8 Airson's Story, Part Six
Police investigators from Arbok came to Lemming Town the next morning to bring back Carnage's body. They questioned a few of the locals, and then asked Niwea and Nigel about yesterday's events. After that they took their leave.
The mayor of the town was overjoyed with the Knights, and insisted they throw a feast that night.
"We'd accept, but our friend is still recuperating. We don't know when he'll wake up." Nigel said.
"Oh, that's too bad. Send him my prayers." the mayor replied.
"Thank you, I will."
--
Airson was in Lemming Town's only hospital, laying down in bed, unconscious.
Niwea opened the room door and came in. Pachi was sitting next to the bed in one of the chairs available. She sat there with her hands on her knees in silence.
"Oh, you're the girl from last night."
She looked at him. "Pachi."
"That's your name? Well mine is Niwea. Nice to meet you."
Pachi looked back down in sadness.
"What's the matter?"
"It's my fault Airson got hurt, if only I wasn't outside in the first place..." She stopped herself mid sentence.
"Don't blame yourself. Besides he's perfectly healed now, he just needs more rest. You should go on home."
Pachi shook her head. "No."
Niwea looked at her confusedly. "You sure?"
She nodded.
Hours pass.
--
Airson is outside.
The sky is dark with thunderclouds. He hears the thunder rolling in the distance. It begins to rain.
He stands in front of a hospital. All of the lights are on. He feels compelled to walk towards it.
As he takes his first step, he teleports to a hospital room.
"What's this?" he asks flatly.
A pregnant woman is on a bed giving birth. The doctors are helping her, and there is no father in sight.
Screams of pain echo the hallways outside of the room.
A baby boy is born.
The mother holds her son in her arms, caressing the child's fragile body.
"The miracle of life." Airson thinks to himself. "What's his name?" he asks out loud.
The woman pays no mind.
He asks again.
She ignores him.
Airson walks up to the woman to touch her shoulder and passes right through.
"Oh. A dream. But why does it feel so... familiar?"
The nurses and doctors have a brief conversation with the woman, put a tag around the baby's ankle, and leave the hospital room.
Airson stands by the woman's bedside, looking at the baby boy.
The baby hasn't cried once since being born.
Airson watches as the mother tends to her son, who is simply breathing quietly and not moving much at all.
"He's so peaceful." Airson thought.
The thunder begins to roar louder outside.
The baby is frightened by the sound and starts crying softly.
"There, there." The mother lulls. "It's just thunder. You should get along with the thunder. We hear it all the time. The people of old would say that the sound of thunder is the voice of god. One day you might have that voice too."
The baby stopped crying and looked at his mother. He smiled.
Tears started streaming down Airson's face. He didn't know why he was crying.
"Oh." the mother said softly, tearing up herself. "I finally get to see those beautiful eyes, Airson."
Airson's eyes widened.
His heart jumped, he started to have trouble breathing.
His tears flowed even more. He never thought he'd seen this woman in his life, but here she was, looking at him as an infant.
Airson screamed as loudly as he could. "MOM!!"
His voice was drowned out by the immense clap of lightning.
It struck the antennas on the hospital ceiling and blew out the electricity.
Everything in the hospital that was electric caught fire and exploded, sending the entire building up in flames.
It was a tragedy.
Every man, woman, and child inside of the hospital died instantly.
Airson was still there inside the building, looking at his mother's face, burned to a crisp with floorboards and debris crushing her body.
He stood there, burning this memory into his brain for what seemed like hours.
It was raining fiercely now.
"Why?" Airson said in a dead depressed tone. "Why are you showing me this? Why was she taken from me?"
He heard police sirens in the distance.
Police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the disastrous scene minutes later.
The police quickly ran out to find survivors but they found none.
An investigator neared his mother's body.
"Don't touch her!!" Airson screamed, but the man couldn't hear or see him. He moved the debris from the woman's lifeless corpse.
Soon you could hear a faint, delicate cry from underneath the boards.
The man quickly rushed to get the debris off the mother. "OVER HERE!!!"
Soon there were five officers trying to free the baby.
Under his mother's arm, with not a single scratch on him, was Airson.
A female officer picked him up. "It's a miracle..."
She checked the tag on the baby's ankle. "Airson? That's your name? Oh it's okay, come on, you're alright now."
Only it wasn't alright.
Airson knew where the story went from here.
He turned to take one more glance at his mother's face but she was gone now.
Everything was.
He could only see white.
--
Airson opened his eyes.
"So you're finally back."
Nigel was standing against the wall to the left of the door.
"Huh? Airson?" Pachi was half asleep in her chair but she woke up. "AIRSON!!"
She gave him a hug from the side of the bed, crying. She began rambling.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you yesterday!! It was mean and you saved me even though it was all my fault and you got hurt and I was worried because I thought you died and WAAAAAHHHH!!" She started crying again.
Airson smiled. He sat up. "It's okay now. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?"
She looked up at him. "Uh huh..." Pachi wiped her face. She kept her head on Airson's bedside.
"Where's Niwea?" Airson asked.
"He's out paying your hospital bill right about now I think." Nigel said.
Airson tapped Pachi on the back, she got up.
Airson got out of bed. He only had on his pants, but even Nigel could see that Airson had gained some muscle mass overnight.
"Hey! That's not fair! What were you doing in your sleep? Doping?!" he exclaimed.
Airson was surprised himself, as he was normally pretty slim, but it's true he bulked up some while he was out. "The Ultrasonic form I was using burns all the energy that my body has. It also breaks down my muscle fiber because of the lightning repeatedly ripping them up. This is probably the effect of your quick healing ability. I burned up what remaining body fat I had left too." He shrugged it off and threw on a white t-shirt the nurse had left him.
"Um. Are you guys gonna leave?" Pachi asked.
"Yeah, in a little bit." Airson replied.
"I... I... I... L-Let me go with you!" she said with nervous determination.
"Don't you have a home to go back to?"
Her expression fell. "Yes, but..."
"But?"
"I can't!" she exclaimed. "I just can't. My... mother... doesn't want me."
Airson felt for her. He could understand her feelings. "But what would you do? You can't be a freeloader you know."
Pachi's determination returned. "I can do anything you need me to! I'm actually a really great worker!"
Airson thought on it. "Alright. But don't get lazy when the work piles up!"
Pachi had a huge smile on her face. "I won't! Promise!"
