Chapter 29 - Downward Spiral

Day 22

Afternoon

Erin fumed as she raced across town, heading towards the hospital. When she landed at the drop-off point for the emergency room, her ki flared with her anger, warning everyone to move out of the way. Her only acknowledgement that the hospital had power to operate the automatic doors was in her frustration that they were too slow. She shoved them into their alcoves on either side with enough force to crack some of the glass.

Erin flew across the waiting room to the nurse's station, blasting hair and paper with displaced air and startling the woman behind the glass. She was about to ask where her students were before Sydney called out to her.

"Erin," Sydney said from Erin's left, "Come on, I know the rooms they're in."

Erin's furor didn't abate, and while Sydney set an aggressive pace down the hallway, it was frustratingly slow for Erin's current mood.

The first room they reached had two of her five injured students inside. She recognized one of them, but the other was bandaged heavily around his head. He had one leg in a cast, raised up by a hanging apparatus, and beside his bed hung an IV drip with a second smaller bag she could make out the word morphine on.

"That's Robbie, " The other boy, she recognized him as Danny, said from his bed. Anguish, exhaustion, and pain warred for supremacy in his voice. Danny's face was cut and bruised in several places, despite that he seemed to have come out the other side without any broken bones. "They beat him the worst. Broken ribs, leg, nose, bruises over most of his body. One of them had an ability that burned his face."

Erin knew Robbie well enough, but even knowing that was him, she couldn't pick out features to identify her student. He was a good kid with a good heart. She felt like tears were trying to slip free of her eyes, but the ki seeping out of her skin boiled any that tried to seek freedom down her cheeks.

"Who are they?" Erin asked, more forcefully than she intended.

Despite her tone, Danny knew he was in no danger from his Sabom, so he answered with some anger of his own, though not directed at Erin, "It was that gang! Two dozen of them. They boxed us in. No way they didn't know we were comin' either. It was a trap, Sabomnim!"

The declaration was a gut punch, and nearly had her seeing red. She took a deep breath then said, "I want to see the others. Get some rest Danny, and listen to the doctors."

"Yes, Sabomnim." Danny said, his energy spent on that one outburst.

As Erin headed out the door, Sydney on her heels, the other woman said, "Next room on the left." She gently grabbed Erin's arm to slow her, "And be aware that Nicolas' mother is already here."

Erin covered the distance in a few strides, but the door to the room opened before she could reach for the handle. Logan stepped out of the room, startling at the sight of her before nodding politely.

Returning a stiff nod of her own, Erin slipped past him. A few feet into the room, she gave a sidelong look over her shoulder to say, "Don't go anywhere. I have questions."

Erin had barely turned her attention back to the two hospital beds when a woman came storming at her, tears streaming down her face, as she yelled at Erin in Spanish.

Having no idea what the woman was saying, she intuited the body language of an angry mother instead. Erin was grateful when Sydney interjected. "Tranquila, por favor, señora Juarez." Sydney gently rested her hands on the woman's shoulders, then engaged in a conversation with the woman in rapid fire Spanish.

While Sydney calmed the woman, Erin glanced at her two students. Nicolas, son of the upset woman, had a cast running the length of his right arm, coupled with various cuts and bruises where his skin was visible. The other student, Mia, wasn't much better, with only the lower half of one arm in a cast.

"Mrs. Juarez," Erin interrupted the conversation Sydney was having, "I'm going to find the people responsible, and deal with them." Then she spun on a heel and walked out the door, Sydney hurrying to catch up.

"Where's my last student?" Erin asked, indifferent as to whether Sydney or Logan answered.

Sydney responded first, "The youngest boy was discharged already. We're still piecing together details, but Mia and Nicolas managed to shield him from anything more than a few cuts and bruises."

"Where. Are. They?" Erin's clipped tone made it clear who she was asking about. That gang, her student had said. There was only one gang in Middletown, and she was about to bring that number to zero.

"Erin, you need to let us handle this." Logan said.

Erin's eyes started to glow as she stared daggers at Logan. "Excuse me?"

Logan tried to stand his ground, "This is a law enforcement problem. Let us handle it."

"You mean like you've handled it over the last two weeks? Their whole gang is complicit in murdering Ryu Jin-soo, and you haven't made a single arrest."

"The gang scattered and went dormant, Erin. It wasn't a priority." Logan's mistake became obvious when half a second later he was up against the wall and his feet were no longer touching the ground.

"They murdered an innocent man!" Erin yelled at Logan as she held him against the wall and off the ground by his shirt, "And now they hospitalized a couple teenagers! My students!" It took every ounce of self-control for Erin not to throw Logan down the hallway.

Luckily for him, Sydney was there as a voice of calm and reason. She rested a hand on Erin's arm, "Erin, he's not the enemy. Misguided? Yes. A dumbass? Definitely. But not the enemy."

Erin didn't bother to let Logan down gently, simply releasing him as she turned away, walking away as she said, "Serve and Protect, Logan. Start protecting, or get the fuck out of my town." Not sticking around to hear his reply, Erin walked away with full intent to blow off some steam, and search for some rats. Probably at the same time.

Middletown Hospital

Afternoon

Sydney and Logan watched Erin storm out of the hospital, a slight smirk edging up on the corner of Sydney's mouth before she caught herself.

"Still think she's not a danger?" Logan asked.

Without warning Sydney spun around and punched Logan in the nose, knocking him back a few steps.

"What the fuck, Sydney?" Logan's nose started to bleed as he spoke.

"You complete asshole!" Sydney became the second woman in only a few minutes to yell at him, "How could someone so clueless and stupid actually get hired to be a cop?"

A nurse stepped past Sydney with a handful of paper towels, pushing it up to Logan's nose.

"Domus Nostra killed her father, her first teacher, and her second teacher who was probably like a father figure to her as well." Sydney threw her hands in the air, "Now they go after the students that her recently deceased Taekwondo teacher charged her with protecting, and you basically told her these guys aren't important enough for us to deal with."

Logan's voice had the nasally sound that comes with a pinched nose, "That's not what I said."

Sydney's eyes narrowed, "Really? Two weeks since they murdered Jin-soo, and we haven't arrested anyone because it wasn't a high priority?"

"That's…" Logan broke eye contact, "A lot has been happening, Sydney. We're only two people."

"Yeah, a lot has been happening. The world is going to hell, and we have a bunch of murderers running free in our town." Sydney shook her head and sighed heavily, "I would understand the reluctance to let her go after someone we can't prove is guilty, but these guys have a long rap sheet, and we don't even have to include things that pre-date the last month."

"No, we took out their worst members two weeks ago." Logan's voice was almost pleading, like he wanted the nonsense he was spewing to be true, but didn't quite believe that himself.

"Really?" The sarcasm dripped from Sydney's voice, "Is that what you're telling the parents of the four teenagers in this hospital when they get here?"

Logan's voice fell, "You didn't…"

"What? Tell Erin, or anyone else for that matter, about the shape of the burn they marked her student with?"

"...yeah." Was the only response Logan could muster.

"No, because I'm not an asshole. She doesn't need more guilt on top of what she already carries." Sydney turned to walk away, "Just hope the doctors can heal that wound. Neither that kid, nor Erin, deserve the long-term effects of a mark like that."

As Sydney stormed off and disappeared around the corner, Logan was left standing in the hallway with the nurse, who had been tending to his nose. He released a heavy sigh, and got an admonishing stare from the nurse.

"What?" He asked, not sure why she was giving him that look.

"Just thinking that you're lucky." The nurse said.

Logan gave her a funny look, "How so?"

The nurse chuckled at her own humor, "You have terrible survival instincts around women, so it's lucky that you're in a hospital."

Logan didn't respond. While he might agree in the moment about his survival instincts, he still couldn't believe Erin would put hands on him like that. It was, to his mind, a sign of her anger taking more control.

Middletown Hospital

Afternoon

Sydney exited the hospital, but stopped to eye the scorched footprints on the sidewalk. Erin had clearly left a mark. Unlike Logan, and she felt this point had been made quite clear, Sydney did not feel Erin was losing control or becoming a danger to anyone except those who deserved it. Well, that and sidewalks.

Heading left down Mercy Boulevard, Sydney opened her chat as she walked, then selected a private message to Erin.

Sydney: Going fishing. I'll let ya know if I get something worth your time.

Erin: Thanks.

With the message sent, Sydney set her path and focus. She would start with the old DN headquarters, and see if any members were dumb enough to return to the scene of a crime.

It took nearly a half hour for Sydney to reach the apartment DN used to hold as their HQ. She mused internally that it somehow looked the same, and yet far more dilapidated, compared to the day Sydney sat perched on a nearby apartment roof.

As she approached the main door, Sydney drew her Sig P320. Pulling the slide halfway back to confirm a round was in the chamber, she took a breath, then pulled on the handle.

Sydney was immediately hit with a stench she hadn't smelled since her time on deployment. Releasing the door, she coughed, then gagged, before getting the reflex under control. The smell of death slowly fading from her senses.

Taking a moment to breathe fresh air, Sydney made sure her nose had cleared the scent, then mentally commanded the chameleon function of her armour to cover her nose and mouth with a filtered mask. Next she added goggles to protect her eyes from the burning effects of caustic particles in the air.

She tested both, unsurprised that the fit was perfect, then gripped the door again and pulled. This time, her senses were unaffected by the unpleasant air. While a very mild version of the smell made it past the filter, Sydney could manage that much. Pistol gripped at low ready, she stepped into the apartment with clear expectations of what she would find.