A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 39 Mirage Inverse

       

Chapter 39 Mirage Inverse

Mirage felt like she was hardly able to breathe. She almost reached up to see if her throat was being crushed by an invisible hand. Seeing Callin made her remember the labs. It brought a crushing memory right into the forefront of her mind. The Turning point. The Ending Point.

"Hold! Freeze those systems right now! I want to examine the bone." Dr. Hall snapped, peering down into the bloody chest cavity.

His subject was a twelve year old boy, artificially held in a coma as they operated. The doctor peered closer, fascinated by the movements of the bone. It was as if the bone itself was alive, as if it had become liquid and begun to attempt to heal the gaping wound. The surgeon assistants had to keep a steady stream of super-cooled liquid nitrogen onto the flesh around the open cavity, using that to freeze the tissue in order to keep the boys amazing healing ability from stitching the wound shut.

Now, as the muscles, blood, veins, and surrounding tissue weren't able to heal the wound shut, the boy's body seemed to have resorted to using the bone itself to try to close the wound. Dr. Hall watched in stunned wonder as the bone surged up the walls of the wound, glistening and waving as it went, then began to string lines across. Forming a webbing over the open wound.

Curious, he reached down with a glove-covered hand and placed two closed fingers between the webbing, then spread them outwards. Stretching the liquid bone back, away from the shape it was trying to form. It felt like his fingers were pushing against warm, moving taffy.

"Heart rate spiking! All systems just shot off the charts! What's happening?!" A doctor across the room yelled as multiple machines hooked to the boy came alive with urgent warning tones.

Dr. Hall quickly pulled his hand back and in seconds, the machines went quiet as the boys systems returned to normal. Well, normal for him, anyway. Hearing the other doctors exclaiming in shock as they reviewed the machines data, Dr. Hall made a mental note to closely examine the boy's charts after this surgery. What wild new heights had the boys systems shot to this time?

"Uh, Dr. Hall...." The surgeon assistant next to the doctor began. He was watching the strange boys face. Somehow, it seemed as if the boy was waking. Considering the sheer volume of anesthesia pumping through him, it shouldn't have been possible. In fact, it should have just instantly killed the boy. The assistant wondered if somehow that spike had just flushed some of the anesthesia out and the boy truly was waking up. He was so frightened by that possibility that he was momentarily frozen with indecisiveness.

Dr. Hall didn't even acknowledge the assistant, too focused on observing the bone as it went about healing the wound shut. His hands were a blur as he scribbled short-hand notes on a pad of paper, his mind exquisitely focused and working like a well-oiled machine. This was when he was at his best. This was the part of his work he loved the most. When in a tense moment, true discoveries were made, and he was there to capture every aspect of it as it happened. A separate segment of his mind was captured by the possibilities of this newly discovered ability. What if this living bone ability could be transferred to normal humans? What if it could be transferred to him?

The assistant gasped as the boys eyes snapped open, then locked on him. The assistant looked into those pain-racked eyes and saw the boy recognize where he was, and who was torturing him. And the assistant saw his death in those eyes.

With a shrill, panicked screech, he threw himself bodily backwards, every one of his instincts telling him the boy was about to strike. He struck the floor, his head smacking violently on the tile, his feet and hands frantically scrabbling as he tried to push himself farther away from the operating table.