014: Training - Thomas and Nori (JP from RP)

After helping Noritaka to lay Mr Baer out in the recovery position, Tom dived into his tent and woke his training partner, Johnny Gallo who went to wake his brother and others. Nori woke Angelica, and she did the same for other kids too. Within minutes of collapsing, Mr Baer
was illuminated by the torches of all the partially dressed students.
“He's drifting in and out of consciousness,” Nori explained anxiously, as he crouched over Mr Baer. “If his heart's weak and he's not getting enough oxygen, he could end up brain-damaged.”
“Has anyone started making a stretcher?” Angelica asked.
“How?” one of the boys asked sleepily.
“Use your initiative,” Nori tutted. “Tent fabric, tent poles, branches, whatever. You're supposed to be training for field work. I'm asking you to rustle up a stretcher, not build a kuso time machine.”
Thomas had been around Noritaka Ashida long enough to know what ‘kuso’ meant.
Gaius interrupted. “We all hate his guts; do we even want to save him?”
“Don't be an ass all your life Gai,” Johnny said, flicking his brother's ear. “He may be a scumbag, but we're not gonna stand here and watch a man die.”
'Shouldn't we be giving him the kiss of life?' Tom asked.
Nori shook her head. “His breathing is OK and his heart is beating. I think he's just gone into shock.”
“Maybe he's had a stroke,” Shakeel suggested.
“Maybe, maybe, maybe,” Nori yelled, irritated by the gawpers surrounding him as he stood up and backed away from the patient. “We only know basic first aid and all we have is like bandages and stuff. We need to get him to a hospital and fast.”
“Where's Bishop and the truck?” Illyana asked.
'He just left to drive to the supermarket,' Tom said. 'I tell you what, how about we send messengers off in different directions? There's gotta be farmhouse or something around here. Soph, you can fly and can get a better look from above.’
“But we’re not allowed to use powers in public,” Shakeel said.
They all looked at him askance.
“It’s night,” Angelica said.
“And we are in the middle of nowhere,” Illyana added. “I could carry him if I armour up.”
“Only if we get desperate,” Angelica told her friend, “there’s enough of us here to haul his flabby body around.”
‘Someone else can take Baer's phone up to the top of the hill. You might get a signal from there. Johnny?'
Johnny Gallo took the phone and ran off at a reasonable pace, there was no point in exhausting himself.
“I’ll head back down the track,” his brother Gaius said.
Yvette was a good runner and set off up the adjacent hill.
“Are you completely sure it isn't one of his tricks?” Shakeel asked suspiciously. “I wouldn't put it past him.”
Angelica tutted. “Look at the state of him, moron. You can't fake all that sweat.”
“What if he took a special pill that made him go queasy, or something?”
“Shak, you're not helping,” Angelica shouted. “And you're starting to wind me up, so why don't you get out of my face before I deck you?”
“Try it,” Shakeel sneered. 'I'm way harder than you.”
“Oh you reckon?' Angelica sneered back, giving him an almighty shove.
The group moved aside as Shakeel lashed out at the red head. His boot connected with her thigh but his fist swished past her nose, missing by millimetres. Angelica grabbed his flying arm and twisted it up behind his back. She took the elastic waistband of his tracksuit
bottoms with her other hand, hitched him off the ground and slammed him down on his belly. Whilst Shakeel was still winded, Angelica straddled him and sat across his back.
"Yeah Shak, you're so hard,” she yelled jubilantly.
Nori was furious. She couldn't believe that her best mate was having a pointless fight in the middle of a major crisis.
“Leave it out,” he screamed. “We all need to think straight. A few minutes could save his life.”
“Coming through,” a couple of the others shouted. The pair had made a stretcher by breaking two wooden stakes from a nearby fence and running them through a couple of sleeping bags. They laid it beside Mr Baer.
Shakeel was humiliated and tried to hide it as Angelica let him up.
'He's really heavy; we'd best roll him on,' Tom said.
Not only was Baer extremely tall, he also carried a great mound of fat around his midriff.
It took five of them to roll him onto the sleeping-bag fabric. Once he was in position, Nori and Tom took up the poles at the front, with the pair who had made the stretcher at the back.
“Heave,” Nori shouted, as the foursome bent at the knees and raised Mr Baer off the ground.
Some of the other kids realised that they were struggling and took part of the weight by grabbing the poles along the side.
“He stinks of booze,” someone complained.
'Which way?' Tom groaned.
“GRAHHHHHHHHH,” Baer shouted groggily.
“He's awake,” said Illyana standing along the side.
“Forward,” Nori ordered. “Head towards the track, we're about a mile from the main road. We can jog it in ten minutes and hitch a ride from there.”
But as Nori and Tom stepped forward, Baer insisted on sitting up.
“Stay still,” Angelica shouted desperately. “You've just had a heart attack.”
“Bullshit,” Baer bellowed. “Let me off of this contraption.”
Baer swung his legs around, upsetting the balance of the stretcher. The wooden beams
slipped through their hands, splintering their fingers as the stretcher crashed to the ground. As the girls moaned in pain, Baer made a brief attempt to stand up before clutching his chest and collapsing into another spasm.
“I'm dying,” he gasped.
Tom tried to calm him down. 'You need to sit still, Michael. We've sent messengers in all directions to get help.'
“Michael?” Baer growled. “How dare you call me Michael. You address me as sir.”
“He's drunk on top of everything else,” Nori said, shaking his head with contempt.
“Shall we try getting him back on the stretcher?” Angelica asked.
Tom sat down heavily in the grass. ‘What's the point? He's too heavy for us to carry if he won't stay still.'
“I want my Cecily,” Mr Baer moaned as he sat in the grass. “I want to live to see my beautiful girl get married.”
'You're not going to die,' Tom insisted, making a brave second stab at calming Baer down. "You're in shock. You're very weak. You've got to lie flat on the ground and try to stay calm.”
Nori felt massively relieved as she saw a set of car headlights crawling along the dirt track towards the lines of tents. It was a small Hyundai with an elderly lady behind the wheel and Gaius in the passenger seat. The woman looked appalled when she stepped out of the car and saw the giant man thrashing about on the ground.
“He's dead drunk,” the woman observed accurately. “Are you sure he's had a heart attack?”
Gaius ran around from the passenger seat and tried to reassure the heavily perfumed woman that Mr Baer wasn't just roaring drunk.
“I'm not having that in my car,” she said indignantly. “I can smell the drink on him from here. It's only done four thousand miles. What if he vomits inside?”
As she said this, Baer twisted over on his side and made a deep groaning sound.
“Now listen, lady,” Nori said desperately, “we're out of options here.”
“He could die. You've got to help us get him to the hospital.”
“No, no, no. I'll drive back to my house and call an ambulance from there. It's less than a ten minute drive.”
Nori couldn't believe what she was hearing.
“An ambulance might take a half hour or more to get here, you baka busu!” Nori snarled.
“She's right,” Shakeel agreed.
‘He,’ Tom corrected.
“What?”
‘Nori is a he now.’
“Since when?” Shakeel asked opened mouthed.
‘Since now as far as you’re concerned.’
“How can she be a him now?”
“Can we stay on topic?” Noritaka snapped. She looked at Tom and pointed towards Mr Baer. “Get him into that car.”
“Now wait a minute young woman,” the old woman yelled. “I'm not taking orders from you. I'm not driving that drunkard anywhere.”
“Young man not woman,” Shakeel provided unhelpfully.
The old lady looked at him piercingly and told him to stop being ridiculous.
“I'll drive him then,” Nori shouted back. “Isn't a man's life slightly more important than your precious upholstery?”
Tom, Gaius and several others began dragging Mr Baer towards the car. The woman turned to go after them, but Nori grabbed her willowy arm and pulled her back sharply.
“I'm truly sorry,” Nori said, as he saw that the elderly lady was frightened and close to crying. It was odd that she had been kindly enough to stop her car for Gaius and drive to their aid, but now seemed more concerned about her car than Mr Baer's life. Nori guessed it was just that she was old, eccentric and not up to handling stress.
“Come on,” Nori said, trying a gentler tack as the lady struggled to free her arm. “We need your help. Can you tell us the way to the nearest hospital?”
“She has built in satnav,” Gaius called.
But the old woman screamed and made a desperate sobbing noise, which made Nori feel absolutely awful. The two of the girls grabbed her flailing arms and tried getting her to calm
down.
With all the madness going on, Nori hadn't noticed another messenger arriving inside a massive BMW landcruiser. The wax-jacketed driver emerged, holding a leather bag of the type usually carried by doctors.
“What the hell is this? Lord Of The Flies?” the man said, shaking his head as he surveyed the scene. “Met a young woman on the highway, said there was a medical emergency up here.”
'Are you a doctor?' Tom asked.
“A veterinarian, I'm afraid,” the man explained. He knelt over Mr Baer and grabbed his wrist to take a pulse. “His heartbeat is extremely weak.”
'Will he live?' Tom asked.
“Depends upon a lot of things,” the vet said, as he reached into his pocket for his car keys and dangled them in front of Gaius. “Two of you go around to the trunk of my car. You'll see a black oxygen cylinder and a box of disposable masks. It's heavy, so lift it together. Pure
oxygen will make his breathing easier and take some of the strain off his heart. Then we'll lay him out over the back seat of my car and I'll take him to ER.”
Tom wished the had thought of oxygen, he could have transmuted some to help Baer breathe.
The presence of the vet was a great relief to the students. Unfortunately, Nori and Angelica still had the old woman on their hands.
“I'm telling the police,” the woman shouted, as she pointed accusingly at Nori. "You're car thieves, you… you tried to kidnap me.”
Nori grasped the woman's shoulder and spoke as gently as her adrenalin rush would let her. “Why don't you take some deep breaths? We'll make you a nice cup of coffee and then you can drive home after you've calmed down.”
“Criminals,” the woman screamed again. She turned her head with surprising speed and bit on Nori's middle finger.
Nori instinctively ripped her finger out of the woman's mouth. Unfortunately, a denture came flying out with it and Nori squealed in horror as the warm plastic teeth hit her in the face.
Meanwhile, Tom, Gaius and the vet had settled Mr Baer in the rear of the BMW and the vet had fitted him with an oxygen mask.
“Have you got no other adults here?” the vet asked the girls.
“There's one,” Nori nodded, as she clamped her bloody finger beneath her armpit. “But he's
gone into town to buy provisions. I expect he'll be back pretty soon.”
“Right,” the vet nodded.
“We’ll be fine,” Gaius said. “Adventure Scouts.”
Some of the teens looked mature enough to take care of themselves, so the vet nodded. He turned and looked at the old lady. "You look like you've had a bit of turn, my dear. How about you take a ride to the hospital with me?”
“Yes,” the woman sobbed. “Get me away from these evil animals. This Asian one attacked me, now she's stolen my teeth.”
“That's not what happened,” Nori said defensively.
The vet gave Nori a reassuring look. “OK, my dear,” he said to the pensioner as he put an arm around her back. “No hanging around, I've got a very sick man in the back seat.”
Angelica chased after the two adults and caught up just as they were getting in the BMW.
“That's her teeth,' Angelica explained, as she handed them to the vet. They've been in the grass, so you'd better rinse them off before they go back in her mouth.”

_____Illyana_____________Thomas______________Shakeel

_____Angelica____________Noritaka____________Yvette

_____Gaius_______________Johnny_____________Sophie