| Under Quarantine |
| Summary: | Pete comes to check on Amanda and finds everything is not right. As the situation is examined, things only get worse. |
| Date: | 2016-08-30 |
| Related: | http://marvelreborn.wikidot.com/log:2016-08-28-agent-gamma-upsilon-p-five-upsilon |
| NPCs: | Agatha the curse expert, unnamed doctors and nurses |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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Two days of resting and room service in the Shangri-La is an excellent way to recover your strength when you've been bashed about. Though the doctor said she was okay, or would be, Amanda found herself more tired than she felt she should have been. So it is that she is still in bed when Pete decides to come check on her.
The knocking came as a 'Shave-and-a-haircut,' from Pete. He didn't want to really bother her, so he'd give her a minute. If she didn't arrive then, he'd let her be. Because he was polite!
Amanda Sefton hasn't gotten up for much since room service was willing to bring the food right into the bedroom for her but she does push up and walk over to the door to see who is knocking. She opens the door with a smile on her lips. "Well hello there."
Pete smiled at Amanda, before offering two small boxes. One, a box of toffees, the other a box of chocolates. Not quite a romantic gesture, but it was nice all the same. "How you feeling? Thought these might cheer you up."
Amanda Sefton takes the boxes and checks their contents before waving him inside, "Oh do come in. I'm battered not depressed, but I will never turn down chocolate."
"Well, being beaten up can still make one feel bad. I'm still sore, myself," Pete admitted, as he stepped inside. "Wanted to make sure you were okay, and to see you off before you left, again."
Amanda Sefton smiles at him as she makes her way to the nearest seat. "I'm sure I'll be fine, Pete. I've taken worse than that I think." She says this just as a single drop of blood stains the space above her lip as it slides from her nostril.
"Oh, petal. You're bleeding, again," he gestured to her nose. Pete may be British, but here in this hotel room, he didn't need to be too polite about important things like bleeding friends.
Amanda Sefton twirls her hand and conjures a cloth from somewhere since she doesn't want to get up again. "Would you mind terribly fetching me some ice from over there, Pete?" She presses the cloth to her nostril to staunch the bleeding. "I'm sure I'll be fine."
Pete wouldn't be too sure, but he didn't want her to be down… it's why he brought her chocolate! He went to get some ice for his friend. Yay for being nice, with ice!
Amanda Sefton says softly, "Besides, unless I produce a doctor's note saying I'm not able to travel, I'm going to have to make up the flight I missed working soon." When he comes back she lifts one of the pieces of ice and places it in the rag she's holding to cool the are and help stop the bleeding. It shouldn't be hard right? It was only the one drop after all.
"You do know we have licensed physicians on call to check you out and write what you need, Amanda," Wisdom told her. "If you need anything, we can provide."
Amanda Sefton looks up at him, "And how many of them are trained in magical maladies?"
"Two," said Pete. "One's a specialist in curse treatments. Another is our resident expert on infectious zombie, vampire, and lycanthropic treatments."
Amanda Sefton purses her lips for a moment then murmurs softly, "It might do me good to have the first one look at me then. I have continued to feel more tired than I would have expected to.
"Well, sure," said Pete. "We can pencil you in for probably after lunch. Have you done any scrying on yourself?"
Amanda Sefton shakes her head slowly then presses the cloth a bit more firmly. "I've been trying not to do much magic since what happened downstairs. Hard to rest if you're using up your energy."
"Understood. We should get you a big lunch, then. Something other than chips. Fish is good, of course. Hmmm," Wisdom thought. "There's different kinds of cuisine all over. You like curry? French?"
Amanda Sefton smiles, "I told you, Pete. I like whatever cuisine I'm eating."
"Well, I… fine," Pete smiled. He reached into his pocket for his phone, to call up the right person to give the right order to bring the curse specialist to the office.
Amanda Sefton lowers the cloth finally and examines the blood upon it which is an unfortunate bright shade of red. "How long will it take for the doctor to arrive?"
"I'd say, with transit and such to… oh," Pete said, as he called them up again. "Use the teleporter," he told the person on the other line. "I'd say they'd be ready in fifteen minutes."
Amanda Sefton lays her head back against the wall. "I don't suppose I could talk you into carrying me back into the bedroom? It might be the better notion."
"You're dizzy?" Pete did one better, wheeling over the handy hotel room's office chair. "Sit your pretty bum down, we'll get you back in bed no problem."
Amanda Sefton chuckles as she shifts from one chair to the other. "This is not as much fun as being carried, Pete."
"Fun isn't important. Once you're all better, I'll take you to Disney World, if you want fun," Pete teased as he helped get her back into the bed.
A few minutes later, Pete would open the door for the curse specialist. A wrinkled old woman stepped in ponderously.
Amanda Sefton comments, "Fun is always important, Pete." She relaxes onto the bed. When the curse specialist comes in, she turns her head to look at the old woman. "I have no idea what might be wrong."
The old woman would do her examination. First by prepping bowls of incense and chanting, discovering that, yes indeed, there was a magical malady of a sort upon Ms. Sefton. Though, eventually, she got a little demanding, and ordered Ms. Sefton to consent to a physical.
Amanda Sefton points out quietly that it's hardly consent if it's done under duress, but then gives the desired consent for a full physical so long as it does not involve her getting up.
That seemed satisfactory… though the old woman did ask Pete to help Amanda undress. Wisdom, however, was entirely professional. Really, his own comfort, even Amanda's, wasn't as important as figuring out what was wrong with her.
Undressing Amanda makes what's wrong pretty obvious. Pete can recognize the fragment of the summoning seal that seems to be burned onto her flesh rather than neatly tattooed like the man he has in custody.
Pete Wisdom frowned ever-so-deeply. "We can remove that," Pete told Amanda, as he gathered up a mirror to show her just what the hell is on her skin. "Ms. Hussain can make you good as new. Though I daresay it won't be comfortable." But Wisdom was willing to do anything to get something done right. Even say some of those names, to get worse things away.
After all, Satannish obliterated all Skrulls in the UK at Pete's request.
Amanda Sefton mutters some very un-ladylike things under her breath before saying, "I'm sorry. I thought I stopped it from touching me."
"Do you want us to remove it?" Pete asked her. "And destroy, uh… that?"
Amanda Sefton opens her mouth to say of course she wants to have the thing removed, but the words actually don't come out. She frowns then tries again but still says nothing.
Pete Wisdom saw this behavior, and he had an idea. A mean idea, but still an idea. He lifted a finger, and a tiny, thin hot-knife sprouted from it.
What Amanda didn't know is that it was entirely insubstantial, and only warm. So even if it went inside her, it wouldn't cut her, it wouldn't even hurt her.
But he brought it toward the rune, careful, slow. To see how it, or she, might react.
At first Amanda is still, then just before he touches her with the knife, a quick gesture from the gypsy sends a net of mystic bonds to wrap around him.
"Nnnff!" Said Pete, as he found himself held fast in those bonds. "Thought so. Amanda, you're not quite in control of yourself, are you?" he asked her.
Amanda Sefton takes a long moment to respond, "What were you doing, Pete? Those things are dangerous."
"Give me your hand," he told her. "And please release me."
Amanda Sefton actually doesn't hesitate to do either. She trusts Pete not to hurt her unless she was a threat to England. "Of course." She acts like she's not the one who bound him up in the first place.
He gently poked that still-manifested hot-knife, quite quickly, right through her finger. She'd feel warmth, but not pain, even as she saw the glowing orange spike poking through her finger. "There, you see? I've got excellent control of these things. We'd like to give you another cursory medical examination. Blood pressure, CT scan, that sort of thing. Look for any possible clots or whathaveyou."
Amanda Sefton frowns, "Pete, the doctor already checked for all those things when they checked me over after the incident."
"Sweetheart, you're bleeding from the nose and you're tired. We might have missed a clot in your sinus cavity. Some sort of blockage, or… something." He was genuinely concerned. Her magical malady might not include the bleeding, after all. "You can barely get up, as is. If we have to, we'll bring a whole damn staff down here to look at you."
He also, right now, didn't have the heart to tell her if he would allow her to leave.
Amanda Sefton sighs softly, "I suppose that's a fair point, but I'm sure it will get better on its own. I've always healed well."
Wisdom looked at Amanda for what felt longer than might have really been, before he stepped out into the hallway to make that call.
Yes, he'd leave her alone with the old lady. Pete was calling up a medical team, with orders to get a physician, some nurses, an IV, and a strong sedative. Why? Because he's also calling for a surgeon, who should be able to remove that rune, even if it takes some of her skin with it.
Amanda Sefton frowns a little when Pete leaves the room but gives the old woman a small smile as she waits for him to come back. It's likely a good thing she doesn't know what he's doing since that would give her the opportunity to object to the nation of the surgeon and being unconscious.
Pete isn't a bad guy. But Amanda's feelings come before the security of his homeland… or his own feelings, for that matter. He returned forthwith, a chipper smile on. "Got a team coming in to overlook your vitals, give you an IV and some vitamins, and to study that mark and see what we can do about it. Sounds acceptable?" he offered. "Since you can barely move, I also asked for a bedpan, just in case. Worried about you, petal."
Amanda Sefton stretches up her arms in an offer of a hug, "Come here, gaje." Assuming she can loop her arms around him, she whispers, "You don't have to worry. I'm going to be alright. I've been at this a long time."
Pete would extend that hug very carefully, treating her as though she were more ill than she lets on. "Hemorrhaging from your nose after getting banged around a magic barrier is cause for concern."
Amanda Sefton sighs, "Well maybe a little, but you know that barrier was your idea right."
"And better that you're contained, wouldn't you agree?" asked Pete, sitting at Amanda's bedside when the first nurses came in, wheeling in an IV and a tray with various stuff. No blood samples, but they did take her blood pressure and check her oxygen, eye response, etc. After they'd set an IV into her arm, they'd inject first a vitamin shot through the IV, then a strong anesthetic to put her under in a few minutes. All this time, Pete would be holding her hand.
It doesn't even occur to Amanda that Pete might lie to her even though it probably should because some part of her knows he would if he had to. So Amanda concedes that the containment was a good idea even if she did get a little battered around. She smiles at him wryly as she patiently tolerates the tests.
When she realizes she is starting to fall asleep again. Amanda blinks once. She looks at the IV in confusion then gives Pete a betrayed look as she reaches from the IV to pull it from her arm. She never gets there. The betrayal fades from her expression as she loses consciousness.
Pete's done much worse. But first, on comes the iron again, just in case her body acts instinctively to anything trying to touch that rune. Then, with the help of the medical staff, they'd keep Amanda under while positioning her in a way to safely expose that sigil.
Then came the important part. Disinfectant sprays were utilized, to clean the bedroom, the bathroom, and for the staff to scrub and prepare.
Magical infection is one thing. Perfectly ordinary infection is another, and Pete wanted to avoid it at all costs. Once all was in order, a blue marker would be applied to the area of her skin around the symbol, for safe excision. A can of SHIELD-issue spray-on 'synth' skin was easily accessible, too.
Without Amanda conscious and protecting it, the sigil has no way of defending itself. It wasn't complete enough to be able to generate any power of outside of its host. But when the slicing away begins, Amanda's body tenses and jerks as the sigil fights. Her blood pressure goes up dangerously then plummets as her vitals are dampened by whatever it is. Apparently it intends to make the gypsy suffer its fate if they extinguish it.
"Bugger me sideways," Pete cursed. "Agatha, is there anything you can do to quiet this sodding thing?!" he snapped at the curse specialist. "No, sir."
"Is that camera on?" "Yes, sir." "Good. She won't want to see this, but she'll need to, to see that we've done our best. No choice now but to quarantine her and ask for help from elsewhere." Pete sounded rather grave at that.
"Abort the incision. Clean her up and close that up with some synth skin. Then move her to level 13 where we can quarantine her properly, monitor her and make sure she doesn't do anything foolish. I'm going to call O and prep a visit to Otherworld." Pete sounded even less happy than that. Taking a few Polaroids of her symbol, he started making more plans in his head.
Amanda Sefton's vitals remain disturbingly low even after the incision stops, but even a disturbingly slow pulse is still a pulse and though there is room for concern, her heart never stops beating.
The curse specialist applies poultices and salves… against the wishes of doctors, but approved by Pete. Just healing implements, really.
Finally Amanda stabilizes and her vitals come back as the threat to the sigil has gone away. Her breathing becomes steady and her pulse strong. She looks so peaceful lying there asleep.
It would be quite some time before she'd wake. More than enough time to set her up in a room, with modern conveniences, a bed, dresser, table, television, monitored computer access, bathroom…
And there's the cameras. And the iron bands with silver and brass bells on her wrists and ankles. And another big circle, along the outside of her room.
Pete would be sitting in a comfortable chair in her new, sparse, but comfortable room. He'd have a wheeled-in television, ready to play the footage of her reaction. He was expecting to get yelled at. Maybe even cursed, or spat on.
When Amanda finally wakes up, her reaction to her surroundings is slow. This is clearly not her room at the Shangri-La. She lifts her hand to her head and stops in surprise when her wrist jingles with the sound of bells. Her breathing quickens. And then it comes back to her. The IV, the anesthetic. And there's Pete. She turns her face toward him. "What is going on, Pete? Where am I?"
"You're in MI-13," explained Pete. "You're in the secret section. You're under quarantine, because that little carving won't come off you without killing you. I didn't want to tell you my plan as, soon as you'd be aware of it, it may be, too." Then, he hit 'play.'
"Watch," said Pete.
A credit to the care and professionalism that MI-13 has, as they clean themselves and the room, and her, before the procedure. But it's the reaction, even though their shouldn't be one, that's surprising.
Pete's expression is dour. The same in real life as on the recording.
Amanda Sefton stares at the recording then frowns at him, "Why did you stop it if you were going to go through all that trouble to put me under?"
"Because look," Pete pointed to her vital displays. "It was trying to kill you. And with how slow and precise surgeons are, it would have you dead before we had half of it excised. Do you understand?"
Amanda Sefton lifts her wrists to shake the iron bracelets at him. "And this? What's this for?" Her quickened rising and falling of her chest belies her appearance of calm.
"In case that evil little thing decides to exhibit any more influence on you. It has shown enough control to halt your nervous system's instructions to keep you alive if it's threatened. Who knows what else it can do? It's fucking evil, Amanda. And you're one of the most powerful people in my country right now. If you got controlled by this, and thought to go drain power from the Siege Perilous, we'd all be fucked."
Amanda Sefton frowns and moves to get up from the bed despite the trouble she's been having, "If it's so dangerous that it might be a threat to England, why isn't it gone, Pete? Why didn't you take care of it yourself when you thought the surgeon would be too slow?"
Wisdom frowned. "I can always put you under, and then carve it out of you lickety split. But you'd have a cauterized chunk of Amanda missing."
Amanda Sefton frowns, "You could have used a scalpel instead of your powers. You've got a steady enough hand. There were scalpels easily accessed. Why? And for that matter, why not let it kill me? I'm a danger right?" She pushes up to her feet now.
"Because we're not at that point, yet. You aren't causing mass devastation. All in all, the only one really inconvenienced, right now, is you," said Pete. Then he said something he knew was going to hurt her.
"I'm expecting you want me to be honest with you. Fine. You're not from round here, Sefton. And it's my job to make sure that situations like this are contained. But I'm not a heartless bastard, otherwise you'd be dead and that artefact would be tossed into one of the magical prisons where I let all evil escape it, in the first place. There's a chance of saving you and stopping this, and we have time to look. We didn't have time to look when the Martians we using Maureen Raven as a bridge between dimensions to invade London. This all feels far too familiar, Amanda, and I won't have you die if I can help it!"
He realized he was shouting, standing up with his hands balled into white-knuckled fists. He took a breath and sat back down
"I won't, if I can help it," he repeated.
Amanda Sefton crosses the steps between them so she can make a grab for his hair in a racket of bells. Either she's going to try and kiss him or something not good is about to happen. There is some question as to whether Amanda actually knows what her intention is.
Wisdom seemed about to protest as she just had a minor incision, and she was weak and all. But didn't stop her.
Amanda Sefton thrusts both her hands into his hair and tugs his head almost roughly forward as she presses herself against him. There's a lot of jingling from the bells, and there's cameras watching, as she plants a kiss on him, rough but passionate. Didn't she say she doesn't like the rough stuff?
Pete took her waist in his hands. She was showing more strength than she should. "Sorry, luv," he told her. "Not till you've got a doctor's note. If there's one thing American films got right, it was Venkman not succumbing to a possessed Dana Barrett." Pete would then try to… well, leave!
When Pete attempted to go, a jingling of the bells gave a split second's notice before the bonds wrap around him again. "Who said anything about me being possessed? I'm not possessed Pete."
"Nnf," Wisdom complained as he found himself wrapped up in those magical bonds again. "Hell hath no fury and all, petal, but would you mind letting me out of this? I'm trying to help you, you know."
Amanda Sefton frowns, "Are you going to let me out of here?" She looks around to examine the room for mirrors even though she knows Pete isn't stupid enough to give her a mirror.
"Yes," was Wisdom's simple reply.
Amanda Sefton walks over to the door he was trying to go through and attempts to walk through it.
"Careful, luv. You asked if I was going to let you out. I didn't say you could leave, yet." Wisdom struggled against the magical bonds, trying to expose his nanominium-coated wristwatch… which he tried to wiggle in the way of some of those bonds. Would the heavily magic-repellant material work? Who knows, a shield made with it deflected the blasts of Mindless Ones without issue.
Nothing mundane can break the mystic bonds of Amanda Sefton. When she finds she cannot pass through the door, as expected, she says, "If I can't leave, then neither can you." Then again nanominium isn't exactly mundane now is it. Amanda turns back toward him, "I'm not a danger Pete. What do I have to do to convince you?"
Fwash! That not so mundane material sent those bonds twisting and swirling around Pete, wrapping about an arm to tighten their grip, but it allowed him movement. "Sorry, luv," grunted Wisdom as he tilted his body forward and ran full bore toward the doorway.
"I'm the boss, here, and your magic in my house is not permitted!" Those words had strength of a sort. No magic that Pete himself wielded, but magic worked with weird rules anyway. And he knew the rules of give and take, and hospitality to boot.
Amanda Sefton hit Pete in the back with a mystic bolt as he went toward the door, but that didn't stop him from getting through it. It only created a nasty stun. Behind him, Amanda paced the room furiously as that single drop of blood stained the space above her lip again.
Stumbling past the seal, Pete ordered an underling to shut the door and not look or listen to the woman inside. And to lock it, too.
On the floor, on his stomach, Pete wasn't sure who to call.
Captain Britain, Dr. Strange, or his ex-wife.
Amanda Sefton returns to the door to beat on it and call out Pete's name and demands for him to come back. When she's banged enough times to be sure he's not coming back, Amanda turns and begins to track down the cameras and other monitoring devices in her room one at a time and fry them. Literally.