Epics of Noche 2, DeathTech

EON CH 32

GRANDPA.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY 2:00 am.

Noche's world was darkness. A beeping emerged from the void, it was slow and rhythmic. It grew louder and louder as a speck of whiteness appeared before her. As the noise increased in volume so to did the light expand. Noche opened her eyes.

The blonde laid in a bed. A thick blanket covered her torso and plastic tubes came out of her arms. No, they were IV lines. Her head turned to the beeping; it was a machine monitoring her heart rate.

Pain made itself known.

Her skull split like a log under a woodcutter's axe. She grabbed her head and sat up. A green something caught her eye — a fairytale book of Creeps sat atop the bedside table. She lingered her gaze on the book before scanning the room.

Boots locked eyes with her, Shaylin and Tak were talking, Vida stood near a closed door, and Mary and Alice were asleep in the corner. The quieter of the two had a content smile on her face as she snuggled into the dark-skinned girl. Still resting, Mary planted a kiss on Alice's forehead.

Jack was to her side and he smiled when she turned to him. He appeared wounded but was alive. Yet his goggles were missing and he lacked some of the energy he had earlier. Noche frowned, she was certain the lack of enthusiasm was not because of his physical wounds.

"Your augment saved your life," Boots said. "If you had been a normal person, like Jack here, you'd be a charred pile of bones."

Noche coughed. "I thought augment doesn't protect you from energy attacks."

"It doesn't. You still took the damage," Shaylin said. "Your body was physically strong enough to stay in one piece — but you certainly took the damage."

"I feel like it too."

"Bruh, you're lucky you only passed out," Mary stifled a yawn. "Combined with that stab wound, it's a miracle you're still alive. Keep this shit up and your luck is gonna run out."

"It's impressive how strong you've become," Boots said. "I remembered when you were a kid. Barely able to use create and struggling to do the splits."

A smile slipped onto his face. A genuine smile, warmand reminiscing. As fast as it appeared, it vanished. Noche's expressionsoftened towards her scowling, orange-haired friend. His head snapped to thewall where his face was out of sight.

"How long was I out?"

"Bout an hour," Mary said.

"And Jack? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine — I'm fine," he chuckled. "Everyone found some grim gel. I'm more or less patched up."

"BRUH! This stuff is fucking amazing!" Mary shot to her feet. "Boots wasn't kidding! It is a super medicine!"

The brown girl pulled out a flash drive from her pumpkin-themed medicine bag.

"Shaylin and I got multiple copies of Grim's research. Everything, and I mean everything, about Grim gel is on our flash-drives!" She said. "To put it simply, it stimulates natural healing to insane speeds... So it won't help me with my disease."

Mary went silent and stayed that way for a handful of seconds.

"But, it's still incredible! With this, anyone could heal like Tak!" She said. "And I'm sure there's something in this research I could use for the development of my cure! All in all, this is a win for me!"