Self Destructing Messenger

#17 - Motherly Love

The hospital was one of the shining jewels of the town, with immaculate landscaping outside and crisp white everything on the inside. All equipment was state of the art and excessively sterilized leaving the air sharp and burning of alcohol. The staff were all tailored professionally in pure white, the doctors in long coats and nurses topped by tiny, neatly folded caps as was once medically stylish.

As intense as the hustle was, there was an underlying order to the pace. The facility was a machine and after observing the proficiency even briefly, a secret government level suddenly didn't seem too preposterous. How else to get the funding for such an amazing place? Broken Hill was a thriving community but certainly not that well off.

Casey led Azalea to an elevator and pressed the button for the lowest basement level, the morgue. The floor stood in stark contrast to the intensity above. All was still, with no one presently in view. The solitude seemed to calm Casey a bit, who's anxiety had been increasing with every passing second.

He swallowed hard and turned to her. "This is it. The idol is somewhere on the floor below us." Casey cast his gaze downwards, unable to look her in the eyes. "There's only one way to get me on that floor and it would attract a lot of attention. You need that time."

Her brow arched, suspicious but also relieved. A chance to work solo. It'd be like old times. "Hey, no big," she said. "I got this."

Before Azalea could phase Casey pulled her into a hug. She was surprised, stiff in his arms but he didn't let up. "If I see a shuffle of the guards or anything, I'm down there. Regardless I'm following in five minutes so be quick and be careful."

Hesitanty, she raised her hands to his sides, barely grazing his jacket. That uncanny Pyro similarity remained very present. The manner called her into his embrace but it wasn't enough to override Azalea's suspicious nature. His earnest words proved little. The blonde was an expert liar.

Gripping his sides, she pushed him back. "Dramatic," she muttered. Before he could respond, she sank into the floor, leaving him behind in the empty hallway.

Azalea fell the last foot or so, softly thudding to the ground. Even the tiny noise seemed deafening and she strained to pick up any sounds of danger. And it wasn't long before she did. Footsteps and muffled voices swelled steadily in the hallway. Azalea made a choice and walked through the closest wall, risking exposure by anyone that might be within the next area. She found herself in a large communal shower, tiled on all sides with evenly spaced drains and spouts along the walls. Not really typical of a hospital, she thought and moved on, thankful she was neither discovered nor exposed to random people's naughty bits.

The adjacent locker room was occupied and at this she paused. All this sneaking around would be fine if Casey wasn't joining her. In fact she could probably find and neutralize Intern without ever being noticed. Azalea had a sense of the scale of the floor now and it was massive. Time to go ghost and make some believers out of people.

She exhaled slowly, her body taking on the transparent quality, her hair rising weightlessly about her face. She was ready to go the distance and do so with speed. Not allowing herself the opportunity to back out, she thrust herself forward, dashing quickly through walls and objects, taking in as much of each space as she could while she moved. The moment of blindness as she phased through large objects was disorienting but she managed to keep the momentum, traversing offices, conference rooms, labs and open corridors. There was no way she had gone unnoticed but disbelief could stay the alarms or at least she was hoping it would.

Finally she reached an area of small quarters, like hospital rooms only with reinforced doors. This was it. It had to be because if it wasn't then dear lord, what was it all for? She slowed and began ducking her head through doors. Empty. As she continued to search, her heart rate increased. The doors weren't endless, seven on either side and she had worked through half of them already.