A Call to Darkness (Book 1 of Calling All Heroes)

The Prince Awakens

Logan walked into Roman's hospital room to find a blonde woman leaning over his friend. He carefully closed the door and cleared his throat. The woman stood up straight and gentle hazel eyes locked with cautious dark brown eyes.

"You must be, Logan," the woman smiled gently at him and extended a hand.

"And you are?" He made no move to shake the offered hand. Skeptical eyes took her appearance in.

"Dr Gry Dacey. I was asked by a friend to check in on your... boyfriend?" She lowered her hand, the gentle smile still on her face.

"No!" Logan took a quick step back, a slight blush staining his cheeks. Was that what the hospital staff thought? Didn't they watch the news? And couldn't he have done better than the lug laying unconscious in that hospital bed? He certainly thought he could anyway.

"Sorry," Dr Dacey chuckled. "I just assumed. I was told you would be here as you hardly ever leave his side."

"I could've been a family member."

"True. My apologies."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm going to wake him up."

Logan raised an eyebrow and sat down in his usual seat. "How?"

"Nanotechnology. I've looked over Roman's MRIs and CT scans. As well as the EEGs. I believe that small, controlled, electrical shocks to amygdala and hippocampus will disrupt the neurological synapses just enough to calm him down so that we can wake him up."

"He's in a coma from an anxiety attack?"

"I don't think so. I think whatever happened while he was asleep sent him into a panic and preventing him from waking up. Though, as a rule we wake up when we are scared in dreams. It's possible that he may have had a complex partial seizure in his sleep. While his entire brain is active the amygdala and hippocampus seem to be lighting up even more than any other part of his brain. I'm going to send the shocks to those two parts of his brain and we'll proceed from there."

Logan nodded his head slightly and turned his attention to Roman. "When will treatment start?"

"I've already injected the nanobots into his IV. We just have to wait a couple of hours. I'll get a ping on my pager when they've reached their destination. They were programmed to go straight to the brain. Once they are there I'll use my laptop to control the current and duration of the shocks. Once he's awake I'll deactivate them and he'll void them."

"What would happen if they remained in his body?"

"Nothing. Once they're deactivated they can't do anything."

"I see. Could someone reactivate them?"

"No," Gry frowned and tucked a curl behind her ear. "Why?"

"There's rumor that one of the villains in town is the hero The Duke. I know we have a hero that can control electronics. I'm just worried if he decides to turn evil what kind of danger that would put Roman in."

"Don't worry. Deactivation is a death sentence for my bots. They self destruct with no harm being done to the patient."

"Well that is certainly reassuring. Would you mind if I asked a few more questions about your technology? If you aren't busy that is."

"I've got nothing else planned beyond waiting to wake your friend," she sat down and crossed her legs.

The talked quietly about science and technology for about two hours when a small series of beeps alerted them that the bots had reached their destination.

Gry grabbed her laptop and sat beside Logan, allowing him to watch as she worked on waking up the unconscious actor.

Three hours later a soft groan came from the bed and the two scientists looked up from the screen to the man on the bed. "Go get the doctor, Logan."

The man nodded and left the room to get Roman's doctor. Gry walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Roman. You've been asleep for awhile. I'm going to need you to remain still until your doctor gets here. He's going to do some observations of your responses and then, if everything checks out, he'll remove the feeding tube. Okay?"

Roman let out a small groan and nodded his head slightly.

Logan returned with the doctor and bit his lip as he watched the man look over his friend.

***

"Ugh! Two weeks is too long to be in a hospital," Roman said, stretching his arms over his head as he finally walked out of the back of the building with his friend.

"Actually, it's been six weeks."

"I even worse," he whined. "Has there been any word on the others?"

"No. Olav is missing as well now."

"What?! Did Bedrag get him?"

"No. According to Rebellion he's fine and helping out where he can, probably while still trying to find the others."

"Rebellion. That's the woman you mentioned that's going to help us. Right?"

"Affirmative," Logan turned down an alley and activated his watch. Roman did the same. They both then made their way to the base.