The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (and then cuts off the oxygen)

[cityship]

It was a little hectic in Medbay. Though there were only a few patients, they weren't in the best shape. Still, there was the best life support technology that could be built or grown in the Medbay, and the problems were being dealt with.

For the moment.

That moment would soon be over, only to be replaced by sheer chaos.

[ooc: Tag away!]

Comments

The Lead-up

[cityship]

There were a few patients in Medbay and medical staff attending to their needs, helping to keep them stable.

Some of their conditions were deteriorating rapidly despite it, however.

Re: The Lead-up

[staturity]

Cassie Lang was back in Medbay except this time she was nine years old. She had been born with a heart defect, one they hadn't caught until she was dying from it. And one that was inoperable- unless you were the best cardiologist out there, as Dr. Sondheim had been. When she went missing, Cassie's father became Ant-Man so he could save her and the doctor operated on Cassie.

Unfortunately, no brilliant cardiologist was here, nor was her father for that matter. All they could do was put her on life support and wait for her to deage to an earlier time. Or to be cured and return to normal.

Re: The Lead-up

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard hates nine year-olds only slightly less than he hates little kids. Thankfully, life support is mostly a hands-off sort of job, just making sure Cassie doesn't crash and the systems keep working right. Cassie doesn't really have as much of a chance to do all those child things that make Howard want to run and hide back in his house.

But despite her love for that stupid evil Furby, Howard actually kind of likes Cassie. And he doesn't like dealing with dead people or people on the verge of death. So for once, he's hoping someone around here jumps to a little younger.

Re: The Lead-up

[encourage]

Sakura moved to Cassie's bed, looking over her current readouts. This was the part of the wind-down that people had been fearing, ones where conditions from earlier in life, or the extreme edge of life, brought them into a dangerous position. Ren had hit one before they realized he was affected by the clock as well.

Going back through time had saved him, in a sense. Cassie was in a similar boat, if she wasn't broken necked and non-responsive. Small favors.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

Conner was just as catatonic as before, but also...tinier.

Much smaller now, maybe toddler age.

[theboywhowaits]

Rory lifted the child, careful and quiet, trying not to jostle him or move him too fast. "Stacy, soft water. Please, a recording. No animal sounds or music, just soft water. Stream or something." He tucked the warmed blankets around the child, trying to replicate the environment of the tank. Trying to some how give him some sort of comfort. "I'm here, Conner." The words were a soft, a constant litany. It went both ways, didn't it? Conner had asked him to be his dad, and Rory had spent the past few weeks treating Conner like his son. Internalizing the connection. And now his child was slipping away from him. And he couldn't do anything to stop it.

All he could do was force himself to go through the motions, to remember what he'd learned. To try to make the child comfortable, and at the moment he loathed that word. Loathed the implications it held for dealing with the dying. Because he wasn't ready to give up on Conner, not yet. Not now.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

Elsewhere, things were happening. Important things, life-saving things, but he was slipping away too fast for those, wasn't he. Slipping away far too fast, losing age right before Rory's eyes.

There was something good that happened during this, though, one shining moment of bright in the dark as Conner started to de-age out of existence.

For just a moment, he passed backwards to when he'd had a developing brain, the time that'd been glossed over for the sake of expediency. It was then, as a tiny child, that he reached up and brushed tiny fingers against Rory's face, exploring it, taking comfort in his sense of touch.

[theboywhowaits]

That was perhaps worse than a tiny, broken child. Worse to see the baby, the little innocent child that was dying in reverse because someone had been cruel enough to flash age him to the point he'd be useful.

He rocked him, smiling softly and whispering reassurances to the baby. Shifting him to rest in his arms. "I'm here, Conner. I'm not going anywhere." The words were soft, leaning to let the baby explore as much as he wished. "I've got you, Conner." He glanced around the medbay, watching the others rush around trying to get people settled, and turned back to the baby, smiling for him. It was strange to think, strange to let the unwilling thought form. Most children's first memory was their parents holding them and loving them and feeling completely safe in their arms.

It may well be the last thing Conner ever saw and felt.

The Sabotage [Locked to Lex]

[cityship]

Elsewhere, someone was doing something a little dastardly that would have terrible consequences on the patients in Medbay.

Re: The Sabotage [Locked to Lex]

[imperious_lex]

It was something so simple, an opportunity that presented itself for him to erase a horrible mistake that an alternate self made. All he had to do was make a few minor adjustments, then he would be free.

Once everything was ready, all he did was press a button, then sat back and let out a breath.

Goodbye. Son.

Damage Control

[cityship]

The lights suddenly went out, leaving emergency flashing on. However, oxygen pumps stopped pumping and life support stopped supporting. There was mechanical equipment and manual equipment to help take their place until the emergency power came back on, but the medical staff would have to act fast to avoid losing their patients.

In the case of anyone in the healing tanks, with the oxygenation turning off, they might lose their patients anyway.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

The liquid in the tank wasn't water, so it couldn't necessarily cause a person to drown, but like air, if there wasn't enough oxygen in it, one could suffocate.

The problem was Conner was starting to get too small to be taken out of the tank without some sort of alternative and with the power to medbay mostly down, it would be hard enough even getting him out of the tank without hurting him.

[theboywhowaits]

No.

No. No. No. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not now. "STACY! What's happening! Where are the backups?!" There had to be backups. Had to.

He had to get the tank open, he had to get Conner out of it. But Conner's lungs weren't developed, were slipping backwards by the moment until the child couldn't exist without the life support that. No. Longer. Worked.

"STACY!" His hand beat ineffectively at the tube, deliberately not thinking about the other child. The one that might be in a similar state at the moment.

Conner was going to die while he stood here watching, while he stood waiting, useless, unable to save him from drowning in liquid because he'd drown in the air. "This isn't fair! We almost had it! STACY DO SOMETHING!"

[battorch]

Oh god no. Tim felt his own panic rise as the power flicked off, and as he watched the support system fail. The support system that was keeping his best friend and who was essentially his brother alive. This couldn't be happening, he couldn't be losing Conner. They were so close to the solution, and now he was watching him slip away. No, he couldn't fail Conner. Not again.

The cowl, that he'd replaced while watching over him, covered his expression-- and he was thankful for it. He felt the cracks coming through, in his expression, in his composure, but he didn't have time to panic, didn't have time to do anything but fix this. He wasn't going to fail. They were so close, they just had to buy a little time. They had to buy more time.

"Stacy," he managed out, voice not quite level, not quite keeping the Red Robin tone. She had to hear them, had to be able to help. "Can power be diverted from non-essentials to keep the life support going until power is restored?" he asked. There had to be something they could do.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

||There is damage to one of Medbay's primary power couplings. Primary power down. Secondary power down. Backup power will be diverted shortly.||

They didn't have shortly. They didn't have any time.

The little baby's skin was turning blue with hypoxia and he was gasping in the tube, little fingers grasping at nothing.

Re: Damage Control

[staturity]

Cassie's heart was barely pumping enough oxygenated blood through her system. The oxygen and ventilators were helping keep her stable, though. Without those she had a few minutes before her condition changed for the worse.

Re: Damage Control /let me know if anything needs tweaking

[encourage]

Which is, of course, when the power cuts. Sakura was up on her feet and looking around -- there was more than one person to worry about, and without a backup system coming to life, that meant others who needed immediate attention. People who would be destabilizing if action wasn't taken.

Cassie was one of the problematic ones. Sakura knew her condition had been maintained by the machines, and in their absence, she'd need manual assistance. Granted, even if she lacked chakra, she knew how to manually keep a heart pumping for a short period of time, but she was operating on full chakra. The damn dragons were here, the clock should have been destroyed by now, but of course it wasn't.

"Howard!" She had her hands situated over Cassie's sternum, glowing green with her chakra. She was monitoring Cassie's heart for her, there to keep it pumping sufficiently without overtaxing as much as she could, but she needed hands to manually keep the ventilator going. "I need you on the ventilator to keep her breathing!"

Re: Damage Control /let me know if anything needs tweaking

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Already on it. Where the hell are the backups?" He's up at the ventilator fairly quickly.

"What're you doing?" It's not an accusation; rather, he'll know better how to react if he knows if Sakura's healing Cassie or just maintaining her at baseline. If Sakura's just maintaining, that means that she and him are both hamstringed from checking on or aiding the other patients, or trying to get the backups running. His mind races as he tries to piece together a way to keep the ventilator running without doing it manually.

The Clock is Destroyed

[cityship]

Like a rubber band snapping, as the Melting Clock was destroyed, all the time taken from the affected patients in Medbay was returned in an instant--perhaps just in the nick of time.

Re: The Clock is Destroyed

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

Okay, so maybe it wasn't over. There was a blur and suddenly the water in the tube was displaced by Kon growing back to his hulking normal size. For the briefest second, they might have caught a glimpse of the macabre sight of Kon aging 1000 years as a corpse before being restored, but only a glimpse. For the most part, all his lost time and a millennium extra snapped back into place. Wherever the clock was, they'd done it. Reversed the damage.

But there was still the problem of the tank and the fact he was stuck in it, with the power down.

He clawed at his throat in the tank, choking on the oxygen-less fluid, then smashed his fist weakly at the plastisteel. It didn't break but cracks appeared across the surface in spider-webs. Then, too weak to punch it again, his eyes rolled back in his head.

[battorch]

The relief that washed over Tim at the sight was momentary-- but immense. Conner was coming back, ageing back to normal. He wasn't lost, Tim hadn't completely let him down...

But he still wasn't completely safe, not yet. He had to move quickly, to get him out of there, or else it will have all been for nothing. They'd bought more time, yes, but not much more.

Closing the small distance between him and the tank, he quickly produced some small charges from his utility belt-- nothing powerful or large, but the concussive force should be enough to finish it off where Conner had already started the damage. "Cover your ears," Tim said harshly, to Rory-- and hopefully Conner caught it too, while Tim gestured the same message to the boy who might not be able to register it. Then, hoping that was enough, he set the charges and ducked backwards, following his own advice.

[theboywhowaits]

He couldn't feel relived, not yet, they needed to get him out of there. He was still drowning. They weren't done yet. He looked quickly around, checking for something heavy to break it open the rest of the way.

'Hold on Conner. Hold on.'

Five minutes, they had five minutes before the brain damage was irreversible. The shorter time the better, they needed to get him out and breathing again.

Rory reached for a chair, covering his ears automatically when Tim barked the order and dropping in some half remembered reflex to avoid an explosion.

[staturity]

Cassie sucked in a deep breath and pushed away the people who'd been so busy keeping her alive.

"Ngh." She opened her eyes. "What-" Oh. They must have cured everyone.

...Damn it, and she just outgrew the medbay clothes she'd been in. She covered herself with her hands and brought her legs up to cover her lower half. But she couldn't do anything to cover the scars up her left arm, shoulder, neck, and head.

"Uh, thanks guys. I hope I have some clothes uh somewhere?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Holy God, now she's naked. Somehow this was less scary when she was on the brink of death being kept alive by magic ninja powers and a remote-controlled car battery.

Howard's cheeks flush as he takes a deep breath, turns on his heels and walks straight out of the Med Bay.

[encourage]

Sakura would have been staring at his back as he left, what, like a little nudity was out of place in Medical? Patients got better. The woke up. They weren't always clothed!

Either way, Cassie had more of her attention by now, and for all of Howard's decision to turn tail and walk out now, she wouldn't exactly hold it against him. He'd stuck through the times that mattered most, and overall, that counted more in her book. If it would have been nice if he'd stuck around to, you know, make sure everyone in medical was okay.

Not everyone here was here for age-related problems. Just most of the few.

"Sorry about that," Sakura said, lifting a sheet from the next bed over and offering it to Cassie. "If you want something other than a plantsuit, give me a moment. We should have something that'll work for you."