Hey guys! Thank you so much to those who posted a comment after my last update- it really motivated me to just push through these next few chapters and just keep doing what I love :) I'm so grateful to have such compassionate readers- it makes me feel inspired. You guys are great!
Without further ado, enjoy!
It was around noon at Dr. Wetzel's lab. Navi was looking in her hand-held compact mirror, applying some new lipgloss while Balto was leaning back in his chair, a book covering his slumbering face. All was quiet except the soft whirring of the computer that was analyzing some cell samples.
However, soon came a loud CRASH, knocking Balto off his chair and causing a bright pink streak to be drawn over Navi's face. Violent winds wrecked havoc across the room, knocking papers and binders off the lab tables and scattering everywhere on the floor.
"WHAT THE FUC-" Navi screamed, turning around to find a bloodied Ariadne, terrified Cedric, unconscious Jack, and exhausted Jamie. Little did she and Balto know (because they didn't believe in them), the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Mother Nature, and the large Yeti were also splattered on the floor and slowly recovering from the impact of being shot out from the portal.
"MY GOD…ARIADNE, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU?" Balto bellowed with fear, racing over to his labmate.
"Holy shit, Ariadne?! Jamie?! What the hell is going on?" Navi gasped, rushing over and helping the latter to his feet. Jamie gratefully thanked her and quickly patted himself down. "I'm fine, Navi. I need you to get me the first aid kit. There's no time to explain."
Navi didn't hesitate and raced into the other room while Ariadne just shook her head at Balto, "Forget about me, please, get this kid on the table."
As the large man gingerly lifted Jack into his arms, Ariadne turned to Jamie and whispered under her breath. "Take the others to the other room and treat their wounds. Navi, Balto, and I can handle things here."
Jamie nodded and motioned for Cedric to come with him before turning around to help Tooth carry Bunny, while Phil picked up Mother Spirit in his arms. Once they were out the door, Balto cleared some space and placed Jack's body on top of the table. He placed two large fingers under his chin and measured his pulse.
"I…I can't feel anything." For the first time, his bolsterous voice was at normal volume.
"Don't worry, I know what we need to do." Ariadne gritted her teeth as she heaved herself onto a chair. Navi was back with the first aid kit box and looked around in confusion. "Where did Jamie and Cedric go?"
Ariadne jerked her head towards the other room. "He's treating Ceddy's injuries, could you bring the kit to him?"
Navi paused, looking down at the bleeding leg. "Uh…I feel like you need it more than either of them do."
She chuckled humorlessly, leaning back against the lab table. "No trust me, he needs it more. Listen guys, sorry I know this whole thing is crazy but I need you to trust me and help me- I'll answer all your questions later but right now, Navi, go, I'm going to need you back here ASAP and we need to work fast."
Navi and Balto looked at each other before the former nodded. "Alright, you better tell me later okay?" She quickly ran to the other room while Ariadne turned back to Balto. "Balto, I need you to go into the incubator and take out sample 4587 and carefully isolate the white blood cells. Can you do that in 30 minutes?"
Balto didn't even falter as he let out a toothy grin. "DON'T WORRY BOSS, I CAN DO IT IN FIFTEEN." He immediately turned around and began working as Navi returned.
"Navi, I need you to get some IV fluids and start pumping them into the kid. He's going fast and we need to buy Balto as much time as possible." Ariadne pushed herself on the chair and leaned against the table, breathing heavily.
Navi nodded and ran to the fridge to pull out some IV packs and needles. As she took Jack's arm and injected the needle, Balto shouted from the lab-bench. "I'VE PURIFIED THE WHITE BLOOD CELLS FROM THE SAMPLE. WHAT NOW?"
"Carefully extract the cells into a needle syringe- we're going to create a vaccine and give it to him."
Balto rustled through the supply cabinet and pieced together the syringe before inserting the needle into the sample and drawing up the cells.
Navi, however, looked very pale as she clenched the IV pack to push the fluids through the line and into the Winter Spirit's veins. "Uh, Ariadne…you do realize this is going against the FDA guidelines right? We're going rogue here and could easily be sued for malpractice."
The woman shook her head. "Doesn't matter now. It's either we try, or we do nothing and he dies."
Balto stood next to the body. "WHERE SHOULD I ADMINISTER IT?"
Ariadne paused for a moment, gritting her teeth. "We need to target the area of the body that will disperse the components of the vaccine most efficiently."
"…we need to do an intracardiac injection."
Navi grabbed her shoulder. "OK NO. This is insane! There's a reason why that procedure is no longer being performed in the 21st century. If you're slightly off target by even a millimeter, you're puncturing the most vital part of the body, which will cause massive internal bleeding that we do not have the tools or means to stop!"
"The needle is thin enough that it won't cause that much damage." Ariadne reasoned, shaking her head. "We don't have any more time- I'll do it."
"No." Navi groaned, running a hand over her face, not quite believing what she was about to say. "…I'll do it. I used to be a nurse." She noted with amusement upon glancing at Ariadne's subtle shock. "What? I know my attitude doesn't suite the profession- that's the reason why I quit."
Ariadne simply blinked before she sighed. "Alright, you know what to do."
Balto quietly replaced the needle with a longer one before handing the syringe to his labmate. He took a pair of scissors to carefully slice open the front of Jack's shirt, revealing his naked torso. Navi put on a pair of latex gloves and a surgical mask, and held the syringe with a steady hand above his chest.
She and Ariadne made eye contact before the former nodded, plunging the needle into the fourth intercostal space between his ribs. With her thumb, she quickly pushed in the vaccines components and withdrew the needle, immediately placing a bandage over the wound. There was a long silence as they waited with abated breath. Ariadne leaned forward onto her chair.
Seconds turned to minutes and Ariadne's hands clenched even tighter, blood starting to drip down from her palms. Balto sighed sadly, resting his large head in his hands. Navi continued staring at the guardian, seemingly searching for something.
Suddenly, there was a subtle rise and fall of his chest as he took a shaky breath.
All three scientist almost collapsed with relief. Ariadne smiled weakly and fell back with exhaustion. "YOU DID IT NAVI, YOU'RE A GENIUS." Balto cried, scooping up the poor women in his massive arms and swinging her around in circles.
Navi's face began to turn green. "OKAY OKAY I GET IT LORD ALMIGHTY PUT ME DOWN BEFORE I THROW UP!" The man obeyed and she swayed on her feet, leaning against the lab bench.
Jamie rushed in from the other room wildly looking at the crew with wide eyes. "I heard yelling, what happened?! Is he…?"
Navi was still hunched over the table as she waved her hand dismissively. "Your friend's going to be fine. I, on the other hand…" She fought back a burp with nausea. "… may not be." Balto guiltily patted her back.
Ariadne gave a soft chuckle and Jamie sighed with relief. He reached into his back pocket to pull out a roll of bandages before walking over and leaning down to wrap her injured leg. "Everyone seems to be fine now." Jamie whispered quietly so that only she could hear. "Mother Nature is miraculously stable- she looks a hundred years older, but stable. Bunny woke up and he, Tooth and Phil used Phil's extra snowglobe to take her back to her forest to meet up with the others and recover. Cedric's asleep in the other room. Poor kid's exhausted."
She gratefully squeezed his arm as he finished. "Thanks Jamie."
"OOHHHkay so now that he's…well…alive. Unconscious, but alive and stable. What should we do with him?" Navi heaved herself onto the table, leaning forward on her elbows. "We can't just keep him here, Dr. Wetzel should be back any minute and I will bet my ass he's not going to be as happy as we are seeing this."
Ariadne painfully pushed herself to her feet. "We'll bring him back to my place and I'll take care of him there."
Navi huffed and grabbed a plastic bag from the drawers, placing a few IV packs inside. "Alright, then take these extra IV packs with you. He'll probably stay out for the next few hours…maybe days. He'll need fluids."
Ariadne accepted the bag. "Thanks Navi." She then embraced her two friends. "Thank you both for doing this, you have no idea how much it means to me."
Balto tearfully hugged her back and Navi made a fake gagging noise. "Yeah yeah we know! You better update us later." She grasped her friend's shoulder. "Now let me drive you guys home before Dr. Wetzel comes- we'll clean things up here."
Ariadne nodded gratefully and Jamie went back in the other room to grab Cedric. "Balto, could you help me carry the kid to the car?"
The five of them made their way to the parking garage. After they left, Navi began to clean up the mess and threw everything in a garbage bag. Heaving it over her shoulders, she left the lab to dispose of it.
The lab was silent once more. However, a dark shadow emerged from the corner of the room and Pitch Black peered from beneath the darkness. His cold eyes scanned the room- upon seeing the open tubes, medical equipment, and empty syringe, he cursed.
Impossible. He growled before slipped away.
Ariadne awoke to the sound of hushed but heated voices from down the stairs. Groaning in pain, she sat up and looked at the clock.
It was already 11am. Her mind reeled at the memory of what happened yesterday. Was all of that… real? She looked down at her bandages with a frown, running a hand through her messy dark bed-hair. Yep. It was definitely real.
She crawled her way out of bed and limped to the door, pulling the handle open to allow the voices to become more audible.
"…she's stable but definitely weaker than before."
"I just…How could this happen? Why is Death suddenly disrupting the balance? What does he have to gain from doing this?"
"If this keeps up, the big man will have to return to Earth- his presence alone could destroy all of humanity."
She recognized the Australian accent of the last voice as the Easter Bunny and moved towards the staircase, placing her hand on the railing. She paused, her head was pounding but she needed answers. With a breath, she began her descent.
The creaking of the stairs alerted the others in the living room to her presence. She reached the bottom and leaned back against the railing for support as she regarded the scene in front of her.
"Hey, are you feeling okay?" Jamie inquired with concern, getting up from his chair. He was standing in front of North, Tooth, Bunny, Elios, and Laverna. The Guardians had attempted to squeeze together on the tiny couch while Elios and Laverna wisely chose to lean against the wall and sit on the ground respectively.
Before she could answer, North immediately leapt to his feet, causing the couch to be knocked backwards. The other two guardians clung onto the fabric with a yelp (and a curse) and barely managed to stable themselves as the Jolly Old Man rushed up to the woman in two long strides, grasping her two hands with his large ones that were probably about the size of her face.
"My dear girl, you 'ave done so much fer us! I've heard much about you! YER A HERO." His wide blue eyes were beaming with awe and Ariadne felt flattered but couldn't help but lean away from his close proximity. Santa Claus or not- all of this was still just bizarre.
"Um…thank you but…it really was nothing." Shaking her head, she gave a sheepish smile. "I really only did what anyone else would have done.
"Yeah sure, except no one else could literally see him unless they were a kid." The Summer Spirit quipped from behind North. He walked over to the two and swatted away the Guardian of Wonder with a gloved hand, glaring at the woman with fire-red irises. "Cut to the chase. Who are you and how the hell can you see all of us?"
Jamie took a step forward protectively but Ariadne held up a hand, motioning him to wait. She regarded Elios with steady eyes. "I'm a human, but a kid at heart. How does that sound?"
There was a snort of laughter and everyone turned to look at Laverna, who had a hand over her mouth, struggling to conceal her amusement. "Nice spunk, I like her!" She chimed with a cheeky grin.
Elios was not as amused. "Listen, you-"
"No. How about you listen? Clearly, there's a lot more we need to worry about than 'who I am'." Ariadne pushed herself off from the railing, standing up tall despite the shooting pain in her leg. Her voice was low with controlled anger. "My son was kidnapped, we all almost died, there's this… this man who can summon zombies?! How about you tell us what the HELL is going on?"
Elios clamped his jaw shut and Tooth nervously fluttered her wings to propel her forward between the two. "Alright, let's just take a step back." She offered gently. "Sorry Ariadne, sit down, we'll explain everything."
Whew, hope you guys enjoyed this long one! Thanks again for those who commented- you guys are so amazing! Hopefully I'll get the other one out before the week is over but…till next time! As always, thank you for sticking with me! Leave a comment or PM me your thoughts! Love you guys!