“Jericho, follow me.”

Jericho stared at the woman and sighed. He was midway through his open workout session but nodded. He finished up his rep, then jumped down from the bar. He wrapped his left hand around his right bicep and healed the arm as he followed the person. When he finished healing his right arm, he healed his left arm, then the rest of his upper body.

Jericho was guided towards the rooms at the end of the field house. The only one he had been in so far was the exam room, but they skipped a few more rooms until they reached their destination. Inside was Doctor Yorke surrounded by gym equipment along with a PC, monitors, and other miscellaneous medical tools. There was a table with cloth-covered rectangular boxes atop it as well. He swore he heard odd noises coming from inside the room.

“In there. Doctor Yorke is waiting for you.” The woman left him as he entered the room.

Doctor Yorke smiled as she greeted Jericho. She sat in a swivel chair, and using her legs, she pushed herself closer to him.

“Sorry for interrupting you,” she said. “Your workout looked intense. You also look bigger from the last time I saw you.”

“I don’t mind,” Jericho said. He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Thank you. How big?”

He did not want to get abnormally muscular, only stronger. He knew it would take a while to gain any muscle using free weights, but he was able to heal his sore muscles instantly thus making the growth different. He had seen photos of individuals that strengthened their bodies endlessly and he did not like the aesthetics. He liked the natural look that most individuals with strength abilities had.

“Not that big, but I can see the improvement,” she said. “We’re going to see what else you can heal. Come here.”

She propelled herself the other direction and went towards the table with the cloth-covered boxes. As he approached, he noticed the odd noises again and they increased as he walked closer. She jumped up from off the chair and grabbed one of the coverings and pulled it away.

Jericho instantly realized what he was looking at. It was a barred cage and inside were a few rats. They squealed upon their cloak becoming uncovered and scurried around when Doctor Yorke peered over.

“Today, this is your task.” She moved on to the next covering.

“You want me to heal a bunch of rats?” He asked. He never thought about healing animals. His first thought was to heal another person, but he supposed it was smarter to start small. He could always have an unknown side effect with his abilities, and it was best to have caution. He wondered if they were keeping tabs on Leona, seeing if his healing on her caused any adverse effects.

“Yes, rats,” she said. She pulled another covering, then another. “Bugs, bees, fish. I have everything you can think of.”

“Isn’t this a bit excessive?” Jericho asked. “What if you brought all these animals and it turns out I can’t heal animals?”

“Try it,” she said. “There’s a rat that has a broken leg and another has a severed, stubbed tail. I’m eager to see if you can heal removed body parts.”

Jericho noticed a box of non-latex gloves and quickly inserted his hands into a pair of them. He shivered when he realized he was about to touch a rat.

“I hope they have their shots.” He grimaced. “Do rats get shots?”

“Rest assured,” she said. “I have my assistant with me. She can make them docile so the animals should not be a problem.”

“Docile, huh,” Jericho said. He wondered if the ability worked on humans, more so on him.

The woman from earlier reentered the room and washed her hands at a sink nearby the door.

“Well, look who it is,” Doctor Yorke said.

The woman gave him a curt nod as she gloved up. She said, “Eda.”

Jericho nodded back when he realized she did not have any more to say. “I guess I’m ready.”

Jericho started with the rats in the cage at the closest end of the table. Eda clasped her hands together and the rats immediately stopped scurrying and moved closer towards Jericho and Eda. Jericho turned his head in disbelief and the questions about her power started pouring into his head.

“I’m skilled with my ability, so don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”

“It’s an amazing ability.”

“Thank you.”

Jericho unlatched the lock, reached in, and grabbed one of the rats. He placed the rat on the table, then latched the door again. Eda released her hold of the other rats and they started moving about again. The rat Jericho chose continued to stay in place, but despite its inactivity, his hands turned rigid as he held it.

He looked at the tag attached to its leg and the words broken leg were on it. He closed his eyes and allowed a tiny amount of energy to be released. One thing Jericho needed to work on was utilizing his energy. The key was using just the right amount so that nothing went to waste. He decided at that moment that he was going to practice his power’s amplification, to become more efficient with his healing.

Using the tiniest amount of energy, he projected it into the leg. The rat’s leg moved around as it realigned itself. He set the rat down on the table.

“Can you release the hold?” He backed up. “Maybe just a little bit?”

“Okay,” Eda said. She exhaled and the rat moved forward.

Despite the rat only moving forward a few human-sized steps, chills ran down Jericho’s spine. He backed up further, and almost tripped over from being frightened. The rat jumped onto the floor and made its way towards Jericho. He crawled backward in fear, and it stopped moving just an inch from him.

“Thanks,” he said through exasperated breaths.

He grabbed the rat then put it back into the cage. Eda put a hold on the other rats again and Jericho grabbed the next one. He looked at this one’s tag and it was the one with the stubbed tail. He verified by looking at the tail and surely it was gone.

A severed body part was something on Jericho’s healing to-do-list. He kind of wished he had his notebook from before and wanted it enough to ask, but he did not want anyone to enter his house to retrieve it. If his mom was home, it would only bring her trouble and unnecessary danger. He wanted to ask for a notebook and some pens, but he was unsure whether he wanted his thoughts in physical form. It was a dumb thought since someone could easily have the ability to read minds.

Jericho used the minimum amount of energy again and transferred it onto the stubbed leg. Five seconds passed, then ten. He went against his previous commitment to using the least amount of energy he could and amplified his power. The tail continued to be in its stubbed state. After a minute had passed, he stopped. No point in wasting any more energy when he still had a table left to heal. He sighed.

Doctor Yorke said, “That’s kind of disappointing, but great work, nevertheless. At least we confirmed you being able to heal animals. Maybe you’ll be able to heal stubbed body parts in the future. I’m interested to see what you’ll do with the next cage, but Eda can help you out with that. I have some other tasks to get done, but I’ll check your progress when I come back to see if you succeeded with healing them all or not. It’s easier when it’s a visual sickness, but I’m going to have to take a bit more time with the internal ones.”

Doctor Yorke swivel-chaired herself out the door.

The next cage had a tray and scalpel next to it. He unveiled the cage and immediately gagged in its sight. The worms inside were in the hundreds and slithered around each other. The thought of grabbing a handful even with gloves on grossed him out. Eda noted his hesitation and grabbed a handful placing them onto the tray.

“You know you’re going to have to touch them to heal them.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. He gagged again when he realized what the scalpel was for.

“Come on, you’re a healer,” she said assuredly. “You’re going to have to see worse than this.”

He gagged yet again, his throat squeezed as he thought about the unsightly things he would be exposed to. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and regained himself.

He degloved, and replaced the pair with new, clean ones. He grabbed one of the worms and separated it from the rest. He took note of the many folds on the elongated body and readied himself with the scalpel.

“Yeah, I can’t do this,” he said. He placed the scalpel down.

“I’m making the worm immobile. You should be fine.”

“It’s more a me problem,” he admitted.

Eda nodded and grabbed the scalpel and measured half of the worm’s length visually, before cutting and splitting it at the point. She did this again with two other worms, but with different splitting points. The splits were each a quarter in length, one near the head and the other at the tail. The worms were split into 2 segments.

Jericho acknowledged his energy reserves. He was running low after his workout, but he would be able to manage. He started with the worm cut down the middle. He was met with a resistance; one he had never felt before. He pulled himself from the visceral plane, then put himself back in. He was met with the same resistance immediately, but this time he pushed through. The worm slowly healed and reunited into one. Jericho did the same with the others. Eda took the worms and set them to the side for Doctor Yorke to inspect later.

Given enough curiosity, Jericho forgot about his mild fear of the worms and grabbed three more. He applied the same cuts as Eda and started the healing process again. He began with three but by the end there was a total of six. Eda grabbed the six worms and set them to the side. She wrote down on a couple of sticky notes and labeled the worms. She did the same with the rat cage.

Eda said, “That must be because they’re worms. It would be amazing if you were able to fully regenerate two human body parts like that.”

Jericho noted the thought but shook his head so Eda would drop the idea. “That sounds dumb, not something I’m capable of. I couldn’t even heal that rat’s stubbed tail.”

“I guess so.”

He looked at the note and the idea was still written down.

He healed beetles, wasps, and a bunch of other creatures and was eventually at the end of the table. His last assignment was to heal bees and he wrapped up by focusing his energy around an entire beehive.

“I’m sure the environmentalists will love you for that. The bee populations have been dying lately.”

“You’re joking, right?” Jericho scoffed at her comment. The bees could all die out before he would even leave this place.

“There’s more outside,” Eda said.

“More?” He said in disbelief. He looked at the table he had just finished from one end to the other. Sure, he expected more, and was somewhat intrigued about going outside, but he was tired at this point.

She looked at her watch. “I suppose we can call it a day. I’ll come get you again for the next session.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and left to freshen up with a shower. His coolness went away, and the realization he touched the rats and the rest of the animals settled in.