When a patient went to a hospital, they expected to find a well-maintained, up-to-date facility that would do anything to ensure they recover their health. That meant clean halls, very bright lights, competent workers, and high-tech machines that never went off even in the event of a power outage.
The Lamia Hospital was not such a place. While a hospital in name, that's all it was. While there was an effort to keep the walls and rooms clean and sterile, the lighting was pathetic. Heck, every other light fixture had either a dim bulb or a flickering one that was a flicker away from dying.
Well to be honest, this was only on this floor. Most of the floors that housed patients were actually kept to federal regulations. But this was the floor for…other medical practices. The ones that were kept off the books. The rooms themselves would be taken care of, but the hallways always were left to fend for themselves with what ever scraps the rooms gave them.
This hadn't been Gohan's first trip to this particular hospital. It wasn't even his second or third trip. And no, he wasn't going to give a specific number, though most of the time he wasn't checking himself in. Leave a body or two behind, yes, but never his body. Thankfully at least one of his predecessors had been well versed in an old dead language, so he definitely recognized the blatant signature of vampires. The name itself was the giveaway.
After having a whole day to think about that shipment of blood clotting drugs, Gohan had decided he needed to visit a hospital; this one to be precise. Since a hospital was a good source of obtaining blood, it was an ideal front to have. And if anyone had any idea about who was ordering the a drug specifically made to influence blood and how much of it was purchased, one of the vampires here would be that such person. Unless they owned more than one hospital. Then Gohan was going to be spending most of his night trying to find the right one and he really didn't want to do that.
Plus, he could only imagine how Videl would react to his absence at the apartment. Though she had a few lifetimes without his presence, for the last few years they had gotten into the habit of always informing the other of their activities. And when one of them went off on their own, it made their other very nervous. You know, because of their little pact and all.
But due to his unusual amount of energy, Gohan had left the apartment in the middle of the afternoon and made his way to this hospital, waiting for the sun to set. You couldn't reasonably expect a vampire to be working in the middle of the day after all.
So this was where Gohan found himself, traveling the poorly lit corridors of the Lamia. He had already checked three rooms already and found absolutely nothing in them, or at least nothing that concerned him. Reaching a door that was cracked opened, Gohan peered through the crack, finding it pitch black inside. With a quick look around to make sure he hadn't been spotted, Gohan slowly opened the door and slid inside, closing the door until it had been right where he had found it. Turning around, he lifted a hand to search the wall next to the door, finding a panel full of switches soon after. Flicking a couple of them on, the room filled with light, revealing it to be an abnormally large janitor closet. Seriously, the room could have been someone's bedroom, though the metal shelves full of cleaning supplies did take away from the appeal. Noticing a door directly to his left, Gohan silently walked to it, finding it to be a small bathroom. It was clean enough, though apparently someone was trying to save on the water bill since something was mellowing in the toilet. Well, this room was another bust. Time to move on to the next one.
Going back to the door, Gohan flicked off all of the lights and pulled the door open, taking a step out when one of the doors down the hall swung open. Retreating back into the janitor closet and returned the door back to its original place once more, Gohan heard a loud, boisterous voice echo throughout the halls. "I said run the test again! How many times do I have to say it to get it through your head? Imbécile!" Gohan then heard a door slam shut, followed by footsteps, each one growing louder. So who ever this screamer was, he was coming right to him.
The mystery person, a man from what he could tell, was muttering to himself, about what he didn't know. Steeling himself, Gohan waited until the man was right in front of the door when he swung it open noiselessly—someone had really taken care to oil those hinges, he had to say—strode a couple of steps to get behind the man, and put him into a headlock. Immediately, the man began to struggle, trying to get out of his grip, any cries he could help being choked off due to the young man's arm constricting around his neck. He wouldn't be going to anywhere in this century, Gohan would make certain of it. Dragging his prey back, he then tossed him into the janitor's closet and walked in himself just as a loud banging sound occurred from the man colliding with the shelves. Closing the door behind him, the young man made sure to lock it, just in case, and turned on a light switch.
As light flooded the room once more, Gohan got a look at his captive. He had to say, the guy wasn't much. Short, chunky, a receding hairline, and thin wire glasses were the first things he noticed about the guy. The second was that familiar sign of evil he saw with every vampire he came across.
Perfect.
The man was just turning around, his white lab coat ruffling with him as he did when Gohan closed the distance between the two of them and grabbed him by the coat. With a quick shove, he slammed the man's back into the shelf behind him, a loud rattling sound occurring. "Hello doctor, I have some questions for you and you're just the man I need to answer them."
"Who the hell are you?" the doctor demanded, to which Gohan returned a stone-faced expression. Then he spun the guy around and rammed him forward. As it so happened, one of the shelf bottoms was at the perfect height to be pressed right into his neck, causing the doctor to gag.
"I'm sorry, you don't get to ask the questions here," Gohan finally said, grabbing one of the man's arms and pulling it behind him. As he pressed the arm into the small of his captive's back, he then lifted it, putting stress on his elbow and shoulder joints. "Do we have an understanding?"
"You don't know who you're dealing with!" the doctor declared. Apparently he didn't understand. Relieving the pressure on the man's arm, Gohan then jerked the arm up once more with even more force. This caused the man to let out a cry of pain.
"And I can say the same to you, blood sucker." At that, the man stiffened. "Now, unless you want me to dislocate your shoulder, or worse dislocate your shoulder, leave you as a blubbering mess while I break the handle of that mop in the corner, and shove the broken shaft into your chest cavity, you will answer my questions."
"Yo-you're a vampire hunter…" the man half stated, half asked. Well, Gohan was a nice guy by nature, or so he thought, so he let that half question go.
"Yep, and as you can probably guess, I know about seven different ways to make your last moments on Earth very miserable. So, are you ready to cooperate?"
There was a slight pause before he heard "Wh-what do you want to know?"
There, that was better. With a nod of his head in satisfaction, Gohan asked "First off, what's your name? And what are you doing here at this very late…excuse me, very early hour for you?"
"I…I'm Dr. Jack Baisser, top researcher for…uhh, the hospital. I run all of the medical tests for the hospital."
"And my second question?"
"I…I can't tell you that…"
"Let me guess, you'll be killed if you tell me."
The man merely nodded his head. "And if I told you I'll kill you if you don't tell me what I want to know?" Gohan pressed. The doctor stiffened again with the occasional tremble. It was odd; this Baisser guy had been so defiant when he had been forced into this room and now he was a meek little rodent. Either he was all bluster and no substance or…wait, what was that smell? Looking down, Gohan could see a nice little puddle beginning to form at their feet. Oh great, they hadn't gotten through the second question and he was already pissing himself. Not a very strong constitution this one had.
"So who's the guy that will kill you if you talk?" Gohan tried then. Upon not receiving an answer, he frowned. The guy was really starting to shake. Putting more pressure on his arm, he finally made a sound as he yelped in pain.
"I can't!" he cried out, a little louder than needed. Gohan's eyes narrowed at that. Did this guy think if he raised his voice loud enough, someone could hear him and come to his rescue? Hmm…maybe that was very well the case. He had no idea how thin the walls were. "If I talk, there's no telling what he'll do to me if he finds me!"
"So you're dead if you do, dead if you don't," Gohan mused. Again, Baisser fell silent. Well, guess he needed to up the ante. Roughly, he swung the petrified doctor around and forced him to the bathroom. Somehow turning on the light, he then forced the man to his knees and bent his head over the john. "Well, now you have a new problem, doc. As you can probably see, the last person to use this room wasn't too concerned with proper toilet etiquette. So, do you want to face the probability of a torturous death or would you like the undignified demise of being staked with your face submerged in used toilet water? The choice is yours."
The doctor cried in dismay. "I've…I've been ordered to run blood tests on a blood clotting drug!" he finally confessed.
Apparently dignity was more important to this guy than extreme pain. Admittedly, the toilet wasn't exactly a good threat unless you were going to drown someone in it, but there really was something people had against pee. For that, Gohan was thankful; it made his job that much easier. "See, now that wasn't so hard. Now, what does your boss want to know about blood clotting?"
"He said the Council of Shadows ordered it. Didn't seem happy about it at all."
So the Council was behind the shipment. Puzzling. "So would you know anything about that shipment of Celox?" he ventured.
"Which one? I've had to place several orders of them from all over the country. They're all going to one place but no one really knows where. And anyone that starts to get curious ends up being the proverbial cat, without the extra lives."
Before Gohan could ask his next question, he heard the sound of the doorknob rattling from the other room. Looking through the restroom doorway, he watched as the lock turned and the door opened. A tan man walked into the room looking puzzled until he looked right at Gohan and the doctor. Gohan and the man, a janitor by the look of it stared at each other for a second, and the next thing the young man knew, the janitor had yelled something in a foreign language and launched himself at him. Releasing his hold on the doctor, Gohan barely got his hands up to defend himself as the janitor tackled him.
Slamming into the wall, a pair of strong arms tightening around his chest and arms and raising him into the air, Gohan barely caught sight of the doctor's head emerging from the toilet, coughing and gagging. Must've pushed him in when he was tackled. His attention, however, was drawn back to the janitor, who had a look of hatred on his face that would've scared the piss out of a lesser man—like the doctor. It was a good thing he had used the bathroom before coming into the hospital as well.
However, just as he had seen in the doctor, Gohan saw the sign of evil on him and knew what he had to do. First, not have his ribs crushed into his lungs again. Then he could kill him. Yet he had a slight problem; with his arms pinned against his torso, he couldn't exactly get free without using a crap ton of his strength, and he would surely need plenty of it once he did get free.
So it was with sad regret that Gohan had to resort to his very, very last option. He didn't like doing this, but considering it was either that or his insides became a mash of indistinguishable slop, he decided he would just have to deal with the consequences later. Putting strength into his arms, he began to slowly push them out, giving him some breathing room in the janitor's deadly hug. Both men's faces were turning red from their opposite physical expenditures. Then drawing a leg up, Gohan swung it forward and hit a very soft spot on the man's body.
Immediately, the janitor's arms went limp, dropping Gohan down as his feet landed on the floor. Forcing his own arms out, the janitor stumbled backwards, his face a twist of pain and even more pain. Agony even. Intent on relieving the man of his suffering, Gohan threw a punch to his face, followed by a stronger, second fist. That punch sent the man flying into the other room, crashing into and denting the shelving and collapsing to the ground, several items from the shelf falling with him. Striding into the room, Gohan grabbed the mop he had mentioned earlier and picked it up. Holding it with both hands, he then brought his knee up and snapped the handle into two pieces against it. Dropping the heavier end, Gohan then bent down and grabbed the janitor's shoulder, turning him until he lay on his stomach. Bringing up the broken mop handle, he then jabbed it down, impaling the man. The janitor gave out a cry, gritting his teeth as he tried to overcome the pain he felt, succumbing to it a couple moments later.
Letting out a sigh, Gohan looked back to the bathroom and froze as he noticed the absence of the doctor. Looking around the closet, he couldn't find hide nor hair of the man. Just great, he escaped. Growling, Gohan left the closet and began making his way through and out of the hospital. It would seem he had overstayed his welcome.
If Gohan had been married, he would have half expected Videl to be waiting by the front door in one of those fluffy robes, her hair in curlers, and her feet in bunny slippers, tapping impatiently for him to come back. It was a good thing he wasn't married since that would have just been bizarre, though the fact he ran into the girl waiting by the door with one of her feet tapping was concerning. "And where have you been Mr. Black and Blue? Decided an evening jog would have cured you of a punctured lung, hm? Maybe a walk to the store for eggs and milk would do your hand wonders? In case you have forgotten, you aren't exactly anonymous anymore. Any vampire with half a brain can recognize you now!"
Gohan rolled his eyes as he closed the door behind him. "You know, that little speech would work better if that food you gave me didn't work."
Videl perked up at that. "It actually worked? Let me see." Immediately, her hands shot out and grabbed his formerly injured hand, inspecting as she repeatedly put pressure on it, looking from his hand to his face to see if he were reacting in anyway. Dropping his hand, she began poking him in the ribs, trying to see if they were in anyways damaged. Unfortunately, due to his earlier encounter, he winced slightly from the jabs. "Oh, so it didn't heal everything," she stated, her eyes narrowed. "But she said you'd be completely healed. What a jip."
"Actually…" Gohan began uneasily, "I got this tonight."
Videl was silent for a few seconds before she nearly exploded. "You got hurt already? What the hell were you doing? Daring cars to hit you as hard as they could on the interstate? Seriously, what was the point in finding you that miracle food only for you to get hurt by the end of the next day?"
"It was for a good cause?" Gohan offered.
"Oh really, and what kind of cause was it? Were you saving the environment or something? Maybe you got in the way of a bunch of drunken sailors on their way to club some baby seals? Really, tell me what exactly makes hurting yourself so worth it."
"I went to the Lamia Hospital," he started, immediately getting Videl's attention. "I found a doctor who had been placing larger orders for the Celox we found. Apparently the Council is behind the orders."
"The Council? But what do they want with that stuff?"
Gohan shrugged at that. "From what the doctor told me, the reason is very hush-hush. Anyone that's looked into it has been killed, so everyone who has even a bit role keeps their noses out of anything other than what they've been ordered to do."
"This just gets more and more complicated," Videl said, her eyes losing their focus as she seemed to stare into space. Then they refocused and looked right at Gohan. "Was there anything else?"
"No, not really. It was at that point we were interrupted and I almost had my ribs crushed again. I had to get out of there shortly after."
"I guess that's a good enough reason," he heard the girl grumble reluctantly. "So what do we do now? We've stumbled upon this conspiracy and for every answer we get, more questions pop up." She began to scowl. "This is really starting to annoy me."
"Well, we can only do one thing at this point: get to the bottom of it. Isn't there usually some bad guy that knows the whole thing and ends up gloating about it right before he gets killed?"
Videl stared at him for a moment. Finally, she said "You watch too many movies, you know that?"
"But isn't that how it works?"
"Gohan, for a guy that says movies have given the wrong impression of vampire hunters, how could you believe that some arrogant bad guy would just willingly tell us everything we want to know? I mean, really."
"Just because I know they're wrong about me, doesn't mean they're wrong about you."
"And how much from those movies have turned out to be true?" she asked, an eyebrow raised in irritation.
"Well, not much," Gohan admitted.
"Exactly. Now think for once and figure out what the hell is going on with the vampires." Rubbing her temples to calm herself down, she then added "Tell me what that doctor guy told you again. Everything he said until you had to beat up a janitor."
Gohan shifted his posture as he crossed his arms across his chest, his head tilting up to look at the ceiling as he recalled the interrogation. "First he demanded to know who I was, then if I knew who he was. Then he told me his name and what he did at the hospital." He frowned there. "He seemed hesitant about what he exactly did there, but I pried that out of him later. Something about running tests with the coagulant."
"Why were they running the tests?" Videl asked curiously.
Gohan shook his head. "He never said. He just mentioned the Council ordering the tests and that anyone that grew curious as to their reasons were killed. The only things he was involved with were the tests and shipping the coagulant around." His eyes widened as his voice began to rise with vigor. "And there was something else too. That there were multiple shipments, but…what was it?"
He began to pace about, tearing his mind apart as he tried to remember what had been said in that conversation. It had been said so indifferently that he hadn't paid much attention to it at the time. "What was it!" he yelled frustrated, Videl staring at him as he moved about. "There were the shipments all over the country, no one knew where they were all going, then people dying." Finally his head shot up. "They're all going to one place! That's it!"
Videl tilted her head as she tried to process his ramblings. "So let me get this straight: there are several different shipments going on and they're all going to the same place?" And then it occurred to her what had occurred to Gohan moments before. Then that warehouse isn't the final destination! They're going to be moving it somewhere else!"
"And there were a lot of boxes in there," Gohan added excitedly. "So it's going to take several nights to move all of them to the next stop, if not the final stop. And we can tail them all the way there since they think their only obstacle has been dealt with."
"You think they'll still be moving after three nights though?" Videl asked. "I mean, the building wasn't that large and I really doubt they just left the shipment there for some time after that counteragent nearly killed you. They would have started the next phase the next night. They could be done by now!"
"Then we have to go check," Gohan stated, moving towards his room. "I'm going to grab a couple things. You be ready to go in five minutes."
"You think you're going to get into another fight already?" Videl asked, a small grin appearing on her lips.
"Already too late for that. But you can never be too prepared," he said with a shrug, disappearing into his room. This time, he was going to be ready for what ever they found at that warehouse. There was not going to be a repeat occurrence of the last time. He would make sure of that.
