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

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

... Dragon was idealistic, Banzai, not blind or stupid. His brow furrowed a little at what she was trying to hide behind her back, but he was distracted quickly enough by what she said.

"I know of Gorgon. Shot?" He had wondered if the other local hero with the super strength had some sort of super resilience to damage, as well. Apparently he had his answer, now. He frowned a little more deeply, looking at the blood. "I'm... going to guess that you didn't call an ambulance for him."

Call it a hunch.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

"I couldn't. He can't go to the hospital. He can't--his powers--would you go?" she asked quietly. "Knowing you'd be taking a risk not only ending up on someone's lab table but also that you'd run the very high risk of accidentally hurting to someone?"

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Well, that answered another question that Dragon hadn't been aware he should have been wondering about all along.

"No, I suppose I wouldn't. Not if it would put other people at risk. He has no control over his powers, then?" No, that wasn't important. Not at the moment. "What are you doing for him? Is there any way I can help?"

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not if he's unconscious or sedated by a gunshot wound," Kathy said tartly. "And I'm, umm, I'm..." Her flash of defensiveness faded as the enormity of what she was doing. "I'm gonna try to clean him out and sew him up. Unless you know how to perform emergency surgery on gunshot wounds?"

Kathy was really, really, really hoping his answer would be yes.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Well, excuse him, Banzai. It was sort of his job to be concerned for the safety of the people of Los Angeles. A hero with no control...

... was still a hero.

"I'm afraid not," he replied, frowning. Unfortunately, life as a janitor really didn't give one many great medical insights. "But..."

He pursed his lips a little.

"If you can keep him stable, keep an eye on him for a while, I think I might know somebody who can."

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

"You do?" Kathy looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Like...a doctor or something? Someone you could bring to him? That would be amazing. Someone you could call? Like, right now? He's...he's not doing so well."

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Dragon frowned a little, thoughtfully.

"I don't exactly have him on speed-dial," he replied, apologetically, "but I'm pretty certain I can find him. It might not be for a while, yet. You're going to have to hang in there, in the meantime. It could be as long as a day."

He pulled in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then exhaled a little puff of flame from his nostrils.

"Is there some way I can contact you? I'll need to know how to find you, once I find him. Or if I can't, how to get to you so we can come up with a better plan. I know this is a long shot. But... Gorgon is made of pretty tough stuff, isn't he? That's what the rumors say."

He was aiming for 'reassuring.' Was it working? He hoped it was working.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

...Not so much. Not after she'd thought that he was going to swoop in and save the day. For a moment, her whole body drooped, the full weight of her responsibility to Gorgon settling back on her shoulders.

She'd wanted a hero to rescue her and Gorgon. But she was a hero. And she was going to step up to be the one she was supposed to be.

"I can give you my number," she said. "We're staying at a motel close by. As soon as you have whoever you're thinking of, you can bring them to help. And until then, I'll...I'll do what I can."

She didn't think Gorgon would do well waiting another few hours for treatment, never mind a whole day.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

Sorry, Kathy. Dragon was excellent to have around if you needed somebody punched, lit on fire, or lifted very, very, high off the ground, but if you wanted a hero who could heal you were going to have to look elsewhere.

"I'm afraid it's the best I can do," Dragon said, apologetically. "I'll try to check in on you as often as I can. And if there's anything else you need, I can see what I can do to get it for you. But healing isn't my specialty, either. He's better off in the hands of someone who knows their way around this sort of thing."

He rummaged around in one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a phone, holding it out to her.

"Give me your number, and I'll check in on you every 20 minutes or so. If you don't answer, if you have to deal with some sort of emergency, then you can call me back as soon as it's safe to. Unless you'd rather I wait a while and then try again? Or just come running? I'm not above hovering over an operating table to make damn certain nothing happens to him in a proper hospital, with proper doctors, if things get too bad before I find who I'm looking for."

And woe betide anybody who attempted to move him from that spot, too.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

There was a small part of her that was absolutely freaking out because she was about to exchange phone numbers with the Might Dragon.

However, that part of her was buried beneath all of the other, more generalized freaking out, so there was that. But still. Later, once Gorgon was better and Dragon's friend had done...whatever he expected his friend to do...and Kathy was no longer responsible for someone's life, she was going to have a field day with this.

"Wait a while and then try again," Kathy said after rattling off her number. To The Mighty Dragon. Who then put it in his phone. "I might be busy trying to sew him up or something and the less I have to worry about contamination, that happier I'm gonna be. If I don't answer after three tries, come running?" She blinked at him. "Flying, I mean?"

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"I'll come whichever way is fastest," Dragon promised, a grim smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Now come on, I'll see you back to where you're going. Best way to be sure I'll recognize the place from above."

And it was as good a place as any to start looking for Regenerator. Some heroes didn't exactly keep regular hours, unfortunately.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm--I'm Banzai, by the way," she blurted. "So you know what to put in your phone. Along with my number, I mean." She didn't know how many random numbers Dragon had in his phone, but she wanted to make sure there was no way he could mix up hers. Not if he was going to bring help.

"Yell if you need me to slow down," she added, adjusting the bags on her arms to make sure they wouldn't foul up her legs and cost her even more precious time.

She was hoping he wouldn't need to. She wanted to be gone.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[hollywoodex-tra.livejournal.com]

"I thought that might be who you were. The last thing I want is to slow you down, Banzai."

He offered her another smile, tucking his phone away again before, with a familiar pull between his shoulder blades, he lifted back into the air.

"Let's go. Don't slow down on my account."

He'd have to push himself, but unless they were going terribly far, he was pretty sure he could handle it.

Re: For the other-OTHER superhero

[spin_kick_snap]

The Might Dragon knew who she was?!?! If Kathy had any other power set, she probably would have stumbled at that. How?! When?! Huh?

It was almost worth taking a second to ask him, except for how it entirely was not. Not with Gorgon's health on the line.

She threw him a fast salute and took off, a blur of white and red and rainbows flying through the dimness of Los Angeles at night.