Chapter 6: Medical Mayhem (Kayin vs. 'Doctor'/Geeku vs. 'Doctor' Pt. 1/ Hope vs. 'Doctor'/Geeku vs. 'Doctor' Pt. 2/ Roland vs. 'Doctor')

Vixy woke up at 5:15 in the morning, she quickly got dressed and went out to the roof, and Nearie was the next to show up, followed by Hope and Shin, Lionhawk was the last to show up. All of them conversed a bit before Roland showed up; he set up a small camera-like device and connected it to a floppy drive. He then said, "Well…I'm glad to see you're all here, now I know some of you didn't really agree with my schedule. But when this is over you 'll be finding that the sacrifices you made were well worth it."

He then turned the camera device on and looked at Shin, "Okay…now Shin I'm going to ask you to step in front of the device I have set up here and give me everything you've got." Shin did as Roland asked, the whole thing took at least three minutes, Roland then asked the others to do the same, when that was done Roland took a disk out of the floppy drive and said, "Okay…now that that part is over, here's the next thing we're going to do is I want you to fight me one-on-one…don't think of me as Roland, think of me as one of the Psychics. Shin…as with the scanner you're up first."

One by one they all took on Roland…and one by one they all got knocked on their butts one way or the other, when that was done Roland said, "Okay…after this assessment I've made some discoveries about you. Shin, you guard your right side a bit too much. Nearie, you protect your front more than your sides or back. Lionhawk, you attend to think that once you've knocked the wind out of your opponent you have the upper hand. Vixy, you protect your upper body more than your lower. And Hope…You tend to let your opponent get a little too close." Roland looked at all of them and said, "But don't worry…this is just the first assessment, today I want you training with your parents, because tomorrow…tomorrow begins your training with me, and I'll be a lot harder on you than they'd ever be."

Roland then looked out at the city from the roof, Vixy walked over…he seemed really lost in thought, "Penny for your thoughts?" she asked, Roland looked at her and said, "You know before I met any of you…I only had myself and a few connections of mine, I mean sure it wasn't much but it got me by."

"You know I just realized we don't know that much about you…besides that you traveled the world, I guess what I'd like to know is—." Vixy started saying, "How I made enough money to keep me alive?"

Vixy nodded and said, "Why don't you take a walk with me and you can tell me all about it?" Roland looked at her and thought, "Good looking girl…asks a drifter like me to take a walk with her and tell her my stories…" Roland then pinched his forearm to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he wasn't. "Sure…love to." was his reply.

As they walked Vixy learned a bit more about Roland's past, apparently it was more disturbing…he'd gotten money by signing up for Pride Fighting tournaments, apparently he was a three-time champion and had held that title for five years straight, after that he settled in London for a good part of his life until he'd heard from one of his contacts Andros about the Psychics and came here. "And that me…me and a bag of chips, nothing more and nothing less."

"Oh I believe there's more, like these memory lapses…what's your take on them?" Vixy asked, Roland scratched his head a bit and said, "Okay…but promise not to laugh," Vixy nodded, "I think there's another side to me, a darker one that I don't see but it's there." Vixy didn't laugh, but she looked concerned, "Have you ever considered seeing a psychiatrist about this?" she asked, Roland shook his head, "And I don't see a need to, I have a pretty good handle on it." Vixy then gave a worried look, "If you say so." she said weakly. Roland suddenly looked to his right, a stern look on his face, "There he is…"

"There who is?" Vixy asked, Roland then closed his eyes and said, "There…can't you feel that?" Vixy looked in the direction Roland was facing, suddenly it hit her like a strong breeze. Roland looked a her, "I know…it scares me too, it has to be one of the Psychics."

Back at the tower Vixy told the Crests about what had transpired with her and Roland, "Was there anything else you could feel with this darkness?" Bengala asked, Roland nodded, "Illness…fatality…with a hint of filtered air."

"Has to be a hospital…they have an air filter." Ambar pointed out, a shadow suddenly crossed Roland's eyes, "Then it has to be Bardéz."

"You know one of the Psychics?" Zephy asked, Roland looked at all of them and said, "I was asked by their leader to join them, if I hadn't refused…well, let's say half of you wouldn't be standing here today."

"Well if you know this Bardéz, then you must know the other Psychics as well." Zephy pointed out, Roland gave a single nod and said, "But I only know a few of them…one is Bardéz, or as the Psychics call him 'Doctor', another is Wyatt Oliver Westcot III, 'Sniper'…and Lukyan Del Röc, 'Gatekeeper'. But that's all I truly know beyond there leader, sorry if that wasn't much help."

"Nonsense, you gave us names…now we know who to look for." Ambar told him, "Apogeo," Ambar called out…suddenly a voice came from around them, "Yes Mrs. Ambar…do you need a service of some kind?"

"We need you to look up two names for us, history included…one is Wyatt Oliver Westcot III…the other is Lukyan Del Röc." Ambar told the computer, the voice said, "I'll get right on it."

"Meanwhile," Roland said slowly looking at Howl, "You and I Howl have to pay Dr. Bardéz a visit, let me see your wrist." Howl showed Roland his wrist, Roland quickly took out a knife and cut it. "What did you do that for?!" Howl yelled at him, Roland gave a heavy sigh and said, "We need a plausible story to tell the front desk, this would most likely be seen as a kitchen incident. Now come on we're wasting time."

Howl and Roland arrived at the hospital front desk, Roland explained his story to the front desk. Howl was quickly escorted to one of the rooms, "Don't worry sir, we'll have one of the doctors check in on you shortly." Roland looked around and said, "Gee, you'd think there'd be more help in a place like this."

"There would be…if they weren't all sick," a voice said from behind them, they both turned around to see a man with black hair was in the bed next to them, "What do you mean sick?" Howl asked, "Nurses, Doctors, and a few patients have been coming down with some type of illness that seems to have no source. I would know I'm one of the paramedics around here, it all started happening when this new doctor showed up."

"Let me guess…his name is Bardéz, isn't it?" Roland asked, the man nodded, "Doctor Vincent Bardéz, yes…some people think it's him who's doing this, but without any solid evidence…he's just seen as doing his job." The man told them.

"Okay amigo, I think that's enough story telling for one day." Said a voice from the door, they all looked to see another man in a white lab coat, dark green slacks, and a white shirt with a black tie. He had brown hair and brown eyes, he also had a beard and mustache, and he wore glasses.

Roland looked at the man and said, "Doctor Bardéz, I'll take it." Roland asked, the man nodded and said, "The one and only, now if you wouldn't mind I'd like to ask your friend some questions…you could go to the cafeteria in the meantime and get something to eat." As Roland walked by the doctor he sensed something was wrong, something was going to go down…and somehow he knew Bardéz didn't want him getting in the way.

Bardéz then closed the door and turned his attentions back to Howl, "Well…my friend, it appears you have no real medical record for me to use, so I'm going to need you to fill out these forms so we know who you are and what you're 'all about' as the kids would put it." He handed Howl the clipboard and Howl started filling it out, "But if you wouldn't mind, answer me this one question?" the doctor asked, "Ask away." Howl replied.

Suddenly Bardéz's expression became dark looking, "How did the Darkness Crest know where to find me." Howl started to get up, but Bardéz quickly pulled out a syringe and jammed it into Howl's left arm. Howl struggled, tried to break free, but found Bardéz's grip to be over powering, suddenly Howl just fell asleep. The paramedic saw this, "What did you do to him?!?" The paramedic shrieked, Bardéz turned his attention to him and said, "Gave him just a little morphine, is that a crime?" Suddenly an insect landed on the paramedics shoulder, the next thing he knew was that he felt ill…really ill. "What did you do to me?" The paramedic asked.

"I used one of my insects to inject an illness into you…the same illness that's inflicting the whole entire hospital, for you see…I can't leave any witnesses." Bardéz explained, he watched as the paramedic passed out.

Meanwhile Roland had picked himself up a snack, the food wasn't great but it didn't matter…suddenly Roland felt a jolt of negative energy go through him. He didn't know how to explain it exactly but his Crest was warning him that Howl and himself were in danger, he quickly found a pay phone and dialed the number for Ambar Tower. Roland tapped his foot impatiently, suddenly he heard the phone pick up. "Hello?" Asked Hope's voice. "Hope…now listen to me carefully, I'm going to be leaving shortly…could you and your father keep an eye on Howl for me?" Roland asked, Hope said they'd be there shortly. Roland hung up thinking: "I'm doing this for the Crest, I have to make them realize how serious the situation is with the Psychics."

Kayin and Hope arrived a few minutes after Roland left, Kayin could sense it almost instantly…a dark energy was swarming in the hospital, they asked the desk where they would find Howl. They went up to the room to find him asleep, suddenly Bardéz showed up and said, "Friends of the family, I suppose…well I let you stay here, visiting hours aren't quite over yet anyway."

As soon as Bardéz left Howl let out a faint groan, "Kayin?"

"Howl what is it?" Kayin asked, Howl continued, "The doctor…is 'The Psychic' Bardéz. Be careful, he's really strong…for a human."

"So you're Kayin Ravenhurst…heard a lot about you from my boss," A voice said from behind them, they all turned around to see Dr. Bardéz standing right outside the door, an evil grin was on his face, "he told me you were some kind of failed genetic warrior who couldn't get any love from his daddy, how sad that must've been."

Kayin growled at Bardéz, but the doctor continued to smile. Bardéz slowly reached into his coat for another syringe of morphine, Kayin and Hope slowly backed away from the doctor. Bardéz suddenly charged at them, but just as he gripped Kayin's shirt he felt something knock him sideways. Howl had gotten up from the bed and (while still half 'out-of-it') tackled Dr. Bardéz, against the wall, forcing him to let go of Kayin. "Get out of here, get help!" Howl ordered groggily, Kayin and Hope nodded and took off. Suddenly Howl felt something jab into his side, Bardéz had stuck the syringe into him. As the effects of the morphine started to overtake him again he heard the doctor say, "Guess I didn't give you enough the first time…no matter, this'll fix you fine until I'm ready to be done with you myself."

Kayin and Hope were at the elevator when Kayin turned around and said, "Hope, I want you to go back to the Tower…warn the others, I'll stay here and deal with Dr. Bardéz." Hope nodded and entered the elevator, Kayin turned around just as Bardéz was turning the corner. "Do you really think you can contend with me all by yourself Experiment #12?" Bardéz asked, Kayin didn't answer, he just came running at the doctor and delivered a blow to his jaw, the doctor went flying across the hall. Only to use a somersault so he landed on his knees and got up, doctor came at Kayin with an assortment of kicks. Kayin avoided them, grabbed onto the doctors' legs and swung him against the elevator door, again Bardéz staggered to his feet.

"How are you doing this?" Kayin asked, rather amazed that Bardéz was still standing, Dr. Bardéz snickered to himself and said, "My powers allow my body to make it's own pain-killers on thought, what that means essentially is that I can block any bone shattering blows out of my body…but that's just one of the few abilities I have, here's another."

Suddenly the doctor's hands little with a whitish-blue flicker, he then tried to karate chop Kayin. The flicker touched his shirt and made a small tear in it, Kayin looked at it in shock. "Invisi-scalpels…another handy little invention of mine." said Bardéz, he then delivered another karate chop to Kayin, in fact it soon became a barrage of them.

Hope looked around the Tower, it looked deserted despite that it had only been a half an hour. She eventually found Roland and said, "Roland, oh thank goodness I found you." Roland looked at her with a look of slight concern, "What is it Hope?" he asked. Hope explained the situation involving her father and Dr. Bardéz, Roland got up, loaded his two guns (taking extra ammunition with him) and said, "Rock n' Roll babe."

Meanwhile Kayin was still trying to avoid the deadly knife-like blows of Dr. Bardéz, so far it had been a partial success, he'd gotten a few nasty cuts on his chest area as well as his right arm. Finally cornered Bardéz snickered, "Well looks like I'll be able to make this a clean kill…in the words of George Burns: 'Say Goodnight Gracie'."

Suddenly a green blur flew in from the window behind Kayin and kicked Dr. Bardéz halfway across the hall, finally being stopped by falling to the ground backwards by an abandoned gurney. "Nobody hurts one of my friends and gets away with it!" said a familiar voice, Kayin looked to see Geeku standing right in front of him. "What are you doing here?" Kayin asked. "Well I sensed the Dark Crests' energy too, and it lead me here," She then turned to look at the gurney, "I think it's safe to say he won't be bothering us anymore."

Kayin shook his head and said, "From what he told me it'll take a lot more to bring him down." Suddenly they heard a loud groaning noise they both turned to see Dr Bardéz getting back up, by the look on his face he wasn't too happy, "Lamentarão isso durar cadela de tiro!" He yelled before running at Geeku shrieking like a lunatic. Geeku countered Bardéz's assault with the magic blades she could conjure from her bracelets, but Bardéz did a back-flip before Geeku could attack. "Not bad little lady…that kick of yours' would've probably killed me, if I hadn't known about my powers."

"This is going to be one interesting fight then." Geeku chirped, Bardéz shook his head, "If I were you I'd be more worried about Kayin right now than me, just look for yourself."

Geeku turned her head took look at Kayin, he was shivering for some reason. She ran over and looked at his face, the iris' of his eyes were more of a murky light green instead of the brilliant emerald color she'd remembered, she then saw a semi-transparent insect fly by her, its mouth appeared to be a syringe…she watched as it entered Dr. Bardéz's right sleeve and vanished.

"What did you do to him?" Geeku asked sternly. "I infected your friend there with a disease of my own creation, in fact it's the same sickness that ails a third of this hospitals' staff and patients. Right now he's only in the first stage symptoms…so my guess he's got more than an hour and a half left on him." Bardéz replied with a rather dark chuckle. "Okay…what are the stages and symptoms?" Geeku asked. Bardéz cleared his throat then continued, "First stage symptoms are as follows, shivers, delirium, and constant in and out spells of color blindness…stage two is more interesting though, cold-like symptoms start to occur, mainly light coughing fits, color blindness sticks this time and starts to break into occurrences of common blindness every three minutes lasting in ten second loops…but stage three is not only the final curtain for our friend Mr. Ravenhurst, but a masterpiece all in itself, coughing becomes heavy…almost forced, blindness tends to stick around longer until it almost seems permanent, subject breaks out in a rash similar to hives, then finally the victim suffers a violent aneurism, and then there's nothing left……but the crying."

"You undo it RIGHT NOW!" Geeku ordered.

"The only way you'll be able to save him, is by killing me." Bardéz told her, "And we're still in my domain, so that's not going to happen." Bardéz then came charging at her, his hands lit in that ghostly blue flicker of the invisi-scalpes. He then started making quick swipes at Geeku, one swing he heard the familiar sound of cutting flesh which told him he'd met his mark. Geeku knocked him away with her tail, quickly using her Life Crest energy to repair the ten inch gash Bardéz had sliced into her right side. She was able to heal it…but only all the way to a faint scratch, "What the hell?" She asked herself.

"Did you think I'd let your powers not go unchecked here in my domain Life Crest? Or did your mole forget to tell you that all the Psychics can design their domains with certain rules…rules at which are applied by force." Bardéz told her, Geeku laughed and said, "But you gave away a piece of information, if I kill you…or knock you out at least your rules will no longer apply."

"True, true, all too true…but that won't be an easy task to say the least." Bardéz pointed out, then he charged at her for another attack.

Meanwhile Hope and Roland were hurrying along the streets leading to the hospital, "Come on Roland…quit dogging around, my dad could be in trouble." Hope told him, "I'm not dogging…I'm getting my equipment ready, just quit rushing me. We'll get there."

In about ten minutes they finally reached the front of the hospital, suddenly they heard the sound of a window breaking, they both looked up to see a person falling out of the second story window. It was Geeku…she hit the ground with a bone-breaking thud, Hope and Roland ran over to her. She looked really beat up, "Geeku…you okay?" Hope asked. She looked at the two of them, "Kayin's still inside…he's not doing well though." she said weakly. That sent Hope running into the hospital, "HOPE WAIT!" Roland called out, but he wasn't quick enough, Hope had taken off through the double doors and into the building. While Geeku was healing herself she said, "Hope's in trouble…she has no idea what the guy is capable of." Roland looked at her and said, "Tell me what happened." Geeku went in telling him about Bardéz infecting Kayin to when he tossed her out the window, "And the funny thing is…it felt as if he was becoming stronger, like as I became angrier he siphoned off of it and added it to his own strength. If I was Hope…I wouldn't let my emotions get ahead of me."

Hope ran through the halls of the second floor, she knew her father was up here…she could feel it. When she found him, she could see he didn't look too well, "Dad, are you okay?" She asked, Kayin turned to her and said, "Just a little under the weather…I'll be fine."

"Fine is a strong word…considering that you're deep in the first stage of my disease now," said the voice of Dr. Bardéz, Hope got up and faced the person who had caused all this. "and I'm guessing you're Hope Ravenhurst…your father doesn't look so good, I'm afraid we're going to have to quarantine you for reasons of public safety, wouldn't want you infecting your friends now would we."

"I'm staying right here thank you…but seeing as you're one of the Psychics may I ask you a question?" Hope asked, the doctor gave a slow nod, "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping the Empire?"

Dr. Bardéz cracked a smile, "Because they'll purge this universe of all its corruption, it'll give me what I've wanted for years…it'll give me peace."

"But don't you see the Empire is corruption…that you're hurting innocent people just because of some vain promise?" Hope asked, her eyes were burning, but the tears wouldn't come, "Innocent…do you realize how hard it is for me when I have to tell a family that there father or grandfather died of natural causes…or how I have to tell a soon to be mother that she's HIV positive. Do you think they're as understanding as I'd hope they'd be? NO! They get mad at me…well finally all the anger they send to me comes back as this." Bardéz told her, his hand lit up with that flicker of his attack. He then brought it back as if the throw something, when he brought it back down a bunch of that flickering flame separated and came straight for Hope. She managed to duck out of the way, and the attack went to making knife-like holes in a nearby wall. Hope got up…a stern look was in her eyes, "I'm not one who enjoys fighting…I'm more into training with my dad then beating some jerk up, but as the saying goes: 'there's a first time for everything'." Hope quickly closed the gap between her and Dr. Bardéz, delivering a knee to the stomach, she then followed that with a kick to the side of the head. Bardéz hit one of the other walls with bone breaking force, "There…not bad, don't you think?" Hope asked in mock sweetness.

"Yeah…not bad at all, for a little girl," Dr. Bardéz coughed out, suddenly he ran up the wall and got behind Hope. He grabbed her by the hair and hit her head against the wall, "I though on the other hand…have the experience of countless fighters, I was taken in by Morgan Edge…the leader of the Phychics, he taught me all about the Crest and your freak of a father!" (Author's Note: For a visual…every word in italics, Dr. Bardéz is pounding Hope's face against the wall).

Hope tried to push away from the wall, but Bardéz gave her an knee to the small of her back, right where her right kidney would be. "I'm not through talking yet!" He growled at her, "The fact is you should be more respectful to your elders…especially those who are stronger and smarter than you are, did you think it was clever? Did you think it was ingenious to fight somebody who's those two things I mentioned? Well guess again little lady, it wasn't clever or ingenious…it was a mistake!"

"You know you're right…but I just realized a mistake you made," said Hope, "Oh yeah, and what would that be?" Bardéz asked. "you were born a guy!" Hope told him, she then bent forward while bringing her left leg up. Kicking Dr. Vincent Bardéz in the crotch, he then left out a muffled whimper of pain as her collapsed to the ground kicking and holding his groin.

Bardéz tilted his head and looked at her from the corner of his right eye and said, "You're going to get it now…when I get back up it's going to be no more Mr. Nice Guy, I'm going to kill you!" Hope knew she needed to get some distance between her and the twisted psycho lying on the ground, she quickly ran for the stairwell and started going up. "Hide anywhere you like bitch, I'll find you sooner or later!" Bardéz called out as he got back to his feet and chased off after her, Kayin was watching this, he wish he could help…but his whole body felt like a block of lead. Suddenly he heard footsteps coming his way, he looked to see Roland and Geeku heading his way. They stopped by him, "Where's Hope?" Roland asked, "Upstairs…better hurry though, Bardéz is after her." Roland nodded and ran up the stairs after both of them with Geeku right behind him.

Hope was on the third floor, she wasn't looking for someplace to hide…but a place that'd give her time to think out a plan when Bardéz found her, eventually she was about to turn a corner when suddenly she saw the face of Dr. Bardéz staring at her, she fell backward scared out of her mind. Bardéz looked down at her, and with his hand lit up with that same whitish blue flicker said, "Deixe a lâmpada afixar seua viga, o único imperador é o imperador de sorvete." He looked at her confused face and said, "For those who aren't Portuguese: 'Let the lamp affix its beam, the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream'."

Suddenly there came a yell from down the hallway coming toward the both of them, Bardéz turned to see Geeku running for them. Before she could attack though Bardéz ducked and monkey flipped her into a wall, where she laid on the ground motionless. Hope had backed away against a window facing a courtyard on the main floor, Bardéz turned his attention back to her and started heading towards her, a dark smile on his face. "Hey Doc," A voice called from behind him, Bardéz turned around to see Roland. One of his guns was pointed straight at him, "say hello to atonement for me." Suddenly there was a deafening report, Hope could only watch as Bardéz went flying back through the window and landed in a rose bush below.

Roland blew away the smoke coming from the barrel and helped Hope up, Hope got up and gave Roland a hug. A few tears still pouring down her bruised and tear stained face. "Let's go find your dad…perhaps he's feeling better." Roland suggested, Roland helped Geeku back to her feet and all of them went back down to the main floor.

Later that afternoon at the Tower, Hope told everybody about her encounter with Dr. Vincent Bardéz and how Roland had saved her, "Yes, I guess a thank you is in order for me…but don't think of this as the end, that was just one of them, there are six more of them out there somewhere waiting for us. I want all of us to stick together and be on our guard."

"Mrs. Ambar," said Apogeo, "Yes." she answered, Apogeo continued, "I found some information on our two men, the first one Wyatt O. Westcot III has a very mysterious history, I only found an I.V. (Intergalactic Visa) and Birth Certificate bearing his name. But the second one, Lukyan Del Röc was an Imperial prisoner during the Ancestral War…apparently he escaped with a few of his cell mates and was hardly seen or heard from again, but the most interesting tidbit is they had connections with one person in particular…an Imperial captain named Morgan Edge."

Meanwhile on another planet somewhere the lone figure of Wyatt was fireman carrying the limp deceased body of Vincent Bardéz (Author's Note: Play a tune from Halo 2 just to set the right feeling), Wyatt finally met our wolf in black and said, "Vince is dead, but he was the weak link in our chain…not like I'm going to miss him anyway."

"Oh I wouldn't say it was a complete loss Wyatt, he still has a use that will soon come into play." The wolf in black told him, "Take the body to my lab, will you…or is there something else I should know about?"

"Uh, yes Mr. Edge…I have some disturbing news, Roland Victoire is helping the Crest, and I saw Experiment #12 with them." Wyatt told Morgan Edge.

"Kayin is with them?!" Edge asked, sounding rather irate. Wyatt nodded, Edge walked away from Wyatt, but looked back and said, "You can go now, I need to be alone."