ic Bad Romance (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Early February 2016 

 

The weekend came and went - and Riley and Robin weren't back on campus from their weekend furlough. After classes on Monday, the RAs, with serious faces, assured Woodsman and Nighthawk's friends that the school knew where they were. On Tuesday, Headmaster Summers made a general announcement that Robin Chevalier had been seriously injured in the field and was currently recovering at McNider Hospital. These things didn't happen that often at Claremont; but there were procedures in place for counseling, for making cards, for hospital visits - it was something the staff all had in hand. There was no need to cut school, not when visiting hours would still be open in the evening. 

 

Of course, all that assumed you wanted to listen to staff in the first place. 

 

-

 

Robin hadn't wanted to go to the hospital - hadn't wanted to go at all. But the personal intervention of Headmaster Summers, who had met the pair of them at the Goodman Building clinic on Sunday night, had changed her mind; largely with the reassurances that a false name would get her in the system without any risk of the system finding her again. McNider was the oldest hospital in Freedom City. They'd been discreetly taking care of superheroes for decades now. Riley'd gone to the hospital too, mostly to make sure he hadn't irradiated himself when he'd grappled Tesla Atom at the moment she'd been bisected by the forces between dimensions. 

 

He wound up calling from Robin's room, though, carefully punching out digits on the hospital phone. It was Tuesday mid-morning, right? It had been easy enough to lose track the last day, when all he'd been thinking about was the burned, bleeding woman on the bed, the one he'd have given his heart for. Luckily she was asleep - for now. 

[Electra]

Minutes earlier 

 

Raina's feet were unusually loud as she came clattering down the corridor of the girl's dormitory wing, annoucing her presence long before she arrived at Fred's door. That didn't stop her from rapping loudly on the frame and yelling inside. "Hey Winifred! You in there? You small? I'm gonna go see what the hell is wrong with Robin now." She was missing advanced algebra and would probably miss Hero History as well, but she couldn't possibly have cared less. "You wanna come with us and see whose ass we need to kick for her?" From her shoulder, Merlin chirruped a rather bloodthirsty agreement to the sentiment. 

[Gizmo]

"Oh, for... It's open, Sanderson!" the exasperated call came from inside the room, Winifred's clipped accent muffled more by a haggard edge than it was by the heavy wood of the door. Inside Raina found the shorter girl looking as rumpled and weary as that tone had implied, holding the receiver of the room's landline with one hand and motioning for a moment of silence with the other. The pyromancer was pretty sure the alchemist was wearing the same outfit from the day before - it wasn't as if Winifred's wardrobe was particularly extensive to begin with so it could hard to tell - and she'd have been surprised to hear that she'd gotten any sleep at all the night before.

 

The backpack sitting on the bed had been stuffed with the few possessions that would have normally occupied Winifred's half of the room; it looked as though she'd been planning to spend the night elsewhere. "It's Smith," she explained, covering the bottom half of the phone, "calling from the hospital. Yes, she's here." Removing her hand from the phone she rubbed at her tired eyes before squaring her slim shoulders and doing her best to smooth out her outfit now that she had an audience.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, yeah...." said Riley, keeping his voice quiet to avoid waking up Robin - or alarming Winifred. "Guess y' heard 'bout what happened with Robin, Naomi, 'nd me. I've got 'nother night in here to make sure I didn't get my insides fried - but Robin's got stuff she needs from her room. It's, uh, the red bag in the bathroom, and the stuff in the box under the bed. Can you and Sanderson get it over here today?" He figured they were probably in the classes he was in, the ones he was staying up to date on via computer, but he also figured they could get things done pretty well. 

[Gizmo]

"The-- yes. Yes, of course." Winifred's hand went across her eyes again as she took several long, steadying breaths, turning her chin away from the phone in the hopes of concealing the sound from Riley. She knew the box he was talking about and silently cursed herself for not having thought to get its contents to Robin without needing to be asked. It was a question of details; she was meant to be good at details. She could feel her heartbeat accelerating, cheeks colouring in a manner that wasn't entirely natural while blood pounded in her ears. It took a moment to realize that the young man on the other end of the line had asked something else. "Mmh. It would be extraordinarily ill advised for anyone to attempt to stop us." The alchemist unceremoniously upended her backpack and dumped her own belongings in a head onto the bed before extended the hand holding the receiver toward Raina, gesturing for the blonde to take it from her.

[Electra]

Raina didn't need any more of an invitation than that. Dropping Merlin unceremoniously on Fred's bed, she snatched the phone and held it like an intercom, not even bothering to put it to her ear. "Riley Smith!" she shouted into the phone. "What the hell did you do? You were supposed to be taking her on some kind of reunion tour of your weird-ass life, not getting her into deadly danger! Not putting her in the hospital! The only good thing about you being a semi-psychotic with a bow and arrow is that you could look out for her so what the hell?!" Spots of color were burning on Raina's cheeks as she finished her ranting, and her breath was coming faster than usual. She stared at the phone in her hand for a minute, still not listening to it, then dropped it onto the mattress and walked into the hallway. 

[Gizmo]

Winifred had quickly gathered the items Riley had described into the cheap, shapeless backpack the Academy had provided her with, taking ginger care with the slightly yellowed plastic baggy containing a few preserved photographs. She looked down at the discarded phone with pursed lips, exchanging a look with Merlin before picking it up. "Ah, glad you're on the mend as well, Smith. We'll be there presently." Hanging up the phone without the caller ever having gotten a chance to reply she hefted the bag over one shoulder. She shook her head once, willing herself to alertness before heading out of the dorm room.

[alderwitch]

Keeping Robin on enough pain medication to keep her sleeping took some doing with her enhanced physiology and even then, she slept fitfully. Robin stirred on her bed at the tension on the other end of the phone line, tensing on the bed. The monitors beeped accordingly as she fought her way to consciousness as her grey eyes slitted open enough to find Riley by the phone. Her brow furrowed and she reached up to the oxygen mask to pull on it. "S'okay?" She wanted to know and looked like she was very much considering trying to scoot up higher in her hospital bed to find out what was going on, painkillers and bandages be-damned. "S'time to go?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Riley wiped the scowl from his features by sheer force of will - instead projecting a smile at Robin that she'd have seen right through if she wasn't on all this medication. "S'okay, honey, s'okay. Sanderson 'n' Fred are on their way here with your stuff. And you gotta another day with yer sunburned boyfriend here," he added with a wink. He had indeed gotten a 'sunburn' on his face and hands, the sort of radiation exposure that wasn't uncommon to people caught in the middle of superhero battles. Least it wasn't the hard stuff - can't go back home if I'm gonna get skin cancer. "Everybody else already went home. Bet Naomi's sayin' some things." He smiled, but in his mind was back there still, and his smile fell away. "I am so sorry this happened," he said, not for the first time while Robin was conscious. 

[Electra]

Raina was waiting for Fred in the hallway, all sharp grin and nervy bouncing on her toes. Merlin darted out of the room as well and swung himself up by the trailing strap of her backpack, chittering something inaudible into her ear. "I knew Riley was going to be behind this whole thing somehow," she began as they headed down the corridor. "Guy's a walking disaster area even when you compare him to the rest of the caped crowd, and that's saying a lot. We gotta get Robin a normal boyfriend, preferably one who's immune to getting shot by arrows. Damned if I know who, though. Be easier if she liked girls, then I could just set her up with Cathy and solve like four of my life problems all at once." Merlin snorted. "Yeah, whatever, like you've got any better ideas," Raina scoffed at the monkey, then half-turned to Fred. "You ready to fly?" 

[Gizmo]

"If you'd let Smith get a word in edgewise you'd have heard how upset he was," Winifred snapped back peevishly, back straight and shoulders squared as ever but with her chin tilted forward and lips pressed into a thin line. "Laying the blame at his feet won't speed Robin's recovery." The alchemist exhaled and squeezed one eye shut as they walk; Raina could practically hear her counting backward from ten in her mind. "Mh. Excuse my tone. I am less than well rested this morning. By all means, let's-- wait a moment." She frowned, brow creased before looking up at the blonde. "Clouston prefers women? Is that new?"

[Electra]

Raina's steps faltered for a moment at Fred's obvious annoyance, concern widening her already large blue eyes. In normal circumstances, Raina didn't mind at all pissing off one of her friends, especially in an argument where she knew she was right, but Fred was not most people, and Raina desperately did not want to see Fred's worser half come out to play again. She hitched up the strap of her backpack, fingertips restlessly twisting and worrying the rough nylon, and tried to resume her previous pace. Within a few moments, they were pushing their way through the door that led to the roof access, one with a selectively disabled alarm thanks to clever monkey hands. 

 

"No, I'm pretty sure they had that back when you were from too, they just didn't talk about it," she assured Fred, tongue in her cheek to make up for the momentary failure of bravado. "My great-grandma used to point out people and be all "that's a girl with her own library card," and I don't even know what that means, except it's probably at least kind of dirty." She arched her eyebrows. "But anyway, Cathy wants to find a girlfriend and I want a double-single tha's 70 degrees at night, so there's probably a way to solve both problems at once." She picked up her broom from its hiding place behind the HVAC unit and hopped on board, rising slightly into the air. "You ready? Got all your stuff? It's a quick flight." 

[Gizmo]

Looking over her shoulder to double-check for anyone following them, Winifred turned around to give Raina a suitably withering look. "I meant new for her, not that you were genuinely perplexed." The huff at least didn't have any heat to it but it was tough not to notice that the moment the witch had hesitated the petite scientist's shoulder had pulled together, unconsciously trying to make herself seem even smaller and less threatening. Either way she obviously didn't have the energy to broach the topic directly, electing to follow Raina's lead and focus on another subject. "I have all of Robin's effects, yes," she confirmed, delicately placing herself sidesaddle on the back of the broom. "And I hardly think Cathy one to immediately... revise her sleeping arrangements early into a courtship so I expect you'll continue to suffer nobly regardless. And my surprise is entirely reasonable; she wasn't the one being so forward upon my revival."

[Electra]

"I told you that was a dare!" Raina huffed, then immediately brightened again. "But hey, if you liked that, maybe you and Cathy ought to get together for coffee sometime. Iced coffee, maybe." The broom rose into the air and took off, rocketing into the sky with a speed and angle that should've knocked both passengers loose, but instead was no more unstable than the first hill of a roller coaster. The same magic that made the broom fly in the first place went a long way towards holding its occupants on board. "Seriously though," Raina added once they achieved crusing altitude, "Riley might have the best of intentions and he might feel really bad when something goes wrong, but you know he takes too many risks and has crappy control over himself. Does it matter that his heart's in the right place if he gets her killed?" 

[alderwitch]

Robin rasped a noise that was meant to be a laugh as she slitted open her eyes. "...Both of us tomorrow?" Robin asked as if she was expecting the answer to be 'yes' although even with her rapid recovery, she probably wasn't going to get dismissed tomorrow. Squinting at Riley over her oxygen mask she added with effort. "Not your fault." Robin told him as she shifted on the bed scooting up so that she could better make her point. 

 

Waving the hand that didn't have an IV attached as if to point out her injuries, "S'getting better."

[Gizmo]

"A dare, yes. Just don't let me catch you eyeing any other statuary, I'm the terribly jealous sort," Winifred hummed with feigned innocence. She much preferred dealing with a catty, needling Raina than one who flinched when the smaller girl raised her voice. "Alas, you didn't exactly change my relative volatility. I consider myself more of a noble gas, really." She shifted slightly on the back of the broom, still not wholly comfortable with the unconventional method of transportation. Why the blonde witch couldn't learn a teleportation technique like Faretti she didn't know. "If we're being serious, though, I've precious little room to criticize Smith on that front. I think, perhaps, you're also underestimating Robin's ability to find danger without any assistance at all."

[Avenger Assembled]

Riley had been in more fights than most of Robin's friends - and he'd been trained how to fight, too. "Not gettin' blown up. I've been on Prime f'r months. The Atoms have'tve left the Goodman Building in that freakin' time. Those...people opened that goddamned door when I was there." The thought of normal human beings using Ferals as weapons made him sick. People had tried that in Raymond - people whose subsequent deaths had served as a lesson to the rest of community about the consequences of betraying mankind. From the smashed remnants of the dimensional gateway controller, there had been no way of finding the lost coordinates for Earth J-Disaster-1. "They did that on purpose. Must've." And they're there. They're there on a world that would have no way of knowing outside normals were their enemy. It would not be hard, for all their defenses, for outsiders to infiltrate the Raymond plant and wreak all sorts of carnage there. "You're a real tough one, baby," he said, gingerly laying his hand on hers. "Anyone else, me, Waverider, that girl wit' the ring - we'd be dead now if she'd hit us." 

[alderwitch]

"Not your fault," Robin repeated with more emphasis. She was recovering more than humanly fast but there was a reason that the oxygen mask was still on her face - irritating though its presence was to the Fens native. She flipped her hand up to squeeze his fingers firmly, her grey eyes fierce as she shook off more of the cocktail of painkillers she was regularly dosed with. "You've got an enemy. Need to find out what he wants. Why..." She made a gesture with her free hand, not going on to elaborate what all the man had done - and that he'd almost done. "We'll get him." Robin added, emphasizing that she was still in this fight and was not going tolerate Riley taking it on alone.

 

As to the statement about her toughness, Robin's shoulders moved in a small shrug that still drew a slight wince as healing flesh pulled. Her smile was wry behind the plastic mask. "Don't FEEL tough right now. S'my job to get hit. Not a good job, maybe, but it's mine anyway."

[Electra]

"I'm not underestimating it, I'm exactly-right estimating it," Raina countered as they began spiraling downwards toward the hospital roof. Normally Raina enjoyed a considerably more severe downward vector, but in deference to her passenger she was keeping it gentle today, with the broom still nearly horizontal for the descent. "She gets in plenty of weird trouble on her own, and I'm right there to help her get into the kind of trouble that's actually fun and good for her, and just being at Claremont is pretty much a trouble magnet too. She needs somebody who's going to help her dig out of trouble, not pile it on til she's over her head." 

 

Raina hopped off the broom and held it steady for Fred to dismount as well, then Twisted the handle to collapse it down far enough to shove in her backpack. Merlin climbed into the backpack as well, peering out through a well-concealed mesh pocket in the back. "We should find some guy with like, healing powers or something, set her up with him. There's gotta be somebody close to our age with powers that aren't about breaking stuff all to hell and gone." 

[Avenger Assembled]

McNider turned out to have higher security than Raina and Fred had necessarily been expecting - but announcing who they were there to see got them past the security guard posted at the roof access point. "Ah yes, from her school. - your headmaster said we should expect you." That got them directions to Robin's room, and by extension Riley as well - the two of them having been placed near each other in the small, albeit quite secure, metahuman wing. 

 

-

 

"Look at you, smilin' when you took enough to fry somebody's skin off," said Riley, making a smile happen too. "I'm glad you're so tough, honey, because I've got plans  that involve you and me and..." He decided there was probably a limit to the flirting Robin wanted to hear right now. "And not this damn place, that's for sure. Still, better'n the hospital back home. Least here they've got everything you want. You, uh, want the TV on? They've got some crazy channels in here..." 

[Gizmo]

"Honestly, Sanderson? If we knew anyone who wasn't deeply 'about breaking stuff' it would be their friends counselling them to avoid us," Winifred pointed out in a terribly tired sounding voice before rapping precisely on the door to Robin's hospital room. They hadn't even bothered to look into Riley's room as they'd passed; there seemed little chance that he would be there. Opening the door quietly lest one of their friends was awake the alchemist peeked inside before entering. "Ah, hello! Apologies for not arriving sooner." She attempted a reassuring smile that fell well short and seemed distracted by trying to discern the functions of the various equipment in the room. "I brought your things, of course," she recalled after a beat, pulling the backpack from her shoulders and moving urgently to Robin's bedside.

[alderwitch]

"All the reason to get me outta here tomorrow," Robin was just rasping another 'chuckle' - a dreadful noise through the hiss of the plastic mask covering her face - when the other two walked in. On the bed, Robin brightened at the appearance of their friends and went to struggle up higher on the pillows. She was healing quickly without a doubt but there were still dressings over the rapidly healing burns on the front of her chest and more wrapping around her arms and back. Most telling, though, was the way her arms trembled from the effort of lifting herself up. Robin managed it, though, scooting up on the bed so she wasn't prone even when the various machines beeped their protest. 

 

"Thank you," Robin told them as they arrived, her hand still on Riley's, "C'mon in. All the tv and jello you could want here."

[Electra]

"Well, when you put it like that, who could refuse?" Raina sauntered into the room, not even looking in Riley's direction as she sized up her bed-bound friend. "You look like crap," she told Robin, not entirely unsympathetically. "Like, you look like you lost a fight with a dry cleaners." She picked up the remote attached to the bed and manipulated it till the head of the bed rose, lifting Robin to a slightly more upright position. "Fred's got all the stuff you wanna have, I just gave her a ride," she informed Robin, with a glance back to Fred for confirmation. "They treating you okay here? Giving you the good drugs?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

While Robin and Raina talked, Riley released the former's hand and headed over to Fred, taking the bag from her. "Hey, there's a thought," he said suddenly. Those close, Fred could see the faint burn marks on his face and hands - and his discomfort in an ill-fitting secondhand outfit. But Riley wasn't about to complain, not about himself, anyway. "That stuff you have that speeds cell regeneration - whaddya call it. Didja bring a sample?" he inquired of his fellow scientist. "We were talkin' about doin' a field test anyway..." Riley had always had a pretty rough-and-ready approach to first aid, which had admittedly given him some interesting scars but had always gotten him this far. 

[Gizmo]

Winifred gave Riley a sharp look before tilting her chin meaningfully at the back of Raina's head. "Sanderson doesn't need to know we're both reckless ne'er-do-wells, Smith," she chided in a hushed tone. The witch already treated her as damaged goods, after all, and clearly one major lapse in judgement was enough for her to want to excise someone from her life altogether. The petite Victorian didn't have enough friends to want to lose one but then that was the same reason she was determined to treat Robin's injuries with every tool at her disposal.

 

She subtly indicated the zippered side pocket of the backpack, the one intended for a water bottle. "It would perhaps be best if I administered the elixir without an audience, yes? First though, are you... Well, obviously not 'alright', but..." She pursed her lips and regarded the bowman's burns with an expression that was at once analytical and sympathetic. "You could well have died, Smith."