Week 9.3 – Ripped Off

Previously: Digger and Twain were headed for their next robbery after Invictus lost his arm. And now…

“Mister Cornwall?” asked the doctor as he stepped into the waiting room.

Everett Cornwall, now out of his Deus Ex Machina cape, stood up, and the other members of the Corps stood as well. “Yes. How is he?”

The doctor ran a hand through his thinning hair and shook his head. “He’s lucky to still be alive. He lost a lot of blood, but we’ve got him stabilized. And we’ve reattached the arm, but I don’t know if it will take. There was extensive tissue damage at the point of separation.”

“I know.”

“Never seen anything like it,” the doctor said. “We had to cut away a lot of tissue to find healthy cells to reattach, and I’m not sure how the nerves will be affected. He may never regain full use of the arm.”

Cornwall nodded. “I’m sure you did your best.”

“Yes, well…” The doctor turned to leave, paused as if to say something else, then turned away again. “Yes.”

“You really think his arm won’t work right anymore?” asked Stickus, mumbling around a fattened lip and swollen jaw.

“Of course it will,” Caveat answered. “Ron can adapt to anything if you give him time.”

“I hope that’s the case, Derek,” said Cornwall. “But this cowgirl fellow is like nothing I’ve seen before. He’s obviously someone with great power, and yet Ron couldn’t sense it. If he couldn’t sense it, is it possible he couldn’t recover from it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Caveat said.

“I’m not,” Cornwall said. “”I’m just… Look, he did it to me, too. The only reason we were there was because I foresaw blood and screams. Not only was I wrong about Digger causing it, but the only reason it happened at all was because we were there, trying to stop it. There’s something strange about this one. Something hidden.”

“I don’t understand why you’re so spooked,” said Carpe Noctem, taking Caveat’s arm. “I’ve heard you say before that that’s a risk you run in tampering with time, that you will simply complete the loop rather than being able to change things.”

Cornwall nodded. “Yes, it’s not as if this has never happened to me before. But this time is different. I can’t say exactly how, and that’s what scares me. That and Digger. He’s different, as well.”

“Digger’s nothing,” Stickus mumbled. “This time, we’ll…”

“We won’t do anything,” Deus said. “I’m not going to risk making things worse, especially with Invictus incapacitated. We’re going to let them go, and later, if we run into them individually, then we’ll have a whole new ballgame.”

***

The motel was fairly seedy, but the shower was hot. At least, it had been when Digger showered. Twain had been in the shower for a very long time, so who knew how hot the water was now?

They were in Bridgeport, Connecticut, cleaning up before the next step. Twain emerged from the bathroom, rubbing at his hair with a towel. The bomb on his chest blinked steadily. “You ready?”

Ready for what, exactly? Find out in our next exciting episode! 

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