Ghost-Hunting: Amy
"Again, thank you for coming, it's been a great help," the nurse smiled at her. She was a large woman, happy, even though her body would probably give in before she reached the age of sixty. In a way, the nurse reminded her of director Piggot. As angry as Carol and aunt Sarah could be at the woman, she'd never asked them for help with her personal condition, and Amy could respect that.
"No problem really," Amy lied. It was true that she liked coming here to help. It was also true that she couldn't live with herself if she didn't.
Something wet, large and heavy touched her shoulder, and Amy absentmindedly petted it. In response, Judas's overly large tongue fell out of his mouth, slobbering drool all over her robes.
"Isn't that a bit-"
"-unhygienic?" Amy interrupted. It was a legitimate worry, born out of nothing but goodwill towards her patients, but the comment still needled her. Did this woman really think she'd do anything to endanger her patients? Did a random nurse really think that she knew more about sickness and health than her? "Not really, he's completely immune to traditional disease, and his saliva is perfectly clean of everything except for a custom wound-healing agent. His fur is hypo-allergenic, and he's so well-trained that he'd never hurt anyone without my express command," she continued. The last part… wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't false either. As far as she'd experienced, Judas was pretty good at telling the difference between allies, foes and civilians, although it was difficult to tell how exactly Hellhound had trained him. Over the last few months, he'd gotten better and better at listening to her, but if it came to a conflict between her and Skitter, she wasn't quite sure who would win out in Judas's mind. Others, while they could theoretically bribe him with food, were mostly seen as a source of belly rubs, which was one of the reasons that Judas enjoyed these outings to the hospital so much. If children loved anything more than puppies, it was two-meter tall monster dogs made out of tail wagging and hugs.
Just for a moment, she let her power explore Judas's body, questing through his biological make-up. Publically, her taking care of Judas was a tribute towards one of Brockton Bay's villainous defenders, and Judas being this large was justified because he was well-trained and used to being enhanced, and because without New Wave around, she needed a bodyguard.
Her internal senses went through the organs. Three layers of plated bone, two separate storage sacks for specialized saliva, -holy water and a custom paralytic/anesthetic,- a set of twisting sinews, inspired by an old Roman design, ammunition provided by the dog's regenerative capabilities. A few enhancements in his hairs that allowed him to identify minute changes airflow, fire-proof skin, a set of gills hidden in the neck and a half-dozen other minor enhancements. Right now, she was spending her free evenings trying to find a way to give him freely activate-able incendiary sweat, since fire seemed to be rather effective against most villains, didn't matter if they were magical or parahuman in nature.
"Any unanticipated cases?" she asked the nurse.
"One, a girl suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, stable but scarring. Besides that, the usual. Seventeen terminal oncology patients, twelve of them from a failed trial of a new drug that looked promising. Two amputees from the police force, they got hurt trying to help out a man who was having some sort of psychotic break, and we managed to find three more of Watch's victims, two of them heavily impaired, the other left quadriplegic," she rattled off, as if from a list.
"We'll do the girl first, so I can leave Judas in the ward until we get to the amputees, anything else?"
"One thing. We seem to have a small infestation beginning in the kitchen, so the director wanted me to ask you if you happened to have contact information for that bug girl," the woman said.
"Can't you just hire exterminators?" Amy asked. Part of her deal with the hospital was an agreement about stuff like this. If the hospital could, potentially, do something about it themselves, they would, without asking Amy to do it for them.
"We could, but according to the director, fumigating would mean the kitchen would be closed for a few days, and we have a few patients with very specialized diets, which could be a problem when ordering take-out," she joked.
"I'll give her a call, but she's probably busy," Amy replied, taking her phone out of a hidden pocket on the inside of her robe, and dialling Taylor's home address. Because of her magic, she couldn't have a cellphone, but landlines were old enough to keep working, and miraculously enough, Myrrdin's girlfriend's apartment actually had one.
After three tones someone picked up the phone. "Rodriguez household, how can I help you?" a female voice said.
"Hi Skit," she replied. "You got a few hours tonight?"
"I was going to work on some potions…" the girl replied. Taylor, Amy thought, was just as much of a shut-in as she was, except for going out to heal people at the hospital, Taylor sat in a café with a book while playing superhero with the background processes of her mind.
"There's a minor infestation in the kitchen at the hospital here, do you mind dropping by for a bit? There's some quick cash in it for you. Legal cash even" Amy said snidely.
"Fine. I'll drop by," Skitter replied. "Same hospital as usual?"
"Yes," Amy replied, "Guess I'll see you in a bit?"
"Sure," Taylor answered, and Amy turned off her phone.
"She'll be here in a bit," she told the nurse escorting her around, who nodded. It was time to get to work.
***
Exhausted, Amy returned to the children's ward, where Judas was letting someone ride on him, and Skitter had been joined by some of the Wards.
"Met them on the way here, made an impromptu thing out of it," the young witch said, while Wanton, Siren and Kilroy were entertaining the children in the ward. Or rather, Siren was entertaining them, Wanton was being overly proud that he'd finally managed to get himself a girlfriend, and Kilroy was looking out of the window, trying not to show his jealousy.
She had to admit, she could understand that feeling. Siren was… gorgeous felt like an understatement, and while the girl wasn't really her type, she was most definitely easy on the eyes.
"Did you find the bugs yet?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, hard to miss, they're dealt with. How's the healing going?"
"Almost done," Amy replied, looking around the room, seeing the two cops entering the door, one of them using one arm to push his leg-less friend.
"Sorry kids, but I think the boys in blue have to borrow Judas for a bit," Kilroy said, ushering the little tykes away from the large dog. It was difficult to say which of them was more disappointed, the kids because they lost their toy, or Judas because he lost a major source of attention.
"Judas, here," Amy called out, walking towards the two amputees.
"Which of you wants to go first?" she asked.
"Micky here," the armless man said.
"Nahh, Rudolph's the real hero," Micky replied. "He can go first."
"Nonsense, I'm so heroic I can let you go first," Rudolph retorted, and from the look of it, they'd been at it for a while.
"Judas, what do you think?" Amy asked, and Judas jumped up, putting a heavy paw on the lap of the man in the wheelchair. "Guess it'll have to be you, Micky," Amy said, a hint of a smile on her face.
"Do you want me to do anything, or…"
"Just, don't get freaked out? It'll tingle and feel weird, and if you move too much that'll make it hard for me."
"Don't move, just like the dentist's, got it," he replied, and Amy came closer, laying one hand on him while placing the other on Judas's flank. Then, she started molding flesh.
She didn't quite know what would happen once people noticed what she was really doing. Would they be angry? Would they tell her that yes, she was indeed evil?
It didn't matter though because she wasn't going to change her actions. She'd tried doing It the straightforward way. Healing people, putting everything in the right place, hating herself as she slaved away her nights at the hospital.
The rest of the world probably thought that she was doing cops because they got hurt in the line of duty, like it was somehow more heroic to heal them than to heal someone getting hurt in a skiing accident or working with power tools. That wasn't exactly true though. No, the reason she asked for cops, was because she could be relatively certain they wouldn't abuse their ability.
"So, looking to help the good people of Chicago some more?" she asked, keeping a close eye on the man's vital signs.
"Yep," Micky replied. "I'm behind a desk right now, but if I could be back on the street again? Count me in!"
She suppressed a sigh of relief, happy at the knowledge that whatever else, Micky's intentions were pure. Then, she started her work.
She couldn't be too obvious. Not the way she'd been with Judas, but she didn't need to be obvious to be useful. In fact, most of her upgrades could be explained away as simply increased physical fitness, something done in order to counteract the atrophied muscles and lowered endurance from sitting in a wheelchair all day.
An improved heart, something more effective than haemoglobin, an immune system that would protect him from most everything except alcohol, muscles that were quite a bit stronger than they had any right to be. Enhanced regeneration, thicker skin, improved clotting factors, she filled the young policeman up with everything she could think of that wouldn't be immediately obvious.
If she lied to herself, she'd say that she did it this way so that, when it got discovered, she could point towards the success of her work. Ask forgiveness instead of permission. In truth, she just couldn't go back to the way things had been before.
"Whoa… that feels weird," Micky remarked.
"I have to modify a few things," Amy told him. "Get your body ready for fieldwork again, make sure you can hit the ground running instead of requiring months of physical therapy."
"Makes sense," the guy said. "And again, thank you for doing this. If there's ever anything we can do for you?"
"Just… be sure to get back into the game?" Amy replied, finishing the final touches on her subject.
"Will do ma'am!" he said with a mock salute.
"Well, that should be okay," Amy said. "Try it out for me?"
The man rose, -his bare currently hairless, since she'd forgotten to put those in,- checking out his new limbs, bouncing from one to the other and doing a little twirl, to the amusement of the onlooking children.
"As good as new, maybe better," the man smiled, stretching his new limbs.
"Well, your turn now Rudolph," Amy said, holding out a hand for the second man.
The man awkwardly took his left hand, touching it to Amy's right. "Well, guess that'll be the last time I have this particular problem!"
"Guess it will be," Amy said, awkwardly extending her other hand instead, and grabbing hold of the man, her right hand still on Judas's massive flank. Micky hadn't been a small man, but compared to Judas's bulk, it'd been absolutely nothing.
"So, you two partners?" she asked.
"Desk-partners," Micky answered for them.
"We got called in to a big shoot-out," Rudolph explained.
"Long story short, we became best buds in the ICU."
"Plus, Micky's wife makes amazing cakes."
"See, that's why I trust Rudy. If I left him alone with my baby, all he'd ask for is more food!" Micky smiled, still enjoying his new legs.
"I'll just be happy to be doing my real job again," Rudy said, his body telling the truth.
Satisfied, Amy started her work, moving bulk from Judas to Rudy, and improving the rest of his body at the same time.
She was living a lie, even more so than when she pretended to be a squeaky clean hero, but this lie? This was one that she could live with.
***
Dismounting from Judas, Amy made her way into their apartment, tired but satisfied. Most of the Wards had left after hearing about a disturbance halfway across the city, in a hospital where Myrddin and Dovetail were holding a stake-out.
Whoever thought to have Myrddin on stake-out in a hospital was a total idiot, but it wasn't her problem, not anymore. She healed, she helped out her sister, and she worked on her education. That was it. No more, no less. She had a few new rules, and one of them was to stop trying to overburden herself.
Their apartment was on the first two floors of a larger building, with a large, two-story, open living room, ostensibly to give Judas some room, actually to allow Victoria to fly around the living room and watch TV upside down.
"I'm home!" she yelled out, hoping to wake up her sister and annoy her for a bit.
She didn't reply, probably because it was the middle of the night, meaning that she wasn't home yet. Amy walked to their kitchen, getting her hands on some nachos and cheese, placing it in the oven, and slouching down on the couch while Judas was going for his massive food bowl.
She went through the channels, hoping for something to look at while she was waiting for her nachos to get ready. Problem was, there was absolutely nothing on the TV.
Bored, she looked around the room, trying to find something to distract herself. Vicky had put up several old pictures from the New Wave day, as well as Carol's framed copy of the front of the newspaper the day the Brigade unmasked. In addition to that, there were what looked like at least a hundred burger wrappers, shoddily shoved into a garbage bag by her sister's little helpers, who were currently in a minor civil war with what was colloquially known as 'the pizza-pricks.'
There was a shelf of books, mostly magazines, and a pin-board where Victoria had pinned several cards and pictures from Amy's patients, send in order to assuage their guilt at getting free healing and them promptly ignoring her, not that she could fault them for it.
As she flipped through the channels, trying to find a channel that wasn't third-rate political commentary, Judas suddenly started whining.
"What's up buddy?" Amy asked, but Judas just continued, eventually walking towards her and tugging on her arm.
"What's wrong? You need to go pee?" she asked, but a look at the dog's enhanced body told her that his massive bladder was still mostly empty.
"Rhuff," Judas barked, pulling her along.
"It's alright buddy, I'm coming," she replied, patting his head a bit, slightly down-shifting his stress levels while doing so. It wouldn't do to have him overly worried.
Judas led her up the stairs, trying to manoeuvre his massive bulk through, towards Vicky's room.
"She's not home buddy. Remember? I called out and everything?" she said, trying to comfort her dog, but he would have none of it, whining at her. "Okay, I'll check it…" she groaned, opening up the door to her sister's room, slightly excited to be in there when Victoria wasn't.
Except, she noticed, for the part where Vicky was already sleeping. And she wasn't exactly sleeping like a baby, instead twisting and turning under her blankets.
"That's very nice of you, to worry about her like that," Amy told Judas, as he dashed through, shaking Vicky with one of his paws, but the girl didn't wake up.
"Hey, sis, wake up, you're having a nightmare," Amy said, walking up to the bed and laying a hand on her sister's sweating forehead.
She activated her power, flooding her sister's body, and indirectly her brain, with hormones that should wake her up. Adrenalin, PER, Cortisol and a half-dozen other substances. Logically speaking, and according to everything her power told her, it should've woken her up, but something was interfering somehow, keeping the chemicals from properly affecting the neurons in those cases where it would have woken her up, but letting the stress hormones themselves through.
Suddenly afraid, Amy applied more of her power, but found herself unable to free Victoria from being trapped in her nightmare.