by Kevin Rau
More police and ambulance vehicles arrived at the warehouse. The EMTs attempted to lift Lance, but the massive weight of the brick was too much.
I asked, “How do you guys normally lift bricks into ambulances?”
The EMT answered, “We don’t. It’s very rare for a brick to be down for any length of time. At the very least they can normally help us get them into the ambulance.”
Hellshock and I carefully lifted Lance onto a reinforced stretcher, and then moved him into the ambulance. I believe either of us could have done it fairly easily, but we were both on hand. The ambulance left for Metrocity General Hospital once they determined that they couldn’t do much to stabilize him here.
I stared after the ambulance for a moment. I hope he’s going to be all right. He’s got a lot of stab wounds and deep cuts.
My stomach rumbled. Even with the dwindling pain, I felt like I could eat a horse. It had to be the healing, using up energy reserves in my body.
Stephanie woke up just after the ambulance left. Officer Coyle had been holding her as she would a kitten. She was still six inches tall.
Stephanie flew over to me and asked in a squeaky little voice, “Hey, where’s Spartan?”
I replied, “He’s been brought to the hospital. What happened to you?’
“The female mutant was Shrinker. She shrank me when I tried flying her into a wall. I’m pretty sure she got away.”
I said, “I haven’t seen her since we first came in. Without her army of mutants she shouldn’t be much of a problem anymore, though. Several of the people in a cage mentioned something about her building an army. With no army, she’d have to recruit other mutants, and most of those remaining won’t be into her leather and chains type scene, I'm guessing. It’ll be harder for her to convince them to join her. Well, that and she’s a nut job.”
Agent Carson jumped in, “I agree, and she did get away. I shot at her several times outside, and she was injured, but I failed to stop her. We’ve stopped her from forcing the blood thirst on all of these new mutants in the cages. We need to check on them before freeing the people.”
Stephanie squeaked, “Where did all the kidnapped normals go? Ah, never mind, thanks.” She’d seen the answer in several of the nearby officers’ minds.
Officer Coyle said, “Huh?”
Agent Carson answered her, “They’re outside. Several of them said that Spartan freed them while fighting Kralgon.”
He looked at me, “Do you need any medical assistance?”
Every minute that passed made me feel notably better. “No, I don’t feel many injuries any more. Psystar?”
I saw how red her tiny white costume was, and it had me concerned.
“I’m getting better, except for the small size.”
Agent Carson nodded, and then left to guide the police force on moving the dangerous mutants.
I walked back into the warehouse to my makeshift staff and picked it back up. It barely had a dent in it, and had worked wonderfully. I turned around and surprised an officer cuffing a mutant. He shrieked and pulled his gun on me.
I pointed at him and said, “Seriously? Put the gun away or I’ll make you eat it. I don’t need any more shit after dealing with all these scumbags.”
Officer Coyle walked over and talked him down.
They didn’t take any chances with the big four armed guy. He had multiple arm bars and body bars that locked his entire body in place. Somehow they already knew about his roaring power. They locked his jaw tightly as well. Hehe, well, what there is of it anyway. Spartan really mauled him at the end there. I wondered how they would move the massive guy into a super paddy wagon, until I saw the H.E.R.O. police officers that came with it. Both were bricks, and easily handled the giant mutant's body.
Agent Carson walked up to me, and said, “We already know what the circumstances were here. Anything special to add?”
I replied, “Not really. There’s one of them back by the far entrance to the building if you haven’t got him yet. Wait, make sure Officer Anne Coyle gets some kind of commendation or thanks, she helped me during the fight. Well, and Hellshock showed up around the same time she did.”
“Great. I’ll handle the paperwork for you, good work here. Why don’t you two go check on your friend?”
“Will do, thanks Carson.”
I didn’t see Stephanie, so I thought as loudly as I could. Stephanie! Come on, time to go see Spartan.
Her tiny form buzzed above my head in an arc before she slowed down. She flew over to me and landed on my shoulder, then walked over and grabbed my hair.
She said in her squeaky little voice, “Okay, ready to go. I don’t think I can carry you now though.”
I thought, No need to, my car is a block away.
Media vans were there already, interviewing people freed from the cages. A woman from the group of former kidnap victims ran toward us. Great, she’s going to lure the news people right to us. I sped up my walk, but she ran at an angle and headed us off. She came right at me, flinging her arms out to hug me.
She clung tightly to me for a few seconds, mumbling, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I patted her back lightly with my palm. My fingertips were still two inch wicked sharp claws.
Well, this is awkward. I said, “Lady, are you all right?” Oh, man, I can smell the blood in her, her skin, her scent of prey. I suddenly smelled something pleasant that distracted me from her smell. I glanced at little Stephanie and smiled.
The woman leaned back a little and looked up at my face. She jumped slightly when she saw my cat’s eyes. She said, “Thank you for saving us. I was afraid I’d never see my daughter again.” She looked around at the ground, “I smell flowers, where are they?”
“I’m glad we got there in time. You’re getting blood all over your clothes, you know.”
“It’s all right. I thought we were all going to die horrible, nasty deaths. We were going to be eaten alive. Oh my god, you have claws too.”
“Yes, I’m similar to the monsters inside. I shouldn’t be so near you after that fight.”
She backed up a few steps, wringing her hands as she did so. “You were very brave to rush into so many of them.”
“It’s kind of you to say so. I can’t say as I was thinking too much about it at the time.”
Her eyes focused on my shoulder, I glanced over and saw Stephanie smiling at her, still standing on my shoulder and holding a lock of hair.
“Thank you too, little girl.” The woman waved as though to a child.
Stephanie laughed, “You’re welcome, Mrs. Telholme. Give your daughter a big hug for me tonight.”
I spotted a news crew walking this way. “Well, we’re off. I’d rather not talk with the press just yet. Good day, miss. I’m really glad we made it in time for you.” Hold on tight Steph. I sprinted around the nearest warehouse and ran to my car. Stephanie lost her footing and I felt her hanging onto me by my hair. I grabbed a blanket from the trunk and put it on my seat, and then climbed in and drove to the hospital.
We found Lance. They had given up on all attempts at surgery and simply washed and covered each stab wound. The doctors couldn’t remove the blade from him, his muscles held it in place too tightly. They administered anesthesia via breathing mask and moved him to a room to wait it out.
Stephanie’s tiny form lay in my hand when she suddenly enlarged to her normal size. She cheered at the good event. I scowled.
She asked, “What?”
“I was hoping to keep you as my pet.” I grinned at her.
She stuck her tongue out at me. “Too bad.”
A nurse stopped in to find out what the commotion was about. She asked, “Weren’t you tiny before?”
Stephanie nodded, “It just wore off.”
A moan came from the bed. Lance woke up, grimacing in pain. “What the heck is going on?”
Stephanie grabbed his shoulder, “Welcome back, big guy.
How do you feel?”
“Ow, what is this?” He pulled the sheet to the side, showing the blade sticking out of his abdomen.
“They couldn’t get that out, it’s in too tight.”
He took a few deep breaths and put his hand on the blade remnant sticking out. The nurse’s eyes grew large and she dove at him. “No!”
He didn’t listen, and slowly pulled the blade out of his body. It made a nasty squishing sound as he pulled it through. His teeth were tightly clenched and he growled in pain, but he finished removing it. Blood freely ran down his abdomen. The nurse ran out of the room.
Lance sat up. “Ugh. That’s gonna leave a mark. Man, I hurt all over, except my big toe.”
I laughed, “I could stomp on it.”
“You would. I’m starving, too.” He looked at a wound under the bandages, and then looked up at us. “They couldn’t do anything, could they?”
“No, needles wouldn’t cut through to seal the wounds. They tried superglue, but even your breathing ripped it apart.”
He nodded. “No use for me to take up a bed then.”
The nurse, along with a second nurse, re-entered the room with bandages, cloth and tape. They ordered him to stay put. Lance rolled his eyes, but complied, and they cleaned and bandaged off the wounds.
One of them said, “Not that you’ll listen, but you need to keep those clean. Change the bandages if you bleed through any. Keep the wounds covered. Do you hear me?”
He nodded at her. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
It was obvious that they had dealt with supers before; they hadn’t cut apart his costume.
I said, “Dude, you don’t need to wear a costume top, you look like a mummy now.” I threw his top to him to put back on, and we left the room. Lance stayed long enough to find out who had worked on him, and tracked each of them down to thank them. He’s a strange animal.
Chapter 41 – End of Day
Third Person Perspective
