CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

Mass Healer, Part 1

The moon had reached its zenith by the time Sam rolled into Kansas City in search of his friends, but the scene before him now lit up the sky in orange hues reminiscent of that first chaotic night when his life as an Argonaut began.

“What in Hades...”

Sam had just driven into a wide parking lot that was littered with craters and broken debris. Fires were scattered everywhere, illuminating a sight reminiscent of battlefields from those World War II documentaries he liked to binge on.

Looks like you’re late to the party again, Chiron said.

He drove past several silver Wardens busses which had been overturned with their innards leaking out across the cracked cement.

“That’s an understatement,” Sam said as he parked his bike next to one of the large recovery tents that had been raised to accommodate the wounded heroes gathered inside it. “What happened here?”

Of the Argo VII, Sam could find no sign; although the dilapidated iron gates swinging off their hinges at the other end of the parking lot and the obvious tire marks between them offered him an uneasy guess at where his friends might have gone.

“You!” someone called from inside the tent. “You’re that vigilante everyone’s been talking about recently, aren’t you?”

The heroine who caught Sam’s attention was a familiar blue-haired Asian woman in a blue jumpsuit. He recognized her instantly as Miracle Girl.

“Heard you were a healer”—Miracle Girl went back to taking care of a curly-haired teen hero in a skin-tight green suit—“come help me with this!”

Sam watched two more heroes—both of them decked in the red and blue colors of Kansas’ premier super-team—arrive at the tent while carrying a third hero between them before he snapped out of his daze and stepped into the tent, too.

“How can I help?” he asked.

Miracle Girl had her arms pressed on a huge hole in the teen hero’s left shoulder. Her gloved hands were covered in blood.

“Find someone to heal,” she answered distractedly.

Sam took in the sight of injured heroes lying on makeshift cots and the overworked healers sitting by their side before he knelt beside the hero that was just brought in by the two Kansas locals.

“It’s alright...” Sam’s brow creased as he recognized the wolf mask that didn’t cover the bottom half of her face. “I’ve got you, Wolf-Woman.”

He willed his life force into his fingertips—reveling in the warm sensation that spread across his hands—and began to magically stitch together the bloody tear that cut across her chest.

While he cast Healing Hand on her, Sam began asking Wolf-Woman questions like why there were New York heroes in Kansas City, and she replied with, “We were commissioned to raid…the Endless Maze...”

The Endless Maze—that was the other name for the Eisenhower Museum. For underneath its campus was a labyrinthine maze that not even a powerful relic such as Ariadne’s String could fully map out.

Sam knew there had been two raids commissioned for this haunted zone before, but both had ended in failure. Too few heroes had returned alive in each one, and the stories of how many more were lost inside its alpha-rated dungeon filled with revolving hallways, hidden rooms, and trap doors were perhaps one of the most retold ghost stories in modern hero mythology.

“A third raid...” Sam whispered to himself. “Why now...?”

Could this be a coincidence? Sam wondered as his gaze drifted up toward the night sky. Or is someone nudging us along...?

With the healing finished, Sam helped Wolf-Woman sit up. He blushed slightly at how her torn costume revealed a little too much skin on her chest. Although he was proud of his work and how the pink scar between her breasts wouldn’t leave a permanent mark.

“Thank you,” she said in a husky voice.

“N-no problem...” Sam was actively trying hard not to stare. “So, um, what happened to your raid?”

“Chimera happened,” Wolf-Woman growled.

The word ‘Chimera’ made Sam’s brow furrow once more, forcing his gaze back on Wolf-Woman with all thought of impropriety driven from his mind.

“Can you elaborate,” he insisted.

Wolf-Woman explained that a well-trained troop of soldiers clad in white combat suits had ambushed their thirty-man hero party at the entrance of the Endless Maze.

“How do you know they’re with Chimera?” Sam pressed.

“The big guns and white fascist suits weren’t enough of a clue for you?” she growled. But then she sighed and offered Sam an apologetic smile. “Apologies, I just…they came out of nowhere.”

She took out a piece of cloth from one of the pockets in her utility belt and offered it to Sam. It was a shoulder patch that showed a crest of a monster with the heads of a lion, goat, and snake attached to a beast’s body which was shaped to present the letter C.

“Not many people know that symbol, but I’ve been working with the Wardens to uncover the existence of a secret organization that’s been causing trouble recently…” Wolf-Woman’s eyes searched Sam’s face, and she must have noticed how unfazed he was by this news because she finished with, “You know about them as well, don’t you?”

“I’ve had run-ins with them recently,” Sam admitted.

From behind her mask, Sam could see Wolf-Woman’s eyes narrow at him.

“Where?” she pressed.

“Um,” Sam suddenly found it difficult to lie in front of that piercing wolf-eyed glare, “I…I…”

ALERT! Wolf-Woman is attempting to use [Intimidation (Γ)] on you. Willpower [30] is insufficient. The system will use [Regeneration (ζ)] to aid against it…

“Please”—Sam pressed his fingers against his temple—“don’t do that!”

The pressure in his mind subsided, and Sam let out a deep breath.

“Impressive,” came Wolf-Woman’s husky voice, “you’re a lot stronger than when we first met, Herculean.”

Sam had once heard that Wolf-Woman’s keen senses were rated very highly by the Wardens despite her only receiving a gamma-level rating for her primary gift of lycanthropy. It was said that she could even sense the strength of others just from taking in their scent, which meant Sam would have to be careful around her.

“Ugh…” Sam tried to hide his anxiety by pretending to still be in pain from their mental spar. “You could just ask nicely… I’m not trying to hide anything.”

“Sorry…force of habit,” she admitted. “I know you’re one of the good ones. Even if you are a vigilante.”

In exchange for Sam revealing how he’d run into Chimera’s agents in Philadelphia and Chicago, Wolf-Woman told Sam the story of a black school bus that tore right through the battlefield and broke past the gate that kept the Eisenhower campus under lock and key.

“The bus drew Chimera’s soldiers to it and away from us,” she explained.

“They did that on purpose,” Sam said in exasperation.

“Yes, I think so, too,” Wolf-Woman replied. “In their own way, your team was trying to save lives.”

“M-my team?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “I d-don’t—”

She tapped a finger against the tip of her nose. “Just so you know, I can smell when someone’s lying.”

“And everyone’s heard the news report about Thunder and some unknown heroes rescuing civilians from an explosion at the Chicago Water Tower… There was something about the vigilante, Herculean, possibly causing it too.” Miracle Girl had dropped in to check on her partner. Satisfied that Sam hadn’t botched the job, she turned a begrudging nod of respect toward him. “You guys really drive around in a magic school bus?”

“Um,” Sam hesitated to answer, prompting Miracle Girl to brush off his worry with, “Wolf and I don’t care about you being a vigilante, guy. As long as you’re competent.”

Her gaze drifted toward the other injured heroes in their cots.

“Don’t suppose you’ve got any more healing in you?” she added. “I’m tapped out…”

Sam followed her gaze and then smiled. “I’ve got this.”

“You do?” Wolf-Woman and Miracle Girl both asked at the same time.

But Sam wasn’t listening to them anymore because his focus drifted to his inner self and to the fount of life force that had grown considerably inside of him since he’d first met them outside the burning apartment.

You’re going to use it, aren’t you? Chiron guessed.

“No time like the present,” Sam replied under his breath.

He placed his hands together as if in prayer—forming a circle with his arms which would function as a kind of makeshift arcane array to help channel his newfound power—and then Sam whispered, “Mass Healing.”

His entire body lit up like a teal-colored Christmas tree. Glowing tendrils of energy spread out of him to drift over to the tent’s injured inhabitants, spearing into them, filling them with life energy that supercharged their bodies’ own ability to regenerate.

As garish wounds began to close and broken bones began to mend, a great deal of confusion flitted across each of the heroes’ faces. While the healers who understood what was happening gazed at Sam with renewed interest.

“Holy shit,” Miracle Girl raised an eyebrow at Sam, “how does a zeta cast such powerful heals…?”

No, this was definitely not the work of a zeta-level healer. Even a delta might not have managed such a feat. But Sam was neither now. Apollo had finally come through for him and given Sam a reward that bumped his gift past that power ceiling and straight into gamma-level territory.

***

It happened while Sam was on his five-hour drive from Missouri to Kansas. Somewhere along the freeway, he’d been stopped by what he’d thought at first was a hitchhiker with impeccable golden hair. But then the golden-eyed man opened his mouth, and Sam realized that his patron had come down from his lofty palace in the sky to have a chat with, in Apollo’s words, “His new favorite hero!”

“You’re not just lost, are you?” Sam pointed a thumb behind him. “Spring Break’s that way...”

“Your joke sucks…Spring Break was months ago,” Apollo replied genially. “I just dropped by to tell you that you did an excellent-o job saving my hide from Artemis’ arrows.”

Sam’s eyebrow rose slightly. “Is that all?”

Despite Apollo’s amiable presence, Sam couldn’t bring himself to fully trust such an inconsistent patron.

“Well, I might have come over to make sure you weren’t going to jump ship on me,” Apollo admitted. “Artemis was impressed with how you handled that situation with the hind, and now she’s been going on and on about contracting you exclusively into her service.”

Apollo elbowed Sam lightly in the ribs.

“Can you believe her cahones,” he chuckled half-heartedly. “Trying to brag about stealing my guy from under me...my guy! The nerve of her!”

He sent a furtive glance Sam’s way and noticed the frown on the hero’s face.

“You’re not thinking of signing with Artemis, are you?” as he asked this, Apollo’s toothy grin faltered slightly.

Truthfully, Sam wasn’t even aware signing with another god was possible. There were free agents like Thunder who’d risen through the ranks under their own power and found patrons afterward, but Sam had been too weak to be noticed by other gods, and so he’d always labored under Apollo’s brand.

“No,” Sam said, and he was slightly taken aback that he meant it. “I’m not planning on switching patrons unless you give me a reason to stop believing in you...”

Apollo, relieved by the truth in Sam’s words, decided to bestow on, “My guy!” a special reward for his latest successful mission. Although Sam had the impression he was being bribed too.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve completed the special mission [RECAPTURE THE CERYNEIAN HIND]. REWARDS ONE: You have earned Apollo’s favor! Now, allow my amazingly incredible extra-special FPS one thousand solar rays to flow into your veins and unleash more of your potential!

Just like the reward claimed, power did flow into Sam. But it was different from the painful feeling of absorbing Zeus’ lightning bolt. The celestial energy that spread across his body now was warm and welcoming, invoking the feeling of sunbathing on a beach while dawn’s first rays caressed his skin.

[You leveled up!] popped up six times, bumping Sam’s level from twenty-four to thirty. Even more surprising, Apollo’s celestial energy altered Sam’s primary gift, Healing Hand, strengthening it so much that it finally evolved into [Healing Hand (Γ)].

“I-is this for real?” Sam flexed the fingers of his right hand. “I... I’ve broken into gamma-level?”

“You were already on your way. I just gave you a little push.” Apollo patted Sam genially on the shoulder. “But if it helps, think of it as your official signing bonus... Seriously, I’d love for you to think that.”

REWARDS TWO: 1,500 Golden Drachma, 1x supplementary gift to Healing Hand, exclusive OTC collectible: 1:100 Master-Grade Argo VII kit complete with attachable javelin launcher and Archimedes Mirror (comes with a certificate of authenticity)

What happened next might have even caught Apollo unaware as his face mirrored Sam’s surprised look when they both read the pop-up that came after the last one.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve accumulated enough experience with [Healing Hand (Γ)] to unlock a supplementary gift from the [SUPPORT] tree. [Mass Healing (ζ)] received.

“Holy Apollo,” Sam gasped. ‘This is awesome!”