Koreatown, Los Angeles, Wednesday

[spin_kick_snap]

After discovering that Anders could heal the infected, the heroes of LA had been buoyed up by the knowledge that they could stop the spread of the zombie virus. Regenerator couldn't change anyone who had become of full-fledged zombie, but he was able to heal those they got to in time. It helped that the victims tended to have as much as a whole day between when they were bitten and when they turned. Stealth got word out to the populations that were most vulnerable, promising 'free and discreet care' to anyone who needed it, for whatever reason, and soon people were coming to them, either to be healed by 'Genny or two get heroes to help transport the infected back. 'Genny set up a walk-in clinic in a warehouse Stealth had procured and rather than patrolling, Banzai had started helping him there. She was fast, she was agile, she was good at calming people down--she made an excellent assistant and a new rapport sprang up between them.

They were saving lives. They were making a difference. It even made having to move back in with her family (under the guise of visiting for 'spring break') more palatable.

This rush of good feeling lasted for three days. Just three days. They knew they weren't stopping new zombies from turning, but between the people they were healing and the zombies the rest were killing, they really thought they were making a difference.

They were wrong. They were so wrong.

It was Sarah who woke Kathy up from her nap, eyes wide and a little scared. The fear alone had the bottom dropping out of Kathy's stomach; Sarah didn't do scared. She'd gone to school everyday through Seventeen territory and hadn't even flinched. "Sarah," she said, holding out a hand. "What is it?"

"Something's happening," Sarah said, going to sit on Kathy's bed and curling up against her big sister. "Something big. There was some kind of terrorist attack today--like a biological thing. People were screaming and rioting and attacking one another on Hollywood and Highland. Just out in the street in the middle of the day! Like--people ripped one another's throats out and stuff. It's all over the net--people were taking videos and running and screaming--they attacked little kids! And the way they looked--!" Sarah shuddered, hiding her face. "It was awful. Like a horror movie but for real. I watched people die. It looked like some were getting eaten."

"You shouldn't be watching this kind of stuff," Kathy said absently, stroking her sister's hair while her mind whirled. "It's just going to freak you out. Don't worry, the superheroes will fix it."

"I hope so," Sarah said, cuddling close. "Cause the videos I saw? It looked like the end of the world."

[NFB, but Kathy's going to be calling people. If you want her to call you (or want to call her), ping in and she did!]

Comments

[soniaroadsqueen]

Kathy hadn't been in her room recently. It didn't worry Ringo. Her senpai could take care of herself. But that didn't mean Ringo didn't miss her. So she was sending a text.

Well, it had an image attached. Of a huge slice of cheesecake slathered in cherry sauce.

You're totally missing out.

[not_every_mage]

Anders wasn't exactly waiting by the phone for Kathy,but it had been a few days with no word and he was starting to fret.

The logical move was of course a gif of cute animals. So that's what he sent to her phone.


This is what we're doing all day Sunday.

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

She'd been doing a night run along the rooftops when her communicator went off. It wasn't that late yet, was it?

"Go for Venus," she said, launching herself off a rooftop and into the air, coming down running on the next roof. "Look, Artemis, I'll be home in an hour, I swear. But if I try to do any more math homework, I'll explode."

Who forgot she'd forwarded her cell to her communicator for certain people? Minako, that's who.

[tigerundercover]

Raven would be texting Kathy in a little while, anyway. She had news! Great news!

But seeing Kathy's name on her phone, right around the time Kathy was supposed to be coming home so they could get ready for prom, sent a little shiver of dread through her stomach.

"Please tell me you're calling so I can go pick out your dress or something."

Was she going to have to play the recording for you, Kathy? She was not above turning into a big muscley leather daddy and dragging you home in front of all your superpowered friends!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy dredged up a smile when she saw the text. "Oh, Ringo..." she murmured.

Yeah, LA is a total wasteland of no bakeries, she texted back. No desserts for miles in any direction.

A minute later, she sent another message. You're right tho. Not about the cheesecake, but I am missing out. Missing everyone.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's phone was buzzing. He slid it out of his pocket and checked the caller-ID.

'SUPERBALL' lit up on screen. Right.

He thumbed the big red DENY CALL button with barely a thought.

If Kathy wasn't planning to show up back here, he couldn't see a goddamn thing they had to talk about, anyway.

[spin_kick_snap]

Wow. Way to kill her with a single message, Anders. Not that he knew that.

She watched the gif for almost a few minutes, smiling wistfully at it. He had no idea how much she wanted that to be true; just a day of laying in bed, leisurely kissing, not a single care in the world outside of whose turn it was to call for room service.

She wanted that. She wanted that so much. For a moment, she imagined herself pulling up Portalocity on her phone a booking a portal back to the island for Friday. There were plenty of heroes here--hadn't she already done enough? God, she was only eighteen, didn't she deserve a chance to go to prom and have a great time with her friends and then retire for the evening with someone she really cared about?

She did. She absolutely did. But the real world didn't give a damn about what anybody deserved. Anders didn't deserve to be locked up in a tower because of gifts he'd been born with. Dante didn't deserve to be hunted by demons. Raven hadn't deserved to be chased by a mob as a child. Deserving something didn't mean you'd get it.

So rather than reserve a portal ticket, she was calling Anders back. He deserved to have this conversation over the phone, at least, rather than via text.

[spin_kick_snap]

She was immediately shunted to voicemail. Sighing, Kathy started to leave a message. "Dante..."

Was there really a point to this? No. Rather than saying anything further, she hung up.

Though the recording might have picked up a few snatches of chords and lyrics.
Tears filled my eyes
As we said our last goodbyes
This sad scene replays
Of you walking away

[spin_kick_snap]

Honestly, it would be less humiliating than the last times friends had shown up to bring her home.

"..." Kathy's long pause probably said everything Raven needed to know. "I don't think that's how this conversation's going to go," she said softly. "But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be convinced."

[rebelseekspizza]

The voicemail notification jumped up a second later. Dante swiped that away from his phone, too.

What was I waiting for
Waiting for the bubble to burst
Over your stagnant pauses...

Damn it. He was going to have to go find something louder than just his boombox for this shit.

[tigerundercover]

The dread had been right. Raven wanted to yell. To point ou that Kathy promised.

But, well. Kathy promised. She wouldn't just break that willy-nilly.

"They still need you."

It wasn't a question.

[spin_kick_snap]

"They declared a state of emergency this afternoon while I was napping," Kathy said. "There are videos gone viral all over the net of zombies maurauding through the Chinese Theater on Hollywood. People are calling it some kind of terrorist attack for now, but..." She shook her head. "It was a slaughterhouse. And I was sleeping."

I've tried so hard and got so far but in the end, it doesn't even matter

Was there some kind of distortion on the line? Kathy frowned at her phone.

[spin_kick_snap]

For a moment, Kathy almost hung up. Calling Minako had been a whim, a desire to hear her voice again, to know she was safe after the disaster at the Chinese Theater today. Minako fought her own fair share of monsters, after all, and Kathy had just wanted a moment of knowing she was still fighting, still safe.

But hearing her voice brought a hot rush of remembered shame and guilt to Kathy's cheeks and she really did debate muttering Wrong number and hanging up.

She didn't, though. She'd already been a coward to Minako. "Hi," she said softly. "I'm pretty sure math never made anybody explode. But I'd hate it if you were the first."

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"See, you say those words, and I don't think you understand the horror that is the Japanese school system compared to America," Minako said dryly, launching herself into the air again without missing a beat. "--Or repeating your last year of junior high because your universe moves way slower than Fandom."

"Ohaiyo, Kathy."

[not_every_mage]

If Anders was being honest, part of the reason he'd sent the image was to force her to answer. So he wasn't particularly surprised when the phone rang.

"Hi there," he said as he answered. "How's heroing?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka had never made a phone call in her life. She hadn't received very many either, funnily enough.

Which meant that her phone going off--blasting some cheerful, sugary thing--was an occasion that required excited shrieking, flailing, and falling off her bed as she scrambled for her phone.

... It was lucky that she managed to actually answer the phone, really. "Hi hi hi!" Alluka chirped. "You've reached me!"

[tigerundercover]

Raven just assumed Kathy had a radio on. "I don't think you can blame yourself for needing to sleep sometimes. It's not like you got a mutated no-sleep gene."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hi," Kathy said, suddenly a little breathy just from hearing his voice. She'd missed him, even with things as tense as they were. "Not bad. For the last three days it's been really good, even. I've been helping Josh--Regenerator--out at the clinic we'd set up. I can't even tell you how many people he's cured. It's not the kind of heroing I'm used to, but damn it felt good."

[not_every_mage]

"That's fantastic," Anders said, genuinely pleased by the news. Any guardedness dropped out of his voice as he spoke to her. "I'm glad he's strong enough to cure it, even if it is a little less exciting than battling the undead in the streets."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Anyoung, Minako," Kathy said. Then paused. "Wait, did you say junior high?" Kathy had to check to make sure she'd heard correctly. "Like...eighth grade?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's smile was warm and her laugh warmer still. "I'm glad I did," she said. "Hi Alluka. How've you been?"

[that_oldsaying]

"Kathy! Kathy, hi!"

Alluka wriggled around to grab one of her toys (this one of her brother Illumi) and hugged it while she answered Kathy's question, "I've been having lots of fun! There were these flower princess shoes at work and I was drawing on the walls in the stairwell to make them pretty and no one got mad at me and Ringo even met Nanika, isn't that exciting?"

She thought it was anyway.

A beat.

"I also ate an orange already today."

Look what you've done, Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

Raven must have the radio on. Probably to make their dorm less quiet. It was weird not sharing a room anymore.

She missed her roomie.

"I wish I did sometimes," Kathy said. "And not just because I'd be able to really up my study time." She pulled up one of the videos Sarah had shown her, one that had cut out before anything too graphic happened, but showed the stampede of people fleeing and sent it to Raven. "This is from just a few hours ago."

Even now, Kathy could hear the sound of sirens on the streets and helicopters overhead.

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"Out of morbid curiosity, how long has it been for you since I left campus?" Minako asked, amused. "Because I've been home about two weeks."

"One summer passed, during my three years at Fandom."

[tigerundercover]

Raven watched the video, grimacing. What would Kathy even have been able to do? One girl, even a superpowered one, in that big crowd of people?

"Right," she said with a sigh. "Well I asked Jalian to prom. So I can't come out until Saturday."