Battle lines drawn

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

She's spent all morning gathering her own kind of defense, scouting through woods and fields that she knows with her eyes shut, re-learning them with her new body. The creatures do not see her as human any longer, and she has been speaking to them. It would be a dangerous thing to fight, but an even more dangerous to do nothing.

The sun is sinking to the west by the time she gets home.

Damn it, it was never supposed to happen HERE. Not to a town and community based on peace. Not to the sanctuary those weary of war had created to make a last stand, which embraced pacifism as an act of open defiance, rejection of the mentality that it was inevitable or the way things always here and always had to be.

Every adult swore that they would die for that ideal when they saw…maybe too little of the world. If she hadn't been taken, she would be taking those oaths. She would be prepared to walk in front of McKay's gun and accept her own death rather than cave into the temptation to strike back, and start the dance of escalation, giving the pleasure to those who found pleasure in the fight, in squashing resistance. To make it not any fun for the bullies and zap their wills.

But, she had changed, irrecoverably.

And this militia was lusting for dominance and power, wanting to satiate their lust for pain on her home.

Sooner or later, they would use this place up, and their craving for violence and domination would find another target. Rapists didn't tend to stop with one rape, after all. One of the confirmed "takedowns" of her small time career was a rapist. She saw him leaving a classmate of hers broken and tied up with duct tape while he tried to skulk off into the night. As Fauna, she chased him down, causing enough of a ruckus to alert campus police and give him the scare of his life. Later she learned that he was convicted for three other attacks on campus, and possibly more that went unreported.

It would seem everyone's out today. Some carry shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, jaws set and walking into the square. Others she has seen anonymously leave tools and supplies for the traps that she's been helping her friends set up. As a native, she knew the lay of the land best and could scout them to some of the trails and landmarks. Others from the Commune helped. In ones and twos, they offered advise, supplies, or their hands. Most who aided directly had young children they were afraid for, and willing to take the rist to help them.

Arguments have broken out. She's seen people who grew up together come dangerously close to blows prevented only by vows that are starting to unravel like a sweater badly made.

It's too late to save the peace, but she can do her damndest to save her home.

Comments

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He's got a medical kit out (where'd that come from?), and he's working on stabilizing the kid's arm with a makeshift splint. He'll worry about questions later. He looks up at Glen darkly, a bandage in his hands.

On a toddler's skin? Only if you want to add first-degree burns to the list.

He's not in a negotiable mood.

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

"Not for the kid," he said, handing over a roll of gauze. They never had much in the first place and the supplies are low due to the raids.

"There are more that are bleeding."

He gestures to small knots of people. Most aren't serious. A couple could be.

"Daisy, get the alcohol and the stock of antiseptic oils."

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

That seems to snap her into action. She's never seen violence. Glen's lived in some of the worst places the country can boast.

"Needle, thread, blankets too," she says, still shell-shocked as she races back to the house.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He assesses the break with his fingers. Glen will recognize the method from combat medics in the field. Then, Nightwing looks the kid in the eyes. Something changes in his face, but it's hard to pinpoint.

Hey. Want to see a magic trick?

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

He smiles, despite the circumstances.

"If it'll help, pull that rabbit out of the hat."

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He lifts a gloved hand, showing the boy a small capsule.

See it?

He then closes his hand, snakes the hand behind the toddler's back, and then opens his other hand under the kid's nose.

Ta-da.

The knockout gas is a sneaky move, but it'll let him work on the kid without hurting him.

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

The guy moves like a combat medic. Looks like little Skye is in good hands.

Glen moves over to the group. Kevin, Cedar, Arlo, and Summer.

Summer's banged up. Glen tries to keep her still. Internal injuries can't often be seen, and she looks clammy. Cedar, her lover, is deaf. He makes quick handsigns to Glen.

"Yes. It might be bad. She got hit by the jeep, you say?" He signs while speaking.

Kevin's antsy, seeing the scary-looking stranger tending to his three-year-old son. Glen tries to put his friend at ease.

"Ol Black and Blue?" He looks over his shoulder at the masked man tending to Kevin's boy. "No one to worry about. Comes here on summer break to get away from it all. Haight's in good hands."

Don't make a liar, he hopes.

"Internal injuries, likely," he calls over to Nightwing.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He catches the child as his eyes roll back up into his head, and lies him down carefully on the ground. He staunches the bleeding and resets the bone, tying it tightly with the bandages he has. He takes a moment to gently brush the toddler's unruly hair out of his face, then takes a proffered shirt and fashions a sling for him before picking him up and handing him off to Bart.

He looks over to Glen, and is crouching at the woman's side in seconds. He rests a hand on her head.

She's in shock. Someone grab one of those blankets, stat. What happened?

He looks up at the two men.

[jla-extras.livejournal.com]

Kevin looks up. "Understand ASL, or should I translate?""

Cedar starts signing.

Car started. She got Haight out of the way, but the edge of the car hit her too.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He frowns and signs back rapidly:

Where on her body did it hit her?

He then looks to the others.

I don't want to move her too roughly. Find me a sheet and two poles, fenceposts, whatever works, and we'll make a gurney for her. Can the reservation hospital handle surgical procedures?

[jla-extras.livejournal.com]

Kevin and Arlo get up and haul off. In under a minute, they have a canvas tarp, two wide planks and two thick poles.

[kidflash2.livejournal.com]

Bart continues to appear periodically to evacuate injured people.

"I made a quick run to the city to pick up some extra supplies for the hospital, but the staff's small.."

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

Nightwing looks up from assessing the woman's injuries.

Do they have surgeons on call?

He can pull rank on the Watchtower's teleport systems if he has to.

Seeing the escaping jeeps taking off.

[alt-minds2.livejournal.com]

He looks up just in time to see an escaping jeep get away, snatching up his wife from the road and piling her in the back.

"Daisy!"

Re: Seeing the escaping jeeps taking off.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

Nightwing rises sharply to his feet, and a 'rang appears in his hand; but he realizes that at gunpoint, it's not worth the risk of overturning the jeep with her in it. He lowers his throwing arm.

Dammit...

Nothing's going well this weekend. He looks to Glen briefly, his eyes hidden behind the white lenses of his mask.

I'm sorry.