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

[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."

[gunslingerpose]

Nick stood there. Hesitated. He wouldn't hurt her, not really, but this wasn't really a sharing and caring experience that he'd like her to be privy to. And he got so far as to open his mouth to say as much, to give her a chance to re-think it and back down, but... That was just more time arguing, and things were getting a little swimmy.

"Sorry, Banzai. This isn't going to be fun." He gave her a quick flash of his goggles first, wrapping his good arm around her to keep her from falling, before leaning in to make real eye contact. He needed the kick, desperately needed it, but he didn't exactly want to knock her out, either. Not really. Especially not if she was the one who was going to grab the bullet.

But he was pretty sure as he snapped his goggles shut again that he was cutting this one a little close.

[spin_kick_snap]

It felt like falling onto a mat from the uneven bars, the sensation of hitting the back of her head, but without the pain. Just...reality from very, very far away. She wanted to look away, to close her eyes, hell, even to blink, but just wasn't possible. The only thing she could do was keep staring back at him until he broke eye contact with her first.

Her strength, her will, her speed, everything drained away into him. All that was left behind was the hope that whatever it was that gave her her superpowers was enough to boost him up a few tiers.

[gunslingerpose]

And fuck- if this was what it was like taking a hit from someone with powers... 'Up a few tiers' was accurate enough. Gorgon's mind was spinning a little now, and it wasn't completely from the blood loss. Some part of him was tempted to snap the shutters open again, to take more, but his sense of reason won out. He kept his arm around her firmly, picking her up easily and supporting her weight as though she was nothing at all.

"You okay, Banzai?"

He was already running. It was the best hit he'd ever taken from any one person before, but far too much of that energy was bleeding away, trying to account for his injury.

[spin_kick_snap]

The most Kathy could do was lie there like a ragdoll in his arms. She wanted to speak, to reassure him, but putting together coherent thoughts and then backing those thoughts up with words felt damn near impossible. She nodded, briefly, head lolling against his good shoulder and then fell into a doze as the streets sped by.

[gunslingerpose]

Yeah, Gorgon really hadn't been expecting a reply anyway.

They were in the motel with a room paid up for the night after a quick conversation with a desk clerk who had been given extra money to not ask questions, and who looked just traumatized enough to agree that he didn't want to know. Kathy had been laid out carefully on the bed, and Gorgon had been not long for the waking world after doing so. The hit he'd taken had all but worn off, and while she'd done a decent job of bandaging him up, blood loss had caught up to him, now.

Unconscious on the bed beside her wasn't a bad place to be, was it?