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Post by Skyfire on Sept 30, 2010 6:36:28 GMT -5
Buzz nodded slowly. “All right,” he murmured, “then I won’t.” He kissed her again.
*** Buzz nodded to the doctor, glancing at the disc in Mira’s hands. “Okay.”
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Post by cherryproductions on Sept 30, 2010 6:45:14 GMT -5
Mira kissed him back intently, feeling free to do so. The tension wasn't there anymore. She slipped her hands up to his face, trying to get closer to him.
****
Mira walked beside Buzz, following the doctor down the hall. She tripped a few feet away from the door, falling on her knees. There was a loud explosion down on the lower level, smoke streaming up past the windows outside.
Mira looked to Buzz and nodded. "Looks like we might not even need this! Where's the parking area?"
The doctor looked up, holding his head. "Down in the basement area; right below us."
"Come on!"
****
Anderson gave a slow whistle, clearly impressed by how spectacular the explosives were.
"No wonder the government didn't put this out on the market," Wire said, returning up to his seat after his dive under the glove compartment. "That was brutal."
"But affective," Anderson started the van and took off down the bay at full speed.
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Post by Skyfire on Sept 30, 2010 14:21:02 GMT -5
Buzz let it go for… probably longer than he should have, because he abruptly realized that he was feeling very lightheaded. He pulled away and fell back upon his bed with the same sort of effortless grace he had out on the field. “Sorry.” He squeezed his eyes shut at the rocking ceiling above him. “Got dizzy.”
***
“Whoa!” Buzz stumbled at the explosion and braced himself on the wall. “…in blazes…” He pulled Mira up to her feet.
"Looks like we might not even need this! Where's the parking area?"
“We’ll save it for later,” Buzz agreed.
"Down in the basement area; right below us."
"Come on!"
“Way ahead of ya!” Buzz called over his shoulder, already sprinting for the nearest elevator. He reached it, pushed for down, impatiently gestured to Mira, and almost slammed into the door before it finished opening. Once inside, he pressed for the lobby level. Five agonizing seconds, and then they were free once more.
The signs directed them to the parking deck, and it was taking too long. Every moment they were running for that deck was a moment longer that the kidnappers had to get away with Cora. Buzz desperately tried to hold on to his optimism, but he knew that they were already too late.
When they finally reached the parking deck, they found the huge doors blasted open. They were alone there—no one was getting into their vehicles, no one was getting out. In the distance, Buzz could see a van entering the traffic flow at the edge of the hospital grounds. Grey, nondescript, and he couldn’t make out the license plate at this distance. He stood rooted to the spot.
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Post by cherryproductions on Sept 30, 2010 19:40:03 GMT -5
Mira snorted despite herself. She held her hands to her mouth, muffling the guffaws of laughter.
"So," She said, looking up at him. "I'm so appealing I make you dizzy?"
****
Mira fell in line with Buzz, looking at the hole in the wall. She felt her stomach drop and her whole world spin. She grabbed Buzz's hand with both of hers, hiding her face in the crook of his neck.
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 1, 2010 15:08:18 GMT -5
Buzz made a sour face. “Ha-ha. Long kisses equal lack of oxygen equals requisite deep breath.” He rolled over to bury his face into his pillow, letting out a muffled groan.
*** Mira’s reaction snapped him back to reality. “Mira,” he murmured gently. “I need to get to a vidphone.”
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Post by cherryproductions on Oct 1, 2010 19:22:52 GMT -5
Mira sat back in her seat and sighed blissfully. It was the first time in hours she felt sane. Anymore added stress would put her equal to her father on a bad day.
"You look really tired."
****
Mira nodded, pulling away and going back the way they came. Her knees felt like jelly and her whole body was numb. Her chest was tight, making her unable to breathe.
But her face was contorted in such a scowl that anyone who dared to stand in her way would surely turn to stone just by looking her in the eye.
They messed with her kid and whoever they were, they were going to pay the premium package for this.
"You go fine a vidphone, I'm going to go see that Doctor of ours."
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 2, 2010 6:52:14 GMT -5
“Can’t imagine why,” came Buzz’s muffled response.
*** Buzz nodded grimly. “Good idea.” He tossed her a casual salute and ran for a vidphone booth that he could see on the other side of the parking deck. If he hurried, maybe the Ranger team coming could apprehend the van before they got too far. He shoved a coin down the coin slot and dialed up the Commander. “Sir, status report…”
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Post by cherryproductions on Oct 2, 2010 10:13:32 GMT -5
"Do you need anything? Water or something?"
****
Mira took the stairs this time, taking two, three, at a time. She was out of breath, holding onto the door as she flung herself into the main hallway on the fifth floor.
Looking up she spotted a group of nurses consoling patients that have been taken out of their rooms and being places right back, but now their attention was drawn towards her. She probably looked like a psycho witch that escaped the asylum.
"Where's Doctor Hamaold?" She asked one of the nurses in the group. She was combing her hand through her hair, trying to make herself look more presentable, and failing at it. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she hadn't ate or slept in days.
The one nurse looked over at the other two before guiding her attention back to Mira. The confused, motherly look she fixed onto her face made Mira's stomach drop even more.
"I'm sorry hun, but there isn't a doctor by the name here. At least, not on this floor."
Mira licked very dry lips, swallowing the huge lump caught in her throat. "This is the fifth floor right?"
The nurse nodded. "Yes it is. Maybe you're looking for a Dr.Halaold down on the second floor?"
Mira wrung her hands together, pulling them to her chest then up through her hair.
"Miss?"
She shook her head. "No....there was a Dr. Hamaold here...looking after my daughter....he..." Her eyes winded as she felt around for the disk in her pocket.
"Miss Nova, is it?" The doctor from before came up behind her. "What is it?"
She shook her head, unable to respond. She held up the disk in her hand and he nodded.
"This way then."
((Sky, did you wanted me to play Commander Nebula? I wasn't sure.))
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 3, 2010 13:59:44 GMT -5
((Oh, no. Sry for confusing you.))
“Nah, I’m good.” He raised his hand over his head and gave the “okay” signal.
*** It was hopeless. Logically, he knew this. Emotionally, he felt shell-shocked, not sure whether to cry or rage or tear out there or…
“Buzz? Son, c’mon, pull it together…”
The van was gone. It was utterly nondescript, he hadn’t caught the number, and the alert had come too late for Team Astrelle to intercept it. Star Command’s next step would be to look into the listings of recently stolen vehicles—stolen vehicles often preceded kidnappings.
Buzz’s next step would be to look into that video disc.
“Comman-Commander? I, uh, have to check out a security vid. Soon as I have more, I’ll let you know.”
“Right, Bu—”
Buzz hadn’t actually meant to hang up on the Commander, but his hand was moving before he’d even been aware of it. He took off for the elevator, (uncharacteristically) hurled mental invectives at its (seemingly) eternal slowness both in arriving and in taking him up, shot out of the elevator like a bullet, and ran along the corridor, managing to weave around the obstacle course of objects and living beings. He caught up with Mira as she was following the other doctor. “Hey,” he said breathlessly.
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Post by cherryproductions on Oct 3, 2010 15:00:05 GMT -5
Mira didn't look at Buzz, but she did acknowledge he was there by stating the first thing that came to her mind.
"The Doctor wasn't real."
The other doctor looked over his shoulder before stopping in front of a door.
"This is the vid-room. We can view the disk in here."
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 4, 2010 6:45:35 GMT -5
“Figures,” was Buzz’s only answer to Mira’s declaration. He nodded to the doctor ahead and followed him in.
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Post by cherryproductions on Oct 4, 2010 6:57:50 GMT -5
The doctor took the disk from Mira, swiftly placing it inside one of the holders. The snowy screen turned black before become a blurry image of the hospital wing.
"Hold up, let me focus this...there." The screen showed a clear image of the empty halls minutes before the lights went off.
Mira was about to open her mouth before a door was flung open and out came a man before the screen went black again.
"That's the footage before the lights went off. I don't know whose room that was, but I'm guess it was your daughters?"
Mira didn't say anything, just looked at the screen. "Can you play that once part back again?" The doctor merely shrugged, rewinding the part again of when the man came out.
"Pause it there! Maximize it to 150 pixels."
The zoom it hitched Mira's breath as she got a better look at the man. She knew that person; she met him twice actually and each time he knew her name.
"Anderson,"
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 5, 2010 6:49:10 GMT -5
Buzz said it in the same breath with Mira. For a few moments, he wasn’t aware of anything but his own chest rising and falling at an almost alarming rate. Then the anger finally bloomed and writhed in his gut. He clenched his fists.
“Mira,” he said in a rather cold voice, “I’m going to call Woody and see if he has anything on this guy. And I think we should head up to Star Command—there’s nothing more we can do here, and we should get into uniform. Especially—” the frosty exterior slipped just enough to reveal a load of hurt beneath the armor—“especially if we get a call from Anderson. Kidnappers do that, sometimes—especially in high-priority kidnappings.”
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Post by cherryproductions on Oct 5, 2010 19:20:57 GMT -5
Mira bit her lip, tasting the blood and not really caring.
"Right. Go do that while I'll go get father and....oh craters."
She ran her hand through her hair again, feeling stressed out more than before.
"Father! He doesn't know what's going on. Oh he's not going to be happy when he hears that his granddaughter got kidnapped right under our noses. He's never going to trust anyone outside the Tangian race ever, ever again!"
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 6, 2010 14:48:26 GMT -5
Buzz opened his mouth to speak, but an aristocratic voice from behind beat him to it. “Really, Mira,” the voice said dryly, “I think you can give me a little more credit than that. Contrary to what you must think, I am not an unreasonable man.”
Buzz whirled around and gave the King of Tangea a respectful salute. “Sir. I—”
“I got the story from a nurse at the desk,” King Nova interrupted, his voice abruptly clipped and businesslike. “Now, if I were a betting man, I’d hedge that this whole incident from beginning to end was planned for the express purpose of kidnapping Cora.”
Buzz blinked. “I was sort of wondering the same thing, myself, sir, but it does seem a bit too complicated…”
“And a bit too convenient,” the King countered, frowning. “Really, Lightyear—you’re supposed to be Star Command’s best and brightest. I shouldn’t have to spell it all out for you.”
Buzz’s eyebrows knitted together as he drew himself up. “Fine. Let’s think this through. SID said that he was working for Zurg, but that doesn’t have to be true. He could be working for Anderson, instead—he doesn’t really seem like Zurg’s type.”
“Anderson?” the King interjected. “Who is this Anderson person?”
“The kidnapper,” Buzz replied as he began to pace. “Now, I doubt that whatever SID was doing originally had anything to do with us—we just happened to get in the way. But Anderson finds out that SID has Cora, SID’s operation is temporarily busted, and the Lightyears are going to be rushed to the hospital. He has an operative insert himself as a doctor who spins a sugar story about Cora needing an operation. That distracts us, and in the meantime, they get Cora out. Absurdly simple and yet so opportunistically brilliant.”
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