The Mutatio Disease

Sector Nineteen

- - - - Sector Nineteen - - - -
- - - - Part One - - - -
Still Pretty Damn Magical

     Something felt off. My hand was numb, my leg numb, and I just felt off. It was too quiet to be normal. Exhaling, I opened my eyes to be greeted by a white ceiling. My eyebrows furrowed. Where the hell was I?

   A throat cleared from beside me. Looking over, a familiar Indian man looked back with a delighted smile. Pushing up his glasses, he beamed. "Good morning, Argentum. How are you feeling?"

    Bewildered, I licked my dry lips. "Confused. Where am I?"

   Dr. Keyan Bouvet from the camp so long ago gestured around. "You're in Hamilton's hospital. That bullet wound of yours took a turn for the worse, but I think we've got you all patched up."

    Huh? The last thing I remembered was exiting Mae's room with Felix and preparing to leave and meet the newly awoken Mortems. What had happened?

   The doc apparently read my confusion and smiled. "That'd be the blood loss combined with over exertion. You didn't quite 'haze'," he used air quotes. "But you came close to it. We had to put together basically every sedative in the hospital to keep you asleep in order to fix this leg of yours." He tapped it with his pen.

   My mouth went dry. "I almost hazed? Again?"

   "But you didn't," he added. "Took quite some willpower. I hear that a haze is hard to fight."

   "Extremely," I muttered.

   Laughing, he leaned back. "Good news is your leg is already in walking condition. The healing you Mortems have is astounding. Give it a week and you won't have known it was there."

   He seemed way too excited about it, but the doc had always been overly excited about Mortems. I cleared my throat.

   "Where's Inferno?" My hand confirmed that my mask was still on, but I had serious things to talk about with Felix.

   "I'm sure he'll be here any minute," Doc said. "One of the Splices -- they're awesome by the way -- was here when I lowered the sedative. I'm sure your brother heard about it."

   As if on cue, the door opened and in stumbled in Felix. Logan was on his back, arm around his neck and laughing. Mae followed, grinning, but all three froze at the sight of Dr. Bouvet. The doc froze too, staring at their bare faces.

   Felix must not have thought that he would be in here. He was the first to recover, offering a hand. Logan still clung to his back. "Thanks for everything, doc."

   Shaking himself, Dr. Bouvet grasped his gloved hand. "A pleasure, er, Inferno. I hope you know that I didn't mean--"

   "It's okay," interrupted Felix with a grin. "Had you meant us harm, you could have taken Argentum's mask whenever you liked."

   I rolled my eyes, lifting the arm that wasn't hooked to an IV and peeled off my mask. The skin rejoiced at the fresh air. "Nice to meet you. That idiot is Felix. The monkey on his back is Logan, the girl is Mae, and I'm Fletcher."

    "Monkey!" Logan exclaimed indignantly. "At least I'm not throwing people in stinkin' trees!"

   Both Dr. Bouvet and Mae looked at him oddly, but Felix waved them off. "Long story. Anyway, how can we repay you, doc? We don't exactly have any money."

   The doc shook himself. "None is needed. Just let me know if any of you Defenders need patching up. Tipping an invisible hat, he swept from the room and shut the door. Mae hopped up on the bed beside my good leg, swinging her feet with a wane smile.