Of What Measure is a Non-Human (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

Makoto had twitched as Jayne unloaded Vera onto the man. In fact, his ears were ringing and it was quite possible he'd have trouble hearing for the rest of the day. Not that he was in much condition to think about that. His consciousness slipped there for a few moments. He only came out of it (or back into it, as the case was) a few seconds after X fell through the floor. He felt dizzy, but the fact the effort hadn't knocked him out meant he was getting better. He closed his eyes and just continued breathing.

Simon...

----------

"That's a problem," Zero smirked, "He's of no use of me in your hands. Didn't I say? He's a convenience. He's not much of a convenience in your hands. I suppose you felt like holding a gun to his back for a reason? Well, hurry up and talk so we can be on our way."

Zero wiggled his fingers, "I can still take that gun from you, after all."

----------

"What room?" Yi-Min ordered, "And my interest in having you lead me is none. You'll come with me to make sure you are not lying, but you will not lead me."

[Jilak]

"C'mon, kid, we gotta find the cap'n, get off world if we can. Dunno what the hell you did or how the hell you did it..." Jayne paused for a moment, pointing a finger almost accusingly at Makoto, "...but thanks." Jayne finished, strapping Vera to his back.

The reason he'd said 'get off world IF WE CAN' wasn't because he'd accepted that they were in an alternate dimension, oh no. It was because if they WERE to get off world, they'd have to steal a ship. Being that Serenity was kinda... impounded and whatnot.

--

Agent Y twitched a bit as Zero spoke. It felt like the virus was taunting the man, belittling him. He seemed to be under the belief that he was in control of the situation. This was why he was glad he'd come prepared.

"Oh, the gun wasn't for Malcolm. It's for you." And then, without saying another word, without even BLINKING, Agent Y pulled it from its holster lightning quick, pointing it at Zero and pulling the trigger. What fired out wasn't a piece of lead, oh no. It was SHAPED like a bullet, what fired out... but it was purely a stream of coding. A bullet shaped stream but a stream nonetheless. It consisted of quite a few twos.

--

Simon paused for a moment. Well, that was actually possibly a GOOD thing. If she was going to go in first, maybe he could count on Jayne's reflexes to get the three out of this situation. But really, hope seemed slim. Simon gave one last look towards River and whispered an apology to Makoto under his breath before speaking up again.

"Room number 667."

[mugenginga]

Makoto was laying there with his eyes closed with Jayne informed him it was time to go. He opened his eyes and turned them to Jayne as he spoke. When Jayne lifted a finger he winced, but to his surprise the man thanked him. He was just experiencing all sorts of new things. Being thanked for using his abilities?

The teenager sat up, pulling a bit at the IV that was indeed attached to his arm. Then his vision swam, he wobbled, and he collapsed back down into a laying position, breathing hard from seemingly that little bit of effort. Yeah, he didn't look capable of going anywhere without help. Least he was lighter than even River...

----------

Zero smirked as Y twitched. The Agent was right, Zero felt in slight control. He felt in total control at that reaction. He took another slow step forward, leaving a single step between Mal and him. He was mid-step when Y spoke, and his foot was setting down just as the bullet was fired. Under normal circumstances, the white haired man could have burst into data. This was not normal circumstances. As a result, the bullet hit Zero just to the left of the middle of his chest. The kind of hit that would have caused a normal bullet to go through his heart. The reaction was far more violent than what one might expect from that kind of hit.

Zero howled in pain. The hospital was small enough that the shout would be heard in every room. Zero collapsed to his knees, and digital distortions danced across his entire body. At several points, parts of his body burst into data, and his hair ties even vanished without returning. There seemed to be some definite stability issues. The scream continued despite enough time having passed that a normal human would probably need to, y'know, breathe.

Zero clutched at his chest, his eyes squeezed shut, before he tipped to the side and the constant scream once again reached the point of garbled electrionic sounds. He spasmed a few more times. The position he'd fallen had his face angled towards the floor, and his rather long hair had fallen in front of his face and concealed it. The scream faded out and Zero twitched a few more times, but his eyes were closed and he seemed rather out. A "positive" improvement from the last time that had hit, however, was that he was clearly breathing. As in rather heavily, but it looked to be stabilizing now that he was out.

----------

Yi-Min gave a glance towards River, confirming the girl's condition. She then side stepped, keeping her gun trained on Simon's head the whole time, and came up behind him. She grabbed his right arm and twisted it painfully around his back, pressing it close. If he struggled shooting pains would go through his arm, and Simon would be more than aware of that due to his profession and the angle his arm was at. She lightly pushed forward, and the pain would happen if he didn't walk forward. It wasn't that he was leading her, she had full control of direction. But it was that he'd be a shield should anyoen decide to shoot first and ask questions later. With that, she headed out of the room. Anyone that tried to stop her or question her would get a gun pointed at them.

[Jilak]

Jayne paused for a moment as Makoto struggled against his IV before collapsing back into a laying position. In all honestly, now Jayne was even MORE curious as to exactly how Makoto had gotten the device away from the agent. Whatever he'd done, it seemed to tire him out quite a bit. Well, at least he looked pretty light...

Jayne hurriedly lifted the boy, removing his IV. They had to find the cap'n, tell him what had happened. It wasn't like they could really leave the hospital, in their current states, but a game plan would at least be in order, Jayne felt. Unfortunately, luck wasn't exactly on Jayne's side today. As he exited the room, Makoto in his arms, he looked up and noticed Simon.

Oddly enough the doctor's arm was being twisted behind his back by a woman that Jayne felt he'd seen before. Almost as if he'd brought her into the hospital himself... but all that aside, Jayne was at a loss at the moment. Instincts were telling him to run, screw the doctor for getting himself in this mess. But he knew from memory that he didn't want to be the person to have to break it to Malcolm Reynolds that a member of his crew was dead.

In the end he just stood there, frozen, much like a deer caught in headlights.

--

Malcolm had been keeping quiet throughout the entire exchange, because Zero seemed in control of the situation. Any snark from Mal might have gotten a bullet in his back and quite frankly he didn't want that. Besides, he'd managed to talk the fellow into removing the gun from Mal's back, which was good. It seemed that the situation was being turned nicely...

Until the man proceeded to shoot ZERO. Now, Mal wasn't exactly an expert on sentient viruses, so he wasn't sure how a lead bullet would effect Zero. Especially considering that he could apparently BLEED now, something he apparently couldn't do up until recently.

And then Zero began to howl, and it all went to hell. The virus had dropped to his knees, and Mal wasn't entirely sure there was anything he could do at this moment. He turned to Y, furiously, to notice the man backing out the door.

"Now, now, captain Reynolds. You could chase after me, but then who KNOWS what might happen to your ally?" Y called, continuing to backtrack.

Malcolm glared for a moment before turning back to Zero. By this time, Zero had stopped screaming. At least he was breathing this time. By the time Malcolm looked up again, the man from before was gone.

[mugenginga]

Every muscle in Makoto's body tensed up as Jayne lifted him up. They relaxed a bit as Jayne got him positioned, but it was pretty clear the teenager was still uncomfortable with the situation. He barely twitched as Jayne pulled out the IV. There was bruising there already due to the cathider, and the blood was welling up a bit. Not as much as one might think it should, but Makoto was rather unhealthy. He lowered his head and kept his eyes shut as Jayne left the room.

Yi-Min had been forced to point her gun at one nurse. She had gotten the directions she needed from there, and Simon had been ahead of her due to the way she had his arm. When Jayne came out, she jerked back on the doctor's arm to make him stop. She lifted her gun, but rather than pointing it at Jayne she pointed it at Vera. It was metal. It would melt.

It was likely to break his freeze, though. The device being pointed at his gun would seem a bit mutated to him. While "phasers" didn't exist in the 'Verse, the device was some kind of combo of pistol and phaser. The barrel was rather flat.

"You will hand over the boy to me," she stated.

----------

Zero felt himself returning to consciousness just as the agent had spoken. He attempted to get up, but found he had minimal muscle control. As it was, the signals to move weren't really connecting. He was breathing fine, if a bit heavy. There wasn't much he could do at the moment but lay there. He was aware Mal was still in the room. He'd have to say something about that to the man once he was able to move again. Because, for all the coding that had ripped through his system, he was pretty confident he could move again.

And it said something interesting about the situation. It didn't appear the two men wanted Mal dead. An effect of the device...? At least he knew they were the ones responsible for the majority of his problems...

----------

"Simon!"

River shot straight up in bed, her eyes wide and her arms shooting to either side. She managed to rip the IV straight out of her arm with the movement. The registration of pain caused a surprise look at her arm. She stared at it for a few moments longer than seemed strictly necessary before she was reaching with her free arm towards the counter next to her bed. She yanked the drawer open and pulled out a bandage.

A few seconds of wrapping, a tie that could make a sailor jealous, and a rip of the cloth with her teeth, and the wound was bandaged. She grabbed the bed guard and lowered it smoothly, swinging her feet to the side and shakily regaining her balance. Simon had been there, he wasn't there now. She looked down at the bandages around her chest and frowned. That for later. For now...

"...Simon."

She left the room, not caring that the machine would be alerting the hospital staff that her pulse was no longer present.

[Jilak]

Jayne was forced to do a double-take. He assumed the item the woman was pointing at him was a gun of some type, but it didn't look like any weapon he'd ever seen his side of the 'verse. As such, his response was completely justified.

"...the hell is that?" Jayne asked, noticing that not only did it look rather... odd, but it was ALSO pointed at Vera. Jayne's knowledge on worldly subjects was limited, true. But if there was one thing Jayne Cobb knew, it was gun-fights.

And gorrammit, you point guns at people, not other guns.

--

Zero was still breathing pretty heavily, but Mal thought he'd seen him twitch a bit. He could have been wrong, true, but in a time like this, Malcolm felt it best to trust his intuition. And his intuition was telling him that, at the very least, the virus was awake. If not exactly mobile, Mal felt he was awake.

"Gonna go check on the doctor and Jayne, see how things're goin' there. 'fraid our two friends might have attracted a bit of unwanted attention, Jayne's in no condition for a brawl, and the doctor's... a doctor. You just... lay there and try not to do any more o' that fantastic bleedin' you've discovered you can do." Mal called back, heading out of the room.

--

Simon had been looking, pleadingly, at Jayne the entire time. He wanted the man to run. He wanted the man to take Makoto, and run. But in that same vein, he knew Jayne wouldn't. Jayne wouldn't consider running an option until it was too late. And Simon wasn't even sure he wanted Jayne to run, because to his knowledge, River was still defenseless.

So all he could do was bear the pain in his arm, and continue to observe the situation. He considered mouthing the word 'River', but he was pretty sure the woman that currently had him in a painful arm lock would notice. Even if she was currently behind him, Simon wasn't taking any chances.

[mugenginga]

Yi-Min felt a bit of raised confidence at Jayne's comment. She squashed it down quickly, and responded to Jayne's question with a glare. She pulled on Simon's arm a bit more, enough that he'd be more than aware of the action. She indicated Makoto with the hand her "whatever" was in before pointing it back at Vera.

"Give me the boy, and you can have the doctor. I can kill him if you choose not to cooperate, he's of no value to me," she ordered.
-----

Zero let out a slight tch noise among his heavy breathing as Mal spoke. He was trying once again to figure out why the hell he had gone with this human. These humans, to be precise. They seemed rather good about attracing trouble, and Zero's modus operandi was to get the fuck out when things got heated.

The bottom line was that he let Mal out of the room. The good captain would probably be a few doors down in the direction of Yi-Min and her hostage by the time Zero decided it might be a good idea to push himself to his feet. Oddly, there seemed to only be slight lingering pain from the bullet. A disabling bullet? He grabed a large clump of hair and flipped it back over the front of his face so he could actually see. Arceus be damned, that last glitch had killed his holders. As he got to his feet, his extremely long white hair barely avoided dragging on the ground.
-----

There were a fair number of turns in the hospital. Mal would probably be finding himself lost quickly. Or at least he might be if a familiar female teenager dressed in a hospital gown hadn't dashed past him.

River was aware of Mal, but she was more concerned with Simon. Simon was in trouble. She had to get to Simon. As a result, Mal wouldn't even get a side glance from her.

[Jilak]

Jayne paused for a moment. Jayne glanced at the woman's weapon, then at Vera. Jayne looked at Simon for a moment before his eyes settled back on the woman before him. And which point Jayne broke into a fit of laughter. It started out with small chuckling, sure, but soon elevated to a point where he had trouble standing and holding Makoto at the same time. Finally, after a brief moment of this, he managed to calm down.

"Never was too fond of the doctor m'self. Figure we could always find us 'nother stage-hand if you kill 'im." Jayne stated, finally regaining his composure.

"I don't think you understand what that means!" Simon called out to Jayne, noticing that his arm was being pulled on more.

"'course I do. Means I don't like you." Jayne responded, arrogantly.

"No, not that. I don't think you understand what a stage-hand is!"

--

Gorrammit, this was a large hospital. That was the first thought on Malcolm Reynold's mind. That he was getting so lost in the ruttin' place. He was slowly losing faith in his ability to actually find Makoto's room again when, suddenly, someone familiar walked by. A certain sister of a certain doctor. Just... walked by, so suddenly. Mal had to do a double take before deciding his next course of action.

"Guess I'm followin' the albatross, then."

[mugenginga]

(OOC: PLEASE LET IT HIT. And I didn't forget River I just want this development to happen first. XD I figure if it hits Mal (and River, duh) can hear Jayne's reaction. xD)

Yi-Min looked Jayne straight in the eyes at his words. Was he trying to call her bluff? Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. She didn't plan on killing her hostage yet. There were other things she could shoot, though. She gave a quick glance towards Makoto, who seemed to be either unconscious or exhausted. Jayne was holding him piggyback style.

"There are other options, "she stated.

And then she turned her "mutated gun" towards Vera and pulled the trigger. Given the speed at which lasers went and the likely surprise from Jayne, he probably wouldn't be dodging. The red beam of light came out of the squashed end of the gun. If it hit Vera, as was her intent, a whole would be melted into the side of it. Where she aimed was rather critical as well, as it would take a rather good gunsmith to let the gorram thing fire again from the melting. Worse, if Jayne wasn't careful some of the melted metal would get on his hand and burn the hell out of it.

[Jilak]

He wasn't expecting that. Jayne Cobb had quite honestly, for perhaps the first time in a long time, been caught off guard. Maybe he shouldn't have taken the direction she was pointing her odd weapon for granted. It had made him drop his guard a bit, and, as Yi-Min had just made him realize, that was a mistake. A drastic mistake at that. A mistake which had just cost him Vera.

The sheer shock of having a laser hit his favorite gun had nearly caused him to drop it. When he jerked and a bit of melted metal brushed his hand, though, he tossed it to the side, blowing at his fingers. Well, great. Now there was a ruttin' HOLE in his favorite gun. And honestly, since River had been so nice as to push him in the gorram void, his ONLY gun. He was now weaponless with a gorram kid on his back, the doctor being gorram held gorram hostage, and Mal would be gorram pissed if Jayne let either of 'em gorram die.

Gorram it.

"THE HELL WAS THAT?" Jayne questioned in indignation. Where he came from, lasers were pretty faulty, and never used because of such. It dawned on him, incorrectly, though, that this might actually give him the upper hand.

"Waitaminute. Shot like that should'a used up all yer batteries. Looks like we're both gun-less now." Jayne sneered, testing his luck.

--

Simon could only look on in horror as Jayne's gun was destroyed. What had he called it again? Sera? Well, whatever he'd named it, Sera had been their only hope. And then Jayne had to go and get it destroyed. The only option left for Jayne now was to run. Either that or hand over Makoto, which Simon was dreading. He knew if that option was presented to Jayne, with his poor moral code, he'd--

Wait, was Jayne taunting the woman? NO! Simon wanted to scream out to him, to alert him that in this place there was no way to be SURE if what he thought was true. For all Simon, and by relation, Jayne, knew, she could have had QUITE A BIT of battery power. Makoto's life was at stake, this was no time for Jayne to grow a sense of moral fiber!

--

Mal heard something and jerked his head up towards it. First a shot, which sounded like it hit something. Then perhaps a... thud? Someone had just thrown something into a wall, maybe? And then he heard Jayne's voice bellow out in a mix of pain and indignation. Something was going down and he wasn't there to help. Not to mention, to Mal's knowledge, Zero was still laying on the floor trying not to die.

This was not his best day ever.

[mugenginga]

(OOC: Tell me to change it if you have a problem with it hitting. Its just easier to manage this post like this. XD

Also, I'll have River reach next post. I guess the hospital is bigger than I gave it credit for! =D )

Yi-min gave Jayne a look like he'd lost his mind. Batteries? Now was the time she was most strongly questioning the technology of this man's home world. Laster pistols of this sort did not require batteries unless a massive fail occurred with their programming. She still needed Makoto, but Jayne didn't have to come out of this clean.

She noted how Simon struggled in response to Jayne's taunt. Well well. She glanced at Jayne's right shoulder. Clean shot, wouldn't kill either party. It would, however, show how dead serious the situation was to both involved. She tilted the gun and pulled the trigger again. The beam of light shot at Jayne's upper right chest, but that wasn't the whole point of her shot. The beam of light also shot through Makoto's right hand. The angle was rather well done, it prevented doing any permanent nerve damage, but....

"Aaaaah!" Makoto shouted as the shot hit.

He'd been almost out before, but now he was wide awake and making it very hard for Jayne to keep a hold of him. It likely wasn't helpful Jayne had been hit by the blade of what was basically concentrated heat as well. Only upside was the wound cauterized immediately.

"Give me the boy, now," she ordered.
-----

Zero was throwing various tools over his shoulder. There was rather the mess of various hospital junk on the floor behind him. Among it was syringes, metal tools, and other odds and ends. He was begining to scowl when he finally found what he wanted. Bandage tape, not ideal but would do for now. He pulled the roll out and set about getting his hair back into the three ponytails from before. Without his abilities, this style seemed to be more Arceus damn trouble than it was worth...

[Jilak]

Jayne nearly dropped as the blade of gorram CONCENTRATED HEAT hit him. He managed to stay on his feet, putting a hand on the wall to steady himself. Nearly dropped Makoto in the process, what with all his squirming and whatnot. Admittedly he had just been pulled from almost being out of it by being shot in the hand, but how justifiable the situation was didn't make it any easier for Jayne not to drop the kid.

Jayne, however, refused to yield. Because he remembered what happened when he'd sold out River and Simon. And gorrammit, he wasn't being held out an air-lock again.

"Sorry, much as I want to, cap'n would kill me if I let the kid go. So I'm afraid you're gonna have to settle for the doc. Not sure if he's housebroken or not, though, so make sure you clean his room every day." Jayne responded, sneering.

Simon couldn't believe it. At the very least, Jayne hadn't given Makoto over, but at the same time, he'd just put all three of them in more danger than they'd already BEEN in.

--

Mal heard a shot. Shot's usually meant trouble.

[mugenginga]

Makoto, now awake if not still extremely weak, looked between Jayne and Yi-min several times. What had been said earlier? Why hadn't he been awake he should have been awake! The Chinese woman frowned at Jayne's words, and glanced at Simon. So he wasn't going to give the boy up, then? That meant the doctor had outlived his usefulness.

"He's of no use to me, in any condition," Yi-Min stated. She pulled down hard on Simon's arm to make sure her grip was secure. He likely hadn't recovered from the sudden pain before he had the end of a laster gun to the side of his head, "If he's no no use to you, either..."

"St-stop!" Makoto shouted, _{"I-I'll go!"}

Yi-Min blinked and looked at the teenager. He was pushing on Jayne's shoulder, clearly trying to get down. Was... was the battery going to give itself up? That would certainly make things easier... she lowered the gun ever so much and looked at Jayne.

"Even the battery has some sense. Why don't you let him go?" she repositioned the gun in its former position, "The doctor's life holds no value to me, after all."

There wouldn't be a chance to respond. Out of what looked like absolutely gorram nowhere, a syringe came flying and hit Yi-Min right in the arm holding the gun. Her eyes widened and her grip on Simon tightened as a response. She looked over at the syringe sticking out of her upper arm and blinked. Where... Simon would feel the grip loosen and Jayne would probably see her eyes glaze over a bit. She was still conscious, but her muscles weren't quite responding right... as if they were asleep. Anasthesia...?

"Let my brother go!"

And that voice belonged to a certain 90 pound girl. She stepped around the corner she had been hiding behind. She was still dressed in the outfit from before, meaning anyone behind her would be treated to a full moon. She had another syringe in her hand, and it was still full. Her eyes burned with hatred and she glared at Yi-Min, who was having increasing trouble getting her muscles to respond.

Makoto had stopped struggling and was staring at the situation. He... okay, he hadn't expected that. What now?

[Jilak]

Soon after River decided to be awesome, Malcolm slowly walked next to her. Right. Time to try to get a hold on what had happened. From the looks of it Jayne had pulled a stupid and gotten shot for his troubles, while Simon just sort of got held captive. At least it wasn't by some old guy with a vendetta for Jayne this time, but gorram, the man just needed to stay behind more often if he was going to get captured so easy. Malcolm held a sullen expression for a few moments before breaking out into a smile.

"Well look at us, showin' up just in the nick of time. And what does that make us?" Mal was silent for a moment, waiting for a response. When none came, his smile faded a bit.

"See, this is easier when I have someone to play off of. Makes my playful antics so much more... flamboyant." Malcolm stated, eyes surveying before finally laying on Jayne. Before he could speak up, however, Jayne cut him off.

"Didn't know she was your type." Jayne said, smirking. This was returned with a quizzical stare from Malcolm.

"What the hell are you talkin' about, Jayne?" Mal asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"You know, the girl. You were walkin' behind her for a while, and she's wearing a hospital gown."

"It wasn't like that! I was looking for you after you went and got captured!"

"Uh huh."

"Don't make me throw you out of an airlock, Jayne." Mal threatened before turning back to the situation at hand, namely, Simon. The two exchanged a blank stare for a moment.

"...just like high school, eh, Doc?" Malcolm questioned.

[mugenginga]

Yi-Min's eyes had widened when River shouted at her. Or they'd tried, the best she got was a sluggish face twitch. Her grip on Simon didn't shift for a solid few seconds, and River's glare increased. She was turning the syringe around in her hand. She actually hadn't been aiming for the woman's arm, she'd actually missed the woman's neck. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

The Chinese woman got one of her hands to respond at least, and she managed to release the gun and drop it to the ground. After the fight before, she wasn't facing that child in a fair fight. The laser hit the ground as Yi-Min tried to glare at the exchange going on. They were treating this like a game. Her legs tried to buckle from weakness, but she managed to release her hand from Simon's back before they gave out. Already everything around her seemed fairly distant... she'd be out in less than a minute.

"Simon! Are you okay!?" River ran forward to her brother as Yi-Min hit the floor.

Makoto just stared at the situation. It had gone from one he had known would happen eventually... to one that was... they were going to get out of this? Without anyone dying...? His hand was curled up from the injury, but the surprise of the situation outweighed the pain. It wasn't as if he was unfamiliar with the latter, after all...
-----

Zero stepped out of the room he'd been in, his jacket still laying on the floor. He blinked as two hospital staff ran past him. Somehow he had a feeling that whatever had happened with those humans was related to his. He'd never seen a group of humans attract this much trouble in this much timeframe. For a moment he considered just walking the other way. It was with a scowl of resignation that he ran after the staff. With his coding on the fritz as it was, it wasn't like he had any place else to go. And staying with Mal did seem the most likely solution to fixing the Arceus damned problem.

The staff and Zero would be at the scene soon.

(OOC: Just to remind you. Zero's hair is back up (albeit a bit messier as he had to do it quickly) in the three ponytails and he doesn't have his white jacket. So its just the light grey button up shirt.)