Crime and Punishment: The finale (?)

[wright_idea]

If Phoenix could be pacing, he would be. As it is, he is drumming his fingers on the side counter again, waiting for word from Quinn. No pills; he wants to try and keep his brain straight, even though the pain is definitely getting to him and the nurses at the clinic clearly disapprove of this decision.

He wants this to be over with. Every minute Li is still being held by this guy creates another knot in his stomach, another thought to fret over. It's already established that this man is a pedophile and a potential murderer; he could do ANYTHING to Li and Phoenix wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

So he waits for Quinn. Quinn, who is currently tracking Li through his collar. He just prays they're not too late.

Comments

[1morethemedhero.livejournal.com]

And it's then that Quinn--Dragonfly--teleports in, in full armor. "I've found him," she says, gender mechanically separated out of her voice by the suit. "Narrowed it down to one world, ten-mile radius... I'll have to check the rest in person."

[wright-idea.livejournal.com]

Phoenix looks up, brightening. "Great! Well, what are we waiting for, then? Let's go!"

He attempts to get out of bed again, but it's obvious he is still not in the best condition to be ambulating, though he's making a mighty effort at it. Someone's life is in the balance here.

[1morethemedhero.livejournal.com]

A gauntleted hand moves to keep him from getting up--a strong one, too. "You're not going anywhere," she says. "You need to recover... and, besides, you don't have A, the experience, or B, the gear, for something like this."

[wright-idea.livejournal.com]

Phoenix looks ready to protest, but a twinge of pain shoots through his left side, causing him to bend over. "Damnit..." he mutters, the dismay obvious in his face over his inability to help.

He looks up at Quinn. "All... all right. Though believe me that if I were in any other condition, I'd be coming along whether you liked it or not. Hit him a good one for me, will you?"

[1morethemedhero.livejournal.com]

She nods, her face hidden by the helmet of the suit.

And, without further ado, teleports out.

[damselfli.livejournal.com]

"Ooof!" The bug appears in a flash of light and lands in a heap on top of the seven-year-old who was still clining to his leg.

[wright-idea.livejournal.com]

Phoenix has been waiting patiently for Quinn's return up to this point. He's also waiting for official word on discharge, but Quinn is more important right now.

And oh look who's appeared in his room!

He brightens. "Li! Li, you're okay! You have no idea how..."

He trails off. "...um, Li? Who's the little boy?"

[clever--fool.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Phoenix!" Li-the-bug looks a little sickly, but is otherwise perfectly okay. He beams up at Phoenix, quite pleased to see him and that he seems to be doing better than last time.

For his part, the little boy has already righted himself and brushed himself off and is looking around the room. Upon realizing that he is not where he is supposed to be, his expression seems to say, 'ooops!' with a slight hint of amusement.

"Oh!" The bug looks over at the boy. "I guess that's Mr. Ho's son."

[wright-idea.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Ho's... son?"

Parsing... parsing... parsing...

Ding.

"That guy has a SON?!"

Well. There's a couple new things learned today.

[damselfli.livejournal.com]

The child turns around to look at Phoenix, apparently startled by his tone. He doesn't even know where he is, so it's kind of scary to have a strange guy yelling like that, especially when it seems to have something to do with him.

The bug, however, simply gives Phoenix a nervous look from where he is still kneeling on the tile floor. "Heh... I guess so!"

[1morethemedhero.livejournal.com]

And then Quinn appears, armor and all, and slumps against a wall. Her eyes are blank, staring mostly at nothing.

[wright-idea.livejournal.com]

Phoenix is still trying to parse the fact that Ho -- so that's his name -- would possibly be trusted enough to be allowed to have children when Quinn appears. He looks at her, taking in her blank expression. "Quinn?"

[1morethemedhero.livejournal.com]

She holds up a hand. "It'll be another few minutes until I'm back up to speed," she says carefully. "My suit sometimes uses my nervous system for backup computations, and I stressed my medulla a bit too much with hard-light calculating."