Dr. Bolt

CH 4 (2)

Ironclad

Cold fingers brushed against his side. Ironclad enjoyed the feeling. He needed this. Hero work was draining. The touch moved over to his other side, and suddenly pressed down making him flinch.

"Recovery time shouldn't take too long." he heard his masseuse say. "Recovery time shouldn't take too long. The head injury was minor."

Head injury?

"The gash on his cheek shouldn't need more than two months. You did a good job with the stitch work."

The car accident!

Ironclad shot up, forcing the doctor who had been leaning over him to dodge. "Someone give me a mirror!" He shouted.

The doctor blinked at him.

"A mirror! Give. Me. A. Goddamn. Mirror."

—

Ironclad clenched the mirror in his hand. When he had fully woken up, he wasn't sure what was worse, the horrendous hospital gown he was wearing or feeling as if an entire mountain had trampled over him. Now, as he sat on the hospital bed with the mirror in his hands, he realized that neither of those compared to the atrocious sin that had been done to his face. His once perfectly gorgeous face, so beautiful, as if crafted by the delicate hands of an artist, was now battered. His left eye was nothing but a purple blotch. The eyelid drooped down, preventing any light from glinting into his lovely amber eyes. Another purple blotch spread over his cheek. Above it was a stitched cut that dragged nearly to his nose.

Remembering that the doctor and nurse were watching, he smoothed out his expression to rid any wrinkles before lowering the mirror. He kept himself from flinching in pain as he smiled.

"Ladies, I thank you for your marvelous attention to detail when caring for me; however, you should know by now that there is no need for that. My wounds heal within 40 to 220 seconds. Five minutes if it's really bad. Nevertheless, you receive my gratitude and the gratitude of all mankind."

The nurse tilted her head, her brown ponytail flicking behind her as she raised her brow. She made quite the contrast with the doctor, who hadn't shown any change in expression since he had woken up.

"Even if that were possible," the doctor said, "it's already been four hours."

Ironclad tightened his smile. What? Just what had Dr. Dolt done to him? He raised the mirror to his face again. "To leave me this bad," he mumbled as he studied his face, "he must've built some kind of overpowered canon." No, he thought, Dr. Bolt had tried something like that before and it had barely left me with a scratch. To do something like this, it would require an even greater weapon of mass destruction. Something that would end with many casualties. Many innocent lives. I never thought he would go this far- wait.

Ironclad snapped his head towards the doctor and studied her expressionless face. Something is wrong. He glanced towards the nurse. She looked at him with curiosity, but nothing more. Why were they not astonished by his presence? Anybody in their place would be, and rightfully so. It was as if they didn't know who he was. To add on to the list of oddities, just a second ago, he'd actually believed that Dr. Bolt had defeated him, another indicator that something was very wrong.

"You were hit by a car." The doctor said,

Then it all clicked. Illusions. Dr. Bolt had somehow brainwashed them.

"It was a hit and run." She continued. "This must all come as a shock. Policemen already have a lead. You can speak to them..."

As the doctor continued the explanation, he glanced down at the mirror, meeting his swollen eye in the reflection. This is all an illusion. No accident could leave me this battered. I just have to ignore it and beat his mind games.

He tried standing up but a pain from his ribs made him stumble. The doctor reached out to steady him. He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. "Dr..." He glanced at her name tag, "Dr. Len, I know you don't recognize me right now, but don't worry, I will break you free from this curse and make this world right again."