OOC: Once again, would be funny if it wasn't painful

BIC: Kaitlin flew back and bounced roughly across the road. Her wings were now all but useless, the tranqulizers numbing them almost completely.

She struggled to stand but failed a couple times, and then lay still.

For a moment, Tia and Monk thought she was actually down and out.

...They thought wrong.

Kaitlin's eyes snapped open and burned with the intensity of a thousand suns. "So...you think a few tranquilizer darts are enough to contain me?" she asked to neither of them in particular. "The time for games is over. This time the kid gloves are coming off!"

With that Kaitlin drove both her hands into the street surface and pulled herself up to a three point stance position. A low guttural growl started to emit from her mouth as the pavement began to crack and flames began to flicker around her. All of a sudden the growl became a banshee-like howl, and the small flames became a massive fireball that began to engulf buildings, pavement, and just about anything else in it's path. The entire blast all but leveled a city block

...and other cliched phrases... Kaitlin said wickedly as she waited for the smoke to clear.

***

Jason stared at the screen agape. He couldn't even find the strength in him to start cursing angrily. For all he knew he had just watched two of his friends die.

OOC: Don't worry, i'm not saying that they WERE killed by that...

OOC: PLEASE! You think that could take the mighty Monk down!? BRING IT! Give me somethin' I should worry about.

Monk took the smart way out, by taking the low road. He managed to find a stairway that lead down to the subway system and was able to take cover in there, suffering only some minor burns on his back, and the sweat that came from the oppressive heat. He looked back up, and instead of seeing a sun on earth, he saw the blue sky of a non-flamed planet. He started to move, but winced in pain with each step he took. "The burns... they are getting to me." He dropped to one knee and started to pant. "They feel like they are... draining energy..."

"That's common Monk." Dr. Odupe's voice came into his mind. "In fact, you have a lot more wrong with you than you can feel..."

Monk started to feel his body catch on fire, as he tried to pat himself out, only to find that touching the burns made it a lot worse for wear. He started to scream out in pain as he tried to fight the invisable fire with no way of victory. "It burns! IT BURNS!!" He screamed in hopelessness.

"Monk, calm down!" A small bag with a red cross appeared in front of him. "I need you take a breath and follow my instructions. In front of you is a bag with medical supplies. Do you see it?" Monk nodded, gritting his teeth and eyes trying to hold back screams and tears. "Do you see it?" Dr. Odupe repeated.

Taking the risk of opening his mouth, he responded a quick, "Yeah..." before he started to scream in pain again, apparently the noise right behind his teeth.

"Ok good. In the pack is several small bottles of ointment. I need you to reach in and pull one out." Monk, slowly, reached foward and pulled out a bottle with "disinfectant" on it. Gritting his teeth in pain and anger, he tossed it away and tried again, finding a styptic pad. He screamed again, threw the pad against the wall and tried once more, finding the ointment.

"Ok... now what?" The screams dissappeared and was replaced by a soft whine in his voice.

"Monk! Stay with me! Do you hear me! Concentrate on what I'm telling you, and you'll be ok..." Monk shook his head to try and allivate some of the pain as the doc continued. "Ok, open that up and rub it on the part that burns the most. It should be your back..."

"My back!?" He screamed, "My back is fine! It's my arms that are on fire and... and... ah!" He quickly unscrewed the cap and poured the soothing cool liquid on his left arm, feeling the fire get smothered and dissapear, his arm now feeling that it was covered in liquid ice. "Ah... much better..."

"Good! Now repeat the process on the other burned parts."

Monk did as he was instructed, pulling out two more bottles of ointment and pouring one on his right arm, and the other on his leg. Having full control of his extremities, he took a breath and nodded. "Thank you Doc... I'm ok now..."

"No your not. We're not done here." Monk looked up in confusion. "Yes, you may have at least numbed the pain, and took the steps to cure it, but the wound is still tender, and we need to cover it up. In the bag are some bandages as well. Use those to cover all the burns you suffered."

"But Doc... I need to get back up there..."

"Listen, that's the start of your injuries. We have a lot more to go with. While you work, report to me what you have done so far..."

Monk did as he was commanded, "So far, I've put ointment on both my arms and my leg. I have bandages around my leg, and I'm appling it to my left arm now. Doc..." He winced a bit as he wrapped the bandage, "My right arm... it's sore to move it."

"That's because it's dislocated."

"That might be the reason..."

"I have to guess its sheer adrenline thats allowing you to continue on, but its going to wear off in a few minutes now that your out..." Monk started to scream in pain, "...of combat" Doc sighed the end of his sentence.

"Ok... uh..."

"You can't move it anymore? Can you?"

"Uh... ... no."

Dr. Odupe rubbed his temples. "All right, right now, we need to get that arm back into place. You know how to pop a shoulder back in, right?"

"...yeah..." Monk replied softly.

"Get to it."

Monk looked down at his now limp right arm and sighed. He hated popping shoulders back into place. He looked around in the bag and found a small piece of wood. "This must be a splint. It'll work..." He bit down on it to try and settle himself, then grabbed onto his wrist and closed his eyes, just to try and pretend what he was going to do wasn't going to...

There was a loud snap.

He grunted and bit down harder on the splint, breathed for a few seconds, then spit the splint down on the pavement. "Ok... Its back in."

"I'm proud of you Monk. Wrap out the original burn wound, then use a splint to help heal the arm. You're not being to be able to use it fully, but at least it will help speed the process along."

Monk did as he was ordered. He was now able to get up under his own power, but found that he was still a bit weak. "Doc..."

"I know, you are still suffering from two burn wounds, both on your torso. One on the front, and the other in the back. The back is a severe burn, and is not going to be fully treated with the technique I've taught you, but again, it just makes things a lot better for you in the long run."

Monk repeated the process for his body, ripping away the shredded and ripped cloth and tossing it aside. He rubbed the ointment on his stomach, then his back, then used two bandaged to help heal his torso. Walking over to the bag and adding it to his belt that came with the pistol, he took a breath and started up the stairs. "Thanks Doc."

"No problem. There are a few more injuries to your body, but they won't affect your preformance any. At least, not too bad. Just remember everything I taught you for now, but know that that was just a preview of basic on the field medical practices. There are many more to come. When you get back, I'll teach you so you'll be ready for anything."

"You got it. Don't forget." He emerged from the subway and looked around at the destroyed mess that was Cyber Houston. "Oh man... I am not paying for this..."

Jade stared at the screen as the second antidote synthesized. "Oh...my...god..." Not wanting to see the toll it took on her husband, she said a silent prayer as the antidote finished. "Done!" She put both of the vials in her jacket and basically dragged an almost catatonic Jason to the log in station. As they materialized into what was left of Cyber Houston, Jade grabbed Jason by the collar and slapped him, hard. "Wake up! Now is not the time to go all melty on me. We need to get Kaitlin down from the sky and incapacitated enough to inject these into her neck directly. Tia and Monk are not dead and we are very far from out of this fight? Get it together. Are you with me?"

OOC: dramatics ftw!

Jason looked around at where he was, rubbed his sore cheek for a second, then his expression hardened into a serious mask of grim determination.

"I'm with you." he said as he pulled out a Colt .45 armed with incapacitating tazer rounds. "Let's show this virus that it picked the wrong person to infect."

Didn't take 'em long to find Kaitlin. She and Tia were having a little fireball duel down the block that was causing quite a bit of, um... property damage.

Jason drew a bead on Kaitiln with his .45, but he hesitated. He wanted to fire, he knew they were only tazer bullets that weren't going to kill her, but part of him didn't want to pull the trigger.

Maybe...she can be rationalized with...

He shouted out. "Kaitlin! Listen to me! You have to stop this! Whatever's controlling you, you can't let it win!"

Kaitlin turned towards him, and raised a hand in his direction right now. "Kaitlin isn't here right now...leave a message after the explosion."

A fireball flew out at Jason, he tried to jump back but he still got caught by the edge of the blast as it impacted on the pavement. Rolling on the ground to smother any flames that may have sparked on his clothing, he pulled himself up to his feet.

he looked at Jade, slightly downcast expression. "I'm sorry, I should of realized she's beyond rationalizing."

Damnit, They were right i can't make the right decisions when Kaitlin's life is at risk.

He drove that thought from his mind and prepared to take aim again.

From what appeared to be out of nowhere. a body flew in the air from behind her and brought her to the ground, a tight bear-hug around her arms to help prevent her from moving. He latched wrists, hoping to make the bond more secure. "Enough of the fire. I am not a fan of heat..."

He looked up, "All right... I got her down! Do what needs to be done." He was stronger than her, even with the augs it would be trouble to break free from his grasp, however, it was the virus he was more concerned about that might overpower him. That, and he could feel his arms start to sizzle again. "You also might want to hurry, I'm doing the best I can!"

Kaitiln let out a small laugh. "Your best isn't GOOD ENOUGH!" She pushed herself up onto her feet, grabbed monk and threw him over her shoulder and kicked him off in Jade's direction.

Jason didn't waste any time, as he saw Monk fly by him he was already sprinting full tilt at Kaitlin. She looked up just in time to see him spear her in the chest and drive her to the ground. Getting behind her, he grabbed her in a full nelson hold and kicked her legs out from under her, forcing her into a crouch.

"Let's see how you like fighting against someone who HAS augmentations." he said "Jade, give her the antidote before she breaks free!"

Jade had enough time to get hit by/catch Monk and skid to a stop before Jason called to her. She laid him down and sprinted at Kaitlin. She grabbed her arm and attempted to force the antidote to inject into her. "Now...hold...still..."

Flames appeared around Kaitlin, causing Jason to lose his grip in shock and surprise (and pain), and Jade had to release herself from Kaitlin's arm. Kaitlin lashed out with a punch to Jade's jaw, then caught Jason in the side of the head with a spinkick.

Jason staggered but his nanites dulled most of the damage. He went for his gun, but found that the heat from the fire had fused the trigger mechanism. He threw the useless weapon aside.

"You wanna dance? Let's dance, virus!" he shouted as he leapt at Kaitlin, striking out with a flurry of punches and kicks. Kaitlin took a few of the blows, but then caught Jason's right leg in mid-kick and slammed her elbow down on the knee, hard.

Jason could feel his knee give out just before Kaitiln pulled him in and punched him in the nose.

Blood sprayed from his broken nose as he hit the ground, stunned.

"You don't have the guts to kill your wife..." he heard Kaitlin's voice say as she moved in to capitalize on his disadvantaged position.