Hymeno didn't give him any chance.
She close in and delivered an uppercut. BJ's head snapped back violently, teeth slamming together hard enough to make his vision blur. The force knocked him off balance,
His eyes rolled backward as his focus completely shattered.
Before he could regain his balance, Hymeno drove a roundhouse kick across the side of his head. His vision went dark instantly.
BJ's body went limp, sending him crashing backward into the wreckage of shattered glass and twisted metal "Silence settled over the ward. Hymeno stood over him and adjusted the collar of her yellow jacket.
"Honestly. You made quite a mess."
Four hours later...
BJ's vision finally began to return.
At first, there was only pain. A deep, throbbing ache pounded through his skull while the rest of his body felt heavy and sluggish. The sharp smell of antiseptic mixed with burnt ozone filled the air around him.
When he finally forced his eyes open, the room spun violently before slowly settling back into place. He was lying on a medical cot again, every muscle aching from the beating and whatever had been done to him while he was unconscious.
The ward looked wrecked.
Overturned trays and shattered monitors littered the floor, weak sparks still snapping from ruined equipment. One divider curtain hung halfway off its rail, and deep cracks spread across a nearby wall where somebody had clearly been thrown into it. Hospitals really are fragile little places considering humans keep putting superpowered disasters inside them.
A few feet away, Hymeno sat calmly in a chair, a cup of tea in one hand and a stack of documents spread across her lap. She reviewed the rebuilding plans for Ishabana, occasionally making a note before taking another sip.
She noticed BJ staring at her and lowered the documents slightly, a small smile forming on her lips.
"Come on," Hymeno said, smiling. "You were much more interesting when you were angry."
BJ cleared his throat He squinted through the haze, forcing his heavy jaw to move.
"…What the hell happened?" BJ grunted,
Hymeno didn't drop her document, but she let out a dramatic, irritated sigh setting her teacup down on the saucer with a sharp clink. She crossed her legs, looking at him less like a monster and more like an unrefined child who had just ruined a expensive rug. Hymeno took another sip of tea, glancing casually around at the wreckage. She let out an irritated sigh before setting the teacup down with a sharp clink.
"What happened," Hymeno said, tossing a dismissive wave toward the ruined room, "is that you threw an utterly vulgar temper tantrum, ruined my favorite ward, and forced me to soil my own hands putting you back in your place."
She picked up her tea again and took a deliberate sip.
BJ slowly looked around at the destroyed ward.
"…I did all this?"
Hymeno smiled over the rim of her cup.
"Most of it."
BJ stared at the wreckage around him, then slowly looked back at Hymeno. He rubbed the back of his neck, his thumb catching on a rough patch of dried blood.
"…So what happens now?"
Hymeno placed her tea down with a delicate clink.
"Now?" Her smile widened. "You have two options."
She lifted one finger.
"First, you pay for the repairs."
BJ's expression immediately fell.
"And the second?"
Hymeno raised a second finger, still smiling sweetly.
"You submit to a rather extensive medical examination."
BJ stared at her.
"You know, a normal doctor usually asks, 'How are you feeling?' before sending an invoice."
"A normal doctor treats patient complaints. I build masterworks." Her chin tilted upward as she gestured grandly toward the shattered monitors and dangling wires. "Do you have any concept of the aesthetic tragedy you've caused?"
She pointed toward one of the ruined monitors.
"Those heart-rate monitors were imported directly from N'kosopa. Custom-fitted. Elegant."
Her expression tightened.
"And now they look like scrap metal from a junkyard
BJ stared at her for a long moment as he weighed the choices. He didn't exactly have a fortune lying around to pay for high-end Ishabana medical gear, which meant option one was dead on arrival. He leaned back with a heavy, irritated breath, staring at the ceiling. "…Fine. I'll take the examination."
Hymeno's smile widened slightly
"Excellent choice."
"But if your idea of a medical examination involves trying to make me a butler, I'm jumping out the window." Hymeno calmly picked up her tea.
"You're on the third floor." BJ paused.
"…Then I guess I'm staying."
"Excellent choice."
She rose from her chair and set her tea aside.
"Try not to destroy anything else while I'm working."
BJ glanced around the ruined ward.
"I'll do my best."
"That's what worries me."
She walked toward the medical equipment along the wall and began preparing a small tray. Unlike the earlier examination, there was nothing intimidating about the equipment at first glance. A compact scanner, several thin tubes, and a set of specialized needles rested neatly beside it.
BJ eyed the needles.
"…Those look unpleasant."
"They are."
"That wasn't very reassuring."
"I wasn't trying to reassure you."
Hymeno approached the cot and carefully positioned one of the siphon needles against his arm.
"I'm going to draw a small amount of your energy," she explained. "I want to see what made you lose control."
BJ frowned, his expression tightening.
"Before I went berserk... I saw something."
Hymeno's eyes shifted toward him.
"A memory?"
BJ shook his head slowly.
"No. That's the problem. It didn't feel like a memory." He swallowed, trying to find the right words. "It felt like... something that hadn't happened yet."
Hymeno set her cup down.
"What did you see?"
BJ looked away.
"A battlefield. Everything was destroyed. There were bodies everywhere." His voice lowered. "And I was standing in the middle of it."
He paused.
"I knew I had done it. I had killed them."
His fingers tightened against the edge of the cot.
"And the worst part..." He hesitated, his voice almost breaking. "I was happy."
Silence settled between them.
"I wasn't horrified. I wasn't trying to stop myself." BJ looked back at her, genuine fear visible in his eyes. "I was enjoying it."
He rubbed his hands together uneasily.
"Then I came back to myself, and I was still holding all that anger. I didn't know where it came from. I just... lost control."