it lets us channel the worry into something productive for a while."

    He frowns slightly. "We're going to find your sister. Is there anything you need, in the meantime? Or just that? And Legos."

    He glances aside to Tim and nods, murmuring, "Thank you."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney smiles deeply at the sentiment offered by everyone in the hopes of consoling her. "I know. I... seriously, I didn't think it was doing this much to me. This badly. I just thought it was wearing me down and making me tired." Lightly she clears her throat before admitting, "Even so I should have told you guys sooner. I'll do better from now on. I promise. You guys are so great, you know?"

A quick huff of breath as if she were attempting not to tear up comes, and she swallows. "Phone charger. Jonathan. ... I mean, my stuffed badger Jonathan not... And legos would be cool too," she adimts quietly. "Thank you."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "And I'll add that we are all hypocrites to the one of us with the 'you should talk to us when worrying things happen'. It's something we're all working on." she mentions, giving a riase of her eyebrows to Gabby, and then she stretches her fingers out, takes a rubber band, brings it to two fingers stretched in a V and then launches it at the back of Tim's head.

    "I've got gummy sharks in my drawer if you want some Tim."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim doesn't so much as flinch when the rubber band pings off the side of his head. "One, I'm not acknowledging that, and B, how dare you," is all he says, deadpan.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon watches the interplay for a moment, then smiles and says, "Phone charger, Jonathan the badger. Right." That is a thing he can do, so he does, slipping out of the medbay to go find what Gabby will need for her stay under observation.