Quaranteam - North West

====================================

QT:NW continues the official Spin-Off for the Quaranteam universe originally created by CorruptingPower. You do not need to have read the original series to enjoy this one, but you really do need to start with Chapters 1-4 (I really suggest you read the original though, it's great!). Fans of the original should be pleased to know CP has approved the story and the continuity.

In this chapter you can expect some MF, but mostly the fallout after Harri went apeshit.

Returning Dramatis Personae

House Black

- Harrison 'Harri' Black - Sheriff of Black County, 'Jason Momoa-looking motherfucker' mountain man (mixed heritage), former Army MP

- Kyla Bautista - Trained dancer, Phillipino Spy, Harri's Deputy Sheriff, Raven hair

- Josie 'Joss the Boss' Draper - Professional Wrestler, Athletically Trim Blonde

House LaCosta

- Leo LaCosta - Harri's best friend and former roommate, Italian carpenter, Erica's brother

- Captain Laura Bloomberg - Air Force JAG serving as Miriam's second, Blonde

US Military

- Doctor Amanda 'The Doc' Sheridan - A female doctor from the Portland Serum Test facility. Was part of Harri's care team when he was shot, and then the emergency response team following the Hostage rescue.

Other

- Julia De Luca - Helicopter Pilot, former Air Force Pararescue Pilot. Friend and Client of Erica.

Reference Characters

- General Prewitt - The new head of the Oregon State vaccine rollout, having taken over from Miriam in the hours before it began

- Lt Col Miriam Abarbanel - Military friend of Harri's, Air Force Lt Col, Jewish heritage, Commanding Officer for Valhalla Hills construction

- Vanessa Peters - Construction Forewoman, Daughter of Brent Peters the head of the construction project, Brunette

- Erica LaCosta - Fiancee of Harri, Italian Tattoo Artist, Leo's sister, Dark Brunette

- - - - -

TO: ImpulseDuoHaloProject@us.af.mil

CC: DrPMarcos@boeing.com

BCC: Miriam.Abarbanel@us.af.mil

SUBJECT: New Update Re: Variant Reaction Report 2-13A

Doctors,

Background In Brief - Team 2-013 has previously had two separate variant responses to the Serum. Event1 was the imprinting of a non-vaccinated female (See: Ref. 2-013D), the context of which included a significant amount of female ejaculate in a group intercourse encounter. Testing results continue to show that Subject 2-013D has a severely underdeveloped level of nanobot coverage within her system - our best guess until now was that enough fresh nanobots were ingested into her system via female ejaculate during the group encounter to trigger a minor threshold of imprinting when combined with the male subject's ejaculate, but the imprinting process did not meet a threshold to fabricate the entire system. The case was downgraded to Monitoring status due to underperforming imprinting results and the complexity of the contextual circumstances.

Event2 occurred 4 days ago and focused solely on the Team Anchor (See Ref. 2-013A) undergoing a regeneration. Results included a heavy level of body fat reduction despite no major regenerative elements, leaving the already athletic subject with what might be described as an 'extremely athletic physique.' (See: Attached Photos). Subject also awoke from regeneration energized and aggressive, though contextual elements suggested this may have been a delayed psychological response to stimuli preceding the regenerative sleep. The first monitoring check-in was to occur in 3 days.

This email is notice that our assumptions about Event1 have been proven incorrect. Event3 is now a repeat of Event1, but lacking several elements that we now know are red herrings. Subject has engaged in consensual intercourse with a single non-vaccinated female subject (See: Ref. 2-013J). Initial testing during imprinting sleep suggests similar results to Subject 2-013D. Further testing is commencing on Subjects 2-013A, 2-013J, with 2-013E present as a baseline control, and we have requested 2-013D to come back to our facility for further testing as well.

**There are currently security-related contextual elements that may be highly disruptive to this testing! I need one of you to call me ASAP on a secure line.**

Event3 is further complicated by the fact that Subject 2-013J was injured (GSW to left thigh) during transport to our facility while within the first two hours of imprinting sleep. Trauma surgery has already occurred successfully. If you have any testing or reference cases of similar physical trauma suffered during Imprinting, and potential results, I would appreciate the file numbers. I have a staff member monitoring this element of the case closely.

Dr Amanda Sheridan

Testing Facility 2.

- - - - -

"Could you stop pacing, please?"

I grunted, stopping at the end of one of my short paths and putting my arms behind my back to stretch.

"OK, don't do that either," Julia requested.

"I don't know, I kind of like when he does that," Kyla smirked, and when I glanced over at her she was eyeing me up.

"I'm not saying I don't like it," Julia said, sitting on the hospital bed and fanning herself with a hand. "I'm saying I'm starting to really feel thesetinglesfrom the vaccine and being locked in a room with you is kind of making it worse, Harri."

"Sorry," I sighed.

It had been two hours since the General had let us know we'd be cooling our heels for a while in the hospital room, and other than a nurse coming in to take some blood from me and Kyla, we hadn't heard anything more from outside. Our cell phones had all been confiscated after the fight down in the parking lot, so our only connections to the outside world at the moment were the intercom through the quarantine door and the phone that called to the Nurse's Station out in the hall.

And I was still shirtless, walking around in athletic shorts that had been through a workout, a run, dropped to the forest floor and got soaked in the rain. My briefs had long since dried out but I still had that clingy, itchy sensation of clothes that needed to be changed. I focused on that feeling instead of the other things that I couldn't control - Josie, next door, imprinting when she shouldn't be. Imprinting because of something going on with me, something that was... off. Wounded because I couldn't keep her safe on a fucking drive to Portland.

Sovereign citizens, or separatists, orsomeoneout there posing as cops, with stolen equipment. Staging ambushes. Were they attacking anyone, or were we targeted because we'd been driving my truck and they were ambushing cops? The chances of us being thefirstwere low as hell, but possible.

What had happened to anyone else who had gotten caught in that net? Anyone without combat experience, without a partner to back them up, without the weapons to hand that could help them fight?

How had I failed to see the risks sooner? The firearms and equipment just sitting out there, waiting for someone to pick them up. We'd walked right into the Rez police station; how many others were out there, abandoned or unmanned? Local, State, even Federal.

"Um, rude," Leo said, smirking a little. "I'm here too."

Julia snorted and blushed. "Look, dude," she said. "I'm not saying you aren't cute, and I bet my parents would love the shit out of the fact that you've got Italian roots, but you're walking around looking likethatand Harri's looking likethat," she gestured from Leo, who was still wearing his blood-smeared Smeagol T-shirt, to me and my regeneration-upgraded physique. "Not to mention I got interrupted from what felt like was going to be the fucking of my life with Harri al-andholy fuck, the filter between my brain and my mouth is on the fritz."

"I remember that feeling," Kyla said with a grin in her eyes as she glanced at me quickly. "That weakening of inhibitions is how I got up the nerve to get Harri to agree to knock me up. And the way I phrased it was... a bit much."

That made me chuckle.

"Is that how I get you to come over here and-Fuck, mouth, stop moving!" Julia grunted, making all three of us laugh as she clapped her hands over her mouth and then buried her face between her knees as she blushed hard.

The issue was that, despite everything about our current predicament, despite the fact that I'd just accidentally imprinted Josie when it shouldn't have been possible - even despite the fact that by all rights I should have been curled up on the floor out of exhaustion and muscle cramps after the day I'd had - I had two things I wanted deep, deep in my gut.

I wanted to barge through the door and getoutof there. And I wanted to walk over to Julia and make this fucking thing official before something else stepped between us.

That last bit, 'before something else stepped between us,' was the part that set my internal engine thrumming with energy I shouldn't have had. Barging through those doors and fighting our way out of the building was astupididea and I wasn't sure where that urge was coming from. But Julia wanted me, and I definitely wanted her, and someone had almost kept that from happening.

The easiest way to avoid that outcome was to give into that primal thing that had been pushing me, and it made a lot more sense to give in that way than the more aggressive, break-out-of-this-cage path.

"Harri," Leo said. "Did you just... growl?"

"What?" I asked, snapping out of my own thoughts as I'd been staring into the upper corner of the compact room. There was an observation camera up there, and our conversation had been fairly... limited, since we realised that after learning about the charges being brought against each of us.

"You were breathing deeply, dear," Kyla said, coming over to me from the chair she'd been sitting in next to the bed. She put a warm hand on my back, giving me a curious, analytical expression. "And youweremaking a fairly... growly sound on the exhales."

"Oh," I said, shaking my head. "I... was just thinking."

"Dude, I mean, this is all some bullshit, but you look like you're ready to Kool-Aid Man through the walls and go all Cartoon Super Villain on a rampage," Leo said. "Whatwere you thinking about?"

I looked down at myself and realised he was right, Iwastensed up pretty badly. "I just want to get us out of here in one piece," I said, shaking out my arms a bit as I grimaced around the room. "All of us, whole and secure."

It looked like all three of them were ready to respond to that, but they didn't get the chance as the lock on the quarantine door disengaged loudly before starting to open. Kyla's fingernails softly scratching against my back made me realise I was tensing up even more, as if I expected somethingbadto be coming through that door, but I wasn't able to shake off that feeling until I saw it was the Doc coming through, with the two Air Force MPs still standing guard outside.

"What's up, Doc?" Leo asked, still covering up his anxiety by making almost painful references to old pop culture.

"Well, things have continued to beinteresting," Doc Sheridan said. She was wearing that face shield again, but I noticed she wasn't gloved up - the face covering was likely a policy issue more than us being a danger andrequiringquarantine. That or she was doing it to keep up appearances. "I don't have any more answers for you at this moment, but Idoneed you, Mr Black. For tests."

"We can't do them here?" I asked. "I'd rather not split us up any more than we already are."

"It's a good thing that I can do the testing next door in the room where we have Miss Draper then," the Doc said, and the look in her eye told me she'd already gotten my number and thought ahead. "You'll be able to check on her, and you won't be too far from anyone."

I let out a breath, looking over at Kyla. My girlfriend grimaced slightly but nodded, telling me to go, and silently reassuring me that she'd keep vigil for Leo and Julia and wouldn't let anything happen.

I hated the fact that I was almost as worried about the vaccine pushing Julia past her limits and her jumping Leo, as I was either of them getting into trouble. If push came to shove it would be better to have Julia with my best friend than getting shipped off somewhere without a partner at all. But also, fuck that.

"OK," I said, shaking my head to try and keep those thoughts out of it. I bent down and gave Kyla a kiss, which she matched in seriousness - it wasn't passionate, it wasn't hungry, or lusty, or even compassionate. It was serious, like a slap on the shoulder, one soldier handing off late-night guard duty to a comrade.

I turned to Julia, who was biting the inside of her cheek as she scowled at me. "If you come over here to kiss me I'll fucking poke you in the eye," she said. "You big fucking hunk of sexy man meat."

"Got it," I said, breaking into a small grin, and turned to Leo. My best friend gave me a shrug and a nod, and I returned them. What the fuck was there to say at this point?

I followed the Doc out of the room, the Air Force Security Forces on guard eyeing me up and down, and she led me literally to the next room down the corridor. The hospital floor of the military complex was surprisingly quiet, which I hadn't noticed on our way in - that wasn't strange compared to the last few times I'd seen it, but itwaswhen I matched it up with the fact that the public rollout was happening. I would have assumed there would be a lot more people around now.

There was another Security Forces lady on duty outside Josie's room, and she gave the Doc a nod before opening the door for the two of us. Inside was a room that matched the one we'd been locked up in, but it was a double-occupancy and had a classic pull-curtain to separate the two beds.

The Doc shut the door after us, but I'd lost all track of what she was doing because I was drawn to the occupied bed immediately.

"Fuck," I murmured, maybe just to myself. Josie was tucked in under a sheet but her injured leg was elevated outside of the sheet in a hanging stirrup, the back of her thigh heavily bandaged. She had an IV in her arm, and her hair had been pulled back by someone into a tidy ponytail. "She looks..."

"At peace," the Doc said, coming up on the other side of the bed and checking Josie's numbers quickly before focusing on me. "I still haven't gotten used to that particular look, and seeing it on Miss Draper considering her injury is even more strange, knowing what's going on in her body."

"Is something-?" I started to ask, but she held up a hand to stop me.

"My apologies, I should have been more clear. I meant the imprinting process in general," she said. "Though we do have several things we need to talk about, Mr Black, and Miss Draper is one of them."

"What happened to me needing more tests?" I asked, finally looking up from Josie to the Doc. I felt more than a little guilty that, alone like this, I got that feeling again - she was a capable, strong woman with a wonderfully dry sense of humour, and she must have been in her early forties at least but she was still more than attractive enough to draw my eye. And all it would take to make her mine was-

"Idoneed more tests from you," she said. "But I also need you to listen to me for a moment." The Doc gestured for me to come around Josie to the other side of the room, and that I should sit on the other bed instead of in the two chairs tucked into the back corner. I did so reluctantly, and she gave a curt, short sigh. "Mr Black, I understand that you're under an immense amount of stress at the moment. More than most, I would say, evenifwe are all trying to stave off the end of the human species as we know it. What do you need from me so that you can trust me in the coming hours to do what's best for you and your Team?"

That took me a bit by surprise, making me frown. "I do trust you, Doc," I said slowly.

"Only to a point, Mr Black," she replied. "And I'm going to need more than that. I'm going to need you candid and downrighteagerto be helpful if I'm going to get everything we need. So what do you need to go from me being a familiar but distant face to someone you can trust with secrets?"

I looked her in the eyes, almost feeling like a little kid looking up into the eyes of a teenager whoknew things. The Doc, at least until Miriam or Laura were able to start doing things, was our lifeline.Hadbeen our lifeline already. If she'd reacted differently down in the parking lot, Julia could be halfway to Washington already, while Kyla, Leo and I could be locked up in the facilities' actual brig instead of a hospital room.

But the way she was asking for trust made me worry that she was gearing up to ask for a lot more.

Then there was that fucking feeling in my gut that said I could definitely trust her if she wasmine. And we could make that happen right here, right now.

I swallowed hard, pushing that stupid feeling down, and took a breath. "You've alreadyearnedmy trust, Doc," I said. "And Miriam and Laura trust you, so I- I mean, I have a couple of questions, but I trust you."

"Ask your questions," she said. "Get them out of your system. Because I'm going to be asking some of you very quickly here."

"Alright," I said, immediately feeling like my brain had fallen out the back of my skull as I forgot all of the little vaccine-related questions we'd run into over the last couple of months. "Why's it so quiet out there if the rollout has started?"

The Doc raised one eyebrow in mild surprise and then shrugged. "There is a vaccination centre set up in the building next door," she said. "With doctors and nurses trained to handle the quarantine, vaccination and observation periods for the incoming women, guarded by Security Forces and the National Guard. There's a second team set up at the University Hospital as well to handle anyone showing signs of Duo Halo or Covid in need of emergency processing and matching. The only people who will show up here, now that the Testing phase is completed for the vaccine, will be people showing signs of a variant reaction to either the virus or the vaccine."

"Like me," I guessed. "And Vanessa, and now Josie."

"Correct," she nodded. "Anything else?"

"This is all sort of a big deal now, isn't it?" I asked with a grimace, gesturing towards Josie still in her imprinting sleep.

The Doc smirked a bit under her clear face shield. "Let's just say that the interest in you from the internal research team has risen dramatically. Again. But that interest is also going to be very useful to help shield you from whatever else is happening right now."

"OK," I nodded. "Um- I have plenty of questions, but you probably don't have answers to some of them and the others might not matter right now. Last thing - has anyone contacted our family yet?"

"I've spoken with Captain Bloomberg several times in the last two hours," the Doc said. "And she's been keeping your family updated. I've also dispatched a transport to go pick up Miss Peters to bring her here so we can get fresh data and compare it to Miss Draper's."

"The highways aren't safe," I said. "She should-"

"The transport was a helicopter," she interrupted.

"Oh," I said. "Uh, OK. Thanks."

"You're welcome," she said with a grimace. "It's not in my sphere of influence, but hearing about ambushes on the highways outside the city is a major concern for myself and everyone else thinking more than one step ahead." I nodded, and she repeated herself. "Anything else?"

I wiped my face and grunted, shaking my head before letting both hands drop into my lap. "You haven't mentioned it before - are you partnered up?"