Casey walked to the church, sipping his coffee in the morning air. He had a funeral to work at, and the family had asked for him by name and asked for specific hymns to be sung. They were old, pre-Vatican II Latin chant, psalms set to music, Adestes Fideles, Hayden, Mozart and all sorts of classics. He bought the sheet music himself and practiced most of the weekend to get the five songs right, because this was Mozart’s Requiem we were talking about.
He chuckled when he remembered the priest telling him they even suggested to do the Tridentine Mass. “We did it in the seminary sometimes, for High Mass, but I forgot most of it.” He said he was going to look for the book on it, anyway.
Then something hit him in the back. Something sharp. He whirled, ducked into a storefront and something whizzed by him, slashing his arm, hitting the glass of the store, shattering it, and continuing on until it stuck into a manikin. It was a shuriken.
Shit, and he reached behind him, pulling out the shuriken from his back. If it was poison, he’d be feeling the effects pretty soon, as something to make him dizzy.
He dove out of the storefront, tossing his coffee, heading toward the car. He got hit in the shoulder, and he fell sideways, between two parked cars, dragging his feet in. He pulled that one out, too, pocketing them both.
Getting slow and comfortable in your old age, aren’t you, Blackfox?
He grunted, shutting up that critic, and could only think, Those damn ninjas. He started getting tunnel vision. He was immortal, but not immune. He grabbed a hold of the trunk of the car with one hand, and that was when he heard a scream of a hawk.
Hino, he thought, as his hand slipped and he fell back onto the asphalt between the cars, the poison starting to effect him.
The hawk had followed him since he had asked Hino to follow and protect Grinn, a peregrine for Cedric, a red-tailed hawk for him. He dove at something on a roof, talons striking the back of a man’s head, and digging in. The man, in a gray urban combat suit, waved his arms to try and chase the hawk away. He lost his footing and all his training kicked in, he let himself fall, but one hand caught the edge of the roof, and he easily hauled himself up.
A raven dove at his face, as he tried to get up. Another crow joined the fray. Then more ravens, coming from seemingly nowhere, all converged on this one man. He tried to run, to get to the stairs off the roof, but a raven hit his eye with his beak and dug in. He screamed, fell, and his clothes started to get torn away.
On the ground, Casey felt something licking his face, uttering a small whine. He opened his eyes to see a dog licking his face. “Hey,” he said weakly, and the dog stopped, snorted in Casey’s face.
Casey moved his arm – it felt like it weighed twenty pounds – and wiped at his face. “I’ll be okay.”
“Casey?” came a man’s voice he knew too well.
“Father Miller,” said Casey, his tongue feeling thick in his mouth. “Poison.”
The dog moved back and Father Miller stepped between the cars, taking Casey by one arm and pulling him up to lift him. The dog ducked under Casey’s body to help. “We have to get you to a hospital.”
“Funeral.”
“They’ll understand.” The priest looked down at the dog, doing the best he could to help lift the man. Miller got him leaned up against a car so at least he was out of the gutter. Miller whipped out his cell phone and called an ambulance. “What happened?”
“Ninjas.”
“You’re serious.”
Casey closed his eyes. The poison was for paralysis, and it was doing its work way too well. He started sliding and Miller kept him upright. Then he called Father Jackson from St. Mary’s to ask him do the funeral.
“Had Modzard all ready…”
“Shh, I can hear the ambulance. Just stay calm.”
Casey patted the dog. “Thanks, Soniac.”
The dog whuffed and nuzzled Casey’s hand.
“You know the dog?”
“Long story—“ He started sliding again, and Miller held him until the ambulance came.
Miller noticed the dog was gone when he climbed into the ambulance with them. The EMT’s kept talking to Casey, and finally he slipped out of consciousness. Father Miller held on tight as they sped down the streets and up the hill to the hospital.
At the ER, they drew blood and got the results stat. The doctors stared at the lab results, shaking their heads. The results were all wrong.
Miller sat at his bedside and rose when the doctor came into the room. “Hello, Father,” the doctor said. “How do you know him, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“He works for me. I was getting ready for a funeral and a dog came into the church and started barking at me, and then running to the door, then coming back and barking.”
The doctor refrained from a Lassie joke as he walked over to Casey. “Did you know he was a mutant?”
Father Miller looked down. “A mutant?”
The doctor nodded. “His blood construction is something different. We sent it to a better lab in Paragon City, but right now, I don’t know how to treat him.”
“Could he die?”
The doctor shrugged. “I really don’t know. Do you know who to contact in an emergency?”
Miller went to Casey’s effects. “He has a roommate, Cedric – “ He pulled out a cellphone and scrolled through its contacts. “Here, this must be the number.”
“We’ll call him, maybe he can help.”
Miller’s phone went off soon after. It was Nancy, asking after Casey. Miller gave her the update, and told her to watch out for the roommate if he showed up at the rectory – which he hadn’t yet, but one never knows.
The doctor came back a while later, and just as he was about to speak, Casey let out a moan and opened his eyes. He looked around the room, his eyes catching Miller’s. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital.”
The doctor closed his mouth and merely watched as Casey saw the doctor. “Oh…hello.”
“Hello yourself. How do you feel?”
“Woozy. Like I weigh a thousand pounds.”
“The neuroblock is wearing off. That’s what you got hit with. We found the shuirken in your pocket.”
“Ninjas.”
He nodded. “We’ve seen them around. I was going to give you an antidote, but it seems your mutation kicked in and took care of it.”
“My mu—“ He turned to Miller.
The curtain parted. “Casey!” A handsome, red-haired man rushed into the room, and hugged him tightly, giving him a kiss on the lips. “When they called, I thought—“ Then he noticed the priest.
Casey was blushing, and the priest stared at the two of them. “I…um…” Cedric also started to blush.
“I see,” said Miller, and left the room.
The doctor said no more, also leaving the room.
Cedric looked at Casey. “I think I just got you fired.”
“We’ll see,” Casey said, looking at the curtain.