Hugh placed a meaty hand on Firebreak’s wheelchair, spinning him around then charging out of the door before turning left. The force at which they cornered had Firebreak hanging on tight or run the risk of being flung free. They sped past the now empty nurse’s station, and as they went past, Firebreak craned his neck to peer over the counter and confirm what he'd already suspected. The monitors for the hallway security system showed multiple blocky artifacts frozen on the screens. One by one they flickered black then back on again as the automated systems attempted to reboot over and over again to clear the error to no avail.
Down the hallway, past double doors labeled "Imaging," they were well away from the more populated parts of the hospital. Joseph tried to strike up some casual conversation a couple times, but Hugh would just grunt or give one word answers that left Joseph with nothing to go on. Once in a while, someone in scrubs would give the huge bald man a sideways look, trying to place the man in their roster of known faces but coming up blank. Firebreak wondered just how long this farce would go on before it was forced to come to an end and the ride would stop.
It occurred to Firebreak that this was a shitty plan, but in his defense he’d come up with it under the influence and mid interrogation. He had a possibly fractured leg, a concussion, and multiple open wounds, and he’d volunteered to go with what could possibly be a professional hitter to… Where? Wherever Hugh decided to take him.
If Hugh was here for Joseph, things were about to get interesting, but Firebreak didn’t have that impression of the big man. Hugh looked like he wanted to be elsewhere right now, like Joseph was a means to an end. A part of his cover. Whether that meant a wave goodbye or a death by strangulation in the future was still up in the air though.
This little operation, ill conceived as it might be, was about staying next to Hugh and possibly containing the threat he posed in an isolated part of the hospital. Getting evil Mister Clean out of the building entirely without casualties was, by far, the best outcome, but that depended entirely on what part of Hugh’s plan they were in. Were they pre or post dark deeds?
The chair came to an abrupt stop, nearly spilling Joseph forward onto the tile, and Hugh came around the side to kneel down to look Joseph in the eye. “Can you make it from here? This is the door.” He indicated a door labeled "MRI" with his head over to his right. Sure enough, Hugh had taken him to the right room.
That told Firebreak a great deal. For one, Joseph, despite his status as a super, wasn’t Hugh’s objective. He’d had the means and opportunity to throw down a dozen times on the way here, but the worst he'd done was have a bad bedside manner.
Second, Hugh had most likely already done what he’d set out to do, and now he was on his way to his exfil. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so careless with his cover. Dropping a man in a leg cast in the hallway and wishing him the best was below even the most negligent of hospital staff if only for what the insurance companies would do to them afterward. Hugh only seemed to be concerned with casual observers not making trouble for him.
Third, he didn't mind leaving witnesses, meaning whatever he’d already done had already tripped alarms, and it was just time to cut and run just not in a manner that drew the authorities down on him yet. He was still content with being an oddity, one that fellow hospital staff would hesitate to report to security right away.
All of this flashed through Firebreak’s mind in an instant, then it occurred to him that he was assuming a level of competence and rationality in the man that might not be present. Humans weren’t entirely rational actors, and not everyone had the same experiences as Joseph.
Still, he needed to keep up appearances for now. “See you around, Hugh,” he said with a nod and a smile.
A hollow chuckle bubbled up from Hugh’s throat, and he put a heavy hand on Joseph's shoulder. “Better hope not, friend. Hospitals are bad for your health.” Then he stood up straight and took off down the hall, dismissing Joseph entirely.
Joseph waited for him to go around a corner before he rose unsteadily from his chair, careful not to put too much weight on his leg. It hurt less now, and it wasn’t all the drugs. Being a super, even one with no real physical abilities, came with its perks.
His fingers twitched. He wished he had his workings, his guns, and a week of prep time. He hated this whole situation now that he was in the middle of it. The presence of the Company and Joseph’s temporary vulnerability had forced him into a position on the board where, even if he didn’t get taken out, his next moves would leave him exposed. There was no winning play here. No position of strength.
And that wasn't how he did things.
There were so many unknowns, but the cost of ignoring Hugh’s presence was potentially paid in lives. That he couldn’t just let go. So, despite his misgivings, he took off after Hugh, hobbling his way to the corner, ignoring the cold draft through the hospital gown and his cast making an all too distinctive tapping sound on the tile. He paused for another moment to give Hugh a bit more of a head start then risked a peak around the corner.
The big man was nearly at the end of the hall by now, taking long strides and looking back and forth for witnesses and cameras in that way professional muscle did wherever they went be it an investment bank or their girlfriend's apartment. Hugh stopped to try the handle on a door to his right, finding it locked then moving on. Then he was round a corner and out of sight. Firebreak had to work hard to follow, and by the time he was at the corner to the hallway where he’d seen Hugh, the hallway was empty. The sign for the fire exit was down at the end of the hall, and if Hugh had taken that door, Firebreak was screwed. With one good leg, he wasn’t going down any stairs at any speed that would matter.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then reopened them to look at the scene as dispassionately as he could. Yes, Hugh was fast, but he’d been trying doors in the last hallway. Doors with signs. Which one was it? He looked back where he’d come from. Every door had a little glass window leading into a patient room, lab, or office. All of them except one. There was one door with no window, just solid wood, a mechanical closet which Joseph found to be locked once he tried it.
New approach in mind, Firebreak came back and limped down the next hallway, checking the doors here to see where Hugh might have wanted to duck inside. There were a couple doors with no windows. One was a storage closet with various cleaning supplies, buckets, and jugs of chemicals on metal shelves. A couple doors down from there was a similarly solid door that led to a lab. Lab 4900. Unlocked.
He put his ear to the door. At first, there was nothing, just the sound of the AC and ambient noise associated with early morning hospital life. There was also a shuffling sound like feet moving erratically over tile floor and… impact. The impact of flesh on something hard, followed by something heavy falling to the floor. Joseph could feel the vibration of the fall through his feet.
That settled things then. The time to observe and report was over.
He wrenched the handle and threw the door open with a bang only to find Hugh, half dressed, about to put a shirt over his head, and a bleeding, unconscious man in scrubs on the floor.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Firebreak and the giant, hairy, shirtless thug stared at each other, neither daring to move, Hugh no doubt calculating whether he could grab the super in a hospital gown before he could call for help, Firebreak running through various scenarios in his head, all of them bad. The first step would be to take the wounded lab tech out of the equation.
Aware on an intellectual level that this was not entirely necessary, but the absurdity of staring down a killer while wearing an unfasted hospital gown was too much for his current inebriated state. “I’m glad one of us is wearing pants. Otherwise this could get weird,” he deadpanned.
That’s what kicked things off.
Hugh shot forward, going for the grab. Before Firebreak could get another word in, the big man already had his head tucked and legs moving, trying to go for a football tackle. The lab that he’d chosen to duck into, however, was set up with multiple tables and stations between Hugh and the exit. That meant Hugh would need to slow down to go around tables if he wanted to keep his footing, potentially giving Joseph time to pull an alternative plan from the ether in the intervening time.
Or at least with a normal person the labs configuration might mean extra travel time. Hugh simply charged right through it all. Tables, chairs, computers, a heavy looking centrifuge, all of it either was slammed aside or left the ground entirely spinning through the air. One particularly determined desk seemed to stick to the big man, right at the shoulder level, so when he made it to the doorway Hugh and the desk hit the opening like a freight train, the desk splitting down the middle and the bald, shirtless bastard bursting through the particle board like a charging rhino. Firebreak threw himself aside, landing hard on his side and sliding down the hall the direction he’d come.
The door frame had buckled outward. A cloud of splinters and metal supports fell to the floor and scattered noisily as Hugh skidded to a stop, breathing hard but unhurt. Firebreak pushed himself up and got moving down the hall. His plan had been to lure the big man out, get him away from the civilian, then call for help, hopefully forcing the giant to retreat. However, after seeing that display, things changed. Hugh was a super, probably second generation considering first generation supers were a small community, and Joseph hadn't heard of him. Calling for help was no longer the best of ideas, because any interference now could get the wrong people hurt. A normal man might run from a security guard, but for supers it was a mixed bag. If the guy was strong, that normally meant an enhanced endurance or resistance to trauma. Both of those things were bad news for the good guys with guns.
It was even worse news for Firebreak. Without his workings or his firearms he would end up making this guy mildly uncomfortable before his neck was snapped. Running was also not an option. Strategic repositioning was still on the table though.
Hugh, breathing heavily, turned and set off again, taking a more measured approach this time, electing to eat up the distance with his long legs. “I thought,” he panted “you might have made me, friend. *huff*Bad news *huff* for both of us.” He flexed his hands and hung them loosely at his sides as he jogged to catch up.
Firebreak made a note of Hugh’s stamina. He’d put on an impressive display of strength a moment ago, but it seemed to tax him. That pegged him as second generation for sure, an Altered probably. Altered got their powers through mundane means like gene therapy or nanobots or any number of manmade things, and that meant their power came with a cost paid through mundane means like, say, calories, oxygen, or maybe electricity.
Joseph reached the door to the storage closet then set himself as best he could with his leg in a cast, left leg back, arms up in a boxing stance.
This seemed to amuse Hugh, smearing a little smug smile across his face. He brought up his hands as well, low, not bothering to protect his head. It was bad technique for sure. However, with his abilities the hit man probably had done this dance a thousand times before, and it had never ended badly for him. Why should a crippled guy with no pants be any different? Firebreak stepped to his right and circled Hugh until his back was to the storage room. This was as far as he was going to go.
Hugh made his move first, stepping in with a meaty right hook meant to end the fight in one blow. Firebreak couldn’t use proper footwork, and any attempt to reposition would be slow at best, disastrous at worst. Bending at the torso was all he could manage. Hugh’s fist connected, but it was a glancing hit, knocking Firebreak’s raised guard aside and spinning him around 180 degrees with the sheer force of the blow. Joseph stumbled on his stupid cast and landed on the handle of the door, just managing to keep himself upright. He leaned on the handle as he straightened and felt the door pop open a crack. His forearm where he'd taken the blow throbbed painfully, but it was intact.
By the time Firebreak recovered his footing and was attempting to bring his guard back up, a follow up jab from Hugh’s left caught him right in the forehead. He’d had his entire body tensed at the time, saving him from having his head snap back into the wooden door, but he practically back-flipped into the storage room, landing on his shoulders and neck then flopping down after a short skid. He blinked several times, trying to clear the stars from his vision and idly wondered if you could get a double concussion.
Hugh, even more breathless now, saw his opportunity, angling his body slightly to follow Firebreak into the little room to finish the kill. The giant filled the closet, both shoulders touching the shelves of cleaning supplies, mop heads, and disposable safety wear. Once he was inside, he straddled Firebreak, getting down on his knees and forcing the air from Joseph’s lungs. Out of options, not that he had many to begin with, Firebreak reached out for a shelf to his right, his fingertips brushing something plastic and round.
Wrapping a hand around Firebreak’s throat to keep him still, Hugh raised his fist behind his head, ready to deliver a super powered killing blow that had a real shot at converting Joseph’s face into an innie. His grip was an iron clamp collapsing Joseph's windpipe and pinning him to the floor. The giant was dripping with sweat and heaving like he’d just run several sprints back to back. “Sorry, *huff* friend. You *huff* die.”
Hugh took a final huge, fortifying breath as his fist started forward, but the now open jug of ammonia hit him first. The bottle caught Hugh while he was inhaling, the mouth of the jug comically slamming into his open mouth with a *fump,* and the momentum of the jug carried the liquid forward to splash into the back of his throat and down his windpipe.
The giant coughed and gagged, reflexively flinching to keep the ammonia out of his eyes, but he was a pro. He kept Firebreak pinned and let fly with his fist. It was a blind strike, however, allowing Joseph to twist just enough to allow the punch to glance off the side of his head. He felt a burning wetness where his ear was supposed to be. He hoped it was still there. The bottom of the closet was saturated with ammonia fumes by now. Would it sterilize any wounds he was about to acquire?
Hugh drew back his fist again, still gagging from the involuntary respiratory scrub he'd just gotten, but his eyes were open again. Firebreak clawed at the man’s face, getting as close as he could to where he'd seen the chemicals splash, fingers brushing the giant’s lips. It was at that moment Joseph summoned his fire.
Hugh’s face went up like a greenish yellow torch. He instantly let go of Firebreak to frantically claw at the flames on his face as he tilted his head back to scream, but doing so allowed the fire into his mouth, and through it, his windpipe. The Altered bruiser shot to his feet and turned blindly around, his enhanced body clipping storage shelves, bending the metal and knocking down their contents. That didn’t matter to Hugh, though. He was on fire, and what conscious thoughts he still had told him to run screaming to the nearest body of water or smother the flames with his hands. He tried to do both, taking off at a sprint, taking out his second door frame of the day, all the while slapping himself in the face and screaming with tortured and burned vocal cords.
Firebreak wasn’t off the hook either. The conflagration didn’t limit itself to Hugh. The spreading pool of liquid from the ammonia jug was slower to light as far from the ignition point as it was, but what liquid that did catch was producing toxic fumes. Joseph crawled away as quickly as he could, slapping the flames that had eaten through some of his hospital gown. When he emerged from the burning closet on his belly, his eyes stinging and lungs heaving, he caught sight of Hugh blindly stumbling down the hall toward the fire exit, badly burned and croaking incoherently.
Smoke billowed from the closet as the more synthetic materials inside caught alight, triggering the fire suppression system which then sputtered to life overhead, dowsing everything in smelly, stagnant water.
For a moment, Firebreak laid there on his back rubbing his throat and letting the sprinkler system sooth his new burns and soak his bandages. He reached up to his ear, finding it still attached but tender. Then the metal door to the fire exit slammed open, allowing a super powered killer to make his escape.
There was still work to do.