Chương 51: A Searing Solution

Ace ground his teeth. He shattered like mom's china cups. Gaze fixed on the surgical lights, as pain radiated from his stomach and below. He tried to kill me though. I couldn't move. Then—poof—he just swaps with me, like it was the most obvious choice in the world. Who does that?

"Oh God, it feels like I dragged sandpaper through myself."

"Well, that's honestly not terribly far from the truth." Beside the mattress, a doctor held a long wire ending in a tiny camera up.

"Now, as you were told, we need to retrieve that balloon," he said, gesturing to the scope.

"Plan A is to run this up the tract, puncture the silicone, and pull it out." Ace winced.

"So you're gonna shove that thing in..."

"Exactly the way the catheter tube came out. Yes." The doctor nodded, then looked over to another doctor.

"How's anesthesia coming?" On Ace's other side, a nurse had been fussing with a needle and the back of his hand. Now red-faced, she pushed on the needle before it broke, clattering on the floor tiles. A frown on her face, she held up the housing before throwing her hands in the air.

"The first one bent, this one snapped, I can't get a needle in him, and he pulled the last one out probably when he pulled the vest off."

"Wasn't another boy like that too? It's fine I'll switch to inhalation induction," another doctor, from above Ace, said. Grabbing a clear plastic mask attached to a corrugated tube, she motioned to the nurse.

"Open the vaporizer." Then she pressed the mask over his face.

"Can you count backwards from ten for me?" Sweet-tasting air hit Ace's tongue, and he licked the roof of his mouth.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four," his head grew heavy, sending the room into a slight tilt, but he continued.

"Three, two, one."

"Is the gas flowing?" the anesthesiologist asked.

"Yes, Sevoflurane is open at eight percent, high flow."

"Can you tell me your name, kiddo?"

"Ace Miller."

"Push the mix to maximum limits," she said. Then after a few seconds, asked.

"Ace, how are you feeling right now?"

"A li'l woozy and tired," he slurred.

"Can you feel any pain at all? Does anything hurt?"

"The inside of my... dick," he giggled.

"No, maybe it's gone now."

"Get him secured, just in case, we don't want to cause more damage." A male voice said somewhere to his right, maybe it was his left. He couldn't tell anymore. But he did feel a bunch of hands on his wrists and ankles and people pressing something down on him over his stomach, waist and knees.

"Ace, we're going to try and take a look, is that okay?" He nodded, staring at the girl doctor, she had green eyes, though her eyelashes were pretty short.

"Try your best not to move, alright," she said. Again he bobbed his head, staring at her blue face mask. Above Ace, the anesthesiologist nodded to someone he couldn't see. There were two faces now. Nope, three, all fuzzing around each other. A tear rolled out of the corner of one of his eyes. It was stinging. Ace blinked, and there was only one face. Fire shot through his lower half. Gripping the metal bed rails, he clenched his jaw, trying his best to stifle a scream.

"Out, out," was all he could grunt.

"Pulling back," the jerk doctor muttered, withdrawing the scope.

"There's too much swelling. Let's shift to suprapubic extraction."

"The abdominal route?" the nurse asked, grabbing a metal tray.

"Yes. Hand me a ten-blade."

"You want to cut him open after that reaction?"

"We need to get that balloon out or there's going to be far worse problems."

"Increase gas," the girl doctor said, shaking her head, and his vision started going fuzzy again as the jerk doctor leaned over Ace's stomach. Hovering the blade inches above Ace's skin, the jerk doctor hesitated. He glanced at the tray, then looked up at the monitors.

"He felt the scope. If I press this blade down, he's going to feel the entire incision."

"Then we abort," the other doctor said.

"We have to find another way."

"There is no other way," the male doctor argued, lowering his hands.

"Leaving that balloon trapped creates a hemorrhage risk. But if we can't sedate him, we're completely stuck."

"Just do it," Ace said.

"I'll deal with the pain, so just do it."

"We can't take approval from a patient who's not just drugged but also a minor," the woman said.

"Then get my dad, but in pain is better than dead, isn't it?" With a sigh, the urologist dropped the scalpel on the tray, turning to one of the nurses.

"Would you go get a signed consent to treat without anesthesia, please?" Within minutes, the nurse returned, confirming the agreement was signed and filed.

"Your dad said to tell you 'you're one tough SOB', and then your mom smacked him." Through a chuckle, he heard a hiss flow through the line, once more making him wobbly from the gas. He felt a scratch, another one, and then one more before the jerk doctor straightened up.

"And I can't break his skin." No needles, no scalpels? Did I become as tough as Kurisu? Aw man, but that means that thing can never get out of me? I wonder, can I just burn a hole in my stomach? Probably not, I think I'm too woozy, everything's so wobbly. Oh hi girl doctor, you're nice, and pretty, I think. I can't actually see. What if she has a really mean face? Oh, they need a hole... Kenji! Kenji can laser a hole in my stomach! Fogging the mask, Ace rolled his head to the side.

"Go get Kenji." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Both doctors stopped talking and turned to him.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm like Kurisu now," Ace mumbled, his tongue fat and in the way.

"Kenji can laser a hole in me." The urologist blinked, looking up at the anesthesiologist.

"Did he just say laser?" Checking the monitors, the woman shook her head.

"It's the Sevoflurane. He's experiencing delirium." She leaned closer, her eyes crinkling above her mask.

"Ace, just try to relax and keep counting for me." Ace snapped his head to the side, dragging his face away from the mask, and causing gas to hiss into the room.

"I'm completely awake," he gasped, fighting the fog in his brain.

"Get Kenji! He can cut into my skin and get you where you need to be. It'll hurt like a bitch, but it sounds a lot better than bleeding out!" As the urologist turned to his nurse, she was already moving.

"On it." The door flew open a second time, and the nurse reappeared.

"Kenji, can you make a laser?"

"Uh, yea," he said, every eye in the room on him.

"Wait, I thought you were doing surgery without anesthesia," Steven started.

"What's going on?"

"The scalpel won't break his skin. Ace said Kenji was able to make a laser that would cut through, is that true?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess I can try. I don't know what I'm doing with a laser though," Kenji replied.

"Just come with me. Dad, too!" Before either of them could respond she was already out the door, so they both scrambled after her.

"Kenji, come on, bud, really?" Roland called out as he pulled the door open, moving out of the way so Steven could continue by.

"Yeah, dad, 'really'. My friend, in surgery, needs my help."

"Sure, but who's gonna help you? What about your ribs? The doc told you to stay off your feet until he got those X-rays."

"Good thing I'm not downstairs yet then," Kenji shot back as he turned and headed out the door behind Steven and the nurse. They were directed to wash and scrub up before entering the operating room. Ace was lying strapped down on a hospital bed, two doctors and several nurses gathered around him. Blue paper surgical drapes covered him except for a small patch of skin on the lower middle of his abdomen, and the doctor standing over the center of the table turned in their direction.

"This is incredibly unorthodox." He sighed.

"First, we can't get through his skin. You already know we need to get that balloon out, and there's too much swelling to get it out through a transurethral extraction. He claims Kenji can make a laser capable of puncturing his skin, and we're out of methods or options." He paused, looking at both Kenji and Steven in turn.

"If we don't take the balloon out, he could die. Though even if that wasn't a concern, leaving it in can cause agonizing bladder spasms, infection, and eventual kidney failure. I need to know if Kenji can make this laser, and of course, we need parental approval to do anything like this."

"You sure you're up for this, Kenji?" Steven asked, his eyes never leaving Ace.

"This isn't just throwing fire around the back yard." Silent about his own apprehension, Kenji stripped off his latex gloves, making his way to Ace's table.

"I'll manage."

"Do whatever you have to do, but be careful, please."

"Get him new gloves. Kid, you can't do that, this is a sterile environment," the urologist said, rushing to block Kenji's path.

"I'm about to hold on to plasma, literal plasma. I don't think the gloves are going to survive that."

"Well, then how do your hands handle it?" Kenji shrugged.

"My own energy? Not sure really."

"Oh, this is such a horrible idea." Turning to the anesthesiologist, who held a plastic mask over Ace's face, the urologist asked, "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we're going to get, I'd say." Beside the table, the doctor pointed to the iodine patch on Ace's lower stomach.

"I need a straight cut right here. Two inches long, one inch deep to breach the bladder. Have you ever done this?" Hands frozen in the air, Kenji turned, leveling a flat look at the urologist.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Dropping his chin, the doctor let out a breath.

"Right. Sorry. Muscle memory. I just finished a rotation with med students."

"Hey buddy," Ace drawled as Kenji shook his head and turned back around.

"Make sure you don't cut my junk off, 'kay?"

"I'm not gonna cut your junk off." Kenji snorted. With a push of Ki, Light and Fire flowed through his index finger to form a glowing blade two inches past his fingertip. Elbow to elbow, the urologist wrapped a gloved hand over Kenji's fist, the latex bubbling before tearing at the webbing of his hand.

"Oh boy, that's hot. Don't worry about me. I'll guide your hand. Go slow." Under the doctor's grip, Kenji pressed the tip against Ace's skin. The flesh sizzled, filling the room with the stench of burnt matches and meat. Ace yelled, his spine arching off the mattress as the restraints creaked, the steel side-rails warping inward. Yanking his arm back and sending the doctor stumbling several steps, Kenji extinguished the blade.

"Well shit, that's not gonna work," he panted.

"He's going to feel everything. Give me the exact specs. Angle, width, depth." Eyes moving from the bent rails to the surgery site, the doctor swallowed, stepping back into position.

"Straight down, right here." He pointed.

"One inch deep, and half an inch wide." Inert arm extended, barely touching Ace's skin, Kenji focused a point of energy at his fingertip. With a single pulse of his Ki, the laser bore downward, punching a hole through Ace's skin and into the bladder. The hole crackled, the edges black, and pinkish fluid leaked out.

"Quick, suction!" someone called while Kenji was pushed aside and two sets of hands moved for the puncture, one holding a suction wand. As the wand scraped the edges of the burn, Ace bucked and thrashed, his grunting sending a shower of spittle into the mask. Throwing his upper body across the boy, Kenji pinned Ace down, hoping to minimize the thrashing and the damage it would cause. Then the fireworks started. Literally. Flames coursed across Ace's body, catching Kenji's shirt and burning his skin.

He turned to the sound of screams as the doctor and nurse both backed away, their sleeves on fire. Waving his hand and focusing his Ki, Kenji pulled on the loose flames that covered their arms, successfully snuffing them. He couldn't do anything about the ones on Ace, but it seemed the strays were fair game.

"Hey, is it out?"

"What?" the doctor asked, looking at Kenji with an infuriatingly stupid expression.

"The balloon! All the piss! Is it out?"

"Oh!" Grabbing a pair of long forceps, the doctor plunged them into the cavity through the flames. He pulled his hand back a second later, his skin blistered and raw, a silicone balloon clamped in the steel teeth.

"Yes, it's clear! But now I've got to close him up somehow!" From the surgical tray, he snatched a curved needle. Well shit, he's not spineless at least, even if he is still an idiot. Palm flat to block the needle, Kenji hovered his fingers over the hole.

"And what's that gonna do?" He cocked an eyebrow. The doctor, looking up, nodded, and retreated out of the way. With a quick flash of heat, Kenji melted the edges of the bladder wall together. A second flash cauterized the outer skin. As he stepped back from the operating table, his ragged breathing sending pain lancing through his chest, the flames flickered out. The anesthesiologist moved back to Ace, inspecting his pulse and eyes.

"He's passed out."

"Oh, now he passes out!"