I tried to scream but all that achieved was to make tiny little bubbles of air that floated throughout the slime.

I flailed my arms and tried to wiggle out of it but all that accomplished was to make me squirm in place.  Calming myself down and slowing my movements, I looked around me to find out just where I was and when I saw the clinical white glare of the lights ahead, the ceramic tiles, and when the odor of the bleach they used to clean the room I knew I was in the place I hated most: a hospital.

Glancing suspiciously around me through the slime, I saw myself in a generic hospital room common everywhere and wondered what the hell I was doing inside of a slime.

By now, I realized that I was in the Noseferatu Hospital-a hospital that was founded in the 12th century by Count Dracula himself as a front to drink people's blood by disguising itself as another place where you got treated by letting out excess humors in the form of blood-letting. 

Surprisingly, this went on for quite a while and gathered quite a large clientele list that had names written down in the history books but when the people wished up and realized that the guy was a vampire they got quite miffed and they marched into his office, pitchforks and all, to kill him. 

But by then, Dracula had expanded the place quite well and was larger than any other place at the time so it seemed like a shame to put all of that to waste; which was where someone had the bright idea of using the place as a place of actual medicine.

So the place got revamped and the doctors there practiced sound medical work instead of the crap the quack doctors did in the rest of Avalon. Not surprisingly, this endeared itself to everybody and Noseferatu Hospital built its reputation back up and started catering not just the rich and powerful, but the poor and downtrodden too. Ever since, the hospital has been on the edge of medical science and was trusted by all in Avalon to be a place where integrity and kindness ruled.

I heard a muffled feminine voice past the door saying in a concerned voice "It seems like he woke up earlier than expected, Doctor," "As expected of the infamous Jack," An oddly familiar replied wearily in a soft voice that seemed tired beyond belief. "To recover so fast from mortal wounds at a rate that would put to shame even trolls, only to go back into the fray and come back even more scarred until what little I can do will have no effect," I could tell that he shook his head as he said it. I heard a sigh and then he said "Well, let's not keep him waiting, shall we?"

Pushing open the door with a motion that he had done a million times before and entering with an atmosphere of warm intellect, his white coat billowed out from behind him as he entered my room in a way that I would've thought that was intentional if I didn't know that he held no stock in affectations. 

"So Jack, how does it feel to survive what should've kill you immediately, to live through a experience that put an insane amount of stress that should've cause your heart to explode, and to still be whole when so many others aren't?" 

If it was anybody else I would've assumed that it was just a doctor trying to scare his patient to being more careful and spare himself from having to see me again, but this was Jason the Godhand; a man with a sight that could cut across the flesh and see inside of you to see what was ailing without having to do a time-consuming X-Ray that allowed him to save more lives than any other healer, who is able to heal wounds that would have required hours of intensive surgery with a simple touch, and who was said to be able to see down to the very fibers of your soul and I prayed in that moment to gods I didn't believe in that that wasn't true because my soul hid a darkness blacker than the pitch-black night of the winter Equinox.  

And so when he said that I should have been dead a hundred times over, I knew just how close to death I was.

Continuing talking, Jason said with a quirk of his lips "Even I couldn't have saved you, all I could do was make sure your condition didn't worsen, and even when we plopped you into Bob here, he's a medical slime you know, and instead of producing acid he makes a powerful healing tonic, we still weren't sure if you were even going to last another hour," 

Blinking my eyes, I said in a raspy voice "Oh. Well. That doesn't sound too good," Chuckling, he replied with an eyebrow raised "Well, I can definitively say that being burned with Soulfire, having your insides melting to a mix of red ooze, getting multiple arteries cut and bleeding out pints of blood , and fighting an immortal being is definitely not good, in fact, I would even go as far as to say that's it's tremendously stupid"

Smiling in response, I said "Now in hindsight, I can see how that might seem stupid to those unaware of how everything was carefully scripted to every girlish scream but when in fact it was all part of my master plan," 

With a grin that wouldn't seem out of place on the face of a father that just heard of how his son pranked his teacher, he checked my vitals with his suddenly green eyes emitting a faint emerald glow and said "Really Jack, I am extremely impressed by your tenacity" "I'm like a cockroach, Sir. Tough and always popping up in the most unexpected places,"

"Nurse Julia, I think we'll be fine by ourselves now," He said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Of course, Doctor" Nurse Julia said as she exited the room with a salacious sway of the hips and a wink at me.

Waiting until he knew that Julia was out of earshot, Jason said to me roughly "I'll cut the crap out now if you don't mind, Jack," Shocked by his sudden change of demeanor I was at a loss of words. Continuing he said "When I said that were close to dying, I wasn't kidding. Your heart gave out seventeen times before we had you stabilized. Seventeen times, Jack," 

Jason paused to let that sink in. "You should have been dead on the scene. You should've died while in transit here. You should have died while on the operating table, and to be honest putting you into the medical slime here," he said while giving a nod towards Bob "Was just a mere formality and we didn't expect you to last another minute. But then you lasted another hour, then another, then another, and so on until you survived the afternoon. I can't fathom what was keeping you alive for so long," he announced with exasperation at the twists of the Fate. 

"Eating my greens and brushing my teeth twice a day?" I offered in response. 

"THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER JACK!" He roared like a lion in anger which seemed to defeat the purpose f sending the nurse away if he was going scream like that. He swirled around in smoldering anger as he moved his hands around in a fast but precise set of movements and in front of his hands appeared a projection of my body. Pointing to various spots he told me coldly "This cut artery should've bled you out in seconds but somehow you produced enough blood to slow down your blood loss enough so that when I arrived you weren't an empty blood bag," 

"And here," he said as he pointed at my back "The axe blow to your spine should've left you crippled if not brain dead but you can still walk and jump like a man half your age!" 

"And your skin should've peeled like a old scab, but you still look the same as you did when you stepped out of your apartment!"

"The fire should've made marred you beyond recognition and all that should've been left of you was a very small pile of ash," Looking tired beyond his years, he said "Are you really human, Jack? Because no one normal could've lived," 

"What do you mean? Of course I'm human. I am human aren't I?" I asked apprehensively when faced of the prospect of not knowing even what I was.

"You tell me, Jack. You tell me," Jason said in tone that sent shivers down my spine and chilled me down to my heart.

The blob slid off of me and plopped onto the floor with a squish and moved into a corner of the room "It looks like you're all done now, Jack. I would tell you to keep it easy for a few weeks but we both know that's not happening, now is it?" A muttered apology was I could say to his disapproving face. I pulled myself up and asked for my clothes with a silent look. Jason went to the closet in the corner and tossed at me my belongings. 

As I shimmied into my clothes, I said "A stupid question but since I just got a case that requires me go back to the Old World and I was wondering how I could get there to begin with," 

"What a odd question, why would anyone ever want to go back to that boring old place?" he replied in shock at the question.

"Trust me, I don't want to be there any more than you do but it's out of my hands now," I said with a fake shudder as I finally finished putting on my clothes. "Well, I don't know myself but I'm certain you know suitably dreadful people that do," Jason told me in a dry voice. With a grimace I said "Yeah, but I was hoping that I wouldn't have to talk to them since someone of them weird enough to scare even me," "Well, that's sounds like a personal problem," Jason said as opened the door and walked out. As the door closed he said to me "If that Incident in the bar has anything to do with your case then you'd better man up and meet with them,"

Remembering that Austin was the one that brought out the bottle and gotten me nearly damn killed, I froze in righteous anger and wrath "I'm going to wring his fucking neck," in a quiet and serious whisper that was the mark of a madman. "I'm going to chop him into a million pieces and burn his precious fucking bar down," I continued in that same insane whisper. I stood there for a few more minutes uttering uncomfortable things like that for a while before my rage turned into a cold, blue sun.

Promising to myself that I would unleash a flood of force upon him that would make Krakatoa look like a baking soda volcano, I prepared a face that would cow even Giants and walked out of the door. And into a hallway that looked a scene from a bad war flick with bodies thrown with such power that they stuck to the walls like a smushed fly and with rubble littering the hallway like the aftermath of a child's tantrum. 

Staring around me with an impassive face that hid the shock in my mind, I said "I know that you're there somewhere. Come on out and make it easier for both of us," in a voice so cold it was like thin ice over a lake in winter that threatened to break at any moment and send everyone plummeting to their deaths. 

"As expected of the infamous Jack "The Slicer" Millory to see through my Veil," said something behind me in a voice that tried to pass itself off as a human's voice but subtly failed. Turning around with no sign of fear in my body language, I arrogantly raised my face head and said "If you know who I am then I can't imagine why you would ever want to mess with me," 

As her body gradually appeared like the Cheshire Cat, I saw a woman that would have been beautiful if not for the multitude of gaping mouths scattered around her neck. She had dark skin and midnight hair with a slim body that came from running after scores of frightened bounty, she held a barbed-wire whip in each of her 4 hands stained with crimson blood.  

"Liking what you see, Jack?" She said mockingly as her mouths laughed along. "I would've kept away from you if the payout on you wasn't so high and well, a lady has to make ends meet somehow doesn't she?" She said teasingly.

"But if you give the artifact you stole from the Smithsonian I'll let you live,"

I kept a stony demeanor and kept quiet. What did she mean? I haven't been anywhere except the bar and here. Besides, why did she think I would have it if I had just heard of it this morning.

But I had bigger problem because the woman in front of me was The Gaping Maw, a bounty hunter that hounded her prey like a demon and tortured them with her mouths that bit off chunks off flesh as her whips tore off limbs. She was going to be a dangerous kill.

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"Cat got your tongue, Jack? Then it looks I'll have to make introductions myself!" She called as she flashed her whips out at me in such a way that I wondered if they weren't alive themselves. Quickly maneuvering myself between them with my superhuman reflexes and moving towards her, I let out a bolt of force out at her that was swallowed up by one of mouths that closed for a while to process it before opening again.

Cursing my luck, I danced around her increasingly fast whips in the narrow corridor, but as we walked closer to each other they began to score hits. Luckily, my coat took the brunt of the blow and had large chunks of leather get ripped out , the coat then flapped in a way akin to a shudder that made it look like it had a mind of its own.

We got closer slowly but surely, like a slow-motion image of two trains on a collision course. By now we were mere feet away and there were bloody cuts across my face sending down a fountain of blood everywhere, turning the floor slick with gore.

I knew those mouths would chew up my athame like a starving dog with steak, so I reached into one of my coat pockets and grabbed a bottle of Infernal acid which I casually tossed onto her neck. Screaming with scorching pain, she dropped her whips and grabbed at her neck which only made things worse as the acid stuck to her hands like glue. She tried to move her hands but found them stuck and unable to fight back in her current position she glared at me with eyes that were like a lava flow.

"You just made this personal, Jack. Now I'll never stop trying to kill you," she told me as she was on her knees trying to not die.

"Oh, just shut up and know when you've lost," I derisively said as I incapacitated her with a series of kicks enhanced with my Gift of force which made them hit like an elephant and left her careening across the hall.

I continued walking, ignoring my stinging wounds, and when I stepped over her body I noticed Jason lying next to the wall breathing heavily with a hand pressing against a blood-stained patch on his coat with green light pouring out of his hand. He looked up at me balefully and said "God, you attract trouble like STDs with a whore don't you," 

"Thanks, but I think you could've used a better analogy,"

"Fuck you,"

I sighed and asked "Are you going to be fine?"

"Yes, but I think the faster you leave the better,"

"Will do,"

And that was when something that was mix between a mountain gorilla and a beetle burst through the wall with a shower of white flakes pouring out and leaving reverberations throughout the hospital. 

"I COME FOR THE ONE KNOWN AS JACK, SON OF MILLORY! HE HAS STOLEN SOMETHING THAT IS MINE BY BLOOD AND TRADITION!" He shouted at the only ones in the hallway that seemed increasingly small.

"How many people are looking for that thing, anyhow?" I thought to myself as my patience was tried time and time again.

I dreaded fighting that thing hand-to-hand when I saw the rippling muscles under his exoskeleton, so I pulled out my gun with my special imaginary bullets that hit just as hard as the real ones and shot at him. 

He fell like the Titanic sank, slowly at first but then suddenly and all at once; which was what was supposed to happen but my bullets just ricocheted off his shell and bounced dangerously close to us. All that seemed to happen was to enrage him.

"AS EXPECTED OF THE THIEF JACK TO ATTACK WITH NO WARNING AND AT COWARD'S RANGE!" 

I didn't know why he was shouting so loudly when we were the only ones here. 

"Jack, if you don't mind try to avoiding shooting at him since I'm fairly immobilized as of right now," Jason said to me in a mock whisper as he pointed to his wound. 

"Oh. Sorry about that,"

"Thank you. And I know how to kill him so if you could draw him closer I'll take care of him," He said back.

"I think we'll have more difficulty in keeping him away from us than drawing him towards us," I said apprehensively as I saw him getting ready to charge as he grew mad over being ignored. 

"Good,"

Shrugging my shoulders, I pulled out a flashbang and lobbed it at him. Blinded, he rushed at us like a drunk football player, all power and no finesse. He close the distance at a scary rate, eating up the meters like a horse on open plains.

The Doctor took out a surgical knife and waited. I tried not to flinch at the mass hurtling at us like a freight train. Waiting until he was certain of his throw, he threw the knife in a motion too perfect to be the product of mere practice; it was the Godhand's other ability at work, the ability to see trajectories and momentum like the rest of us see color. 

It stuck itself into the beast's skull like a machete cutting open a pineapple. The body continued moving on sheer momentum and slid its way next to my feet.

All in all, it was a cleaner kill than I could have possibly managed on my best day, I was just a thug with more weight to throw around than the average one. 

"A little help?" Jason asked as he help up a hand. I grabbed it and pulled him up. Dusting off himself, he said "I think you should really get going now," while still holding my hand like a iron vise and staring into my eyes intensely. Nodding my head, I got the Hell out of there.

As I moved next to the elevators, the doors suddenly opened and a group of heavily armed men poured out. Ignoring me and pushing me to the side, they said "Doctor! Are you alright, Sir!".

With a good-natured smile at their late arrival, he said "I am now, but I will appreciate help in checking if the rest of the patients are fine as well," "Of course Sir!" They replied as they formed a wall around him and they began clearing the rooms of the patients I haven't even spared a single thought about. This caused a surprising amount of discomfort in me.

"Wait a second, Jack," Jason said which caused me to tense and prepare my spells in case he decided I was somehow responsible to the damage to his hospital (and I was technically responsible).

Tossing a set of keys at me, he continued "Take my car, it has a useful amount of hidden tricks in her but don't scratch her up too badly you hear?" 

Surprised at his generosity, all I could manage was a stoic nod as I stepped into the elevator. 

Out of curiosity, I didn't take it all the way down to the lobby but instead picked a random floor to disembark on. I walked out and read the sign that said "Clinical Ward Of Divine HIV" which made me turn back into the elevator and press the lobby button repeatedly as I wanted nothing to do with that.

The doors opened back up with a hiss and I stepped out. "I still need a drink," I thought as I searched for the bar. All I found was a café, which would have to do for now. 

The café was quaint, quaint in that it looked hospitable, happy, and family-friendly which was everything Avalon was not. There were smiling waitresses everywhere putting smiles on the faces of children. "Why are they smiling if they'll probably die within the year to whatever terminal illness they have," I thought confusedly. Shrugging my shoulders, I loudly asked for a beer, which wonderfully disrupted the atmosphere they had going on. Earning glares almost simultaneously from the waitresses, I asked for one again but louder.

"I'll be just right with you, sir," one of them, a perky young blonde, replied with a fake smile that fooled no one. Not caring, I pulled a chair out and sat down. After a deliberately long time, she came back and asked for what I wanted.

"I said I wanted a beer. Did you not hear me shouting?" I said curiously.

"We have grape juice if that's want you wanted?" She said in that same fake smile. 

"Can I have a strawberry milkshake?" I said

"Of course, that'll be just a second," She said as she walked away from me with a flip of her hair.

She came back with it and slammed it down with a bit more force than necessary, sending bits of pink milk flying onto my coat.

"You know, I just killed 3 people in the last twelve hours. You might wanna treat me better," 

"I don't give a shit if you killed the fucking Pope. You can't just walk in here and be an asshole," She said with anger uncharacteristic with her small size. "These kids are going through an experience you can't possibly fathom,"

"Ooh, you said fathom. You get a point for using a Big Girl word," I said just to be impertinent.

Trying not to shake with rage, she said "I can't believe how much of an absolute ass you are,"

"Let me guess, you're from Earth," I said, catching her off guard. 

"Yes, I am but how did you know and why is that important?" She said in confusion.

"And so is the rest of the waitresses in here, right?" I continued, as if hadn't spoken at all.

"Yes, but you still haven't answered me yet," She answered.

"I could tell by the way you all smiled," I replied simply.

"Our smiles?" She asked, even more confused.

"You smile like you genuinely believed that there's light at the end of the tunnel, that Hope is still in Pandora's Box. True Avalon residents don't smile like that," I clarified when I saw that she didn't get it.

"Oh? And why don't they smile like that anymore?" She said in a voice that was mix of curiosity and anger.

"Because we know just much we are screwed. Royally, completely, and utterly screwed," I answered "You do realize that, don't you? And those kids are from Earth too, right? They came here after hearing of the Nosferatu Hospital and how it can cure all of their little boo-boos, didn't they?"

"Yes. The parents brought them here despite of how horrid you people all are and how despicable Avalon is. I don't know why you say that bringing them here was a mistake when you must know of how amazing this hospital is. I've seen the doctors here cure people of Alzheimer's and letting them remember the faces of their loved ones, I've seen them give veterans back their legs after they've been blown off long ago, and I'm ready to be impressed again by having them during the cancer these kids have," She said all of this in a single, well-composed breath.

"Don't get your hopes up too high, we have too much things that are far more important than saving Poor Little Jimmy or Sick Baby Susie. We have the technology to save them, but the time? No, we don't," I said in a voice that came out more jaded than I had intended it to. 

"I think you should leave now," She said with ice in her veins.

"Will do," I said as I grabbed my milkshake and made for the glass doors. As I stood up, I noticed that our conversation had not gone unnoticed by the parents and children, now they had doubt in their smiles and tears were imminent in their eyes. 

With some regret at this (I don't like making children cry, I'm not a monster), I walked back into the streets of Avalon and decided that I would get some more information on this artifact that some many other third-parties wanted. I would not get surprised like this again, I resolved to myself. Where to start? The Glass Consortium? The Rain Nightclub? Or should I do it the old-fashioned way and beat up on some informants of mine? Well, I was sure to get some information one way or another and decided to go the Nightclub first. I wonder if I'm still banned from that place since I last burned it down when I found out that they were trafficking child slaves? Well, I guess I could always burn it down again if I'm not still banned.