A screaming alarm awakens me, the flashing red lights above the door on the opposite side of the room illuminating the hospital bed and medical equipment around me. Groaning I sit up, the alarm blaring even louder, the doors opening, and the man who’d dosed me walking in.
“I see you’ve woken…” He begins to say, only to recoil as I make a lunge for him, the wires of the IV and heartbeat monitor the only thing keeping me from reaching him. “Ms. Bloch, please I know you may be confused about my earlier actions, but I can assure you, they were justified, even essential for your survival.”
“What did you drug me with!” I snarl, my anger mixing with my fear at the answer I was about to receive.
“It was the Cr-Regen syndrome.” The doctor whimpers as he picks up a chart. “Your injuries were severe enough to warrant the use of the mutagen, and it should have worked its way out of your system…”
“Should?” I ask cautiously as the doctor inches a folder with the words Bloch. J – Haematology on the cover over to me. I flip it open and look at the results, and while I don’t grasp much, the toxicology report on my blood begins to make those alarm bells I was feeling into full-on air-raid sirens. “What does this mean?” I ask, the fear now far more evident than the anger in my voice.
“Cr-Regen requires us to carry out blood work when used.” The doctor tells me as he takes the folder. “Your blood already contained close to the Minimal Mutagenic Levels of Xeno Cyan, almost dangerous levels. Something you are coming in contact with is leaking Xeno Cyan, possibly a cracked water filter of the building you’re living in, or maybe pollen exposure…”
“I work for Griffin.” I quietly reply, my body shaking as I run through re-runs of the Blight Wars and every other calamity since the Great Impact. “Am I going to turn into one of them?”
“Yes, it appears so. Judging from your body’s response you’ll likely begin developing extra-normal carrier abilities.” The doctor replies as he puts the folder down and walks over to unclip the monitoring equipment. “You are a Carrier.” He adds, as I ball my fist under the covers of the bed, I’m in before delivering a blow to his chest. Groaning I roll out of bed and land hard on the floor, struggling to my feet I head for the door, pushing through into a clean corridor. Looking left I hear sounds, likely more kidnapped patients, looking right I see the green emergency exit sign and run at it, pushing the bar and stumbling out into a car park in Indigo City wearing nothing more than a hospital gown.
Picking my way across the car park, the afternoon sun beating down on my skin, the people going to and from the clinic and generally going about the day giving me odd looks. Despite that, none of them seem concerned about my condition, even as I begin to stumble, pain running up through my feet and cutting like a burning knife through my body.
“Ms Bloch please stop!” The doctor yells behind me, as he strides after me, his dress shoes clacking with every step he takes. “You need to come back, we need to determine what your carrier powers are, figure out why you were targeted and of course get you registered with the CBTF.” He yells as I collapse, grabbing the nearby STOP sign as a last-ditch effort to save myself.
“Stop following me!!” I scream, my vision fading as it appears as everything slows down and tints into a dull grey-green color. Shaking my head, blinking once and twice I realize it's not the onset of unconsciousness, everything has stopped. Not just the doctor, but the cars on the street and even a cloud of invasive red-billed leiothrix birds look as if they have been frozen at the point I had yelled at him.
“Was zum…” I begin to swear in German as I walk over to one of the leiothrix birds and try to pick it out of the sky only to find it appears quantumly glued in place. Furrowing my brow, I take a step back as little pinpoints of light illuminate the world around me as everything becomes unfrozen.
“Please at least let me help you determine your powers.” The doctor pleads as he walks up to me, as everything else in the world continues as it had before, I put the street on pause.
“I know what my powers are!” I snarl as I hold out my hand, hoping that is part of the process of stopping time. “I can stop time!” I tell him, only for him to tilt his head in confusion. Shaking my head, I look at my hand, before shaking it. “Time stop!” I yell, only for nothing else to happen.
“Ms. Bloch?” The doctor asks.
“I swear I had it.” I mummer as I begin to collapse only for the doctor to grab me and walk me over to a low wall. Before sitting me down he takes off his lab coat and places it so I can sit down without my bare skin touching the exposed stone.
“Let me help you, I know that our meeting was not the best, but I only want to help this city, help the people regardless of who they are.” The doctor tells me as he sits down next to me.
“I don’t even know you; you could be one of those mad drug dealing doctors,” I state as I begin to take stock of what was happening. Doc here has a cute English accent which is melting my defenses, and to be fair he did save my life and while I was being held hostage it was in a clinic.
“I’m Doctor Deva Abhirath, at your service Ms. Bloch.” The doctor announces as he extends his hand to me.
“Okay, then Doc…” I sigh as I take his hand and shake. “Test me, I’m ready.”
**
Deva brings in a pair of coffees as I finish pulling on the pair of ocean blue nursing scrubs, grateful that I have something to replace the hospital gown. Turns out I haven’t been out long, only about a day, and after navigating a tricky conversation with my boss to negotiate a sick day it's time to stop time once again.
“Okay so the first time you stopped time, what did you do?” Deva asks as he removes a pad of paper and a biro, the top chewed from previous stresses.
“I reached out my hand and told you to stop,” I reply as Deva writes down my words. “And then everything moving stopped.”
“Well, I saw you attempt that again,” Deva announces as I take a sip out of the coffee and replay that encounter for anything that may have impacted the outcome of the power activation process. “Did you do anything immediately before telling me to stop?”
“No, I…Oh…OH, I reached out and held the sign!” I exclaim as I knock the coffee over, spilling it down the arm of the chair I was sitting on before scrunching my face up. “That sucks, I can only stop time if I’m touching a stop sign. That’s not even sexy.” I sigh as Deva stops writing and raises an eyebrow.
“Sexy?” He asks cautiously.
“You know like Wind Duster, or Freight Train, or even that Wolffe man who fought during the Dervish Collapse,” I state before standing up to grab a tissue as Deva recommences writing down what I’m saying. “Even Peacekeeper had cooler carrier powers than me.”
“Peacekeeper didn’t have powers,” Deva tells me as I grab a tissue and a tube of alcohol hand gel.
“Well, that’s a burn.” I sigh, only for the hand clutching the hand gel to feel warm, looking over at Deva I see him jump out of his hands and grab the fire extinguisher from the wall of the observation room we had been in. Looking down, I see my hand on fire, burning with a very clear flame. Waving my hand, the fire doesn’t go anywhere, it appears to be stuck to my hand until a jet of supercooled foam engulfed my hands.
“I thought you had time-stopping powers?” Deva asks as he places the fire extinguisher down and slides the foam off to check my hands. “Well, it looks as if you don’t have any burns…which is weird.” He adds as I open my hand to show him my palm, the incinerated remains of the alcohol gel bottle sliding to the floor. “Wait a second.” He mumbles as he picks up a second bottle of the gel and looks at the multiple warning signs printed on the plastic wrap around the container. “It’s flammable.”
“Okay?” I query as he places the alcohol gel back down by the sink before walking over to one of the now offline pieces of medical equipment and pulling it over to me.
“Place your hand on the machine.” Deva orders as he searches the pockets of his lab coats before removing a paper clip. Somewhat confused, I walk over to the machine and place my hand on the side of the piece of equipment.
“Now what?”
“Talk about your magnetic personality.” Deva coaxes as he holds the paper clip out in the palm of his hand.
“Magnetic personality?” As soon as the words leave my lips, I feel my body buzz and hum, before seeing the paper clip fly across the room and magnetically stick to my nose. “Magnetic powers?”
“No, remove your hand, and have a look” Deva tells me. As soon as I do, the paper clip falls to the floor as the doctor walks over and taps one of the warning signs depicting a horseshoe magnet stuck on the side of the machine. “Warning, magnetic fields.”
“Stop sign, flammable warning, and now magnetic fields, I can materialize anything on a sign?” I question as I take a step back and look at Deva as he sits back down in his chair. “That’s…”
“…kind of sexy?” Deva finishes as I crack a nervous smile and nod my head.
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