The angered Legionnaire to her left charged, meeting a centred River in the middle of the hall where the Super quickly spun her round into the opposite wall. River grinned for a moment before she leapt onto the wet floor ahead and decided her next action: kicking the next one as she passed. Nudged towards the third Legionnaire in the hall, she rolled into a handstand facing him, locked her thighs around his torso, and threw him to the floor. There was a painful-sounding crack, and he immediately let go of his victim – an elderly man that ducked into the adjacent examining room with surprising speed.
From her position laying down on the floor, River tucked her legs in, rolled backwards past the upright position, and from a one-handed handstand lashed out at the next target in a sweeping kick to the side of the head. He narrowly dodged the kick, and quickly stepped forward to counterattack, but the swinging momentum of her kick carried River round into a crouched spin where she could duck under his punch and sweep his legs out from under him. As she moved on, his charge hefted a nearby fire extinguisher and swung it at him like a bat, breaking at least one rib, before retreating into another room and barring the door.
River threw an open bottle of cleaning fluid at number five's face, lanced the sixth in the gut with a mop before snap-kicking her in the temple, and twisted past a haymaker from the seventh. Finding herself momentarily behind her attacker, she braced against the wall and lashed out with both legs, kicking him hard into a door frame.
The eighth target she saw was standing just behind the doorway at the end of the hall – the end of the trail of water that had so helpfully allowed River to not focus so much on keeping herself together – and was holding his hostage up in front of him. The gaunt-faced, jaundice woman was dressed in a patient's gown and had an ID bracelet around one wrist further identifying her as an ICU patient. River rolled to a stop a few metres from him, grabbing a handful of water and flinging it narrowly past the side of his head as a distraction so she could close the gap, swing around behind him, and seize his neck in a chokehold. He let go of his victim long enough to grab River by the arms, turn to the open space of the intensive care ward and throw her into the centre of the space.
She rolled to a stop and flipped up into a crouch, glancing around the room quickly and spotting half a dozen Legionnaires in her line of sight, plus a few left conscious from the hall she used. Two of those were lifting a pair of sick patients towards a stairwell, but the others were all slowly stalking towards her.
A sudden blur of activity and commotion in a closed-off room drew her attention, where a well-muscled, middle-aged man with his arms tied behind his back with IV tubing was headbutting another Legionnaire, and two more were pulling themselves off of a toppled bed behind the door. A grin of recognition and relief spread over River's face when she got a look at the man's weathered face and broad physique, and she quickly made her way over to his room while the horde's dregs slowly closed in.
One attacker received a snap-kick to the jaw that lifted him up a few inches and knocked him out cold, the second one's lunge was parried and turned into a throw out the door, and since the other was occupied, River took the opportunity to close the door and jam the visitor's chair under the doorknob for a few more seconds of quiet while the last Legionnaire in the room was pinned to the floor and choked with a knee until he stopped wriggling.
“So...” she began in an overly loud voice, drawing him closer and taking a look at the knots keeping his arms behind his back. “You didn't take your meds again.”
He got out a “Puddle...” before she motioned for silence and butted in. “Don't reply to that; I still can't hear anything but ringing, and it's a great excuse for me to talk and for you to listen.”
She flicked one of the knots, figuring it would take too long to untie in her state, and walked over to the window. “There's a reason they include the sedative. You're not supposed to be moving around so much!”
An elbow darted forward and smashed the window. Pieces of it scattered, but among the remains was a usable edge. She gently prised it free, swept the lower edge of the frame free of debris, and turned back to an apologetic-looking father. “I know it's not easy, and yes, I'd hate it too, but you have to do it.” Her expression softened, and she motioned for him to turn around. “At least take them when I'm not visiting.”
She could see him slump while she cut through one of the segments of the tubing. The impromptu handcuffs came loose, he shrugged out of them, and there was a quick hug before she broke it off and stepped back.
“Now,” she started, “Since I came up with that speech a few weeks ago, I've been thinking.” She gestured subtly towards the Legionnaires watching from outside the room. “I'm not sure why
they aren't breaking in here, but I don't plan on sticking around to find out. The fall on this side of the building is too high for comfort, but I've been working on something that should-” she beamed nervously “-make it painless.”
Without giving her father a moment to object, she ran to the window and vaulted it. Halfway down to the concrete floor below, she managed to dump all but a fraction of the water making up her form, and while the rest landed with a wet slap, a fine mist instead bounced off of the ground, dispersing for a second and then reassembling in the shape of her body. She posed like a proud magician, looking up at the broken window, and shouted “Ta-da! Completely unharmed.”
Weirded out, though. I won't be forgetting that feeling.It took a bit of persuasion, and probably action on the parts of their watchers, but she coaxed her father into hanging from the window frame outside, while stepping in the rest of 'herself' and collecting it up. It looked like the water was being drawn up into an invisible cage, sloshing about in its confines as the level rose and gaining the momentary appearance of a waterfall when it rose above her ribcage and fell into the positions of her fingers.
When she was fully reconstituted, she stepped underneath his position and shouted at him to “Let go! I'll catch you. And remember, I can't hear you say 'no', so you'd better do it.”
A 200lb weight dropped onto the Super's semi-liquid form, displacing and distorting her. Her whimper of pain was noticed, but as her father started to fuss she pushed him away. “It's not that catch... mostly. I just forgot how much my front half hurts... and my spine, legs, and feet. But enough about me, let's get you moved to the other hospital. There should be a few ambulances out front.”
They both hobbled towards the misty front side of the hospital, her from injuries catching up with her, and him from glass wounds in his feet... and saw the massive form of the combined Three come into view.
River let out an exasperated groan. “Now that's just not fair.”
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Writer's Note: Style Token(s) used.
Cynder
