epidemiology | peter parker bounty hour

Entry tags:

peter parker bounty hour

CHARACTERS: Peter Parker & Anakin, and OPEN!! plz come bounty with him, tbh.
DATE: Backdated to whenever these things happened idk
WARNINGS: none i can think of
SUMMARY: doin some bounties. that's all. nbd

HOMEROOM BLUES (ANAKIN)

( he's not supposed to know to be here. when he's got a mask and suit on, it's easier to make excuses. a guy in spandex wearing a mask seeps suspicious enough that nobody really wonders why he knows about things he shouldn't. the problem being, Peter didn't exactly have time to suit up before he'd wound up on the wrong side of police barricade.

that's the problem with Woodhurst, things keep happening way too quickly. isn't that how these stories go? it shouldn't be a shock, everything is fine, until it's not. he's seen every zombie movie under the sun in his own world, and a few in this one, and still the transition had been jarring, even for him.

he hadn't had time to go get his suit from his dorm, and while he's aware he'll be in a fair bit of trouble if anyone catches him wandering the school, he'll face that when he comes to it. he's not going to ignore the buzz on the police scanner of infected stalking an elementary school. his senses are heightened enough he can tell someone is turning around the corner. he considers just doing his best to disappear — sticking to the ceiling, maybe? just long enough to figure out what he was dealing with — but he doesn't end up having time. someone with reflexes as fast or faster than his should be a surprise, but it is less of one when he recognizes who it is. )

I can guess why you are here. It's sort of why I'm here. So ... maybe don't put me on the other side of that barricade, I can help.

( yeah, he seems so helpful, BUT REALLY ANAKIN, HE CAN. )

I'M A WEIRDO (OPEN)
has to be ac length by March 25th!

( sewers aren't a fun place to be. not for anybody, but especially for someone with superhuman senses. it doesn't stop Peter from stumbling down into them anyway. he'd managed it in New York tailing the Lizard, after all. if he could handle that, he could handle Woodhurst, a much smaller place comparatively.

he does have his sweatshirt pulled up over his face, though, creeping along the walkway with a barely disguised grimace on his face. he's not expecting to see anyone else, for obvious reasons, yet the footsteps coming toward him are either exactly what he's looking for, or someone who is looking for the exact same thing he is.

so if you aren't infected, might want to watch out for the invisible line of webbing at perfect tripping level. if you can't, well, better make it obvious you aren't suffering from the Bristol Virus before he can hit you with the tranquilizer Sonia was handing out earlier. he's... he's pretty fast, no pressure, so maybe make it obvious quickly... )

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[ anakin skywalker is not having a good day.

first, there was the riot. difficult, dangerous, quickly spiraling, yes, all true. and yet, were one to ask anakin, he would say that had been the least stressful time tonight. both in comparison to what his typical baseline for such situations used to be and in comparison to what came after.

the discoveries in the sewers were unnerving and suspicious. someone knew; someones likely knew. but whether they were responsible or what they had planned…that anakin could not speak to. not yet. not without further investigation. something which had threatened to be derailed by his "buddy" ( not voluntarily chosen ) and which had been promptly dismissed when he received the message on his magitek.

which lead him here, to the school chihiro attended, urged on as much by her sporadic responses as by the warnings that came over the radio. armed with a badge, anakin made it past the barricade without difficulty. his task, officially, is to help clear out students and staff safely; his unofficial, more pressing purpose is to find chihiro and make sure she's safe.

instead of a preteen, however, he finds his second teenager(?) of the day skulking where they shouldn't.

anakin shakes his head. ]

I'm not even going to ask how you got in. What have you seen?

No.

( that's the thing, about being able to climb walls and websling to all sorts of places you're not supposed to be. people rarely think to look up, when generally most problems were stuck to walking. luckily this problem is way more mobile than that!!!

oh, right, maybe that's not lucky...

Anakin has seen that he's not quite as normal as he appears, yet there's still a margin for disbelief. disbelief that does not easily answer why, suddenly, Peter notes in a careful whisper, )

Three people, running. That hallway.

( which could be good, but it could also be the opposite of that. Anakin has enhanced senses of his own, hopefully that would make his whisper a bit more believable. )

[ if he has any questions, they are shelved. a different place, a different time. blue eyes slide from peter's face to the noted hallway, narrowing — ] I sense them. Let's go.

[ he donned his jacket once more. when he moves, it briefly reveals the badge pinned to his belt, the empty holster at his side. the gun is in his hands, a hold so steady it could only be born of practice. one might think he has always favored a gun. ( the lightsaber sits at the small of his back, in a black pouch, unused, easily within reach. )

anakin crosses distance quickly and is soon rewarded by the sound of footsteps to go with the feeling of living things in the force. ]

WPD! [ he calls. his voice reverberates in the hall, strong and carrying down to the retreating figures. a voice practiced in barking orders over the cacophonous din of a battle. ] Turn around and put your hands in the air!

[ even before he speaks, anakin knows it will be an exercise in futility. the gait is strange; not purposeless, but not directed as he might expect. they're searching for something other than an exit. and the feeling in the force is a warning.

to peter, ] You can take the one on the left.

( he can see something in that look, the hint of things left unsaid but not forgotten. it's true that now is not really the time, and not really the place. Peter is not the most forthcoming about what he's capable of, for obvious reasons. yet he wasn't going to pretend to be incapable when there were lives on the line, either.

Peter nods, grimly, at the command. usually he's not one to follow, he makes his own way — there's a high degree of respect in the fact he listens. he keeps a bit behind, though he can hear the footsteps incoming are not right. the pattern of the steps isn't consistent, there's something off just about the odd and skittish way they're moving. seeing the source doesn't put his mind at ease, either, far from it. it's the first infected he's actually gotten close to, and all the years of loving zombie movies die a quick and sweet death at the sight of human beings, beyond themselves.

take the left. he doesn't even have time to wonder if Anakin has the capacity to predict who the left infected would lunge at. he honestly wouldn't be surprised if he could. Peter shifts past the heavy lurch, and his heightened senses almost make it seem like absolute coincidence that he managed to slip out of danger without being touched by it. just a very broad stroke of luck, for a normal kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.

that's not quite the case, though, and the margin for doubt vanishes by the time he follows the momentum, pinning the woman against the lockers with surprising delicacy, just long enough to land the tranquilizer engineered to put down infected quickly and quietly.

her hair isn't even mussed, when he lays her down on the cold tiles. he could feel Anakin dealing with the other two more than he could see it, and sure enough he isn't needed for stopping either. he hesitates only for a moment, looking down at the three in a row. professionally dressed, IDs, even if the pallor to their skin was distinctly off. their eyes sunken and sallow. ) Teachers? ( he guesses, a cold knot in his stomach. could that mean more were trapped in classrooms with incredibly vulnerable students? )

[ his reasoning ran along the lines of "the left was closer, and anakin would take the rest." the gun is held loosely in hand, unfired, as anakin kneels by them. teachers, peter asked. anakin would assume so. ]

Find something to tie them up. I'll call it in, but we need to keep moving —

[ he senses the footsteps seconds before he hears them. anakin is on his feet, gun pointed. his repeated call of "wpd!" this time is answered by a woman dressed smartly if leaning to comfort. she holds a baseball bat high, ready to swing. the wood is tinted red.

she matches the description of the woman they had been told to assist. anakin only glanced at the message that popped up; there was another warning weighing more heavily. but he doesn't relax just yet. ]

We're friendly! [ to prove his point, he holds the gun up, finger away from the trigger. anakin eyes her carefully. ] Lower your weapon and come forward slowly!

( finding something to tie people up with in a school probably could be pretty difficult, if you didn't walk around with webshooters on both wrists. Peter crouches down to do just that — hopefully Anakin doesn't need explanation, since they're apparently doing more than just neutralizing any threats. it'll just be another thing he'll need to own up to explaining later.

Anakin isn't the only one who senses the incoming arrival before he hears the heeled feet on the floor. Peter lifts both hands above his shoulders to show his intentions weren't nefarious, though it did slow him down in sealing the unconscious infected to the floor with webbing.

the woman stares them down, and then her eyes flick to the bodies on the floor. her fingers twitch at the grip of her bat before her attention returns to Anakin. she listens, though the grip on her bat stays tight, inching forward. close enough to make it clear the bat isn't the only thing that is bloody. )

They don't stay like that long. The head is the only thing that stops them. ( it doesn't take a lot of guessing to know what she means. Peter knows she was likely working for self defense, but the idea that the infected were simply people outside of themselves is hard for him to shake. he doesn't know what to say, glancing to Anakin instead. )

They've been subdued, [ anakin replies in a tone that brooks no argument. he makes no overt threatening gesture. but then he does not need to. gun beats everything but lightsaber, and he owns the only one of those too.

he looks back to take in peter's work, gives him a little nod, then returns his attention to the teacher. ] We're here to help, [ he reassures her calmly, carefully so. his eyes follow her movements. ]

Do you know how many students and staff are still trapped?

( she doesn't like that answer. there's a twitch of her fingers and a hint in her eyes, and Peter does not have to be a mindreader to tell. still, he doesn't comment on it, he doesn't have to. whether she likes it or not, she listens, at least for now. he focuses on making sure that subdued promise is a legitimate one. when he rights himself, the infected aren't going anywhere. )

My classroom is locked. All of my students are inside, with my aide. I've seen at least four other classrooms on lockdown, but that's not even half the school. You won't do those classrooms any favors until you can get the infected out of the halls. Those three aren't the first, and they're not the last.

[ anakin gives a brisk nod. a crackle of static from the radio at his shoulder interrupts them. anakin relays their status. once he's finished with dispatch, he points with the gun down the hallway. ]

More teams are coming in. We'll continue this way. Stay close.

( Peter seems to follow that instruction better than the teacher does, yet both of them follow. he can't help but being surprisingly quiet, considering he never seems to keep his mouth shut in better situations. he's listening for things he shouldn't be able to hear, though. )

Wait, wait — Is there a classroom on lockdown that way?

( he points down a seemingly empty hall, and even if it doesn't seem alarming, he can definitely hear something going wrong. screaming — children screaming, too. he has no idea what they're frightened about, but he starts off, whether Anakin and their faculty friend want to follow or not. he suspects they will. )

[ they do. both hurry, one because he trusts peter, the other because she knows the school. fourth grade homeroom, the teacher explains while they run. as they get closer the sounds begin to cleave through the din of slamming doors, sirens, shouts.

as they round the corner, anakin hears the crack of something breaking. the glass of the small window on the door was shattered. the glass on the door and on the floor is bloody. the screams are panicked. the screech of metal legs on floor punctuates the sounds. against the board with a desk, two of the students pinned the attacker: a boy in uniform, no older than eleven. the rest of the classroom huddles against the far wall, many of the students in tears.

anakin races to the two struggling. over his shoulder, he shouts, ] Get the kids!

( for a paralyzing moment, not even he can react. kid with lightning reflexes, the same one that managed to snatch a fly out of midair. there's no helping it, when he's faced with a situation so horrible, against everything he wants to believe in.

no matter how much he tried to wrap his head around Bristol, seeing a child turned into a weapon from an uncontrollable virus clangs like an anvil in his chest. it was nothing children should have to experience, see, fight against — and it was already too late.

the click of heels goes towards the attackers, too, and that leaves only him to corral the students. ) Come on, ( he says, reaching for the nearest hand and waving his arm at the rest. ) Let's go. Don't worry, I'll protect you. ( he speaks with a confidence he doesn't believe. he's not sure how to protect them from what they've already witnessed, but it's his responsibility to try. and maybe, just maybe, he's even a little grateful that he doesn't have to be the one to incapacitate a frenzied child. )

[ the two boys grit their teeth as they keep the other pinned. terror suffuses the force, lies as a cold sweat on their skin. their presence makes it impossible for the teacher to take a clear swing. funny. no one's laughing.

he adds his strength to the boys'. they don't immediately react. so devoted to their task they're barely aware of anakin's presence. one's collar is stretched, the lapel crumpled as if it had been gripped by a fist.

anakin asks for the bat and snatches it from the teacher before she has time to give an answer. he pushes it against the infected boy's skinny chest. ]

Take the kids out!

[ the teacher is just as averse as the boys. but reason takes over and she grabs them both. knowing he's being watched, anakin does not use the force. instead, he knocks the boy's grasping arms aside with a painful knock, and jabs the syringe full of tranquilizer into his shoulder. with each passing second, his movements grow more sluggish until he sways and drops.

unconscious, he doesn't seem a beast. he seems a boy. small for his age, a skinny twig. pale and unwell.

anakin binds his arms solidly, then his feet at the ankle. ]

( it takes him a bit to get back. herding a class is hard enough, herding a frightened one even harder. he gets them to the police barricade at the front entrance, and manages to not be pinned down by another officer in the distraction. thankfully, the attention goes to the kids, and rightfully so. it seems as if Woodhurst PD had finally arrived in force, and was taking the situation in hand...

Peter just had to wonder if they'd gotten here fast enough.

he makes it back to Anakin and the student has been pacified, the teacher that had manned a bat gone. it makes him a little nervous not to see her, but he hopes she's distracted with getting the other students somewhere safe. )

He's got to be nearly six weeks infected. How did he get into a classroom without anyone noticing? ( Peter crouches to look at the boy, feeling alongside his neck for a pulse. it's still beating, not that he's surprised — he just wants to know if it's rapid or slow. the virus tends to make the pulse skyrocket, which is something to look out for. ) I can get him to the hospital, try and track down his parents and inform them. With the police moving in, I should move out.

( he doesn't want to risk being arrested, even if he was there to help. he knows what police tape means, even if he's always ignored it. )

[ matter-of-fact ( it's easier ), ] He'll get to the hospital. Students and staff will be held until they're tested. [ negative, they go home. positive, hospital with them for the time being. for how long, who knows. and after…

anakin picks up the boy. a look to the door shows the teacher still missing. hopefully, she walked out with the other two boys. the police would handle her then. if she's still roaming the halls, she does so without a weapon. anakin grabs the bat too as evidence. ]

I'll get him and the others to a classroom. You need to leave. It's a hot zone, Peter, and you're without a suit. Last thing we need is to start getting sick.

You have got to be joking. ( he's not, he can tell Anakin is being utterly serious. Peter says it anyway. this is the sort of moment that he regrets not having his mask. there's no hiding how much he hates both of those suggestions when there's nothing to hide behind. he hasn't questioned Anakin much through all of this, but now he can't and won't help himself. )

Test for what? We know he's infected, we saw it. I can get him to the hospital where he can get some help, and the sooner the better. Keeping him here isn't going to help anyone, least of all him.

( he's not going to argue about it being a hot-zone. it is, but he doesn't care. clearly Anakin doesn't either, since he's facing the same risks. he does intend to go, but he resolutely despises the idea of just skipping out when he could be doing more to help, and just leaving a child in holding when they knew full well he was sick is a lot to ask of him. )

This is an epidemic!

[ anakin keeps a hold on his temper, but only just. never one for being questioned, and especially not one to have his intentions so misinterpreted. his eyes narrow. ]

He is sick. There are other children here and in the town who aren't, [ anakin spells out in case peter overlooked that fact. ] I'm moving him and the others we subdued to a closed room to prevent further contact until they can be moved.

[ then he will wait with them until a team is cleared to retrieve them. anakin will radio them as soon as he is settled. it'll be another night of testing, another night of being kept in isolation until the results come back negative and he is cleared to leave too. ]

You might not like it, but there is a protocol to follow. I'm already taking a risk — [ with his own health; with his arm, which he only needs one person resistant to a mind trick to ask why he wears a glove. ] Now is not the time for reckless action.

Trust me, I noticed. ( he's been spending a majority of his time pouring over blood samples and lab reports desperate for a cure. he's the one that managed to even create a test, he's well aware that there's an epidemic going around.

that doesn't mean he agrees with the course of action, though, protocol or not. and he'll let his opinions known, even if Anakin doesn't like to hear it. )

You know as well as I do that protocols that don't actually do any good are better off ignored. ( it's the same attitude that pushed him past the police tape and it's not likely to go away any time soon. ) You're going to take a kid that we are certain is infected back to a group of kids that could still have escaped it? Do your tests on the rest, but he needs to get to the hospital, and he doesn't have time to wait in holding for the sake of bureaucracy.

( it's surprisingly heated, for Peter Parker. he doesn't lose his temper often, yet emotional investment always tended to make things ring a little more personal. he breathes out, once, trying to level his tone. ) Anakin, I can get him someplace he can get help, and you can make sure the rest of them are safe, too. I'm not arguing that. All I'm talking about is the kid with you right now.

[ reasoning may have worked if it were not irrational to begin with — and if he had not begun by implying anakin has no interest in the boy's well-being. anakin arms himself in cold detachment like a blunt weapon. ]

You're not listening. [ the words are a warning, a bell punctuated by the very real sound of the sirens outside. he broke protocol to get inside, yes. there's no reason to break this one. ] There is a protocol to follow to protect him and protect everyone else. I won't be exposing him to anyone, but you would be.

Say, you make it to a hospital, then what will you do? Leave him without a name, without information on if he's allergic to a medication or if he's taking anything? Are you even sure there is space available to take him? What about the parents who must be waiting outside right now who would be told their son is missing and no one can find him if you take him?

You're out of line, Peter. [ and he's through arguing. anakin marches away from him, still holding the boy.

one point on which both can agree: the boy in his arms needs help. anakin intends to get it for him. peter can come to his senses or not. ]

( he wouldn't leave the boy unidentified or lost, but admittedly? he hasn't thought that far ahead. he seems mired in unhappiness at the reminder, every hint of his expression that he wants to keep fighting, keep pushing the point... and what point is there to push?

Anakin walks away, and Peter doesn't follow. the only thing left behind of his presence in the school is a locker door dented in half, though looking at it nobody would guess it was caused by a person. who would ever expect that?

Peter himself, though, is gone. long gone. )

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