A/N: Ugh, I've felt awful these past few days. I only got a chapter left after this. D, Leo's blood pressure is going to spike with his boys and Kai to train. Hahaha.

CHAPTER 07: FIX

Kaiya had either poor or great timing; Hugh hadn't decided. On the one hand, he wanted to the child her for being present. On the other hand (figuratively), her super-strength was just what the trio needed to escape.

"How did—" Miriam stopped herself, standing to her full height. "I know you. You were on 6 News, the bus kid."

Kaiya's grin turned lopsided as if fighting over her feelings about her new position.

"We know some interesting things about you," Ryan added.

The man and Mir stepped closer, and their suddenness startled the blonde. She sprung forward in a single motion that put her between the captors in a second's time. They hardly had a chance to register she moved before the girl panicked over her next step, tossing her arms aside. Her palms met their sides with an audible slap, and the force spun them into pillars on opposite sides.

"Sweet, Mary, Joseph, and the donkey," Jezebel said, "where'd the hell she learn that?"

"Oh, right. You haven't met, huh?" Hugh watched Kai advance from the corner of his eye. "Kaiya, this is Jezebel. Jezebel, Kaiya."

"She's a superhuman," Damien added.

Jez snorted. "No shit. How?"

"Later," Hugh said.

"Uncle Hugh, are you okay?" Kai's death-hug threatened to snap the detective's already tender ribs, and he patted her back for attention.

"Air," he wheezed. The child let go with an apology, giving Hugh enough time to regain his oxygen and see Blaine approach.

"Dude," the older blonde said, "I thought you didn't need backup to talk to a girl."

Hugh made a face. "Yeah, yeah. You were right. I was wrong. Let's move on."

"Wh—what even happened? What is this? Who the hell goes to question a subject and winds up collared to a pillar?"

"That's not the issue here."

"Really? Seems to be your issue."

"Can we please just get out of here?" Hugh loathed the boastful look his best friend sported and pointed at the metal ring around his neck. "If you would, Kai?"

Kaiya nodded then tore the collar in half without any effort. It seemed to surprise not only her father but herself, too.

"Guess those Karate lessons are paying off," Hugh added, rubbing his chaffed skin.

"Ninjutsu," Kai said.

"Huh?"

"It's not Karate, it's Ninjutsu. Get it right."

"Gee, sorry." The detective watched Kai round the pillar to unshackle the other captives and then quickly turned to Blaine. "What're you guys doing here?"

The older blonde crossed his arms. "Saving your ass, evidently. When you didn't answer my calls after Kai's play, I got worried."

"And Kai?"

"I told her to stay home."

"That went well."

"She hid in the backseat. By the time I got here, it was too late."

"I'm a kind'a grateful." Hugh continued rubbing his tender flesh. "You bring cuffs? We should—"

"Damien!" Jezebel's alarm lured Hugh around the pillar to where the Cadet rasped. He was in worse condition than the detective expected; he sweated profusely, wheezed, and bubbled blotches had spread across most his skin.

Hugh gapped, "The hell?"

"He's having an allergic reaction," Blaine said. "To what?"

"Nightshade," Miriam answered. She strolled away from the chipped pillar Kai had propelled her into—upright, cock-sure, and speckled with blood that had no source.

"Uh," Hugh pointed at Mir then the muscle man who followed suit, "am I the only one who notices they aren't hurt?"

"Well," said Blaine lowly, "this is the same person who incapacitated countless seasoned criminals."

"Fair enough. Jez!" Hugh spun to the Dominican who held her trembling boyfriend. "Take Kai and get Damien to a hospital."

"I'm not leaving my sister," Jezebel countered. She glared, but when Damien gapped for deeper breaths, she looked near tears. Her gaze darted between the two great loves in her life, and the way she chewed her lips made her conflict obvious. "You can help him, Mir."

The younger Dominican pulled her braid over her shoulder. "I could."

"But she won't," Blaine supplied.

"He's just another gangster," Miriam continued.

Jez tossed a collar fragment for attention. "He's straight now, a Cadet."

"That won't make up for what he's done."

"Don't you believe in redemption? In being sorry? Mir"—Jez's voice broke—"don't you believe in me?"

"I believe that to stop an infection from spreading, you have to cut out the poisonous bits. Whatever they may be."

"There's no convincing her," Hugh whispered to the wide-eyed Jezebel. "Please, just take Damien and Kai and go."

"She's my sister."

"I think the relationship is one-sided at this point."

"I...I can't."

Hugh growled as he faced Blaine. "You take them!"

"And what would you do, One-hand Wonder? I doubt they let you keep your gun."

"So give me yours."

"No one leaves," Miriam interjected.

She directed towards Ryan with a simple glance and her partner sought to bum-rush Blaine. Before his body made contact, the officer reacted. He fired two non-lethal shots without flinching, although the relief in stopping the muscle man was short-lived. Ryan pulled out a waxy paper square from behind him, which he placed on his oozing wounds. Hugh watched in shock as they dissolved over his flesh like water-dunked cotton candy then push out the expended shots and wondered if they healed bone as well.

"Handy little things, no?" Miriam asked. "I call them Erasers. Simple yet accurate."

"How?" Blaine breathed.

The younger Dominican giggled. "It's all thanks to Doctor Tilley's leftovers. It's not the only thing I've been working on, either."

"And these would be the things Zeke mentioned," Hugh added.

Blaine kept his stance defensive, attention on both his best friend and opponents. "Zeke?"

"Phelps. Edge. The Harlem tagger?"

"He knew about this?"

"Saw an earlier demonstration. Knife wound. Nothing like—like this."

"Do you get it now, amemao?" asked Miriam. "You can empty what's left of your bullets into us; we have enough Erasers to survive a battalion. Meanwhile, that PD scum will asphyxiate."

Blaine's gun barrel nudged her way slightly. "And yet I get the feeling even if we surrendered you'd still let him die."

"We have to do something," Hugh snapped. Curt gasps made him face Damien. The poor Cadet was swollen, glistening in the floodlights and close to losing consciousness.

"I run, you're as good as dead," Blaine said.

"We stay, and we're all dead."

"Why don't you let me be the martyr for once?"

"Because—"

A yellow streak cut the best friends short. It collided with Ryan, sent him flying backward, and splayed dust in its wake as it came to a stop. Kaiya panted as she caught herself on a pillar, little body shaking inside her sleeveless hoodie. She gave her father a smile, despite his scowl, and when she turned, she failed to notice the body barrelling towards her.

"Kai!"

Blaine called her to attention too late; the eight-year-old faceplanted into the concrete under Ryan's weight with a yelp. The older blonde aimed his gun at the attacker for a heartbeat before deciding against the chance of a stray bullet, even if his daughter would heal in seconds. He used the grip's butt instead to knock Ryan's head sideways, and Hugh followed up with a heel-kick. The purple-haired man reeled but then countered by slamming his whole arm into the cops' guts with a force that doubled them over.

Hugh heard a whimper, though it may've been his own. He stumbled back as he fought to steady his spinning world and squinted when a yellow and blue blob rocketed upward. Kaiya clipped Ryan (with a body part Hugh couldn't see clearly), and the man cursed, staggering to the side.

"You—you can't hu—hurt them!" Kaiya yelled. She wanted to seem brave; God, Hugh knew she did. But he ached to consider the horrors that raced through her head and made her fists shake.

"Don't bother, little girl," Ryan said.

"I've taken down bigger guys be—be—before!"

Ryan's unimpressed face spoke volumes as he assaulted Kaiya with a barrage of violent limbs. The girl avoided them, using fluid motions Hugh had only seen from the Hamatos. Next chance she got, she countered, again and again, so as not to lose momentum or courage.

"We may not need the cuffs at this rate," Hugh told Blaine. The father kept focused on his daughter, and his gun clanked softly against his side. Both proud and pained, Hugh understood the awe yet shook Blaine to keep him grounded. "Come on. There's still the issue of Miriam and Damien."

The two faced Miriam, who somehow didn't look as concerned as she should be. She kept her enigmatic smile, at ease despite the beating Ryan took and the gasps from Damien.

Blaine cursed. "There's always a difference between hearing someone's crazy and seeing it."

"To be honest?" Hugh asked. "I blame the alien plants."

"Alien plants?"

Another gasp sounded, though from a much smaller person. Hugh whirled in time to catch Kaiya frozen with her bloodied hands held as far from her face as possible. Ryan held no sympathy for her hesitation, maybe in part to being pissed that someone a quarter his age left cuts all over his body. He hurled her towards Miriam before falling unconscious, and the Dominican kneeled at where the child rolled to a stop.

"This is almost too perfect an opportunity," she said. "I haven't been this close to anyone touched by Recro-12 before."

'How does she know about Recro-12?'

"Miriam, what are you thinking?" Jezebel screamed. "She's a little girl!"

Miriam glanced up then stabbed a new EpiPen into Kaiya's thigh, just below her shorts. "She's a monster. Least she can do is test Obdurem."

Kaiya wailed as the amber fluid emptied, and the high-pitch ring rattled Hugh's senses. He blinked rapidly to keep his vision straight while Blaine recovered his daughter, although Miriam didn't bother to fight him off, which worried the detective even more. Red soaked through the child's clothes, flowering out from her belly. She struggled against her father when he pulled up the hoodie, and the fact that she was too weak to stop him made Hugh want to vomit when he saw her skin dissolve into raw stomach muscles. Blain ripped her shirt off to cover the wound. Still, it persisted, and the girl cried.

"Th—this is the wound from the explosion she was in," Hugh said.

"And these"—Blaine uncurled her fists—"are from when she broke some plates at home."

Hugh struggled for air, "It can undo what Recro-12 healed?"

"So, it works?" The detective shot Miriam a glare as she continued, "Obdurem. My stand against monsters and ticket to a new job."

"We have to get these two to Melody ASAP," Hugh told Blaine.

"Why Melody?"

"She knows more about this shit than any other doctor out there. I bet she can help Damien, too. Best just make it one stop. We can arrest them later."

"We're leaving?" Jez interjected. "But Mir—"

Blaine collected his child then stood, blood dripping down his arms. "You can get your boyfriend killed trying to talk sense into her. I'm saving my baby."

"You aren't going anywhere," Miriam said. She headed for the blondes when they retreated toward the canvas-tarps, but Hugh caught her attention with a snap of his fingers.

"Ryan's part of your plans, isn't he?" he said. "I may have one hand, but I can drag your guy right on out of here. Then who'd be your bodyguard?"

"You offering an exchange?"

Hugh placed his foot on the unconscious man for good measure. "Let us go, you can keep him. Won't fix things, but at least no one dies."

Miriam debated for a moment before nodding. 'Ryan is obviously more than just muscle she can manipulate. Otherwise, she'd just sacrifice him.'

"Miriam, please!" Tears flowed down Jezebel's red face, and she shook as she held Damien close. "This isn't you!"

"It's Nightshade," Miriam spoke with a derisive calm Hugh knew well; the younger Dominican had changed for the worse, and the detective pulled Damien over his shoulders in a fireman's lift. "Time to go, Jez."

"I can't leave her like this."

"You have no choice."

"She's my sister."

"And Damien will die if we argue any longer!"

"So go!"

Hugh glared at Jezebel. She wanted to make things hard? He could make things hard. Although his legs wobbled under Damien's weight and lingering poison effects, he garnered all his will into wrapping an arm around the young woman and pulling her towards what he hoped was an exit.

'Maybe I should cut back on the tacos,' he thought, panting.

"Let go!" Jez yelled. But with her arms trapped at her sides, her legs could do little to stop him. "I can help! Mir, we can fix this!"

"I don't want to be fixed," Miriam countered. It was the last thing Hugh heard before he gathered his burden in a waiting elevator.