Beep, Beep, Beep. “I know that sound.” Beep, Beep, Beep.

Memories of Lukas turning into Thor flooded his head. Memories of a power that shouldn’t exist. His immediate surroundings took over priority when he felt something cold touch his arm. “How the fuck am I still alive and where am I?”

Eric forced open his eyes and found the face of his mother staring back at him. The tears in her eyes didn’t bode well for his condition. A short flick of his gaze revealed that he was lying in a hospital bed with his mother and father sitting next to him.

“At least I don’t have tubes stuck in my body. That’s a good sign, right?”

When his mother realized he was conscious, she opened her arms as if to hug him, but stopped halfway through the motion. “Oh, baby. You are alive. I am so glad.”

She continued to talk but his eyes were locked onto his father who was watching the scene with a tear rolling down his cheek.

He had never seen his father cry. When he tried to ask his father about his condition, his skin started to burn like fire. The pain made him cry out which only led to more pain. Following that loop, he was soon writhing in the hospital bed. A heart rate monitor in the room went wild and a doctor burst into the room. It took his mum screaming in fear for his monkey brain to realize the connection between pain and moving.

Enduring the pain without moving required all his foggy mind, but he managed. “I guess that answer’s my question about my state.”

The doctor who had rushed in to help sighed and began: “From now on, blink once for yes. Twice for no.”

Eric blinked once. “Amazing, you have been pretty lucky. Not to say that you came out unscathed. But, those lightning charged punches could have killed you.”

“How does this doctor know what happened? Why does he act so casual when talking about a freaking lightning god?”

He tried to show his confusion by furiously blinking. The doctor laughed nervously and pulled out his phone. On it, a video of him being beaten up by Lukas was playing. Eric flinched involuntarily when the video showed his index finger being torn off. He hadn’t realized it, but the doctor had lowered himself to his eye level.

The entire ‘nice-doctor’ facade was gone and replaced by one nervous wreck of a man: “Hey boy. You might be in big trouble. I don’t know what the government will do to you as you are the main witness. There are riots in the streets - the people want answers - but the government hasn’t taken a stance for two days. People have been linking the dots. There were occurrences in the US and in other countries that are suspiciously similar. Do you realize how important this is for all US citizens?”

Eric tried to think through all the implications, but his mind felt like he had just hit a fat joint. The doctor took Eric’s regular blink as a yes and continued: “Did you see where the electricity that teen summoned came from?”

Eric indicated ‘No’.

The doctor cursed silently and tried to continue, but his mother interrupted the interrogation. “Sir, what are you telling my son? Please speak up. This is highly unprofessional.”

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The doctor motioned for her to wait, and Eric instantly knew that the doctor had made a grave mistake. His mother exploded: “I won’t take being shushed by anyone. Even though he is twenty-one he is my child. I want you to tell me right now what you said to my child.”

The doctor’s answer was interrupted by his phone vibrating. With a curse, the man rushed out of the room as fast as he had entered. Eric’s mother released a shout of outrage and tried to follow the doctor. Just before she reached the door, it swung open and a hulking man in army uniform entered the room. With a practiced smile, the soldier offered his hand to Eric’s mother. “Are you Mrs. Miller?”

Taken aback by the change of tone, Eric’s mother shook the soldier’s hand. “Yes, I am and that is my husband. Only moments ago, there was a doctor in this room that tried to talk with my son, but didn’t want to tell us what it was about.”

The soldier’s smile froze on his face and he calmly pressed a button on a headset Eric had dismissed. “Alpha, Alpha. We have a code joker. I repeat, Alpha, Alpha. We have a code joker.” After transmitting the message, the soldier once again put on his smile. “Nothing to worry about. The doctor was only talking to himself.”

A shiver ran down Eric’s spine as the soldier’s eyes turned on him. It didn’t take him much imagination to put one and one together. His body wasn’t able to gather the strength for full-on terror, so he just stared back. Luckily, his parents took the hint and let the matter rest. A moment later, another soldier entered the room, pushing a strange device that looked like an infusion pump. Before his mother could ask more questions, the soldier said: “Mrs. and Mr. Miller, you have to leave the room for a while, I am afraid. We will conduct several health tests on your child. Nothing serious. An assistant is waiting just outside - ready to explain everything.”

Only his father’s hand on her shoulder stopped his mother from exploding. Giving the soldier the stare of death and Eric a last wave, they left. As soon as his parents had left, the soldier dropped his friendly facade to reveal a professional calm. They pulled back his covers to reveal a partly swollen body beneath. Even with the bandages covering up most of it, it was gruesome. When his gaze fell on the bandage around his left hand, he had to suppress the image of Lukas gripping his finger.

The soldiers placed sticky metallic pads all over his body. Eric had to stop himself from laughing once again when they placed two on his nipples. Now that he thought about it, he had always laughed in extreme situations.

“There was that one time at the funeral. Shit, that was embarrassing.”

The first soldier pulled out a Stethoscope and placed it on his forehead. With calm detachment, the other soldier adjusted a dial on the device while counting down. “The test starts in five, four, three, two, one.”

On one, Eric felt an enormous headache coming on and he scrunched up his brows. Suddenly, the first soldier with the Stethoscope screamed out loud and threw the Stethoscope across the room. At the same time, Eric had to fight off the sensation of having his skin peeled off because he scrunched up his brows. The second soldier rushed over to his comrade who was writhing on the floor. After a while, the first soldier calmed down and rasped out: “The power signal … It was so loud, I think I shattered my eardrums.”

The second soldier laughed nervously and replied in a slight Texan accent. “Nice hissy fit. This testing business was getting boring. You should have gone to acting school after all.”

Indignantly, the first soldier got back on his feet and went to the testing machine: “I am not fucking kidding. You take a listen.”

This time, the first soldier counted down with the Texan soldier listening. Eric was prepared to counter the upcoming headache with the most relaxing thing he could imagine - standing on top of the Trump tower and pissing down on Lukas. For a moment he felt the headache coming on again, but keeping that image in his mind made it fly by. The Texan soldier took off the Stethoscope with a smug grin on his face. “That was a cheap one, Karl. He is literally talentless. Ain’t hearing a thing.”

Confused and outraged at being called a liar, the first soldier grabbed the Stethoscope and listened again. “You are right. I swear the power signal I heard was deafening.”

When the Texan soldier saw the desperate look on his comrade’s face, he sighed: “Karl, I believe you. Let’s talk to the general, this is going to be a lot of paperwork.” With a last look at Eric, they left the room with the machine. The last words Eric heard were: “Shit Karl, there is blood coming out of your ear.”