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Zadkiel Thrush ([info]lifeibreathe) wrote in [info]we_float,
@ 2010-06-20 00:48:00

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Entry tags:character: alec tremont, character: matt cavanaugh, character: zadkiel thrush

Who: Matt Cavanaugh, Zadkiel Thrush, and Alec Tremont (briefly)
When: Sunday, June 20, 2096
Where: Anhalt, then a flophouse in Ballard
What: A rescue mission
Status: Closed, Complete

"I have an address," Alec said. It was clear from the feverish, glazed look in his eyes that he hadn't yet slept. "They've been taunting me all night, electronic bread crumb trails that lead down digital dark alleys, but I finally have an address for where Barton is, and apparently not in very good shape. I expect it's a trap, so you should probably be prepared for that." He thrust the scrap of paper into the hands of the only person up and about. "I'm going to bed now. Ta."

Zadkiel stared at the information, uncertain what to do with it. A trap. Barton injured. He didn't even know who was home, or who would be of any help in this kind of situation. But one of them had a gun, and that would be a good thing to bring into a trap. He also seemed to be one of the more level-headed of the house's inhabitants, and that was good, too.

He padded upstairs and knocked on Matt's door.


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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 05:36 am UTC (link)
The knock wasn't one he was familiar with; Matt actually made some effort to get up and go open the door rather than simply shouting for the person to open it. But fuck it, there wasn't anything interesting on the feeds, which was disappointing, given the number of those that existed, and at least this way he could adjust his sock so that the hole in the toe didn't show.

He still wouldn't have placed money on it being Zadkiel on the other side, though. He blinked, but finally remembered something like manners and said "Hey. What's up?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 05:43 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel handed him the piece of paper that Alec had shoved in his hands. "Alec gave this to me. It's where Barton is, apparently not in good shape. He says it's probably a trap. I thought..." He hesitated. "If he's hurt, I should go. If it's a trap... you were the one I thought might be best able to handle that?" He didn't mean for it to come out a question, but he hardly knew anyone in the house, or how they might react to an invitation to follow him into what was likely a bad situation. Even if they'd all been told it was what they were supposed to be doing.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 05:47 am UTC (link)
He should've expected that to be the result of Maxxie shouting to god and everyone about the gun, but Matt managed to repress the sigh that threatened, and looked the other man up and down carefully.

"Kid," he said finally - whatever, his lofty vantage point of less than five years gave him the right - "I ain't muscle, and I ain't a bodyguard." He paused for a second, but realised that he didn't realise whether that might just make Zadkiel shuffle back off to wherever he'd been. Then he grinned. "Never said I wouldn't go," he added. "Just that I wouldn't only go because you need backup or something. And that I'm not a bodyguard. I mean, come on, how often do you get to be real life superheroes? When d'you want to leave?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 05:55 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel had taken half a step backward, ready to try to find someone else, and it took a second to register that Matt had agreed to go. "Soon. Now." He frowned. "I can't go alone. Or, I don't think it would be a good idea. I just thought you'd be the most likely to know how to handle something like this." One shoulder lifted and fell.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 06:00 am UTC (link)
"Depends. You said trap, and some of that's kind of obvious to me, but some of it's kind of not. We learn by doing, though, right?"

He turned away and grabbed a pair of boots, pulling them on as he added "Where's he at? I know Alec's been looking, but, like, what'd he fucking say about it when he gave you the address, other than trap, and not in good shape?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 06:04 am UTC (link)
"He said that they'd been been leading him down dead end trails all night. Online, I guess. That's about it. I'm not familiar with the address." Zadkiel's frown deepened. It was so little to go on.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 06:07 am UTC (link)
"So we expect anything." Another grin. "I can do that. Why did you say you should go because he's hurt, though? You a medic or something? I mean, I think I remember that you work for a clinic, right, but I didn't know you knew a lot. Or is this like, to render first aid where fucking possible?"

He also lifted a jacket - it wasn't terribly cold, but the jacket would be good cover for the gun, and it was a setup Matt was long comfortable with. Never advertise what you had. "And that's me ready. You ready?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 06:15 am UTC (link)
"I need shoes," Zadkiel said, and headed for his room to retrieve his sneakers, slipping them on and tying them quickly. "My Ace is that I can heal," he explained. "Better than first aid." He stood back up, grabbed his phone and slid it into his pocket. "All right."

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 06:18 am UTC (link)
"I'd call that a useful one," Matt agreed, lighting a cigarette. "Good one to have handy in a pinch. Can you, like, heal anything, or are there limits?"

He led the way down the stairs. "And what's the fucking address? I mean, are we driving or walking or taking the bus or calling a cab or catching a plane, what?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 06:22 am UTC (link)
"Driving, I think." Zadkiel showed him the piece of paper when they reached the bottom of the stairs. The back of it had a design of bamboo leaves printed on it, blue on brown. Alec's scrawl was all but illegible.

"It has limits," he said. "I have limits." Which was sort of an amendment and sort of not.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-20 06:29 am UTC (link)
"Doesn't everyone?" Matt quirked an eyebrow, and his expression was ironic.

Then he paid more attention to the paper. "I can't read this shit, can you? You're going to have to. I mean, I know fucking Seattle pretty well, but I can't try to decipher that amazing, astonishing scrawl and drive at the same time. We'll die when I drive into the Sound."

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-20 06:35 am UTC (link)
"I'd prefer not to die." Neither his tone nor his expression gave away whether he intended the statement as a joke. "I think I can decipher it." He pulled his phone back out of his pocket and typed in the address. It took a couple of tries before something came up as valid. "Hopefully that's right," he said, mostly to himself. "I've got directions."

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-21 05:49 am UTC (link)
"Oh, we are fantastic," Matt said, but the laugh was audible in his voice. "We're totally fucking set to play superheroes. Come on then, let's go not fucking die."

This time the car held a single shoe that Matt was quite, quite sure he didn't own. "Starting to think someone's sticking fucking crap into my car so I'll freak out and wonder where it came from or something," he said as he tossed it into the backseat, along with a coffee cup that Matt did remember, and remembered was empty. "So where're we going, then?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-21 12:32 pm UTC (link)
Zadkiel started to read off the directions, then realized it was rather more complicated than Matt would likely be able to keep in mind in one go, so stopped after the first few steps, providing the rest of the directions as they went.

He watched the scenery change around them, trying not to let his mind wander. Matt had called them superheroes, but he wasn't sure they were even regular heroes. They were doing what they'd been asked to do, and what was right to do, and was that heroic?

What would Gabe think when he heard about it? Would he wish he was here?

But they were useless thoughts, and he pushed them aside. They arrived at their destination, and Zadkiel looked at the building warily. "What do you think Alec meant by 'a trap'?" he asked.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-21 06:05 pm UTC (link)
"Not a fucking clue," Matt said, lighting a cigarette. "Seriously, I've barely talked to the guy, and I don't know how the fuck he got this address, so I can't even guess. You talked to him, he didn't suggest anything?"

He stayed where he was, looking at the building they'd been sent to, for the moment; anything Zadkiel could add to what Alec had said could only help them, if Alec had even said anything by the time he'd gotten the address. Matt had walked past him the previous night and had been fairly sure Alec'd been covered in a light layer of dust. He also hadn't looked like he'd even seen Matt.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-21 08:10 pm UTC (link)
"He didn't say much," Zadkiel said. "He made it sound like someone knew he was tracking the information, and they were leaving a trail for him. So I guess that means they probably know we're coming."

He frowned. "I don't know how one goes about doing this sort of thing. Instinct tells me that just walking in probably isn't the best idea, but what choice do we have?"

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-21 11:06 pm UTC (link)
"Well," Matt said, his smile mischievous, "unless you want to stand well back and lob, like, fucking missiles at the building, I think we're gonna have to walk the fuck in."

He climbed out of the car and stood looking at the building. It was a relic of the older Seattle that still could be found in traces; the building was only about four stories, shops on the bottom floor. He figured that probably meant the rest of it was residential, but it could equally be office space. "Which floor, or did it just send us to the building?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-21 11:41 pm UTC (link)
Zadkiel peered at the scrap of paper again. "I think that's supposed to be a four. So I'm guessing the top floor. Would it have killed him to write legibly?" He glanced at it one more time, then tucked it into his pocket.

"Here we go, then," he said, and headed for the building, for the door that would lead to the upper floors rather than into one of the shops. It wasn't locked, and he wondered if it ought to have been. He pulled it open cautiously and stepped inside, climbing the stairs as quietly as he could manage, although he wasn't sure what he was hoping not to disturb. He stopped when he reached the top of the stairs and glanced back to make sure Matt was still with him.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-22 01:59 am UTC (link)
No smile now as Matt gestured for Zadkiel to step back. He drew the gun and held it one-handed easily, ready to aim if it proved necessary.

The door looked ... well, it looked like it had been recently picked. But Matt didn't see any of the traces of a trap that he would've recognised; that didn't mean it wasn't trapped - worse, that it wasn't somehow set up to register their presence and sent their presence and DNA profiles to someone else - but there wasn't much to do about that if they weren't going to walk away, which wasn't an option here.

He didn't knock on the door, but he did open it quietly, letting out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding when it swung open easily.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-22 02:19 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel wasn't sure what the second unlocked door might signify, but his stomach clenched in a cold knot as he took a cautious step inside, his eyes flicking around the room, trying to figure out what, or who, was there.

He saw nothing. The shades were drawn, so it was really dim, and all of the lights were off. He squinted, which of course didn't help. He waited until his eyes started to adjust before stepping inside.

The room smelled of dust, stale sweat, and faintly of urine. He wrinkled his nose, but edged farther into the room. And heard a moan of pain coming from somewhere deeper in the gloom.

He forgot caution and headed for the sound, drawn like a moth to a flame to the sound of someone suffering. When he saw the man curled up on the floor, he fell to his knees beside him, searching for exposed skin to touch, to try to assess the damage.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-23 04:23 am UTC (link)
Matt grimaced - Zadkiel had said that he was afraid there were traps, and then he went for the most obvious one?

But there was nothing for it, short of yanking the kid back and clearing the room, so Matt suppressed a sigh - nearly cracking his jaw in the process - and checked the rooms as he went down the hall.

There wasn't anything there, until he found Zadkiel, and the man on the floor. And oh my did that not look good. "Are you - is he even alive still?" A stupid question, he realised a second later - he'd heard the moan - but the guy didn't look at all like he should be alive.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-23 04:52 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel didn't answer. His hands were pressed against Barton's abdomen where he'd pushed up his shirt to reach his skin. The young man was bent almost double over Barton's body, and his expression was a mix of concentration and pain. His eyes were nearly closed.

He shook his head slightly and laid one hand against Barton's temple. His face was a mask of blood, and it had soaked into his hair. Another few seconds ticked by, and then Zadkiel shook his head again. "Not for long," he murmured.

He left his hand on Barton's face, stroking back blood-sodden strands. He suspected Barton was past caring, but he did it anyway, his lips moving as he murmured something, to the dying man or to God.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-23 05:08 am UTC (link)
And this was the moment when all the not-talking bit them on the ass. Again. Matt had a sudden sense that this was exactly the same as when he and Maxxie had run into the robbers in the drug store - he had absolutely no idea what would happen when Zadkiel used his powers, if he'd do the science-fiction thing and just use himself up in the effort, or if he'd done it and it was over, or what.

And that meant that Matt didn't know what to guard against. His empty hand clenched into a fist - not a gesture that there was something he could fight, but one of frustration. He didn't know what to expect, and he hated not knowing.

At the same time, he thought it was possibly - maybe - a touch smarter not to interrupt.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-23 05:19 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel waited until Barton's breathing stopped, and then his heart. He'd been taught his entire life about the soul and Heaven and Hell, but this was the first time he'd actually witnessed death first hand. He didn't know if it had anything to do with the soul, but there was definitely a sense of Barton being there... and then not.

He rocked back on his heels, taking hands now sticky with blood away from the dead man's face. He swiped at his cheek and left a smear behind. "I couldn't save him," he said helplessly. "I'm sorry."

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-23 05:22 am UTC (link)
"I'm just glad you didn't fucking go with him," Matt said, with a lot more honesty than tact. He stepped into the galley-style kitchen and ran water on a towel. "You look like hell," he added, bringing the towel back. "The blood doesn't help."

He realised that he wasn't exactly being seriously compassionate here, and his tone was a lot less coldly efficient when he asked "Are you all right?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-23 05:27 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel wiped his face, letting the towel wipe away the stray tears that he wasn't able to hold back. He frowned at the vivid red streaks left behind as he washed his hands.

"Not entirely, no," he admitted. "It was his head. I couldn't fix his head because I didn't know what it would do to mine. The rest I could have at least stabilized so we could get him to a hospital."

He tried to stand up and winced. Everything hurt - limbs, torso, head and all. He stumbled and had to lean against the wall to keep himself upright. "What do we do about the body?"

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-23 05:31 am UTC (link)
"Honestly?" Matt eyed it, but he didn't have a better plan. "The only thing I can think of is to call fucking emergency when we're, like, well the fuck away from here. Otherwise, there's a lot of really unpleasant questions, and I kind of don't want to mention that, you know, we're both wild cards. My luck, right now we'd get the cops prepared to ask questions a lot later, and I hate repeating fucking unpleasant experiences."

At the same time, the idea of simply leaving the body there was unthinkable. Whatever else was happening, Barton had been a person, and he deserved respect.

"What do you mean, it was his head? Like, a concussion or something?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-23 05:35 am UTC (link)
"Worse than a concussion, but yes. A severe head injury. It would have been kinder of whoever did this to just finish the job. But I suppose that's the point." He closed his eyes again, trying to breathe through a wave of pain-induced nausea. "Whatever I heal, I take on. I wasn't going to take a chance on it."

He opened his eyes again, forced himself to look at the body again. "Maybe it at least hurt less than it might have."

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-23 05:41 am UTC (link)
"Christ," Matt said, appalled. "Do you have, like, would, fuck, I don't know, would Tylenol help you at all? I mean, there's shops downstairs, we can get some."

He itched to be away from the apartment anyway, gone before trouble showed up - and that gave him an unpleasant little thought. "We gotta go. Now. This's the biggest trap of all, if whoever did this really wants to get us into the shit. We're here, what happens if they call the cops and they're on their way now?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-23 11:59 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel looked at the body one more time, then nodded. "Let's go." He pushed himself away from the wall and began to head back for the apartment door, gritting his teeth as he put one foot in front of the other.

"I just need to rest," he managed. "Rest, eat... It's not as bad as it seems." It was, actually, but he didn't want to admit it.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-24 12:01 am UTC (link)
"Bullshit," Matt said pointedly, but he didn't stop to argue. Holstering the gun, he easily distanced Zadkiel and opened the door for him, turning to watch. The effort it took the other man to walk was obvious, and Matt held out an arm in case the assistance would help. "You look like you're about to fall over - that's kind of obvious on the street. Take my arm, it'll look less obvious."

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-24 12:13 am UTC (link)
"When we get downstairs," Zadkiel said. He was dreading making his way down the stairs, but he would rather lean against the wall for that than on Matt's arm, so he could take it at his own pace.

Which was faster than was actually comfortable, but they did need to get out of there, and the longer it took them, the greater the potential for things to go wrong. More wrong than they already were.

When they reached the ground floor, he obediently took Matt's arm, tottering like an old man beside him as they made their way back to the car.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-24 03:47 am UTC (link)
Matt grinned to himself - it wasn't a nice expression - as they made it around the corner seconds before a police car came racing around it, sirens going. "I think," he said carefully, "that this might be our cue to exit."

At least they didn't seem to have descriptions - if they had, Matt didn't think the officer would've passed up such an obvious oddity as someone who looked like they'd been beaten staggering on the sidewalk. The other piece of luck was that the car wasn't far, and they were in it before the second cop came screaming up the street.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-24 03:53 am UTC (link)
Once in the car, Zadkiel slumped against the door, resting his forehead against the cool glass. "I guess we don't need to call about the body," he said softly.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-24 04:03 am UTC (link)
"No," Matt agreed, moving carefully into the street. Now was not the time to risk a ticket. "And I'd guess that that might've been the fucking trap Alec was worried about." He glanced at Zadkiel and added, with a frown, "Are you sure there's nothing that'll help?"

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-24 04:14 am UTC (link)
Zadkiel shook his head. "I'll sleep a lot and eat a lot over the next few days. I heal injuries that I take on from other people fairly quickly, as long as I can rest. I've never taken painkiller for it before; I don't know if it would help or not."

He closed his eyes. "What happens now?"

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-24 05:00 am UTC (link)
"Not sure. That was a total dick move of whoever did this, though. Like, seriously, a total fucking dick move. But at least they didn't recognise us." It suggested, he supposed, that it wasn't the government behind this, at least in theory, but then again, that was a long bet that he wasn't entirely willing to take.

"I guess we go home, tell Alec it all went to shit, get you fed and in bed, and then tell Katherine that it all went to crap. I mean, she hasn't asked about Barton since the once, but I assume she'll want to know. Fun - we get to report a fucking failure, first time out of the gate." But there were reasons for that, and honestly, Matt wasn't sure that that wasn't half the point. It was a reminder that they needed to learn to work together, he figured.

He hated working together like that.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-24 01:01 pm UTC (link)
"I'm sorry," Zadkiel said softly. "I'll tell her." It was his failure, after all.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-25 02:15 am UTC (link)
Matt raised one eyebrow as he looked over at him. "That's the most fucking ridiculous thing I've heard today," he pointed out, though it was said with kindness. "We tried as a group, we failed as one. And fuck her and her envelopes anyway, far as I'm concerned, she can have one back, from all of us. It's not on you, kid, it's on everyone."

Because, to Matt, that was another part of this team idea - you took action as one, then you took responsibility as one, too.

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[info]lifeibreathe
2010-06-25 02:22 am UTC (link)
"If you think that's best," Zadkiel murmured. He was too tired to argue. He just leaned against the window and closed his eyes.

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[info]palehorses
2010-06-25 03:40 am UTC (link)
Matt kept silent the rest of the drive back to the house, wondering whether this could have gone differently.

He didn't think so, but he didn't like the sense of resignation that gave him.

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