The hospital (Jimmie)

“Let’s go check on Jimmie first. If he really has woken up maybe he has some more info about this whole thing. Besides Travolta is probably going to be a bit nicer if he is around.” John decided over the phone. “Sounds good. I take it we skip school today then?” Rave asked. He looked at the clock. He only had 5 more minutes until the bus left anyway. “Yeah, let’s meet at the hospital.” “Sounds good, see ya in a bit!” She hung up and John looked over to Aclysia, “You are coming with me, these days I’d rather be safe.”

“I agree that your safety is of bigger concern than the household, master.” Aclysia bowed as John looked around the almost shiningly clean room. “Yeah, that won’t be a problem.” He agreed and they went on their way.

Rave was already awaiting them at the foot of the hospital by the time they arrived. She didn’t even bother putting on her disguise as she was certain she would only deal within the Abyss today. John walked up to her and they shared a quick greeting kiss. “Morning.” He said afterwards, “That all?” Rave teased. “You are as beautiful as ever?” He tried and got a giggle in response, “Well, you try being original in the future…let’s go look for Jimmie.”

Rave guided him around the hospital. The medical building complex was astonishingly big for a middle-sized city like Springfield and John always had wondered why that was. Now armed with the knowledge that there was a copy of that exact building where a rich magical organization of apothecaries were doing their business. Why build one building of you can have two?

However, entering the Illusion Barrier was apparently only possible through the back and so they walked down the parking lot and towards the emergency entrances. “You know how this is supposed to happen?” He asked while Rave looked around in a confused manner. “Nope, never been here before. Daddy told me to look for the door with…Ah, there it is!”

Rave started walking towards the grey wall of the building. No, not a wall. John had to strain his eyes but the wall was odd and there was…was that a door? Once he realized that it suddenly became very easy to look at. He followed Rave and asked, “How does that work?” “Some strong covering spell that only works on weak people. Once ya manage to see it doesn’t work anymore. At least that is what dad said.” In short: Another way of the Abyss to isolate itself from public life.

Rave opened the door and the trio was pulled into the Illusion Barrier.

“Pretty boring name for the place.” John muttered as he closed the window. The inside of the building was pretty mundane. He had expected some weird alchemical contraptions standing around, people in robes running or walking from one patient to the next, a magical aura filling the air as people worked miracles all around. What he got was a normal hospital. White painted walls, a picture of a flower here, the building plan there, a grey floor, an information desk. Last of which they walked to.

“Hey, we would like to visit Jimmi…I mean Jim Johnson.” Rave said as nicely as she could, which was to say: Not particularly. She leaned on the counter and looked a bit challenging as she said that, her tone reflecting a degree of unwillingness to even speak to the guy behind the counter. Moments like that reminded John that he did fall in love with a bit of a punk.

The guy didn’t care in the slightest though. A rude pink-haired girl was the least of his worries in a world where people could throw fireballs. He just looked through the files on his Computer and said, “Room 54, second floor.” In a bored voice.

Rave left the counter while John at least said “Thanks.” While hurryingly following her, getting only a half-baked wave as his sent off. The room was quick to be found as they dodged the working personnel, some of which wore Robes so at least that part of his fantasy was fulfilled.

They opened the door and were greeted by a familiar voice in a familiar, annoyed tone. “The hell do you mean you CAN’T give me a phone!” Jimmie was busy shouting at a guy working for the place. He was about as tall as John, had dark hair, probably brown, and a fit build that showed a good amount of muscles underneath his white shirt and pants, however, he had a meek demeanour as he took the shouts with repeated apologies. “I am very sorry sir but your bill does not cover calling expenses.” “How fucking much can calling somebody cost?!” “Enough to put it on the tab, Sir. The hospital is very thankful for the work you have done for us in the past but if it hadn’t been for….”

“Hey!” Jimmie finally noticed them and turned his head. “Finally, somebody comes here, we need to talk ASAP!” The guy, a glance over Jimmie's head revealed his name to be Herman Glaurum, took the chance to leave the room with another apology. “Yeah, sorry Travolta only told us you woke up after I called him over Victoria.” “Great, so you know already that she is to blame for the whole explosion thing?” Rave and John looked at each other for a moment, John turned back to him, “Nope, but we suspected it. Might telling us exactly what happened?”

“Sure, so I was taking a nap, felt very tired that day when I heard a ringing in my ears. Call me paranoid but I worked in an alarm system in the whole arcane circuit in my body in case anybody touched the suit without me around. When I woke up I found Victoria sabotaging the fucking thing. I confronted her about it and she grabbed a pipe and knocked me over the head, I was knocked out.” “Why wouldn’t she just stab you while you were out if she wanted you dead?” Rave interrupted with a mixture of disbelief and resignation. “Who said she wanted to kill me? Rave, I swear to god you need to let me finish… don't make any dumb jokes about ‘finishing last’ right now, not in the mood!” Rave closed her mouth before exactly those words could leave it.

“So, when I woke up…. I don’t know how much later, I checked the Archano-Tech on my suit. What she had done to it was clumsy as fuck but would probably have resulted in a shockwave that would have rendered all people in the barrier **** for about ten minutes. If it hadn’t been for the massive headache and blood loss from the wound on my head I could have maybe diffused the thing and saved my poor suit but I only managed to get it the energy concentrator repaired, which just made the explosion more concentrated and turned out to be really bad for me. Thankfully, you guys saved me.” Jimmie ended his story, “Well, you and the Bloodfallen anyhow.”

John was majorly confused, “Wait what do you mean by that?” “Huh? You think Travolta or me have enough money to cover the expenses of an arcane poisoning? The Bloodfallen covered the bill.” “But…that makes no sense the Bloodfallen are the ones who sent Victoria.” Rave blurted out. “Wha…okay, what?” Jimmie stuttered as well.

John massages his temples. Okay, so Victoria really hadn’t wanted them dead, just rendered ****. Still was pretty weird in regard to the sniper rifle. Whatever may be the case he could now safely assume that Victoria didn’t actually want to kill them. That made visiting the cemetery a lot less menacing. But what would she have wanted to find in the ten minutes that would that have given her? She had been in a position to take advantage of it and was evidently surprised to see them all out there.

Wait. If she had wanted to check up on something inside the barrier she could have. Travolta had accompanied Jimmie to the hospital while Rave and himself had gone to her place. The barrier had been effectively empty. If what Victoria wanted to check on was inside there she could have. Not only then but every time Travolta visited Jimmie as well. If he assumed that Victoria found what she had searched before the third day following the sabotage that meant that she then planned the attack…for what purpose? What did Travolta have that Victoria or the Bloodfallen wanted and why did she attack the rest of them? He could easily guess that it must have had something to with the Blood of Thana but until he had confirmation that is what it remained. A guess.

There were now two ways to confirm that guess: He either needed to confront Travolta about it or go ask Victoria.