Hero Wanted - 4. Chapter Four

“—and in other news, Filipino-Japanese relations are continuing to deteriorate after the Japanese fear of the Philippines’ growing military and political strength has caused their government to conduct two secret projects according to a very reliable source from within the government. This is in clear violation of HERO’s charter that states that all experiments pertaining to the Champions must be approved by the organization before being conducted.

“Known as Project Kagami and Project Katana, the projects’ main goal was to allow Japan to have an advantage over the Philippines, the country with the most advanced Champion division in the world. In addition, because the Philippines has the only source of the gold-like substance necessary to creating nodes, the Philippines has been a very strong ally in the war against the Colossus much to Japanese government’s dismay. The crumbling relationship between the two Asian countries has not been seen since the Japanese occupied the Philippines during the Second World War and any improvements will most likely not occur any time soon—”

Slowly opening his eyes, Ryan saw a television mounted to the wall opposite from him that had the news displayed. Looking around, he saw that he was in a white room with a curtain pulled back on the left side of a bed that he was lying on and a bunch of machines at the other side. He was beginning to register that he was in a hospital and the band around his wrist and the rails on the sides of his bed only confirmed that.

However, Ryan was still confused about why he was in the hospital in the first place and most of all he needed to use the bathroom. He quickly spotted the door that possibly led to one in the room and when he tried to move, he was stopped by the sensors that were attached to his arm. Annoyed, he quickly took off the sensors that were most likely monitoring his vital signs, but he really needed to take a piss and ask someone why he was here immediately afterwards.

Standing on the cold, linoleum floor with his bare feet, Ryan stumbled a little before he slowly made his trek to the bathroom where he did his business. Then at the sink, he grabbed the new bar of soup and began washing his hands. He did not even look at the mirror right above the sink, only taking a quick glance before turning the water off and drying his hands with a towel.

Ryan then stopped and returned his eyes back to the mirror when he noticed something was different. For one thing, all his blond hair was completely buzzed off from his head, and he was only wearing a pair of pants from the hospital. He was completely shirtless and the things that were in view was what completely surprised Ryan.

Stepping closer to mirror, Ryan saw that he had a good amount muscle on his arms and torso. No longer did he look like the scrawny kid that he always saw himself as, but a muscular man who even had bulging veins that only a person who weight-lifted regularly could obtain. And he could not stop himself from flexing his arms and looking at his biceps that contained only hard muscle.

Not looking too bulky, Ryan had the body that he could only dreamed of ever obtaining and he wondered if he was still dreaming. But after couple of pinches, he knew that he was awake and that a totally different person was staring at him from the mirror. He was still no model, but he could not deny that he looked good.

Out of curiosity, Ryan opened the waistband of his pants to see if anything else change and he saw that his extra appendage did indeed looked different as well. He did not notice it at first when he was using the toilet, but now Ryan looked again to see that his member had regrown its foreskin. What the hell?

“Ryan?” a male voice said from the room.

Ryan placed his waistband back and decided to wonder what the hell was up with his penis later. Walking out of the bathroom, he saw a male nurse looking around, most likely for him.

“Uh. Hi,” Ryan greeted.

“Oh, there you are,” the male nurse said with a sense of relief. “We weren’t receiving any response from the monitors, so I decided to come and see if you were okay.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I just needed to use the bathroom,” Ryan explained.

“That’s all right…but if it’s okay now, I need to place the sensors back onto your arm to make sure that you’re still stabilized.”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.”

Walking to the bed and lying back down, Ryan allowed the nurse to place the sensors on his arm again. Ryan could not remember the last time he was in a hospital, probably because he was a newborn and did not have a memory at that time to remember the time after he was given birth.

“Are you feeling okay?’ the nurse asked as he held a clipboard and pen.

“Uh…I think so.”

“No pain or nausea of any kind?”

“Nope.”

“Good, good. Well, let me hear your heartbeat and then I’ll bring you your breakfast. Okay?”

“Sure.”

Placing the stethoscope in his ears, the nurse placed the bell onto Ryan’s chest and was told to take a few deep breaths as the nurse move the bell on different parts of his torso. After that, the nurse placed the stethoscope back around his neck and placed a few checkmarks on the clipboard.

“Well, everything looks normal to me. Just let me get you your breakfast, so you can eat. I hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving, and thank you for checking on me,” Ryan said.

The nurse looked at Ryan, his eyes roaming at his exposed torso before smirking and saying, “No problem at all.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow as he watched the nurse walk away and wondered if the nurse was just checking him out. Never had that happened to him before, let alone from another guy who he had to admit was handsome.

A soft knock caused Ryan to turn his head to the half-open door where a figure stood halfway through the threshold.

“Ryan?” a familiar voiced called out.

“M…Dad?” Ryan said.

The door opened completely, and Ryan’s father walked inside the room. He was wearing another suit and Ryan wondered if the man ever worn anything that was casual.

“Good morning, Ryan. The nurse just told me that you were awake and that your vitals were normal. I was here when you were recovering and that was why the television was on. How are you?” Ryan’s father asked as he took a chair and moved it next to the bed before sitting down.

“Well…to say that I feel strange is a very giant understatement,” Ryan confessed as he sat up and looked at his torso again that had defined pectoral and abdominal muscles. “What happened?”

“I was going to ask you the same question, Ryan? You were lying in the alleyway next to your apartment building. Wounded on the side of the head and shot three time at the back, you were in critical condition when I found you and immediately had an ambulance take you to the hospital.”

What happened last night immediately came rushing back into his memory and Ryan said, “Oh, God… There were two men and I was being mugged by one of them. One thing led to another and the same man who was mugging me shot me as I tried to run away… Do you know what happened to them? Did they escape?”

“There were two other men there too, but they were declared dead at the scene, both from a gunshot wound to the head.”

“Who shot them?”

“The police don’t know, and there were no surveillance cameras that were able to capture what happened last night. But it doesn’t matter what happened to those muggers. Thank God that I called right before that happened or else I wouldn’t have known that something went wrong with you. What were you doing in that alleyway anyways, Ryan?” his father asked with concern.

“I was just throwing the trash away…but I guess I should’ve waited until it was the day again. God, I can’t believe I almost died.”

“And not only that. You were shot once at the shoulder blade and twice at the spine and no amount of surgery would’ve repaired that type of damage and prevented you from becoming paralyzed,” his father added.

Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. “So…why am I not then?”

Sitting straight up in his chair, Ryan’s father said, “They had to be flown in, but the hospital managed to get them and proceeded to move you into the surgery room where they implanted them into you. It was a very quick process, only lasting about thirty minutes… I hadn’t planned on doing it for some time, but during the moment it was completely necessary, so that you don’t spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. Ryan…you now possess Rory’s nodes and are officially a Champion.”

Ryan’s eyes widened from that statement. Him? An official Champion?

Ryan then placed a hand on the back of his neck and immediately felt the nodes, Rory’s nodes just above his skin. The ten nodes were in the shape of low square pyramids, a few millimeters in size and had a smooth texture under the pads of his fingers.

Looking at his father, Ryan asked, “So...the nodes prevented me from becoming paralyzed?”

Ryan’s father nodded. “The nodes took your DNA and used it like an architect’s blueprint, repairing all the injuries you had, including the injuries you sustained on your spinal cord which took a few hours to fully heal.”

“And…the rest of my body?” Ryan asked, pointing at his bicep.

Chuckling, Ryan’s father said, “You gained the same body that Rory had, the nodes having records of the condition of his body. So, when the nodes were implanted into you, they registered a difference in things like muscle mass and fat content and automatically fixed that by growing your muscles and reducing any extra fat from your body among other things.”

“I see,” Ryan said, stopping himself from asking about what happened between his legs as well. Instead he looked at his father and with sincerity said, “Thank you…for saving my life.”

Ryan’s father smiled. “Of course… However, I’m sorry if being implanted with Rory’s nodes wasn’t your decision…but if I were you in that situation, I wouldn’t want to wake up and realize you couldn’t move anything from the neck down.”

Ryan chuckled and said, “I probably would’ve started crying.” Turning his head and looking through the window of the room, he then said, “So, what now?”

Standing up, Ryan’s father said, “Well, first you need to eat, and after that the hospital needs to run a few tests just to make sure your body is completely stable after the surgery and that it accepted the nodes into your system. After that…well, we’ll see how things go. Okay?”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good. So, just stay in bed and do everything the doctor and nurses tell you to do. I’ll be back in a little while. Oh, and here.” Ryan’s father placed his hand from the side pocket of his pants and pulled out his mother’s locket. “I believe this belongs to you.”

Accepting it into his hand, Ryan thanked his father. He smiled and patted Ryan’s shoulder before walking away. Then the male nurse entered a moment later with a bed tray full of food. After placing it down, the nurse asked a few basic questions about how Ryan was feeling and then handed him the remote to the television before walking away.

Flipping through the channels and stopping at a rerun of a cartoon that he enjoyed watching as a child, Ryan was still trying to comprehend what just happened to him. The best way he could describe what he was feeling was like he just won the lottery, but instead of money he gained superhuman abilities. It sounded amazing, until realizing that he had to contribute his winnings to the betterment of humanity, and instead of giving the money away, he was giving his life away instead.

Sighing, Ryan decided to distract himself by taking his spoon and started to eat his food on the bed tray that contained fruits, vegetables and a steaming chicken breast. He hoped to whatever god was listening that everything would be okay. Because he knew that this was just the beginning to a huge change in his life and he did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse.