A/N ~ I'm sorry I was late publishing. My computer just completely died, and getting a replacement has been such a tedious process. Anyway, without further ado...
A real hospital, Philadelphia.
I would expect more fuss for a bullet wound. Not that it hurts, but that's beside the point.
While I'm waiting, I look around at the other occupants of the ER. A guy with his arm up a gumball machine, a mother with her young daughter, two boys in a UFO, and a guy with a broken arm. Hold on, rewind...two boys in a UFO. That's gotta be interesting.
I pass a cart and grab some gauze, a pair of tweezers, and some saline.
"And the award for the most humiliated patients in the emergency room goes to...The boys stuck in a flying saucer," the shorter one says. He's the responsible one of the two, judging by his expression and intonation.
"Take that, guy with his hand stuck in the gumball machine," The darker-haired one called out. I walk over two the two and sit near them.
I pull the bullet out of my arm. Aren't bullet wounds supposed to be really painful? Movies, they're so dramatic. I quickly rinse out my wound with some saline and place the gauze gently over the tiny hole. I inspect the bullet, it's a 9mm Luger, from a Glock 17. The tall, brooding guy shot me.
The bullet clinks against the metal kidney-shaped dish, which happens to be in the chair next to me.
I can feel their eyes on my arm. I quickly pull down the navy sleeve, effectively covering the staunch white gauze.
The tall one asks "Who're you?"
"I'm Y/N. You?
"I'm Oliver, and this is Kaz." The smaller one chimes in.
The silence that follows is uncomfortable and long.
"Did that hurt?" The question came from the smaller one, Oliver.
"It wasn't nearly as painful as the movies make it out to be. Though I suppose pain is technically relative." My response seems dismissive and cold. I quickly move to fix it. "It's not too bad. How did you two end up in a UFO?"
"We were fighting a couple of thieves in a comic shop, and they trapped u-" Kaz is interrupted by Oliver.
"A cardboard cutout and a little bad luck, and we end up stuck in a spaceship." Oliver quickly corrects his friend. Switching the subject, he begins to tell Kaz off. "This is all your fault, Kaz. This is so typical. You always do these crazy things and expect me to just follow you."
"Hold that thought. Follow me."
Unsure of whether I should join the group, I hesitantly follow. Oliver sends me a pleading look that encourages me to follow them.
"Where are we going!?" Oliver questions
"The guy that just walked into the closet...I think that's the Blue Tornado."
"You mean the superhero?" Oliver begins.
"Who can spin at the speed of sound?" I ask, wishing that superheroes really exist. But they can't. Why would they write comics, which would expose themselves?
"And is make-believe?" Oliver finishes sarcastically.
"I know it doesn't make any sense, but it looks exactly like him. He had the same crooked nose, the same scar on his cheek. He even has a wispy beard."
Kaz is right. It doesn't make any sense, but the guy seemed - based on the description - eerily similar to Richard Kennedy. "So does my grandmother!"
Okay, so we totally skipped the "new friends" stage and moved right along to the "seasoned war veteran" level.
Kaz opens the door, and I follow the leader and the unwilling prisoner into a janitor's closet. It's not small, but it barely fits us considering the bulk of the alien spaceship.
"What the? I don't get it. I just saw him go in here."
I made a quick mental note to tutor Kaz in the future, assuming they still want me around after they figure out my secret.
"Well, maybe one of his powers is to turn himself into a roll of one-ply toilet paper," I comment, noting the cart of supplies.
"You've done enough damage for today. Can we please just go?"
Kaz sighs, admitting defeat...I was about to walk around the boys when Kaz moved, which caused the side of the ship to hit me. I fell into the cart. Pulling myself up, I grab the toilet plunger. Now that has to be the most disgusting thing I've ever touched.
"Ow!" I groan, rubbing my right shoulder.
"Y/N, are you okay?" I can feel Oliver's concern. A quick nod eases his anxiety, but immediately I notice the faint blue light emitting from a screen.
"Check it out!" I point to the screen, which displays a jumbled picture.
Kaz replies, holding up a mop. "Oh, know. My mom has this exact same mop."
"No. Look!" Kaz quickly turns around. I display the puzzle, like one of those old-fashioned girls. He chuckles.
"It's some sort of puzzle."
I make quick work of the puzzle while Oliver talks about how amazing this discovery is. It's the symbol of Caducio, the legendary healer of superheroes.
"Um, Oliver? He pushed the button." I tell the brown-haired teen.
"What button?"
"The one that says 'Enter'."
The wall opens up, and we walk into a large, circular room.
"Wow," we say in unison. I already feel bonded to these boys.
The room bustles with nurses, superheroes, and doctors. This must be the lobby.
"Look at this palace." I look around in wonder.
"Hey, there's Blue Tornado. And there's Solar Flare. Oh, and there's Incognito with his power of invisibility. This must be some kind of, like, superhero hospital."
"No. That's impossible. Superheroes don't exist." Oliver claims.
"Then how do you explain this?" I pull up my sleeve, revealing the untainted gauze to the duo. I carefully pull it off. The boys silently watch the scar fade.
"You're a superhero and you didn't tell us?" Oliver says while Kaz is in a completely different mindset. "That is...awesome!"
Somebody sneezes, and out flies a missile. My arms fly up protectively, and I close my eyes, waiting for impact.
Nothing happens.
The missile stopped. In fact, everybody stopped. I move away and wave my hand in front of Oliver's face, then Kaz. As suddenly as it had stopped, everything resumed. The missile hits the UFO, which breaks and falls off.
Oliver noticed. "Um, Y/N. How did you get from over there to here?"
"I honestly don't know."
"You're not a superhero?" Kaz sounds disappointed.
"I don't know what I am. My dad left when I was young, and I ran away from home two days ago."
"Why?"
I bluntly change the subject. "Talk about a snot rocket..."
Sensing the awkwardness, Kaz confesses. "We've been reading about superheroes our whole lives, and it turns out they're real? My whole world has been turned upside down."
"Not as much as hers," I say, pointing to a woman floating upside down.
All of a sudden, another door swings open, and a nurse yells for everyone to clear the way. It's the Crusher!
"I've got a non-responsive superhero. Temperature is 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and he's oozing weird blue glowing stuff. It tastes like hummus. This dude needs medical attention, stat!"
"What's wrong with the Crusher?" I ask the boys. They shrug.
The nurse complains about his physique, which irritates me to no end. Now isn't the time, dude. The doctor starts CPR, but nothing happens.
"If superheroes are real, then what if everything in comics is real too?" I ask the class.
"O-Okay, let's see. I-In the latest issue, uh, Crusher has just returned from the planet Ebrion..." Oliver starts
"Where the gravity is forty times that of Earth," Kaz adds on.
"The extreme gravity must have pulled his heart from his chest down to his feet!" I hypothesize.
"They're compressing in the wrong place!" We say in unison.
Kaz and I immediately start massaging Crusher's feet, and the monitor slowly starts beeping.
Crusher bolts up and high-fives a doctor, sending him flying across the room.
"I'll need the Henderson x-rays in my office. Oh, and I'll need an office," Kaz relays to one of the nurses.
"Kaz, what are you doing? We're not doctors." Oliver announces.
"You guys aren't licensed? I've been licensed for 2 years now." I respond.
"They're not? Guards!" The nurse from earlier breaks the silence, the question directed at the boys.
Kaz, in his idiocy, replies. "Oh, no...we're not guards, either."
The guards appear behind the boys, bathed in red light, which makes them all the more threatening.
"No, but they are!" Oliver squeaks.
"Commemorative terrified fake photo?" Kaz asks.
I slap his hand down.
~~
The guards all but throw us into a dark room.
"Take it easy. My mom just ironed this shirt." Kaz tells the guards.
"What do you think they're gonna do to us?" I can hear a waver in Oliver's voice.
Kaz reads a sign above the door. "It says, 'Now you die'!"
"Do you think they mean you, Y/N, or me?"
"Well, it says 'you." I point out.
"Silence! You have trespassed in my hospital, and for that, the punishment is..." The voice sounds like a petulant child stomping their feet.
"Alan!" The door opens, and an older man in a lab coat walks in.
"The punishment is Alan!" Oliver screams hysterically.
I roll my eyes. These boys, I swear to god.
The man turns on the lights, and I read his badge. Horace Diaz. Mr. Diaz flicks the light switch, looks at the words sprawled above the door, finally hitting the wall. "Stupid sign."
"Oh, 'Know your diet facts'." Kaz reads
"That's far less scary," I retort.
The man speaks again. "Alan, what are you doing in the cafeteria?"
The voice came from this Alan guy. Is he really using a mug to disguise his voice?
"Uh, nothing, uncle Horace." The kid seems shaken. Diaz must be an authoritative figure.
"Is that my mug?" Mr. Diaz questions. "Send it over." The kid uses - I'm assuming - telekinesis to send the mug floating lazily to Mr. Diaz. "World's sexiest chief of staff and vice-chancellor of medicinal administration. Bought this at a gas station. What are the odds?"
A quick calculation and I tell them the answer. "Roughly 4.37%, give or take."
The men look at me questioningly. Finally breaking the silence, the chief speaks. "I'm Dr. Hora-"
"Dr. Horace Diaz, chief of this hospital." I cut him off.
"Correct. Who are you and what can you do?"
Kaz introduces himself, noting that his special ability is putting a napkin over his face and breaking it with his nose and tongue.
"Anyone can do that. I meant, 'what are your powers'?" Diaz clarifies.
"Oh, we don't have any powers. Well, Y/N can heal really fast, but that's it on magical abilities."
"What?" Alan cries out disgruntledly. "You're normos? Normos can't know about Mighty Med. I'm gonna get a normo cage."
I'm desperately trying not to laugh at Alan's antics - or his voice cracks - but fail miserably. Releasing a soft chuckle, I smile at the group. They stare for a second but quickly return to normal.
"Not so fast." Mr. Diaz waves his hand and Alan stops mid-step. "The Crusher is one of our most important heroes, and you saved his life. How did you know that his heart wasn't in his chest?"
"Uh, well, Y/N thought the super-gravity on Ebrion might have pulled his heart down to his feet," Oliver explains.
"It was more of a group effort." I correct Oliver.
"Very clever. You figured that out faster than our best doctors, even Dr. Brainhead, and his entire head is a brain!" Mr. Diaz seems to enunciate, loudly.
"Yeah, we pretty much eat, drink, and breathe superheroes." Kaz hums in agreement.
"Literally. This morning, I had a bowl of honey-nut blue tornado-o's"
"I prefer to just read about superheroes, but yeah, what he said."
"A true fan. Love this guy!" Horace points to Oliver. "We might be able to use people like you around here."
Oh yeah, Alan's still here. He grunts and the boys realize he's still frozen in place.
"Oh, right. Alan." Mr. Diaz doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his nephew.
"We can't have normos here. I heard that if you touch them, your butt falls off."
Mr. Diaz denies the allegation, but quickly backpedals, asking the boys if the rumor is, indeed, true. Once Oliver confirms that butts won't fall off, Mr. Diaz comes back with "Good. Because without a butt, what would I shake on the dance floor!?"
"So you want us to work here, Mr. Diaz?" I ask the man-child.
"Not 'us'. You and you." Horace motions towards me and Oliver, excluding Kaz. "Your friend over there seems a bit...Off. Call me Horace!"
Horace isn't wrong. Kaz solidifies his point by messing with a bracelet. His arm turns into a chainsaw and he yells in surprise. Only Kaz can go through something like that and end up with:
"That was...Awesome!"
Horace says what I've been thinking. Pointing at both me and Oliver, he signals up over. "You and you...With me. You. Do you happen to know if you take a small or medium normo cage?"
"No." I rebuff, head held high.
"No?" He wheels around, seeming to question my resolve. "Not without Kaz. We come as a package deal. He knows just as much about superheroes as Oliver and I do."
As brave and selfless as this is, I can't help but wonder if Horace knows I'm bluffing. After a beat, he nods in assent. "Alright. I'll give you three a trial run."
The boys, in their excitement, talk fast and over each other. "I can't wait to tell Gus and Jordan about this place."
"Are you crazy?" Alan screeches. God, his voice is grating. "You can't tell anyone about Mighty Med. It's a top-secret hospital."
Horace quickly tells off Alan, just to repeat what he said. "Another thing. If your friend here messes up, I'm holding you two responsible."
"Hear that? No goofing around. Do not Kaz this up for me."
"Did you just use his name as a verb?"
"Yes, Y/N. He did." Kaz continues to press buttons on the bracelet, finally hitting the last button, he sighs dispiritedly. A circular blade appears swiftly out of the bracelet, shooting towards Oliver, who shouts.
~~
"Now, let me show you around." Pointing to a series of devices, he explains their uses. "This is a web-untangalizer for our arachnid-based superheroes. This is a molecular de-vaporizer. A lot of people get vaporized in this business." He seems almost gleeful. "This is a picture of a bridge. I love bridges!" He shouts the last sentence.
Leading our trio down a hall he barges into one of the rooms. "This is the rec room, where recovering superheroes work on strengthening powers and honing super-skills."
Kaz questions Horace. "Okay, so, if superheroes are real and out there saving the world, how come we never see you guys?"
"It's a combination of things. Sometimes we erase the memories of normos who witness our heroics. Usually, we don't need to because most of you are looking down at your phones all the time."
Now would be a good time to mention this. Once I know about an ability, I can control it well. Now, continuing...
I tell the phone to flash. Kaz looks at me curiously. "I'm sorry. What?"
"Plus, some of us are invisible. And sometimes we do things so fast, you don't even see it..." I feel a shift, and notice Horace walking towards Oliver and Kaz. I glance at him suspiciously but ignore it. He switches outfits with the boys. Kaz has a pair of Techton boxers, while Oliver dons tighty-whities. "Like how you and I just switched outfits."
"No we didn't" Oliver speaks up.
"Or did we?" Horace holds up a photo of Oliver, Kaz, and Himself. Their clothes are swapped.
"How come Y/N wasn't in the picture?" His question goes unanswered.
"But, If you guys act in secret, why are there superhero comic books and graphic novels?" I quickly move on. I'll share my list of powers with everyone later.
"We chronicle our adventures and sell them to the public to finance this hospital, the league of heroes, and the bowling league of heroes. Here are your MM-200 communicators."
He hands the boys two tiny little pagers. "Wow, look at the size of these things" Kaz judges.
"I know. Sorry they're so bulky. The MM-200S will be much smaller and have new, funky ringtones." Horace smiles warmly.
Kaz looks around in amazement. Picking up a bedpan, he places it on his head, wondering if it's a 'high tech memory restorer'.
"It's a bedpan." Oliver and I confess together. It's immediately thrown to the ground.
A girl walks by us, and Kaz acknowledges her with a head tilt and a "Sup, girl?"
"Wait, you're Skylar Storm." Oliver fangirls. Fanboys?
"Wow, dude. No way! You were just making out with a cardboard cutout of her." That revelation surprises me, but I'm not one to judge. You do you, little dude.
Oliver does one of those "mother-wants-to-kill-you,-but-you're-in-the-grocery-store-" smiles and hisses through his teeth. "No, I wasn't."
Quickly fixing into a genuine smile, he faces Skylar again. "Hi. I'm Oliver. Big fan of your work. You have so many amazing powers."
"Had so many amazing powers. Yesterday I was ambushed by the Annihilator. He neutralized my powers, took my invisible flying motorcycle. He even stole my costume. He left me just standing there in my underwear." Oliver seems to drift off at that.
Hey, bud. Don't get lost in your fantasies. We need you here.
Huh? Who is this?
It's Y/N. Come back to Earth, Oliver!
"I will definitely be buying that comic book when it comes out." He broke out of the trance he was in.
"Anyway, I came here to Mighty Med to get my powers restored. Unless...Explode! Nothin'" She mutters defeatedly.
"Bummer," I say to her. She looks confused at my sudden arrival to the conversation. "I'm Y/N."
"Skylar Storm."
"Wait. If you did have your powers, wouldn't I have just exploded?" Kaz questions.
"Into a million pieces."
"Awesome!"
~~
Your first impression of Skylar wasn't too great, but it turns out, she's a decent person. Alien? Either way, she's nice.
"You should probably know this if we're going to be friends. I have powers."
"Oh. Well, um, cool." Her response is half-hearted at best. "What powers do you have? Maybe I could teach you to control them!" She's back and energetic, happy to have something to do.
I feel bad for her, so I play along. "Sure. I've honed some of my abilities, but others seem hard to control."
"Which ones are you having trouble with?"
"Mostly my telepathy" I hate lying, especially since I'm trying to gain her trust, but I need to know how she feels.
"Okay, well you can try it on me if you want"
"Um, okay. Are you sure?"
"Positive."
I close my eyes. I don't need to for my powers, but it gives me the appearance of concentration, which I need to sell this lie. I hover around the brink of her consciousness, her aura. With a deep breath, I let go.
It's like a free-fall, going into someone's brain for the first time. It takes a few moments to get situated into their thought process, how they store information and emotions, and their subconscious. I picture myself at a pool. The sections they divide them into. The kiddy end is basic instincts and desires. The 3-5 feet section is for active thoughts, emotions, memories, and processing new information. The deep end is the subconscious forming ideas and new things, to be buried deep into the brain.
I dive into the middle section, hoping to gauge where she's at. She's angry for letting herself get distracted during a crucial moment in the fight. She's scared she could end up killing someone in the future if it happens again. She's worried she won't get her powers back.
Why does she have powers, when I don't.
She's jealous. Of me?
The thought doesn't scare me, but I startle a little, the connection slipping.
I gasp slightly as I feel the connection splinter and crack.
"Well? Did it work?"
"Not well," I lie, the words heavy and thick, coating my tongue, my mouth, my throat, until all I feel is waves of shame washing over me. "I could only hear one thought."
"What was it?"
Unable to take the gut-wrenching feeling of guilt, I respond honestly. "My telepathy is fine. I needed to know how you feel."
My eyes slowly carve a path up to hers. "What did you hear."
"You're...not happy that I have powers while you don't. I also felt some of your emotions, experienced some of your memories."
"Which ones."
"You know which ones."
Skylar immediately breaks down, unable to keep up the façade. I hug her tightly, let her know it will be okay. Suddenly, she's calm. Did I do that?
~Time Skip~
Somehow, my dishonesty has brought us closer. I just think Skylar's happy she didn't have to tell anyone but she's glad that someone knows what she's going through. Emotions are exhausting.
We get a dispatch from an ambulance.
"We have a conscious superhero with a puncture wound. The object appears to be a stop sign. We're five minutes out."
I page Kaz and Oliver. They show up with seconds to spare. "What's going on?"
The annoying nurse from before wheels in Techton. "Make a path people! I have a beloved superhero, puncture wound to the chest. Object appears to be a stop sign."
"Kaz, that's Techton."
"Dude, you are my all-time favorite superhero. Are...are you okay? What happened to you?"
"Now isn't the time, Kaz!" I snap at him. He looks stunned, and I don't blame him. The stress of the incoming superhero combined with my incident with Skylar ensured I wasn't in the best of moods.
"Megahertz was robbing the federal reserve bank. When he tried to make an unauthorized withdrawal, I stopped him. Unfortunately, he made an unauthorized deposit of this stop sign in my chest."
"Man, how cool is this guy? He's skewered and he's still making quips."
"Wheel Techton to the O.R.," I say to Benny, the loudmouth nurse.
"Yes ma'am. Oh, who's your trainer. Because I'm this close to firing Guillermo." He directs the end sentence to Techton. You give Benny a small glare. Thankfully, he gets the message and shuts up.
"Boys, how would you like to observe Techton's surgery?" Horace asks Kaz and Oliver.
"Are you kidding? We'd love to. Oh, but...We kind of have a prior commitment."
You give Oliver a look.
"Huh. I thought your commitment was to this hospital." Horace is guilt-tripping them. "Guess I misjudged you."
"No, no, no! We definitely want to work here. It would be a dream come true. It's just, we promised our friend we would-"
"This is Techton. We can make new friends. Superhero friends."
Oliver relents. "Okay. Count us in."
"Splendid. You'll be saving the people who save people." Horace smiles cheerfully.
"I told you you should've trademarked that," Kaz tells Oliver.
"Too late. Horace trademarked that three hours ago," I report.
"Hey, why were you so snappy?"
"Look, I'm just having a bad day, Kaz."
"What's wrong?"
"It's not my problem to share," I tell my friends.
"Okay. Do you need a hug?" Oliver asks eagerly.
"I'll take one, Oliver."
It's comforting and soothing. Kaz joins, but I immediately end the hug. I wrinkle my nose. "You smell, Kaz."
"What? I took a shower Tuesday!"
"Last Tuesday?"
"...Yes?"
"Go take a shower, Kaz"
~~
I walk with the freshly showered Kaz and the already clean Oliver. Kaz's phone starts buzzing and ringing. He quickly picks up the call, ignoring the fact that we're in a top-secret hospital. Oliver gives him a look, and I quickly use my face to cover any of the hallway from Jordan. I end up squished between Oliver and Kaz.
"Gus is driving me crazy, and I can't finish this project without you guys. Is Oliver's grandmother okay? Who is that?" The blonde girl points to me, and Oliver answers her questions.
"Um, yes. Yes, she's...she's fine. Turns out she just burnt some toast in-"
"The fire" Kaz injects.
"Okay. Who is that?" She points to me again.
"I'm YN. I live next door to Oliver's grandma. I came to check on her because of-"
"The fire" Kaz repeats.
"Hi YN. Guys, hurry. We have to present our project in three hours. And it's only half-finished." She hangs up.
"Did you guys bail on her to observe Techton's surgery? Don't lie."
"Um, no?" Kaz scoffs. You raise an eyebrow questioningly and threateningly. He breaks. "Okay, yes, we did. Why does it matter?"
"Because friendships are important."
I stalk off to prep Techton for surgery. Realizing I forgot to grab a hairnet, I walk back to the lobby.
~~
I walk back with the hairnet, and a clipboard with papers Techton has to sign. TV shows don't really show how much paperwork gets pushed around for every little thing. They only show consent forms. My god, there is so much paper prep before consent forms even come into play.
I walk into Techton's pre-op room, coat fanning out behind me. Oliver is staring at Kaz in confusion.
"What did you just do?" I hear Oliver question Kaz.
"I just saved my favorite superhero...Like a boss."
"Why did you just perform unauthorized surgery on the patient?" I whisper-shout. Both boys startle and whip around to face me.
"Guys, relax. He always heals. That hole is gonna close right up. Here we go." Nothing happens. "Any second now." Still nothing. "Uh-oh."
"If anyone sees this, we're done! Fired! Cubed! Vaporized! A lot of people get vaporized in this business." I whisper to myself nervously.
"Commemorative I Kazzed this up fake photo?" He holds his hand up hopefully.
Oliver slowly shakes his head and I send him my harshest glare. Again, I smack down his hand.
To Be Continued...
Edited 4/21/2021