25 years after Houston was destroyed in a brutal supervillain attack, Jay Martin is accepted into the Texan Hero Network. Tasked with this sacred duty, he takes on the alter ego of Quickwit and vows to always protect Neo Houston.
Unfortunately, desp...
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As insurmountable as they may seem, villains do need breaks sometimes. Often, after heroes predictably thwart their master plan, they're forced to go into hiding. So it really shouldn't surprise to see Stygian in the bed, curled up with eyes as red as the stained bedsheet. Even so, the doctor freaksas she peers into room.
"No! No! You can't make me go in there!" she begs, scrambling back.
Jay blocks her vain escape, gripping her by the arm tight. "He needs surgery. Isn't that your job? To do no harm and help anyone who needs it?"
"Look at him! That's not a person, that's a fucking nuclear bomb you're asking me to defuse!"
"Actually," Razzmatazz titters, "defusing would imply you're killing him. Which I'm pretty sure none of us could ever come close to. So don't even try."
"If he's immortal, why does he need me!?"
"He's scared. Look at him."
The doctor pauses for a moment, glancing at Stygian. Jay notes that she's not very old, for a surgeon. She must have graduated recently. But even new to the medical field, she must see something familiar here, see the fear on Stygian's face.
Timidly, she approaches. "Have you had any surgeries before?"
Stygian only nods, eyes wide. Jay goes to sit on the bed, petting Gannet's head softly. "He's had a lot of them. He doesn't like needles."
"Okay. Okay. What do you want me to do...?"
"Fix him!" Jay growls.
"Yes! Okay! I'm, I'm doing it...I need to see the wound."
Jay lifts Stygian's shirt tenderly before letting the doctor come closer. Using the materials provided, she sterilizes her hands and gloves them up before timidly probing the area with her fingers. She jolts as Stygian does, eyes wide.
"What are you doing?" He asks hoarsely.
"I'm just checking how deep it is. I need to clean it to properly assess the extent of the damage."
"What do you need?" Jay asks.
"That bottle right there, some gauze, and some forceps."
Jay hands it over to her. Immediately, she soaks the gauze in a translucent purple liquid and dabs it to the wound. Red soaks into the gauze as the injury is revealed. Jay averts his gaze from the grisly sight, while the doctor's eyes seem to widen with interest.
"You said he got this wound last week? Battling Alphaman?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"Well, it's healed quite a bit. But...but there seems to be an abundance of abnormal growths here too. Is this typical for you, Stygian?"
