Officer Brady's PoV

 

As he began to wake up he was in a panic. Reflexively he reached for his neck. After a few seconds of breathing he realized that there was no pain. How?

Taking note of his surroundings he found he was in a hospital. Why was he not dead? He was shot in the neck, and it wasn't one of those little nicks. Someone coughed next to him and he knew that cough.

Reaching out he pulled the curtain and found his partner on the other side. Making eye contact his partner said "Good job. Heard about what you did from the Gwen woman."

Confused, he said "What? How am I alive? I remember getting shot in the neck."

Laughing he said "Apparently we are the luckiest two guys alive. Seems there is a new wonder drug out on the market and we just met the CEO for that company."

"What?"

"Yea, the Charlotte woman. We looked it up too. New wonder drug that just cleared the FDA. It's been really hush hush, but some people are talking. Of course everyone in contact has to sign an NDA. Still people talk."

This wasn't adding up. He remembered so much stuff that didn't make sense. Gwen shooting lightning out of the palm of her hand. The armored man deflecting bullets with his cosplay gear. Even the little girl and the bright light. Why was his partner not talking about this? That sounded nuts and if that stuff really happened his partner would have been talking non-stop about it.

Finally he asked "Can you fill me in, boss?"

He shook his head and said "Call me Max. We just survived a fire fight together. Nice job out there Brady."

He blinked. Max didn't call him "Rookie" or "Rook." Just Brady. It felt.. good.

After a minute the story started. Everything was the same but when he got to the point where Max had been downed, he shifted to the story provided by the foreigners. According to them a stray bullet hit some of the power lines. Those same power lines went haywire and zapped the hell out of the goons that were attacking.

Then Charlotte came out and found the officers were shot and had some of this new magic cure on her. Brady didn't know what sounded more believable. Magical people doing magical things or a crazy new cure and a murderous power line.

Brady asked "What about the criminals? What did they have to say?"

Max said "All dead man. Talk about karma. It was like the electricity had a number out for them. They were all burned to hell."

Seriously? No witnesses? He asked "What about body cam footage? Dash cam? Anything?"

Max laughed and said "All that got fried too. Seriously you got some good luck Brady. The only downside is that we got shot and don't get any scars to show for it. You know chicks dig scars."

Brady rolled his eyes. He asked "So everyone is okay?"

"Yea, kind of. Doctors are saying the man who got kidnapped, Jim, is in a coma. They can't get him to wake up. Everyone else is fine though. But Charlotte is a bigwig so she had a lawyer there fairly quickly and then statements were made. They're probably heading out by now."

Brady shook his head. He couldn't have imagined all that. He flexed his muscles one by one and they felt good. Then he asked "Why are you still around here if you're fine?"

Max looked like he got a bit more comfortable and closed his eyes and said "Once we go out that door we're back on duty. I'm just a poor innocent guy healing up right now. Got shot you know."

Brady gave him a hard look and then Max shrugged and said "It's half true. Docs are going nuts over this new cure. This time no NDA was signed so they want to do some testing. And if I get to sleep while they think up the next round of tests, then everyone wins right?"

"Sounds like it's optional then."

Getting up he quickly found his clothes and started getting dressed. Looking at the deep red stain he paused. Another proof he should have met his maker. Everything felt so real. But he would sound like a nutjob because a plausible answer was given. Plus it was probably a real big boon for the station taking out a large criminal element like that with no police or civilian casualties.

Saying his goodbyes he left the room. Brady really wanted to talk to Gwen. Now that he thought about it in the incident with the taser, he only saw the flash of light. He never saw an actual taser. Also she did say something about using lightning. Suspicious.

***

Charlotte's PoV

 

She was a damn miracle worker. Seriously, how many times had she lied in the past couple hours? And it seemed to have worked too.

When she heard the first gunshot she ran towards the exit and took a peek out of the door. When Charlotte saw multiple vehicles attacking the lone police car she thought it looked like something out of a movie. Who in the world would attack the police? Seriously killing police officers was madness!

But she couldn't change what was in front of her. Thoughts flitted through her mind. There were too many bad guys and she would be a fool to help. Charlotte only had the one clip. Using her only other weapon she called 911 again. Seriously if things like this kept happening she would need to put the number on speed dial.

After telling the operator that the police were in a gunfight she was told that all available units would be heading her way. The operator would have easily been able to hear the sounds of fire. As she was on the line with the police officer she took another peek outside. The next thing that happened broke her brain.

The woman, which she could only assume was Gwen, started throwing friggin lightning. She watched the light show with awe. In her mind she was thinking "What the hell is going on. This is otherworldly. Again."

The battle played out and she watched as the little girl did something to the two officers. Then she did the same to Gwen who had also gone down. After that Gwen got right back up and started using more of her lightning.

Charlotte looked back remembering the events that took place.

After all the men were down she rushed up to Gwen and said "Look, unless you want to be a guinea pig for the rest of your life, you need to do exactly what I say. Understand?"

The other two gathered around her and the man who had tried to rush to Jim's aid before said "We understand. What do you need us to do?"

"First of all the light from the little girl. I take it it's healing of some sort? Are the officers going to be okay?"

The little girl nodded and said "They were both close to death but I saved them."

Thinking for a bit she figured that would be the easiest to explain because of the little so-called 'drug' that Jim got ahold of. Charlotte looked in the car and said "Who are you?"

Shakily the woman said "uhh.. Milly. Hi!"

"You need to pay attention to what I am about to say. First of all we need an excuse of why everything got burnt with lightning. Don't know where you're from but what you did was not normal. Never under any circumstance can you say ANYTHING to ANYONE about that. Same with the healing. Do you understand?"

After getting four nods she said "See that poll up there? And those black wires? I need one of you to cut them. Can anyone do that? Careful though they contain something like Gwen's lightning. Also Gwen, can you give a small shock to the police officer's vest and a good shock to the cars? We need to fry their electronics."

The armored man nodded and did an acrobatic jump and sliced down with his sword. Meanwhile Gwen started zapping stuff. After returning to the group she said "Remember the words that I'm saying right now. You did nothing. You sat in the police car at all times. The damage to the door was from one of the vehicles ramming the car. You don't know how the police officers got healed. You don't know how but one of the power lines got cut and it ended up frying those guys. Say nothing else. I am about to call my lawyer. Everyone clear?"

After getting four head bobs she called up her lawyer and told her it was an emergency. The next couple hours were a blur. At first there was some suspicion but any cop would be suspicious when two officers were downed in the field. Still after navigating through their initial statements her lawyer arrived and they went down to the police station.

Once she had secured some time with her lawyer she knew things were going to be just fine. Her lawyer prepped everyone for what answers to give. After only a couple hours they were released. During that time she had gotten word that Jim was in a coma. The little faker. She didn't know how but that little acting before he went still did not fool her.

When they were behind closed doors she turned to them and said "Okay, who the hell are you people and where did Jim find you?"

"King's End."

"King's End."

"King's End."

"Jacksburg."

"They're close to each other?"

Four nods again.

Doing a search on her phone she couldn't find any real hits with those two names together. Finally she did a general search and the top hit was something weird. It was a strategy guide for a game called Final Fantastic 3. With dawning horror she started asking a few questions."

"Is King's End next to a cave system?"

"Yes."

"Is it filled with monsters?"

This time the little girl adamantly said "Yes. Lots. With a big spider."

Turning to the one named Milly she asked "Is Jacksberg a port town?"

"Yes."

"Are there other cities around it?"

She nodded and said "Yea, Shila and Xalross. But word is Xalross fell."

Charlotte had a headache. The picture was starting to get clearer. They were from this so-called game. Now that she had seen the title she realized that she remembered Jim talking about it a few times. Something about it being the best game ever.

Still there were more questions. If these people are who they said they were, how did he do it? There was a massive leap from dabbling in what they had researched and then materializing all the things that he did.

Charlotte felt tired. Then she remembered how he went limp all of the sudden. How? Getting a sneaking suspicion she casually said "Do you know when Jim is coming back?"

Gwen said "I don't know. Sometimes he's away for a long time."

Narrowing her eyes she said "Really…."

Davis stepped in and said "If Jim wants to tell you about where we came from you should ask him. I don't think we should tell you his secrets. Everyone, that is enough. No more questions."

***

Jim's PoV

 

Jim peeked open an eye and took a tentative glance around. Hospital! Score! Another plan successfully performed. Patting his pockets he realized that his phone's battery was dead. Oh well, at least it was returned to him.

As he started to get out he spotted someone in the corner of his eye. Shifting his right eye over he was ready this time. Then a man stepped out who was clearly a nervous wreck. He asked "Is he gone? Is he really gone?"

Cop? Probably not but still not something he wanted to admit to. After a second he realized he knew the voice. It was the voice of the man who had been telling Charlotte to cooperate with the boss.

Calmly Jim asked, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I can get out. If he's gone I can actually get out. Everyone else who knew about me died a couple hours ago."

Huh? Jim didn't leave any bodies. He asked "What do you mean?"

"There was a shootout after I left. You were on the ground and the woman almost took me out with a chair leg. I panicked and called in the rest of the gang. Said the boss was in trouble. Then thirty minutes later they were all dead."

"How?"

"Some bullets got them. Some apparently got really unlucky. Power line took them out."

Jim winced. He was getting a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't a power line.

The man said again "The boss. Is he gone?"

"I wouldn't worry about him anymore."

Lowering his head the man had tears in his eyes and said "Thank you. I can finally start a new life. Thank you!"

Not knowing what to say Jim fumbled and said "Uhh.. yeah sure man."

Jim had mixed feelings on letting a man like that go. They could have died if he was just a normal person. But it was hard to turn on someone who was thanking you.

As the man walked out a nurse walked in with a smile and said "Wow! You're awake! I knew it would work! Family always helps!"

Jim asked, "Family?"

The woman nodded and said "Your brother."

Jim smirked. Right. Brother. Jim went through the motions of checking out of the hospital. During that time his mind worked. Man if Gwen toasted some people and they were not all over the news by now, then Charlotte must have pulled off a miracle.

He was probably going to have to tell her what happened. Although maybe he had good luck coming to him. Maybe it was just a freak power line accident. And then all he needed to do was convince her that she was dreaming when the men disappeared. Easy work.