The Remedy - The Cure for the Common Hero Chapter 1

"What made you think you'd be safe going in there?" The massive broad shouldered man tossed a towel full of ice in one hand. "You know you're not supposed to head into Dark Astoria by yourself." The tone used was part worry, part disappointment, and a whole lot of frustration. Sang pressed the ice to the younger Controller's head, pretending not to notice as she winced. "Go on, hold it yourself. I'm not your nurse, woman."

"No, but I'm your sidekick," she retorted, brassy mezzo a stark contrast to his deep baritone. Mori held the towel to her wound as she glared at her teammate. "Sidekick means you and I go out together. I help you while I learn," she emphasized, long fingers jabbing at his chest. "And I do help, you know it." She scowled at him and drew her long legs up, her boots discarded on the floor. Her legs and feet showed bruises and burns, evidence of her run-in with a nasty group of Dry Husks just inside the cemetery. Rufus Hardy, known to the rest of Paragon City as the Sanguine Horror, had arrived just in time to let her run to the gates and not suffer any further. Still, any amount of gratitude had been lost when he'd immediately begun chastising her for 'running off someplace' as he'd termed her attempts to nose about Dark Astoria.

"You help sometimes, but you're not strong enough," he finally answered, a large hand running through crimson hair. "You don't need to go everywhere, and there are some places you simply don't need to go. You're my sidekick for a reason, Miranda." Somehow, her given name seemed to give it more finality.

"Sidekick does not mean that you get to parade me around when you feel like it and have me hang on your arm when you go and see your contacts," she spat.

The tanker scowled, eyes narrowing. "I do not parade you around, Mori. You know that." He received an indignant hmph in reply, which only prompted a more indignant and annoyed sigh of his own. "I don't. I just don't want you coming places where you're going to get hurt."

For a brief moment, it seemed as if Mori was going to throw the icepack at her mentor. Fingers clenched about the towel, she stood up and wobbled slightly. "Yeah, well, at this rate, I'm not going anywhere, except to bed. Why I ever hooked up with you and the rest of them is beyond me. Figures that you guys just wanted a nice ass to stare at while we're running back and forth on the streets."

"Moriya-" The last syllable of her name was lost in the slamming of a door somewhere in the back of the apartment, the noise echoed in the main room by Sang's hand slamming into the table. Stubborn… she was ungodly stubborn in situations like this. Of course, it was only stubborn when they were alone. Outside, on the streets of Paragon City, stubbornness became perseverance, or what one of the nurses at Chiron liked to call 'heart.' It was that unrelenting drive and passion that the best of heroes possessed and that could never be bought. The auburn-haired controller sulking in her bedroom had such qualities in spades, he reminded himself as he stood up. Those sorts of teammates were hard to find, and they'd been hard-pressed to find a Controller who could work decently with their group.

If only she wasn't so damned clumsy.

The radio on the counter crackled to life, a familiar voice coming through the static. "Incoming transmission for Sanguine Horror, repeat, incoming transmission for Sanguine Horror."

"Very funny, Pong." Sang snatched up the radio and headed to the balcony. "What's going on? I thought you were heading to Talos to check up on a lead for one of your contacts."

"Did that already. The great Ponghwang is nothing if not efficient."

"I see." The sun was setting on an already overcast day, and the night didn't look to be much better from where Sang stood, twenty-three stories above the streets of King's Row. "You planning to come back here and meet up with the rest of the group?"

An all too familiar chuckle came over the radio. "Rest of the group's already here. We don't have little girly sidekicks to make out with during the day."

The metal casing about the radio threatened to buckle as the tanker gripped it harder. "Not funny, Junk. Knock it off. She wandered into Dark Astoria and got the stuff beaten out of her, again."

"So what else is new?" came the smug remark.

"Don't remind me." Sang shut the door behind him, in case she had heard the radio go off. "What's going on?"

Pong's voice came back on the radio, slightly more serious than before. "Pantheon, just outside the cemetery. They've got hostages in one of the older crypts."

"How many?" Below, he could hear the sounds of the gangs tearing each other apart, the noise of the streets and the triumph of a few fellow Heroes from somewhere in the city. He’d tried to convince her to move out of the Row, even offered to share his apartment in Founder’s Falls, but she always refused. Stubborn woman.

"At least five, maybe more. Security chief says they ambushed a group outside of Barca Plaza and carried them off."

Radio static filled the silence, the burly tanker contemplating the situation. This wasn't the sort of thing that could wait until morning, or even until Mori healed up. Besides, if she was stupid enough to follow them into a crypt full of Banished Pantheon after what they'd served her that afternoon, then perhaps it was time for Darwin's rules to come into effect. There wasn't room in Paragon City for foolish heroes. Sliding the door open, he reached for his boots. "I'll be there soon, then."

"Without her?"

"Yeah. She doesn't need to head out again tonight." The radio fell silent moments before the door to the apartment clicked shut, leaving Mori alone as the rest of the Remedy readied for battle in Dark Astoria.

This CoH fanfic was written by V. Likenesses and attitudes of all characters are property of their respective owners.