Chapter 2: Virus Alert
AN: Yeah, so my school load is very light for the rest of the week, so I figured I'd try to get another chapter or two out before things pick up again next week. Anyway, this is the chapter in which the worlds start to collide. Hope you enjoy.
Chuck twirled his future wife around uncontrollably, their bodies pressing together in ways hardly suited to a house of the Lord until finally and without warning, he dipped Sarah deeply and then held her like that for a second. The dance had stopped right in front of the pew housing Ellie and Awesome, and the latter took this opportunity to try to help out his wife's brother. Captain Awesome stood and slowly approached the pair of intertwined love birds. "Ah, Chuck, what's going on," the 'captain' asked, echoing the sentiments of every single person in the room, as he gently placed his hand on Chuck's shoulder.
Suddenly the groom shivered again, and then he released Sarah, and spun around, knocking Awesome to the floor with a wide leg sweep. Chuck leapt onto his brother-in-law and began to punch him repeatedly in the face. The other guests rushed to help, pulling Chuck off of his brother-in-law, but the living Intersect launched into a flurry of martial arts moves, kicking, jabbing, and flipping his guests around like they were nothing more than practice dummies.
More than one guest was left bloodied, and the longer the brawl lasted the worse it seemed to get, until the crackling boom of a gunshot split the air and Chuck went down. His leg began to bleed and as he looked at it, he shivered once more. Suddenly he was tearing at his clothes and transforming them into a makeshift medkit as he used the scraps of fabric to tie up the wound. And Casey, barrel still smoking from the shot, used this as an opportunity to get close to Chuck and knock him out with the butt of the Colt pistol.
The darkness began to fade, and Chuck found himself staring up at a white light. For a moment he wondered if he were dead, but then as things began to focus familiar faces took form behind the stranger holding the small light to Chuck's eye.
The first face was Sarah's, her veil pulled back behind her head, and Chuck smiled. Then Morgan came into focus. "Don't worry, Chuck. The doctor says you'll be fine."
Then, finally Casey's face came into focus as well; and, as his short term memory clicked back into place, Chuck opened his mouth, shivered and yelled, "Te... te súlygolyó nekem!"
Morgan looked confused by the exclamation. He thought he was pretty well up on his Klingon, but he'd never heard those words before.
"Well, what did you want me to do? Just stand by while you beat the snot out of all your guests?" Casey defended.
"You understood that?" Morgan inquired.
"Of course; it's Hungarian."
"Hungarian?" the bearded man repeated in surprise. "Well, what did he say?"
"Oh, Bartowski's just complaining about me shooting him," Casey answered Morgan before turning back to Chuck. "Quit being such a softy; it's only a little leg wound. You'll be fine."
Sarah couldn't help but cast a nasty look at Casey. While, given the circumstances, she did understand him shooting her husband-to-be in the leg and knocking him out, she still couldn't help but feel resentful that her big day had ended up being such an abysmal catastrophe. And with Chuck hurt and strapped into a hospital bed, at the moment, Sarah could feel nothing but concern and sympathy for him. So, her resentment ended up flowing towards Colonel Casey.
"Why did you bring a gun to my wedding in the first place?" She barked.
"I've made a lot of enemies over the years. I wanted a little protection in case something unexpected happened. Come on, you gonna tell me you went into that thing completely unarmed?"
And as Sarah remembered the throwing knives tucked into her leggings, she softened somewhat. Then Chuck squeezed her hand, and any lingering animosity was over shadowed by a need to comfort her lover. "Don't worry, Chuck, we'll get through this. Doctor Jekyll's the best neurologist in the US."
Morgan turned to Casey and whispered, "Doctor Jekyll?"
"You don't want to make fun of his name, trust me," Casey replied, almost under his breath, and Morgan decided to drop the matter.
The doctor finished his examination and then sighed. "Yes, it's as I feared. It's the Intersect. It seems to have a virus of some sort."
" A vírus?" Morgan exclaimed
"Hogyan lehetséges?" Chuck added
"I'm sorry, what was that?" the Doctor replied.
"He asked how that's possible?" Sarah translated.
"I have no idea. I'm a doctor, not a computer programmer. But his brain is showing very abnormal activity in the sectors tied to the Intersect. And I've ruled out any physical trauma or brain damage. That can only mean that there's something wrong with the Intersect itself. And since the Intersect is basically a neuro-computer system and was working fine during the patient's last mission, a virus would seem to be the most likely cause, would it not?"
"So... how do we fix it?" Morgan inquired.
"No idea," the doctor replied. "I'm afraid this is a little out of my field."
"So what do we do?" Sarah asked, a subtle tone of helplessness beginning to creep into her voice.
"Simple, I'll send my report to Beckman, and she'll forward it to whoever is best suited to the task and then contact you when she has a solution. Until then, I'd recommend you keep the patient restrained. That computer in his brain seems to be accessing bits of data randomly, and until that stops he's a danger to himself and others. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a report to pass on."
"Good news," the General proclaimed through the large, monitor display. "We believe we've come up with a way to purge the Intersect of this virus."
"Wow," Morgan commented in an impressed tone. "That was pretty fast. Two days with a completely new kind of virus, and they've already figured out how to cure it."
"Actually, that's not entirely true," The general replied. "When I informed my superiors of the situation, as well as what an asset the Intersect has been, they agreed to give the members of Team Bartowski clearance to classified information that I've had to keep from you in the past."
The image of the general shrank and moved to the left side of the screen as a three dimensional, digitized map appeared on the right. "There is a small town In Oregon called Eureka. On the surface it looks like any other small town in the North West. But in reality it houses the greatest minds in America. It's a town of physicists, quantum theorists, cyberneticists, bio-engineers, and just about any other scientific specialty you can think of. And as it turns out, the town has actually dealt with a bio-computer virus in the past. I've spoken with the head of GD, the research company that employs the vast majority of Eureka's residents and he has informed me that they believe they have a cure for Agent Bartowski. Of course the facilities necessary to carry out the procedure for this cure exist in only one place on the planet: Eureka itself."
"So, Team B's going on a road trip? Cool, I'll grab my mix-tape, oh and Chuck's mix-tape too. We'll swing by the Buymore on the way out and pick up some snacks, and-"
"Actually, Agent Grimes, that will not be necessary. Given the seriousness of the situation and the threat an unstable Intersect creates to National Security, provisions have already been made for you to fly to a secret landing strip within the town's borders. GD's administrator as well as the local sheriff and the head of GD security will meet you there, and Agent Bartowski will be taken directly to the GD complex where he'll begin the virus cleansing procedure immediately. And, if everything goes according to plan, Chuck should be completely back to normal before the day's done."
The good news had a different effect on each of the team members hearing it. Sarah was both relieved and happy to hear that she'd have her Chuck back so quickly. Morgan was a little disappointed about the lack of a 'Team B' road trip, which he imagined would've made a great team building experience, even still he was glad to hear that they were going to fix his best buddy up so quickly. And John Casey skeptically wondered when everything had ever gone 'according to plan' in the past.
The plane arranged for Team B was a supersonic jet, and the flight passed quickly, though not quickly enough for Chuck who'd been confined to a straightjacket and strapped into a mobile dolly. Absently the unofficial leader of Team B thought about just how quickly his life had gone from Agent Carmichael - super spy - to Hannibal Lector - pariah of society. Less than two hours after takeoff, the plane touched down and Team B was greeted by a quaint-ish looking sheriff, a small, mousey looking guy in a suit and glasses, and a dark-haired woman in what appeared to be a suit of riot armor.
"Do you really think all that was necessary?" Sheriff Jack Carter whispered to the woman standing on his right.
"Take a look at the guy they're unloading from the cargo hold, and you tell me," Josephina Lupo answered.
"Yikes, I feel like the guy's going to try to eat my face off if I get too close!" Fargo cut in. "I thought we were helping a national hero here... not a psychotic killer?"
"You sure you're not going to need any help?" Jack asked Josephina as the three began to approach their guests.
"I know how to do my job," Jo replied, a touch of defensiveness in her tone, just before they drew close enough to run the risk of being overheard.
"Hello, and welcome to Eureka," Fargo greeted with forced hospitality. "Let's not waste any time, shall we?" the nerdy head of GD continued, fully intending to get anyone who was dangerous enough to require that much restraint on his way as quickly as possible. "Sheriff Carter will give you three a ride down to Cafe Diem where you can relax and get yourselves a hot meal while Jo escorts your friend here to GD."
Sarah noticed that for some reason the other woman's eyes narrowed when the guy in the suit addressed her as "Jo", and the experienced CIA agent filed that odd little bit of information away in the back of her mind before moving onto what she considered a much more important piece of information. "I'm not leaving Chuck," Sarah declared.
"Huh?" Fargo responded as his brain processed the blonde's statement. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid only one of you is cleared to enter the GD research facility."
"I didn't travel all this way, just to leave my fiancé at the door of some research facility I'd never even heard of before today. I'm going with Chuck," Sarah insisted with determination.
Fargo leaned over to his side and whispered to the dark haired woman to his left. "If something goes down, you can take them, right?"
Jo's only reply was to turn an angry glare on her 'boss'.
"Fargo, why don't you just let the girl go with her fiancé?" the sheriff cut in. "I'm sure she'd sign the non-disclosure agreement."
"But the clearance?"
"Fargo, trust me, I've seen that look before. She's not going to let this go," Jack continued.
"Do you want to risk an incident with the CIA?" Jo added in.
"Oh fine, just stomp all over procedure. See if I care," Fargo replied as he gave into the two law enforcement agents who'd saved his life more than a dozen times over. "I mean I'm just the head of GD," he grumbled sarcastically to himself, "why should anyone listen to me?" Then he turned back toward the visitors. "Fine, you can go with your fiancé, provided you sign a non-disclosure agreement when you arrive. But you two are still going to the cafe," he then added with more force as he attempted to maintain some semblance of leadership.
"Fine with us," Morgan replied congenially. "I could use a mid-day, espresso pick-me-up anyway."
Casey merely grunted.
Hey, sorry guys and gals. This chapter wasn't nearly as funny as I was hoping. Ting is it took me much longer than expected to transition from Burbank to Eureka. Consequently, I'm afraid that most of the funny stuff I had planned for this chapter won't take place until the next one. :( Hopefully you still found a couple of things worth laughing at though.
Have a good day, and God bless.
Metropolis Kid.
