Chapter 24 Mika’s PoW

The sudden noise yanked Mika out of her dream. Disoriented by it, she rummaged through her blanket until she found her ringing phone. While searching for it, she also realized who the caller was. It was Steven, and he better had a damn good reason to wake her up.

After checking the time and seeing it was barely past 4 am, she swore to herself that if he did not have a good enough reason, she would not let him copy the homework.

“What?” Mika did not bother with pleasantries.

“Got shot. Need help… Lewis Park, pond.”

Mika could barely make out what Steven was saying, but once she did all of her complaints vanished. There was no time to waste as she quickly grabbed the closest piece of clothing she could find and started to dress.

Lewis park was near her hose and the pond had a lot of dense bushes surrounding it. For those reasons it was a place where it was easy to hide. And if Steven had no strength to come here it meant that the situation was critically bad.

Mika rushed out of her house not bothering to explain what was happening to her parents who had woken up after hearing the commotion. She could come up with something after dealing with whatever Steven had gotten himself into. Now it was more important to hurry.

As she ran she dialled Steven's number, fearing the worst and hoping he would answer. After what seemed like a long time, but was only about ten seconds Steven finally picked up but did not utter a sound.

“Steven! Steven, speak with me! Say whatever you want, just say something.”

“Come… Faster… You coward.”

Mika did not know how to feel about what he had said. On one hand, he did not sound like he had any strength and was barely managing to move his tongue, on other he had made a quip. Though she suspected he had done so to make her feel better and it had worker… For a moment.

When Mika rushed into the park, she immediately headed for the pound. The whole way she had tried to get Steven speak with her. She did not know how correct it was, but over the years she had heard that it was better for someone, who was critically wounded, to stay to his conciseness. So she tried to keep Steven awake. It barely worked as every word that was returned seemed to become more and more feeble.

The call served another purpose. Her own voice trough the speakers brought Mika to Steven. He was laying behind a bush and upon seeing his condition she froze. Then rushed up to her friend was lying on the ground. Her first real friend.

“Steven, I am here, you’ll be alright!” Mika started to heal as soon as she touched Steven. Her ability told her many things, and the foremost one was that it was bad. She let her power flow to best of her ability, as it automatically headed for the most urgent and damaged parts.

After a minute had passed she found it hard to heal more. With Silva’s help, she had managed to find her inner place and was aware of the flow inside her. Because of that, she could tell that it was running dry.

All of her efforts of pacing herself and trying to directing the flow had been fruitless. Her ability had concentrated on stopping the bleeding and replenishing Steven's blood. The actual wound was still there and it still threatened his life.

Soon it became clear that she could not do it. That her strength was not enough to heal Steven. At some point, Steven had stabilized and did not seem to drift away anymore. Mika did not hide the truth from him. She ignored her own dizziness that came with overspending herself as she spoke.

“I-, I can’t heal you fully. We need a real doctor, we have to get you to a hospital.”

“Mika, you know we can’t do that.” Steven’s voice was calmer than she had expected it to be. At least her effort had returned some semblance of vigour in him.

“Why? You will die! All I did was give you more blood, stopped bleeding for a moment, I can’t do more!” Mika felt the last of her power drain. There was nothing more left in her and it would take time for her to recover. Too much time.

But Steven shook his head.

“It would reveal us. Not only me but also you. And then even Silva. My body is not ordinary. And you already started healing. There would be questions with no answers, and they would look for more. I am sure of it.”

“You will die, Steven! We have to get you fixed! We-, we can run afterwards.” Mika spoke but did not believe in her own words. It was never that simple, but for now, she had to convince her friend.

As she looked down at her friend she noticed that he had started frowning and then tried to move.

“Stop, stop, stop! I understand, don’t do anything rash!” Mika tried to placate him. It would be even worse if Steven decided to move around. Even in the condition, he was in, she knew that she would not be able to stop him. And if he decided to run away... “But you understand, don’t you? I can’t heal you. Even if I healed you every time I recovered enough it would only keep you alive, nothing more!”

“So I won’t die.” Steven allowed a small smile.

"I can't heal you indefinitely! And we are in a park. Soon there are going to be people moving around." Mika tried to reason.

“Then we have to think of a solution before that.” Steven did not back down.

“What solutions are there? I-, I don’t know what to do.”

The silence from Steven signalled that neither did he but he still tried after some consideration. His phone rang but was immediately silenced and he typed a message as a reply to the caller.

“It was Ben,” Steven explained and then returned to the problem at hand. “You could get better at healing?”

Don’t be stupid! Among us, Silva is best at using her ability, and even she can’t make me magically improve,” Mika argued.

“Then help me get somewhere safe.”

“No, you can’t move around, you need a doctor.”

“Look, you said you can keep me alive, so we can argue after getting to a safer place.”

“You can’t move and I can’t carry you alone, you are too heavy. And bloody, how did you manage to bleed that much...” Mika teared up.

Despite Steven’s way of speaking, she could tell that it was only a facade. He was still weak and suffering.

“Then get me something I can cover myself with, then we walk.”

“I can’t leave you! And you can’t walk!” Mika exclaimed in horror.

“Okay, got it.” Seven murmured and picked up his phone.

Mika looked at her friend making a call and hoped that he had finally come to his senses. Or maybe he was looking for Benjamin. She was sure that he was involved in one way or another. Ben, probably, also knew someone who could do something about Steven’s wound and be discreet. Her hopes were, however, dashed.

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“Silva, we need your help.”

Mika managed not to lunge at her injured friend. Barely. “What are you doing?” She hissed.

Steven only signalled to let him speak, not listening to Mika’s protests.

“I’ll need something to cover myself in. A bathrobe would do if you can get one, if not a blanket…”

What followed was the description of where to find them. Mika used the chance to make a call of her own to inform her parents of where she had gone. Luckily she did not really have to lie much, as they believed when she had told them that Steven was in trouble and needed her help. They just did not learn of how big the trouble was.

“You know I want to strangle you right now?” Mika questioned Steven.

“Oh common, she will be here in twenty minutes tops. She said that she would take a cab. Also, how far have you recovered? It’s getting really cold.”

In a panic, Mika restarted healing. Only to come to a stop a few seconds later, as she was once again was left without any strength. She almost collapsed next to Steven, barely managing to sit down.

“Where can we even bring you?”

“After Silva gets here we can take the same cab to a place Ben owns. It’s empty and he won’t mind. It is not far.” Steven started to mumble at the end as if he was getting sleepy.

“Hey, Steven, don’t sleep. Tell me, what happened?” Mika rushed to bring her friend’s attention back to her.

What followed was a disjointed recount of what Steven had gone through the last night. Mika had many things she wanted to comment on, but one was more important than the rest.

“Do you think they died?”

“I did not hold back.” Steven dispassionately replied.

“… You can talk to me anytime.” Mika was lost of what to say. How to console Steven.

“It still does not seem real to me. I mean, I know what I did, but…”

“Yea…”

The rest of the time they were waiting for Silva’s arrival they spent humming a song they had learned years back when they had started their school days. Both did not remember words clearly and truthfully, it was kind of a mess. But the early morning silence let the sound carry freely and clearly. Both of them shivered from the cold wind that passed by but did not stop humming.

When Silva arrived she greeted them with a shout of distress. Mika had to spend a couple minutes of precious time to calm her down and explain the situation. During that time they prepared Steven as well as they could.

Most of his ruined attire was discarded. Without the clothes, the hole in his torso looked even direr making them hasten even more. Silva had brought both, a blanket and a bathrobe with her. They wrapped Steven into both, making sure that no blood spots were visible. Mika spent all of the energy she had managed to collect and made sure that he was as ready for moving as possible.

Following that they managed to drag Steven to the waiting cab. The effort made even harder by the feebleness Mika felt. Even if she and Silva had started some physical activities they still could not prepare her for this. Steven was heavier than he looked and she was at her weakest.

Most of the lifting was done by Silva and when they had gotten into the cab Steven gave the address while pretending to be drunk. At least the driver did not deem it necessary to bother them with small talk.

They successfully arrived at the place Steven had mentioned and what followed was another titanic effort of getting Steven to the second floor where Benjamin’s place was. The key was hidden next to the door, but Mika had no strength to comment on such carelessness.

“What now?” Came Silva’s question when they finally had a moment to catch their breaths.

“We figure out a solution.” Steven unhelpfully explained.

“We don’t know.” Mika sighed. “We need to heal Steven, but I can’t do that. I am running on fumes as it is.” She concluded. She had checked on her inner world just a moment ago.

“Then… that implies that we can’t rely on any of the usual means right?” Silva ventured a guess.

“Right, we did not go into details, but you got the gist from what we managed to tell you before we came here.”

“Couldn’t we find help from others?” Silva continued.

“No hospital.” Steven groaned.

“She did not mean hospital…” Mika caught up with Silva’s thought thread. “You mean the supernatural side of the world, don’t you?”

As expected Silva nodded.

“We-, we don’t exactly know if they could help, but we could try to contact Esha, then there is that number…”

“Esha would probably be the safest but…” Mika speculated.

“You won’t get me that far.” Steven dismissed the idea.

“And the number is… An unknown… But was there something else you wanted to add?” Mika wondered. From how Silva had given her suggestions there seemed to be she had left unsaid.

“Well, there kind of is, but…”

“I don’t see any butt.” Steven butted in.

“But, it’s the thing at the Refuge… It can increase the power of your ability. Probably enough to do the full healing easily.” Silva finished.

“We couldn’t get in there even if I was not leaky.” Steven dismissed this idea as well.

“Then that leaves only the mysterious number,” Mika concluded. “There does not seem to be much of a choice. Anything else?” she addressed Silva.

“Um, what about school?”

After receiving looks full of incredulity Silva shrunk back and murmured a small apology. Mika was about to ease Silva, it was past 6 am after all, but in the end, she decided to find her phone. Luckily she had decided to save the number, she had not thought that they would be deliberating using it so soon, but here they were.

“Are we sure we want to do this?” Mika gave her friends the last chance to back out.

“Call already or I will,” Steven grunted and Mika did not elect to answer as she tapped on the call icon.

She was not even sure that it will connect, as the number wasn’t even a foreign one. From what she had tried to find on the internet it should not be a viable number at all.

Mika was proven wrong as after only a second after she had tapped on the screen the call had already connected. With a grumble, she put it on speakers so that all three of them could hear. However, all they got was silence.

“Hello?” Mika tried and there was an answer. One that they could not quite make out. A lot of static noise came out of the speakers followed by an intangible string of words. Soon however it cleared up and for the first time, they heard someone speaking without interference.

“Your wish.” An androgynous voice stated, but it did not sound like it was a question. “Possible,” followed before they could ask for clarification. “An agreement has been reached.”

That was all. After the voice had said scant few words the connection was terminated.

“Was that a robot speaking?” Steven asked incredulously.

“I am not sure what I was expecting.” Silva followed.

“Do we call again?” Mika wondered.

They were saved from having to decide by a knock on the door.

“That can’t be good.” Steven presumed.

“So I assume it is not Ben or one of his lackeys?” Mika wanted to clarify.

“No, this place is not known to his lackeys and Ben would have called before coming.”

“Um, who exactly is Ben?” Silva had heard the name before coming to this place, but they had not explained anything more.

“A trash,” Mika remarked as she got up to see who it was.

“Ah, I’ll go!” Silva stopped her. “I can stay hidden.”

Mika observed her friend becoming invisible and after another several second of knocks coming from the door, Silva returned.

“It’s Armralaleo. Do we let him in?”

They exchanged glances between each other coming to a resolution. And Silva returned to let the visitor in.