SPT; The Anchor to Betweenness (being rewritten)

TBI: Chapter 20

Julian was driving the car, Kade in the passenger seat. Montague and Lillian were doing their makeup and clothes, occasionally helping each other.

Meanwhile, I was giving the team a debrief, going through the LED map on the floor., ignoring their occasional eyes on me.

And also ignoring the amount of skin Montague and Lillian had to show in order to change.

Carlos and Christian were to stay behind in the car, along with Mercury and two of his team members, who were our operators. They would be flipping through those of us who called them via a button on our helmets and would give us verbal assistance. Usually, teams only had one operator, but since we had such a big team, we would've had two. The third one was to assist Christian in getting through the hospital when and if he was needed.

Kade was to guard the front door (luckily for him, the only major door) while Meili and Amane cleared the first floor. Urlaith and Lis were to clear half of the second floor, while Julian and Montague cleared the other half.

"Lillian and Valkyrie," I was finishing saying, "You'll be coming with me on the top floor."

"Why these groups?" Lillian asked. I turned to her, expecting some sort of snarky glare, but all I got was general confusion.

"This is a stuffed hospital, so Kade will possibly have his work cut out for him at the door," I began to explain, "Amane and Meili can work together to get through their floor at a constant rate, since they'll be able to do their own things, and Meili can help Amane if needed. Urlaith and Lis are the same thing. Originally, we were going to group Montague with Amane or Lis, but I had concerns with shooting the cure, so we decided to group him with someone in close combat, which ended up being Julian. And Lillian, you'll go ahead and Valkyrie and I will work our way up to you, once you've gained the Insanes' trust. Carlos stays to get any that are in the windows, and Christian will stay so that he's safe."

After a few nods of understanding, Mercury suddenly raised his hand, shyly. His face flamed red as everyone looked at him, and once our eyes met, he swallowed hard.

"Uh... which of these two do you want to help Christian?" He asked with a gesture to his team members, "Marshall has had more experience in defense, but George knows more about medicine, so he might be able to help."

I glanced at Christian, pretending to choose. I'd already picked the moment he said the name. To be honest, I would rather have Mercury help with Christian, but I knew he wouldn't be able to because of his rank in the job.

"Uh... Marshall, please. Sorry, George, I just--"

A guy with black hair and green eyes waved his hand dismissively, allowing me to assume he was George, "It's fine. I wasn't expecting to be picked. The safety of the medic is more important than the safety of the crew."

Christian cocked his head as if he didn't understand, which had George glancing at him, then speaking in a way that didn't make Christian sound totally dumb.

"After all, if the medic is injured, who will be there to help the crew? Five half healed members are better than five injured members and a dead medic."

"Absolutely," Meili said suddenly, which swiveled everyone's attention to her. Her posture was as straight as ever, minimal makeup showing her beauty as she carefully put her hair up in a tight bun. Her suit appeared tight, but I could tell that it was still loose enough for her to move around in. Just like mine. "And besides, Christian is a sweetheart. I don't want to see him injured." She said that with a genuinely sweet smile, which would've made me smile if I wasn't surrounded by people I didn't know. I'm sure she caught the shift of my cheeks.