SUPER DOCTOR REVENGE

Ch. 13

Beep… Beep… Beep…

The steady, rhythmic sound of the auxiliary heart monitor sliced through the stunned silence of the ICU like a scalpel. The long, agonizing death-wail that had filled the room just moments ago was entirely gone.

Dr. Lin looked up at the digital dashboard, his glasses sliding down his nose. His eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Dr. Harrison… look at the arterial pressure. 120 over 80. It’s… it’s a textbook perfect reading!"

"Shut up! That’s impossible!" Dr. Harrison scrambled off the floor, his face twisted in utter disbelief. He shoved Lin aside, lunging toward the primary medical terminal. He slammed his palms onto the desk, staring at the surging green lines. "The brain waves! Look at the EEG tracker! The cellular hypoxia is reversing! This defies every law of modern biochemistry!"

"Look at her face, Doctor," Calvin said. His voice was calm, though his chest heaved slightly from the massive expenditure of his internal Qi. He stood over Elara's bed, his hand still gently holding hers. "The human body is not just a machine made of meat and tubes, Harrison. You forgot to calculate the soul."

"Don't talk to me about mysticism, you arrogant brat!" Harrison hissed, his hands trembling as he checked the pupillary response on his tablet. "She was dead! Her oxygen saturation was under forty percent when I turned off the grid! She didn't have a pulse for over four minutes! Even if by some freak anomaly her heart started beating, her cerebral cortex should be mush!"

"Calvin…?"

A soft, fragile whisper cut through Harrison’s frantic tirade.

On the bed, Elara’s fingers twitched against Calvin’s palm. The heavy, grey pallor that had masked her skin for months was visibly melting away, replaced by a warm, radiant flush of pink across her cheeks. She slowly opened her eyes, her pupils clear, reflecting the harsh fluorescent lights of the ceiling.

"I'm here, Elara," Calvin murmured, his fierce, icy demeanor completely evaporating as he leaned down, brushing a stray lock of hair from her forehead. "Don't try to move too fast. Just breathe."

"I… I had a dream," Elara whispered, her voice gaining strength with every steady beat of the monitor. "I was walking through a cold, black ash. It felt like I was drowning. But then… I saw a golden light. It felt like your hand, big brother. It pulled me out."

"It was me," Calvin smiled, a rare, genuine warmth breaking through his exhausted face. "I promised you I wouldn't let you go. I'm keeping that promise."

"This is madness!" Harrison yelled, stepping backward until his back hit the glass wall of the ICU. He pointed a shaking finger at the nine silver needles protruding from Elara’s body, each one still vibrating with a microscopic, golden hum. "You used unregulated, unsterilized street needles! You performed an illegal, unapproved neural intervention! Lin, call the Chief of Medicine! Call the board of directors! This girl needs to be moved to a containment unit immediately!"

"Dr. Harrison, please look at the data!" Lin shouted back, refusing to move. He was staring at Elara like a man who had just seen a god descend from the heavens. "There is no cellular necrosis! Her white blood cell count is normalizing! The Abyssal Ash toxin… it’s not mutating anymore. Look at her abdomen! The black veins are completely gone!"

"I don't care about the data! The protocol says she is dead!" Harrison screamed, his corporate-bribed mind fracturing under the sheer weight of what he was witnessing. If Elara lived, the Vance-Sterling merger would be compromised. Julian Sterling would have his head. "Calvin Hudson, you have contaminated a crime scene! I will personally see you stripped of whatever low-level license you possess! I will destroy you!"

"You will destroy who, Harrison?"

A cold, booming voice resonated from the shattered doorway of the ICU.

Harrison froze, turning his head slowly toward the entrance. Walking through the broken glass, her sharp heels clicking against the linoleum, was Vivian Nightshade. Behind her stood General Briggs, flanked by four elite, heavily armed soldiers from the Federation's Dragon Guard.

"V-Vivian Nightshade?!" Harrison’s voice dropped to a terrified squeak. He immediately tried to smooth down his wrinkled white coat. "General Briggs! Thank goodness you're here! This man—this trespasser broke into the VIP wing, assaulted my security guards, and is currently performing illegal human experimentation on a deceased patient!"

General Briggs didn't even look at Harrison. He marched straight past the chief physician, stopped right beside Calvin's bed, and snapped his right hand to his brow in a crisp, deeply respectful military salute.

"Master Hudson," General Briggs declared, his deep voice shaking the sterile room. "The perimeter is entirely sealed. No one enters or leaves this floor without your explicit command."

"W-What…?" Harrison’s tablet slipped from his hand, shattering on the floor. He stared at the legendary war general bowing to a man he had called a "matrilocal loser" just five minutes ago. "General… you must be mistaken! This is Calvin! The discarded son-in-law of the Vance family! He's a fraud!"

"The only fraud in this room is you, Dr. Harrison," Vivian Nightshade stepped forward, her sharp, intelligent eyes narrowing as she pulled a sleek digital folder from her briefcase. "According to the financial ledger we just pulled from the Sterling mainframe, your private offshore account in the Cayman Islands received a deposit of five million dollars at exactly 11:15 PM tonight. The transaction note read: 'Equipment transition clearance'. Care to explain that to the Military Tribunal?"

"I… I… that was a private investment loan!" Harrison stammered, sweat pouring down his neck, soaking his collar. "You have no right to access my financial files! This is a civilian hospital!"

"It was a civilian hospital," Calvin said, slowly standing up from Elara’s bedside. He turned to face Harrison, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, golden light that made the corrupt doctor instinctively step back. "But the moment you used a weaponized wartime genetic toxin to murder a patient for corporate profit, it became a military matter. Isn't that right, General?"

"Precisely, Master Hudson," General Briggs hissed, his hand resting on the hilt of his ceremonial sidearm. "Treason against the state and illegal biochemical execution of a citizen. The punishment is immediate detention in the subterranean black sites."

"No! Wait! Dr. Lin knew about it too!" Harrison shrieked, pointing wildly at his junior assistant. "He helped me sign the paperwork! Julian Sterling forced us! The Vance family demanded it! They said the girl was a financial drain!"

"I didn't know about the bribe! I swear!" Lin dropped to his knees, weeping. "Master Hudson, please! I tried to stop him! I didn't want to turn off the machines!"

Calvin looked down at Lin, then at Harrison. "Take them away, General. They are no longer qualified to wear the white coat."

"Guards! Drag them out!" Briggs ordered.

"No! You can't do this! I am the chief physician! I have political immunity!" Harrison screamed as two massive soldiers grabbed him by his arms, dragging him backward through the shattered glass doorway, his cries echoing down the corridor until they were cut off by the heavy elevator doors closing.

The room finally went quiet again, save for the steady, comforting beep… beep… beep of Elara's heart monitor.

Elara looked up at Calvin, her small hand tightly gripping his jacket. "Calvin… what is happening? Who are these people?"

Calvin knelt back down beside her, his expression softening into a gentle, protective warmth. "Don't worry about them, Elara. The people who hurt you are gone. From now on, nobody will ever look down on us again."