𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐢 𝐓𝐞𝐚? (𝟏) || 𝑷𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒓 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒉𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒓

𝟎𝟕

𝟎𝟕 - 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒏'𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒓

The Assistant was watching the news as headlines of Mumbhattan's terrorist attack flashed on the screens. He turned to the woman before him with fear in his eyes, his breath a musty cloud in front of his face due to the temperatures of the dimly lit room.

'We should get started on her before the body disintegrates. We also don't want anyone planning a funeral,' he said.

'No one will be planning any funerals,' The Scientist mutters, her hands working very fluently with surgery tools on the body, 'She'll be out by then.'

'Will she? Are you sure?'

'Trust me, will you? That's the reason you're employed here. You get the money; I get your trust and brains.'

The Assistant stands up, his knees clicking from sitting down too much. He waddled over to the table, where a bright dentist light shone on a body. It's chest was cut open, revealing the ateries, veins and other muscles, blood spilling out onto the skin around like a field of poppies. But in the centre, like some grotesque trophy, was the heart. It wasn't beating.

'Her heart isn't beating,' the Assistant pointed out.

'I know. She's on a heart and lung machine,' the Scientist scoffed, looking up for a second, 'Cardiopulmonary bypass. Didn't you learn this is medical school?'

'I- I did...' he stammered, 'I just thought she was dead...'

'She's not dead. Well, she is,' standing up, the Scientist placed the surgery tools on a tray on the side, wiping blood on her lab coat, 'It's part of my masterpiece.'

The Assistant sat on the chair across, 'How?'

'Well. She is dead, physically. Her soul still resides in her body. The soul only leaves the body three days after dying. It is possible to revive a human if the soul is still contained within.'

'And how come you have not told the rest of the world this piece of valued information?'

'Media. Stupid, arrogant scientists and philosophers. Let them find out. They're only running their little horses in circles, while I've been here for years discovering the secrets of the universe.'

'Wow'

'So back to the body. Her soul still resides. And you see that little trinket?' the Scientist points to the heart.

'The cardiac defibrillator? Yeah. What about it?'

'Who said cardiac defibrillator? That's not one of those. In fact, this girl does not have Brugada Syndrome at all, so she never needed one. All her fainting and cardiac arrests have been me trying to activate a little something in her. I was her trusted doctor, you know?'

The Assistant blinked, a frown forming on his burrow.

'This is a little piece of machinery that will kickstart the reaction to her powers. The only thing I had to do was to fix her fatal injuries... and with my kind of knowledge, that was like a simple surgery. After that, we will start the machine and she'll come back alive and whole. Just much, much stronger.'

'And how?'

'Just you wait and watch!'

The Scientists stitched up the body's heart and pushed in a wire with a needle on the end. The wire led to some complicated looking machine, which she started up with the flick of a switch and entering a specific code. It whirred silently to life, and she looked pleasantly at it.

'Now...'

She used the computer, typing in code at the speed of light. The Assistant, try as he might, could not see her fingers fly across the keyboard in a graceful yet fast waltz. She then pressed one final button with a fancy flourish.

'Let the show begin.'

The body suddenly jerked back into life, making the Assistant fall back in shock. He clutched his chest, using a stool as support. The girl sat up, not noticing her absence of clothes or the red line down the middle of her chest. She pressed her glasses back on her face, looking around with a confused expression. The Scientists smiled wickedly.

'Welcome back, Parvati Prakash,' she said with relish, 'You are Mumbhattan's new Prowler. And your job is to dispose of the Indian Spiderman.'

***