It had been almost an hour since Alpha had brought Orphan to the strange hospital and nothing had changed so far. Orphan had yet to come out of surgery, their only source of information about her current condition had been the child that led them there.
She had returned not but a minute or two after the doctor had sent her for donor blood carrying multiple packets of it into the operating room. She had just left fifteen minutes ago her only words to the small group were that it would be a while.
Dick sighed as he leaned further into the seat he had taken. He had already called Beta squad and given them the rubdown of the situation. For the meanwhile M'gann, Conner, and Blue Beetle would hold back unless they needed help. Tim would be here in a few minutes to wait with him in case…..in case Cass didn't pull through. Cassie would be with him of course, Tim had tried talking her into waiting with the others but she wouldn't have it.
Dick was broken from his thoughts when John stood up.
"I don't know about you lot, but I'm feelin a bit peckish. Any of ya wanna join me I'll show you to the cafeteria?"
Spoiler shook her head but said nothing while nightwing shook his head.
"Thanks, but I'm going to wait here for Red Robin and Wonder Girl."
Arrowette stood from her seat "I'll come, I could use a little food."
Constantine just nodded as he started walking down the hallway. Arrowette went to follow, but not before she pat spoiler on the shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.
Dick looked away from the two and found Spoiler staring intently at the operating room door. He sighed before speaking up.
"You know…" he started getting her attention. "I've known John Constantine a while and the guy almost never compliments anyone. If he says this doctor is one of the best then he's definitely one of the best. She's in good hands."
"I…I wish I could believe that Nightwing, but we don't know anything about this 'doctor'." She replied.
Arrowette followed Constantine into a large cafeteria, as they entered she stopped to take in the room. It was large easily fitting about a dozen large cafeteria tables that had could each sit up to six people. The room itself wasn't very populated with it's only inhabitants being Constantine, a woman she recognized as Killer Frost, King Shark, and of course herself.
She was interrupted when Constantine spoke "Come on las let's not bother frosty and my ex."
"Alright….wait what?" Arrowette asked bewildered as she glanced towards the giant shark that suddenly gave a very toothy grin.
Her question went ignored as Constantine walked over to a large hot bar style buffet that had all number of foods. At the beginning were plastic silverware and either plates or takeout boxes. She guessed the latter were for patients to eat in their rooms, she would have to fix a couple plates for the others before they left. Her musings were cut short when she caught sight of the same little girl from earlier carrying two trays for the buffet.
The girl started to set one of the trays down when she suddenly tripped. Arrowette was there before the tray could drop and was helping the girl catch herself.
"Woah careful there, you ok?" Arrowette asked setting the tray she caught to the side with one hand as she steadied the girl with her other.
"Yeah, sorry Doc usually helps me, but well you know…" the girl said.
"Yeah, Uh you know I don't think I actually got your name in all the rush."
The girl grinned. "My name is Lilith Abernathy, assistant and nurse for the Doc." Lilith stated with gusto.
"Well Lilith, I'm Arrowette and I don't think any of us have said it yet, but thank you for bringing us here." Arrowette replied with a small smile.
To her surprise the girl just waved off the praise. "Don't mention it, Doc's always saying we help anyone that's hurt."
Arrowette nodded filing that away for later. "So, I really should ask aren't your parents worried about you? Do you need a hand getting home?"
The girl stood frozen for just a moment before replying in a low whisper. "This is my home."
"What? Are you and the Doctor related?" She asked and received a hesitant shake of the head. Arrowette was about to ask more questions when a blue skinned hand roughly shoved her away from Lilith.
Arrowette looked up to see that Killer Frost was glaring dangerously at her. The ice themed villain was standing between her and Lilith almost protectively. Arrowette got into a stance ready to fight just for Killer Frost to look towards Lilith with a softer expression.
"Hey kid, Shouldn't you be doing some of your chores?" Frost asked fondly.
"Oh! Thanks Frosty, I need to take Miss kitty her medicines!" Lilith stated as she quickly set the trays in their correct spots before running out of the cafeteria.
Arrowette watched her go before looking back at Frost. Frost looked to Arrowette and relaxed slightly.
"We got an unspoken rule here dumbass, we don't bring up the kids past." She said heatedly.
"Why, she's not kidnapped is she?" Arrowette snarked in return.
Frost glared in return before sighing and gesturing towards a nearby table. Constantine grabbed his food and sat with her, the two then looked at Arrowette causing her to reluctantly do the same.
"How much you know about Doc?" Frost questioned.
"Girl knows fuck all, barely met 'em an hour ago." John answered in her place causing Frost to nod.
"Well for starters his name's William, no one knows his last name or if they do they don't repeat it." Frost started. "Most of us don't know jack about him, but he knows damn ear everything about us."
"What does that have to do with Lilith?" Arrowette asked warily.
"I'm getting to that, don't interrupt me. The kid showed up about a year ago, she basically tumbled through the front doors looking like she was used as a punching bag." Frost said venomously.
"Aye, heard about that. Apparently it was one of the few times the Doc was actually upset." Constantine added.
"Upset? The guy patched up a kid barely hanging on to life and told literally everyone in no uncertain terms if they remotely made her uncomfortable he'd outright skin them alive." Frost replied. "I was one of the few people there when he was done. He stormed out of her room pissed as all hell and told me to keep an eye on the kid. Next thing I know he was out the front door."
"What had happened to her?" Arrowette asked almost afraid of the answer. She had a pretty good idea now that she thought over her conversation with Lilith.
"I looked over her chart while the Doc was gone. She has three broken ribs, a hairline fracture on her humerus, and a lot of bruises that made it obvious she was abused repeatedly." Frost stated.
"So where did the doctor go after he was done checking over the kid?" Arrowette asked.
Frost shrugged "No idea and frankly if it was to kill off whoever did that to the kid, I don't care." Frost stated as she stood up. "Don't think I'm doing this for your benefit, just don't make the kid uncomfortable and we're even. I see you outside of here and I'll kill you." Frost stated as she walked out of the cafeteria.
Arrowette sat there for a minute before she pressed her ear communicator. "Arrowette to Oracle, I have a few names for you to look into."
M'gann was worried…..no she was terrified. She and the rest of Beta squad were aboard the bioship in route to drop Tim and Cassie off. She was also on a video call with Batman.
"They what?"
She visibly cringed "Nightwing followed the direction provided by one of the people they saved to a hidden hospital. Once there they were immediately met with the doctor in charge who took Orphan directly into surgery."
If possible Batman's lips appear to tighten to an incredibly thin line. "What is Orphans current status?" He asked his voice hard.
"Orphan is still in surgery, she's been there for an hour. When We received the call from Nightwing that she was receiving medical attention I made the decision to do a quick scan to ensure there were no other locations in use by the traffickers. We're on the way to drop off Red Robin and Wonder Girl for support." She hurriedly explained.
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes, send the location for the hospital. In the meantime what do we know about this doctor." He asked.
It was at that moment that Oracle joined the call a second screen appearing beside Batman's.
Barbara wasted no time launching into her findings. "Alright we knew next to nothing about this place until I just received word from Arrowette a few minutes ago. Cross referencing the first name with known medical licenses I was able to come up with three possible matches. I eliminated one by age and another by ethnicity leaving us with this…" Barbara trailed off as an image of a young man wearing a wearing a white coat appeared. He was obviously several years younger than what they were told. He had light brown hair that had been cut short, he was a shade paler than most normal humans, and his most notable feature were his striking purple eyes.
"Say hello to Doctor William, born in the United States, he has no last name. According to his mother she didn't want to give him hers or his unknown fathers out of respect for his father. He got his medical license at the age of seventeen, however that's not the most interesting thing about him. His mother was apart of Doctors Without Borders until 2010 where she was serving as a doctor in Iraq. After several days of no contact a group of UN Peacekeepers were sent to investigate where they found the village she had been working in burned to the ground. They listed the incident as no survivors and one missing person." Oracle explained before pausing to bring up pictures of the doctors late mother and evidence photos of the village that had been burned down.
"Where was doctor William at that time?" Tim asked sorting through the photos.
"With no living relatives, he was with his mother. He was the only one not counted among the dead. According to records he reentered the country about five years ago."
Blue beetle listened intently before crossing his arms. "So the guy disappears for eight years and then, out of the blue, he's running a hospital for bad guys? Yeah that doesn't scream suspicious at all."
This time it was Batman that spoke up. "Actually, this was something myself and Green Arrow have been looking into. There have been a number of reports in both Star City and Gotham that indicated meta-humans were being denied any and all medical services. These reports were swept under the rug and buried by the hospital's and clinics involved. It was only during a separate investigation that we were able to discover this. We've been able to bring these crimes to the attention of proper authorities, however we discovered a number of meta's discussing a hospital somewhere in Star City that would treat anyone."
"Guess we found it." Conner grunted.
M'gann nodded in agreement. "Agreed, we'll drop Red Robin and Wonder Girl off at the hospital and then hold back for support Batman."
"I'll keep trying to dig up more on the Doctor on my end and this other girl Arrowette mentioned. Keep me posted on Orphans condition, Oracle out."
"I will contact other members of the Justice League and the outsiders for assistance. For now do not escalate the situation, if this hospital is neutral territory then the last thing we need is to start an all out brawl with multiple super villains and possibly civilians present." Batman ordered.
"Copy that Batman." M'gann stated ending the call. "We're coming up on the Hospital now." M'gann stated as she brought the bioship to hover just over street level.
It was an hour later when the surgery light went off. The gathered group now consisting of Nightwing, Spoiler, Arrowette, Red Robin, Wonder Girl, and Batman were waiting in front of the operating room doors. They waited with baited breath, mentally preparing themselves for the worst and hoping for the best.
A few seconds later the doctor walked out wearing a standard surgical gown that had a slight amount of blood across the front. Seeing the group he made his way over to them.
"Alright, which of you are her guardian?" He asked already staring at Batman intently.
The dark knight nodded. "I am, what's her condition?"
William let out a long sigh. "If it were any other hospital she would have died. Not only did she have a small puncture in her left lung, but one of her arteries was in fact knicked. This led to rapid pooling of blood in her lungs. I was able to stop the bleeding and repair the damage, but she won't be on her feet for at least a few weeks." He explained.
"Will she be okay to go home?" Spoiler asked hopefully.
"No, the only way I was able to actually save her was a very liberal use of my meta abilities from draining the blood to the fine stitching that was needed on her organs. Not to mention the accelerated healing process that's reducing her recovery time from a few months to a few weeks…." He paused before pressing his hand to the wall. Soon a light purple pulse was discharged forming a box around all those present.
"Ah better, that was for a little privacy. Ok now that I don't have to mince words, there's a range to how close someone has to be for my powers to stay in effect. If you were to take Cassandra out of the hospital you would be right back to square one." William stated.
Before anyone could say anything else Spoiler had grabbed the Doctor by the scruff of his clothes and thrown him against the wall.
"One chance, how do you know her name?" She asked dangerously.
Dick was about to intervene when Batman held his hand out stopping him. It was obvious that Batman was having similar thoughts to Spoiler.
"I'll forgive that one, but I seriously suggest you calm down Ms. Brown." William stated as his eyes took on a dangerous purple glow.
Despite her best efforts Spoiler, feeling control of her body wrenched away, let the doctor go and stepped away. As soon as she did a band of purple energy shot out of her returning to the doctor.
"Now, as I was about to explain. My powers allow me a form of energy manipulation, I guess you could call it soul manipulation in a way. I can connect my soul to others and share my own passive abilities such as regeneration. This does come with the downside of myself and the other party sharing memories. In this case Cassandra and I had our souls linked for a little over two hours so I know a great deal about her and by extension some of you." William explained.
"Hmm, I'm not happy about this, but you've saved one of ours." Batman stated begrudgingly. "We will be having a discussion about this later."
The doctor shrugged. "Don't care, you want to complain make an appointment otherwise don't interfere with my patients treatment. Now if you'll excuse me I came to give you the good news that Cassandra was stable and I'll be moving her to a room soon." He informed before turning to walk away bringing the barrier down with him as he did.
"Hang on." Tim stated quickly, catching the doctors attention again. "You said your powers let you connect your soul. That doesn't explain the part where you used it to create a barrier or used them during Orpahns surgery. Where does that energy come from?"
"Easy, it comes from those that I've killed." William stated seriously before leaving the group alone.