"Doc!"
Just as Bruce finished healing the last of the critical patients and was ready to pass out, Jumper leaped up from a lower level and landed close to him and the rest of the squad. Hansen immediately reached for his raygun, but Bruce motioned him to stand down.
"Jumper?" Bruce asked, doing his best to smile.
"We need your help." Jumper knelt down and a boy covered in dried blood got off of his back, then glanced around anxiously. At first Bruce was worried, but the kid didn't seem to actually be injured, so he let it go.
"We're a bit busy," Hansen growled. "Or have you not noticed all the people in critical condition over here?"
"That's why we're here," Jumper replied breathlessly. He must have run to get here. "We need a medical Miracle."
"For this kid?" the Alchemist asked as she walked up. She'd said a few minutes ago that she was fresh out of potions, but she was the least tired of all of them since all of her healing ability had been prepped beforehand.
"No, not me," the boy said. "Uh..." He glanced at Jumper and the two of them looked slightly at a loss for words.
"Just spit it out," Itera growled, finishing putting someone's leg back on. The patient in question was unconscious, but he'd probably be elated to have his leg back when he awoke.
"Basically, we've got a dead person and if someone can't save her, we're all probably going to die," the boy said simply.
Bruce frowned, as did the others. Resurrect the dead? Not even a Miracle could accomplish that - or if it could, it wasn't any of theirs. And beyond that, their fates all rested on this impossible task?
"I'm gonna need more information, kid," Hansen said, pulling out his raygun for real this time. "Are you threatening us?"
"No!" The boy waved his hands in protest, then Jumper put a hand on his shoulder and stepped forward.
"It's hard to explain, but I'll try. There's a level under the Subways, one that's completely locked down. And down there is all the equipment that actually pilots Arx Nubibus. If we can't save her...I think he's going to drive Arx into the ocean."
"Who's going to?" Hansen asked, rolling his eyes impatiently.
"It's really weird. There's a sentient robot down there and his owner died and now he's decided to destroy Arx Nubibus as revenge for letting her die."
"How do you get a sentient robot?" Hansen was looking less impressed by the minute.
"A Miracle," the boy behind Jumper said. "Same as a bunch of you. Except instead of getting crazy powers, he got...a soul, I guess?"
"How do you even think healing a dead person is possible?" Jo asked slowly. "You know she's dead?"
Jumper and the boy both looked a bit green at Jo's question. They glanced at each other, then Jumper spoke again.
"She's dead. Fatal wound. It's...gross."
No one knew how to respond to that for a moment. Finally, Hansen stepped forward, causing the boy to scuttle back behind Jumper.
"So what makes you think anyone can heal that? Wouldn't it be better to take out this 'sentient robot' before it can do any real harm?"
"Can't," the boy replied. "Darius said that in order to destroy him, you'd have to destroy every system in the city. He's certain Ida can be saved, and we have to at least try. Please." He looked at each of them, and Bruce felt his heart clench at the look in his eyes. Terrified, determined, and on the verge of breaking.
"If it's the kind of wound you're describing..." Bruce said quietly, turning to Itera.
"Me?" she asked, eyes wide. Jumper seemed surprised to see her here too.
"Itera?" he asked, recognizing her even though her outfit colour scheme had changed.
"Yeah, yeah, villain here saving the innocents. We've got a temporary truce. I mean, if Arx goes down, we all go down with it. Only makes sense to do whatever we can to keep things afloat." She looked away awkwardly, then sighed.
"Your Miracle would be the best suited to this," Bruce said. "If you don't want to go, I can, but I can only speed up the natural healing process. I can't heal an injury that the body wouldn't normally be able to."
"Whereas my healing works by reversing the clock," Itera finished. "Fine. But it'd be best if we went to the original place she was injured. That way I have all the pieces. I just can't guarantee that after I fix the wound she'll magically wake up. Dead people are dead."
"Good enough for us," Jumper said. "Ned, send that text."
"On it," the boy - Ned - said, finishing typing something on his phone. He'd wiped his bloody hand off on his pants, so now there was a red stain on them.
"So where are we - " Itera yelped as a portal opened up behind Jumper.
"Right through here," Jumper said. "Doc, would you mind coming too? Alchemist, you too."
Bruce nodded and took a step towards the portal, ignoring Hansen's protests. The Alchemist just shrugged and waved them on without her.
"I'm out of healing potions anyway. If you need more, come back in an hour. Hey, Rose, let's head back and get some stuff brewing."
Bruce didn't see what happened next. He, Jumper, Ned, and Itera walked through the portal and ended up in a dim metal hallway. A girl with blue-tipped hair and a man holding a little girl waited for them. Surprisingly, that little girl must have been the patient in question. Immediately, Bruce realized what Jumper had meant by the wound being 'gross'. A large portion of her skull had been caved in, and the smell of death permeated the cramped space.
Itera immediately put her hand to her mouth and gagged, but Jumper motioned her forward. The man looked at her, his gaze somewhat disturbing. There was just something uncanny about him, from the way he seemed to almost be a living sculpture to the slight offness of his blank expression.
"Can you save her?" the man asked. His voice betrayed no emotion, but there was an intensity in his eyes that made Bruce want to shrink back.
"I-I can try," Itera said, stumbling over her words. "Where was she injured? It's best if I have all the pieces..."
The man silently turned and walked through the door behind him. Hesitantly, Itera followed, then Jumper, Ned, the girl with blue hair, and finally Bruce went after her. The room looked fairly important - monitors showing various aspects of Arx's functionality lined one wall, all with data that made no sense to Bruce. In the center was a large round pillar, with a few dials and indicators on it. Behind it, Bruce thought he could see another corpse. The outfit looked like Corrosion's.
The part they were concerned about, though, was the smear on the floor that had once been attached to the little girl. The man placed the girl gently next to the crushed remains of her skull, then sat next to her and looked at Itera expectantly.
"Don't expect this to work, okay?" she said, kneeling down next to them and obviously trying to hold herself back from retching. "I can't bring back the dead."
"That's fine," the man said calmly. "Ida's not dead."
Bruce didn't know where that confidence came from. Any way you looked at it, that was definitely a dead girl. But Itera didn't say anything and simply closed her eyes and focused. Slowly, her Miracle went to work. Bruce had seen it a few times earlier, but this was the first time he could really appreciate it.
The blood on the ground, along with the scattered bits of flesh and bone, slowly started to lift off the ground, moving back towards the girl's head. Even the blood on Ned's clothes peeled off to move into the girl's body. Bit by bit, the wound was undone in slow motion. Bruce could see exactly how it had been made. Sharp blades had broken into her head, slicing through brain matter once they pierced the skull. The jagged wound had caused parts of her head to tear off, leaving her with a gaping hole in her head.
When Itera was done, she scurried backwards and collapsed, gasping for breath. Bruce put a hand on her shoulder and nodded. She'd done well. Exhausted as they all were, this was probably pushing her to her very limit.
Then, they watched the little girl anxiously. The man - probably the 'sentient robot' Jumper and Ned had mentioned now that Bruce thought about it - didn't even blink as he stared at her, waiting for some kind of movement.
Then her eyelids fluttered and she groaned, then sat up suddenly and looked around.
"What day is it?" she asked, trying to hop to her feet and stumbling on the way up. The man caught her and held her closely.
"Ida," he whispered. "I'm sorry."
She blinked, then looked down at him. Her expression changed, and she slapped the robot so hard he fell to the ground, looking confused.
"You. Frickin. Idiot!" she screamed.
