The soft blue aura of the subatomic scanner slowly drifted up and down, back and forth, continually mapping the comatose Baxter. Draped only in a pale white hospital gown, his body lay unmoving, and, quite unaware.
"I see a little silhouetto of a man..." the voice of Ian McGregor hummed from above, hovering as he would around the examination table.
Hovering, in the literal sense.
"...scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango..." nurse Ruby Piper responded from her seated position across the room, studying the constantly feeding data. Watching the cellular secrets of Ozzy's body spill across her screen, she continued to take no notice of the floating doctor.
"...thunderbolt and lightning..." intern Dougie Smith bobbed his head to an internal beat, hands manipulating the scanner controls. "...very very frightening..."
Rudy: "Me!"
"Galileo." McGregor replied in a baratone voice.
Ruby: "...galileo..."
"Galileo."
Dougie: "...galileo..."
"Galileo figaro."
All three: "Magnificoooooooooooooooooooo!!"
"But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me..." McGregor continued. He stretched his arms high above his head, twisting and turning his stiff neck. His body slowly flipped end over end for one revolution.
Again, no one noticed.
"...he's just a poor boy from a poor family..." Dougie responded, stifling a yawn.
"Spare him his life from this monstrosity!" Ruby belted out with a bit too much enthusiasm.
"...easy come easy go...will you let me go?" Dougie bobbed his head.
Ian: "Bismillah! Nooo, we will not let you go!"
Ruby: "Let him go!"
"Bismillah! Nooo, we will not let you go!"
Dougie: "Let me go!"
"Bismillah! Nooo, we will not let you go!"
Dougie paused, looking up at the floating figure.
"No, really....it's 2a.m. and I promised my daughter I'd take her to breakfast..."
"Oh...right..." Ian looked up at the clock. "...off you go, then..."
Dougie nodded, beginning to shut down the scanning equipment. The high-pitched whine of the scanner slowing to a stop was drowned out by the quite loud yawn from Nurse Piper.
"...yeah, okay, you too..." Ian nodded, floating back down to his feet.
"I'll get Bethel to wheel him back to his room..." Ruby replied, standing up with a hard stretch of her back.
"Right, good...." Ian said, staring in serious thought at Baxter's unmoving form.
"Goodnight Dr. McGregor." she said, strolling out the door.
"What?" Ian said, suddenly shaken out of some deep revelry. "Oh, yes....goodnight..."
With a simple push off from his toes, Ian began to float again, taking a very relaxed posture in the cushion of nothing. He continued to stare at Baxter, bound and determined to solve his riddle.
Two billion pounds worth of technology, and they can't even sport a decent CD player... he thought to himself.
Oh. Did I mention Ian was a metahuman?
