Lois power walked down the hospital corridor and stopped at a nurses station.
"Hello there, can I help you?" asked one of the nurses sat behind the desk.
"Hi I am here to see my son, he was brought in with Ben Parker."
"Are you Mrs Kent?"
"Yes I am."
"Good to see you, we were informed you would be coming, if you would like to follow me."
The nurse stood up, gathered a few bit of paper together and then walked out from behind the desk. She beckoned for Lois to follow her and led them down a corridor to a set of double doors that were shut. The nurse pulled out a key fob from her pocket and placed it onto a reader that was to the right of the doors. A green light appeared and the nurse pushed the left hand door open. They walked through into a very different looking part of the hospital.
"Welcome to our super hero wing. We work closely with the Justice League to maintain this part of the hospital. Your son is with his friends in the last room on your left. Call us if there are any problems."
With that, the nurse left Lois to walk down the corridor on her own. As she approached the room where Ben, Jason and Wally were, she slowed down. Looking to her left, she could see through the window and what she saw horrified her. Ben lay in bed, tubes sticking out of various areas and bloodied sheets over him. Jason and Wally sat opposite, watching their friend breathe slowly as he slept. Mary-Jane sat next to the bed holding her son's hand and resting her head against his arm. She appeared to be asleep.
Lois opened the door and as she did so, Mary-Jane awoke and they all turned to face the door.
"Mum!" Jason cried as he jumped to his feet. Lois hadn't noticed that he too was covered in blood, but thankfully not his own.
FLASHBACK
"NO!" Wally cried as he watched the rod impale Ben.
He let go of the masked figure and ran towards Ben. As he did so, the robot pulled the rod out and Ben crumpled to the ground. The robot then came crashing down on the ground, the cars making it up, separated into their own selves. Wally looked round for the masked figure, but he had disappeared, taking the Kryptonite rod with him. Jason hobbled over, the effects of the radiation beginning to wear off. Wally leant down and folded his arms around Ben. As he did so, Jason went to tend to Clark.
"We need to get him to a hospital, he is losing to much blood," Wally shouted over to Jason.
"Get him to St. Thomas, we have an arrangement there with them. Just say Superman sent you," Clark said as he stood up with Jason's assistance.
Soon Clark was strong enough to hold himself up, the power of the yellow sun restoring his body.
"I need to go and speak with the league, I think I have a lead they can use."
With that and before Jason could protest, Clark shot off into the sky and out of their view.
"We need to go," Wally said. "Are you ok to fly if I run carrying him?"
"Yeah, you get going, I will meet you there."
Wally sped off, Ben carefully laying in his arms. Jason looked around at the devastation that had been created due to the masked figure. He had a lot of questions to answer for.
Wally arrived at St. Thomas and to his surprise there were two doctors waiting for him.
"You must be Kid Flash," one of them said. She wore her scrubs, as though ready for surgery. "Superman told us you were coming."
Kid Flash, Wally liked that.
"Yes, you need to help him please."
Jason arrived that second, landing next to the awaiting gurney that the doctors had brought for Ben.
"And you must be Superboy. Please put your friend on the gurney and we will get him sorted out."
Wally did as instructed and the doctors launched into action to get him inside.
"Nurse Williams here will take you to a waiting area," the doctor said, pointing to a nurse as they rushed through the door.
"This way," she said.
The nurse led the two teenagers away from their friend down a corridor and through a set of double doors that required a key fob to get access.
"If you wait in here," nurse Williams said, as she pointed to a room with several seats and refreshment machines. "You are welcome to de-mask if you wish, you are currently the only heroes here at the moment. This area is completely sealed off from the public and all the staff in this department are League vetted."
"Thank you," Jason said, sinking into a chair, exhaustion washing over him.
"We will let you know of any developments as soon as they happen," the nurse said, before she left the room shutting the door behind her.
Wally followed Jason's example and sat down in one of the seats. Soon enough, both of them were asleep, tired from the days horrific events. They were woken when the door opened again. Through it came Mary- Jane.
"Thank you so much for saving him," she said as she moved over to the two boys who had now stood up at her entrance. She hugged them both, tears streaming down her face.
"The doctors have told me that he is responding well to the surgery they are doing, but they have had to put him into an induced coma because of the severity of the damage, but you both helped him."
FLASH FORWARD
"Jason I am so relieved you are ok," Lois said hugging her son. "How could you be so stupid? I got a call from the school saying you had both gone missing along with Ben. It wasn't until your father called and told me you were ok and what had happened I could lie to the school about your attendance."
"What did you say?" Jason asked.
"I told them that I had come to get you early as you had to be at the Dentists. I had to convince them that the three of you all had the same one, so because of busy parents, we did the trip at the same time. It was the worst lie I have ever concocted."
"It's my fault Mrs Kent," Wally said. "I convinced them both to go and help with the attack."
"That may be so Wally, but Jason is as much to blame for going along with the plan. I leave Mary-Jane here to meet out her opinion on Ben's actions."
"All I can say is, he is his father's son."
There was a knock on the door and the doctor from earlier walked in.
"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "I thought I would come and let you know the results of the surgery."
"Please come in," Mary-Jane said.
"Thank you. Well the results are fantastic news. We have been able to repair the damaged organs and tissue and also have begun a stimulated treatment to speed along the body's natural healing process. However, it will take slightly longer than normal as the damage was quite severe. We will be bringing him out of the coma shortly, but I must warn you that for the next couple of days, he will be quite tired and unresponsive. The healing process is exhausting on the body."
"Thank you doctor, that is wonderful news," Mary-Jane said, a smile forming on her face.
"I will be back in a minute and then we will begin bringing him out of the coma."
The doctor left the room and shortly retuned with another colleague. They moved around the bed and began to remove some of the tubes. She injected a clear solution into Ben's arm and then stood back and monitored the machines. Soon Ben began to twitch his fingers as he slowly and surely regained consciousness.
"Hey there sweetheart," Mary-Jane said, rubbing her hand through his hair.
"Hi," croaked Ben. "I feel like I have been hit by a car."
"Several actually," Jason said.
"We'll leave you to it," the doctor said as she and her colleague left the room.
"Did he get away?" Ben asked, after they left.
"Yeah, he ran off when we came to get you."
"I know who he is."
"How?" Wally asked.
"He gave himself away."
Ben tried to sit up, but collapsed back down onto the bed.
"Try not to move sweetie," Mary-Jane said.
"What did he do to tell you who he is?" Lois asked. "I've looked through all my files and can't see anything that links to him and gives an identity."
"He moved in a particular way, something I had only recently learnt myself."
Wally's face suddenly dropped.
"Of course, I now know who it is. I knew there was something about him I recognised."
"What?" Jason asked exasperated. "What am I the only person who doesn't know who did it?"
"Um we don't know either," Lois said pointing at herself and Mary-Jane.
"I remember when we first saw his videos that there was a feature of his body that I recognised, but couldn't place. The more I thought about it, the more it bugged me, but now I know why and what it was. There was a small lump on his left shoulder near to the neck, as if there was a bolt in there to secure a metal plate in place."
"Oh my goodness," Jason said, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"And the penny drops," Ben said, managing a sly smile.
"Ha, ha," Jason replied. "But it can't be him, why would he do these things?"
"That is what I don't know," Wally said.
"Excuse me, you keep saying you know the attacker of my son, but you still haven't told us," Mary-Jane said.
"Alex Manning," the three lads said together.
"Alex, your friend?" Lois asked. "But he was always such a nice lad."
"I know, that is why I can't believe this," Jason said. "Now I think about it, the lump on the shoulder confirms it. I remember him breaking his collar bone quite badly a few years ago in a skiing holiday."
"I think he knows who I am," Ben said.
"How?" Wally asked.
"For one of the reasons I recognised him. I used a couple of his moves in the attack."
"That means he may want to try and silence you for good," Jason pondered.
"We need to set a trap," Wally decided.
"How?" Lois asked.
"If we can get him moved to a room in the main part of the hospital, we can put out an announcement at school inviting small groups to come and visit and when he comes, he is likely to come alone. That is when we let him into the room and then he can confess. When he does, we can pounce and arrest him."
"Sounds like a plan, but your dad is going to be here incase anything goes wrong," Lois said.
"That is probably for the best, I want Peter there to," Mary-Jane added.
"What do you want me to do?" Peter said as he walked through the door.
"Peter, I'm glad you could make it."
Mary-Jane flung her arms around her husband.
"Hi soldier, how are you doing?" Peter asked Ben.
"I've been better," came the reply.
"So, what do you want me to do?"
They ran through the plan once more and waited for Peter's reply.
"It's a good plan and I think we should definitely put it into action."
"Then that is what we will do," Jason said. "I will go and make arrangements with the doctors and get them up on what we need."
"I suppose I should phone the school in the morning and give them instructions on visiting," Peter said.
They got to it, ready to apprehend the criminal who had hurt them all so much, when they thought he was a friend.