girlwithout | young allies: part one

They bring Steve in to debrief her, and he brings Benji, which she's unbelievably grateful for. Her uniform's still being decontaminated, but she's cleared of any leftover radiation, so it's safe to be around her. Benji comes running to her as soon as the door opens, and Steve lets her just quietly hug him for a little while before she has to face anything else.

After Steve's settled on one of the chairs, he starts with "How are you?"

She offers up a shaky smile. "I'm, um. They gave me medicine and stuff. For the radiation. It makes me feel kind of puke-y, but it's better than getting radiation poisoning."

“What happened?”

What did happen. Her fingers tighten around Benji’s collar. “I… I don’t know. Anya and I were patrolling, and we saw this fight going on so we went to help. It was pretty normal at first. They said they were the kids of supervillains or something. One of them, Mortar, claimed she was the daughter of Grey Gargoyle. I didn’t really see that guy, Warhead, before he – you know. It was a normal fight. And then he just exploded. I don’t think his buddies even expected it – we all just kind of stopped.”

“And then?”

She shrugs helplessly. “We just… It felt kinda like we were just standing around forever, but it was probably just a few seconds. Then they all scattered, and the Fantastic Four and the Avengers showed up to, you know, contain it. I don’t think – we barely got a chance to talk to anyone before we got herded off cause of the radiation. Anya’s okay, right? I didn’t see her.”

“She’s fine, Rikki. Everyone who was in the fight is fine, just… in shock.” Steve sighs heavily before giving her a tired smile. “Gravity – the one who was closest said Warhead was talking about making a statement before he detonated himself. No one could have predicted what he did in advance, even from the rhetoric on his website.”

“Yeah.” That doesn’t really make her feel any better, but she appreciates the effort. “I guess.”

“We have a good enough idea of what happened from you six. You can go home as soon as you’re medically cleared.”

“Good. Um.” She rubs the back of her neck. “Could you maybe stay here for a little while?”

Steve reaches for her hand and squeezes it lightly. “As long as you want.”