Wolfgirl2013: Thanks for your review! Hope you like this chapter!
sweetredranger: Glad you liked the chapter! Hope you like this one!
Kitten9322: Hey, no worries! Basically Tori had a nightmare, the girls were all moved to one room, and something happened to freak them all out. This chapter should explain a bit more what's going on, especially with Celia. I am leaving some things ambiguous for now, but I will explain it all soon! Hope you like this chapter!
fallingstar22: Thanks! You'll get some more info about what the doctors are really doing in this chapter- they're not the good guys! Enjoy the chapter!
Thanks also to Red Shadow Ranger for favoriting/following!
Disclaimer: If it's not mine, I don't own it. (Which includes Power Rangers, Masquerade of Shadows, and all other recognizable material.)
Ch. 4: 7:30 A.M.
7:30 A.M.
Location: Angel Grove General Hospital
Hunter stood in the hospital's reception lobby. Visiting hours didn't begin for another half-hour, so he couldn't go check on Tori. He had been elected yesterday to be the one to come and find out what had happened. Last night he, Shane, Blake, and Dustin had told Sensei Wantanabe what had happened at the hospital (minus the part about Celia, because Hunter had a feeling he shouldn't say anything about that yet). Sensei decided that one of them should return and talk to the girls to try and determine what exactly happened. Sensei informed the other teams that they should stay away from the hospital because they didn't want to make anyone suspicious. There had been some serious grumbling, but Sensei pulled the seniority card. Hunter had been selected (since he visited often, Sensei thought his presence would be the least suspicious). So here he was.
He had left an hour ago, anticipating traffic, but surprisingly there was none. Now he was here, a half-hour early, with nothing to do. If he tried to go visit Tori he might draw suspicion- which wasn't what he wanted.
Turning, he noticed that there was a pair of sliding glass doors that led out to a fenced-in garden. Why not? He decided. Taking a walk might help clear his thoughts and pass the time. He walked outside, heading along the path. It was a beautiful day-the sun was shining, birds were chirping, a slight breeze was blowing. Hunter quickly grew lost in thought- until he turned a corner and saw Celia sitting on a bench, two feet away.
"Hunter Bradley." She gave him a small smile. "I can't say I'm surprised to see you." She indicated the bench across from her. "We need to talk. Sit."
"Not until you answer my questions." Hunter shot back.
"And I'll do that. Once you sit." Celia looked down the path. "Listen, this is the only safe place to talk."
Hunter sat down. "So explain to me- you're sane right now? Like you know what you're saying?"
"Oh I know what I'm saying." Celia grinned. "As to if I'm sane? That's a subjective question."
Hunter rolled his eyes.
"Sorry." Celia quickly said. "I know that I was acting really weird and that you have no reason to believe me, but-"
"You were acting?" The whole time?" Hunter interrupted.
"Well, yeah." Celia replied with a hint of pride. "How else was I supposed to figure out what was going on?"
Hunter shook his head. "Okay, here's how it's going to go. I ask the question, you give me answers. Got it?" Celia nodded. "First question- why were you kidnapped?"
"Why do you think?"
"That's not an answer."
"I don't know for sure, but I think it has something to with," she lowered her voice, "The Group. You know, L.O.R."
"Do you belong to L.O.R.?"
"Not exactly."
"Then how do you know about it?"
"Let's just say I help out when I'm needed- I don't belong to a team. Oh yeah- we've actually met before." She added offhandedly.
"So if you're not part of L.O.R., why were you taken?"
Celia shrugged. "Guilt by association?"
"So who took you? And how did they know about your 'association' with L.O.R.?"
"I don't know." Celia frowned. "I have a guess- one that I can support with evidence- but it's just a guess."
"Let's hear it."
Celia looked uncomfortable. "Look, this is going to sound crazy, okay? Just hear me out, and then you can tell me what you think." She took a deep breath. "I think the hospital staff is part of The Order. Not all of them, but the ones who are treating us. They want information from us- and they can't get anything."
"What makes you think that?" Hunter asked.
"I'm going to start from the beginning. I don't know who took us, I don't know why we were taken- but I don't think it was The Order. And if it was, whoever kidnapped us was acting on their own.
"We were taken to dark warehouse and locked in an inner room. There were no windows and only one door. The ceiling was at least forty feet above us. I was the tenth person to arrive. There were twelve cots in the room. The other girls had no idea how long they had been there. There was no way of knowing how much time had passed. Meals were brought in at random times, seldom, and never any sort of pattern or sequence.
"They came in and selected us at random- there was no apparent pattern. We were blindfolded, tied up, and they put headphones on our ears to cancel out noise. They took us out of that room and led us somewhere else. There was no way of knowing where, because we were led on a different path every time. We were brought to a small dark room.
"There, they asked us questions. Questions about L.O.R., about who we were, about what we knew. They obviously knew what L.O.R. was- the questions reflected that." Celia broke off.
"Did they get answers?" Hunter asked slowly.
"They did." Celia twisted her hands in her lap. She avoided Hunter's gaze. "They had very- persuasive- methods of getting information."
There was silence for a while Hunter was curious to know just what had happened in the warehouse, but Celia didn't seem all that keen on giving details. Finally she took a deep breath. "So… that. Yeah. Well, the process continued; eat sometimes, sleep sometimes, be questioned often, with no rhyme or reason- and suddenly it just stopped. No one came to the door. No one came to take us. We tried to find a way out, but there was no escape from that room. Our kidnappers were gone. They either got the information they wanted or felt they had to leave. Finally, a warehouse crew discovered us.
"That brings me to the second part of the story. As you know, we were found in a warehouse on the outskirts of a Midwestern city, but were brought to a West Coast hospital. That alone is weird- unless there's a reason. And I think there is.
"I'll cut to the chase- they're drugging us. Or at least they attempted to drug me. The first day we got here I woke up while that nurse, Dayu, was making an IV. I saw her take a syringe and put a strange milky liquid into the bag. I asked her what she was doing and she freaked out. She wouldn't answer at first, but when I threatened to run screaming down the hall that she was poisoning me, she begged me not to."
"Wait," Hunter interrupted, "why did you think she was trying to poison you? The milky stuff could have been medicine."
Celia shrugged. "I actually didn't think she was poisoning me. I wasn't completely serious when I said that. It was her reaction that made me suspicious."
"What makes me suspicious is that you immediately resort to accusing her of poisoning you." Hunter narrowed his eyes.
"You're telling me that if you woke up in a strange room after being kidnapped, questioned, and tortured, and you see someone putting a strange white liquid that instantly dissolves into an IV bag, with said person wearing a guilty expression while doing it, and begs you not to tell anyone, you're not going to suspect that something is up?"
"Well, I don't know." Hunter replied. "It isn't a situation that I've been in before."
"Okay, so my slightly sarcastic comment turned out to be truer than I thought. Let's call it a happy coincidence and move on."
"Fine by me." Hunter said, slightly amused.
"I asked her why she was poisoning me." Celia continued. "She said it wasn't poison, but some sort of medication. She had received a call the night before. A deep voice told her that she would receive a package the next morning and she was to follow the instructions the packet contained. The voice told her that they had taken her boyfriend, and if she didn't follow their instructions, well-" Celia paused. "You can imagine."
"She told you all this?"
"She seemed very frightened and didn't want to do what they asked her, but she had no choice. She wasn't supposed to say anything to anyone- the phone call made that very clear."
"And yet she told you all this?" Hunter repeated.
"She was traumatized and about to go through with it anyway. The 'medicine' was supposed to induce deep sleep- Dayu said they wanted us to be confused. There was this whole elaborate plan, but she didn't know much about it- just that the medicine would make us sleep and that she was supposed to give it to us. And that there were side effects of the medication, so the caller would know if she had done what was asked of her."
"I highly doubt you let her get away with that."
Celia smiled. "I cut a deal with her. I told her I would pretend to be under the effects of the medication if she would tell me what the side effects were. In return, I would try to help her find out who took her boyfriend. She didn't believe me at first, but I informed her that I had very powerful friends. Which probably means T3 is going to have to do some digging."
"I'm sure they'll be happy to." Hunter replied with a slightly sarcastic tone. "So did she agree to this crazy bargain of yours?"
"The alternative was me running down the hallway, screaming."
"Well aren't you just the finest negotiator ever." Hunter smirked.
"Go ahead, poke fun. It still worked. Dayu gave the medication to everyone else. She reported everyone's conditions to Dr. Mercer- within my earshot. I then knew how I was supposed to act."
"Why didn't she just let you run screaming down the hall? She could have claimed you were crazy."
"I don't think she wanted to take that risk. I highly doubted at the time that the whole hospital was in on it."
"And how did you figure that?"
"Think about it. If the whole hospital was involved, why write the note? Why the secrecy? The phone call? Why go to the lengths of kidnapping someone to ensure compliance? Worst comes to worst, they could just lie to the nurses and tell them it was regular medication- or let them in on it."
"So what makes you think that soomene at the hospital is involved at all?"
"Someone here has to have some level of involvement. How else would they be able to know if Dayu administered the medication? The person here may not be calling the shots, but they definitely have a role. I've thought about it- I've had a while to- and I narrowed it down to who the insider could be. It has to be someone who has access to video feed and surveillance footage- that way they could constantly watch the patients. The person also has to have clearance to order medication, but isn't someone who typically administers it. They are in a position of authority or power, but not so much so that they feel comfortable doing something that is probably illegal. It has to be someone no one would immediately suspect, but someone so glaringly obvious that you would write your suspicion of them off on the grounds that it couldn't be that easy."
Hunter raised an eyebrow. "And who could possibly fit such complicated requirements?"
Celia leaned forward. "Dr. Mercer. And I think Dr. Motodrone is in on it too."
Hunter sat back. It actually made sense. Both doctors had acted rather strangely at times, and Dr. Mercer seemed very interested in what Tori could remember. "Okay. So what does that mean?"
"I heard Dr. Mercer and Dr. Motodrone talking yesterday. They said something about an ultimatum." She paused. "Which means we've got a problem."
A/N: Ah, a cliff hanger! ( What'd you expect? ). I know that this is a Tori-centric story, but I will be having different P.O.V.'s... I feel that this adds to the story.
If you can, I'd really appreciate a review! Ask a question, give some feedback- it's all welcome and greatly appreciated! Reviews are also very inspirational- knowing that someone is waiting to read my story makes me really happy. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
