Brockton Bays Marvelous Mage

I galloped through the streets of Brockton Bay faster than I had ever pushed my golem mount before. Between my legs, I could feel the heat radiating off the golem core, the bright blue glow almost blinding as I dumped all the mana I could into it. Despite being well built and capable of absorbing a lot of my mana to burn as extra energy, the golem core still had limits. If I pushed too much energy into it for too long, I would burn out the ritual effects on it, reducing it to a fancy-looking but ultimately useless paperweight.

As Troy turned down an alleyway, leaping over a dumpster, I could feel I was getting pretty close to that point. At this point, the only reason I cared was that I would be stranded out in the middle of the city if I accidentally wrecked Troy's core. Troy was well-made, but he was still basically an inanimate object. Eventually, he could develop into more, but that was a one-in-a-million chance, and it wouldn't happen any time soon. For now, I would happily throw his core into the ocean if it meant saving a single life.

Especially as important as Panacea.

I mentally cursed myself, unable to throw the feeling that this was somehow my fault. I had put off looking into her and Glory Girls' situation for too long despite my gut telling me that something was wrong. Glory Girl's reaction to our conversation, plus what I had learned later from the medical director, had been more than damning enough for me to act or at least ask more questions, and I had put it off until later.

When I finally arrived at the hospital, I ignored every bit of signage and parking instructions, instead cutting through the front lawn, leaping over a hedge, and jumping off of Troy, barely pausing to grab my staff from its "saddle holster." As I pushed through the front door, I used a quick spell to coil it back up and hook it onto my hip. I could hear people gasping and pointing at Troy, but I knew he would be fine, and it was not like anyone could tell him what to do.

As I stepped inside the building, I immediately spotted Dr. Palrisa and Assault waiting for me. Without a word, Dr. Palrisa turned and headed down the hall, and both Assault and I followed after him.

"Arcanum, listen…" Assault said, easily keeping stride with us as we climbed into an elevator. "There's a lot of tension going on right now, and… Look, Brandish didn't react very well when she heard you were coming. There is a chance she won't let you heal Panacea."

I turned and looked at him, reeling back in shock.

"Excuse me?" I asked. "Brandish, as in Carol Dallon, Amy's mother? She won't let me heal her?"

"She didn't say it exactly, but it was close," He corrected. "The whole family barely managed to convince her to put off surgery for now."

I gritted my teeth and flexed, cracking my back as I once again cursed my inaction. I understood that some people were skeptical of parahuman healing, but the mother of the greatest parahuman healer ever refusing parahuman treatment…

When the elevator door finally opened, Dr. Parisa led me out and down the hall. We passed a nurse's station and turned a corner to find most of the New Wave sitting or standing in the hall. I recognized them from pictures, though identifying them without their costumes was a bit more difficult. On top of that, Miss Militia was also there, standing beside Glory Girl, rubbing her back.

The masked woman stood out among the plainclothes heroes, all blonde and looking worried, though even with her mask, I could tell she was just as worried as the rest. I stepped past my handler, only to stop and catch Glory Girl as she flew to me the second she spotted me. Her eyes were red and puffy, and as she wrapped me in a hug, her grip was bruising even through my steel absorption.

"Arcanum! I messed up, I should have said something! This is all my fault. Please help her, please, please!"

She begged, holding onto me tightly. I looked down at her in shock, before looking up at everyone else. They all looked equally surprised at Glory Girl's, or Victoria's in this instance, immediate attention.

"I'll do my best, I promise," I said, patting her back a bit awkwardly, looking around, focusing on her mother, who was standing nearby, her arms crossed. "What happened?"

"She fell down the stairs," The older woman responded. "We were having an argument and… I unfortunately distracted her at the wrong moment. I was following after her and… She was focused back on me when she missed the first step."

I couldn't help but frown at her open hostility. Even if Assault hadn't warned me, it would have been impossible for me not to know that she didn't want me here. After a moment, I looked at the man standing next to her. Flashbang, or Mark Dallon, has his arm on her shoulder, supporting his wife. Beside him were Sarah and Neil Pelham. While Mark didn't react at all to his wife's explanation, the reaction Sarah and Neil had made me very concerned. It wasn't flat out that they thought she was lying. Instead, it felt more like they were worried they had missed something, that they couldn't deny or confirm her statement.

"Right, well, why don't I heal her up," I said, patting Victoria again before gently encouraging her to step back. "It sounded like time was of the essence. I-"

"And what makes you think we want you to heal her?" Carol demanded, pushing off of the wall and stepping closer, rolling her shoulder to dislodge her husband's hand. "Nobody asks you to come, we-"

"I did," Victoria said, cutting her mom off. "I told the doctors to call him."

Carol turned to her uninjured daughter and frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but at this point, I was done beating around the bush. Amy Dallon was severely hurt, and she deserved treatment. It was the least I could do considering her selflessness, even if it was unhealthy and misdirected.

"Ma'am, are you saying that you do not want your daughter, Panacea, to undergo parahuman healing?" I asked. "Even though my healing abilities have been tested and verified by the PRT as safe and without drawbacks?"

Unsurprisingly, she immediately picked up the subtext I was dropping, no doubt her experience as a lawyer coming in handy. The idea that she would deny Panacea parahuman healing would send ripples outward that she would have no way of controlling. Panacea was the world's greatest parahuman healer. But if her own mother didn't trust a verified cape healer, what did that say about what her daughter could do?

It wasn't quite a threat, but the way she looked at me, I may as well have been holding her at gunpoint. She opened her mouth, her face pulling into a scowl when her husband spoke up first.

"You have my permission," he said, pointedly ignoring Carol as she whirled around to face him. "That's all you need, right? One parent's consent?"

"That is, in fact, all I need. Let's go get your daughter all fixed up," I said with a smile, stepping past the hero mother to pat her husband on his shoulder.

Dr. Palrisa led us into Amy's room, standing aside so that we could all enter. I made a beeline for the bed, stopping by the young woman's side. She was looking rough, with a temporary cast on her left arm and a bandage around her head. There was no blood or anything, but I could see bruises covering her body.

"I'm going to begin now. Don't be startled by the lights or chanting, it helps me focus my ability," I explained before putting a hand gently on Amy's forehead and stomach.

To start off the healing, and to know just how bad she was injured, I started with an in-depth scan. When it was complete, I almost cursed out loud at the list of issues she was experiencing. The first and most prevalent issue was the skull fracture and brain swelling. She was pretty stable, considering her injuries, but the sooner I treated that, the better.

Next, she had several minor hairline fractures around her ribs, arm, and leg, as well as the more obviously broken arm. The break was not compound, and the muscle tearing was minimal, but the fracture was messy enough that she would have likely spent a long time in a cast.

After that was the bruising, which was expected and lined up with a serious fall. I would be able to get rid of those with a general healing spell once all of the other major issues were taken care of. There was a bruise on her right arm that looked a little too much like she had been grabbed roughly, which was worrying enough on its own. After her bruises were the background issues.

She was showing the beginning signs of hypertension due to stress, a mind-boggling concept for someone her age. While her body was physically slightly larger than was "optimal," she showed signs of malnutrition, with my scan concluding her diet was exceedingly poor for a long time. Her lungs were filled with enough tar that she had to have been smoking regularly for at least a year, or less regularly for more.

Her body was a mess, and it read as someone significantly older than she should be, like she had been through the wringer and was being overworked to the point of being unacceptable. The only positive thing I could say was that, beyond her current injuries and other issues, I could see no sign of systemic physical abuse.

I immediately healed the primary concerns, namely her head, brain, several minor fractures, and her arm, before pulling back. Dozens of people could verify that her skull had been fractured and that her arm had been broken. For everything else, it would be my word against the families. I didn't even heal the bruising, which left a pit in my stomach. I mentally promised that I would finish healing her the second I could.

When I was done healing the important bits, I stepped back, making more room for her family to step closer.

"I fixed her skull and the brain swelling, as well as her arm. She had a bunch of minor fractures as well, which I also fixed," I explained. "Right now, she is pretty heavily asleep and probably will be for a while."

Victoria gave me a smile before floating around and down beside her sister while her father stood on the other side. Carol stood beside him, his arm crossed as she looked down at her sleeping daughter. After a moment of observing them, I turned to leave. Dr. Palrisa started to follow me out, and I turned to him and gave him a harsh look.

"Stay here," I ordered softly. "Do not leave Amy alone with anyone."

He looked confused for a second before something must have clicked in his head, and his eyes went wide, looking between me and the family gathered around the still-unconscious hero. For a moment, I thought he would say something, but after a moment, he nodded. I left the room in a rush, and the aunt and uncle immediately stepped forward as I did.

"I healed her head and arm, she is just sleeping," I explained. "If you'll excuse me."

If they noticed my brusqueness, they didn't mention it, immediately stepping inside. As soon as the door was shut, I turned and quickly walked back down the hall, making a turn and stopping at the nurse's station. As I did, I whispered to Alya.

"Go back to the room and watch over Amy. Do not leave until I call for you."

I could feel her agreement as I walked, arriving at the nurse's station just after she pulled away. At this point, it was getting pretty late. Visiting hours must have been up, so I could only assume they were turning a blind eye for the sake of Panacea. That said, despite it being late, a nurse immediately spotted me. As chance would have it, I recognized her as the calm nurse who had watched me heal the poor young girl on my "smoke break."

"Arcanum, you finished helping Panacea already?" She asked, looking surprised. "We-"

"I need you to get the highest-up doctor in the hospital here, now," I said, cutting her off, the Nurse's eyes going wide. "Someone who knows how everything works, who can make decisions, takes their job seriously, and would hear how I'm talking to you and would respond by telling me to get the hell out of the hospital without blinking an eye. Do you understand what I need?"

It took a second for her to recover, but she seemed to get the gist of it as she immediately picked up the phone. As she talked in hushed tones through the phone, I realized that I wasn't exactly alone.

"Arcanum, what's going on?" Assault asked from behind me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing I can tell you," I explained, which really got Assault's attention. "Go wait outside Amy's room."

The Protectorate hero clearly understood that something was wrong, and from his complete shift in demeanor, he clearly knew it was serious. Instead of asking again, he nodded, immediately turning around and heading back to the room.

It took several minutes for whichever doctor the nurse called to arrive, approaching me the second he saw me. He was a middle-aged man, maybe late thirties, with a clean-shaven face and a pair of reading glasses hanging around his neck. He approached with a frown on his face, which told me he was expecting to have to put someone in their place for being rude to his staff.

"Arcanum, what exactly is going on?" He asked, giving the nurse at the station a look. "I understand Panacea is important, but you cannot go around bossing my staff around just because-"

"Sir, with all due respect, that is not what is going on here," I said, gesturing for him to follow me a few feet away from the nurse's station.

"Then what is?" He asked, his tone wordlessly conveying that I needed to get to the point as quickly as possible.

"You need to start whatever process this hospital has for abused or neglected children," I informed him, his eyes widening as I spoke. "I have no way of knowing if her mother's story is true, but I can say without a doubt that Amy Dallon is being neglected by her parents. Her body is falling apart from stress, and her brain is an absolute mess from lack of sleep. She is suffering from low levels of malnutrition for half a dozen vitamins and has been smoking for at least a year, potentially longer. Now, I can wash all of those issues away, but her parents let them happen in the first place, and that is unacceptable."

By the time I was done, the man's jaw was hanging open. He was speechless, staring at me as if I had just declared myself the king of the moon.

"Doctor?"

"I- Yes, but, they are…"

"I don't care if they are the goddamn Beatles!" I said, poking the man in the shoulder, hard enough to knock him back a step. "Amy Dallon is being criminally neglected by her parents, and it is your job to start whatever process that entails. So start them!"