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]

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?

[spin_kick_snap]

"Room 307, keycard in my left pocket..." Kathy woke up with a start, remembering the information she had meant to pass along before she'd gone under. The room they were in was decorated the same as hers, but the windows were on the wrong side, her stuff wasn't piled in the corner and her room almost certainly didn't have an unconscious guy bleeding all over the sheets.

Wait, what?

She flung herself out of the bed when she realized that Gorgon was collapsed unconscious next to her, bounding over to his side to check on him. He felt clammy, his breathing light and shallow, and his skin was had an unnatural pallor. He looked like the vampire Fernando had called him. His shoulder was still oozing blood, a bright red splotch already visible beneath him. Worried he was going into hypovolemic shock, Kathy was tempted to call an ambulance anyway--but he was right. He'd end up on some scientist's table just as soon as someone collapsed after prying open an eyelid to check his pupils.

If anything was going to be done, she was going to have to be the one to do it.

"I need a better first aid kit," she mumbled, reaching into her pouch to grab a granola bar. She wolfed it down, trying to regain her strength. She wasn't quite reeling anymore from his hit, but she wasn't up to fighting trim, either. "Tweezers, isopropal, proper bandages, forceps if they have them..." She was going to have to hit up a pharmacy and hope they had everything on her ever-growing list. But who prepared to take care of a gunshot wound while stuck in a hotel room?

Maybe Mr. Spencer? Actually, that wasn't a terrible idea. She was going to have to call him.

While she was waiting for Mr. Spencer to pick up, Kathy gathered all the blankets and towels she could find, wrapping them around Nick to help prevent shock. She also snagged his wallet, taking all the cash she could find; sorry not sorry, Gorgon, but medical supplies were expensive and she wasn't the one who mugged the criminals she took down. With a quick brush of his hair away from his forehead and a whispered promise to be back as fast as possible, she flung herself out the door to find the nearest 24 hour drugstore.

[vdistinctive]

Fortunately for Kathy, Eliot didn't sleep much. He was still wide awake to take her call.

"Kathy? What's goin' on, darklin'?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Oh thank goodness! He'd picked up!

"Mr. Spencer, I'm so glad you answered and I'm so sorry for calling at this hour, but like I said, it's an emergency." She sounded a little out of breath, running down LA streets at thirty miles an hour could do that to a girl. "This is a very, very weird question and I won't blame you if you don't have an answer but you were the only person I could think of except Dr. Lecter's on the cruise and no one is answering their phones there..."

Breathe, Kathy. Mentally and literally.


"Do you know what to do for a gunshot wound if taking them to get it treated professionally is not an option?"

Bet you weren't prepared for that question out of this student's mouth, were ya?

[vdistinctive]

Prepared for it? No. But he couldn't really bring himself to be surprised by it, either.

"Is it a through-and-through? Where's the wound? I'm guessin' since you're talkin' to me and not gasping in pain you weren't the one who got hit."

[spin_kick_snap]

"No, it's caught in his shoulder," Kathy said, biting her lip. She'd jumped up to the rooftops and needed to reorient for a minute. There! She needed to go that way, right. And not at full speed, either. If she slipped on a loose shingle or something, she and Gorgon would both be screwed. "My--my friend? I guess you could say? He caught the bullet in his shoulder and then dropped his bike. Uhhh..."

She tried to remember the type of gun. "Handgun? Not too big, but I didn't really pay attention to what kind it was."

Which was funny, considering it had been pointed at her for several long seconds.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot bit back his sigh to keep Kathy from thinking it was directed at her. Fucking guns, man.

"Okay. Bullets are pretty self-sanitizing. They get extremely hot when they're fired, so if at all possible, you want to leave that sucker in there. He's better off having to deal with it later in a clean room with an actual doctor than getting it yanked out there, where you got so many vectors for infection." Kathy sounded reasonably calm so far -- for a teenager trying to do kitchen table surgery for a gunshot wound, and no, it wasn't quite the first time Eliot had had to deal with that, though the fact that Kathy was American but not military made this a first -- so Eliot didn't bother with any reassuring words. "What kinds of supplies do you have?"

[spin_kick_snap]

She wasn't feeling very calm, but she was pushing all that panic and worry down into a little all where she could deal with it later, once Gorgon was all right. But she definitely had some kind of emotional breakdown queued for later.

"He's not gonna go to a doctor," Kathy said. "He can't. I mean, if he made any back-alley, off-the-books doctor friends, he hasn't given me any clue about that and he'd not conscious right now so I can't really ask, but I know that he 100% can't go to a hospital or normal or clinic or anything. That is 100% off the table."

If she didn't take it out now, odds were good it wasn't going to come out.

"I'm on my way to a pharmacy now, so I can get whatever supplies you suggest."

And figure out how to get penicillin and good pain relievers without a prescription. Which probably meant stealing them, truth be told.

[vdistinctive]

It absolutely meant stealing them, yeah.

"He can live with a bullet in him, Kathy. A lot easier than he could with med-resistant staph." Eliot shook his head, wondering if he should just ask where she was and come take care of this whole thing for her. "If you're absolutely determined to take that bastard out -- and you shouldn't -- then you're going to have to be extra careful to sterilize the shit out of everything. You, any tools, the damn table you got him on. So that's hydrogen peroxide, as much as you can carry. Iodine if you can find it. The most hardcore soap you can find and a box of gloves. Suture kits if they got 'em, if not go for dental floss and a good long, curved needle. Gauze, both squares and tape." He should really just ask where she was and go do all this himself. What was the point of having an on-island portal service if it couldn't 'port you across a continent in time to stop one of your students from having to stitch up her friend? "And find something for him to bite down on. He won't necessarily stay unconscious the whole time."

[spin_kick_snap]

And she was pretty sure that she didn't have enough cash to cover everything anyway, so, yeah, she'd be getting a crash course in shoplifting tonight. This drug store was going to get such an anonymous apology in a few days.

"I'll get all the stuff and then look," Kathy decided. "If it's not right up against his bones or tendons or anything, I'll leave it in there. But if it looks like it's could do damage to the joint, I'll...do what I have to do, I guess." She gave a shaky laugh, juuuust on this side of hysterical. "Good thing I'm thinking about pre-med, right?"

Nope. She was gonna cling to her composure with both hands and her teeth if she had to, dammit. Now was not the time to fall apart.

"Anything else I should get or know, Mr. Spencer? Fluids and food for when he wakes up, yeah? To help start replenishing the blood he's lost?"

Clothes, too, for him to change into. Lots of water and juice. Whatever healthy foods she could scavenge.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot was all set to argue the point, say that she could do as much damage to the joint trying to get the thing out -- 'good thing I'm thinking about pre-med,' jesus -- but freaking her out any further probably just meant her hands were going to shake more when she inevitably decided she had to do it, anyway.

He was very glad it wasn't his shoulder the bullet was in.

"Juice," he confirmed. "Cookies or crackers. You actually want the sugars, here, give his body an extra boost. If they've got --" well, no, she said pharmacy not hospital or medical supply depot, odds were against any IV kits. "-- Grab saline, too, to wash things up with." He took a breath. "You sure you're up for this? I could get a portal, come out and take care of things."

Well. He could wake Hardison up and make him do it, but the end result was the same.

[spin_kick_snap]

Dammit, Mr. Spencer! That had been a joke! She was resorting to humor to not panic herself into oblivion!

At his offer, Kathy bit her lip, really tempted. Honestly, she would love it if Mr. Spencer came out to take care of this for her. She was a seventeen year old bouncy superhero, not a field surgeon. The closest she'd ever come to this before was playing Operation!

But this was Gorgon's secret identity, not hers. And while she didn't think the same rules applied to people from Fandom, it wasn't her call to make.

"Sure isn't exactly the word I'd use," she said, voice subdued. "Probably just the opposite. But I'd have to check with him before I could say yes and he's not here right now."

Being unconscious in a hotel room several miles away by this point.

"Would it be possible to have that portal on standby?" In the back of her head, she heard her mother's voice telling her she was being rude, you didn't make people WAIT when they were already doing you a favor, that she had no right to bother Mr. Spencer in the first place...She shoved that down with the panicking voices that said she couldn't do this, she was too young, too untried, she was going to screw everything up. They could keep each other company while she did what she had to do. "I'll pay for it and everything, you don't have to worry about that. And if it were life or death, I'd say screw it and have you out here no matter what...but it's not and he gets a say in his care, so I can't say yes without checking. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I really appreciate the offer..."

She was going to keep apologizing for a little while, yeah.

[vdistinctive]

"Breathe," Eliot reminded her. "Standby works." Probably? He was totally going to have to wake up Hardison. "I get it, Kathy." Being a criminal was basically its own sort of secret identity, after all. "You're bein' a good friend. And you are not payin' me back. Money is not an issue here." He didn't hoard the stuff like Parker did, but he also wasn't going around buying every building he saw, like Hardison. He had more than plenty of funds at his disposal. "I'll stay on the line 'til it's done or you ask me to show up. You're not doin' this alone, okay?"

[spin_kick_snap]

That, more than anything else tonight, nearly got Kathy to break down. She'd never talked to an adult who had faith in her like this before. She wasn't entirely sure if anyone ever had, truth be told.

"Th-Thanks," she said, stumbling. "I'm, umm, almost at the drugstore and I'm gonna let you go while I'm in there..." She didn't want to be on the lie with a teacher she respected while she shoplifted. "...but then I'll call you back? When I'm there and can put you on speaker so you can walk me through?"

Or she could panic and ask him to come anyway? One of those.

[vdistinctive]

Oh honey, that was adorable. It'd also give Eliot time to make Hardison figure out the portal crap, so Eliot didn't argue.

"I'll be here," he told her.

It was a little weird, being relied upon for more than hitting things by anyone other than his team. Most folks only ever saw him as the brawn. It was all he ever let most folks see, that or whatever character he was running for a con.

Until he'd shown up at Fandom. And Hardison and Parker wondered why the hell he'd stayed.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Thank you," she said again, hoping he could hear just how fervently and sincerely she meant that. "For everything."

Getting into the drugstore and getting what she needed turned out to be a lot easier than Kathy had been anticipating, which, conversely, just made her feel worse about the whole thing. She'd caught sight of how ghoulish she looked, liberally covered in Gorgon's blood, and, remembering her classes with Reno and Parker and Eliot, had known what to do.

"Help!" she cried, stumbling into the store. "Please help me!"

The one late-night clerk on duty had done exactly as she'd figured--taken one look at her and immediately focused on the blood. He probably wouldn't be able to pick her face out of a lineup if his life was on the line. It took her seconds to convince him to lead her to the small employee breakroom and to loan her his cellphone. As soon as he did, she dashed out, shutting the door behind her and wedging it shut. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I swear it's important!" she yelled over her shoulder.

And then proceeded to loot the store thoroughly, careful to keep her face turned away from the cameras, taking everything that she thought might even look useful. She swept through the store within moments, including a quick leap over the pharmacy counter to grab for the penicillin and a bunch of Percosets.

She unwedged the door before she left, adding one more, "I'm really sorry!" for good measure. She also tossed all the cash she had on her onto the corner next to the cash register. Whether the kid would put it in the till or take it as his due for getting robbed by a blood-streaked teenager, she didn't actually care.

God, she was the worst.