The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles, Friday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

The body of Hiram Jarvis stretched out on the hospital bed, handcuffed to the railings. Restraints ran across its chest and legs. A bright red foam brace, the kind used for neck injuries, held its head down. The corpse had started moving three hours after Jarvis died. It had been moving a lot more in the five or six hours since then.

Danielle Morris	"So you've just been a ghost, kicking around for the last eighteen months," Danielle said, looking as uncomfortable as ever out of the Cerberus suit. She stood by the door, across the room from the hospital bed, her eyes everywhere except the body. "That's not creepy or anything."
The Zombified Corpse of Hiram Jarvis	The ex nodded. "Believe me, it was a lot less fun than it sounds," it said. It had Jarvis's voice, but the inflections were off, like the salt-and-pepper man was doing a very good impression of someone else. The heroes who had been around before the Fall of LA knew exactly who that impression sounded like. It sucked some air through its lips as it remembered how to breathe, and added, "It's not like the movies. We don't hang around the ghost clubhouse or something. It's a form of purgatory. Yeah, you get to see your friends and loved ones, walk through walls, sneak into movies back when we still had those, all that good stuff. But you can't interact with anything. You can't even see other ghosts. There are, like, thirty or forty dog and cat ghosts wandering around and I couldn't even play fetch with them. Talk about torment."
St. George	"There are dog and cat ghosts?" St. George asked. Because of course he would.
Ex-Jarvis	"Of course there are," scoffed the ex. "You think dog heaven's just something people made up?"
Stealth	"We are getting off-track," Stealth said, arms folded tightly across her chest and disapproval radiating from every line of her body. "We gave you the body of Hiram Jarvis because you said some things we could not immediately disprove. That does not mean we are taking everything you say as truthful, including the idea that there are ghosts." Beat. "Other ghosts."
Ex-Jarvis	"There are other ghosts," the ex said. "Barry can see 'em." It tensed in the restraints for a moment, fingers stretching wide and then relaxing. "Damn," it said, flinching. "That stings." It flinched again and gritted its teeth. St. George made a small noise of concern that the ex waved off as best it could from the restraints. "This body's coming back to life. The nerves are starting to fire again. It's a bit painful, like pins and needles, but everywhere, all at once."
Stealth	Stealth ignored the ex's discomfort to pin Zzzap with a steely glare. "You can see ghosts?"
Zzzap	The gleaming wraith hung just outside the window, shedding his excess heat to the open air. He shook his head. *I can see little wisps and glimpses of them,* he said, *like I'm seeing something out of the corner of my eye. But Max is the only one I've ever seen clearly.
Nikolai Bartamiani	"Can they all come back the same way you are?" Nick asked, drumming his fingers on the arm of his wheelchair.
Ex-Jarvis	"The ghosts? Probably not." The ex dipped its chin as best it could at its body. The head restraints made it look like a spasm. "I'm a pretty practiced sorcerer and this took me six months of prep work." He grinned at them. "And a fair amount of luck."
Danielle	Danielle nodded. "But they could, hypothetically, come back? You could bring them back?"
Ex-Jarvis	"The mechanics are a little different, doing it for someone else instead of yourself. but the principle's the same." "Anyone?" asked Stealth, against her better judgment. "If their spirit was still hanging around, yeah."
Nick	"Hang on another moment," said Nick. "This begs the next question - should we be bringing anyone back? I'm not just asking because Max was a total asshole in his past life." "Hey!" "But, I mean, it's pertinent."
St. George	"Why wouldn't we?" asked St. George. "We could save so many people!"
Nick	"Because those people are already dead," Nick said bluntly. "It violates the natural order of the whole world." As an afterthought, he added, "And makes those After Death nuts look like they have a point."
Zzzap	*I don't know if you noticed,* said Zzzap from the window. Where he was floating in mid-air. As a man=shaped being made of pure energy. *But the natural order's been violated from pretty much every angle you can imagine.*
St. George	He's got a point," said St. George. "With all those things walking around out there, it's hard to make a case for, like, 'God's plan' or whatever."
Nick	"Not really worried about 'God's plan,'" Nick said, adding finger quotes to go along with his verbal air quotes. "If we agree those things outside are abominations, that they're wrong, what does it mean if we're doing the same thing in here?"
Ex-Jarvis	"Isn't that what you let those kids do with your little girlfriend?" asked Jarvis' corpse. "Hell, she was even an ex when they grabbed her." It tensed and relaxed as a spasm swept over its body, missing Nick's sudden dagger-glare. "Either way, it's not the same thing. Out there, you can argue a few million corpses are getting desecrated by a virus. This is more like resuscitating someone. This body's restoring itself. It's going to come back to life. Real life, with a pulse and breathing and everything."
Nick	"Except you died," Nick growled, "and it's not your body. You had your time and now you're trying to get more. Maybe you should have been more worried about staying alive then making out with Jessica Alba's zombified corpse, Max."
Maxwell Hale, once again wearing someone else's body like a suit	"It's bad for me to recycle a body no one was using anymore, but you still get off on stealing people's life force, and that's okay?" Max snapped. "You keep grabbing little bits and pieces like a junkie with its next fix, hoping this one will be the hit that heals you enough to get you out of that chair."
Stealth	"Enough," Stealth said, as Nick opened his mouth to respond, his hands balled into fists. "Neither of you are fit to debate ethics and if I wanted a theological argument, I would have invited Father Andy."
Danielle	"But Nick has a good point," Danielle said. The corpse muttered something like 'Predictable', but she ignored him. "We need to stop and think about what this is going to mean to people. There's about a thousand people out there in the After Death sect who think exes still have souls buried in them somewhere. What's going to happen when they find out it's possible to bring people back from the dead?"
Stealth	"We shall explain these were special circumstances which cannot be repeated," Stealth said.
Nick	"Oh, we are?" Nick asked. "Well okay then. We'll just explain to people that 'special circumstances' let one of our own come back, but not their child or spouse or sibling. That's gonna go over well. Do you wanna tell Christian that or should we just jump straight to the riot?"
St. George	"One of our own?" echoed St. George.
Nick	"Oh, don't give me that, you know there's a divide between regular people and superheroes," Nick said in disgust. "We nearly had people try to take the trucks out and leave the Mount because they thought we were all going to bail and leave them to Rodney. And now they're going to see superhumans getting something regular folks don't. Add that to the backlash over every single ex we've ever put down that might've had a soul inside it, and that's a recipe for serious goddamn trouble."
St. George	"I hadn't thought of that," said St. George. Nick rolled his eyes, telegraphing Obviously to the room at large.
Stealth	"I have," Stealth said. "And I believe the results will be minimal. Either way, it's a little late to be debating the point, unless you wished to kill him again?" She stepped aside, as if to say 'Be my guest.'
Max	The dead man convulsed, his arms and legs thrashing as well as they could with their chains. "Better...make it..fast," Max wheezed. His head fought against the foam restraints. The ex fell limp against the bed and then another spasm racked his body. "We're...pretty close. My heart's...trying...to start...back up."
Danielle	"That hurts?" Danielle asked, looking around the room as if anyone else would know.
Max	"You think..." the dead man winced and cried out, but managed to catch his breath. "You think a heart attack hurts less when it's happening in reverse?" St. George made stepped to the door, presumably to call for the doctors. "No!" the ex said, his back lifting up off the bed. "No doctors. They'll try to save my life and they'll end up killing me. This has to happen at its owwnnnnNNNYYYYAAHHHH!" The corpse convulsed again, face twisted up in pain. His back arched, pushing his hips up in the air, and then slammed back down onto the bed. He sucked in a rasping breath.
St. George	St. George, forbidden from going for help and unsure what to do, looked at the body in some distress. "Are you sure it's working?"
Max	Not really," said Max. "I've never done it before." His chalk eyes turned to the window. "Barry," he called out. "It's time."
Nick	Nick demanded, "Time for what?!" at the same time Zzzap asked, *You sure?*
Max	"The next one should do it," said Max. He sucked in another breath. "All four cardinal points, just outside the Big Wall and the walls of the Mount. Make sure-- " The handcuffs rang against the rails three times as the corpse flailed at his chest. "Make sure they're pointed in the right way."
Stealth	"Wait, Zzzap, what are you--?" But the gleaming wraith was gone before Stealth could finish her sentence.
St. George	The walkie-talkie at St. George's waist crackled. "Boss," said a voice. "It's Ilya. I'm up at North Gate. Barry just flew by and torched a section of Bronson just outside." The hero tapped his mic. "What do you mean, torched?" "It looks like he drew a bunch of lines in the ground with his hand. Melted it right into the pavement. Still too smoky to see what it is."
Max	"St. George," a new voice cut in. "Makana at West Gate. What's Zzzap up to? He just burned something into the street here." Another spasm shook the dead man. "Oh yeah," he said, unbothered by the rising tension in the room or the growing concern across the radio. "This is it!"
Across the Mount	"Dave at South Gate for St. George-- " "This is Katie at North Gower-- " "Lemon Grove gate to St. George-- " " --just scared the piss out of all of us-- " " --like some kind of big circle with squiggles in it." " --the hell is Zzzap doing?
St. George	St. George stepped forward and set his hand on the dead man's chest which was still struggling to breathe. "What's going on?" he demanded.
Max	"Just a second," Max said through gritted teeth. "Time to do the Jesus thing." His eyes clenched shut and tears leaked out of the corners as he roared in pain. He tried to thrash but St. George's hand kept him pressed against the mattress. The handcuffs chimed as he strained to grab at his chest. The body went tense, rock solid, and then went limp again. A brilliant white light lit up the room, blazing out the windows and causing the heroes to squint and shut their eyes. When it faded, the body that had once belonged to Hiram Jarvis but did no longer was unconscious but once more alive.

***
On the bed, the corpse pale skin was taking on the soft colors of life. The veins faded behind the flesh tones. The ex - the man - let out a slow sigh, waking up from his faint. Sweat glistened across his forehead. "Jesus, that hurt," he said. "I had no idea it was going to hurt so much." He opened his eyes and Color leaked back into the irises, like an old Polaroid photo where an image formed out of a haze. Max looked at all of them, pride written all over his features. "Now who wants to talk about whether or not I'm a real sorcerer," he announced, only to realize that nobody was looking back at him. "Hey," he said, rattling the handcuffs on the bed. "Did y'all just miss my amazing impression of Jesus? Because I'm pretty sure that was impressive. You should all be very impressed right now."

*Uhhh, Max?* Zzzap said, his buzzing static voice managing to sounding uneasy. *Was your resurrection meant to come with any unintended side effects?*

"Well, I mean, we talked about--" He tried to shift in the bed to get a better look at what everyone was staring at. "You did the symbols all done, right? I mean, I'm assuming yes, or we wouldn't all be here."

"That's the problem," Danielle said and shifted so Max could see past her. "We're not all supposed to be here."

In the center of the cluster of superheroes, Kathy Li - known to most of them as Banzai - was sprawled on the floor. She stared back at them in horror for a long moment, making eye contact with each one as if verifying that, yes, they were who she thought. And then she scrambled to her feet and bolted out the hospital room door.

[And now starting the ACTUAL canon catchup! Taken (and adapted, and twisted to all to hell) from Chapter Thirteen Ex-Communication by Peter Clines. NFI, NFB, OOC is love]