Author's Note: So some things in this episode will be changed but not much. I own nothing.
27 Stitches
Gwen really wished this had happened at a better time. Well more honestly she wished it hadn't happened at all. Kevin had taken the day off, it was his mother's birthday, the first one they got to spend together since he was a kid. She couldn't call him in on this. But looking over at her cousin in the passenger seat of her own car her left arm, the one without the Ultimatrix, was wrapped in medical gauze. She was currently wearing a spare tank top Gwen had found in the trunk and currently slept soundly thanks to a spell Gwen had managed.
They'd been tracking Jennifer Nocturn and Captain Nemesis, the latter of whom had broken out of prison and by all appearances kidnapped the movie star. They'd tracked them down to a seedy motel. But the room had appeared empty, Gwen had gone to check with the night manager and make sure they hadn't checked out. It was only when she'd heard a car engine gunning that she'd turned to check and make sure Jen hadn't found something. She'd spotted Nemesis in the drivers seat of the car racing out of the parking lot. She'd run to the room, which had been locked. Blasting down the door she found her cousin on the floor, her shoulder a bloody wreck. She'd panicked, she would admit that it had been a long time since she'd seen Jen covered in that much of her own blood. So she'd taken her to the nearest hospital.
That had been a mistake, she should have teleported them to the nearest Plumber base. The hospital wasn't well equipped to handle Jen, Gwen had never quite comprehended how much the Omnitrix had changed her cousin on a physical level. Pain killers did nothing to touch the agony she seemed to be in as the doctors tried to wrestle her to a gurney. She'd torn her stitches twice as they were putting them in before Gwen's panicked mind caught up to her and she knocked her cousin out with a spell. She should be waking up soon. As if on que a groan sounded from the prone figure strapped into the passenger seat.
"Did they get away?" Gwen was surprised at how clear the question came out. She made to put a hand on Jen's shoulder but paused, thinking better of it.
"You were bleeding out on the floor when I got back to the room. They got away, but we're tracking them now." Jen frowned hissing as she sat up. "Don't move around too much. You've got sixteen stiches in your arm, at least two torn tendons." Jen blinked at her.
"That explains some things. Why does it still hurt so much?" Gwen glanced at Jen. Did she not know that regular medications didn't work on her?
"I went to the nearest hospital." Jen nodded slightly.
"Ah, that explains it. They don't have pain killers that work on me." Gwen shook her head.
"No they don't. Can you let me know about stuff like that next time?" Jen nodded.
"Thought you already knew. Where are we going?" Gwen shook her head.
"If I had my way home." Jen turned to glare at her, hissing in pain as she did so Gwen continued. "But you're stubborn enough to go after them alone after this even hurt. So we're heading to a Dr. Pervis. I called Cooper and had him hack into Jennifer's accounts, if Nesmith is using her he's using her money. She just wired a very large chunk of money to him." Jen shook her head.
"Except he's not using her, well he might be but she's the one who put a hole in my arm. I had Nesmith on the ropes, I wasn't expecting her to attack." Gwen shook her head.
"Fuck." Jen nodded.
Kevin Levin hated missing the action, he always had. He'd admit that the weekly apocalyptic disasters were wearing on him a bit but the rush of adrenaline he got from the fight was definitely his drug of choice. Though having a nice day at the beach with his mom where no one tried to kill him was great. So that evening, after she had gone to bed he headed out to meet up with Gwen and Jen and go over what had happened while he was off duty. But they weren't at Mr. Smoothies like they'd planned. He frowned and called Gwen.
"We're in the med bay, you should probably get over here, we're gonna be here a while." Kevin frowned putting his foot down. He reached Ed's, the closest entrance to the Base and raced through it barely nodding to the other Plumber Agents as he went. Gwen was sitting in the waiting room.
"What happened? Are you ok?" Gwen nodded.
"I'm fine. Jen's in surgery." Kevin let out a low breath.
"What happened?"
"Surprisingly, Jennifer Nocturn with a textbook case of Stockholm syndrome and Captain Nemesis's gauntlet." Kevin hissed. That suit could do some serious damage. Gwen kept talking though. "And of course, because my cousin doesn't know how to do things the easy way she kept fighting, tore her stitches. We got them though. Nemesis is claiming he kidnapped her but she's being sent to the psych ward and he's back behind bars." Kevin let out a low groan of sympathy sinking into the chair next to Gwen.
"Your cousin is a bit of a mess."
"As much as I hate to admit it, you're right Kevin." A voice came from the doorway. The teens looked up at Max Tennyson standing there holding a data pad. "But since I've got you both here, I have a few files I'd like you to look over." He handed Gwen the data pad and sat down with them. "Just a few possible candidates for her new partner. Some are more experienced than others. But honestly I'm looking to put her with someone who can learn from her as she learns from them." Kevin nodded.
"These have to go then. Magisters, they'll want too much control. And they won't be up for the more questionable choices she has to make. Too much red tape, not flexible enough." Kevin said flicking his finger over the screen, scrolling through the files. Gwen nodded.
"I agree." She said skimming through a few files. "These two are out too, head of her fan club at the Academy, and vice president of the same fan club. They'll bend too easily." Kevin paused.
"This one's promising, a Florauna. Got a few years under their belt, combat experience." Gwen nodded at him skimming the file over his shoulder.
"Put that one in the maybe pile. She spends a lot of time in places that it would be difficult for a Florauna to survive in. The arctic has been a favorite hideout of Animo's recently." Kevin nodded.
"Fair point. Never met one of these guys before. Good combat in practice, a few missions under his belt. Flexible, toss him in the maybe pile too." He said skimming the file. Gwen nodded and they kept at it for a while, vetoing candidates left and right. There were a lot of beings to go through. Gwen turned to Max.
"How many people signed up for this?" Max shook his head.
"Technically no one signed up. I put out the word to a few magisters that I trust that she'd be in need of a new partner soon. They put forward a few candidates. A lot more than I was expecting actually." Gwen nodded at her grandfather.
"I'm betting word got around." Max laughed.
"I have no doubt. I'm just hoping word hasn't gotten to her yet. I want to keep this a bit of a surprise." Gwen frowned.
"She's more likely to fight you on it." Max shrugged.
"She's going to fight me on it either way. She won't want new blood, she'll want someone she knows how to work with. But Hellen won't work without Manny, she and Manny don't get along. Allen is being scouted for a team already, Pierce won't be back to field work for a while, he's still re-growing most of an organ. Cooper is a non-combatant. I ran short of options." Max said shaking his head. "Besides I think new blood will do her some good." The doctor stepped into the room and Kevin handed the data pad to Max. The doctor, an Apollonite, smiled.
"She's going to be fine. She tore several tendons and nicked a muscle. But we managed to heal her up nicely. There's a small scar and we're keeping her overnight for observation. But overall she'll be fine." Gwen frowned standing up.
"She wasn't able to heal herself. But you were able to." He nodded.
"Part of the problem was she'd lost a lot of blood and didn't give herself any time to rest. Even with the powers of an Apollonite there are limits, especially to healing ones self." Gwen nodded and the three of them headed into the room where Jen lay asleep on the bed.