Death Makes Me Stronger, page 24
“It would be a good idea,” Raven said. “Especially since you’re going to spend so much time together. You might accidentally scratch him.”
“That would be problematic,” the hero nodded and then polished off her burger. “Especially during a fight.”
“Your venom has an anticoagulant, right?” Paul asked and snatched one of Raven’s fries.
“Hey!” the petite goth woman hissed. “I’m telling Briar.”
Paul stuck out his tongue, and the two stared at each other like little kids instead of the respected scientist and medical examiner that they were.
“It does,” Anora answered and broke the staring contest. “John will bleed out in ten minutes if the proper antivenom is not distributed. At most, he could have half an hour. It takes longer to affect supers, though I’m not sure why.”
“Huh,” Paul said and tapped a finger on his chin. “I’ll need some of it to test, if you don’t mind. And at least a few vials of John’s blood.”
“Way ahead of you,” I grinned. “I stopped by one of those late night medical supply places on the way back from my patrol. It’s amazing how many places are open twenty-four hours a day in the city.”
“It was a shock for me too when I first moved to the city,” the spider-like woman said. “But it does make sense that a medical supply store would be open all day and night with all of the supervillains in the city. Evil doesn’t attack on a set schedule.”
“True.” I grabbed the two bags, hoisted them over my shoulder, and then tossed the empty food containers in the nearest garbage can. “It’s been long enough since my last death that we should be able to go ahead and kill me this morning. The sooner the better, so that I’m not missing from the public eye for too long.”
“We can do it now,” Anora said. “But I have something to do with the police today, so I won’t be there to watch you.”
“I can do that after work,” Raven said.
“And I’ll be around to talk to Junior,” Paul said. “So John won’t be alone.”
“We have a plan,” I said.
“See you when you wake up,” Raven said and pulled me in for a quick kiss.
“I’m not going to kiss you, but I’ll see you later,” Paul chuckled and then sighed as his phone went off. “Guess my results are ready. Back to the grind.”
“Back to the grind,” I echoed.
The lights above the door to the loading dock started to blink, and Raven jumped down from the table as if it was a call to duty. The assistant medical examiner straightened her white lab coat, double-checked her lacy black shirt for any stains, and then snatched up a clipboard. The rolling door slid upwards to reveal two delivery guys with a new guest, and I took that as our sign to head out.
“See you later,” I said and then headed toward the swinging doors with Anora right behind me.
The walk back to my apartment was silent except for the sounds of the early birds. There weren’t too many trees in the city, but that didn’t stop the small creatures from making nests in the branches, and I had to admit that it was a nice break from the concrete, glass, and steel that surrounded us.
“Are you sure that you want to do this?” Anora asked as we walked up to my building. “It’s not a pleasant way to die. You’ll bleed from every orifice.”
“I only have to do it once,” I said and reached for her hand. “And I made it through the drowning, so I’ll make it through this.”
I pulled open the door to the lobby to see Chris and Mr. Wilson talking. The soon-to-be dad had bags under his eyes like there was already a baby keeping him up at all hours, and the elderly neighbor chuckled and slapped him on the back. I waved at both of them as Anora and I walked past, darted into the stairwell before they could drag me into their conversation, and then raced up to the third floor with the superhero right next to me.
Chris’ wife stood in her doorway with a bewildered look on her face like she couldn’t remember why she was even there, and I waved to grab the pregnant woman’s attention.
“Everything okay?” I asked as I unlocked my door.
“Yeah,” she said and then smiled at Anora. “Hi, I’m Tracy. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Anora,” the superhero said with a polite nod. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
“Looking for Chris?” I asked and let Anora into the apartment. “He’s downstairs with Mr. Wilson.”
“I might as well go get the mail myself,” Tracy laughed. “Or maybe some breakfast. I can’t wait until this baby comes out.”
The pregnant woman put a hand on her stomach and then darted inside her apartment as if something had come up, and I shook my head.
“She seems nice,” Anora said.
“She is,” I said and dropped the bags on the couch. “Are you ready to scratch me?”
“No,” she replied. “I will never be ready for this. But I know it is necessary.”
“It’ll be fine,” I assured her and then glanced out my window.
The sky outside had already turned the pale gray that always came right before dawn, so there was no time to waste. It usually took twenty-four hours to resurrect between deaths, though my working theory was that it took longer if the death did more damage. If we hurried, then I might be able to wake up by the next morning, and then I could go on my second patrol.
It would make sense for a new hero to go on patrol every other night since we didn’t have a lot of funds from the Hero Society yet. Besides, there were always enough newbies trying to make their name in the city that no one would be too concerned about my absence, but I didn’t want to be gone for so long that they’d forget me. If I wanted to be an official member like Golden Weaver, then I’d have to make a name for myself, and that meant taking down a lot more petty criminals.
“I will stay with you while you die,” Anora said as she pulled off her gloves. “That way you’re not alone.”
“It’s okay,” I flashed a smile and pulled the camera out. “We’re good as long as the camera is set up. Of course, you’ll have to stay long enough to get the blood samples for Paul. The bag of vials is on the kitchen counter. You just need to fill them and then stick them in the fridge so that Paul can test them after work. And then you can go meet with the police.”
“I will stay,” the superhero said in a firm tone that brooked no argument.
I studied the superhero for a few seconds, shrugged, and then started to get undressed. It had been fine for me to wear my clothes during the electrocution and drowning deaths, but the last thing that I wanted to do was to wake up to blood-stained clothes. Of course, I might not wake up at all, but that was a risk that I was willing to take if it meant being immune to Golden Weaver’s venom.
“Let’s do this,” I said as I held out my forearm. “You’ll have to dig deep to get through my skin.”
“I have a better idea,” she said and went into the kitchen, grabbed a loaf of bread, and then took out a slice. “I’ll put my venom in this piece of bread. It’ll go directly into your system. And I won’t have to try and get through your impenetrable skin. I might break a nail if I do that.”
“Valid point.” I took the piece of bread, stuffed it into my mouth, and swallowed it whole.
A burning sensation that reminded me of Inferno’s flames followed the slice of bread all the way down to my stomach. It was like I’d swallowed a grenade, and my entire body started to cramp as a cold sweat broke out over my forehead. The venom was definitely more potent than I’d expected, and it took all of my willpower to stumble toward the bathroom and the tub so that my blood wouldn’t cover the apartment floor.
“I’ve got the camera,” Anora said from somewhere behind me as I slipped into the tub.
“Okaaaayyy…” I slurred and I realized this wasn’t just a simple anticoagulant, this was a full blown nerve agent with a mega stimulant mixed in.
Every nerve in my body felt like it had been dipped in acid, and my lungs ached like I was trying to run a marathon in a blizzard. The venom pulsed through me like a live wire, and I was grateful for the cool surface of the tub as fiery pain seared through my veins.
I blinked and time seemed to fly past me at the speed of light. One second it was just me in the bathroom, but then Anora was there, and the camera was already pointed at me. I tried to say something, but my tongue was too thick and refused to move properly.
The room started to turn crimson as blood filled my eyes, and I reached up to wipe away a bright red tear. I coughed as my lungs started to fill with fluid, and the panic from the drowning death washed back through me at warp speed. The tub had already started to fill with my life as darkness crowded into my vision, and I vaguely remembered seeing Anora bend down to fill the vials.
Seconds later I sat up in bed with the vague memory of something, or someone, in the back of my mind. It was almost as if I’d had a dream during my resurrection, but it slipped through my fingers like sand the second that I tried to remember it.
“Good morning,” Raven said from the edge of the bed. “I thought that you’d be waking up soon. I studied the videos, and you wake up seconds after you start to breathe again.”
“Good morning,” I said and then looked around for a glass of water. “Where’s Anora?”
There was a tall pitcher of water and a glass on the bedside table, and I immediately drank so much that my stomach sloshed around when I threw off the blankets. I noticed that someone had dressed me in boxers, a pair of sweatpants, and a long-sleeved shirt, but I had no memory of who had done that. I fought back a yawn and stood on wobbly legs like the muscles hadn’t recovered one hundred percent yet.
“Patrolling,” the goth woman said as she stopped a stopwatch. “Or she had a meeting with some cops. Honestly, she was a little vague about it. She did want you to know that you may be needed in a joint operation soon.”
“That would be awesome,” I said as I started to wake up more. “Paul?”
The beefy scientist had set up a lab in one corner of the studio apartment, complete with weird-looking machines, and tubes with strange colored liquids. There was a smaller table with a printer, a shelf that was already full of notebooks, and the camera with its tripod. Paul looked up from the laptop in front of him, flashed a bright smile, and then stood to stretch.
“Good morning,” he said and reached for the results that he’d just printed. “You have amazing timing. I just finished running the tests on your mutant gene. It’s seriously different from anything that I’ve ever seen before. Briar is going to run it against the database she has at work, but for the moment it looks like it’s still intact. There’s no way to know if that means that you can keep coming back to life since there’s no precedent, but there is a chance since the older supers’ mutant gene tends to break down.”
“That’s a lot of information,” I chuckled and headed to the kitchen for a snack. “But it sounds like you can’t tell me anything new.”
“Exactly,” he shrugged and slid the papers into a file. “But in theory, you should be able to survive at least a few more deaths. I’m also testing Golden Weaver’s venom. It’s seriously amazing. Although, I don’t think you want to watch the video of that particular death. It was terrible.”
“It wasn’t pleasant,” I said and then bit into a juicy apple. “Do you have any more venom around?”
“Of course we do,” Raven said and snatched up a small bag from the couch. “It only took twenty hours for you to return this time, but I managed to get my hands on some potent snake venom, Golden Weaver’s venom, and a baby scorpion’s venom. We’re going to try each and make sure that you’re immune.”
“Sounds great,” I said with a look out the window.
The sky was still pitch black, so there was at least an hour or so before dawn, and that was plenty of time for a few experiments. Golden Weaver would probably be out and about all day, but I’d give her a call later to find out what kind of police operation had drawn her away in the middle of the night.
“Here you go,” Raven said as she pulled out three vials. “Paul, can you grab the camera?”
“Way ahead of you,” he said and set up the tripod.
“Nothing like a healthy breakfast,” I laughed and took the first venom.
It was marked with a snake and a crown, so I was pretty sure that it was King Cobra venom, and it tasted awful as it slid down my throat, but there was no burning sensation. The scorpion venom was the same, and even Golden Weaver’s didn’t have any effect on me.
I was officially safe from toxins, and that meant that the superhero didn’t have to wear her gloves around me. That would probably be a relief since the gorgeous woman wasn’t able to touch anyone without the thin material between her and whoever she was with.
“Looks like I’m immune.” I grinned and washed the sour taste away with some cold brew.
“This is amazing,” Raven said and looked up from her notebook. “Do you feel anything at all?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “But it does taste disgusting.”
“I can imagine,” Paul shuddered. “That stuff is noxious. I wore three sets of gloves when I was handling it. But, I managed to synthesize an even more potent blend that we might be able to make into a long-range weapon. Just in case Anora ever needs to chuck it at someone.”
“I don’t think she’s going to throw it at someone if they’re running away,” I laughed. “But who knows, it might come in handy someday. I’m surprised that you’ve gotten so much done with the crunch at work. Isn’t there supposed to be some new supervillain--”
My question was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing, and I looked around until I found it plugged into the outlet right behind me. The number wasn’t one that I had saved, but it was the same area code as the city, so I clicked the answer button and held it up to my ear.
“Mr. Harris?” a familiar woman’s voice asked.
It took me a few seconds to place it, but once I did it seemed obvious. There was nobody else that could have that much disdain in their tone as the eagle-woman from the Hero Society. I’d have to save the phone number so that the next time she called I wouldn’t be surprised, and so that I could brace myself for her irritated voice.
“Hey,” I said. “How’s the front desk?”
“It’s fine, Mr. Harris,” she sighed. “I tried calling you yesterday, because it seems there’s good news to share with you.”
“Okay,” I said and glanced at Raven and Paul, put the call on speakerphone, and then put a finger over my lips so that they wouldn’t say anything. “What’s up?”
“Congratulations are in order,” she said as if she was reading off a sheet of paper. “You’re officially a full member of the Hero Society, with all the rights and privileges that entails.”
Chapter 17
“Can you say that again?” I asked and held back the sudden urge to shout for joy.
Every inch of my body was tense as if I’d heard the words wrong, especially since I’d only been on one patrol as a temporary hero. It couldn’t possibly be enough to warrant acceptance into the Hero Society, though there had been a lot of social media coverage from the drunk bar patrons.
The eagle-woman sighed dramatically as if this was a common occurrence that she was tired of, took a deep breath, and then let it out before she started to speak again.
“Congratulations are in order,” she repeated. “You’re officially a full member of the Hero Society, with all the rights and privileges that entails.”
Paul started to bounce on the balls of his feet at the same time that Raven twirled around excitedly. The two of them let out all of the happiness that I had to contain until the phone call was over, though it was taking all of my self-control not to join them.
I’d heard her right. I was officially a member of the Hero Society with all of the perks, and that meant sooner or later, someone would call me to fight a supervillain. That probably wouldn’t happen for a long time, but it was still a possibility, and I did a happy dance as all my childhood dreams were finally coming true.
“May I ask what changed?” I asked and took a deep breath to calm down. “It’s only been a few days.”
“Your social media presence has shown immense support for your new alter ego,” she said.
“The account,” Paul whispered.
“What?” I mouthed and covered the microphone.
“Briar set up an account for Osiris and posted the best videos from your patrol the other night,” he said so quietly that I had to strain to hear him.
The beefy scientist pulled out his own phone and pulled up the PhotoClick app that everyone posted their newest videos and doctored pictures on. There was an official account with my alter ego on it, and several videos credited to the original accounts that had shared them. Paul waved it around excitedly and started to spin with Raven until both of them had to stop so that they didn’t fall down.
“I appreciate your quick acceptance,” I cleared my throat and tried to pretend like this wasn’t the biggest moment of my life. “I’ll be down soon to pick up my new license.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line that was filled with the sound of a crackling radio. The eagle-woman’s talon-like nails clicked on the keyboard, and I glanced toward the door as Anora came through the door with a white donut box.
The superhero cocked her head to the side at the sight of all of us smiling, and I mouthed a quick explanation that it was the Hero Society on the line and that I was officially accepted. Her smile and nod of approval was enough to make my already full heart feel like it was going to burst, and I made a mental note that we all needed to celebrate properly once the license was in my hand.
“You can pick it up later today,” the receptionist finally broke the silence. “It seems like you are needed right now.”
“Now?” I asked.
Anora grinned at me and then opened the box to reveal hot glazed donuts that smelled like heaven, gave me a thumbs up, and then stole one of the pastries for herself.
