Trauma Center: Delphi on a Plane
Oneshot
Derek looked up from his fixed sight on the back of the seat in front of him, the soft chair being the distraction he needed from the fact that he was indeed on an airplane. A simple flight like this one would scare only Derek Stiles, the famous surgeon from Caduceus. Through his wild and never-ending battle with GUILT in the United States and Africa, Derek rarely got the taste of fresh air since he was always in the O.R. or in an ambulance. The airplane gave him just the amount of air he needed while giving him more than enough anxiety.
The statistics of crashing airplanes were extremely low but Derek never writes himself off as a lucky human and instead claims that the one-in-a-million chances could happen to him any day. It was because of this that he never traveled alone.
Angela Thompson, the elite nurse responsible for keeping Derek on his direct path through the crazed world was also his only companion on an aircraft that he trusted. Through their three year journey in the world of surgery and disease they had been on countless flights and each one went smoother than the last. After the years she quit asking why it was so scary to him and instead just worked on comforting him when they were on the flights by either reading to him or giving him earphones to listen to music while encouraging the usual water drinking and napping to pass the time.
This flight was going to be different than every other flight… and could be their last.
It all depends on the people aboard and what their intentions are…
At thirty thousand feet above the ground.
"Now boarding flight 217, all passengers, please proceed to gate four."
The intercom boomed out through the busy crowds and lines of people throughout Angeles Bay International Airport as people rushed with suitcases and carry on wheeled bags and other miscellaneous items. Some families had smaller children following short behind and various couples were hugging and saying goodbye to each other as different gates took on their passengers.
For Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson, this was nothing short of ordinary. It was six thirty in the afternoon which meant they would be landing in Asia in roughly ten hours. Early in the morning meant no reading on the airplane and instead just sleeping and listening to music.
"That's our plane. Let's go." Angie said as she lead the way, Derek not taking a moment to fall behind. While Caduceus paid for their tickets, Angie took the time to study over the plane and the time until landing, etc. Derek simply drove to and made sure that there weren't any problems; a system they frequently used when flying country to country.
"You already know how I feel about that…" Derek said with a complaint which pulled a chuckle from Angie.
Complaints were something that Angela Thompson wished she could make profits from for every one she heard from her surgical half. If it was on a plane she was in store for millions of protests and cries for landing long before they would even leave the runway.
Angie stopped walking and dragging her bag for a second to spin around, intertwining her fingers together behind her back with a forced smile. "Dr. Stiles-" She started before laughing nervously. "-please do not embarrass the both of us on the flight."
Sarcastically charged, Derek placed a hand on his hip and raised his eyebrows. Clearly she was overreacting… or was she?
"H-hey! I brought my phone this time so I won't be too terribly bored!" Derek groaned. "The longer we take to get aboard the flight the longer you get to hear my complaining~"
A joined effort of laughter between the two signified that it was time to carry forth.
Fifteen minutes after the boarding of flight 217, people were getting seated and positioned properly. Seatbelts were being strapped and the pilot was speaking nicely to the passengers as well as cracking jokes. Roaring conversation simmered through the cabin as last second bathroom breaks were used before the actual flight beginning.
Derek and Angie had found their seats five rows back from the first row, their three seats only taken by the two of them. The both of them were conversing nicely with Derek shaking his right leg up and down like an earthquake of high magnitude.
Several rows back there were three men dressed in black leather jackets and black pants. Orange and red symbols were present on the left shoulder area on each of the men. To make them look shadier, each man was equipped with matte black sunglasses. Although everyone was conversing, each of the three men were completely quiet and instead scanning the cabin for any sort of security. There appeared to be a man dressed in his military outfit which meant he was likely the greatest threat if they had done something out of the ordinary.
Out of the ordinary is an understatement.
Delphi was present on this plane and sitting far behind Derek and Angie were the three greatest threats that were going to appear on this flight.
After looking out of the window for a few minutes, Angie decided to grab for her book. When she wrapped her hand around the last none location of it she only found Derek's elbow rested on the arm rest. In response she looked over and raised an eyebrow.
"Did you move my book?" Angie asked curiously as she watched him take an ear bud out of his left ear and give a grunt in response. "Did you move my book, Dr. Stiles?"
Upon hearing this he shook his head and reached over to the seat next to him. However, he noticed something out of the ordinary.
A man dressed in all black with the leather jacket armed with an orange symbol on the shoulder was in his sights. However, he didn't appear to be looking at him. Unfortunately he wouldn't know as the man was wearing sunglasses and had his head tipped back into the headrest.
This was strange to Derek because nobody was supposed to be sitting next to him. Each seat was booked for a person except for three. One was the chair next to himself, and the other two were in the far back. This meant that this man must have sat down in the wrong area.
Angie picked up on this as well and tapped Derek's shoulder quickly.
"Do you know him?" Angie whispered into his ear quietly.
"No. I think he's sitting in the wrong-"
Their conversation was abruptly ended as the man stirred in his seat before looking over to the left at Derek. The man chuckled but didn't give much facial expression.
"Sorry… Are you Dr. Stiles?"
Derek and Angie both felt alarms go off in their head but decided to push them away just to be courteous to the polite sounding man. His voice was monotone and he didn't smile or give any response when he actually talked.
"Yes. It's nice to meet you. What is your-"
His sentence was flattened as the man once again gave a fake chuckle.
"I've heard a lot about you online…" The man added as he looked ahead for a moment. "You're a pretty popular guy."
A popular guy?
How was Derek supposed to respond to that? There's no doubt that the battle against G.U.I.L.T. three years ago was world grabbing and didn't award himself with international attention plus a great track record with the field of medicine. However… online?
"Is that so…?" Derek responded. "Well, thank you."
Before Angie could intervene, a man walked past him… dressed merely just like the man sitting beside Derek. A tap on the shoulder sent chills down her spine as the man tapped his friends shoulder. But, she couldn't make a scene while Derek was in conversation with the man.
"Well… I should get back to my seat. I hope you enjoy your flight."
Derek finally picked up on the off tone in the conversation the two were having. The way he said 'flight was off putting. The smirk he wore as he left his seat and made a quick one eighty and carried on as if he knew what he was doing was odd.
Seconds later, Derek and Angie made eye contact and in unison turned around. The plane hadn't even taken off yet and things were already tense. Who were these guys and… why did they look so familiar?
It wasn't until about nine hours into the flight that things became the worst that they were going to be at all that night… if ever.
In the middle of Derek's song - Pain by Jimmy Eat World, a metallic bang came from the far back. At first there was minimal noise from the people in the furthest back rows until a couple of people mumbled and chattered.
To make the situation set in stone, the intercom came into effect on the flight as a male voice familiar to both Derek and Angie disrupted all relaxation and sleep in the entire cabin.
"Greetings, sinners. You have been the lucky subjects selected by the highest of powers this world will ever come to find." The voice spoke. His voice was the same as the man who had 'mistakenly' sat down beside Derek. "GUILT is the root to all completion, the stitch that bridges the gap between extraordinary and accepting. Here, you don't need to worry about your differences…" The voice stopped for a second as Derek and Angie felt their intestines drop below their altitude. "There will be no differences once GUILT enters the soul of every passenger on this flight. Please, fear not."
By this time, panic and chaos had spread across the passengers as each one looked to every other human for answers but none of them had any. While nearly everyone knew the term GUILT, what they didn't know was that Delphi had sneaked their way onto the flight and was likely taking this over as a way of terrorism…
And Derek Stiles was at the heart of this disaster.
The air conditioning vents suddenly exploded open as gas poured into the cabin and began jumping from person to person.
A chemical attack that Derek and Angie had oddly prepared for as surgeons of Caduceus.
"What is this!?" A woman shrieked as she began erupting into a fit of coughing followed by dropping to her knees and slipping into unconsciousness seconds later.
Derek was the first to react properly as he grabbed his gear from his carry on bag.
"Angie!"
Angie was stunned from the experience - being thirty thousand feet above the ground with GUILT now seeping into the very air she was breathing.
"Angie! Snap out of it and get your gear on!"
Neither of them had known if she was exposed or not but she quickly responded with a jump and prepared herself swiftly. By now a large portion of the attendants were dropping like flies with small children even shaking their parents to try to wake them. For some reason, none of the children were infected whatsoever - seven children were afraid for their lives.
"We need to do something!" Angie shrieked. "I can't believe Delphi is responsible for this!"
The voice on the intercom continued but was blocked out by the situation.
"You're right! Let's begin treating who we can… let's hope this flight is surgically equipped!"
"Here, Doctor! Thankfully, one of the flight attendants was certified to bring surgical equipment aboard!" Angie exclaimed as the backroom was practically turned into a sterilized operating room. "We can begin treating patients here…"
Derek slapped on his rubber gloves. "I know… Delphi being so close by really puts me on edge as well. If only we had some way to keep them away since… once they find out we're preventing GUILT they'll do everything they can to cut us out. It would be safer if we closed and locked the door once we get a patient in."
Angie nodded. "I understand, Doctor…"
An awkward second of silence was ended as a rush of footsteps lead up to the open doorway to reveal the same military staff that was spotted by the Delphi members. He was a six foot two white male with short blonde hair and a thick muscle build.
"Doctor!" He yelled. "I don't know what's going on out there, but I don't see any of those crazy men anywhere!"
Derek smiled. This would be the guy they needed.
"That's good news! Can you watch the cabin while we perform emergency surgery? If any Delphi member comes towards this door I need you to keep it sealed close. Can you do that?"
"Roger that!" The soldier agreed as he grabbed the door frame and crouched around the corner to stalk the cabin. Little movement was seen after first aid was performed by both Derek and Angie except the little kids who were huddled in a corner together all scared sick.
Derek turned back to Angie and nodded.
"I hate the situation as much as you do, Angie but we need to keep our eyes open. We can do this!"
A quick gulp and a head shake later, Angie was out of her mind and back in the real world.
"Right, Doctor! Our patient is thirty one year old Susan Dwight. She was the first patient to have fallen ill with GUILT. The strain is presumed to be Kyriaki but further mutations and combinations haven't been ruled out. Extreme precautions will need to be taken when dealing with the adult Kyriaki while also remove the pupi's that are created. The two objectives will be: Remove Kyriaki and stay focused."
Angie was doing a good job on staying focused herself; but the presence of fear was still widespread in her bones and muscles. If he had to guess, her heart rate was extremely elevated right now which meant she was going to be difficult to operate with. Still, people needed them and if they sat and did nothing…
"There's no time to lose! Let's begin the operation right away!"
"Your mission is going exactly as planned, sir."
Right outside the cockpit of the plane was a different story. The three men were stacked up outside the closed sliding door without weapons and instead were waiting on confirmation from their boss, Heinrich. If there were ever an image of a sketchy and evil man with long curly hair while still balding, Heinrich would fit the description perfectly.
No matter how much of a joke he looked, he acted totally different.
A descendant of Adam, Heinrich was known for his cruelty against the world in the form of GUILT and his brutality on his brethren in his own Delphi group. Because he was so hard on his family his henchmen were trained perfectly and had much more experience and personal thinking versus the Delphi from three years ago.
"Good. How many people have we blessed?" Heinrich spoke with his soft voice. The background of the call was silent - he was in his manor likely far away from any sort of danger by authorities.
"We haven't obtained visual confirmation on any passengers since we set off the gas." Before Heinrich blew their ears off, the man made a quick switch back. "However-We are taking over the cockpit to control this flight."
"Fair enough. Once the cockpit has been taken, please proceed to examine the bodies."
"Yes, sir!"
After the microphone conversation ended, the trio of men gave a unison nod with eye contact before turning back towards the door. Giving it five seconds, one of the men slid open the door and darted into the cockpit with the two men following shortly behind. The pilot recoiled from the sudden movement in his peripheral vision and looked behind him. The first Delphi member reached him with his hands, forcing him down in his seat.
"Keep this plane up or we all die."
The pilot gasped and didn't offer much of a fight, withdrawing from his stance and finally returning his eyes to the sky.
"What do you want from me?"
The Delphi member laughed before leaning against one of the four walls. "We're looking to take this flight back to a landing field back in the outskirts of Angeles Bay. You can either cooperate and maybe live, or struggle and kill every human being on this flight today."
The pilot gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could really do to improve the odds of himself or the hundred some people in the cabin.
Little did he know that the plane was struggling with bioterrorism followed by a potential hijacking.
"I can't just let you do that to me. This plane isn't meant to stay in the air for longer than twelve hours… and we're already out three-fourths fuel." The pilot argued, hoping to make a dent in any sort of concrete plan these suspicious men were holding. Unfortunately, it did very little to push them out and instead all three men laughed.
In the laughing, the pilot made a very risky decision and kicked the plane into autopilot cruise control before reaching over to the closest Delphi member and attempted to throw a kick to the back of his knees. While the hit connected and the man dropped down, he grabbed onto the pilot and threw him into the middle of the three men. Once the three were standing they proceeded to grab the pilot to try to restrain him back in his chair.
The pilot wasn't going down without a fight and kicked out at a totally different Delphi member this time and shot him diagonally to the left…
Right into the stick and several different buttons on the dashboard.
The plane jolted around for a second before the nose aimed up… and then down, descending at a one hundred and ten degree angle.
As the plane shifted, the pilot flew forward and slammed his forehead against the window of the craft which registered him unconscious. The other three were already either on the ground or behind the chair protected from gravity pulling then against the window.
"Oh no! This Is bad!" One of the men yelled as loudly as he could.
Due to the sudden imbalance in the flight, two of the engines, both in the left wing completely sputtered out and ceased to work any further. Smoke began emitting out of them like a chimney as the kids in the cockpit began screaming like banshees.
"Operation complete, Doctor! That concludes the final patient!" Angie congratulated a very exhausted Derek Stiles, the two of them finishing up the final patient which was on the countless number scale at this point. In one day he completed more operations than he usually does in a two week period. Because of his, his bones were dragging on the ground and his mind was foggy.
"Right…! Let's go make sure the children are still safe… god knows what Delphi is planning."
Derek made a good point. Sinners were children captured from their family in standard abduction format but instead of anything else, they were planted in incubators and forced into GUILT testing environments. The first sinners they had saved were from three years ago when raiding the Delphi base. If those children were taken from this plane then it would spell trouble for everybody.
Just as the two forced their way out of their own "operating room" they met with the soldier from earlier. Corporal Howard was his name, the tag now in Derek's line of sight. However; this was the least worrisome target in his vision as he looked down the hallway into the cabin. A… fourth Delphi member?
The fourth one wore a purple symbol unlike all of the others and was walking towards the small children with an item in his left hand.
"Hey that's-"
Angie was cut short as the soldier ran forward.
"Stop right there!"
The Delphi member didn't look over at the soldier or Derek and Angie and instead drew forth a firearm and fired a round directly into the soldiers left shoulder. The man screamed in agony as he dropped to his knees.
"No! Honey!"
A new female voice called out from the area where the kids were. Of course, there was still one passenger still on the flight. Derek and Angie looked over and she looked healthy. She must have been watching over the children while Derek and Angie operated and her husband was watching over the operating room.
"Move." The man said quietly as he pointed the gun at the woman. She was crying and sniffing hard but instead stood in front of the barrel of the gun, the barrel resting on her forehead softly. "I said move."
"Angie, we need to operate immediately-" Derek muttered before being cut off half way by the man who didn't look away from the woman at all.
"No. Leave him." His purple eyes stayed on the woman, squinting slightly. "None of these children are yours and you want to die for them? Why die for children that won't die at all… ever?"
"You're lying! GUILT doesn't have the ability to prolong any human life whatsoever!" Derek shouted. "What you're promising is simply a dream created by the disease itself!"
"Hmph. Foolish of you, Dr. Stiles." The man sputtered as he pressed his finger against the trigger slightly, Not pulling it completely yet. "If only you knew just how capable GUILT truly is. Instead you spent your time on trying to control where the dice land. No matter what, we all die! Whether you're rich, poor, a doctor or a drug addict! We all die!"
Angie tensed. She could feel how close this man was to pulling the trigger on this innocent woman. "Calm down… please, back away and put the gun dow-"
"You ignorant humans! Why can't you just understand-"
The conversation was cut short as the plane was thrown into a huge amount of turbulence, the gun moving high above her head and the trigger being pulled. Everybody fell over and seemed to slide down the cabin pathways until hitting chairs or, in the Delphi member case, going all the way down to the cockpit door. The plane was now tipped down at a hard angle and descending towards the ground. Angie and Derek gripped the seats tightly as they looked out of the window. The clouds were ripping past them at high speeds which meant one thing…
They were on a Crash Collision course with the ground.
"Ngh! There's gotta' be something we can do!" Derek yelled as loud as he could. "We should check on the pilot!"
"No! The pilot is in the room with Delphi and that man just went in there with him… and he's armed."
The situation felt helpless, the plane was falling out of the sky at high speeds and the pilot was likely dead or… something? Since they were unaware of the accident in the cockpit, Derek had to assume there was some sort of gruesome scene in the pilot's chair. This didn't help the situation at all knowing an armed man went in without a problem.
That's when the woman stood up from her position, checking on all the children before turning back to Derek and Angie both.
"Doctors!" She cried out. "My husband!"
The fear of falling out of the sky had overridden their brains and somehow a gunshot patient had slipped their minds. The man was still conscious but had lost an immense out of blood. There was even a small amount of blood dripping from the corners of his mount which meant his lungs were hit pretty badly. Operating would only endanger him… especially on a moving plane.
"Ma-Ma'am… There's nothing we can do…" Derek said as he lowered himself to his knees, trying to stay positioned properly without falling over due to the slight slant of the plane. "His pressure is plummeting and his heart is crushed by blood from the gunshot… The bullet is lodged in his left lung and we can't operate with the plane in this condition…"
Angie was surprised. Normally Derek would take it onto himself to feel horrible for a dying patient but instead he was explaining it perfectly. There didn't look to be any self doubt or depression with this move whatsoever.
"I… I understand… You see, I'm in the air force. He and I enlisted at the same time but he wanted to be in the army…"
If she had been in the air force than she could possibly fly… Flying a jet versus a commercial airliner was two totally different things he could tell just off the top of his head but… there didn't seem to be any better option.
"Ma'am… There isn't much time left before this plane crashes! I know you're grieving but… you may be the only chance that we all have at surviving! The children need you…"
Angie supported Derek - it wasn't an easy call but if they wanted to live it was their only call and she knew this.
Her husband gave her a small nod as his dying body began succumbing to unconsciousness slowly. A final kiss was exchanged between the two before she left him and rushed towards the cockpit with Derek and Angie close behind.
"Now… they aren't going to let us take over easily." The woman exclaimed. "But, we need to do this. Doctors, I recommend you stand back… Once I open this door I'm going to jump for the console and hopefully steer us up in time to completely miss the ground. If this fails, we will crash land and you will need safe grounds to protect yourself in case this does indeed happen."
"Right. We will do that." Angie agreed before nodding to the woman. "Thank you… and I'm so sorry."
Derek simply gave her a nod before grabbing Angie's hand and pulling her back with him running towards the hallway between the back of the plane and the bathroom. He hurtled her down and embraced her to offer as much protection as he could.
The woman in response slammed open the door and dove for the stick, landing face first over the seat and wrapping her hands around the stick. She pulled back as hard as she possibly could…
But it was too late. The craft's left wings hit the treeline which immediately ripped the wings off of the plane and threw the body into the trees as hard as ever. The last thing Derek and Angie saw was the treeline suddenly rush up to the small window in the hallway as he clenched his grip around her.
"ANGIE!"
When Derek awoke, he had no idea what had happened for a very long time. Seconds went by like hours as he struggled to fully awaken. His body felt like it was hit by a truck and his protection suit was ripped up like Swiss cheese. At first all he could move was his head. The rest of his body was numb and he had no idea where they were. Using nearly all of his strength, he moved his back and sat up straight. A deep breath in brought fits of coughs and near chokes on smoke and leaves. There was a huge clearing to his left which is where most of the craft was.
"A…" Was all he could possibly say. His voice was strained and cut out halfway through his speech. He was trying to say "Angie" but his body wasn't capable. "An…"
He heard movement to his right nearly twenty feet over.
It was Angie!
She must have been thrown out from under him in the crash. A new energy was born from him as he crawled his way over to her and dragged his legs along the way. Somehow, he wasn't hurt at all despite a few scrapes and bruises on his arms and legs. When he reached Angie he found her in the same condition - simply covered by branches and plane parts.
"Angie…" Derek exclaimed before coughing roughly. He took his arms and wrapped them around her and practically swallowed her with his body. Angie started crying as she death gripped Derek and rocked back and forth. Her face was dirty and the tears acted as small droplets of water. Derek separated their embrace and used his thumb to rub out some of the dirt using her tears and gave her a small smile. "It's okay… we're okay."
"I was so scared, Doctor… I'm so glad we're okay…"
"Hey! We got survivors over here!"
It was a shock to the system to find out a search party had already been sent out… which meant they had been unconscious for hours. It was Chinese military who spoke English only for the situation they were in, dealing with American crash victims.
"Are you Dr. Stiles and Nurse Thompson!?" One of the soldiers asked as he helped the two of them up. Soon after several more came to their aid.
"Yes… Is everyone else- ngh- alright?" Derek asked as he was met with a smile.
"Two K.I.A.'s, but several others survived. It looks like they were operated on before we arrived! Did you do that?"
Derek turned to Angie and smiled.
"Yes. Yes, we did."
Although the situation ended poorly and Delphi was captured, Derek and Angie fought like hell to protect the living and even though the situation wasn't perfect, they did everything they could and came out victorious.
They would soon later return to Caduceus after three months away from surgery to celebrate and recover from the crash that they never thought they would experience.
The bad news is Derek will never ever recover from this flight fear now…
But his new relationship will help him overcome this fear…
… While assisting him in the O.R. as well!
I hope it isn't too obvious that this FanFiction is a little rushed... but I hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you did and I'll see you next time!
(I do not own the rights to Trauma Center or any characters portrayed in this FanFiction. All rights go to Atlus and Sega.)