Investigation at Hermes General

Criminal Activity

Dr. Shiori Amakusa and her assistant, Miss Saphentite Neikes, get to the root of corruption and human experimentation at Hermes General.

Appointed to be the replacement of Chief Physician Dr. Simon Murphy, Dr. Amakusa and her assistant, Sapphee, arrived at Hermes General to get a full walkthrough of the hospital so that they could start their positions as soon as possible. However, along with the less than hospitable clerk at the front desk, Dr. Murphy informed them that he doesn't think a walkthrough at such a late hour would be permissible, citing that there were many patients from the apartment explosion in Old Town that were in critical condition and needed all hands to help. Dr. Amasuka and her assistant, however, called him out on his excuses and explained that the hospital was known for caring for all sorts of huge incidents involving a mass amount of casualties without issue, suspecting that there was something that he was hiding.     When pushed further on the topic, Dr. Murphy became became belligerent with their insistence and demanded that they leave or be thrown in the psyche ward for their outrageous behavior. As the clerk reached for the phone to try and call the police, Miss Sapphee flung her away from the desk and incapacitated a few hospital staff members that tried to step up to the challenge to help Dr. Murphy. Once Dr. Murphy realized the scope of his opposition, he ingested a Stars capsule and tried to flaunt his metahuman strength by attacking Dr. Amakusa. However, she was skilled and knowledgeable enough to incapacitate the doctor and procure a supposed Stars vaccine from his grasp before he had the chance to use it on himself, putting him in their custody instead of that of the APD.     Weeks later, Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee were approached by a young nurse, Jessica Roivas, concerning a trail of incidents that may have to do with a strange underground medical wing. Absolutely terrified to speak with specifics, she broke down in the middle of Dr. Amakusa's office, terrified that anything she would say would come back to haunt her. The sound of passing footsteps and whispering breaths pulled at Miss Sapphee's suspicions, having her peer outside the office and see a pair of eyes peeking around the corner at the end of the hall. Slithering after hurried feet into a nearby janitor's closet, followed quickly by Dr. Amakusa, the young Daniel was forced to explain why he was poking his nose in their business. With a few constricting coils from Miss Sapphee and the domineering tone of Dr. Amakusa, Daniel explained the beginning of the hospital's strange project.     After telling them to check on his family to make sure they aren't killed for his words, he explained that the nurses and staff are given people called Watchers, people who look out for other people to make sure they keep their lips shut. While a choice few do so out of loyalty or a little bonus tacked onto their check each month, most Watchers keep tabs on their fellow staff to make sure that nothing slips that would ensure they are killed by those who appointed them. Patients are taken into the basement who never come back up and Daniel assures them that, wherever they are taken, it is far underground beyond where the foundation of the actual hospital is. He tells them that, to access the underground, they would need to input the code into a special keypad hidden in the elevator panel that is given to three doctors in the hospital: Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Meepresh and Dr. Taylor. He tells them that, while Dr. Meepresh was on vacation and Dr. Jacobs was attending his son's hockey game that night, Dr. Taylor was making her way to the ER to tend to a patient with a critical gunshot wound.     Satisfied with the information given to them, Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee let Daniel go. He immediately ran through the hallways of the hospital until he reached one of the emergency exits, only to see one of the more amicable security members Allen, or Big Al as he was lovingly named, holding the broken neck of Jennifer Roivas above blood-speckled snow. already deeply suspicious that Daniel had loose lips like Jennifer, he ended Daniel's life on the steps of the emergency exit and returned to his shift. Meanwhile, Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee were able to snag Dr. Taylor before she reached the emergency room, instead substituting Dr. Tarantino, who they all agreed was a creep. Dr. Taylor was then hurriedly pushed into one of the nearby elevators and informed to take them to the underground area or else there would be consequences far beyond the reach of professional reprimand. Appearing more smug than frightened, Dr. Taylor obliged and entered the code to begin their quick descent. Once they reached the bottom, Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee were led through a cavernous tunnel into a hospital wing the size of a warehouse where they met the presiding Chief Surgeon, Dr. Ode Akuji.     Dr. Akuji welcomed them to what he called a special hospice wing, explaining that he completely condemned former Chief Physician Dr. Murphy and that he had no involvement in his abhorrent actions. He said that, while some doctors work purely for the profit and prestige, he remains primarily in the hospital's special underground wing, working tirelessly to help revive patients who have entered Stars Comas. He stresses this point by pointing out that his only area of rest is an empty patient bed with a few personal belongings nearby. While Dr. Akuji showed them to one of his recent patients, APD Detective Marshall, who had seemingly entered a Stars Coma after his encounter in Old Town, Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee questioned the validity of his virtuosity, offering examples of men who put everything they had into visions of scientific breakthroughs only to end up doing much more harm than good. Dr. Amakusa even cited the horrors of World War Two as an example of brilliant men drawn to evil. In response, Dr. Akuji told Dr. Akuji and Miss Sapphee about his history being born and raised in Africa, having to live through the terrors of numerous dictators and genocides, even explaining how he can never listen to radio broadcasts because of the Rwandan Massacre and the Interahamwe's radio transmissions.     With all three agreeing to disagree about their moral stances, Dr. Akuji decided to pull them over to patient and former Stars addict, Byron Milanski. Here, he explained that the new drug he was working on, called the Dolos Serum, would erase all fear, irrationality and doubt in a person, essentially creating people who could live their full lives without the plagues of negative emotion. He further explained that it would be the foundation for curing PTSD in trauma victims and soldiers, which would help pay for its production across the world. Conversely, Dr. Amakusa argued that this would only lay the foundation for the creation of super soldiers, throwing the baby out with the bathwater in a sense that he isn't curing them but destroying them. Miss Sapphee argued that he was playing god, taking away the sense of people and turning them into emotional invalids who wouldn't think before they act, becoming impulsive zombies who would, ultimately, ruin the city he claimed to want to save. Dr. Akuji, along with Byron, dismissed their claims but the pushback left them at an impasse that Dr. Akuji was frustrated to stand in. He let Dr. Akuji and Miss Sapphee know that he was disappointed they couldn't see the genius of his work, citing that two major benefactors helped him get this far and that there was no way the Dolos Serum would die there.     He called for Dr. Taylor, who ended up surrounding Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee with duplicates of herself, who were then revealed to be the cultists shapeshifters known as Charades. Taking Stars tablets, the Charades transformed into abhorrent, musclebound versions of themselves and set on attacking Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee while Dr. Akuji tried to escape through the underground tunnels. However, even the combined might of Nether infusion and the drug-addled strength of Stars couldn't stop the wondrous duo. Dr. Amakusa displayed her impeccable sword skills to kill several of the Charades with flair while Miss Sapphee, allowing her bestial instincts to emerge, towered over them all with a tail that crushed the remaining Charades, made a mess of most of the medical wing and ensnared Dr. Akuji after Dr. Amakusa paralyzed him through his spinal disks. Cursing them as he could only move his body from the neck up, Dr. Akuji realized that they were intent on bringing him to justice rather than killing him and he panicked, begging for them to end his life rather than to face the consequences of failure from his benefactors. Before Miss Sapphee could react, Dr. Akuji's head was blown to pieces by the .357 magnum of an awake and alive Detective Marshall, who proceeded to leave the underground wing with a strange USB drive and locked Dr. Amakusa and Miss Sapphee inside.