On Bleed Through.

An interesting phenomenon among metahumans is ‘Bleed Through,’ during which the use of powers physically affects the user. Common examples include glowing eyes, oddly coloured hair and in extreme cases the body deleteriously turning into stone, water or even fire. The passive effects such as hair and eye colour are routinely observed in more powerful Metahumans while the most dangerous forms of bleed through only occur with sever overuse of powers.

As they walked back though the dungeon Mickey lectured the group on injury management.

‘So aside from the medical stuff you guys need to consider a few things. First, I’ll be running a basic workshop on the weekends which will cover all the commonsense crap you lot missed as well as basic information about metaregions in general and this one in particular. That’s where we’ll go over any new information about the development f the dungeon. It would be incredibly useful to have at least on team member attend so that teams can learn from and hopefully work together.’

Benji interrupted.

‘But won’t some groups conceal things? I mean we’re all competing for the same stuff, right?’

Mickey frowned.

‘And that is exactly the wrong way to look at it. It isn’t group A vs group B, it’s Groups A through Z against a powerful, alien ecosystem that’s specifically preying on human beings. Any group, team or organisation that intentionally works against another group will be lucky if all I do is break their legs. Keep in mind that as guild members, anyone acting against you is acting against the guild and therefore me.’

‘Now you lot will have to finish that workshop before I let you in again, partly because you’re underprepared but also so I can get the bureaucratic parts of the guild up and running, as well as equipment and escorts and such.’

‘Hey, I have a question. Why are you in charge? Like why not Jumpiter from Sydney?’

Cassie asked.

‘Good question. It’s a bunch’a little reasons. I actually live in Brisbane for one. I didn’t name myself after a roman god or a planet for another. But mostly I used to work with a group of lunatics who raided metaregions professionally. That plus some video game logic makes me the closest thing to an expert in this situation.’

As they make it to the entry room Mickey considers the steps to get Cassie to a doctor.

First, he’s going to either call an ambulance, or get her into his car without bending her leg. Then he’s going to have to explain to the doctor how she got injured and why a stranger took her to the doctors and not her parents. And then he would have to explain the same things to her undoubtedly pissed off parents.

Ah fuck it, I’ll use a trump card. Save myself the hassle and the lawsuit.

Turning to Cassie, Mickey sighed heavily before saying.

‘So, you and I have a problem, little miss kick everything. You’re injured and I could be considered liable. Now I really don’t want to deal with concerned doctors, lawyers, angry parents, or the child protective services so I’m going to give you a limited one time offer of a metapowered healing item. And I mean one time because I only have a limited amount of these, and they can’t make anymore.’

Cassowary perked up.

‘Wait really? That’s-’ she said before Mickey stabbed her broken leg with an emerald needle through her yoga pants.

‘MOTHERFUCKER!’ Cassie screamed, grabbing her injured leg.

‘Why’s it fucking hurt so much.’

Mickey pulled out the now shorter needle and absorbed it into his pocket dimension.

‘That would because it heals the chemicals which were numbing your nerves first, and then you went through roughly three months of healing in less then a second. Your nervous system has no idea what’s going on and interprets it as pain. But hey you’re healed so you can go back to kicking heavy, fast-moving objects as soon as you remove the brace. Also get out of my wheelchair.’

Attracted by Cassowary’s scream the other teenagers crowded around her.

‘What’s happened are you okay?’ asks Benji

‘I’m fine. It just hurt when dickhead here stabbed me with his magic healing needle.’

Big Al look at Mickey in surprise.

‘You have a magic healing needle? Why didn’t you use it earlier?’

‘Because I try to keep the lifesaving meta-powered artifacts for emergencies. There’s only a limited number of them floating around.’ Mickey shrugged.

‘She’s just lucky I consider having to deal with parents and doctors to be an emergency.’

Rosa frowned.

‘Shouldn’t a doctor have those if they’re so effective?’

‘Eh, In an ideal world sure. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of the metamaterial the needles were made from and only the left-over scraps were made into the needles. The rest was used by Fabricators for their crazy inventions or used for research.’

‘No what I meant was- ‘

‘Wait let me guess.’ Mickey assumed a pose, finger to his chin, to imply naivety and spoke in soprano.

‘“Shouldn’t you give those valuable items of yours to doctors free of charge so they can put them to best use?” Right?

Here’s what would happen if I gave them to a hospital. Best case scenario they might save maybe three times as many people as I could. Which would still be less than fifty people. That’s a statistically insignificant amount of people. And then when they ran out, they’d have to deal with telling people “Sorry no more miracle cure” and a bunch of talking heads questioning who they saved and all that nonsense.

And that’s a best case. What’s more likely is that someone would steal it and sell it on the black market, or that it would be bought by some half-dead oligarch for a few more years of life or it would be left on some shelf forever because it was an untested, unreliable treatment and they couldn’t decide what to do with it.

Frankly, possession is nine tenths of the law and with me at least I know they’ll get used and I won’t regret giving them away to be used by an arsehole.’

Rant done with Mickey looked at the assembled teens. Rosa was looking abashed but still had hints of defiance, Alphonse and Dolphin were standing idle by the exit portal, and Benjamin was helping Cassowary out of the wheelchair, while she tested her leg.

‘It still hurts a bit.’ She muttered.

‘That’s intentional. Better that it under heal then over heal.’ Mickey said.

‘What happens if it over heals?’ Asks Benji.

‘Highly aggressive malignant metapowered cancer.’ Mickey replied with nonchalance.

This immediately got everybody’s attention.

‘FUCKING WHAT?!‘ Screamed Cassie.

Mickey waved his hand unconcernedly.

‘Relax, You’re fine. I made sure to leave some damage, so the Meta-compound expended all its energy healing you. Plus, I was using the metaregion itself for extra safety. You are one hundred percent cancer free.’

As Mickey walked over and stored his wheelchair in his pocket he said.

‘Now we’ve been standing around doing nothing too long, and I have other things to do. Like hiring a doctor for the sickbay. Time for you lot to leave the dungeon. Out, out shoo.’

Mickey started herding the teenaged dungeon delver out of the dungeon and into the bright afternoon light.