The CANONICALS

Radiated.

"We did it guys," David cheered. "We actually did it! Just two college nerds and a nine year old!"

"Hey, I'm ten now!" Ethan exclaimed.

The three laughed in joy.

"What a beaut..." David reached for the tesseract.

Michael and Ethan both gasped in horror. David picked up the tesseract.

"WAIT!" Michael shouted. "YOU NEED THE GLOVES—!"

There was a wave of energy outwards, knocking Ethan and Michael back several feet. And then the tesseract pulsed and the energy sucked back into the tesseract like an implosion.

And then it launched outwards again. There was a loud booming sound that left Michael unable to hear anything else as shards of glass flew all around the room. And then a shard lodged right into his eye.

Michael woke up to the sound of beeping all around him. His vision was blurry as he glanced around. He squinted, trying his best to make out his surroundings. A hospital room?

He blinked several times, trying to make his vision fix itself, when he finally heard a gasp, followed by muffled speaking. His head fell back down to the pillow and he was out cold again.

I could've sworn his eyes opened...

Sometimes when a loved one is in such a state, people will start seeing things to try and grasp onto any hope...

His eyes opened, I swear!

We're sorry, Abbie...

That's all Michael could hear as darkness surrounded him. That name. Abbie. But he quickly faded back into unconsciousness.

"DAVID!" Michael sprung up from the bed.

His vision was fine now, but it felt short, almost as if he could only see half the room. But then he held his stomach in pain. Sitting up that quickly was not doing wonders for him. He slowly lifted the hospital gown to see stitches lining his abdomen and rising upwards. He traced them with his fingers, going over his chest, his neck and then up past his eye.

He closed his left eye and his vision was fine. He then closed his right eye and saw that it was very blurry. He sighed, sitting backwards in the bed once more, trying to remember what happened.

He glanced to the stand beside him and saw a small remote. There were buttons all over it and he spotted one with a phone on it. He weakly reached towards it and quickly noticed how frail his arm was.

He pressed the button.

"Yes?"

"Where am I? Where's Ethan and David...?"

"Oh."

The call cut short.

"Hello?!" Michael called out. "God damnit..."

The door swung open and a man in a white lab coat walked through, next to a young woman. Michael's eyes lit up.

"Abbie..." he muttered, hugging the woman. He was almost in tears. It felt like he hadn't seen her in years.

"Michael..." Her voice was breaking.

"Ma'am, please sit down," the man ordered. His voice was calming, yet authoritative.

Abbie sat down and the man pulled over a small chair, sitting down also.

"Your entire body was... Cut in that explosion, splitting open your skin all the way up..." The man sighed, finally looking at Michael. "Luckily, your friend Ethan was farther from the blast, only receiving a small cut to the forehead."