A nurse stayed behind to get Zane's details and because they could find no trace of Jay's medical files meant he needed to stay in the reception area going through all the necessary details of vaccinations, illnesses or close death experiences Jay had endured.
Zane was quick to put himself, Cole and Kai as Jay's next of kin thus allowing him to be updated of Jay's prognosis, treatment and plan of care with his other brothers.
Cole and Kai quickly walked into the reception and saw Zane giving the details the hospital needed to hear. They both sat down near to Zane while waiting for him to finish, Kai looked around for a vending machine, he was so thirsty.
"Hey Cole, you want a drink?"
"Yeah…ice cold water would be great."
Kai sauntered off to find the machine, there wasn't much any of them could do but wait. Hospital chairs were not the comfiest chairs available and after four hours Cole and Kai were beginning to get angry, Zane didn't mind. Cole was just about to get up and start yelling until someone came out of emergency surgery covered in a large amount of blood on his scrubs, he removed his surgeons mask with washed hands and called the 3 ninja into a private room.
He proceeded to tell them how the surgery had gone, the damage had been repaired again, bed rest etc. He then broached the subject of organ donation which got all 3 ninja looking up in confusion.
"Look, Mr Walker is….."
"JAY, his name is Jay" Kai interrupted coldly.
"I'm sorry…. Jay was in a critical condition when he was brought in….and he has lost approximately 4 pints of blood from the injuries, internal bleeding and subsequent surgery."
"I'm not going to sugar coat this but if Jay doesn't wake up from this surgery it's likely he won't wake up at all, he should have woken up 3 hours ago."
"You can all visit him in intensive care if you wish, but please note that Jay is on an artificial respirator at present, because he can't breathe for himself. The chest trauma has done significant damage to his external and internal intercostal muscles."
"I'm sorry" he added, "he is in what is known in the medical profession as "the triad of death" all we can do is monitor him closely and wait…Please….please consider the organ donation form in case he deteriorates further as we would need to begin the transplantation process whilst his remaining organs are still healthy. The next 24 hours will decide his fate" The doctor added as he left the ninja to absorb what they had just been told.
"What, the hell are you talking about? You're talking about mutilating him and he isn't even dead" Cole said as he stood up and faced the doctor menacingly.
"Cole please…."Zane pleaded "this isn't helping matters".
Cole listened to Zane one of his most trusted friends as he sat back down and bought his hands up to his face with a sigh, the news slowly sinking in that he was going to lose Jay, there was nothing they could do, he slowly began to cry as he rubbed his eyebrows in shock and defeat. Kai was at a loss for words he too was devastated, he looked away from his brothers and hid his face with one hand as tears began to flow.
"W-we failed him, we failed Sensei Wu… a-and we failed ourselves" Kai said as he held his head down in deep thought.
Zane was the first to talk as he stood up he looked at his heartbroken brothers and said "We need to see Jay, if the doctor is right about his prognosis now is the time to say our…goodbyes" he added sorrowfully as he saw the impact those words had on Cole and Kai.
The three ninja sat around their beloved blue ninja or Jay as he was called, they watched the machine inflate his lungs slowly whilst another pumped blood into his arm with some pressure. He had a feeding tube placed into his nose and his left arm had 3 intravenous tubes running from it plus a sickly amount of bruises from trying to find a vein to use. His eyes were taped shut and he had a huge plastic contraption in his mouth to keep his airway open, added to his condition was a new chest drain. Even if Jay woke up he would not be able to move, so he was completely sedated.
Jay's unconscious POV
In his mind it felt like he was locked in a cage, alone in a dark room, so this is what he visualised. He tried shouting out but no-one could hear him, he cried and shouted repeatedly banging his raw knuckles on the floor until there was nothing but blood and bone. The sight made him cry and whimper in pain.
"Why…..why can no one hear me?...w…where am I?" he rocked back and forth alone and locked in his own thoughts. Pythor and Skales appeared and he tried to back away from them but yet they reappeared in his cage, they tortured him so mercilessly he was left on the floor for dead. He blinked his eyes he could still feel the pain but they were nowhere to be seen, he could still hear them mocking him even after he begged them to stop, he could hear them laughing at his expense.
Throughout all of the negative things swimming through his mind prison, were the constant voices that were calm, 3 of them to be precise, he recognised them and took solace in the fact that he could feel their presence even if he couldn't see them. He hung on to the hope that hearing these 3 voices would keep the darker voices away but for how long. How long had it been now? It felt like an eternity that he had been locked in this cell, the same voices muffled but still there, some odd random beeps here and there and a sound of forced breathing could be heard.
After a while the 3 peaceful calm voices became emotional and quiet, they were disappearing and allowing the darkness to consume him. The image of Pythor came into his line of sight in this small cage he was kept in, Pythor walked up to Jay and laughed as he viciously stabbed his golden Tanto blade into Jay's chest even in his head he couldn't shake the memory of it as it was constantly replayed… the pain getting worse.
That was until he felt something pulling him, his cage suddenly alight with electricity, and again more forceful this time… His cage exploded in front of him revealing dark angry clouds with streaks of loud crackling lightning overhead. He momentarily saw bright lights until he was hit with another more painful pulse of electricity. He was returning to consciousness rapidly and as such he attempted to open his eyes, he squinted as he struggled with the brightness of the room as his blurry eyes tried to adjust….then he saw Zane with what looked like defibrillator paddles. Zane could see that Jay was gaining consciousness rapidly but looked at him apologetically and said "Once more Jay and I'm sorry but this will hurt like hell". He pressed the paddles to Jay's chest and side and pulled the trigger…he wasn't joking the pain was unbearable as Jay bucked against the electricity coursing through his body, his arms and legs restrained for his own safety.
Zane's pov
A thought came to Zane after his falcon had relayed a message from Sensei Wu stating that according to the scrolls, the event they had unknowingly witnessed when Jay had been shot was considered a glimpse of some ones ultimate potential. Sensei Wu didn't really give much more information except to say that if the ninja even one of them reached their ultimate potential they would be unstoppable…a force to be reckoned. Sensei had mentioned that up until now there was only one ultimate spinjitsu master and that was Lloyd however there was nothing written about other elementals.
He now knew what he needed to do but he wasn't sure how he could do it, he needed to speak to Cole and Kai for clarification and to explain what was happening, he also needed a distraction which one of the ninja would have to be so Zane could attempt to revive Jay alone.
He needed to defibrillate Jay, this was the reason he was deteriorating so fast, his heart hadn't stopped at the hospital at all, they were keeping him alive just in case we signed the organ donor forms. His previous injury had stopped his heart when used in conjunction with the electromagnetic device and they had no choice but to defibrillate him.
Zane frowned and then realised Jay had 3 subsequent shocks one right after another and the power cut…..of course Zane thought. The power had to have gone somewhere, his eyes opened wide when he realised that Jay had absorbed the voltage that was given to him to restart his heart…it happened in recovery too.
Time was of the essence Jay was dying and this needed to be done, yes it was a risky procedure as it could kill Jay, but what choice did they have?
"Cole, Kai, new plan…..listen closely brothers".
Sensei Wu sent me a message about something in the scrolls that he read on elemental masters, apparently after our true potential there is such a thing as ultimate potential however the scrolls only indicated that a green ninja would become the one and only ultimate master", "Which makes me think that maybe the first spinjitsu master didn't know that it could happen to another…..I mean it wasn't actually supposed to happen to Jay but the weapon they used on him made it happen".
He let them both take in this information as they swapped glances with each other before prompting Zane to continue.
"Basically I know why Jay is dying, let me just say that the weapon they used caused his element to be unstable, are you following me so far?" They both nodded and he continued.
"His element was unstable and therefore they harvested him for it, they physically drained him as you saw for yourselves" he added.
"When they used the weapon and shot him his heart stopped in the operating room and again in recovery, they used the defibrillator to bring him back".
"Yeah and what does that mean exactly?" Kai asked feeling hopeful but confused.
"It means that when they shocked him, he absorbed the power from it….literally. Actually he absorbed the power from the entire hospital" Zane finished.
"That would explain the power cuts" Cole said as Zane looked at him impressed.
"I am not going to lie, this will not be pleasant for Jay, it is just another unpleasant thing to add to his growing list that he is going to have to endure for a few minutes".
"Exactly how unpleasant?" Cole asked frowning…Zane didn't answer.
"I need to get into Jay's room without any other staff being there, one of you will need to stand outside oh and I'll need a set of open heart defibrillator paddles too" Zane added "they give off more voltage than standard ones".
"W-why do you need defib paddles?" Cole asked with a puzzled face "J….Jay is still alive".
"I'll need to explain that later or perhaps Sensei Wu will...right now we need to do this quickly".
Kai contacted Nya on the Bounty and asked them to dock on the roof of the hospital with the ramp down in prepartion. He offered to stay near the door and keep watch outside and Cole offered to be there to help Zane if he needed it. Kai didn't like the sound of what Zane was about to do so he sat on the seats nearby until Zane and Cole had neared.
They all approached Jay's room and waited until the nurses had come out, Zane found a set of open heart paddles on a surgical trolley and entered Jay's room with Cole in tow. They both managed to get in unnoticed by the staff and began promptly, they only had a short window of six minutes to do this so they locked the door. Kai stood outside and discreetly melted the lock mechanism so a key would not work anymore, the only way anyone was getting in that room would be to melt the locks again or smash the door. He walked away and sat down near the ward but not close enough to hear anything…he'd heard enough of Jay's screams in the last few hours to last a lifetime.
Cole approached the bed and whispered into Jay's ear, he was shaking through nerves and he bit his lip as he knew this would hurt his best friend and could potentially kill him. "Jay I'm right here for you buddy".
"Cole it's time, you need to clear the bed…..whatever you do don't touch the bed".
"Ok Zane, just do it already".
He stripped the sheets of Jay and cut some of his bandages covering the still bleeding puncture wound as he expertly applied the sticky patches to Jay's left side and sternum. He set the voltage to 300 to start off.
"Clear Cole" he stood back and watched as the defibrillator machine delivered a powerful shock to Jay's body, he saw it arch up of the bed in protest as all of Jay's muscles were being attacked by hundreds of volts of pure electricity, the lights flickering slightly….Oh god Jay please please be ok Cole pleaded.
Zane took the paddles of and then turned up the voltage to 500, "Cole stand back" Zane shouted as he placed the paddles back onto Jay and pulled the triggers, an audible wheeze could be heard from Jay, "It's time to remove the airway and eye strips. Cole did as he was directed and removed the oropharyngeal airway the one other thing that was actually keeping Jay alive. Once that had been removed Cole stood back again as he saw Zane turn the voltage up to 800 and then reapplied the paddles. "Cole, this will start to hurt him but please don't try to touch….CLEAR"
Jay screamed in pain as he opened his eyes, "Z…..Zane…NO… w…what are y…you doing?" he whispered as he saw the paddles approaching his chest. "Once more Jay and I'm sorry this will be painful". Zane turned the machine up to the maximum limit of 1000 volts as he pulled the triggers, Cole looked horrified at the pain that was etched onto Jay's face, he wasn't expecting Jay to wake up during this but Zane knew what he doing right?
"NO Cole stand back" Cole's breathing became fast and his heart was racing, the tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Oh my god what are we doing to him, Zane stop….please Jay please pull through.
"Clear" Zane said as he pulled the triggers for a fourth and final time as the lights went out in the hospital for two seconds until backup power came on.
"Agggghhhhh", Jay groaned "No…..wait…what!…Z…Zane, C…Cole" Jay whispered in a barely audible voice.
"Welcome back brother" Zane said with a heartfelt smile "I'm so sorry I had to do that but I had no choice…..you were dying".
"Jay!" Cole's soft side had finally shown itself he began crying and hugged Jay in a gentle embrace not wanting to let go. He had finally gotten over his fear of dying and was amazed and somewhat frightened at Zane's sheer determination to prove everyone wrong in the ward that this was what Jay needed. But it was because of Zane that Jay was now alive.
"W…..what did you d…..do?" Jay asked wincing as he looked down at the burns now residing on his skin along with his other injuries.
"We did what we had to bro, there really was no choice" Cole said sadly "The doctor was about to harvest your organs" Jay visibly shuddered at the word 'harvest' owing to the word being used in the facility before he was tortured. "D….don't say the 'h' word" Jay said quietly as he grimaced in pain.
"Jay we need to get you out of here…this hospital and the one in the city have serpentine working with them undercover. They're looking for us and you, so the Bounty is coming to pick us up in five minutes" Cole stated. Zane helped Jay sit up but he was in much need of pain relief now that he was awake and the pain he was experiencing was making it difficult for him to think or listen.
"Breathe Jay just breathe…this is gonna hurt too but in three seconds I'm lifting you off here and putting you on that" Cole pointed at the wheelchair.
"Oh come on C…..Cole, y…..you can't be s…serious!" Jay whispered, his voice still raw and crackled from the earlier scream.
"Sorry bro but we've got no choice, the serpentine know we are here….look, I know they can't attack us in here but they can ambush us outside" so we're headed up to the roof access.
Cole quickly grabbed Jays' body and put him gently in the wheelchair with copious blankets, one for his head and the rest for his body to cover the large container helping his lungs inflate and drain. Zane grabbed a handful of morphine vials, sterile containers for the chest drain, iv tubes, liquid sedatives and antibiotics just in case of infection, everything else was on board.
Kai was notified by his tracking device as he walked casually back to the room, he turned his back to the door as he lit a tiny fire which melted the lock mechanism again so the door could open. "Are we ready guys" Kai whispered sideways into the room.
"Yes" came the quick but quiet reply from Zane, the ninja didn't want anybody to notice that they were taking Jay, so this was done quickly. As soon as Zane disconnected his heart monitor all alarms in the vicinity buzzed, "We have a code blue, I repeat a code blue in room 20 ICU…all available personnel to attend".
"And that's our cue to get out of here" as Cole rounded the corner quickly with Jay in his wheelchair. Kai was waiting by the open elevator door when Zane ran in and temporarily reprogrammed the lift to bypass security and take them up to the roof.
The Bounty was a sight to behold; it was waiting patiently docked on the roof but hidden behind a very large advertisement board. The ramp was lowered to allow them ease of access as they quickly ran towards it.
Once aboard they were greeted by 2 very relieved faces, namely Lloyd and Nya. Zane signalled that it was time to depart as the Bounty gently propelled away from the hospital.
"Quick raise the ramp, we've gotta go now otherwise we'll have company" Cole shouted at Nya who quickly ran to the control room and proceeded to get the Bounty moving.
Jay was rapidly wheeled through to the infirmary again and gently placed into bed, Zane set up his iv lines and decided it would best to sedate him because of the amount of pain he was currently experiencing. He was struggling to breathe because of the exertion of being roughly hauled out of his death bed, yet the voltages he was subjected to made him feel energised.
The pain from the various wounds and burns made him feel drowsy and his own adrenaline surge kept him awake as it attempted to fight the pain but it wasn't enough Jay longed for sleep and he was beginning to hallucinate as a mixture of pain and exhaustion took over his tired and injured body.
"Cole, I need you to restrain him, he's hallucinating" Zane shouted as he struggled with Jay.
"Can you pass me one of those morphine vials and a needle quickly, he's going into shock".
Cole had never moved so fast, he wasn't about to lose Jay again.
In Jay's vision he could see an army of snakes descending on all of them, he saw five impressive ninja warriors fighting the snakes in the distance trying to get closer. The warriors all looked familiar, a red one, black, white, green and a woman, but no blue one. Suddenly he saw himself in a clearing all on his own, the rain beating down on his bloodied back, an exhausted worn out blue ninja tired of fighting and ready to give up….with a katana sticking crudely out of his back…the sight enough to scare him…he watched as the blue ninja tried to back away from the pain and torment, putting his hands up in defence as a powerful bolt of lightning hit him in the chest…then everything went black.
Jay was still; the medication finally in his system allowing his heart rate to slow and his convulsions to stop, as he rested in a pain free slumber.
Cole stood back and wiped his sweat covered forehead, sweeping his bangs away from his eyes, "I'm gonna go freshen up….Zane, ok?"
"Holler if you need me".
Zane watched over Jay, there was nothing more they could do for him, he just needed to rest and recuperate. Jay looked healthy but his body said otherwise, the injuries were extensive but now he was here he would be safe, nothing would happen as long as Zane was there.
Zane bandaged Jay's wounds as they had been cut away earlier, so he began busying himself applying dressings to the puncture wounds and ointment to the burns. He attached the drips in place and stood back to admire his work…"All done" he said with relief as he stepped away and washed his hands thoroughly. He walked back over to his sleeping patient and whispered "Jay I know you may be able to hear me but I need you to rest….this is the only way and sorry I had to sedate you".