Unkown58

Word association Game!

meringue

Legion of Heroes

James Harris

Just as he slung the first-aid bag across his shoulder, movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning, he was just in time to witness the return of their draconic friend as she leaped off of the roof and landed near them. Her voice contained urgency as she relayed the information he asked for. “Man with the helmet, whatever your name is. I see two more groups of villains, one to the north and one inside the museum. There is also a man with a sword fighting the villains in the north with a wound, I do not know how bad but I sensed bleeding. I hope you and the buachaill, are doing all right but I think it best we go help the others. Ní neart go cur le chéile. I don’t normally do this but if its urgent to get to the wounded man you can… get on me. I can take you there fast.”

Nodding, his the picture of seriousness underneath the helmet, he nodded in agreement “Got it. Hey kid, you think you’ll be alri-” turning to where the boy was previously standing, he was only in time to see the kid disappear in a streak of light. Blinking the afterimage of the light out of his eyes, he moved on, quickly climbing onto his bike before turning back to address the dragon, giving a slight smile. “I’m James. Thank you for the information, and for your offer, but at full speed this baby nearly flies, so it isn’t necessary for you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, please just lead the way.”

Sparing a glance back at the tied up villain, he spotted one of the civilians who helped tie him up still loitering nearby. “You! Keep an eye on him. Yell if he tries to escape.” And then he was off. Going as fast as possible, he closely followed after Fiadh as she led the way – his wheels nearly leaving the ground. It didn’t take more than a minute, before he was screeching to a stop outside the museum’s north, where he saw a blond boy – late teens if he had to guess – kneeling on the ground. Obviously, he was the injured one. Standing protectively next to him, was what had to be the biggest freaking wolf he had ever seen and a little ways away from them was the other boy. The random civilians loitering around, were obviously fine, so he didn’t spare them as much as a second glance before he was off his bike and approaching the small group – doing his best to ignore the stabbing (hah, get it?) pain in his chest.

He only slowed long enough to stick a gold star against Fiadh’s front arm(?) “You’ve earned this.” as he passed her. He only stopped when he was a few steps away from the injured boy because of the wolf’s icy glare directed at him. Meeting the predator’s piercing gaze, James slowly held up his first-aid bag and stated as calmly as he could “I just want to help, if you’ll let me?” Once it seemed that the two of them have reached an understanding, he was in front of the boy, gently manoeuvring him into a more comfortable position. “Hey kiddo, still with me? Don’t worry about a thing, you’re in good hands, I’ll have you patched up in no time.”

Hands gentle, he first inspected the wound on the lad’s left shoulder. There are a lot of arteries in that area – not to mention the close proximity to his heart – and it could be really bad if any of them were nicked. The boy seems to have a luck on his side though, so far, he’s not exhibiting any of the signs to indicate that anything vital had been hit – other than being a little pale, but that could just be from the shock of actually being hit by an arrow – so, once the arrow is removed, he should be fine with just a couple of stitches, it might not even be necessary for James to use his abilities.

That happy thought flew out the window once he saw the bullet wound in the kid’s side. It wasn’t a fresh wound, already showing signs of healing. It doesn’t even appear to have been a fatal wound at one point. What it was, was a freshly cauterized wound, the burn marks on the skin not even an hour old and there was what looked like a splinter on it. What did he do? Burn himself with a stick!?! Looking up to meet the kid’s eyes from behind his lens, he couldn’t help but ask astonished, “Did you do this to yourself?” James even looked at the wolf questioningly, so shocked was he by the discovery. Yeah, nope. Obviously this kid couldn’t be trusted to properly take care of his own wounds properly and James was not about to risk him going off and giving himself an infection.

Grumbling under his breath, he zipped open the bag and pulled out a roll of bandages – making a mental note to replace it as soon as possible. “You and I are going to have a long chat about proper wound care later, young man. Here bite on this.” Stuffing the roll in the lad’s mouth, he moved behind the kid and gripped the arrow firmly. “I mean, really? Do you want an infection? Because an infection is what you’ll get if you continue on like this. Brace yourself.” With a swift, careful pull, the arrow was out and discarded as James took a closer look at the injury wanting to make certain of his initial assessment now that there was no longer an obstruction in the way. It still looked good. “You know that people can die from infection, right? How do you think you’re loved-ones would feel if you died – not from an injury, but because you didn’t seek out professional medical help.”

Taking a deep breath, after his rant, James gently placed his hands next to the kid’s wound. His chest throbbed painfully in warning, but he pushed that thought away. If he was still alive after that pile-up a few months back – and he really came close to kicking it, that time – he’ll be fine now. This amount of injuries aren’t nearly as bad as the ones back then and this kid’s isn’t even fatal. He’ll be fine…probably. Closing his eyes, he made the connection and felt pain bloom in his shoulder and side as the boy’s injuries became his. Thankfully, he was right about them being non-fatal and there weren’t any nasty surprises waiting for him once he finished. He did experience a throbbing headache as well as a brief dizzy-spell, where he had to take a minute to ground himself – marking that he had officially reached his limits and that he’ll need at least a few hours of rest before attempting anything with his powers again.

Orienting himself, James breathed through it and checked on his patient, pulling another star loose from the dwindling packet of stickers and – hoping to encourage good behaviour – stuck it to the lad’s forehead. “There you go, all patched up. See, professional medical help aint that bad now is it?” A he looked the boy over though, a frown crossed his face. While the kid did look better, that did not mean he looked fine. The kid was still a little too pale for his liking and his eyes was still a little unfocused. James knew that the kid didn’t have any more injuries, so the true problem was probably something a little more mundane. He can’t even count how many times he had to respond to calls about people collapsing because they weren’t properly taking care of their own needs. This kid was probably one of them (if the self-cauterizing was anything to go by) too busy pushing himself to take care of himself. Snapping his fingers in front of the boy’s face to get him to focus, James addressed him, keeping his voice gentle but firm, leaving no doubt that this was a serious matter. “Kid look at me. When was the last time you had a proper meal or rest? Don’t lie to me either, I’ll know.”

---

@Shard@Ryik@The Forgotten@Lurking Shadow

Word association Game!

Pollen

Word association Game!

death

Legion of Heroes

James Harris

James was just in the process of rewetting the scarf to continue his attempts to revive the kid when he was interrupted by a new arrival from the sky. They landed nearby and approached on four feet and in a booming voice announced that “I want this ‘gold star’ too.” Momentarily stunned, it was all James could do to lift his helmet’s visor, give a few blinks before closing it again. So there’s apparently a gold-star loving dragon (hero?) in town, he’s seen weider. Quickly shaking the absurdity that was becoming his night off, he got back down to business “Okay, that’s cool. We can negotiate about the star, first things first -” before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted yet again, only this time it was by movement coming from the kid as they shone with an ethereal light - not unlike starlight - before they opened their eyes. “Hey, welcome back. Take your time now, wasn’t too long ago you were on death’s doorstep.”

Headless of his warning, the kid was already in the process of trying to sit up. The youth these days…they never listen. “The hell did you do?” Which was admittedly a fair question. Opening his mouth to answer, James didn’t get the chance as another, much more important question left the (boy? Yeah, a boy) boy. “Why the fuck.., would I want a sticker..?” a small laugh left him as he stood up as well, his arms hovering whiting catching distance of the kid, ready to offer aid if it looks like he’ll fall. “Well, it got you to wake up, didn’t it?” Noticing the direction the kid’s eyes took, James gave a quick update about the villain’s condition. “I checked him over myself, before getting some people to volunteer their services in restraining him. The worst he’s got is a concussion and what’ll be some rather painful bruises later. Sturdy bugger, aint he?”

His words seemed to land on deaf ears, the boy obviously distressed as he gave of ripples of light. James really didn’t know what the best move in this situation would be - he doesn’t know this boy, or his triggers, he doesn’t want to risk making anything worse. Exchanging a look with their dragon companion, James felt rather helpless at the moment… Thankfully, whatever it was didn’t last long as the boy seemed to gain control once more before he turned back to them. “”You took my wound?” Somewhat surprised that the kid noticed, James glanced down at his previously dark green shirt, where the blood underneath was getting all the more noticeable and grimaced slightly behind his helmet. So far this kid was officially the first person to ever find him out...which is something that he’s not going to deal with right now, instead he tried to sound as chipper and carefree as possible before addressing the kid again. “I’ll be fine, this barely qualifies as a scratch compared to some other wounds I had to heal, the only real loss is the shirt, but my special baking soda combination should get the stain out easy enough.”

”Whatever, thanks..,” the boy uttered quietly and motioned towards the dragon ”you can give your Gold Star to the dragon,” after that the boy’s curiosity took over and he and the dragon started to interact. ”..why are you a fucking dragon?” Stepping back, James gave them a moment to discuss among themselves while he rooted around in his sidecar before finally pulling out a roll of duct-tape. His back turned to the other two, he lifted his shirt to expose the wound and tore off a strip of tape, slapping it over the hole in his chest. A small hiss left him as the action agitated the wound, sending a fresh wave of pain trough him. The paramedic in him is screaming at him about his stupidity, that that isn’t the best way to treat a wound, but his regeneration should keep any nasty side-effects at bay. Besides, he doesn’t have the time right now to properly look after this wound, and at least this should slow the blood loss enough for his regeneration to actually focus on treating the source of the bleeding instead of having to multitask by keeping him from passing out.

That done, it was time to get back to business. Quickly lowering his shirt again and stuffing the rest of the duct-tape in one of his pockets, he turned back towards the other two. Taking the packet of shiny star stickers out of his pocket and removing them from their plastic covering. James then tore the paper to separate the shiniest star from the rest of the packet and showed it to the dragon (…man his life got real weird real quick.) while saying “Alright you two, I hate to interrupt, but this is important. Miss Dragon, I need to know if there are anymore buddies of that guy-” points at villain “around as well as whether there are any serious injuries. If you can bring me that information, this star is all yours.” Once she took off, James turned a critical eye over the boy, looking for any sign of the blood loss getting to him. “Now I want you to take it easy for a day or so and drink plenty of fluids to help replenish some of the blood that you lost, alright? No pushing yourself to the brink or anything like that if it can be helped.” That said, James’ voice took on a lighter tone as he separated another star and pressed it into the boy’s hands “Now, I know that you said that you didn’t want a gold star, but you did a good job tonight. There were a lot of lives in your hands earlier,” at this point James gave a meaningful glance to where the villain was still out cold. “and, thanks to your actions those lives are still around right now. I think you deserve a memento for that.”

James saw the fight. He saw the villain completely helpless as he engulfed by blue, only too be knocked out. A lot of people might have gone for the kill, he still remembers a lot of news reports from when he was a kid detailing heroes doing exactly that. It’s harder to spare a life than to take it. But the poor guy already looks uncomfortable enough as it is, so James decided to just leave his words at that and hope that his double meaning came through alright and returned his attention to the remaining gawkers. A lot had left – probably having gotten bored – but there was still a good amount hanging about with their phones out. Hands on his hips, James tried to sound as authoritative as he could as he addressed them. “Alright people, there’s nothing to see here any more so move along. You already took your pictures so there’s no reason to hang around any longer. Get along, shoo, don’t make me arrest ya’ll for loitering.” Making shooing motions at them, he watched as the crowd mercifully dispersed, before he once again started digging in his side car before finally pulling out his emergency first aid bag from where it was lodged inside the lowest compartment. Hopefully their dragon friend comes back with the all clear and tonight can go back to being the peaceful start of his break that he had envisioned, but he wants to be ready just in case.

---

@Shard@Lurking Shadow

Word association Game!

stuck

Word association Game!

gold

Legion of Heroes

James Harris

James was just passing Carlyle Museum, Wu’s almost within his sight, when an explosion in the air broke through his music and nearly caused him to crash into a lampost. Thankfully, over a decade spent honing his skills as a rider, made it so that his reflexes kicked in in time to pull his Harley to a stop. Looking up through his visor revealed his initial expectations to be accurate. A villain in an airborne suit was exchanging banter with a new hero. As he looked closer, though, a frown crossed James’ face. It seemed like all the heroes kept getting younger these days, the one fighting robo-suit definitely doesn't even look old enough to drink. What’s the world even coming to these days? He swears that…

Damn…James’ starting to sound like his father…he feels old.

It was as he was ruminating the loss of his youth that the battle above continued, the banter apparently over - normally it lasted longer. Watching the fight from his bike, he couldn’t help but sigh at the crowd. He’ll never understand how people can risk their lives just for a few pictures or a video to post on social media, they’re not trying to help, they’re just standing there making great targets of themselves, a needless distraction for heroes to worry about instead of giving all their attention to the villain they’re supposed to be fighting. Almost as if the universe could hear his thoughts and decided to prove a point, the fight took a turn. The villain’s target changed. He had one leg already off the bike - ready to start running towards the crowd for all the good it might do - shouting at the idiots to get out of there (most of them didn’t even budge…how is humanity not extinct yet?), when the hero teleported from their position above to in front of the incoming missiles, shielding everyone with their powers.

Unfortunately, robo-suit took advantage of the hero’s momentary lapse and ran them through with a blade. What happened next…well, it was pretty brutal. For a second there, James was almost certain that robo-suit (now suit-less) was about to be obliterated, before the bugger was simply - painfully - knocked out. That’ll definitely leave a mark, but James couldn’t be bothered to care about him right now. The hero was bleeding really badly, and starting to list forward. Leg back on the Harley, he revved the engines loudly and sped forward, yelling threats at the crowd so that they’d get the heck out of his way. Something must have come through in his voice, because the people actually jumped out of the way (seriously, a motorcycle they’ll dodge but not missiles?) allowing him to park next to the hero just as they hit the floor.

He doesn’t remember getting off of the bike. One moment he was on it, the next he was kneeling next to the hero - and damned if they didn’t look even smaller up close - rolling them over and lifting the lens to inspect the wound. From the location of the wound it looked like it would have had to go through the sternum - so there’s definitely broken bones - and from the amount of blood leaving the puncture wound, it’s more than likely that something had been nicked by the blade. Blood loss is the greatest danger here, so that’s what he should focus on first.

Taking a deep breath, he gently brushed the hero’s dark hair out of their face, quietly saying “You’ll be okay kid, I’ve got you.” Feeling the connection establish, he watched as the bleeding first slowed and then stopped completely as the gash knitted itself close - not a mark remaining. Pain bloomed in his chest as he felt the warm wetness of blood trickling down beneath his shirt.. Grunting slightly, he forced himself to keep going, he’s had worse and his abilities will keep him from dying from blood loss because of this. Thankfully, the shirt he's wearing is one that's a little small on him (tomorrow's laundry day) so that'll help slow the bleeding a little. The bones are next.

Fricken heck. That one smarts. Forcing himself to sit still, he did his best to breath through the pain as he literally felt the cracks in the bone form. The edges of his vision darkened slightly, and once the last crack was healed, he nearly collapsed himself, but since he first discovered his gifts, he had become extremely well acquainted with pain and being able to power through injuries. Heck, he just had to deal with another broken bone a few hours ago! He’s got this. A critical look over the hero established that - while the kid was still far too pale for his liking - they were out of the woods. They still had to deal with the blood loss, but there wasn’t much that James could do about that, only rest and fluids will really help.

Next he went over to where the villain was still out, quickly checking him over. No fatal injuries. Doesn’t look like any bones are broken. The worst this guy should have when he wakes up is a bad concussion and some painful bruises. It doesn’t quite seem fair, does it? This is the guy who tried to blow up a whole street and yet it’s the hero who gets all banged up. The one who really deserves a broken sternum are people like that.

A gasp escaped him as he felt a connection form and he immediately pulled away. It’s been ages since he last connected with someone accidentally and he could just feel the frustration building. Of all the people to accidentally heal! Only…he didn’t feel any new injuries on himself…maybe…he hasn’t established whether the connection only works one way yet…

Okay, yeah, nope! Not dealing with this right now! Firmly pushing that thought out of his mind, he lowered the lens on his helmet and gestured towards the two nearest gawkers. Addressing them as they shuffled forwards. “You two. Wearing belts?” They gave confused nods of confirmation. “Good. Take them off and tie this guy up. If the police haven't been called yet, do so now.” Seeing them hesitate, he felt the frustration build - needing to take a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke again. “C’mon, quickly now, move it please.”

Finally getting a reaction out of them, he moved back to the kid - still out - and gently manoeuvred them to lean against his bike’s sidecar, before reaching inside it and pulling out a half-full bottle of water as well as a scarf he keeps forgetting to return to his brother. Wetting the material, he gently dabbed it against the kid’s pale face. “I know sleeping’s fun, kid, but this aint the best place for a rest.” No response, not that he was really expecting one. A crinkle from his coat momentarily distracted him, reminding him of its contents. He didn’t even think about it as the words left him - half meant as a joke, half hoping that the kid in front of him is as taken by stickers as his niece is and actually takes the bribe. “If you wake up now, I’ll give you a gold star…”

---

@Shard

Legion of Heroes

James Harris

16:47

James groaned as he walked into his apartment, fresh off a double shift. His side was still throbbing slightly, his ribs still in the process of knitting together from where he turned that little boy’s break into nothing but a few bad bruises after the tumble he took out of the tree. It was no walk in the park having to finish his shift with a broken arm, but he powered through worse in the past and at least the worse is over at this point – should only take another hour or so – and then he can just kick back and enjoy his first vacation in far too long. He hasn’t had a real day off in ages, now – as long as he doesn’t get called back in – he’ll have three glorious days of peaceful bliss.

Collapsing on his couch his plans for the night unfolded behind his eyes like a beautiful picture. It’s still early afternoon, so first, he’ll take a nice nap – get his ribs sorted out – then he’ll head out to grab some dinner at Wu’s. He loves Wu’s, they make the best dumplings in the city – it’s a pity they don’t deliver. Amy’s also going through quite a sticker phase according to Sarah, so maybe he could make a quick stop on the way and pick some up for her, maybe grab some glow-in-the-dark stars for above the twins’ cribs as well? That’ll earn him some ‘Best Uncle’ points for sure. Then with both stickers and dinner acquired, hell come home and just kick back and relax with the next Terry Pratchett in his collection.

Good plan…

---

22:00pm

Prize obtained! Walking out of the store into the evening air, he placed his purchases into his various coat pockets – zipping them closed afterwards – and finally continued on to Wu’s. That had taken longer than he was expecting – almost a half-hour – but he got a pretty good selection for the kids, so he’s definitely going to be popular when he sees them tomorrow. Getting unto his motorcycle, he turned on his helmet’s Bluetooth and the sweet sound of Queen immediately filled his ears. Singing along – badly – to the words, James started the drive to Wu’s. Traffic’s looking good, his nap might have put him a little behind schedule (he should remember to set his alarm next time) but the drive isn't that long, for the first time in ages he actually feel's well-rested and pretty soon he's going to be partaking in some delicious food. Tonight’s looking like a good start to a well-deserved break.

Word association Game!

Iris