multiversallogs | I know it's hard but...

Entry tags:

I know it's hard but...

Who: Steph Brown, others [closed]
What: Monster fighting, rescues, healing
Where: All around Baedal
When: Over a two week period since Hasi broke reality
Notes: Everyone has their own thread starter, which are in no particular order, if there are any problems/questions please let me know!
Warnings: NPC death, gore, violence, monsters, PTSD, my inability to be succint, if I've missed any feel free to tell me

The monsters are new for her.

It's not that she isn't used to dealing with all the assorted bullshit that Gotham can throw at a vigilante, but there's nothing quite like this. There are people like Killer Croc and Zsasz and Black Mask, who might be horrific, but they're still people. These monsters are more like animals, but they're huge and violent and they hunt people. She's not trained for this, she's not equipped for this and she sure as hell isn't prepared for it. Getting the gun and new batarangs from Rex helps, and she adds a large hunting knife to her array of weaponry, but it still doesn't feel like enough.

It's terrifying, in a way that she doesn't have time to deal with, so she pushes that down and focuses on doing what she can. There's moments, as she faces down things that eclipse her worst nightmares, when she wonders if she should be hiding instead of out here fighting. But there are other moments, times when she wins, when she gets to reunite a parent with their lost child, and it doesn't matter that Steph is bleeding, bruised and exhausted, because she did good.

At the behest of Babs, and the reminders her own body sends, she forces herself to stop and rest once in a while. Usually she goes back to wherever Babs is, or Kate, if she happens to be resting at the same time. Her sleep happens in small bursts, a few hours here or there, curled up near Babs or Kate and letting the exhaustion take over. She tries not to eat too much, because she has no idea how long these monsters will stay in the city and she's scared that food will start running out. She's already started collect supplies, bringing them to the safe places and distributing them to people.

She doesn't think about the dead bodies she sees, or the injured people. A lot of Baedalites can look after themselves, but some of them can't and it's those who end up as smears on a wall. Except for when she has to stop to throw up, after seeing half eaten corpses; then she thinks about it, and she doesn't know how long she can keep going out and coming back alive.

She hopes no one will hold it against her if she gets killed.

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Of course she's on a rooftop. This is certainly not Kate's first monster rodeo. There's a reason why bows are long-ranged weapons and it's not a reason she tends to forget. She's stooping down right now, but in the distance, Kate notices some movement above street level and the way the shadows move is familiar enough for her to pinpoint Steph's location. Even without bright lighting, she's fought with Steph long enough to know what her body language is like.

She stands, close enough to the edge of the building so that Steph can see her, even though it's dark, but the scarf on her arm, fluttering in the night breeze will make her easier to spot.

She catches sight of the scarf, and although it gives her a moment of worry - is that tied around Kate's arm? Why? - she's already leaping off the edge of the building she was on, firing her grapple hook before she falls too far and using it to swing across. A few moments later, she's made it to Kate, and then she's definitely worrying.

"What happened to your arm?"

This is a long night that is nowhere near being done and honestly, even without the wound, Kate's arms feel like they're lined with lead. Her legs ache as well and she's filthy with street dirt and whatever else comes with fighting. A hot bath and a soft bed would not be rejected.

"Bearfishthing hit me," she explains, tugging the free ends of the knot tighter with her teeth and free hand. There's a visible wince on her face, but she soon wipes her expression clean because right now, worrying about her arm is the least of their problems. "I'm fine. Let's just get rid of these things before they move in closer."

Steph frowns, but relents for the moment, "I'm taking a look at that once we get back to the safe house." It's a statement that mostly sounds like an order. Steph is going to fix Kate whether she likes it or not.

"What arrows have you got left?" She's already done a quick inventory of her own batarangs -- two goop ones, two explosives, one flashbang, three tazer ones and seven plain sharp batarangs. It's not much, but there have been other things to fight, and at least she still has the gun.

Honestly, Kate's too tired and too distracted to fight Steph on that, and then again, Steph does know a fair bit of first aid. Fighting just to be stubborn is a stupid game nobody wants to play tonight. She just nods and slips her quiver off her back to count the remaining arrows. "Two EMFs, one fire, one more net, four smoke, and the rest are regular ones." It's definitely not enough to get them through the night, but at least she still has her sword and battle staves.

"What about you?"

"The only useful ones are two explosives, a flashbang and three tazers," the others she has won't do much against wolves. She chews on her lip as she thinks, looking down at the wargs, who are trying to free the two from the net.

"If we can get them wet, the tazers will go further," she's already trying to figure out how to do that; maybe they can drop water on them from above, or open up a nearby fire hydrant.

"This is worse than the time we had a zombie horde in the other place." At least then, they knew exactly what they were dealing with unlike here where the enemies change from block to block. Kate's already seen a Sentinel and knowing what she knows, that cannot end well ever.

Kate suddenly feels a bit woozy and sits down on the edge of the roof, quite a stupid move considering that she could tip over and fall at any moment and there's still a bunch of wargs to deal with. "Do you have any rain callers in your utility belt?" It's a joke, but it sounds a little flat. Hopefully, it's just exhaustion taking it's toll on her.

Edited 2012-03-06 22:56 (UTC)

"There are zombies here, too, if that helps," Obviously it doesn't, but there's always time for really bad attempts at lightening the mood.

She's at Kate's side in about half a second when she sits down, one hand on her shoulder to keep her from tipping over and the other gently inspecting Kate's wound, "Are you sure you're up for this? You won't be helping anyone if you get yourself killed." That's maybe harsher than she needs to be, but she knows what Kate is like and really doesn't want her to get hurt for the sake of protecting people.

Kate turns to look at Steph through narrowed eyes that's less about calling her out on a bad joke and more about 'Why did you tell me that?' Last thing she really needed to know was that there are zombies to contend with.

The wound is bleeding more than something at its depth should, but Kate's stubborn if anything else. There's a job laid out in front of her and Steph cannot handle this alone. She'd rather bleed out than let those things get to the safehouse. "Let's just finish this and then check in with Babs." She's doing her best to sound energetic, but really, anybody can see through that act.

"No." She says determinedly after inspecting the injury. Her tone doesn't leave any room for argument and her expression is just as hard. She refuses to let Kate get hurt, stubbornness be damned.

"I'm going to blow those things to high hell and then I'm taking you to Babs' and stitching that wound." It's frustrating to have to use all her explosives in one go, but she has a plan that will hopefully make the most of them. She's already pulling a clean bandage from her utility belt -- she's gonna need to borrow the bloodied scarf.

Edited (lol wurds) 2012-03-06 23:31 (UTC)

"Steph..." It's a weak protest. The scarf is starting to turn pink in places and fully red in others. For what started out looking like just a minor scratch, the wound has seemed to open more and swell up under the bootleg bandage. It's gotten nasty within the last few minutes as Kate can't help but hiss as Steph unravels the scarf.

What was on those claws, nobody knows, but it sure wasn't friendly.

"Jesus," she curses under her breath as she works, putting the scarf aside and pulling off her gloves -- she's been fighting monsters, they are not very sterile, "This looks infected. There's not a lot I can do right now."

But she'll try anyway. A small bottle of antiseptic wash comes out of her utility belt, and she gently applies it to the wound, then opens a pad of gauze, holds it on the wound and wraps it tightly with a clean bandage.

"Promise me you'll stay here for a few minutes while I deal with the wolves," she's crouched down slightly so she's meeting Kate's eyes, her expression serious. If Kate won't promise, Steph will take her straight to Babs.

Kate would ask how it getting infected so fast could happen, but she knows how monsters work. The impossible is possible when dealing with them. Her arm burns and tingles--not in the least good way--even though Steph goes east on the wash and even as brave as she is, it takes everything in her not to yank her arm away just because it hurts so damn much. There's nothing but sweet relief when Steph finishes, only because there's nothing more adding to the pain Kate is feeling right now.

Steph's never looked at her that way, never asked her to promise something like this. Kate knows this is serious. It's something she would ask if she was in Steph's shoes, so she nods but not without putting in her own ill-timed joke. "Promise me you won't get killed."

"I promise," in a burst of spontaneity she touches her forehead to Kate's, because seeing Kate wounded like this is scary and Steph's about to go fight a pack of huge wolves that probably want to tear her apart. She pulls back after a second and offers a shaky smile, trying not to show her worry.

The gloves go back on, and she pickes up the scarf, winding it around her wrist, "I'll be back before you know it."

Without another comment, Steph leaves their current rooftop in favour of one closer to the wargs. It puts her lower to the ground, because it's only a one storey restaurant, but the wind's still apparently on her side, and she slips into the building without drawing attention to herself. Once inside, she goes to the kitchen and turns all the gas ovens on, waiting a few minutes as the room fills with gas.

That done, she walks to the back door, near where the wargs are gathered - the two Kate netted are now free - and throws it open with a loud clang, letting go of the scarf so it flutters in the air, the smell of blood and sickness clear for the wargs to pick up. All their attention is turned to Steph, and they think she's easy prey. One of them howls, and then without a second look, Steph turns and runs back inside, panic filling up her chest as she hears the wargs follow. This was the plan, but it doesn't make it less scary.

They follow her into the kitchen, where she drops an exploding batarang and then she leaps out a window just as the building goes up in a huge explosion. The concussive force knocks her down, but her cape and suit protect her from the flames and she manages to stumble to her feet and keep running for a few minutes before finding a fire escape to jump up to. She feels bad about blowing up someone's restaurant, but all the wolf creatures seem to be dead and she only had to use one batarang.

Once she's certain they're all taken care of, she makes her way back to Kate as fast as she can.

Edited 2012-03-07 03:17 (UTC)

The action takes Kate by surprise and she stiffens slightly, but then relaxes with an equally as shaky grin. "You better be," she replies, brushing back Steph's hair with a certain amount of affection never shown before. She watches Steph prep for battle and just as she hops off the roof, Kate notices something rather weird and important. "Wait a minute... that's my scarf!"

But Steph is long gone and not hearing a word of Kate's yelling. She's left there to sit in the dark with the sounds of crickets and snarling wargs before an explosion rocks the area, shaking the rooftop under her feet.

"Steph!" Fear isn't the word describe the way Kate's feeling right now. She promised. Steph frickin' promised.

A few minutes later Steph comes climbing over the edge of the rooftop, her expression a little shell-shocked but mostly Ha! I'm not dead because sometimes she has every right to smug about that sort of thing.

"I think I owe someone a new restaurant," she tries for a joke, but it probably falls flat and she's already walking over to Kate to get ready to start moving back to the safe house.

It only falls flat because Kate's rushing to wrap her good arm around Steph's shoulders. She doesn't know why she's so emotional, knowing that she's the level-headed Young Avenger. She just is. And she's just happy that Steph didn't blow herself into bits.

"I'm going to kill you one day for doing that to me." Haha. Forget her personal rule just for one second.

She's a little surprised, but goes with it, wrapping her arms around Kate's waist and hugging her tightly.

"Sorry, I knew you wouldn't let me go if I told you want I was planning," It would've been hard to say I'm going to nearly blow myself and Steph just needed to get it over and done with quickly, so they can get Kate stitched up.

"You think you can make it back to Babs', or will I have to carry you?"

No, Kate definitely would not have let her go if she knew. Alone, at least. If somebody's going to get blown up, the team--or duo--gets blown up together. That's the rule.

She nods and even leads the way down to the street to show that she's still kicking, even if she's still woozy and exhausted, arm in arm with Steph. Babs' place isn't too far and she's not weak enough yet to not make it on her own two feet. For a second, though, Kate stops and eyes Steph with a faux angry face. "You owe me a scarf."

Steph follows easily, keeping an eye on Kate and she's more than happy to keep close enough that their arms are linked together. Although her other hand is on her gun, just in case something comes out of the shadows to attack them.

"I'll buy you twenty scarves if it'll make you happy," she grins back, not even attempting to look innocent and choosing not to comment on the fact it was probably ruined anyway.

"That thing cost as many as twenty scarves," Kate retorts, which is honestly and totally true. She bought it when she bought the team uniforms to replace the ones Steve and Tony seized from them. Okay, so as much as Kate hates throwing money around, she does like nice things sometimes. Sue her. Call the cops. She doesn't care.

They trundle along together, Kate more slowly than she's ever been before. Part of it is sheer exhaustion, the rest is the wound that she's currently unaware starting to breed a fever in her. "I'm so tired. I want to sleep for years."

"I need to teach you how to shop, if that's the case," it's an easy joke, nothing more than gentle teasing. Steph is used to people with so much more money than her, and she tries not to let it bother her. It's a lot easier to do that with Kate than it was with Tim, but maybe that's because Kate doesn't have access to her dad's credit cards here. Honestly, Steph hasn't put that much thought into it.

"Not until I have a proper look at you," not that she couldn't patch Kate up while she was unconscious, but treating someone is simpler when you can ask them exactly how they're feeling. And she doesn't say anything out loud, but this is really starting to worry her.

"I know how to shop. I just liked that scarf the best. Plus I figured it could be a legitimate tax deduction for work purposes." Even if Kate did have access to her fathers bank account in Baedal, she would use it for good, for other people, for Steph. She makes a raspberry blowing sort of sound at Steph mothering her. Contrary to popular belief, Kate kind of likes it. It's been a while since somebody's mothered her.

"Yes, Mom. But you only need my arm. I don't need to be awake for that."

"I didn't think superhero was an official career," She raises both eyebrows at the raspberry, amused at the antics and relieved that Kate is still up to banter. It's always a bad sign when people can't banter anymore.

"You need to be awake to tell me exactly what happened and how your arm is feeling," There are so many horrible things that could've been on the monsters claws. Steph tries not to think about the fact that it could be a pathogen they can't treat.

A few moments later they're near the safe house, and Steph easily enters the codes to get the doors open so she can take Kate inside. She bypasses everyone else for now, leading Kate straight to the bathroom -- the most sterile room, and the one where the first aid kit is kept.

Bantering is what's keeping Kate walking and awake. If she was still alone, she would have just taken a break on a rooftop somewhere and fallen asleep. Thank God for battle partners. "Back in New York, the government wanted all of us to register officially with them," she muses softly, "But I don't think we would get tax breaks from that."

One day, she will tell Steph all about the Registration bullshit and how it tore families and friendships apart. She will tell her all about how Tony Stark is an asshole and why no one likes him even with all his money and brains. But that requires another day and more time than they have right now. For now, in the safety of the bathroom, she leans against the wall and slides down to the floor, looking up at Steph. "Aren't you going to check in with Babs?"

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