Before Us [Wriolette]

Chapter 12: Catastrophe! (1)

As Wriothesley was about to walk in, the door to the meeting room swung open and grazed his chest. On instinct, he jumped backward defensively but was not met with any confrontation. From the room ran a woman with gray hair and a black streak or two running through the front. He didn't catch much of her appearance but that did not concern him. Wriothesley paid her little mind and assumed she was an intern or delivering something as he hadn't seen the woman before. The gust of wind left after her departure lingered and threw him off balance for a second. He took a step towards the door once again until...

BOOM!

A moderately small explosion could be heard from inside the room, its existence confirmed by the dents and scratches that could be seen on the other side of the door. To this, Wriothesley flung the door open and ignored the cloud of smoke enveloping the room and now himself. He took out his pointed silver rings and put two on in the case of a fist fight. Frantically waving his hand through the air to clear the dust and smoke, his eyes caught on two figures running from the broken window to a car that he assumed had been waiting for them.

Most likely related to the first of the three mysterious figures he had seen, both of these two had gray hair. Despite this, they seemed younger and more afraid, lacking the boldness their predecessor held while running past Wriothesley. One of them had longer hair, held in a ponytail with a green bow while the other wore a hat atop their rather short head of hair. Wriothesley retracted his hand before punching forward with all his might, breaking the windows wide enough for himself as well as damaging the walls. Having made a sufficient gap, he booked it towards the vehicle that had already started driving off. He knew he couldn't catch up to the car, so he sent a chunk of ice right at a tire of the automobile. This wasn't enough to stop it, but it would slow then down enough that backup might be able to do something about it.

Knowing that there was nothing else he could do, he turned and sped back to the location of the explosion. As he stepped into the room that had been reduced to rubble, he examined the floor for anyone with an injury. He let out a deep sigh, "thank gods," he murmured, finding his coworkers with minimal injuries and mostly left unconscious. The worst wound on anyone there had a sizable shard of glass lodged at least 3 inches into their back. Wriothesley took two of the injured men to the infirmary, the ones with the most severe injuries. Due to his lack of hand space, he kicked the door open with his foot as gently as possible. The nurse, Sigewinne, gave him an unimpressed look that quickly shifted to concern when she saw the two held under each of Wriothesley's respective arms.

"What happened here?" she inquired, not bothering to look at the man as he replied, "an explosion, I think. If I had to guess, a grenade was tossed through the window." Sigewinne's brow furrowed as her hands moved expertly to remove the glass and stitch the man with deft fingers. She briefly glanced at the man but was quick to refocus her attention. With a small groan, she asked, "how many more are in the room?" and without waiting for a reply, added, "take them all to me." Wriothesley saluted as a joke and commented as he was leaving: "ma'am, yes, ma'am," and proceeded to jog to the now destroyed room and back with people in hand.

Each time he went back, he found more people who had gathered to the scene to observe while avoiding the destruction of evidence. Had the situation not been what it was, it may have been funny to watch so many grown adults huddled around a door, peering in as there were. As he carried the last person over, he stumbled but kept moving. The safety of his coworkers was the most important.

By now, Sigewinne had treated all of the more serious injuries and some of the patients had even gained consciousness by now. Of course, in accordance to federal law, they were allowed 19 hours of rest before formal questioning could begin. Now able to direct her attention to the man, the small but feisty woman stated: "From what I've gathered, I assume the window was bashed in," she gestured to an unconscious man with a large line of stitches on his back, "based on the size of some fragments of glass. The bomb was most likely an IED, but I cant say for sure. Luckily none of the knives were-" "Knives? I didn't see any of the perpetrators holding a knife." he interrupted, only to be ignored. "That isn't my problem. You can ask them later. Now, as I was saying, none of the wounds inflicted via a knife seemed to be infected with a poison, and it looks like they will all make a full recovery within a week or two." Some of the conscious victims exchanged glanced and smiled, satisfying Wriothesley's concern. He grinned, "Thank you, Sigewinne, for your work today. I'm very glad we have a doctor as reliable as you on our team. Now, if that'l be all, I-" "tut, tut, tut." she cut him off, shaking her hair in an enthusiastic rejection. "I'm not quite done with you yet." And reaching in her mini fridge, she pulled out the one item Wriothesley dreaded most. "Actually, I- uh, just remembered to get my motorcycle back from the, uh, shop! yeah! uhmmmmmm anyway thanksforyourhelphahahahayeahyeah nowigottagoseeyoutomorrow!!!!" And just like that, he escaped from the infirmary without drinking the dreaded smoothie.

Behind the door that he had just slammed, he could hear Sigewinne shouting something along the lines of "one day you will regret not drinking these!" and all Wriothesley could do was scoff at how wrong she was. He continued down the hallway and slung his jacket from the coat rack onto his shoulders. As he made his way to his motorcycle down the road, he spun his handcuffs around his finger before attaching them to his belt once more. Most likely, he would have to ask around and keep an eye out for any silver haired individuals at school and the cafe.

We'll see how it goes.

***hey, buckaroonies! Fun fact: i originally planned for him to have a normal meeting, but i didnt want to write fancy tonight, so I exploded the meeting room. Yep, it was me! lol!  cough ANYWAY SO I HAD A GOOD DAY I HOPE YOU DID, TOO (yeah, we're back to normal length chapters, more than 1k just isnt doable for me, broskis)***