Eureka, Incident 4391, Chapter 2, Contains Slash, Not Betaed.
Title: Incident 4391
Chapter: 2 of 3
Fandom: Eureka
Pairings/characters: Jack/Nathan, implied Jack/Nathan/Allison, implied Jo/Fargo/Zane, Zoe, Henry, Kevin, various other characters.
Warnings: Contains slash and violence, not betaed, but if anyone happens to be interested *Wink Wink*
Rating: Currently PG-13, there will be an NC-17 chapter, but you don't have to read it as this works as a complete story.
Summary: A spill in GD causes strange behavioral changes in some of it's residents.
***** indicates a timeline change.
Previously on Incident 4391
The interviewer looked up from his notes yet again. "I assume Doctor Stark reacted badly?"
Henry looked at him. "No, that's just it, after Jack bit him, Nathan simply put away his work and crawled into the pile to sleep amongst the rest, Jack wasn't far behind. I've never seen anything like it in my life."
Chapter 2
The interviewer looked over to where Henry was fiddling with his cap. "The group didn't protest when you asked them to undergo testing?"
Henry shook his head. "No, nor did they protest when it was decided that calling General Mansfield to keep him in the loop was preferable to him finding out some other way."
At this point the interviewer interrupted Henry once again. "For the record, General Mansfield has stated that due to the lack of violent behavior, aside from requesting that Co-directors Allison Blake and Nathan Stark temporarily step aside from their positions so as to lower the risk of a security breach should circumstances change, He was willing to allow the GD scientists to continue the testing without interference."
Henry grunted. "That's correct, I must admit I was rather surprised at General Mansfields' decision, He usually isn't so... agreeable. In his defense though, I admit Eurekas' incidents are usually far more 'End of the Worldy'." Henry paused as the interviewers' eyebrow raised at him. "... I've been hanging around Jack too much."
The interviewer looked back at his notes. "So, you believe it was through outside interference that 'The Incident' itself occurred?"
Henrys' eyes drooped in in remembrance. "Yes, if General Mansfields' decision hadn't been overruled, I believe it to be highly likely we would not be discussing any incident at all."
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Henry looked up from the notes on his touch-pad screen, only pausing to check the monitors that had been set up in the GD area Nathan, Allison and Jack had chosen for their secondary "Nest" after having to vacate the very office Henry was now sitting in. Their primary nest was still situated inside S.A.R.A.H's walls before responding to the man standing in the doorway. "Yes General?"
General Mansfields' paused for a moment before making his way to one of the seats facing Henry's desk. "Director Deacon." He stilled for a moment at the look on Henrys' face. "I know it's temporary, but constantly calling you 'Temporary Director Deacon' is a bit of a mouthful."
Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Fine, Fine, now what would you like to know?"
General Mansfield nodded decisively. "Can you give an update on Stark and the others?"
"Well, after checking the surveillance files during the time only this group was present in GD, we discovered that a vial had broken in Lab 26. A more through search revealed a second vial had also broken, but this one had fallen from the back of the shelf so it wasn't visible to Jo and Jack at the time. Unlike the hormone treatments which were designed for injection, this was created to become gaseous as soon as it came into contact with air. It had mingled with the hormone treatment vial and aerosolized both of them."
General Mansfield nodded once again at this. "So, do you know what was in the vials... and please, keep it a simple explanation."
Henry almost grinned. "Well, in simple terms. The Hidden vial contained a pheromone Taggart was looking into that might induce pack behavior in non related species, he'd tested it on a group of cats and dogs, but had asked the technicians in lab 26 to store it until after the holidays had finished. We believe and some of the tests have corroborated this, that when the animal based pheromone treatment had mingle with the human based hormone treatment, the combination had made the pheromones viable with humans. There's just two more problems."
the General peered at Henrys' face. "What might those be?"
Henry let his face drop back into his hands. "First of all, even with the combination of the two substances, it should have worn off weeks ago." He pointed towards the computer screen that showed the groups 'nest'. "But as you can see, there's no change. We can't figure out the reason why."
The General blinked. "And, what's the other problem?"
Henry rubbed his hands across the back of his head. "For now, at least, we have yet to find a way to reverse the changes without risking hurting or possibly even killing the people affected."
As he looked over at the General, Henry noticed that he also seemed troubled by something, this feeling was confirmed by what the man said next. "That's a shame, and I'm afraid I have more bad news for you. Against my advice, certain members of the DOD have decided that yourself and the GD scientists can not be completely trusted to keep the DOD informed of everything. I respect your decision not to test potentially dangerous possible cures on the group, but these DOD members believe you should have tried some of the non-lethal cure attempts them on the more easily replaceable members of the group."
Henry exploded from his chair. "You mean Jack."
The General snarled a little at the man in front of him. "I was against it. Unfortunately, some other members of the DOD are less understanding. I believe the DOD will be bringing in a team and an outside scientist to run tests and test some of the cures you discarded, probably on Jack Carter, Jo Lupo, Zoe Carter and Kevin Blake. They'll arrive within the week. I'm sorry, but even telling you they're arriving is technically beyond what I'm allowed to do. These orders came from someone on a much higher level than I am."
Henry barely noticed as the glass of water he'd just poured cracked in his hand. He took a couple of deep breaths. "I understand, thank you for telling me this much General, I'm grateful, but I need you to leave for a while."
The general, sensing the mood, stood up and headed for the door, before leaving he turned his head back to Henry. "Just so you know, I did everything I could to change their minds."
With another crack the glass broke. "I know, that's why I haven't thrown this at your head."
The general turned away again as blood and water dribbled onto the floor.
As if in a daze, Henry lifted his hand and looked at the newly acquired injury. "I'll have to visit the medical bay for that."
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The interviewer interrupted again at this point. "It should be mentioned that even though General Mansfields' actions weren't against direct orders, he has received a censure note in his permanent file for revealing that information to you."
Henry looked surprised for a few seconds. "Interesting, I didn't know that."
The interviewer nodded. "I believe it was not long after the DOD team arrived that "the Incident" occurred."
Henry looked over at the man for a second. "No, 'The Incident' occurred because of that team not just while they were there."
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Henry sat at his desk, various touch pads, penned notes and medical results arrayed in front of him, his stress was indicated in the furrowed lines across his brow, the slight clench of his fists and the unhealthy array of Vinspresso cups spread across his desk and the surrounding furniture. He still hadn't found a possible cure for the group, just some small bits of information possibly indicating that Kevin, Jacks' and to certain degree Nathans' exposure to a certain "Artifact" formerly in section 5 may have left enough energy to create some genetic alterations to both them and the rest of the group due to the strange new pheromones suddenly inside their bodies. He'd also mostly figured out the Pack Dynamics, With Nathan as the Alpha "Male", while both Allison and Jack seemed to have more parental instincts, making both of them, as much Henry knew Jack would vehemently deny it similar to Alpha Females. though it was more often likely to be Jack that would harass "Alpha Male" Nathan out of his workaholic tendencies. Jo and Zane where pretty similar to Beta pack members and Zoe, Kevin and To a certain degree Fargo, where all treated like, for lack of a better terms, pups or possibly cubs. None of this information however, changed the fact that the DOD team was due to arrive any minute and he and the other GD scientists where about to be all but banned from doing anything to help the group.
He jumped nearly a foot as Larry burst into his office. "The DOD team has arrived sir."
Before he could reply, a rather heavyset soldier stormed into the office like he owned it. "I'm General Haysworth." He indicated vaguely at the group following behind, which consisted of four uniformed soldiers and a weedy looking man in a lab-coat. "Hand copies of all your research files to Doctor Davidson and my men for a look."
Henry looked over at the nervous looking Larry, and nodded at him. "Give it to them."
The surly looking General eyed the piles as if verifying that all possible information had been provided, before turning to Henry. "We've already arranged for one of the group to be separated from the rest for testing."
Henry's head almost did a 180 degree turn as it snapped towards the other man. "What do you mean separate?"
The man just looked at him. "Yes, separate, we need to see how they'll react to being separated and we can't have anyone from the group interfering with the testing."
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The Interviewer looked over at the touch pad Henry had brought in, it was open on a paused video file, one that all members of GD, the inquiry team and leading members of the DOD had seen. "On Record, the DOD would like to state that they did not authorize some of the more extreme measures taken by General Haysworth and his team."
Henry looked ready to shatter another glass. "You mean sending a false call-out to the Sheriff's office and using it as a cover to abduct Jack Carter for testing? Or Possibly Jo, if Jack hadn't been unfortunate enough to take the call first. Though looking at that video, I can quite clearly state that nothing I saw Doctor Davidson do in the short amount of time they had Jack could be considered anything like scientific testing, half of it didn't even seem humane."
"I understand." The interviewer would have continued on that vein, but Henry's derisive snort quickly put a stop to any meaningless platitudes that might have sprung forth. "I very much doubt that."
The interviewer choked on his breath a little. "Anyway, I believe this action was what precipitated the incident."
It took all of Henrys' self control to keep in the contemptous "Ya Think" that he was pretty sure he had also picked up from Jack. "It took the group less than an hour to realize something wasn't quite right, after that, the way they reacted was definitely unnerving, and well you saw the video."
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It wasn't difficult to see the sudden change in the groups behaviour. Jo had called Nathan in under 30 minutes ago when Jack had taken a call he had yet to return from. Within 5 minutes, Nathan had contacted Allison, Zane and Fargo. within 10 minutes they'd picked up Zoe and Kevin and the entire group, still missing Jack, had arrived outside S.A.R.A.H, who had opened her doors for them immediately.
As they'd entered the living room, it didn't take long for Zoe and Kevin to be carefully situated inside a cocoon of blankets in the middle of the "Nest". In this instance Fargo was being treated more like an adult pack member, He and Allison, along with S.A.R.A.H had been given the task of protecting Zoe and Kevin until Nathan, Zane and Jo returned with Jack, though it was obvious that they were only to do so if someone breached through S.A.R.A.Hs' defense systems. Nathan, Jo and Zane then proceeded to head out in search of their missing member.
They found his car on the side of the road, it was clear there'd been a hell of a struggle and they'd been able to follow the rather obvious signs a good way into the surrounding woods. But about halfway through they'd found a discarded needle. A quick sniff indicated it had contained a powerful sedative after which the signs of struggle had petered out and they were once again relying on instinct and their other senses.
Luckily, Nathan remembered reports of an abandoned shelter in the area, and with the lack of signs that a vehicle of any sort had been driven through the area, it seemed to be the best place to look.
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The interviewer looked up as Henry bit his lower lip in thought. "Evidence suggests that other private vehicles that weren't owned by the DOD had been parked outside this abandoned shelter."
Henry nodded thoughtfully again. "I must admit though, as much as the thought of loosing Jack upset me, what happened next frightened me to the core, not what Nathan and the others had done, but how quietly they'd done it. I still care about my friends, but sometimes I fear what might happen if something ever made me their foe... we should just watch the video footage for now, it holds the answers."
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No one was sure how the three had managed it even with Jo's training, but within 8 minutes, they had swiftly disabled or killed the surrounding guards. at that point in time, as far as anyone could tell, they were not actively trying to end these peoples lives. No, that came later, after they'd found Jack. According to the footage, Jack had been strapped down on something more reminiscent of a mortuary gurney than a hospital bed, a number of small bleeding wounds indicated quite clearly the number of blood tests that Jack had undergone. It wasn't this that had set the group off. It was the large number of unnecessary cuts along his chest. Clearly done by a scalpel, the wounds were brutal and not required for any known tests.
It was at this point the change in Nathan, Zane and Jos' behavior was alarming, hearing the General and his team racing towards the room after finding the disabled guards, they silently they hid themselves from sight as the man and his team burst into the room. Perhaps after they'd gathered around the Mortuary style table holding Jack to make sure he was still there they might have checked the hiding areas around them. Unfortunately for them, by the time they might have thought of it, Jos' sudden move had already taken out two of them, one with a broken neck and the other had his suddenly deceased comrades knife jammed into the base of his skull. At the same time Both Zane, who'd apparently found a blunt weapon of some sort in his hiding spot, had caved one soldiers skull in with it, before proceeding to empty the mans gun into another. by that time Jo had gone for the General, but he had had enough time to pull his own weapon, forcing her to take cover behind an overturned table. Zane raced to distract the man enough for Jo to take him out. But it was Nathan that had chilled Henry to the bone, trusting Jo and Zane to take out the rest, he could be seen coldly stalking the only scientist in the DOD's team. Doctor Davidson had a gun, but it was clear he'd never been properly trained with it, as he'd tried to fire it at the looming older man without taking the safety off first.
The last words Davidson managed to get out were something about following orders. After that all that could be seen and heard was choked struggling as Nathans' large hands quietly wrapped around the other mans throat and squeezed. Nathan didn't seem to notice the scratches across his face as Doctor Davidson scrabbled to find purchase in a weak point, nor how the other mans' legs kicked out in a failed attempt to knock him off balance. Even after the struggles had stopped, Nathan kept squeezing, making the other mans face turn blue, then purple, until it was so dark it almost seemed black. It wasn't until Zane came over to pull on his arm that he snapped out of frigid rage that had consumed him and turned to where Jo was unstrapping Jack.
For the first time, the group seemed almost back to what consisted of their new normal, taking turns nuzzling into Jacks' cheeks, hair and neck as they tried to wake him up. There was a tense few moments when one of General Hayworths' hired mercenaries looked into the room. There was no real loyalty though, the man only stayed long enough to see that their paycheck was dead before bailing to tell the rest of them.
Finally, in a reversal of their usual way, Nathan was the one who leaned down and bit Jack's cheek, causing the man to suddenly bolt upright, before a quietly painful mewling sound escaped from his throat. So fast it was almost imperceptible, Nathan reached down and scooped up the other man, waiting just long enough for Jo and Zane to collect any weapons they thought might be needed, before they flanked him as he carrying Jack out to one of the few cars the mercenaries hadn't taken as they'd left.
Within a few seconds, Zane had hot-wired the vehicle. With Jo searching for potential enemies coming after them and Nathans' hands full, he also ended up driving the car. Which meant they arrived back at S.A.R.A.H at full speed, and his parking was more of a sliding into a viable spot near the door before they all bundled out of the car and into S.A.R.A.Hs' welcoming walls and the waiting arms of their fellow pack members.
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Henry looked up at the interviewer. "At this point in time, no one from GD has seen how the group is going aside from the small amount of video surveillance S.A.R.A.H has been kind enough to provide us for reassurance purposes and the short responses from Nathan or Allison to my own emails, I can tell you that for now, Jack has been relegated to the middle of the 'Nest' with Zoe and Kevin until he's recovered, at least until the times when S.A.R.A.H reported that Nathan and/or Allison were possessively wrapped around him in one of the upstairs rooms, mainly Nathan apparently, though no video was provided. Fargo also became very clingy with Jo and Zane when they'd told him what had been done to Jack."
The interviewer looked Henry over critically, before replying. "I see, do you know if they will eventually return to relatively normal life?"
Henry just grinned. "I'm sure once Jack's fully recovered, they'll start poking their heads out. Jack's never been one to wait around."
The interviewer nodded again. "Very well. I must admit Doctor Deacon, with all of the interviews and evidence we've complied, plus the less than legal actions of General Haysworth and his people, the DOD believes that Doctor Stark and the rest will be acquitted. Everything indicates that the group had reacted to a dangerously hostile situation and responded in kind. Well, this interview is concluded, thank you very much for your co-operation Doctor Deacon, we will contact you shortly, meanwhile General Mansfield is waiting to discuss certain projects with you."
Henry eyed the man suspiciously, his words rang as true, but their seemed to be an underlying reason for the fact that the DOD would most likely be letting Nathan and the others off with minor charges, if any at all. It was irritating but all he could do was take a breath and and pour a couple of drinks before paging Larry to let General Mansfield in. Perhaps the man might have an idea of what the DOD was up to.
As if summoned by his thoughts as much as by Larry, General Mansfield knocked on the door just as Henry had put a drink for him down on the table.
From the look on said Generals' face, it wouldn't take a lot, indeed it looked like the man had permission to answer any question Henry might ask him, so he did. "Why is the DOD being so lenient towards Nathan, Jack and the others?"
The General grimaced a little. "After seeing how efficient they where while rescuing Carter, especially considering they were against people that aside from Jo, were 100 times more well trained than the group itself, the DOD decided that the accidental formula that had been created would work well for military purposes amongst our soldiers, as such, as long as the group continue to allow your GD staff to test them, and your scientists work on finding a way to make it work in either pill or injection form, the DOD considers General Haysworth and his team an 'Acceptable Loss'."
Henry groaned. "Not much of a choice is it."
General Mansfield nodded. "No, but it's the only choice you've got, personally I think as helpful as the compound might seem, there has always been a certain level of comradeship in your little group, even with as much as Carter and Stark seemed to argue. I don't know if your substance will even work on people who haven't developed some kind of friendship."
Henry took a sip from his drink. "Perhaps not, we'll eventually find out."
He looked up at the Generals' odd hum. "Is their anything else general?"
Mansfield fidgeted slightly. "I'm not sure if it's just me, but on the videos, I've kind of noticed." At this he'd paused again.
Henry prompted him back into speaking with a quiet. "Yes?"
"Well, even with his injuries still recovering, there are times when Jack will come down from upstairs looking...oddly sated."
Henry nodded. "As S.A.R.A.H doesn't record videos in the upstairs rooms at the moment, it's all only speculation from our end, but if you look through some of the videos of downstairs, you'll often find subtle signs of satiation in Nathan as well often at the same time as Jack."
At this Mansfields' eyebrow raised. "Subtle?"
Henry smirked. "Well if you ignore the multitude of red marks running across the mans chest, but we could be wrong of course. Perhaps Jack is taking a very long revenge on Nathan for biting him at the shelter."
For the first time, Henry saw a different side of Mansfield as the man choked on his drink and snorted out a laugh. "Perhaps that would be a more suitable thing to write on any DOD reports if they ask about it."
There was a pause as Henry lowered his own drink onto the table. "I heard about your censure note."
The General coughed slightly. "Well, I had in fact, been right to trust your judgement, if they'd tried to do more it would have made the DOD look, well, rather bad in some peoples eyes. I heard you're probably going to be head of GD for the forseeable future?"
Henry nodded. "Unfortunately, a replacement is currently being sought out, or, hopefully we'll find a way to get Nathan and Allison back in charge, but unless we figure out how to reverse the changes, that's becoming increasingly unlikely."
General Mansfield paused, before indicating to Henrys'glass with his own. "A bittersweet toast then." He waited until Henrys' own glass was raised. 'To the future, whatever it may be."
The glasses clinked together. "Indeed."
Technically The End, but there will be an NC-17 chapter for those who are interested.
Chapter: 2 of 3
Fandom: Eureka
Pairings/characters: Jack/Nathan, implied Jack/Nathan/Allison, implied Jo/Fargo/Zane, Zoe, Henry, Kevin, various other characters.
Warnings: Contains slash and violence, not betaed, but if anyone happens to be interested *Wink Wink*
Rating: Currently PG-13, there will be an NC-17 chapter, but you don't have to read it as this works as a complete story.
Summary: A spill in GD causes strange behavioral changes in some of it's residents.
***** indicates a timeline change.
Previously on Incident 4391
The interviewer looked up from his notes yet again. "I assume Doctor Stark reacted badly?"
Henry looked at him. "No, that's just it, after Jack bit him, Nathan simply put away his work and crawled into the pile to sleep amongst the rest, Jack wasn't far behind. I've never seen anything like it in my life."
Chapter 2
The interviewer looked over to where Henry was fiddling with his cap. "The group didn't protest when you asked them to undergo testing?"
Henry shook his head. "No, nor did they protest when it was decided that calling General Mansfield to keep him in the loop was preferable to him finding out some other way."
At this point the interviewer interrupted Henry once again. "For the record, General Mansfield has stated that due to the lack of violent behavior, aside from requesting that Co-directors Allison Blake and Nathan Stark temporarily step aside from their positions so as to lower the risk of a security breach should circumstances change, He was willing to allow the GD scientists to continue the testing without interference."
Henry grunted. "That's correct, I must admit I was rather surprised at General Mansfields' decision, He usually isn't so... agreeable. In his defense though, I admit Eurekas' incidents are usually far more 'End of the Worldy'." Henry paused as the interviewers' eyebrow raised at him. "... I've been hanging around Jack too much."
The interviewer looked back at his notes. "So, you believe it was through outside interference that 'The Incident' itself occurred?"
Henrys' eyes drooped in in remembrance. "Yes, if General Mansfields' decision hadn't been overruled, I believe it to be highly likely we would not be discussing any incident at all."
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Henry looked up from the notes on his touch-pad screen, only pausing to check the monitors that had been set up in the GD area Nathan, Allison and Jack had chosen for their secondary "Nest" after having to vacate the very office Henry was now sitting in. Their primary nest was still situated inside S.A.R.A.H's walls before responding to the man standing in the doorway. "Yes General?"
General Mansfields' paused for a moment before making his way to one of the seats facing Henry's desk. "Director Deacon." He stilled for a moment at the look on Henrys' face. "I know it's temporary, but constantly calling you 'Temporary Director Deacon' is a bit of a mouthful."
Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Fine, Fine, now what would you like to know?"
General Mansfield nodded decisively. "Can you give an update on Stark and the others?"
"Well, after checking the surveillance files during the time only this group was present in GD, we discovered that a vial had broken in Lab 26. A more through search revealed a second vial had also broken, but this one had fallen from the back of the shelf so it wasn't visible to Jo and Jack at the time. Unlike the hormone treatments which were designed for injection, this was created to become gaseous as soon as it came into contact with air. It had mingled with the hormone treatment vial and aerosolized both of them."
General Mansfield nodded once again at this. "So, do you know what was in the vials... and please, keep it a simple explanation."
Henry almost grinned. "Well, in simple terms. The Hidden vial contained a pheromone Taggart was looking into that might induce pack behavior in non related species, he'd tested it on a group of cats and dogs, but had asked the technicians in lab 26 to store it until after the holidays had finished. We believe and some of the tests have corroborated this, that when the animal based pheromone treatment had mingle with the human based hormone treatment, the combination had made the pheromones viable with humans. There's just two more problems."
the General peered at Henrys' face. "What might those be?"
Henry let his face drop back into his hands. "First of all, even with the combination of the two substances, it should have worn off weeks ago." He pointed towards the computer screen that showed the groups 'nest'. "But as you can see, there's no change. We can't figure out the reason why."
The General blinked. "And, what's the other problem?"
Henry rubbed his hands across the back of his head. "For now, at least, we have yet to find a way to reverse the changes without risking hurting or possibly even killing the people affected."
As he looked over at the General, Henry noticed that he also seemed troubled by something, this feeling was confirmed by what the man said next. "That's a shame, and I'm afraid I have more bad news for you. Against my advice, certain members of the DOD have decided that yourself and the GD scientists can not be completely trusted to keep the DOD informed of everything. I respect your decision not to test potentially dangerous possible cures on the group, but these DOD members believe you should have tried some of the non-lethal cure attempts them on the more easily replaceable members of the group."
Henry exploded from his chair. "You mean Jack."
The General snarled a little at the man in front of him. "I was against it. Unfortunately, some other members of the DOD are less understanding. I believe the DOD will be bringing in a team and an outside scientist to run tests and test some of the cures you discarded, probably on Jack Carter, Jo Lupo, Zoe Carter and Kevin Blake. They'll arrive within the week. I'm sorry, but even telling you they're arriving is technically beyond what I'm allowed to do. These orders came from someone on a much higher level than I am."
Henry barely noticed as the glass of water he'd just poured cracked in his hand. He took a couple of deep breaths. "I understand, thank you for telling me this much General, I'm grateful, but I need you to leave for a while."
The general, sensing the mood, stood up and headed for the door, before leaving he turned his head back to Henry. "Just so you know, I did everything I could to change their minds."
With another crack the glass broke. "I know, that's why I haven't thrown this at your head."
The general turned away again as blood and water dribbled onto the floor.
As if in a daze, Henry lifted his hand and looked at the newly acquired injury. "I'll have to visit the medical bay for that."
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The interviewer interrupted again at this point. "It should be mentioned that even though General Mansfields' actions weren't against direct orders, he has received a censure note in his permanent file for revealing that information to you."
Henry looked surprised for a few seconds. "Interesting, I didn't know that."
The interviewer nodded. "I believe it was not long after the DOD team arrived that "the Incident" occurred."
Henry looked over at the man for a second. "No, 'The Incident' occurred because of that team not just while they were there."
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Henry sat at his desk, various touch pads, penned notes and medical results arrayed in front of him, his stress was indicated in the furrowed lines across his brow, the slight clench of his fists and the unhealthy array of Vinspresso cups spread across his desk and the surrounding furniture. He still hadn't found a possible cure for the group, just some small bits of information possibly indicating that Kevin, Jacks' and to certain degree Nathans' exposure to a certain "Artifact" formerly in section 5 may have left enough energy to create some genetic alterations to both them and the rest of the group due to the strange new pheromones suddenly inside their bodies. He'd also mostly figured out the Pack Dynamics, With Nathan as the Alpha "Male", while both Allison and Jack seemed to have more parental instincts, making both of them, as much Henry knew Jack would vehemently deny it similar to Alpha Females. though it was more often likely to be Jack that would harass "Alpha Male" Nathan out of his workaholic tendencies. Jo and Zane where pretty similar to Beta pack members and Zoe, Kevin and To a certain degree Fargo, where all treated like, for lack of a better terms, pups or possibly cubs. None of this information however, changed the fact that the DOD team was due to arrive any minute and he and the other GD scientists where about to be all but banned from doing anything to help the group.
He jumped nearly a foot as Larry burst into his office. "The DOD team has arrived sir."
Before he could reply, a rather heavyset soldier stormed into the office like he owned it. "I'm General Haysworth." He indicated vaguely at the group following behind, which consisted of four uniformed soldiers and a weedy looking man in a lab-coat. "Hand copies of all your research files to Doctor Davidson and my men for a look."
Henry looked over at the nervous looking Larry, and nodded at him. "Give it to them."
The surly looking General eyed the piles as if verifying that all possible information had been provided, before turning to Henry. "We've already arranged for one of the group to be separated from the rest for testing."
Henry's head almost did a 180 degree turn as it snapped towards the other man. "What do you mean separate?"
The man just looked at him. "Yes, separate, we need to see how they'll react to being separated and we can't have anyone from the group interfering with the testing."
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The Interviewer looked over at the touch pad Henry had brought in, it was open on a paused video file, one that all members of GD, the inquiry team and leading members of the DOD had seen. "On Record, the DOD would like to state that they did not authorize some of the more extreme measures taken by General Haysworth and his team."
Henry looked ready to shatter another glass. "You mean sending a false call-out to the Sheriff's office and using it as a cover to abduct Jack Carter for testing? Or Possibly Jo, if Jack hadn't been unfortunate enough to take the call first. Though looking at that video, I can quite clearly state that nothing I saw Doctor Davidson do in the short amount of time they had Jack could be considered anything like scientific testing, half of it didn't even seem humane."
"I understand." The interviewer would have continued on that vein, but Henry's derisive snort quickly put a stop to any meaningless platitudes that might have sprung forth. "I very much doubt that."
The interviewer choked on his breath a little. "Anyway, I believe this action was what precipitated the incident."
It took all of Henrys' self control to keep in the contemptous "Ya Think" that he was pretty sure he had also picked up from Jack. "It took the group less than an hour to realize something wasn't quite right, after that, the way they reacted was definitely unnerving, and well you saw the video."
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It wasn't difficult to see the sudden change in the groups behaviour. Jo had called Nathan in under 30 minutes ago when Jack had taken a call he had yet to return from. Within 5 minutes, Nathan had contacted Allison, Zane and Fargo. within 10 minutes they'd picked up Zoe and Kevin and the entire group, still missing Jack, had arrived outside S.A.R.A.H, who had opened her doors for them immediately.
As they'd entered the living room, it didn't take long for Zoe and Kevin to be carefully situated inside a cocoon of blankets in the middle of the "Nest". In this instance Fargo was being treated more like an adult pack member, He and Allison, along with S.A.R.A.H had been given the task of protecting Zoe and Kevin until Nathan, Zane and Jo returned with Jack, though it was obvious that they were only to do so if someone breached through S.A.R.A.Hs' defense systems. Nathan, Jo and Zane then proceeded to head out in search of their missing member.
They found his car on the side of the road, it was clear there'd been a hell of a struggle and they'd been able to follow the rather obvious signs a good way into the surrounding woods. But about halfway through they'd found a discarded needle. A quick sniff indicated it had contained a powerful sedative after which the signs of struggle had petered out and they were once again relying on instinct and their other senses.
Luckily, Nathan remembered reports of an abandoned shelter in the area, and with the lack of signs that a vehicle of any sort had been driven through the area, it seemed to be the best place to look.
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The interviewer looked up as Henry bit his lower lip in thought. "Evidence suggests that other private vehicles that weren't owned by the DOD had been parked outside this abandoned shelter."
Henry nodded thoughtfully again. "I must admit though, as much as the thought of loosing Jack upset me, what happened next frightened me to the core, not what Nathan and the others had done, but how quietly they'd done it. I still care about my friends, but sometimes I fear what might happen if something ever made me their foe... we should just watch the video footage for now, it holds the answers."
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No one was sure how the three had managed it even with Jo's training, but within 8 minutes, they had swiftly disabled or killed the surrounding guards. at that point in time, as far as anyone could tell, they were not actively trying to end these peoples lives. No, that came later, after they'd found Jack. According to the footage, Jack had been strapped down on something more reminiscent of a mortuary gurney than a hospital bed, a number of small bleeding wounds indicated quite clearly the number of blood tests that Jack had undergone. It wasn't this that had set the group off. It was the large number of unnecessary cuts along his chest. Clearly done by a scalpel, the wounds were brutal and not required for any known tests.
It was at this point the change in Nathan, Zane and Jos' behavior was alarming, hearing the General and his team racing towards the room after finding the disabled guards, they silently they hid themselves from sight as the man and his team burst into the room. Perhaps after they'd gathered around the Mortuary style table holding Jack to make sure he was still there they might have checked the hiding areas around them. Unfortunately for them, by the time they might have thought of it, Jos' sudden move had already taken out two of them, one with a broken neck and the other had his suddenly deceased comrades knife jammed into the base of his skull. At the same time Both Zane, who'd apparently found a blunt weapon of some sort in his hiding spot, had caved one soldiers skull in with it, before proceeding to empty the mans gun into another. by that time Jo had gone for the General, but he had had enough time to pull his own weapon, forcing her to take cover behind an overturned table. Zane raced to distract the man enough for Jo to take him out. But it was Nathan that had chilled Henry to the bone, trusting Jo and Zane to take out the rest, he could be seen coldly stalking the only scientist in the DOD's team. Doctor Davidson had a gun, but it was clear he'd never been properly trained with it, as he'd tried to fire it at the looming older man without taking the safety off first.
The last words Davidson managed to get out were something about following orders. After that all that could be seen and heard was choked struggling as Nathans' large hands quietly wrapped around the other mans throat and squeezed. Nathan didn't seem to notice the scratches across his face as Doctor Davidson scrabbled to find purchase in a weak point, nor how the other mans' legs kicked out in a failed attempt to knock him off balance. Even after the struggles had stopped, Nathan kept squeezing, making the other mans face turn blue, then purple, until it was so dark it almost seemed black. It wasn't until Zane came over to pull on his arm that he snapped out of frigid rage that had consumed him and turned to where Jo was unstrapping Jack.
For the first time, the group seemed almost back to what consisted of their new normal, taking turns nuzzling into Jacks' cheeks, hair and neck as they tried to wake him up. There was a tense few moments when one of General Hayworths' hired mercenaries looked into the room. There was no real loyalty though, the man only stayed long enough to see that their paycheck was dead before bailing to tell the rest of them.
Finally, in a reversal of their usual way, Nathan was the one who leaned down and bit Jack's cheek, causing the man to suddenly bolt upright, before a quietly painful mewling sound escaped from his throat. So fast it was almost imperceptible, Nathan reached down and scooped up the other man, waiting just long enough for Jo and Zane to collect any weapons they thought might be needed, before they flanked him as he carrying Jack out to one of the few cars the mercenaries hadn't taken as they'd left.
Within a few seconds, Zane had hot-wired the vehicle. With Jo searching for potential enemies coming after them and Nathans' hands full, he also ended up driving the car. Which meant they arrived back at S.A.R.A.H at full speed, and his parking was more of a sliding into a viable spot near the door before they all bundled out of the car and into S.A.R.A.Hs' welcoming walls and the waiting arms of their fellow pack members.
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Henry looked up at the interviewer. "At this point in time, no one from GD has seen how the group is going aside from the small amount of video surveillance S.A.R.A.H has been kind enough to provide us for reassurance purposes and the short responses from Nathan or Allison to my own emails, I can tell you that for now, Jack has been relegated to the middle of the 'Nest' with Zoe and Kevin until he's recovered, at least until the times when S.A.R.A.H reported that Nathan and/or Allison were possessively wrapped around him in one of the upstairs rooms, mainly Nathan apparently, though no video was provided. Fargo also became very clingy with Jo and Zane when they'd told him what had been done to Jack."
The interviewer looked Henry over critically, before replying. "I see, do you know if they will eventually return to relatively normal life?"
Henry just grinned. "I'm sure once Jack's fully recovered, they'll start poking their heads out. Jack's never been one to wait around."
The interviewer nodded again. "Very well. I must admit Doctor Deacon, with all of the interviews and evidence we've complied, plus the less than legal actions of General Haysworth and his people, the DOD believes that Doctor Stark and the rest will be acquitted. Everything indicates that the group had reacted to a dangerously hostile situation and responded in kind. Well, this interview is concluded, thank you very much for your co-operation Doctor Deacon, we will contact you shortly, meanwhile General Mansfield is waiting to discuss certain projects with you."
Henry eyed the man suspiciously, his words rang as true, but their seemed to be an underlying reason for the fact that the DOD would most likely be letting Nathan and the others off with minor charges, if any at all. It was irritating but all he could do was take a breath and and pour a couple of drinks before paging Larry to let General Mansfield in. Perhaps the man might have an idea of what the DOD was up to.
As if summoned by his thoughts as much as by Larry, General Mansfield knocked on the door just as Henry had put a drink for him down on the table.
From the look on said Generals' face, it wouldn't take a lot, indeed it looked like the man had permission to answer any question Henry might ask him, so he did. "Why is the DOD being so lenient towards Nathan, Jack and the others?"
The General grimaced a little. "After seeing how efficient they where while rescuing Carter, especially considering they were against people that aside from Jo, were 100 times more well trained than the group itself, the DOD decided that the accidental formula that had been created would work well for military purposes amongst our soldiers, as such, as long as the group continue to allow your GD staff to test them, and your scientists work on finding a way to make it work in either pill or injection form, the DOD considers General Haysworth and his team an 'Acceptable Loss'."
Henry groaned. "Not much of a choice is it."
General Mansfield nodded. "No, but it's the only choice you've got, personally I think as helpful as the compound might seem, there has always been a certain level of comradeship in your little group, even with as much as Carter and Stark seemed to argue. I don't know if your substance will even work on people who haven't developed some kind of friendship."
Henry took a sip from his drink. "Perhaps not, we'll eventually find out."
He looked up at the Generals' odd hum. "Is their anything else general?"
Mansfield fidgeted slightly. "I'm not sure if it's just me, but on the videos, I've kind of noticed." At this he'd paused again.
Henry prompted him back into speaking with a quiet. "Yes?"
"Well, even with his injuries still recovering, there are times when Jack will come down from upstairs looking...oddly sated."
Henry nodded. "As S.A.R.A.H doesn't record videos in the upstairs rooms at the moment, it's all only speculation from our end, but if you look through some of the videos of downstairs, you'll often find subtle signs of satiation in Nathan as well often at the same time as Jack."
At this Mansfields' eyebrow raised. "Subtle?"
Henry smirked. "Well if you ignore the multitude of red marks running across the mans chest, but we could be wrong of course. Perhaps Jack is taking a very long revenge on Nathan for biting him at the shelter."
For the first time, Henry saw a different side of Mansfield as the man choked on his drink and snorted out a laugh. "Perhaps that would be a more suitable thing to write on any DOD reports if they ask about it."
There was a pause as Henry lowered his own drink onto the table. "I heard about your censure note."
The General coughed slightly. "Well, I had in fact, been right to trust your judgement, if they'd tried to do more it would have made the DOD look, well, rather bad in some peoples eyes. I heard you're probably going to be head of GD for the forseeable future?"
Henry nodded. "Unfortunately, a replacement is currently being sought out, or, hopefully we'll find a way to get Nathan and Allison back in charge, but unless we figure out how to reverse the changes, that's becoming increasingly unlikely."
General Mansfield paused, before indicating to Henrys'glass with his own. "A bittersweet toast then." He waited until Henrys' own glass was raised. 'To the future, whatever it may be."
The glasses clinked together. "Indeed."
Technically The End, but there will be an NC-17 chapter for those who are interested.