Love Struck Delusion

Chapter 226 - An unlikely friendship.

Raptor's POV.

"Ughh." At this point I was groaning and moaning my way into the medical ward. With two medics holding my tail and another following close to Drake who was by all accounts just as hurt as I was. I did all I could for him before I gave up, but I knew internally he had to be enduring the pain that was left over from the amount of damage he took back there. His professional looking combat rig was now closely resembling mine. All beat and covered in blood that was mixed between his and our enemy's. But he was also dragging his leg. I never worked on that. He did get shot there and I left it up to his venom to fix it. Guess that didn't do much for him.

"You should stop and rest for a second commander." One of the medics told me as I nodded and replied.

"I'll stop when all this shit is under control son."

I had every intention to see Zeta. Cody did his best to not make it seem at least not impossible that she could still be alive. But I worried and despite all of this the last thing I needed is her dying on me like this. Not after everything we've been through to get here.

Drake waited by the door and together we walked in to see medical shut off. One of the few nurses around was waiting for us and to no one's surprise we began to get surrounded by medical personnel whose only concern was to make sure we were okay. I had to push them all back cause they kept trying to deal with the gash still bleeding above my eye. It wasn't my main focus right now. Looking to the only nurse who was trying to actually tell me something useful I asked her.

"Where's Zeta?"

"She's with Marx right now and a few others. They had to get to work as soon as she came through sir."

"Let me in." I begged her.

To my far left sat Pepper who at this point was only focused on crying. Her mask was off and her head in her hands and her whole body trembling. When she overheard my voice say those words she looked up with two soaked eyes and an open mouth in complete silence. Even her shaking had stopped as the nurse gave me this confused look back to reply.

"Sir? The doctors have asked me to have everyone stay here till they're finished. Surely you understand."

Giving her one of my few fabled growls I sensed her attitude change completely. She even began to shake as I now ordered it.

"Let. Me. In."

Drake, who was by my side just listened and watched the whole time. However he was kept together mentally as the nurse backed up and ran her keycard through the scanner and opened the doors. With my eyes locked on hers, I muttered before stepping forth.

"Thank you."

She nodded in fear as Drake followed. Pepper continued to sit down but her eyes followed me as I passed through the doors. Once inside the nurse had shut the doors again and I was left to direct us to the ER. Thankfully it was easy enough to find and walking right on into the scene I found Marx and two others already at work. The second I walked in Marx spun his head around to question.

"Raptor? What the hell are you doing in here? I have to…..?"

Getting right on top of the action, I found myself staring right at Zeta's face. Marx who was unsure of how to proceed just settled by stating the obvious.

"The bullet she took impacted right there on the top of her forehead. The round didn't go through, but I know you know what Newton's law is Raptor. The force that mask absorbed sent a shock wave through her skull. With enough power behind it that it quite honestly broke her face into two pieces. The point of impact shattered the front here and made a path right on over the top of her head and down to the very back end just below her right ear. She was knocked out instantly when it happened, but she's lost a lot of blood and I need to focus on fixing the damage. If I don't get started right now she'll die. Do you hear me Raptor?" He asked as I replied with Drake remaining feet away from where we were standing.

"I hear you loud and clear Marx."

The cat just had this form of worry on as he questioned what I was doing by not getting out of his way. With the two other doctors waiting as well, I broke out of my trance when one of them said with blood soaked hands.

"We need to get going with this procedure commander. Please."

Shaking my head, I got further onto where Marx was and at that point basically kicked him out. Reaching over, I very carefully moved my left arm under where the other doctor had his hands holding Zeta up. His fingers moved as I forced myself in and with Marx losing his shit he shouted into my ear.

"What the fuck are you doing Raptor!?"

"Shut up." I whispered as I placed my right hand on the top of her cold forehead where the crack started. Feeling her blood soak my palms, I tried to focus when I heard Marx again raise his voice.

"Are you fucking insane!? You're going to kill her!"

"Shut the fuck up Marx!" I blurted out, finally getting him to back down. Looking back to Drake who was just watching, I then urged the cat with what little of patience I had left.

"Go over to him. Now." Marx clearly disobeyed that command and just was stunned watching what he thought was murder happening before his very eyes.

From that point on, I focused and worked harder than I ever had worked for anything in my life and thanks to what I did in the past to save Pepper; I knew I could muster the power needed for this. Thank god for once I was right to trust myself because I could begin to feel it coming on. My head was slow to gain the weightlessness that normally followed from performing these acts and I was able to feel my blood churning as some of it began to come back out from the gash in my own head. Marx's eyes went from mine and back down to her at least a hundred times as the other doctors watched in utter confusion to what was going on at first glance.

"Ughhk!" Taking a second to cough up some blood and spit it out to my right side, Marx took his chance to get a foot closer to observe better from the angle he had. I got right back to work and began to feel progress being made. I was however doing two things at once. I had the hand under her head closing the opening back there and my other clearly working it's way back. I felt the area on her forehead close and very carefully I dragged my hand up; following the fracture till I reached the direct top of her skull. Glancing to one of the doctors who stood on the other side of the table, I ordered either of them to grab a rag and begin to clean off her forehead. As they got the blood off the room went silent in shock. Apart from Marx who questioned in astonishment

"How the...?"

He stopped talking as I urged him with a gentle push using my hip.

"Move over."

His feet barely worked as he questioned what was going on. Drake who was quiet for most of the time now had his mouth agape in awe and just continued to watch as I worked my way down the rest of the fracture. It took a few minutes for me to get the rest of it closed like I did the front, but in the small amount of time it took, I soon reached my other palm and once finished clasped them together to exhale deeply. Then it hit me once again like a kick to the stomach would with steel tips. I had trouble staying on my feet and almost at a point I began to shake. Marx who was absolutely at a loss panicked as he saw me tilting and came down to hold my arm. I nodded my head as blood ran down my face and gave myself the time needed to recover from the ordeal. During which the other doctors got to work checking over what they feared I was able to do with what looked like nothing more than magic. Doing their best to clean her head off as they went. When they reached the bottom one of them stated with a loss of a voice.

"It's all gone?"

Cracking a small smile, I nodded and stood back up straight to reply with an order that in my opinion had little air in my lungs to enforce it with.

"Make sure she's okay and once you're ready move her to recovery."

The pair of docs both had their eyes looking me up and down trying to decide if I was just another man or some sort of god. Marx on the other hand had to see for himself that the wounds were sealed before questioning out loud as I had already turned to start walking back to Drake.

"What did you just do Raptor?"

Spitting up some more of my own blood, I ignored the question and urged the G.U.N commander who now had to just bear witness to the events before him.

"Follow me back out to my office. We need to talk."

Drake for once in his life was quiet and he just obeyed to something I told him to do. Marx who remained on his feet next to my barely alive girlfriend just stared at us with an open mouth and wide eyes as I forced my body to carry me back out of the medical ward. The nurse who let me in had panicked and moved out of the way the second I came back out wobbling. Pepper on the other hand came running in front of us to ask with an almost hopeful voice.

"How is she?!"

Giving her a smile and a single nod before gently moving her myself with my right hand, I replied.

"She's good. She'll probably not wake up for a while though."

The wolf counterpart was shocked just as bad as Marx was to my words. She was unable to say a word or even move her mouth as I felt my legs about to give out towards the very end of the hallway leading into the lobby where the rest of my men were. Hoffer noticed my condition from the top of the stairs and came down as fast as he could to help. But by that point I had to hold myself up using the wall. I felt so weak right now and everyone was there to see it. At least I had an excuse. Drake and I both looked like complete shit. Blood covering the two of us and if anything I'd blame it on the fighting before coming clean. However as I took my time to breathe, I widened my eyes when all the sudden I felt him lean under my right arm and urge.

"Let me help."

Looking at the man in complete stupidity for what he was doing I questioned.

"What?"

Drake however forced the rest of his way under my guard and wrapping an arm around my side he replied.

"Let me help you. We can't have you standing here like this with all your men around. Come on."

I had so many things I wanted to say back to him, but in the very end I knew he was right and I knew why he was even doing this. Apart from it looking good for the others to see G.U.N's commander helping the rebellion's.

Hoffer had reached us by then and looking us over he asked.

"Are you hurt? Either of you?"

I shook my head of course as Drake replied.

"We're fine. How about you guys? How many did you lose?"

Following us up to the office Hoffer replied.

"More than we can afford. I have teams hard at work clearing the rest of the building just in case there's more of them hiding, but fuck they were wearing our own uniforms Raptor. They could just blend in and hang around till our guard is down again."

Nodding my head I replied.

"Have the teams all check in. Get lists written out by the officers and if they have someone new or someone they don't know in their unit, you bring them in for questioning. We can sort out who was here and who wasn't. The soldiers from Afghanistan don't know shit about life over here. Ask them questions only natives of the city would know and work off that till you get either enough correct answers or someone vouches for them."

"Those who don't check out?" Hoffer then asked as we reached my office.

Looking him dead in he eyes as Drake kept me up straight, I replied.

"Arrest them and we'll discuss it later when I've had time to think."

"Yes sir." He replied as I urged Drake with an almost embarrassed voice.

"Let me go now. I can reach my chair."

Gently the wolf let me off on my own and together we took a moment to relax. It was short lived however as Cody came walking in. Lifting my head up in confusion to why he was here all the sudden I asked.

"What's wrong? I thought I told you to secure the others."

Drake looked him over seeing he wasn't a normal trooper by the uniform. However apart from that, the face he had on was nothing but depressed. He stopped just a few feet out from my desk to reply.

"I know but they're safe right now and I need to tell you this before the girls find out. Did you see Zeta? Is she gonna live?" He was clearly concerned and ignoring his first sentence I answered anyway.

"She's okay. She'll live. Now what's wrong? What do you need to tell me?"

The fox slowly took his hat off and once at his side he replied.

"Raze was killed during the raid. I found her in a closet just down the hall."

Drake had no clue who she was, so of course he didn't feel the weight that carried. I on the other hand forced myself to stand back up, to question.

"What?"

Giving me this sad look, he only could nod his head as I took a step out to order him.

"Show me."

"You sure?" He then asked as I nodded back and replied with a sense of urgency.

"I'm sure. Where?"

Leading me back out the door, Cody pointed down the hall using his hat.

"Sixth door on the left. I'm warning you though boss it's…...well it's not right."

In seconds I passed him up and found myself at the door. Upon opening it up I opened my eyes to the scene. Her body crumpled over on itself and the holes littering her head. Thank god I couldn't see her face. I thought to myself as I took a moment to recoil from the sight. Cody didn't want to look again and instead said to me from the other side of the door.

"I'm sorry man. I didn't know."

Leaving the door open and just doing my best to accept the fact that I was too late. I nodded my head and reconnected my eyes with Cody. He was unsure of what to say but he knew who she was to those girls downstairs. Keeping that all in mind I begged him.

"Go get one of the medics and carefully move her. I don't care where but I don't want them to see. Not right now. You understand?"

The fox nodded and got his hat back on to reply.

"Yeah I understand. Count on it."

Patting his shoulder and pushing him away I mumbled.

"Thank you."

He just walked off and with Drake still at my side he asked me as I took another look at the body.

"Who was she?"

Shutting the door, I replied while turning back around.

"One of the doctors. She was close to me and my two bodyguards."

"I'm sorry." He then said as he began to follow me back to the office. Once inside I shut the door and told him truthfully.

"This meeting turned out to be more trouble than I had hoped."

As I got back down in my seat, Drake wiped his mouth and replied while remaining where he was.

"I was worried I'd have to worry about you killing me the whole time. Turns out I had to be concerned with your men from Afghanistan."

"This wasn't my idea!" I shouted back in defense as he showed his hands and replied.

"I know. I'm not saying it was. Otherwise why were they trying to kill you? It's Archer. There is no other reason for it, but I lost eight men just now and you know I can't just burn the bodies."

Calming back down, I took a moment to think then ask.

"What do you want to do?"

Stepping forward and slowly getting a seat he replied.

"I want to talk to you. I need to understand what just happened. I know you don't want to say shit to the others but I'm not a fucking idoit or a tool to be used. I know I got fucked up and my venom from being a perfect user only did so much before it went away. I took more hits than I've ever had the pleasure of taking during my time in the field. One of which went right here." He stated as he pointed right to his neck.

"I was content with bleeding to death right there on the carpet. Then you came and did something and it was all gone by the time I woke up. Like a goddamn dream. You did the same thing to that girl back in the ER. What the hell are you Voltz? Be honest."

My mind was going to say something but my eyes looked right back to his hip to find my guns. Once more he quickly took them back out and placed them on the top of my desk to say.

"Sorry. Here you go."

I nodded and took back my Glock first. Once I had it in my holster, I took Shadow's M1911 and tucked it in where my vest held the plates together. The butt stuck out from the zipper, but I didn't care at this moment. Once I was refocused I looked back at Drake to reply.

"A monster. That's what I am Drake. I'm just a monster trying to find a way to survive in a world full of other monsters who want to see me as their next meal."

"We're all monsters Raptor. Everyone is a monster in reality. The only real question that needs to be asked is who is the bigger monster? Who is the scariest? That comes down to the things we do as monsters. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a good monster. I've done very bad shit in the sake of bettering myself and doing what I felt was right. But then there are other monsters out there who are worse than that. There are those who only think about themselves and then there are those who work night and day to become better monsters. People like you. Only thing about you is….well it's what the fuck you are made of."

Drake and I were on leveled ground now and he went on to say.

"There are a lot of fucked up things being made in this world we live in. Things like Gorgon or things like me. Users are genetically enhanced killing machines and those are a prime example of just a baseline to the things we've been experimenting with in the past three decades. I know there are other mutations out there. There are people out there worse than us and it's a problem. I'm not saying you're a problem. You saved my life and we both know you didn't have too. You could have watched me bleed to death, but you chose not to. Whatever made you do that has earned nothing but my respect. But it still leads me to ask you one more time. What are you?"

I wanted to say the truth. I really did, but I had no idea how to say it to him of all people before this. Reaching up to feel the gash over my right eye, I replied while sealing the wound.

"I don't know. I'm sorry. I just don't know the answer to that yet."

Drake was staring me down but I still had enough in the tank to know he didn't want to keep asking after that. He wasn't mad and in fact he told me the truth. He really was grateful he didn't die today like Raze did.

With the wound now shut, I lowered my hand and took a deep breath.

"Ahhhhhh…...hhhhhhhhhhhh."

mT Shadow.