RPG: Part II; one more post to go...
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As they walk to the hospital, Hondo and Val steps up to Fernando. Hondo asks, “You have the power to turn a wessen back into a human?”
“No I don’t.” Fernando tells them.
“Then what was that you did in the bar” Hondo asks.
“I expressed Aimiee’s Human DNA to show her human side, which you and the others saw. But her Wessen immunity would attack her Human Expressed DNA and kill her in a matter of hours if I did not change her back. But that means that there is an immediate cure for those who were kidnapped and not those born from wessons. Those born of wessens will take longer to cure as I would need to find their ancestry wessen and human DNA to change them back to humans.” Fernando explains.
“So there is a chance to make Zoey and Tonya back as humans?” Val asks.
“There’s always a chance. It’s a matter of paying the price of getting that chance and turning into an opportunity.” Fernando explains.
“That means gettin’ into that Lab-Town we talked about before.” Hondo points out.
“And into Fight-Town for a day or two. It’s going to be a long ride.” Fernando adds.
“Yeah...” Hondo replies.
General Jastrey steps to them, “You do not have to leave. You can stay here all you want.”
“Thanks for the offer, but we got people to look for.” Fernando tells her, adding, “We may return when we find them.”
“I hope you do return. The people need people like you to lead by example.” General Jastrey says.
“You will do well while we are gone.” Fernando tries to reassure her.
“My time is coming to an end, I do not have years. So I must insure that my work will continue after I am gone.” General Jastrey says.
“I may have something for you. We’ll talk about it in the morning when I submit my complaint.” Fernando explains.
“About your complaint. I’ll send my men to pick up who you want detained.” General Jastrey says.
“Never mind that. Just keep a patrol to keep an eye on them during the night. I’ll deal with them in the morning.” Fernando tells her.
Reaching the hospital steps, Fernando holds the door for Val and Hondo, telling her, “Lead the way.” After holding the door for General Jastrey, he lets the others hold it before he goes off behind Hondo and Val.
Val leads them to the patient ward area, where Mable was still there. Hondo knocks on the counter to get her attention.
Mable looks up at them before saying in an annoyed tone, “Oh, you again. I told you you’re wasting my time.”
Hondo speaks up, “We are here to see our friend Karl. He’s a wessen.”
“I do not care who you are friends with. If he’s a wessen, there are no visitors after hours. And only the master can see them after the bill is paid.” Mable tells him.
“Then how about returning the money the little lady gave you.” Fernando steps up to them.
“And who are you?” Mable asks.
“If Karl, who is a wessen has a master, then I would be that master. Now give her back her money. All of it.” Fernando tells her.
“There are no refunds for services rendered.” Mable tells him.
“Listen lady. I travelled a long way to get here. Last thing I want is some two-bit clerk telling me what is to be done.” Fernando tells her as he pulls out a Doctor’s ID Card for Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He then tells Hondo, “That closed door over there, open it and pull out the more intelligent idiot from there and bring them here.” Before he reaches over and takes the card from the clerk.
“He can’t go...” Mable begins to say.
“He can do whatever he wants.” General Jastrey tells her, then tells her men, “Go with him and bring them all out. I want to see who’s in charge.”
“All this for a stinking wessen!” Mable lets out.
General Jastrey reaches over and grabs Mable by her shoulder and makes her stand up. She then growls down her throat, “You listen and you listen to me good. This man revealed to me that wessens are people too with some ‘white coat’ mojo I never seen done before, and as it turns out the wessen chosen by my men he Mojo’d on turned out to be my missing granddaughter. So get off that mighty high horse, Miss. Wessens are people that something was done to them to turn them into wessens, so they should be given the same rights as we people because they used to be people. You understand where I am coming from?! They are not dirty filth of life as some of you would believe.”
“Hey! What is the meaning of this?!!” A middle aged doctor complains as Hondo points down the hall to Fernando.
“My boss wants to see you.” Hondo tells him.
“I’m the head of this ward!” The doctor complains as he finally arrives at the front desk, he then looks at Mable, “Why haven’t you call the front security desk to take out this riff raff?!!”
Mable points to General Jastrey but does not say a word.
“Figures you would overlook the obvious.” General Jastrey tell him.
“Majorine! What are you doing here... with these thugs?!” The doctor asks.
“Saving your ass – again, Daniel. Now what is this I hear that wessens are not given adequate care in this facility?” General Jastrey says and asks.
“We do not have the resources or the beds to give low lives such as wessens and mutants medical care. And they come in such bad condition, they are not worth saving.” The doctor explains.
“Policy is going to change then.” General Jastrey tells him.
“On what grounds?” The doctor asks.
“Wessens are people too.” General Jastrey tells him.
“I do not agree with you.” The doctor disagrees with her.
“It was proven to me that wessesns are people who were kidnapped and something done to them to make them into wessesns, something done by those people in Lab-Town who wear white coats and dark glasses. Since something was done to them to turn them into wessens, then they can be turned back into humans. They are not low lives as some of you people make them out to be.” General Jastrey points out to him.
“Where’s your proof.” The doctor challenges her.
“I have a wessen in my office who has been revealed to be my missing granddaughter. You do not need to know how it was revealed, but accept that it was. Now that it is proven that she was once human, then all wessens were humans at one time in their lives and therefore deserve the best treatment possible like any other human.” General Jastrey tells him.
“We do not have the resources...” The doctor begins to say.
“Funny. I see empty rooms with empty beds here. And I’m sure that medical locker has plenty of supplies you have been stocking up for years.” Fernando lets out.
“Who are you? Your skills as an EMT does not equal mine.” The doctor tells him.
“Dr. Fernando G. of New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. As for skills, I would like to see you treat a head and neck trauma injury victim trapped inside a crushed vehicle submerged in water. So until you do that, your skills do not equal mine.” Fernando tells him. The doctor looks at him, unsure how to answer him. Fernando sticks his hand out, “Hondo, my leather pouch please?”
Hondo hand the leather pouch to Fernando, who opens the pouch on the clerks counter and pulls out a #02 Scalpel without needing to look for it and holds it up to the doctor. “The bad thing about being a doctor is that you hold someone’s life in your hand. You can even kill them and society would look away because you can say that they died under treatment. But if I were to shove this in between your first Thoracic Vertebrae and the base of your skull, you would be dead instantly. But EMTs are not supposed to know that kind of knowledge. Now let’s go find my friend before I forget that I’m the good guy and give you a Colombian Neck Tie.”
“A Colombian Neck Tie?” The doctor asks.
“First I kill you. It does not matter how that I do it but that I do. Then I take this scalpel and slice open the fleshy part under your jaw and pull out your tongue, making it look like that neck tie you are wearing. You understand where I am coming from?” Fernando tells him.
The doctor does not say a word.
“Now, about my friend Karl, who happens to be a wessen. Where is he, and what has been done for his injuries?” Fernando tells him.
“I don’t know.” The doctor answers.
“You got ten seconds to find out, and you have just wasted three of them.” Fernando tells him.
“I... I...” The doctor begins to say.
“Four seconds wasted... five...” Fernando continues before taking the doctor by his tie and cuts it with his scalpel. It cuts the cloth so smooth and evenly, he hardly felt it rip. Fernando takes the tie and crumples it up in his fist, “Six.”
“Miss Mable!!!” The doctor yells at her.
“You know he’s in the Wessen Tent behind the building!” Mable yells back.
“Good.” Fernando replies as he puts away his scalpel and rolls up his leather pouch, “Now give us the refund of that $100 gold coin and you too are coming with us.” He then pushes the doctor out to the lobby to General Jastrey’s men and opens the door to the reception area. Mable searches her purse and takes the $100 gold coin from inside it. She reaches out to Fernando to give it to him, where he reaches to receive it. She deliberately drops it before he can reach it but his hand zooms into place and snatches it in mid air and tosses it to his other hand and puts the coin into his pocket. He then grabs her thumb and bends her wrist with it until he pins the thumb to the fore arm.
Mable howls in pain but it suddenly silenced when Fernando slaps her on the back of the head.
“In my time women were equal to men, and even superior in some respects.” Fernando tells her, throwing in, “Come on and let’s see what your inbred hate has done to a group of people who were cheated out of a normal life.” He coaxes her into getting up off her seat and out the reception area. He then leads her to the doctor, “Take me to this Wessen Tent. And if I don’t like what I see, you two will have questions to answer.”
“If I don’t like what I see, I have jail cells to put them and the rest of their staff in.” General Jastrey tells them both.
It takes a couple of minutes as they were misled with wrong directions until Fernando decided to take them outside and walk around the main hospital building until he finds a tent in the rear of the building. General Jastrey’s men find the door flap and open it. The stench that came out to great was worst than old cheese in a carrion pit.
It takes a second for them to get used to the smell before they go inside. There were more bodies inside than there were beds, with a few wessens picking up on the weaker ones. Letting go of Mable, Fernando walks over to the biggest one who was about pummel a badly beaten one and without warning, sends his fist across its jaw, breaking it and knocking him out. Everyone looks over to him and freeze in place.
“Everyone here will be treated properly and given proper medical care before I leave this city tomorrow. That is a promise from me.
“Who the #$@! are you?” Another big one says from the comfort of his bed.
“You do not need to know who the #$@! I am. All you need to know is that if you cooperate with what I say, you won’t end up like your friend there.” Fernando says as he walks to the big mouth and places the tip of his cane against his throat.
The loud mouth nods nervously.
“Now, I’m looking for a wessen named Karl. He has goat features on his, horns on his head.”
“He’s over here.” Another tired wessen says from the far side of the tent.
Fernando takes Mable and the doctor by the back of their necks and push them towards where Karl is stated to be. General Jastrey follows them, not liking what she is seeing. Karl was unconscious on the floor with barely his clothes on.
“This is what my friend paid for. Maybe I should give you the same treatment.” Fernando tells them.
“Tom, tell the boys we’re taking a couple more to the holding cell.” General Jastrey tells him.
“Hold off on that for a second.” Fernando says, adding. “Tom, find me a gurney or stretcher. We’re taking Karl to the examination room. Then we can get these quacks to treat the others and place them in proper rooms and beds. Then this tent comes down.”
“You can’t do that!” The doctor says.
“He can and he will, for I am allowing it, Daniel.” General Jastrey tells him.
Fernando leans over to the doctor, “If I walk away from there, they will know it is you that is holding up their treatment, and I will leave you alone, with them. Let’s see how long you alone last with that.”
Tom returns with a couple of men and a stretcher. Not caring about being seen, Fernando uses his cane to lift Karl off the floor and onto the stretcher.
“Take him inside to the best hospital examination room with a rolling bed on it. I’ll be there with the doctor in a minute.” Fernando tells Tom.
Tom nods and then signals to his men to take Karl into the main building.
“You got female wessens on your staff?” Fernando asks bluntly.
“Only as clean-up crew.” The doctor answers.
“You are going to start training them to be as simple nurses and basic patient care givers to the wessens.” Fernando tells him.
“Wessens are not smart enough to learn.” The doctor tells him.
“You and I know that is bull. Now shut up. At least having trained Wessen Nurses will lighten the load from the regular nurses from dealing with Wessen patients. Understand where I am coming from with that?” Fernando tells him.
The doctor nods.
“Now, let’s go take care of Karl. I’ll be treating him, you will watch and learn.” Fernando tells him.
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