12306/The Reavers: Turning Over Stones

The Reavers: Turning Over Stones
Date of Scene:	05 August 2022
Location:	Morgue, St. Luke's Hospital, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Terry investigates the attack on the Jackson building by visiting a contact at the hospital. He finds brainless cyborg corpses... and that one corpse has gone missing.
Cast of Characters:	Joshua Foley, Terry O'Neil
Tinyplot:	Reavers

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Joshua Foley has posed:
St. Luke's Hospital was always busy. Any major hospital in New York City is. The place buzzes with staff, patients, visitors, and others pushing through its updated by neutral decor. White, glass, neutral blues, birch. Potted plants, probably plastic. Pleasant posters on the walls about the excellent care and fundraising campaigns.

Emergency is not far from the main entrance. Fortunately, at this point in the day it is not slammed. Even so, the waiting room is busy. A young mother cradling an infant. A teenager with his parents being lectured; something about skateboarding. A paramedic team with a woman in a stretcher, her head bandaged.

Inside the ER proper, Dr. Pooja Dharamshi stands at the central nurse's desk reading charts. The electronic board shows filled and vacant beds and assigned doctors. Doctors, orderlies, nurses, and lab technicians move around their various tasks.

Pooja reaches up and pushes a strand of long, dark brown hair behind her left ear. She wears the obligatory St. Luke's coat and scrubs. Her ID hangs from a white and blue lanyard that has the hospital name repeated all along it. She is not pretty per se, her face is a little pinched. The bags under the eyes are pronounced. She has the softening but hardly overweight figure of someone who used to be active but now pulls long hours in the hospital.

A young man in nurse's scrubs says something in passing to her and Pooja laughs. That smile and the eyes. Warm, friendly, but also missing nothing. She retorts in her light British accent.

Pooja is about to look back at her chart when she sees someone familiar. She turns, smirks a little and stands with one hand on her hip and a raised eyebrow.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The Cheshire Cat fades into view a few feet away, and is easily recognized by the Doctor as he phases out of invisiblity, ready to meet him with a smirk. "Doctor Dharamshi." he says by way of greeting, that wide Cheshire grin offered as an excuse for his transgression. Vorpal is not an unusual sight here, although most of the time he comes in bearing injured civilians and, very early in his career, his own injured self. One running joke seems to be that he appears to be in a new uniform every time he pops by- and this time is no exception either, sporting a red and white number that is his most recent incarnation. Somewhere on the internet, there is a competition tally between who goes through most costume changes between Terry and Supergirl. It's close.

"I hope it's not a bad time-" he glances around. It's always a bad time at the ER. That's what an ER is /for/. Nobody goes to the ER to have their Quinceanera party. "- comparatively speaking. Do you have a moment for me? I'm investigating an incident and I believe you may be able to help me." He glances down at a bag in his hand, "I brought brownies for the break room," he offers. Terry's mother has taught him that doctors, like wizards, should be interrupted only for important things, and that one should bring proper tribute to placate them.

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Brownies?" Pooja sniffs with mock derision, embellished beautifully by her precise, soft British accent and diction. She takes the bag from Terry and fishes out a brownie. Fixing Terry with a pointed stare, she takes a bite... And then smiles. "You are forgiven. This time."

"These are actually very good," the doctor admits. She turns and starts to walk in the direction of the break room. A blonde, middle-aged nurse takes an eyeful of Terry as he passes and smiles. A few other heads turn as well.

Pooja continues to enjoy her brownie when she leads Terry into the hallway. "It would go very well with coffee," she comments with a smile. "Why is it you never just visit? You should come to paediatrics sometime. They would love that. Or the break room, they would love that, too."

"So, what dastardly deeds are you investigating today?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"My mom makes the best brownies. I'd have brought her tiramisu but... it has alcohol in it," Terry says, following the doctor on the way to the break room. He's well aware of how HR tends to feel about things like /that/ being brought into break rooms. He returns the smiles, and he raises his eyebrows, "You know, that would be a good thing! I can bring Beast Boy with me, the kids love it when he turns into animals. I'll bring us over this Saturday if that sounds right? I'd actually visit more often but..." he chuckles, "things just seem to happen to me. I can't imagine why."

He grows more serious as the subject of his visit is touched. "It's an unfortunate affair, I'm afraid. The attack on the Jackson building. I've been tasked with finding out what became of someone who was at the sub-level when the explosion occurred, potentially help with the IDing of the body. There was someone in the premises who was taken out of the immediate area before the explosion hit who placed him at the scene, but he was not able to be extracted."

He sighs, "We're talking about a caucasian male, approximately yay high... blue eyes and blond hair." Not that that might mean much, if the explosion was strong enough. Then he frowns, "Mid teens, was the estimate."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Pooja's smile becomes a little forced, her eyes wary. "Saturday, I will keep you to that. Do not think your superpowers will save you if you do not make it," she says conversationally. She looks quickly in both directions in the hall. Then she turns quickly and ushers Terry through a door on the right into a stairwell.

"Why am I not surprised it was that incident?" she asks rhetorically. Pooja picks up the pace a little. "I was working when the casualties started to come in. Not too many serious injuries, thankfully. Then I got a call from the Director himself. He asked me to meet the FBI downstairs and prep for surgery."

Pooja stops at a door two flights below and looks Terry squarely in the eyes. "This is all off the record. And you should be invisible."

Pooja opens the door and holds it a moment too long, then then walks through. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, turns it off, but holds it as if she's thumbing through something.

"Did I tell you I was a surgeon back home? It has been a nightmare getting a residency here," Pooja whispers. "I am not licensed here. I was shocked and asked if one of the surgeons was attending. I was told to help the FBI and not ask questions if I wanted my contract renewed."

Pooja falls silent and smiles politely for an older doctor passing in the other direction. Up ahead, a sign reads Morgue.

"They cleared out the morgue and brought in eight bodies," she continues at a whisper once the doctor has passed. When they reach the Morgue, Pooja opens the door, pauses to look at her phone, then pockets it and walks inside.

Inside the morgue there are two men sitting in the waiting area, one in a blue suit and the other in grey. They both have transparent earpieces. The men look bored. "Afternoon, Dr. Dharamshi. Follow up?" the man in the blue suit asks.

"Yes," Pooja sighs. She pushes on without stopping, through a set of swinging doors and down the hall behind. Finally, she steps into a much cooler room with telltale drawer doors in the walls.

"They brought me equipment I had not seen before, and asked me to recover the brains from seven casualties and put them in these devices," Pooja continues at a whisper. "I thought, this is insane. I am not a licensed surgeon, definitely not a neurosurgeon."

Pooja pulls one of the drawers open. Inside is a woman in black, nondescript military fatigues. Her torso is bent at an unnatural angle. There is a gash through her uniform and skin on her left arm that reveals silvery metallic muscles. The most notable thing is her skull. The top is detached cleanly. The inside is a large, brain-sized... socket, is the best description.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You have my word: Saturday by hook or by crook we'll be here." And they will, too. Beast Boy hates disappointing children, so there is a very small chance for them to miss their appointment, unless they happen to be trapped in another dimension, or something of the sort.

The Cheshire goes invisible when indicated, and follows as quietly as cats can- which is very quiet indeed. Slipping in while the door is held open, he falls into step behind Dr. Pooja, one hand holding his tail firmly so it doesn't brush against anyone, or anything. His first stealth mission almost got compromised once when he nearly tickled someone's nose with his tail without realizing it. Never again.

He frowns as the Doctor explains, and he uses his powers of illusion to briefly flash messages across Dr. Pooja's phone, as if she had an instant messenger app open, figuring that was the stealthiest way to communicate.

<<OK, this just went from 'a little fishy' to 'Pike Place Fish Market' levels>> the Cheshire 'texts'. Brain sockets. Metallic muscle layer? He taps the camera tied to his comm to get some footage. It looks like he was going to need Cyborg's opinion on what he was seeing.

<<Do all casualties exhibit the same underlying structure, Doctor?>> he texts across her screen.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Pooja pulls the chart from the holder on the open drawer. She opens it to review it. There is very little there. The body is identified as Julie. The doctor's precise, handwritten notes indicate the woman was alive when brought in and 'turned off' before the procedure. Pooja appears to study her notes.

"Seven, yes. They would not let me examine them, except to remove the brains. They were in these... pods. That plugged in the cranium," Pooja whispers. She replaces the chart and slides the drawer closed.

She moves three drawers over and stops to pull out the chart there. When she opens it to look it over, there is more detail. Joshua Foley. Age 19. An address in the Bronx. Next of kin names, parents. And dental charts.

"This one was different. The others all showed signs of blunt trauma, except the younger one also had some scorching. But this one... He was so badly burned."

Pooja shudders visibly and swallows, composing herself. "The agents had some dental charts and asked me to identify him. It was the only way, it was awful. I think he was wearing the same clothes as the others, but I could not tell."

The doctor replaces the chart and steels herself. She takes a breath and pulls the drawer open.

"My god," Pooja whispers."

There is nothing in the drawer. It smells vaguely of hospital grade cleaner.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal glances at the info, making sure that name and address are registered. Because this means someone is going to have to tell somebody's parents that their little boy has died in a tragic explosion, if they haven't done so yet. Considering the secrecy of this entire thing, he's not betting that the Feds have the consideration of the bereaved as a high priority right now. <<Nineteen. Wow. He's about my age.>>

He steels himself when the doctor opens the drawer, being warned that this is going to look very, very bad.

And it does. Because it's a very, very bad thing when a body suddenly goes missing from a morgue. Terry is so shocked that he almost becomes visible- almost.

<<Were you notified at all that the body was going to be moved?>> he 'texts', <<Because otherwise, we have a corpse snatcher in our hands. There is only one entrance into the morgue?>>

Joshua Foley has posed:
Pooja swallows and slides the drawer shut. She looks over her shoulder reflexively at the door. There is nobody else in the room.

"I, um, no, no, the corpse should be here" Pooja replies nervously. "I thought this only happens in movies. What does this mean?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
<<Several possibilities. I'm going to whisper by your ear, don't be startled.>>

Terry moves closer. "You said this body was different. Someone doesn't want you to find out something from it- and it's not the Feds or they wouldn't have brought the body in, in the first place." He glances around, invisible, trying to find any sources of disturbances, anything out of place. Any clues.

"And they coud have been invisible, like me, and taken the body out without the two gorillas out there noticing. Or they could have teleported it out." He narrows his eyes.

"Doctor, I think it might be in your best interest to report the missing body when we're done here. If you go out that door and say nothing, they will suspect you had something to do with his disappearance."

He exhales quietly, and looks around again. "You know this room well. Is there anything that seems out of place? Or missing?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
The doctor manages not to startle when Terry whispers in her ear. She does a commendable job of composing herself, though does look around again when Terry mentions the possibility of other invisibles.

"I don't think..." Pooja starts to say. Then she frowns. She pulls out Josh's chart again and checks the papers. "My notes are gone... I don't understand. This was the only normal body and he was dead. That other robot one was alive! Why would they care about this one? But somebody pulled this chart and took out my notes."

Pooja glances around again. "I don't see anything else out of place.... I'll do what you suggest but... Do you think I'm in danger?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Since you were ordered to do this under threat of losing your license, I think it would be very naive not to expect that you are being monitored, at least," The Cheshire says quietly, "Your online and phone communications will probably be monitored as well for a time, and the Feds might have a tail on you. That's within normal bounds. Your home might be bugged."

The Cheshire thinks, "I wish Gar were here. He could turn into a bloodhound and get the scent of whomever was in here- but there's no time for that. We have a dead end here unless that body turns out, but there is another avenue of investigation." he tap-tap-taps the label that has the boy's information with a claw, making a little sound. "I can try to sneak into his home and his room, and maybe find some clue as to why someone wanted to keep his body from the feds there. He was part of a clandestine lab that was running experiments on Mutants. But, and this is the important part... my witness believes he didn't know about that last part. He thought it was a regular laboratory. So he was being kept in the dark. I need to get to his address before someone else does."

There's a card that slides into the doctor's pocket. "This is my cell phone, Doc. If anything weird happens, or you feel you are in danger, send me a text message that reads 'Thank you for the brownies!' and send it as a geo-located text, and I will come to you."

He pauses, "I think that's all... you need to work yourself up into a panic right now so you can be convicing when you storm out there and tell the two gorillas that there's a whole body missing." He places a hand on her shoulder, gently reassuring, "You think you can do that, Doc?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
Pooja nods slowly. He complexion pales as Terry talks.

"Work myself up into a panic?" she says dryly.

"I really don't think that will be a problem."