Victoria seems to catch a look at your mask right before you burst into smoke. Her eyes go wide and her mouth opens in horror. You reform perhaps fifty feet away and see her do an arm-flailing, ass-over-teakettle front flip and come to a stop in midair. After righting herself she spins around until she sees you and holds her hands up. "OhmigodImsorry! I didn't see your mask, I thought you were threatening to hit them with someth-"
You poke into her head and she seems completely honest. She is internally freaking out that she almost hit the person who was supposedly healing her mother. Holding up a hand you stop her. "Glory Girl. I see where you may have interpreted it that way, and I appreciate your explanation and discretion ."
Glory Girl floats closer and you take her hand and mime a kiss to the back of it. "I am, as you may have guessed, Warlock. Your mother is inside the cafe, and is healed if you wish to check up on her."
The cape-clad teenager blinks at you for a moment before swooping forward for a hug and blasting into the cafe. You're left cocking your head and pivoting to the adult capes. "….so anyhow, what about them?" You hook a thumb over at the captives.
Sarah and Neil exchange an entire conversation of looks before they turn to you. "Do you have anything in your bag of tricks to subdue them?"
You end up positioning yourself behind Stormtiger's flattened form and hitting him with a stupefy as soon as Lady Photon drops her shield. Simple. As Shielder and Laserdream reappear from the fog you run off the rest of the Empire goons; no one is particularly willing to carry them if knocked out and you don't want them around noncombatants.
Glory Girl and Brandish emerge herding the civilians once the coast is clear and you all head west. Manpower is carrying the Empire cape, now not only stunned, but body-bound and wrapped in conjured chain, over one shoulder. Shielder is stationed above the middle of the pack ready to drop a shield if needed while the rest of you orbit around to check side streets and the like. Since you can't move faster than the slowest person, you also manage to heal everyone of their incidental injuries while on the move thanks to the lack of interruptions.
Roughly ten minutes of slow travel later and you come upon a police cordon and manage to drop off the civilians. Lady Photon puts in a call to the PRT for a cape pickup and you're all discussing heading back as the Lung fight has escalated into the ABB leader versus Hookwolf, Kaiser, and his valkyries.
"Honestly, it's unlikely to last until Brandish or I get there, the Empire's probably looking for escape options." Manpower offers. "Armsmaster always has something new to try and has come damned close to getting Lung on a number of occasions, and if it works on a dragon when he's mad it's gonna work on a guy in an armor suit."
A moment later Lady Photon flies over and looks at the assembled capes. Laserdream and Glory Girl are floating on either side of you while Shielder is above roof-height looking around. "Piggot was as unhelpful as usual, but Lt. Sanchez gave me some information. The Protectorate is coming in force to handle Lung, Oni Lee as also joined in and that new water cape of theirs seems to be moving that way. Rune is flying around on one of her platforms and is believed to have Victor and a new cape recruit harassing the ABB back towards their territory.
"The Boardwalk attacks were apparently a diversion to get PRT troopers out of the building on other things, now the Merchants are assaulting PRT HQ. There's also a number of wounded but not a lot of critical cases coming in according to Amy.
"In that light, I'd like to assist the PRT HQ with our flyers—Armsmaster is unlikely to welcome our help, and there are a number of noncombatants in the building." She turns to you, "Warlock, you can heal so you may want to help at the hospital; Glory Girl can go with you and handle introductions if you wish, but would need to meet up with us afterwards. However if you want to assist us your help would be appreciated."
You…
[x][Phase 2] Join Panacea at Brockton General
-[x] Apparate Brandish and Manpower to the PRT HQ first.
You incline your head. "I'll assist with healing; since you all have experience working together I would likely get in the way."
"It might cause issues, although if you are willing we should take the time to familiarize each other with our powers at some point in the future." She turns to her sister and husband, "I don't know if you'll manage to make it—"
"I can teleport them there," you interject.
Whipping her head back around, Lady Photon looks immediately interested. "You can take people with you?"
"Two people max, it's disorienting the first couple of times it happens, and Laserdream said it looks horrible from this side." You flip your hands out in a 'what can you do?' gesture. "Seriously, I can heal, so I can fix your nausea if it bothers you that much, but someone's probably going to be sick." You can hear Eric snickering at his sister above your head.
Theres an entire unvoiced conversation between the three adults before Sarah says, "Is it possible to transport all of us, two at a time?"
Yep, somehow you thought this might happen. "Sure, but this coat is dry clean only," you comment dryly. Holding your arms out you continue, "Hold on tight, it feels like being squeezed in a tube but only lasts a split second. Your phones will need a moment to reconnect afterwards."
Manpower and Lady Photon step up first. You're unsurprised when the former's hand has an electrical prickle, probably of his shields being up. "There's a parking garage about two blocks from PRT HQ, is that good?"
"Yes." Pop.
It's immediately obvious where Crystal gets her tender stomach from, Sarah goes green and dry heaves while Neil takes a single stumbling step away and then laughs. "Holy shit that's a rush!" He places a large hand on his wife's back as you hit her with an anti-nausea spell.
By the time she's fished out her phone it's connected and she puts it to her ear.
"It worked."
"No, and tell Eric I never want to see the video he took ever."
"Let Warlock fix the nausea. It is not anything close to combat-workable."
She turns to look at you while still talking on the phone. "Crystal and Eric next, then you. Victoria and Warlock to the hospital, she introduces him to Amy and flies to join us at top speed." You nod and pop back, getting startled reactions from the three New Wave capes.
Your girlfriend is already looking half-sick, so you hit her with a spell and get a brilliantly grateful smile. Both kids grab on to your arms, albeit hesitantly, and you're suddenly back on the roof with their parents. You fix Eric up as Crystal explains to her mom she got the treatment ahead of time.
Carol is pretty stoic about the whole thing and you're finally left with a nervous, hovering Glory Girl. Her aura keeps leaking and getting pulled back under control and she gives you a strained smile. "Uh, can you do something to keep me from puking?"
"Sure, here." You flip an anti-nausea spell at her with your fingers and add a light touch of calming.
Touching down Vicky takes your arm and wraps her own arms around it. "Oh god, thank you. I was getting nervous enough to work myself into getting sick."
You apparate to near the hospital and her head jerks back. "Ugh. You say it gets better?"
"It did for me."
"Nothin' personal, but I don't wanna find out." She shakes herself after a moment and takes your hand as she floats forwards. "C'mon, let's find Ames and get this sorted. I have heads to crack."
While there's a susurrus when you enter, having the perky and white-clad Glory Girl tug you along probably did a lot to keep people from freaking out. You're ushered back to a surgical room where people are wheeled or walked in, healed, and taken out a second set of doors. Panacea finishes up the healing she's doing before the three of you are quickly ensconced in a private room.
"So this is Warlock. He healed mom when she got shot and helped get everyone over to he PRT fight. He's here to help heal, right?" The blonde looks over at you questioningly.
"Yes. New Wave and I wouldn't know how to work together and I don't want to risk friendly fire." You step forward and take the hand Amy holds out and mime another kiss to the back. "Pleased to meet you Panacea, I will defer to your experience."
When you raise your head, Panacea has a faint blush hiding amongst the freckles on her nose and is looking at your leather-clad hand. Still, she blinks and looks over your dark clothes. "I can see if there are spare labcoats around, it would be best if you weren't quite so…"
"Edgy? I've gotten that from Laserdream. Would a white robe like yours work? I'm not one for fashion, but leather armor and a lab coat doesn't sound like it mixes well."
"I don't keep a spare on me," the healer comments sarcastically.
Setting the hat aside you pull off your coat and turn away to shake it out. In the middle of one of the shakes you transfigure it to match Panacea's white robe without the red crosses. Turning back while shrugging it over your shoulders you pull the hood up and wait for the girls to finish the conversation they're suddenly in the midst of. Glory Girl gives you a pair of thumbs up while Panacea nods.
"The mask is a bit… yeah," the shorter brunette waves her hands, "but that's a lot better."
Victoria looks at her phone and nods. "Gotta get back. One of us will let you know when we're done, Ames." She's out the door in a flash, leaving one of the foremost healers around shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.
"So, uh…." Amy seems to be doing her best to sink into her robes. "What do you need to do your healing?"
When you pull out a wand and wiggle it around you don't even wait for the questions you're sure will be coming. "It's a focus. I'm a grab-bag and the wand helps with the fiddly details of healing. I will probably say things like 'spells' instead of 'powers', just chalk it up to me being a D&D nerd in high school." You shrug and Amy chews on her lip for a moment before throwing her hands up.
"Good enough, let me talk to whoever's doing triage and have them send one case through and I'll watch what you're doing."
You follow her out and are introduced to one of the hospital administrators who manages crisis healing like this. You're taken back to the surgical room that's normally used and shortly after a middle-aged man is wheeled in with a splinted leg. Amy explains that you are also a healer and she's there to verify what's going on. Once the man has agreed to be healed you hit him with a diagnostic.
"Lower leg fracture, both tibia and fibula. Blood supply to the foot has been reduced, and there's possible nerve damage."
Amy hums a bit and takes the paperwork from the intern standing nearby. "I agree. Anything else?"
Turning your masked head to look at the man you intone gravely. "Fairly major atherosclerosis, mainly around the kidneys, old injuries that look like sports of some kind."
The man runs a hand through his thinning hair and looks faintly abashed as the two of you talk over him. Panacea nods at you though and gestures with her free hand. "Everyone has narrowed arteries, but yes, they're a bit worse than I'd expect to see. Heal the leg before you start getting any other ideas."
Since the bone hasn't even broken the skin you're able to straighten and fuse it back together in moments, then turn to repairing the broken blood vessels and nerve damage. Perhaps thirty seconds later you're done and Amy is staring at your mask with narrowed eyes. Without breaking the stare down she says, "Can you do anything else?"
A charm takes care of the plaque buildup easily enough, but you stop at that point. "I can chase old injuries all day, but each would need to be treated separately."
Amy finally breaks the stare. "We are doing emergency medicine, not fixing everything." Ha ha, what a little hypocrite! She pulls you over and shows where you initial the paperwork and detail what you did. "Thank you for volunteering Mr. Donovan, the plaque buildup in your arteries was taken care of as well."
After the patient is taken out the opposite doors it looks like Amy wants to say something before a stretcher is hustled in at speed, the swinging doors hitting their stops with a bang. The new patient has rebar still sticking through their chest and a swarm of nurses following along. Amy lunges for skin and you throw a diagnostic and an anesthetic . "Through the right lung, there's bone fragments all in the lung tissue." You turn to the shorter girl. "I can remove the rebar, you start healing?" She nods and you vanish the entire bar and hit the patient with a calming charm as well. The readouts you get from her healing are wild—bone fragments and blood disappear and new lung tissue is suddenly in its place. You take the paperwork and scribble down notes on what she's doing and assist as needed and the woman is stable and breathing normally within a few minutes.
When you absently hit Panacea's robe with a cleaning charm to get blood spatters off of it she jerks in surprised before she manages a wry smile. "You do laundry too?"
You chuckle. "Yes, sorry. Should've asked first."
She steps closer and takes a deep breath before giving you a small smile. "It's okay. I think you're perfectly fine to do healing. We'll run two at a time through here and we can call for backup from each other if something major comes up?"
The two of you arrange things with the admin coordinating this circus and end up standing back-to-back as you handle the cases that have been judged major enough for parahuman healing. Most of them involve crush damage from collapsing walls or bullet wounds, with the occasional laceration from flying debris. Over the next hour you get a few people pushed to the head of the line due to more serious injuries like the heart attack you had to heal.
With two of you working, Amy is able to slip off and check up on the rest of New Wave, who all seem to have come through things with minimal issues and are wrapped up in reams of paperwork. You're both taking a breather and Amy is asking gently probing questions about how your healing works when an intern pops in and tells you that the hospital is going to shift people back to the regular emergency room and out of the crisis setup and of course—of course—that's when someone stands up and demands to be healed by Panacea.
And pulls out his gun.
The first the two of you hear are the startled yells from people down the hallway. Amy shoots you a look as you sheathe your wand and stride to the doors and out into the lobby that's been used as a staging area.
You establish a mental connection as soon as you see the guy, bulling through without full eye contact. The scruffy idiot doesn't need to be seen by anyone. He's not even really hurt, just hopped up on at least five different drugs (three of which are hallucinogenic) and currently imagining you painted like one of those Day of the Dead sugar skulls. He's not actually a Merchant, just a really good customer of them.
[X][Druggie] Bodybind
You don't even break stride, merely flicking your fingers at him and walking up to the now-statue. Catching his outstretched arm before he tips over you float him onto his back and begin to manipulate his bound form to remove the gun from his hand. By the time security arrives a minute or two later you have his gun floating and locked open, the magazine hovering next to it. You are standing behind a kneeling, still body-bound idiot with your arms crossed and what you hope is a suitably intimidating aura. Everyone around is stone-fucking silent.
The younger of the two guards approaches you slowly, his eyes flicking between you and the unmoving intruder. "Is he?"
"Frozen but aware of what is going on. I will unfreeze him at your command."
They wisely bag the weapon before putting their own handcuffs on the guy's arms. "Ready."
Drug-dude—Shane, actually—goes from 0 to 100 real fucking quick, letting off a howl and bucking against his cuffs and the guards. The security guys are big dudes, but this skinny tweaker is running on drug strength, apparently. After the second or third time he screams something about 'getting that healer bitch' and almost getting loose you bind him again and walk around to look him in the eye. Summoning some magic into your voice you do your best to impress the words you speak onto him.
"Cᴇᴀsᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ғᴏᴏʟɪsʜ ᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟ sᴛʀᴜɢɢʟᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅɪsᴛᴜʀʙ Pᴀɴᴀᴄᴇᴀ ɴᴏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ!"
This time when you release him he goes ash-white and is dragged off in short order.
You can't find it within yourself to be surprised later that night when there are pictures of you with photoshopped wings being called the 'Angel of Death'
Amy gets a text not too long after from Laserdream asking if she's okay with you apparating her to the Captain's Hill area, while you get one asking you not to give away that you know where the Pelham house is exactly. You take the time while Amy is rounding up her backpack and school clothes to speak with the administrator and direct needed documentation to New Wave; you're not part of the team, but they offered to act as a drop-off for the forms that would show you as a healer.
Once Amy returns (wearing your hat, you notice) you adjourn to a staffroom before popping the two of you to a park near the entrance of the subdivision. The brunette sags against you as you appear and seems to need a moment before she's good to go. Laserdream shows up not too long after in her parents' car to shuttle Amy home. Reclaiming your hat, you tip it to both of them and wait until Crystal turns her head to apparate back to your lair.
You do some checking up on the various news websites and PHO to see how things have shaken out.
Lung and Kaiser escaped, but Menja was captured and Oni Lee and Hookwolf both seemed to be seriously hurt. The latter may very well be back up to strength once Othala gets a hand on him, but he was seen changing back to human with serious burns and trouble moving before being carried off on Rune's platform.
The Merchant attack never breached the PRT building, and the regular news outlets aren't saying anything, but PHO has a persistent rumor—not started by any of the big names as far as you can tell—that Skidmark was broken out anyway. The silence from the PRT isn't unusual, but it's certainly not helping quell any rumors.
There are pictures of you, although not your entrance into the fight downtown. A picture of Glory Girl towing you along in her wake at the hospital is spawning memes about emo kids and cheerleaders. Lady Photon and the hospital have released separate statements thanking you for your assistance in healing Brandish for the former and assisting Panacea for the latter. No one seemed to catch you teleporting, but there are at least two threads trying to figure out what your powers are. At least one person (well, Void_Cowboy, not really a 'person') believes you're some kind of necromancer and everyone you treated is now your undead slave.
Fuckin' Greg.
You're about to do your Occlumency exercises and turn in for the night when your phone rings. It's Crystal, and you pick it up immediately. "Hey, you're calling late."
"Yeah, hey…. D'you mind if I sleep over tonight?"
"Sure, want me to open the window for you or do you want to use the door?" You've just rolled out of bed before a knock on the window leads you in that direction.
Crystal's barely through the window before she hugs you, and she wraps herself around you even as you roll back into bed. "Hey, what's wrong?"
She's cold from the weather and, even worse, digs her frozen nose into your neck. "I got back to campus and it seemed like half the hall was waiting to slap me on the back like they were my personal cheering section. It just felt really strange, and then I was alone in my room and the last time there was a big fight like that I was still living at home." She cuddles in more as you start switching her clothes with air until she's down to a bra and panties. Shucking the bra herself you kiss her softly and toss a warming charm at her ice-cold feet before she gets the bright idea to warm them on you. "I just need to know I'm in a safe place, and Amy's sleeping in my room."
It's not a time for romance, and even if you were as thick as Greg Veder you'd realize that. You could, however, try guiding Crystal through the same centering and calming exercises that you normally use for Occlumency. It may be possible for her to benefit from it, and if she does, then Amy might as well.
[X][Occlumency] Just cuddle with her
You cuddle your girlfriend to you—Occlumency can wait. You can assuage her fears in a different way, though.
"So, one of the things I can do is put wards up on a location. It's like an alarm system, and anyone who tries to get into the apartment is gonna wake me up completely. I'm your guard dog tonight."
Even though she had already relaxed against you, a bit of tension you didn't know she still held seems to melt away. A few more kisses while you both get comfortable and she's asleep, with you following closely after.