When I finally got into a new pair of pants and got in the car I felt so much better. I had slowly changed as I avoided moving my legs as best I could and tried not to touch them. Once I got in the car I punched in the location of the nearest hospital and turned on the seat warmers. I pushed the seat back as far as I could and laid back as I tried to relax as best I could. I changed the settings on the autopilot, so it went a bit slowly and in turn smoother than usual. The setting helped a little bit with the ride, but there was only so much the car could do to help me enjoy the ride while I was injured.
The car pulled up to the hospital entrance and I walked myself in with the help of a walker while it parked itself. When the doors opened I was directed to a seat and handed some forms to fill out. I worked on filling out the forms as I could while leaving some of the information blank. It took me a few minutes to fill out and then a few more minutes before someone came to see me. The office staff ran around near the entrance bringing people towards where they needed to be. From what I could see looking around the injuries of the other people around me they ranged from mild to a medium level of injury. The greatest injury I could see was someone holding up their broken arm. There was of course the chance that they had worse injuries, but they were either rushed right through the doors past me and into surgery or they had more internal injuries.
How Nate spoke about how frequently that buildings or property could be destroyed I thought that there would be more. I was especially thinking about how common a child’s power might go wrong during their life as they tried to get it under control. Or maybe I was just overthinking things and today the hospital wasn’t very busy because I had never been to this hospital nor seen hospitals back in my old world much in real-life, shows, or anything else.
Someone called my name, and I went over to the counter, now with some crutches, and was led through the doors I had seen many other people go and was taken to one of the open rooms. I was made to lay down on a bed. I was put in a section of the hospital with other people with laceration-type injuries. Some of the other beds were full and closed off. Other doctors or nurses running between the beds doing their jobs. They began checking my bandaging and wounds. The doctor also quickly checked if I had any damage to my upper body that wasn’t caught. I had already taken off my hoodie and had left it in the car. She found nothing wrong with my upper body. Next, they unwrapped the bandages fully this time, which was a bit painful. My legs had sores on them and were bruising because of the injuries. I held my pain in as they cut up the bandages. Next, they began cleaning up the antiseptic stuff Nate had applied. Once I was cleaned of the original aid given the doctor put on her own magic cream that foamed up and hardened around the leg. My leg was frozen in place, and I didn’t feel anything from my leg underneath the cast that had been created almost instantly. She did the same to the other leg and then I was made to wait as she dealt with other patients for a bit.
When she returned she hooked up an IV. She said the healing would take up a lot of fluids from me so this would replenish them. Next, she tapped on the cast to check if it had hardened properly. She wrote down some notes in her papers and then recorded the information on a screen displaying my heartbeat, blood pressure, and other similar information. Next, she did something to the IV and I was knocked out. She mentioned something about resting but it went by so quickly I barely heard what she said. My head hit the pillows and I was asleep Immediately.
When I woke back up the casts around my legs had already been removed and my clothes had been put back on. I checked the time and saw that I had been asleep for over two hours now. The section I was in was quieter than before. The doctor stepped in opening up the curtain. She stepped into my area with a clipboard of notes.
“How are you today?” she asked.
“I’m feeling much better now,” I answered.
I looked myself over and checked my legs. There was no pain, and they were only a little sore. All of the scraps and possible marks had been removed entirely including the hair on my legs. If I didn’t know that I had gotten hurt hours earlier then I could have believed that nothing happened earlier. I checked my other leg as well and looked for one of the spots that had had one of the larger shrapnel pieces in it that had bled a lot. It too was all sealed up and the cut was gone.
“I’m glad to hear it. Can you tell me about your current pain level or if there is anything else that you need?” asked the doctor.
“My legs are a bit sore but that is all. Whatever you did for the cuts was great.”
“Good. I am glad the services worked for you. I just have some papers for you to take care of for me. You only need to stay here for one more hour and then you can be discharged,” she said as she pulled the IV from my arm. She wrapped up the arm with the IV and stopped it from bleeding.
She left the room, and I was left waiting for the time to run out. With nothing better to do, I pulled out my phone. It was in a bag along with some of my stuff next to the bed. I brought it out and began searching for the contact info of the person I needed. I had promised John that I would contact Tabitha and had put it off so far in favor of this excursion. The phone rang three times before she picked up the phone.
“Hey, Tabitha. I’m calling about…”
“Yeah I already know,” said Tabitha in an exasperated voice. She sounded tired and was breathing heavily. There were the sounds of metal on metal in the background.
“Are you in the middle of fighting?” I asked.
“Not yet. I’ve been busy training all day. I have been taking a break from sparring though today’s my day off.”
“Oh. I am wondering when a good time would be to get your suit. Is there a time of day that would work best for you? I could also see about driving by to pick up your suit instead,” I offered.
“That’s not necessary. Until I get my suit recolored and prepped as THE Legacy suit then I am not formally going out to do any hero business. I can be there in an hour or two after I finish up here and change.”
“I can be back over at the warehouse in two hours,” I said as I made myself a note to get there early so I could prepare for her arrival.
“Good. When do you think you can be done with the new coloring and the updating of some of the parts?” she asked.
“If it was just the coloring then I would say about three days because I have never worked with your suit before and have never disassembled. As for the modifications that would depend on what you want to be done.”
“I only need some of the software updates and a few of the other armor interior plates replaced because they have taken repeated damage over the past year, and you are already disassembling a lot of it anyway. Can you get it done by Sunday night? I would like to be able to show it all off on Monday for the start of the week’s news cycle.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I paused thinking over how much time it would take to make the armor inserts and the disassembly. As long as this injury didn’t harm my work then I should be able to get it done.
“I could probably get it done but you might be picking it up Sunday night.”
“Perfect. I will text you when I am at your shop.”
The call ended and I set my phone down on the table.
Nate arrived thirty minutes later bringing lunch along with him. I took the bag of food from him and began looking through it.
“Thanks for the food.”
“Of course. It wasn’t a problem,” said Nate.
“So, what happened at the work site after I left? How much of a mess was there?” I asked before I started eating the sandwich and side from the bag. The food was great for my energy-starved body, and I began going through the food quickly as he answered my questions.
“After I took care of you bomb squads were already brought to the site. They went through the entire place again and then went through the surrounding buildings again. They found bombs in two more of the buildings and disarmed them before giving us the ‘all clear’ to continue and then they left. The mess will take a while to clean up, but it is fine. It wasn’t your fault, and the evidence has been passed on to the authorities in charge of this case. They didn’t stay long after that and let us continue to work. The site managers were also notified, and our work schedule has been officially extended to cover the newly destroyed building and surrounding area. Tomorrow they will also have to check the nearby buildings again for structural integrity in case the explosion rocked one of them a little too hard. The detectives will handle how the bombs came to be placed there and the rest of this mess.”
“I’m glad that they found the bombs and dealt with them. If someone else had gone into those buildings then they might not have survived. I can only imagine what might have happened if the shop owners stepped in there after a month when the clean-up was over and no one like you was around.”
“Yeah we were really lucky with that one,” said Nate, “How are you feeling?”
“Like I said to the nurse and you earlier, the stuff you put on was great. I am only a little sore now. I’ll be going home soon and will rest in bed as soon as possible. All of this healing has drained me a bunch. I’m just ready to go home,” I answered.
“Good. Let me know if you need anything. I will probably be busy for the next few days with all the clean-up at work, but I still should have time to stop by.”
“Thanks. I’ll make sure to give you a call later,” I said.
“I’ll see you around. Get better soon.”
“Of course.”
<-0-0-0-0-0->
I left the hospital as soon as the doctor said the word. When I stood up my legs shook, and I had to steady myself. They felt like I had done hundreds of squats and lunges without stopping. I carefully made my way out of the hospital and to my car which was parked in the patient parking area. I let my car take the wheel once more and drove to the warehouse.
The soreness was slowly alleviating as I walked out of the car and in between the warehouse lots. I punched in the warehouse passcode and entered. Everything was as I had left it. I brought out the paints and tools I would need to disassemble and color her suit. After that was done I spent my time waiting for Tabitha to arrive by looking through her suit’s files. John had left it with me along with her other information. Even though I wasn’t going to get started on it until tomorrow I found it to be the best use of my time.
Tabitha’s suit was pretty standard and didn’t have anything extra or out of the ordinary. In fact, it had a specific model number which I could use to see the information related to its production in one of Titan Tools databases if I had access to such a thing. From what I could find after a quick search of the model of super suit I saw that it was one of the newest models and a higher tier one at that. From the price I guessed that it was one that wealthy heroes could buy if they didn’t want to go for a completely custom order.
My phone buzzed and I checked the cameras to the door. I saw Tabitha waiting outside. I activated the door from my computer, and she stepped inside. She had changed from her training clothes to a more modest blouse and skirt which fit her tightly. She held a large back which I recognized from Rachel’s earlier visit. It contained her super suit. I took it from her hands and set it on the table behind us.
“How was your training?” I asked as I opened up the bag and took out the suit. It was the same one that she fought Rachel it. It still had many scuff marks from her battle that I could have to clean up before its return.
“It was fine,” she said in a tone that made it seem that she wasn’t interested in chatting for much longer and I kept to that.
“Thanks for stopping by. I will see you Sunday then.”
“Yeah, Sunday.”
Tabitha left without anything else and hurried out the door. I dropped the now empty suit bag by my computer and sat down. After the day I had had I was tired and out of energy. I wasn’t going to get anything done tonight so it was better to go home early today and start fresh tomorrow. Soon after Tabitha left I followed and returned home to my house.
I pulled up to the gates and tapped by keycard to get in and they opened up. As I started to drive in Rob walked over to me. I stopped the car and rolled down the window. He held a straight face as he looked me over and my car.
“You doing ok?” he asked.
“I’m doing ok. Just came from the hospital though.”
“Thought I smelled them on you. You doing better though? What happened?” he asked.
“What do you mean? Everything is fine. I got hurt but I got help right away. What is this about?” I asked. His tone had been one of concern, so I wasn’t pushing the matter too much and was more curious and concerned than anything else.
Rob’s eyes darted to the back of the car and back to me and then back again.
“I think you should check under your car. I don’t know how long the thing has been under there, but it hasn’t been since last we spoke. You don’t seem to have realized it was there and I can already tell that it wasn’t put there by you.” He paused before continuing. “And you don’t need to worry. It isn’t something very dangerous. My senses would have caught it days ago when it was first placed.”
“How do you know when it was placed?”
“I can only tell you that it is at least a day old based on the dirt and smells it has accumulated from being around your car. It also could have just been dirtied already, but I doubt it. Be careful. I wouldn’t know who would want you followed and surveilled, but you probably would,” said Rob.
“Thanks,” I said slowly, “I’ll check it out when I am in my garage.”
I nodded and he stepped back before returning to his guard post beside the gate. I rolled up the window and drove to my house quickly. My worry grew by the minute as I pulled into my garage. I was barely holding in my panic as I stepped out of the car. I felt the pain in my legs spike as I closed the door and ran inside and down to my office. I moved some of the boxes around in my office and got ahold of some older tools such as a drill and screwdriver with a few different size options.
I did not like this situation one bit. Someone had been trying to spy on me or track me or something like that. But why and who and for what gain? All of them were good questions I had no answers for now which concerned me. I had been running around this world as someone else for what. A week. I was reminded then of how little I knew about this world and myself. I felt like too many things were happening to me at once. Life was getting complicated, and I didn’t know what to do about it all.
I brought the stuff into the garage and got a flashlight out. I threw a mat down for my back to lay down on. Because I had never seen the underside of this car before or most cars I had ever owned it took me some time to find the thing Rob had mentioned. I ended up pulling up some pictures on my phone and comparing them to the underside of the car. I went through the rear end of the car and went from side to side as I looked for what might be off.
I finally found it after moving about a third of the way up the car’s underside. It was a small metal box painted the same color as most of the rest of the car’s parts. It had been magnetically attached to the car with some powerful magnets. After some tugging, I was able to pull it free and off the car. The box was rectangular, and its longest side was the length of my palm to my fingertips. The other sides were only two or three inches long. I slid out from under the car and looked at it in a better light. The metal box was sealed shut with no openings. At least none yet. Whatever exhaustion from the day I had would have to be put off for now. I had some work to do.