Chapter 9 - The Race Of Time And The Heart.

I cart Soothing back to the infirmary. He's out of it again. I leave him in the bay and stick my head in the lab again.

"Rain?"

"Mhmmrph?" is the noise that returns to me as Rain's head pokes over a piece of machinery, a sandwich sticking out of his mouth.

"There's no one who can handle toxin's here. I've got to get to cell 134 and find a phone. That's all I managed to get out of Soothing."

Rain's eyes narrow and he looks concerned. "So the Ritalin didn't work?"

"It did, but it was a case of talking to him half asleep. He didn't even manage to wake up enough to tell me more than phone, cell 134,Tina, when I asked how to get hold of the Sept."

He nods but the frown doesn't leave his face. "Okay, I'll stay here and keep an eye on people. I'm assuming you're going to find the phone?"

I nod "Yeah I am. Back soon." I turn and leave the room, grabbing my map again and navigating my way to cell 134.

The cell looks like all the others until you open the door. Inside has been made comfortable with a few posters with people I have no idea who they are. The bed has a duvet and pillow, which I can't help but smile when I notice they have pictures of dragons on them. There's a large dragon statue on the windowsill as well, almost jammed between the bars. A desk is covered in papers and there's a chair there too. I start searching for a phone. I do feel a tad embarrassed going through his stuff as I find items that I really do feel he will not be happy that I found. Where the hell is that phone?!

A beep comes from the desk. I look up, there's some stuff on there like papers and 2 rectangle items. One of them is about the size of a cigarette packet and black, the other is grey and about 3 times the size of the other. I pick up the black thing and look it over. There's a button, I press it and it's screen lights up showing the time. That must be a clock. I reach for the other thing and discover it folds open. There's 2 screens on this one as well as some buttons. Oh wait, there's a d-pad on the left of this one, it looks like my games console back on my world. Maybe it's a futuristic games console? Or maybe they've combined the two, this world is something like 10 years ahead with technology.

There's a button that says 'power', which I press. It beeps at me and both screens light up. A moment later, the top screen shows a clock, the bottom one says 'insert game/cartridge'. Shit, this isn't it. I hit the power off button and put it back on the desk. I start riffling through the drawers again in case I've missed it. Son of a... I can't find the damn phone!

My radio beeps and I hear Rain's voice.

"Alex?"

I hit the button "Yeah bro?"

"Umm, quick question, you do know that we have touch screen phones don't you?"

"What's one of them then?"

"Ah shit. I should have thought on when you were trying to figure out the machines in the med bay. You were looking for one of those flip open phones weren't you, with an antenna?"

I blink a couple of times "Yeah.... It doesn't look like that does it?"

"Sorry bro, no it doesn't. You're probably looking for something that has a button on it that you press and the time will come up on and the words 'swipe screen to unlock' will be on there or an arrow or something. You need to run your finger across the screen and then all the controls are done by touching the screen."

I curse very loudly, keeping my finger off the button and grab the damn thing I thought was a clock and press the button. There it says in smaller lettering on the bottom 'swipe to unlock'. That's what I get for being hot headed. It never occurred to me that I'd not know what a fucking phone looks like. Good job Rain has my back on this one.

I hit the button again "Thanks Rain, I've got it."

I move my finger over the screen and the screen changes to the clock and lots of other symbols. I see a picture of a telephone handset and touch that. The screen goes black and a list appears with different names. I read through the list, there's Tina! I touch her name and screen says 'Dialling Tina'. I can hear ringing coming from phone and I lift it to my ear.

"Hey there Soothing! What can I do you for?" says a bubbly female voice.

"Hi, sorry, this is Alex not Soothing. Soothing's been hurt" I say.

"What! Where are you?!" The voice went from happy to pissed off in that one statement.

"We're in the prison, Rain and I got back as they were being attacked. They're all unconscious, the thing that attacked them had some sort of venom on its weapons which is keeping them all catatonic. We tried to wake Soothing up, but the best we managed was him saying to call you."

There's a distinct growl from the other end of the phone. "I don't know who you or Rain are, you aren't registered as with that pack."

"We got sent to Erebus. We needed to be cleansed as I got merged with a Black Spiral and Rain used to be one. Please, we need healers. They're hurt bad and I've done all I can medically, but unless I hook them up to feeding tubes, they're going to sleep themselves to death."

"Oh! You're those two! Congrats on getting back. Right. I'll organise a group to get over there as soon as possible, but don't get your hopes up. We don't have anyone who's capable of clearing poisons or venoms I'm afraid."

I feel my knees go weak and I sit down hard on the bed.

"Wha... What?"

"I'm sorry Alex. We'll see what we can do when we get there, but I've never heard of a venom that's capable of what you're describing. I don't know of anyone in the Sept that has the power to cleanse venoms and poisons. If its wyrm taint then yeah, we can do something about that, but... From what you've said, I doubt it. We might be able to get hold of a mage to talk to about this, but don't get your hopes up. The one we knew seems to have vanished and that usually points to the mage guys with the big tech guns so any others will be in hiding. I'll get a group together and head your way asap. Bye."

The phone makes a bleep sound and I hear nothing else. Looking at the screen it's gone back to the menu with names. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I can feel tears welling in my eyes again and a huge lump forming in my throat. I bite my lip, this isn't the time for that. She said that they would try to get hold of a mage and then maybe something can be done.

I wish Tarquin was around. He'd be on this like a flash, or even that Damocles fellow, he seemed like he might be able to help. Fucking hell fire, even Mort might actually have a go, though he'd probably want them to 'restart' their cycle. I'd met all these mages back in my old world. Tarquin was just a whizz with computers, I'd thought. The guy could make a business out of anything. Damocles was apparently one of the higher ups in the mage society and I'd been 'questioned' by him once. He wasn't exactly happy to be doing that to me. Mort just seemed to appear and hang around because there was a lot of his business mixed in with my own. Even when he tried to buy my place.

Buy my place...

My eyes widen and I pat my pockets down. No wallet. They took it when I got captured. My old cell! I start sprinting. The memory of the night Mort offering to buy my place and handing me his business card! He turned up almost every time I was holding damn thing and talking about him! It was a long shot but right now it's one I'm willing to take. Here's hoping it's still there!

I tear down the corridor, looking at my map. I still remembered the cell number across from me and the desk where they'd put all my stuff, what little of it there was. I don't slow down as I skid into and off a wall around the corner.

The door barely slows me down as I throw it open and there's my cell and the desk! I rush to it and yank on the drawer. Locked.

A frustrated snarl curls from my lips and with a roar of anger two much larger clawed hands shatter the desk into splinters. I hunch over to keep my head from banging on the ceiling as I tear apart the desk. Papers and other things going across the floor. I find my phone, dead of course. My little diary is there and just under it, YES! My wallet!

I pick it up and fumbling I drop it again, these big clawed hands obviously not made for the delicate art of getting into a freaking wallet. I take a deep breath and calm myself, willing myself to slip back into my human form. My hands trembling a little as I pick up my wallet again. My hands still stinging from the burns, I ignore them as best I can as I open up my wallet and there it is. The little black card. I pull it out and take a deep breath.

This is going to be the worst long shot in history and I know it. IF this works, I could be calling a mage here who's not like the one I know because there's just as good a chance I'll be calling to the Mort of this world rather than the one I know. That is if the one on his own world can even track me to this world. Plus, there's no guarantee that this Mort won't be a member of the technocracy.

I hope this is the right thing.

I hold the card in one hand. "Mort, if you're there, please, please. I need help."

Standing there in the silence, I wait. I look around, nothing. Nothing has happened.

This time I can't help it, the tears start to fall and I wipe at them with the back of my hand.

"Oh guys, I'm so sorry, I tried. Please, please hold on till help gets here."

"And what kind of help would you be requiring young fellow?" says a voice behind me.

I whirl around, there is..... Mort? It can't be. It's his face alright, but he has a handle bar moustache, he's wearing a bowler hat, a dark brown suit jacket with tweed elbows, pressed trousers and I kid you not, a freaking monocle. My jaw hangs open in sheer shock. All I can stutter out is... "Morton?"

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Not quite young chap, I am Mortimer. Though I deduce that you were expecting someone not to dissimilar to myself yet I am intrigued as to how you suppose that would come about when it is my resonance you are calling along."

I shake my head to clear it and then cough.

"I'm so sorry. Yes, I was attempting to contact the Morton that I knew in my world. I'm sorry if I have disturbed you or caused you some inconvenience."

"Not at all my boy! In fact I find this rather intriguing in itself! From another world you say? How did you come here? Are you alone? Do you have a way back to your world? What's your world like? Do you have tea there?"

I blink a couple of times, a little overwhelmed by his questioning.

"Err, well, yes we do. My world is very similar to this one, only it has some apparently key differences. I would gladly offer any information that I have, but right now I have a very dire situation as all my friends have been injured badly by a creature. "

"Oh my, how terribly unfortunate. So that is why you were attempting to summon aid using the card?"

I nod "Yes, the creature had a vast amount of appendages with wicked claws, each one seemed to have been coated with a venom secreted from its claws. The venom has rendered my friends unconscious and I have no way of waking them up. We managed to analyse the venom but it's like Propofol on steriods. We can't counteract it."

"Ahhh and I assume you harvested some of the venom to create an antidote?"

"We harvested some before the body melted but we haven't been able to create the antidote."

Mortimer blinks slowly at me. "Beg pardon, did you say, 'melted'?"

"Yeah, the thing was made of some acidic stuff so when I crushed its head, I'm guessing the acid melted it from the inside out. The damn stuff hurts like hell." I raise my left hand and show him the burn mark.

Mortimer's face darkens considerably. "Where did you fight the creature?"

"Err, down the hall from here."

"Show me, now." he says in a very firm voice.

He doesn't sound happy. I don't really have anything to lose right now, so I turn and motion for him to follow. We make our way down the corridors and I lead him into the recreation area where the creature was. Now however there appears to be a hole in the floor where the acid must have eaten away at it. The smell makes me wince and I cover my nose and mouth with my shirt.

Mortimer briskly steps past me and moves around the hole, looking inside it then around the room. His gaze seems to stop on the 3 bodies in the room. We hadn't had time to clear up and I didn't even know what to do about them anyway. I made a mental note to at least put some sheets over the poor souls. Mortimer looks very angry and begins tutting to himself and I hear the odd mutter of "No, no, this will not do at all." I have no idea what the hell is happening here, but he does not look happy.

Both our thoughts were interrupted by my radio beeping and Rain's voice.

"Alex!?" his voice sounding panicked.

"I'm here, what's wrong?"

"One of the pack has stopped breathing! I don't know what to do!"

Shit, I sprint towards the infirmary. I don't have time to do anything else. I burst through the doors and see Rain standing over one of the female's. I hope that soon I might be able to ask their fucking names. I dash over, he's stood there with tears starting to form on his face.

"I'm here Rain, give me some room please bro." I put my head against her chest, she's still got a heartbeat but she has stopped breathing. I quickly start to do CPR, compressing her chest and breathing into her lungs. Whilst I'm doing the second set of presses I look up at Rain.

"Find me some Adrenaline and the Ritalin, we'll give her a mix like we did Soothing and see if we can keep her going." He nods and runs into the pharmacy. A moment later I hear behind me.

"Oh my. This is quite a calamitous happenstance. I can see why you would be attempting to reach out for aid. First you have demons attacking, now you are trying to combat it's venom and keep your compatriots alive."

A glance over my shoulder confirms its Mortimer talking to me.

" A fucking demon. Great. As if there isn't enough shit going around. Mortimer, I am sorry to ask, but I must beg, is there anything you could do to help?"

"I'm afraid my knowledge of the healing arts is next to none. My forte is the realms of time and space. Though I do dabble into the alterations of matter and force."

Rain comes out of the pharmacy room and his stride falters a little when he spots Mortimer but he still hurries over and hands me the bottles and needles. I drop them on the side and draw out some of the Ritalin with a larger dose of adrenaline, I can't afford to be stingy at the moment. I quickly inject her and return to chest compressions, trying to keep her heart and her breathing going.

"Who's this Alex?" asks Rain.

"I am Mortimer Tempus, mage of the order of Hermes, well, what remains anyway. Your compatriot here called me in the hopes of acquiring my aid."

Rain looks at me then to Mortimer. "Are you gonna help us save them please?"

"I regret that I do not believe I have the capability to do so little one. I am sorry. My forte is the realms of time and space, I do not have the abilities to remove the venom nor heal their wounds."

I almost gasp in relief myself as the garou below me gasps for breath and returns to breathing herself. The serum must have kicked in, for now. I rub my eyes and turn back to Mortimer.

"Wait, time. Does that mean you can do stuff like freeze stuff in time or say speed time up in an area?"

"It does indeed my good fellow. Do you have an idea that I may be able to assist you with?"

"Maybe. The venom that's in their bodies Rain, is it degrading AT all?"

Rain shakes his head gently. "If it is, its degrading at a rate that is so slow it's almost impossible for me to measure."

"Tch, so much for that idea then. What about placing them in stasis, would you be able to do that Mr Tempus?"

Mortimer smiles "Thank you for using the correct familiarity there. However I must regretfully inform you that I would be unable to place them all in a form of stasis for any time length greater than an hour. It is simply beyond my capabilities to do so."

I grind my teeth a little, this is getting nowhere. "Rain, is the compound chemical or biological in nature?"

"The compound itself seems to be chemical, it causes the nerves to shut down at such a level that you are unable to wake up."

I look at the girl we've just saved. "It must shut down the nervous system eventually, respiratory failure first from the looks of it. However, it is still a compound. Mr Tempus, could you tell me if the compound is magically enhanced please?"

"Why certainly! I am finding this deductive reasoning exhilarating! Would you be kind enough to allow me to examine your sample of the venom?"

"Rain, please take Mr Tempus and show him the sample."

Rain leads him off and I collapse into a chair. If the compound can be affected magically, then we might have a chance. I hoped. That is if Mortimer was willing to lend some aid that is. Reaching out I grab one of the bottles I'd left behind and take a swig. It must be a juice of some description, but right this moment it's refreshing and flavourful. It was moments like these that reminded me just how much I lost out on whilst being dead. I take another gulp and tilt my head back just to rest for a few minutes.

Rain and Mortimer return after a few minutes.

"Well now, that stuff is quite intriguing in itself! I have determined that it is not magically inclined, created or protected though. So now what would you do?"

I rub my eyes again "Right... Rain?" Rain looks at me.

"Bro, you seem to have the scientist thing down at the moment, what do you think about the compound? Is there a way to either cause it to break itself down or can we introduce another compound to break that one down?"

Rain bites his thumbnail and thinks "I already tried introducing compounds I believed would break it down, so far they haven't been effective. I don't know how to break down the compound itself and as it's not a bio-organism so there's no system we can cause to self destruct."

I look at Mortimer "I don't suppose you have the ability to teleport the compounds out of their body do you?"

"That would be of great difficulty and very little chance of me being able to remove it all. The compound is simply too small and complex. Moving or secluding the compound I would have greater success, however again, there is little guarantee that would work as well."

I curse softly and get up, pacing the room and looking at all the garou. My eyes flick to the equipment monitoring them. I wonder... I move to the medical storage. There's the crash cart, spare heart monitors, blood testing kits, ah ha! A Dialysis machine! Maybe... I walk out of the storage room.

"What happens if we filter the blood? Would removing the compound or majority of it work?"

Rain shakes his head "The compound has already fixed itself to their nervous system and is luckily very slowly shutting down their nervous system. Even filtering the blood won't work right now."

Dammit. What the hell are we going to do?

"Well goodness, this is quite the conundrum! Though I do like how you two are working together, it's quite a splendid demonstration of how brothers should work together!"

Rain blushes and I can't help but smile at him "We can do this bro, we're missing something obvious, we have to be..."

Rain chews his thumbnail again. I tut, he'll make a mess of it, though I suppose it'll just re-grow when he shifts into his garou form. I blink and reprocess that thought.

"Rain? How's the damn compound actually keeping itself in the system? It should have been absorbed by the tissue by now. Is it like healing or regenerating itself?"

Rain blinks "I don't know. I haven't been able to damage the compound and I haven't put it in any tissue so I can't see what's going on there."

"Fuck, what if we're attacking the wrong thing? In order to block the nervous system the compound HAS to be used up, something has to be producing it! Did you find anything else in the sample you took?"

"Just some dead tissue that I.... Oh FUCK!" Rain curses and runs to the lab, I'm fast behind him. He brings up images on the screen that I don't get chance to make sense of until he brings up a photo. I recognise cellular structures and what appears to be a cluster of them in the corner of the picture.

"That has to be it! That group of cells must be producing the chemical! I'll bet the damn thing hides in the blood producing the chemical. Since you've had it out of blood for so long, it's either dead or inactive! Can you sample that and analyse it Rain?"

"Already on it bro, give me 20 mins."

"Well now, isn't this exciting! It's a regular scooby doo mystery!" chuckles Mortimer behind us. If it wasn't for the fact we might still need his help, I'd be more than a tad irate.

"Indeed. I think since we have to wait for the results, I shall make a pot of tea. Would you care for one Mr Tempus?"

"Oh ho! I would indeed young man! Also feel free to refer to me as Mortimer, I haven't had this much fun in quite some time!"

I can't help but chuckle at his attitude, it's harmless for now. "Well then, as you've probably deduced, I'm Alex and this is Rain. I'll be back with the tea shortly."

I make my way to the kitchen again. Thankfully the world does not end with me making a pot of tea. It gives me a moment to wolf down some meats from the fridge and gather a few biscuits. Doesn't hurt to brown nose once in a while.

But I'm really tired. I can only imagine how Rain is doing. I know that I'm going to need to sleep soon or I'm just going to pass out completely. I make my way back to the Infirmary with the tray and place it down on the nurse station. I don't think taking it in the lab would be the smartest of moves. I walk back in to find the two of them pouring over computer screen.

"Any news?"

Rain looks up at me "Bro, we need a blood sample from one of the injured. If we're right, this shit gets in the system and replicates itself slowly. We should have analysed the blood at the beginning, we might have seen this thing straight away." I flinch as well at that last statement but immediately go and grab a couple of tubes for blood samples, returning with a couple of minutes with 3 samples from 3 different garou.

Rain puts them in the centrifuge, then pushes that into another machine. I hear it whir up.

"We're doing our best bro, that's all we can do."

Rain nods but doesn't take his eyes off the screen.

"Little bro, come on, that will take a few minutes. Let's have a cup of tea and some biscuits."

"Oooh, biscuits too! I may come here more often!" Mortimer beams.

Inwardly I flinch. The Mort I knew liked killing people but never looked happy about anything. This one is quite jolly and appears to be enjoying getting his teeth into this little mystery. Here's hoping it's not just an act.

The three of us move outside to the nurse station and I pour tea for us all. I glance at the clock, it's a little over an hour since I called Tina. She should be here soon. Mortimer makes polite remarks about the tea and sits enjoying it. Rain has a shadow of sadness on his face, he must be blaming himself for not taking the blood sample.

"Little bro?"

He snaps his head towards me like I'd startled him "Wha? Oh, sorry, yes Alex?"

"Don't beat yourself up about this please. I'm the trained medical professional and even I forgot to take a sample to check. As your older brother, I'm the one who should take responsibility for the mistake."

Rain shakes his head "No, we both screwed up, let's just hope it doesn't cost anyone their life."

I nod in agreement, barely finishing my tea as we hear a beeping sound from the lab area. I'm following a very swift footed Rain back into the lab. He hits the seat and starts scanning over the results on the screen. I can't follow what he's doing as I don't recognise any of the charts that are appearing. After about 10 minutes reading and Mortimer has joined us, Rain turns to look at me.

"Ok, these cell clusters are what are producing the toxin or venom. I can't tell how they do it exactly, but I can see that the red blood cell count is reducing in the samples, so I'm going to surmise that they do so by feeding on red blood cells. Since our metabolism is so high, the rate at which the cells are produced is increased, meaning that the very fact they're werewolves is giving them a better chance. But the body is not fighting the thing like an infection."

I frown "Because maybe it should be treating it like a parasite!" I run into the pharmacy and search the shelves, please please please.... YES! I grab a box of Mebendazole. I head back into the lab quickly.

"Rain, use a sample and this stuff, it treats against most known parasites." I hand him the Mebendazole. He takes some out of the packet and puts it in the machine. The machine seems to turn the pill into a liquid and we watch as it's mixed with a sample. The screen shows the microscope and the cells, as we watch and the drug is administered, it looks like nothing is happening. Then one of the clusters stops moving, then another, then a third. We look at the level of the venom in the sample. It's slowed rising, then it stops all together.

YES!

"Nice one! That will do the trick, but the process took close to half an hour for such a small area and it was a high concentration dose. How are we going to speed it up enough to take effect through the body?"

There's a cough from Mortimer and he has a very big grin on his face "Maybe I could be some assistance? Let's talk fee's shall we?"

Rain and I look at each other and wince, I turn to Mortimer "We don't have any money though."

Mortimer laughs "Oh that stuff, I have little use for it. No no, since you two have been quite interesting and hospitable hosts, I will give you a discounted rate. I'm more interested in information. So I would be quite happy to help if Alex here would be kind enough to give me the information regarding how he came here from his world."

I wince "I can do, but I feel that I'll be ripping you off Mortimer, I stepped through a portal that I was told to, that's all there is to it."

Mortimer raises an eyebrow "By jove, that was very honest of you m'lad. I was hoping you would have known about the machinations of how you came to be here."

I shake my head "I don't I'm afraid. I'm guessing since I passed through time and space that's the information you'd be interested in, unfortunately it was a part I was not privy to. That being said, I am the only being in this world that used to be a vampire, I was merged with a Black Spiral thanks to another mage."

Mortimer's eyes almost light up. "Now THAT I would like to hear about! Okay, get yourself set up, I'll handle the rest for you. Once your crew is back on its feet, I want to hear all about that event and that mage!"

I smile and nod. "You got yourself a deal there Mortimer." I reach out and shake his hand, immediately regretting it as I yelp in pain from the burns.

"Oh dear, you'll have to get those seen to m'lad."

I can only wince and nod in agreement.

Rain has placed the capsules in the same machine and it pumps them full of liquid and into syringes. I take half and he takes the other half. Walking back into the room, I take one side he takes the other and we inject the Mebendazole into each garou.

"Okay, would you be so kind as to stand behind me you two?" says Mortimer.

We both move behind him and he raises a cane that seems to have come from nowhere and makes a circular motion in the air in front of him. I look intently, expecting to see... Well, something. However nothing happens that I can see. Until I hear a moan. I look over at Soothing, his eyelids are fluttering! He groans and slowly his eyes start to open. It's working, it's working!