OT: Hell is For Heroes.

[AgentZero]

Resurrected from the depths of page 2!


“Now, now,” the doctor said soothingly. “There's no need for that. Not that it would do you any good, mind you. We've taken some extra precautions this time around.”
Kagan tried to sit up in the bed, but found it rather difficult, given the large strap wrapped around his chest. He tried moving his arms, only to find them restrained at the bicep and further down at the wrist. Not expecting much, he gave his legs a tentative wiggle, and felt the straps around his thighs and ankles bind slightly. He called upon the power granted to him by the nanobots coursing through his veins, but nothing happened. He tried again, but to no avail. It was as though something was blocking him from communicating with the machines within him. He could give orders, but something prevented them from ever reaching their destination.
“We have of course taken a number of other precautions, beyond simply restraining you,” the doctor went on. “You'll notice there are no windows for you to fling yourself from-”
A memory pushed it's way to the surface of Kagan's mind. Armed guards, pointing their weapons at him. Alice at his side, ready to fling herself into battle. Looking behind himself, seeing a window with shrubs outside. The assumption they were on the ground floor. Grabbing Alice and diving through the window. A glimpse of potted plants sitting on the window ledge, and the ground far below, rushing up to meet him. He shuddered. That fall should have killed him, and yet, here he was sitting in a bed with no apparent injuries, listening to the doctor ramble on.
“-after that, of course, we decided to separate the two of you,” Dr. Gwenllyn was saying. “Oh, yes. I almost forgot. There's the suppression field that should render it quite impossible for you to make use of those pesky nanobots you seem so fond of.”
Kagan stared at Gwenllyn for a long moment, and realizing that he was, for the moment, trapped, decided to make good use of his time here.
“What happened to us?” he asked. “Someone shot us... We died... And then...”
“Well, that is quite an interesting story,” the doctor said. “One I have told you before, but I suppose given the trauma you insist on inflicting upon yourself, it's no surprise you've gone and forgotten. You were first brought here by our paramedics, straight into the morgue, I'm afraid, as you bother were quite dead. Some time after that, we found you, ah, wandering the hallways in a state of great confusion.”
It didn't take nano-enhanced senses for Kagan to know that the doctor wasn't being entirely truthful; Gwenllyn was a lousy liar.
“You're lying,” Kagan said bluntly. “Tell me the truth, or don't tell me anything at all.”
Gwenllyn sighed and pinched his nose with an expression of resignation. “Very well, Mr. Kagan, we found the two of you fornicating in a supply closet. Does that little truth make you feel better?”
Kagan grinned toothily. “Much,” he replied. “Please continue.”
Gwenllyn sighed again. “After you were- found, we were naturally curious as to how this came to be, so we arranged a number of tests-”
Kagan gasped as another memory slammed into the front of his mind.
“You bastards!” he snarled. “You dissected us! Pulled out our organs and made us watch!”
The doctor cleared his throat and looked mildly embarrassed. “Please, Mr. Kagan, you make it sound so- primitive. You had to be conscious in order for us to discern the effect organ removal would have on you. But the results, the results were quite miraculous. Within seconds of us removing an organ, be it a heart, lung, or length of intestine, your nanobots swarmed into the area and formed themselves into an artificial organ. Once the artificial organ had stabilized, other nanobots began constructing a new, organic organ around the framework of the artificial one. As soon as this task was complete, the nanobots dispersed into your bloodstream, leaving you good as new. That being said, the removal of your organs did prove rather traumatic for you, and you both had a tendency to lose consciousness for several hours, even up to a day or two upon the removal of a major organ.”
Kagan lay still, staring at the doctor in mute horror. “But... but that's not possible,” he managed eventually. “Nanomachines aren't that sophisticated, not by a long shot.”
“Indeed,” Gwenllyn agreed. “Though I was able to dig up some references to nanobots with similar abilities, and I should also mention that the design and materials used for your nanobots are quite unlike anything we've ever seen. At least, not in a very long time.” He leaned in close to Kagan. “So, Mr. Kagan, the real question becomes, how did you go about getting your hands on Second Dynasty nanobots, hmmm?”
Kagan pondered the question for a moment, then lunged forward with all his might. Dr. Gwenllyn jerked backwards, barely managing to save his own life as Kagan's jaws snapped shut a hair's breadth away form his throat.
“I'll kill ye before I tell ye a thing!” Kagan shouted. “I'll feckin kill ye for what ye've done to us, ye godless son of a whore!”
Gwenllyn's condescending reply was cut off by a vengeful scream from the room next to theirs.
“Ah,” Gwenllyn said. “It seems your companion is awake.”
Quite suddenly, the far wall exploded inwards as the body of an intern crashed through the plaster and skidded across the floor. Silhouetted in the billowing dust around the hole, stood the figure of Alice, dressed in a hospital robe with her arm restraints dangling from her wrists.
“Aye, that she is,” Kagan agreed.
“Security!” shouted Gwenllyn, fearfully jabbing at a button on his wrist control unit. The sound of combat boots burst into the room outside of Kagan's field of vision, followed swiftly by the sound of charging capacitors as weapons were readied. This was followed by muffled sounds of confusion as Alice's silhouette suddenly disappeared from the hole. Moments later, the sound of struggle filled the room, punctuated occasionally by the sound of a body hitting the floor heavily. At one point, a stun-rifle flew butt-first across Kagan's field of vision and smacked Dr. Gwenllyn squarely in the side of the head. The doctor crumpled to the floor unconscious, and soon after silence once again filled the room.
“Are you just going to lie there all day?” Alice inquired, leaning over him. She was now dressed in the ill-fitting uniform of hospital security, and carried a stun-rifle in one hand.
“I can't get free,” Kagan admitted. “There's a suppression field stopping me from using my 'bots.”
“Oh, that,” Alice said dismissively. “That's easy. You just have to want for the field to not be there anymore and it goes away.”
Kagan frowned at her in disbelief, but tried anyway, willing more than anything to be free of the suppression field. Suddenly, there was a crackle and a fizzle, and Kagan tore himself free of his restraints with a burst of inhuman strength.
“I'm not sure I want to know how that worked,” he said, eying Alice as he tugged the restraints off his arms and legs.
“Hey, since when do I have the answers?” she asked with a grin.
Done with freeing himself, Kagan hopped off the bed and found a lifeless security guard laying near the bed that was about his size.
“What I do know, is that we're on the ground floor,” Alice told him as he set to work undressing the guard. “There was a floor map in my room. On the other side of that wall, there's another room, and on the other side of that is outside.”
“Well then,” said Kagan as he cinched up his belt and adjusted his shirt. “We just have to figure out a way to get-”
He was interrupted as Alice picked up Gwenllyn's motionless form and hurled it through the far wall.
“Tada!” she said happily.
“Yes,” Kagan agreed dryly. “That's much better than my plan.”
“Sorry,” she replied as she clambered through the new hole. “We'll do your plan next time, I promise.”
Kagan squeezed through after her, and looked about the new room. It was dimly lit, but from what he could make out, it appeared to be a common room, with tables and chairs placed about the room, and a large screen on one wall. On the other side of the room was a large window, through which Kagan could see a garden path that led down to a main road. Alice once again picked up Dr. Gwenllyn and hurled him through the window.
“Easy as pie!” she declared, and turned back to Kagan to find him pointing to the open door right beside the hole in the window. She looked from Kagan to the door, then back to Kagan and shrugged.
“Surely you concede, he deserved it,” she said.
It was Kagan's turn to shrug, and they hurried outside; Kagan through the door and Alice through the hole. They jogged down to the main road, and managed easily to flag down a passing taxi. Kagan instructed him to take them to a busy downtown street, charging the fare to the hospital's account, where they picked up another taxi to a different thoroughfare. They repeated the process several times, eventually reaching the Daedalus's landing pad. They approached the ship slowly, the gangway was down and light spilled out onto the platform. Slowly making their way up the ramp, they spotted a group of a half-dozen men facing in their direction, their eyes intent on a woman standing with her back to them. Raising his head to get a better look, Kagan banged his skull against a support strut, causing it to resonate with a loud twang. The six men raised their weapons, and the woman spun around. Kagan heard Alice let out a cry of glee as she recognized Saraea, and within seconds, Saraea had crossed the floor and grabbed ahold of the two of them in a tight embrace. The three friends hugged each other tightly for a long moment before Alice inquired, “Um, whose hand is on my bum?”

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Who are these strange men aboard the Daedalus? What manner of adventures await our plucky heroes? What ever happened to Ted? Exactly whose hand is on Alice's bum? All these question and more will be answered in the next exciting installment of Hell is for Heroes!