Chapter Text
In the weeks after the mass Connectifia abortus attack swept through the entire building, Middlesea Hospital was in a state of chaos. With the head surgeon Edega out of commission, the majority of the cleanup work was left to the dynamic duo of Ian and Paige. While Paige busies herself doing rounds and keeping the peace amongst the patients, Ian is hard at work in the basement, trying to solve two problems:
1. Though he had set up the firewall against Connectifia abortus, it seems as if there's still some sort of its influence left behind - random blackouts, accompanied by cameras going haywire. Some of the robots he'd built (that weren't smashed to bits by Mr. Jonronero during the Miracle Defibrillation incident) would also periodically go missing, never to be caught on a working camera. He worries greatly for his little chick helpers. The Rhythm Defibrillator ver. 0.8.4 has also gone missing, which is highly alarming, because...
2. The intern is also missing. No matter how many times he resets the connection, they show no sign of being online. Checking the input logs, it seems their final signal was using the Miracle Defibrillator on Booker.
Rubbing at his eyes beneath his glasses, Ian sighs. "Ugh... I hope they're okay. I wonder if Connectifia abortus can be infected remotely.... I hope not. They should've been fine behind the firewall, but they did have copious amounts of prior exposure... Maybe the explosion messed with equipment on their end somehow?"
It wasn't until losing contact with the intern that Ian really started contemplating - did he actually know anything about the intern? Did anyone? He'd asked Edega once when he was awake, but the only response he got was that "the only factor considered in the hiring process was compatibility with the Rhythm Defibrilator. Unrelated information like location, age and gender are superfluous and therefore not recorded." So the only information Ian has to work with is that they're good at rhythm games... there's an entire worldwide community full of people it could be! Just the idea of asking around at arcades if anyone knew anything is giving him social anxiety. A headache, too.
He's tired. Unbelievably so, even comparable to when Edega had him working on the Miracle Defibrillator. But he and Paige are basically the only staff left, barring the nurse and the janitor. Thank goodness they're still here. Although neither he nor Paige are as overzealous as Edega is, (was? Ian wasn't sure if he'd changed or if he was just temporarily incapacitated.) the two of them are working themselves to the bone. They're stretched entirely too thin, but all these people are relying on them to stay on top of things.
A few of the old doctors had come over a while back to check on Edega's nerve damage, but they can't work for free. All they could offer without proper compensation was advice on how to move forward with Edega's treatment on their own. Ian would have loved to just put them all back on staff, but once he'd taken on Edega's task of handling payroll, he found out exactly why he'd been pushing the robot staff idea so much - the hospital was damn near broke. There was no way they could afford even one extra set of hands. No wonder the intern wasn't paid... Maybe that's why they had disappeared? Nevertheless, it was honestly a miracle that Edega had been keeping even the current staff afloat with this pitiful budget. Had he also studied accounting alongside med school? Ian wouldn't put it past him, honestly. He'd assumed everyone had left solely due to the stress that comes with working with Edega (which is still a pretty damn good reason), but apparently money was a bigger factor in it than he'd thought. He certainly wouldn't put up with Edega if he was getting paid less. Probably. Maybe.
He'd found out why the budget was so meager not long after taking charge of payroll. Having sifted through document after document, he found piles of notices from the office of the Secretary of Health - budget cuts here, downsizing there, denied insurance claims nearly everywhere. Ian isn't a very angry guy - he's platinum in Rank of Rookies and still manages to stay composed game after game - but the amount of greed in those documents is sickening. So long as people like Richard Hugh were out there, giving nonsensical speeches to defund hospitals and lining their own pockets with money that could be saving peoples' LIVES-
Ian's angry mental rant is cut short by a high pitched scream that rang throughout the hospital. Instinctively, he turns towards his computer to check the security camera feed, but it seems they're still down.
Gathering his equipment, Ian rushes upstairs as fast as his (admittedly, scrawny) gamer legs can carry him. "Now is not the time for technical difficulties...!" he laments.
Immediately upon entering the main ward, Ian all but barrels into Hailey's room. She and Logan are sitting next to each other on the side of her bed, with Logan's pinky tentatively inching toward's Hailey's in a shocking show of bravery for the boy. It seems Logan is trying to play it casual, but wears every nerve-wracked emotion as clear as day on his face. While Ian would normally find it endearing, the scream comes first. "Hailey, are you all right?!"
Looking away from the bundle of nerves that is Logan, Hailey answers, "Huh? Yeah, we're fine! If you're here about the scream, I think that came from down the hall!" Logan, retracting his hand like it caught fire, corroborates her account. "Uh, yeah. I think it came from that loud guy's room."
As much as Ian wanted to question why they'd heard a scream and did nothing about it, he chalks it up to young love and books it down the hall. 'Loud guy'... given the only other men in this ward were the usually-mute sword duo, Edega, and Mr. Stevenson, he has a good idea as to who Logan was referring to.
Thinking better of ramming into the room again, Ian gently opens the door. "Mr. Hugh...?"
Nothing could have prepared him for the scene before his eyes.
The first figure he sees is Ada Paige - his closest friend, coworker, and confidant - standing there, with blood staining her normally pristine coat.
The second figure he sees is Daikon, one of his missing robots, rifling through a drawer in the corner.
The third figure he sees is Richard Dan Hugh in his bed, lying dead.