Los Angeles, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

After a week of pollen and then finding out that Minako was Sailor V and Mara Jade was some kind of...knife-wielding badass, Kathy had decided that spending a week with her classmates on a ship was not in the cards. She needed a little time and space to put her confused thoughts into order, to figure out how she felt about who and what, if anything, she wanted to do about it.

Rather than hang around an empty (and frigid) island while everyone else was enjoying Mexico (so much that no one had returned any of her handwavy texts!), Kathy had decided to head back to LA. Rather than going back to her parents' apartment for the week, Kathy'd rented a tiny motel room where she wouldn't have to worry about rules, curfew, or her family finding out about her late night hobbies. During the day, she could work on her homework and brood be pensive and at night she could be Banzai, too busy leaping over rooftops and chasing down criminals to live inside her own head.

You relax your way, she'd relax hers, all right?

Not that tonight was anything like relaxing. LA was so much bigger than Baltimore, with more crime and, specifically, more violent crime. She'd just finished taking down a mugger when she'd heard gunshots coming from the north. Giving the mugger's collar one last shake, she let him go and ran off as fast as she could towards the guns.

It might be kinda sick, but she loved this.

[And the link to the thread that begins after LJ breaks the page]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Normally, in a car chase, Banzai had no chance of keeping up. Sure, her top sprint rivaled some cars for speed, but it wasn't a pace she could keep up for very long. Fortunately, when she ran out of the alleyway, it was just in time to see a car speeding by, the driver leaning out his window to shoot at something behind him. The car swerved, almost knocking out a streetlamp, and slowed a bit; the driver ducking back inside to gain control of the wheel.

Banzai didn't bother to see who or what the guy was shooting at. He was distracted right now and that was the best shot she figured she was going to get. And while she might not be able to sprint for more than a few hundred yards at a clip, the car was right there. She tore after the car and then blew right past it. The driver, cursing loud enough to be heard through his open windows, didn't even notice.

Good.

She didn't bother to slow when she found what she was looking for--a building, pretty deserted, with a second story awning that jutted out almost to the street. Instead she just turned her velocity into a jump, clearing all the way up to the second story. The car was only seconds behind her, but what were a few seconds to someone as fast she was? By then, Banzai was already in position, calculating the angles. The car passed under her awning and she dropped, a rainbow meteor hitting the car's roof with a loud thud.

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon was busy being shot at and trying to catch fucking Fernando, and so he'd missed the rainbow blur as she shot past the car, too. So, when the fucking ball of rainbows came hurtling down from above, it was both a hell of a surprise, and kind of fucking hard to miss.

The car swerved, and maybe Gorgon took that swerve a little too for granted, because the bullet he caught in his shoulder rocked him halfway to completely fucking senseless. One moment he was driving the bike, and the next, he was tumbling, ass-over-fucking-tit like a ragdoll in a leather duster.

He didn't let himself stop and feel it. Didn't even bother to check his bike. He was beating pavement with his feet, chasing that fucker on foot, ignoring the screaming pain shooting through his arm. He was still riding a few tiers up. It sucked, but it wasn't going to stop him just yet.

[spin_kick_snap]

There was a whole lot of not paying attention going on suddenly. Because Banzai was sliding through the open passenger window and, which was actually a lot harder than it sounded when the car was swerving all over the road. She heard the sound of the bike falling, but it didn't register; not when there was a guy with a gun pointed at her. A lot of things took backseat (haha) priority to that.

Also, she recognized this goofball. Go figure. "Easy, Fernando, easy," she said, raising up her hands to show she was unarmed.

"Go easy?!" Fernando repeated. "That crazy vampire's after me, and you just came in through my window! You go easy!"

"I'm just here to talk," Banzai soothed. "You and me, okay?"

"Just what about this scenario seems okay?!" Fernando wailed, the gun shaking in his hand but not lowering an inch.

Even as fast as she was, Banzai couldn't outmaneuver a speeding bullet. She needed room to move around to bounce; a human superball could do a lot in a confined space, sure, but not this confined. If Fernando wouldn't calm down, then she needed to make her move before he panicked and made his.

Fortunately, she thought fast, too. She might not be able to stop him, but you do know what could? The E-brake.

Banzai flung herself towards him, knocking his arm up and reaching for the E-brake. She yanked on it as hard as she could, rabbit-punching Fernando in his ribs when he batted at her. The car screeched, tires grinding to a halt while the car skidded down the pavement, leaving thick black tread on the road behind them. The front seat was a chaotic jumble of rainbows and bodies.

And then the gun went off again.

[gunslingerpose]

And so fucking help him, Gorgon didn't want to know where that bullet went, and that sickening feeling in his gut wasn't helping any with that paranoia. But it was one hell of an incentive to catch up to the car as it finally came to a stop, to reach for the car door with the arm that wasn't quickly losing blood, and to rip it clean off the goddamn hinges.

Fernando thought he had it bad when Gorgon was chasing him. Now he was just goddamn lucky the 'crazy vampire' was just yanking him from the driver's seat and turning him around to look him in the eye. They needed to have a nice, long, silent heart-to-heart.

And then Gorgon was dropping Fernando's unconscious body to the ground like a sack of fucking meat.

He swayed a little where he stood, trying not to join him.

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai was more than a little dazed from how quickly everything just happened, but she'd been smart enough to grab onto the passenger seat before the car went skidding out of control. "Gorgon!" she exclaimed, blinking a few times to make the world stop spinning. Once she could focus, however, she zeroes in on the blood flowing freely down his arm. She clambered across the seat and out the driver's side door, past the dashboard that is now nicely decorated with a hole in it. "You're bleeding!"

[gunslingerpose]

Gorgon gave her a smile at that, crooked and a little dazed. He was still standing, with some kind of super-freak-power-trip contending with a bullet hole. That was... new. He was pretty sure this was probably worse than the dislocated shoulder.

The bleeding helped solidify that.

"Happens when you get shot." He paused, actually lifting a hand to press against the bullet wound, blood flowing freely between his fingers. "Oh. Fuck."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You got shot?" Banzai finally tumbled free of the car, yanking off her belt even as she got back up to her feet. "Move your hand, we need to bind this," she said, making a loop the could fasten around Gorgon's injured shoulder. "What the hell were you doing, chasing down a guy with a gun when you were already wounded?"

Even without the belt to hold it closed, the thick cotton of her gi stayed roughly in place. Not that Banzai would notice even if she was giving half of LA a peep show right now. She'd discovered something far worse than a potential flashing. "There's no exit wound! You have a bullet lodged in your shoulder somewhere!"

[gunslingerpose]

Well, that explained a lot about just how much this whole experience sucked, didn't it? He stayed still to let her tie his arm off, at least.

"I wasn't wounded until I got shot," Gorgon replied reasonably, because... look, getting shot was not helping him fire on all cylinders, here. He did at least hiss between his teeth as she wrapped his shoulder. This was not a good pain. No, he really wasn't enjoying this. "I mean, I didn't get shot until after I was chasing the fucker. Got a bit distracted."

Guess by who, Kathy! Guess!

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh that's good," Banzai muttered, making sure that the wrapping was as tight as possible before she knotted it. Even so, she could see red staining the brightly colored cloth. "High speed chase after a guy who is shooting at you is the best time to try to remember if you left the stove on."

She hadn't guessed.

[gunslingerpose]

Well, she'd... tried?

Maybe not so much. Gorgon winced, and just sort of leveled her with a look.

"My stove's just fine." Because he never bothered to use it, thanks. "No, I was distracted by the fucking rainbow that came crashing down on Painkiller's car, here. Kind of hard not to pay attention to an entrance like that, you know."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh."

Okay, yeah, that did take a bit of wind out of her sails. So she stayed quiet until she finished fishing out a packet of pills and a small plastic bottle out of her pockets. See, Barry! She'd told you they were indispensable! Sure, she was limited to offering Gorgon a few aspirin and nipper bottle full of vodka, but it was better than nothing.

"Take these," she commanded. "Where's your bike? We need to get you to a hospital."

And then, because she couldn't stay quiet any longer, added, "Painkiller?!"

[gunslingerpose]

"If my name was Fernando and I was half as dumb as he was, I'd probably decide Painkiller was the better choice too," Gorgon replied, reaching for the aspirin, tearing the packet open with his teeth and just sort of holding the contents in his mouth for a moment while he fumbled at the bottle. Aspirin, for the record, was not meant to sit on the tongue for any length of time. "Anyway, dropped my bike... a half-block back? Two? Dunno. Was running after the car. I'll get it, s'fine. Take it somewhere safe. I'm not going to see any damn doctor."

Maybe he'd try to call Doctor Lecter.

Not that Hannibal had cell service right now.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You have a bullet in your shoulder, Gorgon! Don't be stupid, of course you're going to a doctor! To a hospital!" His shoulder tied off, Banzai removed her mask to fashion a sling to cradle his arm and take the weight off his wounded shoulder. "This isn't the time for any macho bullshit, Gorgon. You need help. The bullet could splinter and do serious damage! You think a shot shoulder is bad, imagine what would happen if the shrapnel spreads."

[gunslingerpose]

"Yeah. That'd suck."

Gorgon could think of a few things that would suck more, though. Being vivisected for science didn't sound like a super great time, for a start.

"So, I'll just be going to get that bike now."

Yeah, that would work well.

[spin_kick_snap]

"What are you crazy?" Banzai snapped, even as she gently tucked his arm into the sling she crafted. "You're in no shape to do anything but sit there while I call for an ambulance." She glared up at him, catching sight of herself in his goggles.

His goggles.

Oh. Oh shit.

"This is about your eyes, isn't it?" she asked, feeling stupid it had taken her this long to piece it all together. Maybe she didn't think as quickly as she thought.

[gunslingerpose]

"No shit." Hey, she had to figure it out sooner or later. Gorgon gave her a wry little smile, swaying a bit. Everything was sort of inside out and super light right then. "Fuck, it feels like I could launch myself into orbit right now but get lost on the way. Is that normal? That's not fucking normal."

No, Nikolai. No, it's not.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's not at all normal." Well, it was normal--for shock. What were they supposed to do? He was right when he said no hospital, but they were thousands of miles away from Rapunzel and her healing hair and Banzai wasn't sure what other options there were. "Okay, we have to get you...somewhere. Somewhere we can at least clean your wound and examine it. Maybe I can--" She was probably going to enroll in a premed program when she went to college. Did that count for anything? "Gorgon, do you think you can get to the truckstop motel over on the edge of Glendale?"

[gunslingerpose]

"You really want me steering a bike right now?" That wasn't technically a no. Gorgon was looking back over his shoulder, trying to see if he could spot where he dropped the poor thing. He really didn't want to know the extent of the damage he did to it when he fell, but he was sure it wasn't pretty. "Just help me get it off the road. I've probably fucked up some part of it and I don't want to be the one to find out what while I'm driving around with a bullet in me."

What? Did she think he was going to be walking like this? Because that was kind of almost cute.

[spin_kick_snap]

She did, actually. Because she'd thought several steps ahead again.

"Gorgon. Look at me."

[gunslingerpose]

"Hnnn?"

It was probably for the best that he was wearing his mirrored goggles right then. He furrowed his brow and looked straight at her, but so help him, focus was hard.

[spin_kick_snap]

Except it wasn't really. Not for what she had planned anyway.

"No, Gorgon. Look at me. Between what you've got already and what I can give you, you'd be strong enough to get to the motel. Probably while carrying your bike, too. That gets you somewhere safe where you can relax and I can catch up."

She reached for his face, guiding it down towards hers as if she was pulling him in for a kiss. "Look at me, Gorgon."

[gunslingerpose]

The whole mess of it, her pulling his face down to hers, the weird intimacy of just how close he was to her now, the pull in his shoulder as he leaned down and the idea of just taking a hit from her all managed to startle an incredulous laugh out of Gorgon, then.

"What? You want me to take a hit from you and... what? Leave you here? How much relaxing do you figure I'll be doing if I knock you out and leave you on the side of the road?" He let himself linger there for a moment, licked his lips and took a shaky breath and for a moment it almost seemed like a good idea to just close his eyes and rest his face against hers, except then he was leaning back and nodding toward his bike instead. "Just help me get it off the road. If it's still there when I come back for it, great. If not... I'd rather it be missing by morning than you."

[spin_kick_snap]

Banza--Kathy--shook her head. "Even if we leave the bike here, what's going to happen? I can't carry you. I'm superhumanly fast, not strong." She glanced up to the rooftop high above the awning that she'd jumped from. "You could leave me up there? No one will find me if I'm tucked away on a rooftop somewhere. I'm light and small, so once you took a decent hit off me, you should be able to get me up there no problem."

[gunslingerpose]

Sigh, the hero types. Nick couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Not that she could see them, behind his goggles as they were.

"If I take a hit from you, baby, it'll be you I carry. Not the fucking bike."

Duh.

[spin_kick_snap]

Takes one to know one! Or something!

"Fine!" Kathy threw her hands into the air and stomped off to get to the bike first, ostensibly so he didn't do something stupid like try to use his arm to grab several hundred pound hunk of metal. And also because she was feeling pretty dumb for having missed the obvious there. But mostly the first thing, really.

Standing the bike up was easy enough, though it didn't exactly wheel like a bicycle towards the alley she figured they could stash it in. She remembered seeing a dumpster in the back as she dashed through and this street didn't get garbage collected until Friday. They could hide the bike behind the dumpster and hope that no one wanted to go poking through it anytime soon.

"Okay," she said, once the bike was in the alley at least. "I'm ready."

Kathy was a little nervous, but tried to hide it. Gorgon had always been very good about keeping her safe from his gaze and she wasn't sure what it would feel like. Fernando's reaction to it didn't exactly fill her with confidence or anything. Not that it mattered. Like his narration had said, she was a hero. He had to do this, it was important, she was going to suck it up and deal. And maybe he hurt too much to notice she was afraid.

"Take the hit."