Hope and I ended up having to make seven trips up and down, only breaking for a little bit when we got back to the elevator chute. No, that wasn’t quite right. I took a break. Hope continued on hauling boxes of evidence up to the surface while I ‘kept watch’ at the bottom. I offered to help, ‘course, but she turned me down since my arm was injured and all that. Still too bloody to get a good look at, and I didn’t want to expose it more than necessary down here with all the contaminants.
They’d send a squad of Crusaders down here at some point in the next week to box up and snag whatever was left, but the chances were high the place would be cleared out either thanks to looters or returning members of the Circle. And that wasn't considering the high likelihood of someone in the squad being dirty.
We were just grabbing all the important bits that we could, mostly maps and coded paperwork. I did mark the location down in my mental map though. There were quite a few plants around here that I wouldn’t mind snagging if I had the chance. Especially the Hibisen.
Oh, and we found out why the mine blew up. Rather, we found the chunks of why the mine blew up. One of the Circle cultists apparently tried to make a break for it while we were busy fighting and the gonk tripped the mine. Worked for us, at least. No witnesses, for better or worse.
By the time we finally got everything out and back up the surface, Hope going so far as to pull me up so I wouldn’t strain my wound, I was ready for bed. It was super late already. As Hope pulled out of the alleys onto the street, the city was still alive and thriving even as the night grew old. The neon lights never stopped, the brightness oddly comforting as I drifted off.
– – –
A hand lightly shook my shoulder, causing me to flinch back and throw- my arm twinged in pain underneath the wraps of bandages, freezing my motions. I blearily rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I calmed down slightly, remembering where I was.
“Rise and shine, Zuku.” Hope sighed, looking at me with obvious envy in her eyes. “Your arm okay?”
“Nova.” I groaned, twisting in the car seat as if that would alleviate the burning pain in it. The sleeve of my trench coat stuck to my skin uncomfortably. I switched on Cold-Blooded again, feeling myself cool down drastically as the pain faded to a background reminder.
Hope tapped me on the shoulder again as I started to drift back off. “Why don’t you go see Doc Holly? I’ll- uh- I’ll take care of the boxes if you’ll write up the report.”
A jaw-crippling yawn broke free from my lips as I languidly stretched, the seatbelt pulling tightly on my chest. “Chek chek…” The fog in my head cleared slightly as I registered what she said fully. “Doc Holly?”
I met her eyes as she stared at me, the heavy bags underneath seeming to sink even further for a moment. “Ah, that’s right… first injury on the job?”
“Something like that.” I groaned, unbuckling the seatbelt and sliding out of the cruiser carefully.
A message popped into my HUD with an address. “She’s the night doctor at the gym. She’ll get you all sorted out. Probably give you a couple days off too, if you’re lucky. Send me a message with what she tells you. Oh, and if she asks what happened, tell her it's classified.”
“Okay.” I popped open the back door, grabbing all of my gear and bag. I threw on what I could, carrying the rest with one arm “You sure you don’t want help?”
“Chek… The Inquisitor is probably still up and around, so I’ve got to report to him. Wouldn’t want you caught in an hours-long conversation. You really should go get that checked.” Hope waved her shiny silver gauntlet to my arm. “Probably infected with where we’ve been.”
Ew, thanks for reminding me… would Quick Healing even help an infection? It's for healing, so logically it should, but the interface lacks logic sometimes. Take for instance Dexterity having nothing to do with dexterity. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
I got a few steps out, my stuff slung all over my body chaotically, before a voice froze me in my tracks. “Hey Zuku!”
I turned slightly back around. “Yes?”
“Leave the rifle. We’ve got to return those.”
I sheepishly turned, putting on an innocent look as if I hadn’t realized I was carrying it. The only thing that beat new toys was free toys… or something like that. I lightly placed it back in the car. It didn’t really matter, I guess. I got enough worth out of this raid anyway with that map alone.
Oh, and the Pervider venom. Nasty stuff, but extremely helpful in a medical emergency. It basically put whatever it infected into stasis, keeping them alive even with lethal injuries. It was how the people in the den were still alive with the babies crawling around inside of them-
A shudder went down my spine as I shifted tracts, throwing those images into the back of my mind as I arrived back at my bike.
The gym’s location wasn’t that far off from the Blue Crusade, so it barely took a few minutes on my sputtering bike to reach it. I’d have to give the vehicle another glance over at some point.
As for why I headed for a doctor instead of the tried and true method of sleeping through it? There were actually quite a few reasons. The simplest one was just curiosity. Curiosity about this gym in the first place, but also curiosity about what else the Crusade offers as benefits other than an in-house doctor and a small gym.
Hope was also expecting a doctor's note, which was just perfect. I really didn't even need a doctor in the first place, but she was technically my superior.
The real reason, however, was thanks to something Hope mentioned: a couple days off. At least, days off from the Blue Crusade. There were plenty of things that I needed to get done, and soon.
Primarily, finally set up a stash. And I needed to finish my armor and get it to a good state to use… actually, reverse that order. Get the armor done first, then use it to safely scout out stash locations as a test run. But that was all for tomorrow. For tonight, visiting the Crusade doctor was the last thing on my list.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I pulled into a parking garage on the opposite side of the street, one which was absolutely filled with Crusade Cruisers. There were a few civilian vehicles here and there, but they were few and far between. It wasn't a worrying sight in the slightest.
As I stepped out onto the street, I realized the Blue Crusade gym was really small, almost like a laundromat more than anything. It sat on a block barely peeking out between two corporate bodegas selling the same stuff as almost every other one. A dim, but surprisingly clean, alley sat between one of the bodegas and the building.
The block was rather tall though, reaching into the sky like a defiant giant. Heck, I wondered if I was in the wrong spot even with the Blue Crusade’s symbol dimly glowing above the door. Blue neon spelled out ‘BC Gym’.
Surely there wasn’t space in there for a doctor’s office and a gym, right? Unless it stacked up, I guess… though up above this type of setup were usually cramped apartments and such with the occasional store or service thrown in.
Standing out here and speculating wasn’t doing anything though. I headed for the door, a small bronze bell ringing gently as I pulled it open. There wasn’t any entryway into the place, just a room filled with equipment. Off to the side of the door, pressed up against the shuddered windows, sat a small desk.
I got a few looks as I stepped into the place, most of which I ignored. Most of the looks were full of awe or amazement for some reason. There weren’t any adults around, not even behind the counter. Almost everyone was a kid or teenager, working out as if there was no tomorrow- wait, scratch that. There were a few twentyish-looking people out and about helping the various kids. Trainers probably.
I headed for the counter, which was staffed by a kid a bit younger than me. He stood at attention as I walked up to the desk.
“What can I help you with, ma’AM?” His voice cracked, causing a barely perceptible wince that he mostly covered up.
“I was told to come see the doctor here?” I looked around the fairly small gym. “To be honest, this is the first time I’ve been to this one.”
“Chek.” The guy rifled around on a terminal behind the counter, a hint of suspicion in his eyes. Just stay calm Shiro, act like you belong and no one will question you… He clicked around on the terminal before holding out a scanner. “Your badge?”
I pulled it off and handed it to the guy. Outside of the occasional door in the HQ, this was the first time someone’s actually scanned the badge. I had to force myself to breathe normally as he scanned it. The screen flashed at him a few times before he handed it back.
“Welcome, Miss Ichima… uh, this part is the Aspirant Gym. Most Crusaders and Squires head through the alley entrance to get into the building proper. If you head through that door-” He pointed towards the back wall at an ‘employee’s only’ door, “-and take the first door on your left, you’ll exit out into the lobby. The doctor’s office is on the third floor.”
Oh? Quite a bit bigger than I expected… At least that explains why there were so many empty cruisers yet nobody was around. “Thank you.”
“Happy to help, ma’am. Oh, and the- uh, the cleaner’s is on sublevel one.” He offered with, carefully looking to the side as he avoided meeting my eyes.
A frown crossed my face before I got a whiff of myself. I looked down at my trench coat, catching sight of several jagged tears here and there from where it got caught on the occasional rock. The loose sides of the coat that hung below my knees were caked in mud and… just mud. I didn’t want to think about what exactly covered my lower half. Hell, there were even patches of singed fabric from my many recent escapades with explosives. Yeah, a shower and cleaner wouldn’t be a bad idea…
I nodded to him and headed off towards the back side of the room, carefully avoiding messing with anyone as I headed for the door. It would seriously suck to get slathered in mystery goo by a stranger.
I followed the directions, entering into a short hall and then immediately taking a left into an actual lobby. A few Squires came and went, but for the most part, everyone just headed on through without stopping. I joined, attempting to exude confidence as if I knew exactly where I was and where I was headed.
Beyond the lobby sat a massive gym, filled to the brim with clanking machinery and sweating people as they destroyed their muscles. There was so much exercise equipment I could scarcely see the back wall through it. Most of them I didn’t have any idea how they worked. The stench of sweat surprisingly wasn’t all that bad. A vanilla scent covered everything expertly.
Almost everyone was dressed in similar clothes, giving a weird sense of uniformity. That isn’t to say they all wore the same stuff though. There was a fair slathering of clothes typical of what I would expect from a gym, but they were all designed the same. They were all a dark blue, nearly black digital camo with bright blue highlights. Small Blue Crusade symbols hid on the clothes, leaving no guesses as to where they came from.
Then there were the psychopaths exercising in their armor. Most of them were Knights, though as I walked through the mess I spotted several Squires in their partial sets. Quite a few of the Knights even had additional weights strapped to their armor…
Well, I guess maybe it wasn’t all that bad of an idea. Better to get used to moving in armor than get caught out thanks to it.
The back wall had five elevators on it. I hit the button for one, patiently waiting for it to come down. The doors slid open as the elevator dinged. Just as I was about to step forward into it, the doors slammed shut hard enough to sever a limb. It dinged again, opening once more. I hesitated this time, watching it with a growing sense of apprehension. The doors slammed once more.
I turned heel and called another elevator, casually pretending as if I wasn’t involved in the first one at all. This time, the elevator came down full of people. As soon as they all vacated it, I stepped in and hit the button for the third floor.
There was a small guide on the panel of the elevator.
Sublevel 2- Shooting Range
Sublevel 1- Cleaner/Repairs.
Ground Floor- Gym.
Floor 2- Crusader Shop(Public).
Floor 3- Doctor’s Office.
Floor 4- Restaurant(Public).
Floor 5- Crusader Shop and Restaurant(Crusaders Only)
Floor 6-8- Pool
Floor 9- Varied Sports Courts
Floor 10- Seminar Center
Floor 11- Day Care
Floor 12- Admin Offices
Floor 13-73- Crusade Apartments.
Floor 74-75- Flyer Bays
Yeah… so quite a bit bigger than I thought it was. Hell, they even had their own shop! At the end of the day, Blue Crusade Inc. was truly still a corporation.
I wonder how much of this stuff I have access to though? And are they free? Or just taken out of my paycheck, the one I don’t get… I guess I’ll find out shortly.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing a clinical lobby like I’d expect to see at a hospital. It was fairly empty compared to the gym, which is about right considering the time of day. Rather, time of night. Those fanatics at the gym had burned the midnight oil already and were fast approaching the morning’s supply.
A nurse stopped what she was doing as I hesitantly approached the lobby’s counter. “Uh, hi… I was told to come here?”
“Of course, how can we help you?” I took a closer look at the nurse as she spoke, noticing she wasn’t like the other medical professionals I’d seen. She was entirely packed with muscles, to the point she’d probably outclass everyone down in the gym.
I rolled up my tattered sleeve, revealing dark red bandages slowly oozing out blood. There was… quite a bit more than I was expecting. Did my body even have that much blood in it? Well, I guess not anymore.
The nurse bolted upright, pushing a button on one of the consoles. “Doctor Holly, emergency inbound. Extreme blood loss. Come with me.” She hopped over the counter easily, lightly supporting me as if I would collapse at any moment.
And here I was hoping I’d just get a slap on the back and sent home to sleep…