trans_9 | Distress

Arika had come out of her quarters at the loud noise. She'd been sleeping quite peacefully, when something loud shook the bus and went right into her ears. She'd startled out of her room in a blanket, moving quickly through the hallway...and to where she'd discerned the location of the previous noise.

Once there, she claps her hands over her mouth. "Matt!"

Arika's voice cut through to the depths of Matt's fading consciousness as his eyes flickered. "...bwuh?"

What happened... oh right, fight... passing out... Asuna...! "Asuna..." bubbled out Matt, his voice thick with blood.

Arika moves her feet quickly, dropping the blanket (thankfully, she's not nude, but wearing a nightgown Rein had designed for her) and putting her hands on Matt's shoulder.

"Close your mouth, and do not move. I will be back with a warm towel and the medical kit."

Matt bubbled a reply as he closed his mouth, tasting the tang of blood swishing around his lips. Yeah, internal injuries. Asuna must have given him more of a beating than he thought.

Arika returns with the medical kit and four wet cloths. She takes one and places it upon the most bloody area of Matt's body, then laid the larger cloth on his ribs, then took the last two and tapped Matt's chin.

"Open your mouth, and keep it open."

Matt opened his mouth, hoping he hadn't bit his tongue when Asuna was giving him the beating of a lifetime. No, it was just bounced around a little. "Aaah," he said.

Arika puts the towel in his mouth, watching briefly as it soaked up the blood. She turns her attention to his head and lays the last cloth upon the side of his cranium, then appraises Matt's form for any other serious injuries.

When she cannot find any, she takes the medical kit and opens it.

The message she read had chilled her to the bone. No, it couldn't be Matt she thought, running down to the witch bus. She guessed she'd never run so fast in her life, but that wasn't important now. Her friend was in pain: she had to help him.

"Matt?" She reached him, seeing he was worse for wear. She bent beside him, her eyes swimming in fear. "What happened to you?"

She saw Arika, and normally would have said something, but Matt was her primary concern. Cassie's death had not left her memory.

"Ku-tah-rah?" slurred Matt as he focused watery eyes on her. He was fighting to stay focused like all good concussion patients did. "Asssuuuuu... suuu... Asuna... not right... sent to... to..."

He groaned and reached up to her cheek. "Told... princess shouldn't cry..."

She put he arm at his shoulder, trying to get him to lean on her. She was holding back tears a little: she had never seen Matt this beat up before, and she could heal him, she noticed that Arika was attending to him already.

"You're sounding kinda fragmented Matt. Who did this? Why?"

"Katara, it would be best if Matt did not speak," Arika warned sternly. She reaches over to hold the cloth in Matt's mouth there.

"He has a large injury upon his head. I need you to go take the ice pack in the medical kit and fill it with ice."

"Right," Katara said, shaking her head. Why would she want Matt to talk when he was already so badly beaten up? But it was the thought someone could hurt him, someone she could do something like that to him.

She walked over to the medical kit and touched the ice pack for a few seconds before taking it and handing it over to Arika. "I may be able to heal him with my water bending actually."

Arika takes the ice pack, not for a moment bewildered by Katara's ability to turn the water in the pack to frozen ice. She placed it upon the cloth upon Matt's head, keeping it there, lest it slip if she let go.

"Do what you must, Katara. I trust you are strong."

Katara, knowing when to have manners, gave the woman a polite bow. "I am. Thank you Arika...san."

The honorifics were a little tricky, but she thought she may have had this right.

She brought her hands over to Matt, her hands glowing blue. "This will take a few minutes," she told him.

All Zetta knew was that someone had been burbling hurt messages over the comms. Despite being... well, Zetta, the Overlord had no intention of entering a potential combat zone unprepared. (As for why he decided to show up... he wanted combat! It had nothing to do with someone being hurt! Absolutely nothing! Shut up!) So he was a little late to the show -- and his arrival was presaged by his leader-mook all but bursting into the bus, comically-oversized sword in hands.

She took a moment to appraise the situation, then abruptly put the sword away. From outside, someone pitched in the ludicrously large Sacred Tome. The leader caught it, then turned so the face on the front could view this tangle.

"Someone worked him over good," Zetta said impassively. "Any danger still in the area? The perimeter is secure, but it looks like this place is a little bigger than it should be."

Of all the things Katara had been expecting to see, a bok with a face was not one of them. Had Matt not been in the condition he was in, chances were she would have stood mouth agape for a good few seconds. Instead Katara was alert, checking Matt for any other damages.

"I don't think so," Katara said, "as far asthere being any danger in the area right now. But the place being bigger is a part of teh magic: the W.I.T.C.H. bus is accomodating that way."

Hey, coolness under pressure was something Zetta could respect. He spared little attention for the bus, with no danger reported. "You got that under control? I can get one of my healers in here if you need one. Not exactly strong, but quick might make the difference."

Zetta looked up and to the side, as if communicating, as his minions fed him an all-clear so far.

"I am a healer," Katara said, bringing her hands slowly over Matt. "I was just going slow because these are wounds I can treat fairly well. If he was really bad off, I'd have to resort to other ways of healing."

She brought her hands over Matt;s face, healing the bruises and cuts there.

Zetta made a nettled noise. Not directed at Katara, mind, but the overall lack of an opponent or something to do. He'd gone and asked DIRECTIONS to get here, for Magog's sake! And he was an Overlord! And male!

Despite this, the book, without anyone asking, settled into something of a vigil. Outside, his battle-monkeys maintained a perimeter. He'd see to it that she had the time she needed.

Katara continued down to his arms and chest, not even feeling bashful about this part. If there was a chance that Matt might suffer from his injuries, Katara wanted to put a stop to them. She only had to think of Cassie's fate and remember that no one was except from being maimed.

She sensed, without an exchange, that the book was here for a reason, and for his part was also somewhat worried about Matt. Not that she could be sure, of course.

"What do you know?" Katara asked.

"Hyaaa ha ha ha ha ha! I know LOTS of things! I -- wait. You mean about this, don't you."

That sure took the wind out of his sails.

"This specifically? All I know is he was yelling for help over the comm rings." How does a book even have a comm ring? Answer: It took the form of a bookmark. It's visible peeking above the pages. "I figured I had better show up, in case no one else did.

"More generally? People in the City are nuts. Punching holes in things. Running around like maniacs. I don't know what's going on, but I'm guessing it's nothing good, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was related."

Katara listened intently, trying to see what she could find out about how Matt had sustained his injuries. It was another dead end, but she was also curious as to what this person had thought was the cause.

"People in the city are no different than people anywhere else. The only difference is that the city isn't constantly watched by Stacy. But I work with my team in the City, and I can tell you that we aren't crazy people."

She wouldn't bother mentioning the demon in the city though.

"Hey, I live here too," Zetta said, failing to make the argument for sanity and normalcy in the City. "Normally it's not so bad. But when I say people are crazy, I mean right now. Something's changed. I don't know what. But people are behaving in ways I haven't seen since I set up my plaza here. Close to violent. I wouldn't be surprised if someone got pushed over the edge."

The Overlord frowned, glancing around him reflexively. "If this bus of yours has any protections, you might want to fire them up. If not, then when you're done we ought to move to my plaza."

"I know," Katara said softly. "I had a friend of mine get sick, and I've been seeing some of the people reacting in the City. I've been pretty lucky that I didn't get affected myself. It might be possible that Matt was hurt by someone due to the virus going around. In that case, it might be useless to go after anyone for this."

That had BETTER be the virus though, or someone was going to pay.

"It isn't my bus, its Matt's," Katara said, "Its supposed to be magically protected though. But I would still really like to see your plaza.

"Heh," Zetta said, totally susceptible to flattery. "It's not my castle. It barely even pretends. I am certain that it's defensible, though. That seems to be thing needed here in general."

Then Zetta had an idea so brilliant the light bulb over his head nearly appeared in fact. "It's a bus! We drive it to the plaza! Double defense!"

Arika reappears from the hallway, carrying a blanket and a pillow. "No one will be driving this bus," She says with authority, crouching down in front of Matt. "At least...not yet." She slides the pillow behind Matt's back, gently moving him so it would fit, before draping the blanket across him.

Katara had to agree with Arika, and it wasn't just because she was scared to death of moving vehicles since that one incident with the attacking car.

"I don't even know if it can be driven, to be honest," Katara said, "not that I would be to keen to be driving around the city anyway in its current crazy state. We might hit someone who's all crazy. It wouldn't be good for Matt."

Or that she could drive. Anyway she was glad that someone like Negi's mom was looking over Matt. She hadn't liked the idea of him being in pain with no one noticing. "If you don't mind Arika, I'm going to make him some soup."

Then she turned to Zetta. "Care to stay?"

Edited 2010-10-02 12:10 (UTC)

"We could always carry it, but frankly, it's all the same to me." Zetta put a shrug in his voice, since he didn't have shoulders any more. Body language! Amazing how much you miss it when you lose it!

Katara's questioned earned a very brief, startled look. Frankly, he hadn't ever considered the idea that he wouldn't stay if he darn well wanted to. "Leaving someone that beat up would be low even for an Overlord," Zetta said absently -- then sputtered as his brain caught up to his mouth. "B-besides, not that any of that matters to ME, but if the same threat or another one came around, of course I need to be here! To put it solidly in its place!"

He glanced quickly from Arika to Katara, then rolled his eyes upward to mix expression of innocence and eeeevil. They were totally buying this, right?

Katara smiled. She had to admit that she wasn't really sure how this Zetta person would react, she was still gauging his personality. He seemed okay though, with no ill intentions toward Matt, so she figured he was at least okay in that aspect. She was at least glad he was staying.

"I'm sure it doesn't matter, but thank you all the same. I'm pretty sure that whatever happened was probably because of something that happened as a result of that virus. For now, if you want to keep watch, that would definitely help. I just want to make sure that Matt recovers."

And here, she looked over Matt. "How are you feeling?"

Arika gently places a hand on Katara's shoulder. "He needs rest, Katara. His body cannot start the healing process if is awake."

Zetta assumed that Katara was, as anyone would be, thankful that the Overlord had elected not to crush her like a bug. (Assuming these things in the face of all evidence went a long way towards preserving his world view.)

"...virus?"

Zetta somehow managed to stay so far out of the loop he might as well be on another ship. Seriously, no one told him ANYthing.

Katara flushed a little. Why WAS she insistent on talking to Matt when he was injured like this? Then again, that thrill of fear when she heard him had not left her in the least: her heart was still beating fast, and she was still fighting tears on seeing him like this. She hadn't even admitted to herself how much this had bothered her: why Matt, who was friendly with everyone? Held give you the shirt off his back: why hurt him?

At Zetta's confusion, Katara turned to him. "Apparently whatever is causing the aggression is contagious. You can catch it by staying in the city, and its likely that whoever hurt Matt might be someone he knows who would never have done it in normal circumstances."

Which was something bracing to admit considering Katara was ready to go after the person that did it in a moment's notice a few minutes ago.

"Damn. That explains EVERYthing." The minion abruptly thunked Zetta's lower edge onto the ground, drew her sword, and stepped back out of the bus, leaving the Overlord to frown at nothing.

Apparently they had gained a protector.

Distress

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