Lingua Franca

[Supercape]

Axel sighed. 

 

"What, these flowers not good enough?"

 

Bullying hospital staff was bad form. Real bad. But on the other hand, Carmen had sounded serious. Even scared, which was something he had hardly ever seen. Of course, that meant he should be scared too. But right now, it was better to get this thing done, ugly as it might be. 

 

"Look Honey, you seem a real nice gal. Real nice. Kinda nice girl who shouldn't get in my way when I am in a bad mood. And baby, I am in a real bad mood right now. So I am going to see my friend. And you are going to tell me the way. Either with my boot up your backside, or without my boot. One way or another, thats the way its gotta be" he said, almost apologetically and with total sincerity. 

[TheAbsurdist]

Her eyes widened as she looked at him.  She was a tough lady.  Every night she stared at death, or was near it.  It was the nature of her job after all.  Her hand going up to her throat a bit, and then...

 

A hand went down onto Axel's shoulder from behind, and there was a large man sitting there, staring right at Axel.  Younger than the biker, and probably the nurse, the orderly or security guy nonetheless had a craggy face and a mirthless smile.  "Hey, how ya doin' buddy?  What Miss Molly means is that unless you're family, or you came in with them, you don't get to see a patient, 'cept during visiting hours.  And it's a little late for that.  Now how about you don't threaten Miss Molly, and go be a ray of sunshine somewhere else, okay?"  His eye brows raising, as he stood there in his scrubs, no less a mountain of meat than Axel.

[Supercape]

Axel didn't blink. He just turned, slowly. 

 

"Son, I would love to do that. Sunshine, pretty flowers, and group hugs. But ya see, I still got a pair of balls. And unlike some, I don't need a hospital scanner to see them" he said, facing down the guard. 

 

"You see, you got problems in this here hospital, Son. I came here to fix em. Problems you wouldn't understand, and wouldn't believe. You want to tag along and see I mean what I say, then you just go right ahead Son. It's not me you need to worry about, its the shadows and malice here that will turn your crap white and soil those nice clean clothes you wearin'" he grinned, with full confidence. 

 

"But if you want to shrivel up your balls even more, why don't you call security, have me escorted of the premises by someone with more balls than you, and then when the crap hits the fan this night, I'll make damn sure you stopped the only man that could have stopped it, Son" he said, calmly, and meaning every word. 

 

"Look me in the eye and tell me nothing funky is going on with John Perdition and Carmen Cantos. Look me in the eye and believe it, and then wonder how you coulda been so blind when all hell breaks loose" he said, before leaning and whispering. 

 

"And I when I say all hell breaks loose, Son, I don't mean it figuratively..."

[TheAbsurdist]

The man smiled, that was it, he just smiled.  And then the desk nurse's voice was heard talking, and not to either of them.  "Yes, I'd like to report a large man menacing staff at the ER desk.  Can I have the officer come by here as soon as possible."

 

The orderly shrugged a bit, then, folding his arms across his chest. looking almost apologetic to Axel.  "You should go.  And remember this is a Freedom City ER."  In fairness this wasn't the worst threat they had heard that night.  And while Axel was genuinely intimidating nothing he was saying would even remotely trigger warning alarms.  If it was truly catastrophic the Freedom League, or AEGIS, or someone would be crawling over this place.

[Supercape]

Axel ground his teeth and clenched his fists. Damn this all. He wasn't a man to back down. He could have happily thrown a few punches and ended up in the slammer or worse. But, this was a fight he couldn't win. He could kick some pansy orderllies backside. But there would be more. Then the police. Then SWAT. 

 

"Yeah, right. You go on believing the man got yer back, sucker" he said furiously. "I'm out of here"

 

He stomped out of the building, but had no intention of leaving Carmen in the lurch with whatever demonic trouble she had got herself in to. 

 

It had been a while since he broke the law. Nothing serious, a few fights, a few speeding tickets, possession of firearm, robbery...well, some had been a bit serious, but that had been decades ago as a young man. 

 

He scouted round the back of the Hospital, trying to find some way in. Hospitals had several entrances and exits, if you knew where to look. And they were big too. Easy to stay anonymous. 

 

The Orderly had busted his ass, but had also given him an idea. 

 

He just needed to find some of those blue orderly surgical clothe things...

[TheAbsurdist]

The orderly smiled pleasantly, though it didn't reach his eyes, he just followed along with Axel to the door leading out.  Security, and the police would be called.  So that was a strike against his plan.  But he was right, hospital was big.  Big enough to get lost in, if one wasn't paying attention.  Or big enough to sneak around to another section and possibly avoid being noticed.

 

So Axel skulked to another part entirely, and into an employee section, through a door left open as someone ran out to smoke.  Because... do as they say, and all that.

[Supercape]

Axel was a big man, but he moved quietly. Way he figured it, he was up to his eyeballs in this mess anyold how. And in for a dime, in for a dollar. Besides, wouldn't been the first time he had bent the law. Wouldn't even be the first time he broke it. Except this time, it was for a good cause. He had seen stuff that he couldn't forget. And if Carmen sounded that scared, then everybody else should be damn right terrified. 

 

He walked quickly - not too fast, not too slow - to the porters office, and found some greens that he could wear. Not easy for a big man like him, but then, they did come in all shapes and all sizes. 

 

He still looked like a biker. Tattoos, pony tail. He couldn't do much about that though, just soldier on up. See if he couldn't find Carmen or Perdition. And then try and find what was goin' on...