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MidReal Story
Surgical Superpowers
Scenario:A cosmetic surgery clinic offers a procedure to give people superpowers. Dave, a high school student, chooses invisibility.
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I’d never noticed it before.
In fact, it was so out of place that I probably would have walked right past it, if the sign hadn’t been flickering.
The other half was still lit up, but it was the off-kilter, half-broken neon light that caught my eye and drew me in.
I’m not even sure why I went in there.
It was a dingy cosmetic surgery clinic, tucked away in an alleyway, and it looked like it hadn’t been renovated since the 1980s.
But I’d always wanted superpowers.
Even if I couldn’t get those, maybe there was some kind of surgery that would at least make me stand out.
All of my friends were smarter, more talented, and better looking than me, and I was sick of being ordinary.
The receptionist was a bored-looking woman in her late forties, and she didn’t even look up when I entered.
“How can I help you?”
she asked me without any enthusiasm.
“Is Dr…uh…Dr.
Parker available?”
I asked her, fumbling over the name.
She looked up from her computer, and a smile briefly crossed her face.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, I was just wondering if she had any free time right now.
Can you let her know that Dave Johnson is here?”
She looked at me for a moment, then nodded and picked up the phone on her desk to call someone.
I waited as she spoke quietly into the receiver in a language that I didn’t understand, but when she put down the phone and looked up at me again, she gave me an almost appraising look.
“Take the elevator to the basement,” she told me.
“You can find Dr.Parker’s office at the end of the hallway on your left.”
The elevator was old and creaky, but it still worked, and it took me down to a brightly-lit hallway lined with closed doors.
Dr.Parker’s office wasn’t hard to find; there was a small brass nameplate on the door that read “Dr.Emily Parker”, along with another sign that said “Lead Surgeon”.
When I knocked on the door, there was a muffled voice from inside saying “come in”, so I turned the handle and stepped inside.
She was standing behind her desk with her back to me, and she paused for a moment as she heard my footsteps on the carpet.
Then she turned around and gave me a bright smile that made my knees go weak.
“Hello,” she said, holding out a hand for me to shake.
“Hi,” I managed to reply as I walked over to her desk and shook her hand awkwardly.
She sat down behind her desk and gestured for me to take a seat opposite her, so I sat down and waited for her to speak.
Dr.Parker was in her thirties, with dark hair and an authoritative presence that made me think of high school principals and other authority figures who were used to getting their own way.
She was also really attractive, and it took me a moment to pull my gaze away from her face and look around her office instead.
It was clean and neat, with white walls and dark wood floors, and it looked like it belonged to someone much younger than her, which made me wonder why she worked at this dingy old clinic in the first place.
“What brings you here today?”
I shrugged, feeling awkward all of a sudden as I realized that I had no idea what I was going to say to her.
The receptionist had said that Dr.Parker could see me, but she hadn’t actually asked why I was here, so I wasn’t quite sure how to explain it to her now.
“Uh, I’m not really sure,” I admitted, feeling stupid for coming all this way without even thinking about what I was going to say to her when I got here.
“I guess I was just curious.”
Dr.Parker raised an eyebrow at me, and she leaned back in her chair, lacing her fingers together in her lap.
“Curious about what?”
“Well, um…”
I hesitated, unsure of how to continue, but Dr.Parker was watching me with rapt attention now, as if my every word was important to her, so I cleared my throat and tried again.
“I guess I’ve always wanted superpowers, or…you know, something like that.”
When she smiled at me, it was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and I felt myself blushing as I hurriedly added, “But I don’t know what’s possible, or…”
Her smile widened, and she reached into a drawer of her desk to pull out a white business card, which she slid across the table to me.
I knew it was just a regular business card, but when I picked it up and looked at it, there was something about it that made me feel like it had been engraved with gold and diamonds instead of just ink on paper.
I turned it over, and on the back, there was an address and a phone number, along with another phrase that was printed in bold red letters: “No refunds or exchanges”.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a business card,” Dr.Parker told me, as if that wasn’t obvious enough already.
“It’s for our clinic.I’m surprised you haven’t heard of us before, considering how long we’ve been in business.”
Now that she mentioned it, it did seem strange that I’d never heard of them before, especially since they’d been around for so long.
“Most of our clients come here for the usual reasons: breast implants, face lifts, liposuction and so on,” Dr.Parker said.
“They don’t know about the other services we offer.But if you’re looking for something more…extraordinary, then we can help you with that too.”
I stared at the card in my hand as I tried to process what she was saying.
“What kind of extraordinary services?”
Dr.Parker smiled at me again, and I felt myself getting lost in the depths of her dark eyes.
“Some of us have abilities,” she told me.
And then she shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
I stared at her in disbelief.
“You mean like superpowers?”
She nodded, and I saw the flash of wings behind her back before she turned slightly to hide them from view.
“My ability is quite…mundane, compared to some of the others,” she admitted.
“I can fly, but not very fast or very high.
Still, it’s very useful when you live in the city and you’re stuck in traffic all the time.”
I’d never heard anything more amazing in my life.
After all those years of wishing and hoping for something special to happen to me, I’d finally found it.
“But…what kind of superpower could I get?”
Dr.Parker smiled at me.
“Whatever you want,” she said.
Is there something specific in mind?”
I nodded eagerly.
“I want to be invisible,” I told her.
“And I want to be able to turn it on and off whenever I want to.”
Dr.Parker shook her head.
“Unfortunately, that’s not an option.
We can’t cater to individual requests like that.But I can promise you that you won’t be disappointed with the ability you end up with.”
I could hardly believe my ears.
“Does that mean you’ll do it?
You’ll give me a superpower?”
“We will,” Dr.Parker agreed.
“Our staff is highly skilled and they’re the best in the business.
We’ve been serving clients for over twenty years now and we’ve never had any complaints so far.”
“You mean nobody ever got hurt?”
Dr.Parker didn’t answer my question.
Instead, she asked me, “So what do you think?Would you like to go through with it?Or would you prefer to think about it some more?”
I knew the answer even before she asked me the question.
“I want to do it,” I told her.
Dr.Parker smiled at me and nodded.
Then she reached into her drawer again and pulled out a sheet of paper, which she handed to me along with a pen.
“You’ll need to sign the consent form before we can proceed,” she explained.
I took the paper and started to read through it, but Dr.
Parker reached forward and put her hand on mine, stopping me in my tracks.
“You can read it later,” she said.
“But please, just sign there for now.” She pointed at the bottom of the page, where there was a line for my signature.
I picked up the pen and scrawled my name across the page, even though I didn’t know what the paper said.
I just wanted to get it over with so that we could move on to the next step.
I handed the paper back to Dr.Parker, who smiled as she looked over my signature.
She reached for her drawer one last time, and this time, she pulled out a small black box in the shape of a cube.
As I watched, Dr.
Parker opened the box and took out a small white pill, which she handed over to me along with a bottle of water that had been sitting on her desk this whole time.
“Take this as soon as you get home,” she told me.
“And call this number within the next three days.If you don’t call us by then, then we will assume that you’ve changed your mind, and we won’t contact you any further.”
I took the pill from her and swallowed it with a single gulp of water.
Then I put down the glass and picked up the business card from where it had been lying on her desk.
“Don’t lose that card,” Dr.Parker warned me.
“If you decide that you don’t want your new ability after all, then we can remove it for you.
But if you lose that card, then you won’t be able to find us again.”
I nodded and put the card away in my wallet, where I knew it would be safe.
“As for your ability itself…please don’t do anything too…grand or dangerous with it,” Dr.Parker said hesitantly.
I had no idea what she was talking about, so I simply nodded.
She checked her watch, then stood up from her chair.
“It’s time to go get your new power now,” she said.
“Come on, I’ll take you to the operating room.”
Dr.
Parker led me down the same hallway that I had come in through, until we reached the end of the corridor, where she pushed open the door to the surgery room.
This time, there was a table in the center of the room, covered in white sheets.
The rest of the room was bright white as well, but there were no windows or decorations anywhere to be seen.
There were also all sorts of strange-looking operating tools lying on the side table that I didn’t recognize.
I felt a chill go down my spine just from looking at them.
Dr.Parker walked me over to the table, where she instructed me to lie down.
“Don’t worry, it will be over before you know it,” she told me.
I tried to relax as much as possible, as I lay down on the table.
I didn’t want to be too nervous about it, after all.
I was about to get a superpower—what was there to be nervous about?
Dr.Parker walked over to the side of the room and put on a pair of latex gloves, as she started to prepare all of the tools that she would need for the surgery.
She took a syringe and a small bottle of clear liquid from the side table, which she started to fill into the syringe.
“You made a good choice in selecting invisibility as your superpower,” she commented as she worked.
“People often underestimate it, but it’s one of the most useful abilities that you can have.
Not only will you be able to blend into the background whenever you want to, but you’ll also be protected from harm as well, since nobody can hit what they can’t see.”
She paused and looked over at me with a smile.
“Not that you’re going to get into any trouble, right?”
I shook my head quickly, even though I didn’t know what she was talking about.
Dr.Parker didn’t ask any further questions; she simply went back to work.
Once she had finished filling up the syringe, Dr.
Parker walked over to me and injected the clear liquid into my arm.
“The anesthesia will make you feel drowsy and disoriented, but try not to fall asleep,” she said.
“If you fall asleep, then you won’t be able to control your invisibility power.”
I heard her words, but I didn’t really understand them.
Why would falling asleep prevent me from being able to control my power?
And why would I want to be invisible if I was already asleep?
It didn’t make any sense, but I nodded anyway, to show her that I understood.
As soon as she had injected the drug into me, I started to feel dizzy and lightheaded.
The room started to spin around me, and I could feel myself starting to drift off.
I tried to stay awake, but it was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open.
I could hear Dr.
Parker speaking to me from somewhere off in the distance, but her voice sounded far away, like she was talking to me from the other end of a tunnel.
I felt a sudden wave of drowsiness washing over me, and my eyes started to slide shut.
“Try to stay awake,” I heard Dr.
Parker saying, as she tapped my cheek gently.
“The anesthesia is making you sleepy, but I need you to try to stay awake, okay?”
I nodded, even though it was getting harder and harder to think straight.
I felt her tap my cheek again, and my eyes flew open.
“Don’t fight it,” she said gently.
“Just let yourself fall asleep.It will all be over soon.”
I wanted to tell her that I understood, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton, and I couldn’t make the words come out.
She tapped my cheek again, and my eyes slid shut.
The last thing I remember was Dr.
Parker standing over me with a sad smile on her face, as she watched the world swimming and blurring around us.
I woke up slowly, feeling groggy and disoriented.
I blinked several times to try to clear my head, but everything still looked blurry and out of focus.
I could see Dr.
Parker sitting in the chair next to the bed; she was staring down at me with a small smile on her face.
“How are you feeling?”
“Groggy,” I managed to mumble.
“That’s normal,” Dr.
Parker said gently.
“The anesthesia still hasn’t worn off completely, so it’s going to take a little while for you to feel back to normal again.
But it will wear off soon, and then we can go home.”
I blinked at her, trying to focus on her face, which was still out of focus.
Home?” I asked, confused.
Dr.Parker smiled at me.
“You don’t think I would let my best student go home without me, do you?”
she said softly.
“We’re in this together, remember?We’re a team now.”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t really sure what she was talking about.
Dr.Parker smiled at me again and patted my arm.
“Don’t worry about that for now,” she said soothingly.
“Just try to relax and get some rest.It will all make sense soon enough.”
She stood up and walked across the room to get something from one of the cabinets, and I watched her go, still feeling drowsy and confused.
As I lay there, trying to wake myself up, I suddenly remembered what had happened, and my eyes flew open in shock.
Invisibility,” I gasped.
“I had surgery.Was it a mistake?Did something go wrong?”
“It’s okay,” Dr.
Parker said reassuringly.
“You did great, and everything went smoothly.
You have nothing to worry about.”
She walked back over to the bed and patted my arm gently.
“Just remember what I told you and don’t try to do anything too grand or dangerous with your power.
You don’t want to draw any unwanted attention to yourself or have something bad happen to you because of it.
Okay?”
I nodded quickly, even though I didn’t really understand what she was saying.
Dr.Parker smiled at me and squeezed my arm again.
“You’re a good kid,” she said gently.
"You have so much potential, and I know that when the time comes, you are going to do great things with your power. But you are young and still have a lot to learn about the world. So just be careful, okay?
As she spoke, I began to feel drowsy again, and my eyes started to close despite my best efforts to keep them open.
“Don’t do anything too grand,” I repeated glumly as my vision darkened and I sank back into sleep.
I woke up a short time later in the bed that Dr.
Parker had promised me with a headache that made me feel like my head was going to explode.
It took me a few moments to remember where I was and what had happened before I groaned and rolled out of bed, ignoring the nausea that washed over me as I did.
I needed some fresh air and water, and fast.
I had barely made it out the door before I doubled over and threw up in the bushes that lined the walkway outside the clinic.
It took me another minute or two before I felt well enough to stand up straight and look around me, taking in the sight of the alleyway that smelled like piss and vomit in the bright light of day.
I took a deep breath and tried to sort out my thoughts.
As the fog in my head began to lift, I remembered what had happened, and the promise of my new power made me smile.
Dr.Parker had warned me not to try to do anything too grand with my invisibility, but what did she know?
I didn’t have any plans to do anything too dangerous or stupid with it anyway.
I just wanted to have some fun, to see how far I could push things without getting caught.
The way I saw it, there were so many things that I could get away with now that I couldn’t before.
I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing me, so I could do pretty much whatever I wanted without getting in trouble for it.
The possibilities were endless, and I couldn’t wait to start making the most of them.
It only made sense to start by seeing how well my new power worked, right?
That was what any normal person would do, after all.
I concentrated on becoming invisible, thinking about fading away into nothingness, and a moment later, I did.
I couldn’t see myself anymore, which was a little weird, but I could feel my body moving, so I must still have been there in some form or another.
It was a surreal feeling, not being able to see myself, but I got used to it quickly enough as I walked up and down the alleyway a few times.
Then I turned myself visible again, just as easily as I had turned myself invisible in the first place, and continued on my way back to school.
It was an exhilarating feeling, being able to turn invisible and back again so easily, with no one around to see me as I did.
I couldn’t help myself, and I did it a few more times before I even reached the school gates.
Was there really no one around?
Lunchtime had been over for at least twenty minutes by then, so you would think that everyone would be in class or at least in the school somewhere.
Now that I thought about it, though, I didn’t run into anyone on my way back to school, and there wasn’t really anyone around me when I had left for lunch in the first place, which was kind of weird in and of itself.
What did I care, though?
It wasn’t like it mattered, and it didn’t change the fact that I had a new power to play around with, even if I could only use it for an hour each day.
Sure, that part sucked, but at least I would be able to use it every day, and it would give me something to look forward to while I waited for lunchtime to roll around, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world either.
Besides, there were so many things that I could do in an hour, so many ways that I could use my new power to get ahead in life and make things easier on myself that I knew I couldn’t pass up on this opportunity, no matter how much it might have sucked that it was limited to an hour every day.
If I planned things out properly, I could get away with pretty much anything, and no one would be able to catch me afterwards, so why wouldn’t I do exactly that?
Now that I thought about it, though, I should have realized that there would have been more of a downside to this whole thing than just the fact that I would only be invisible for an hour each day.
That part had been pretty clear from the start, and Dr.
Parker hadn’t tried to hide it from me either, but I guess I hadn’t been paying attention when she warned me not to use my invisibility for anything too dangerous or illegal.
It wasn’t like I would have listened to her anyway.
That part had always been pretty clear too: I didn’t like being told what to do.
When my parents tried to tell me what to do, I did the exact opposite instead.
When my teachers tried to tell me what to do, I did everything in my power to make their lives difficult instead.
It didn’t matter who it was telling me what to do; as long as they were trying to boss me around, I would do whatever I could to make their lives more difficult than they already were.
It wasn’t like that was a bad thing, though.
It was just who I was, and it wasn’t like anyone could stop me from doing whatever I wanted anyway, even if I ended up getting myself into trouble more often than I would have liked.
That was probably why Dr.
Parker had warned me not to use my invisibility for anything too stupid.
She probably knew that I wouldn’t listen to her in the first place and that she could tell me whatever she wanted whether or not it made any difference because she knew that I would do whatever I wanted no matter what she said.
The fact that she had even bothered trying to tell me not to use my invisibility for anything too stupid only made me want to do exactly that even more than I already did, and now that I thought about it even more than I already had, there were so many things that I could get away with now that I couldn’t before that there was no way that I could pass up on this opportunity even if there were going to be some downsides associated with it too.
I could cheat on tests and no one would ever be able to catch me afterwards.
Who cared if cheating was wrong?
It wasn’t like anyone could do anything about it if they found out in the first place.
I could sneak into R-rated movies without anyone knowing that I was there.
I could scare my little brother by hiding in his closet when he went in there at night, and I could make sure that my parents didn’t find me when they came into the room to check on him too.
The more time I spent thinking about it, the more I realized how much fun I could have with my invisibility, even if it only lasted for an hour a day instead of being a permanent change like I wanted.
It didn’t matter how long it lasted, though; as long as it worked at all, I could do whatever I wanted with it.
I could do something different with it every day so that I didn’t get bored, or I could do the same thing over and over again until I got tired of it instead.
It didn’t matter what I did, though; as long as I didn’t waste it, there wouldn’t be anything holding me back from doing whatever I wanted.
I just hoped that it would work when I tried using it later on so that I wouldn’t have wasted my opportunity trying to figure out how to use it instead.
What would be the point of getting an hour of invisibility every day if I didn’t actually make good use of it while I could?
For all Dr.
Parker knew, she probably would have taken this opportunity away from me while she still had the chance, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.
It was too late for her now; I had already left the clinic and there wasn’t anything she could do about it at all.
It’s not like anyone would believe her story anyway even if she told them about how stupid I was being now.
Who in their right mind would ever want to believe that someone they knew could become invisible every single day for an hour at a time?
That just didn’t happen in real life, no matter what they might have thought or wanted me to think otherwise.
It wasn’t something that anyone would be able to prove no matter what they did either, so there was no point in trying, and since there was no point in trying, there wasn’t any reason for me not to make sure that I got my money’s worth out of this change either.
I could do whatever I wanted without anyone being able to stop me.
Regardless of whether or not I was going invisible, I could do whatever I wanted without anyone being able to stop me in the first place.
That was why I had decided to get my surgery done in the first place, after all.
It was just an added bonus that I could become invisible now, and I couldn’t wait until I got back home so that I could start trying out my new power for real.
I could get a pretty good idea of what I would be able to do with my invisibility without actually needing to try any of it out, but I couldn’t help myself from trying out my new power as soon as I made my way back home from school later on.
The first thing I decided I would try doing was scaring my little brother by hiding in his room when he came home from school.
It would be worth the risk if I managed to pull it off, and he wouldn’t even know what hit him when he realized what had happened.
I wouldn’t even need to wait until my parents left for work later on so that I could try sneaking into an R-rated movie at the theater nearby by myself, although I could do that too if I got bored afterwards.