The sounds of medical equipment beeping, sighing, whirring, and chattering was a noisy backdrop to the scene of scores of heroes bruised, bloodied, burned, broken, blasted, bedraggled, and all around beaten down filling this medical ward of the orbiting League Wars Arena. League Wars Egg-Celsior had just finished its first round and all the combatants came out swinging. Unfortunately for many, some of them swung a lot harder than others.
Allyson (Crossroads) suddenly sat up in her hospital bed and looked around herself, confused at where she was and what she was seeing and why she was hurting. She hurt from the tips of her hair to the soles of her feet. Hell! Her boots hurt and she wasn’t even wearing them!. What was she doing in a room full of wounded heroes? Was there another attack by an Avatar? The last thing she remembered was taking the field against the heroes of ][
][ WMD - Black Order. She saw Hot Wings doing loops in the air and Falconetti walking towards her with a friendly smile on his handsome face. Then everything went black.Allyson looked at the time display on the wall of the ward. “That can’t be right...” she wondered aloud.
“What can’t be right, Ally?” asked A voice nearby.
Allyson looked to her left and saw her friend Agent Leslie in a lab coat taking care of a hero in the next bed. She couldn’t tell who it was; the hero was covered from head to toe in an opaque layer of ice. Leslie was attaching heating units along the length of the bed, in hopes of thawing out the victim quickly. Luckily, heroes are tough little buggers and the hero should recover with little more than the sniffles and a lesson learned.
“It can’t be after midnight! That means Round 1 is over! I just stepped in to the arena against ][
][ WMD - Black Order! I think I remember attacking someone, I was portaling like crazy...and then....and then....I don’t know....”“Its okay, Ally. Just be calm,” Leslie said soothing ly. “That’s a common after affect of the spell that Wizard hit you with...or a side effect of the head trauma you suffered when Hot Wings threw you into the arena wall...or when Damon accidentally kicked you in the back of the head. He said he was aiming for your back, but you ducked right before he hit you...or it could have been when Midgardsomr trampled you on his way to get Tri-Blade, or when....
“Alright! Enough! I was way out of my league out there! I know!” Allyson said mournfully. How am I going to live this down? I thought I was so strong! I was getting better and stronger and was definitely doing better in the KOTM events, even against those in ][
][ WMD - Black Order...but, really, it’s in the League Wars and world-ending conflicts that they really take the lid off and go all out. And that level of violence is frightening...Allyson laid back down and tried to control her breathing and emotions. A loss is just a loss, it’s not the end of the world, it’s a learning moment. Learn from this. Learn your own weaknesses and work to overcome them. Learn their weaknesses and learn to overcome them! Get better, get stronger, and get back out there and fight!
Leslie looked at her friend and felt for her. She always thought that Ally was amazing one of the strongest heroes she knew personally. But seeing her come into the hospital ward looking like some little girl’s broken toy shocked her. Luckily Allyson had incredible healing abilities of her own and the BADGE medical equipment was a miracle in itself. Allyson will be back to 100% efficiency by the start of the next round. Physically, at least.
However, seeing the look of confusion and shame in her eyes when she woke up made her realize how young Ally actually was. She was only a year or two younger than Leslie herself, and she was still so unsure of herself sometimes. This would be a devastating loss, emotionally and a massive blow to her morale. Leslie wondered how she could help her dear friend out and cheer her up.
Allyson’s voice interrupted Leslie’s thoughts. “Les, how much longer do you have to go on your shift? Can I do anything to help?”
Just like a hero, Leslie thought, always wanting to help! “I’m almost done here, Ally. You should rest and recover some more.”
“I’m okay, Les,” Allyson reassured her. “I’m just sore and that’s fading pretty quickly. I was wondering if you wanted to go and hit some of the bars on the station, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. I need several strong drink to wash the taste of defeat out of my mouth, and a friendly ear to listen to my complaints. And I need to flirt and dance with some big strong men who aren’t trying to throw me through walls or fry me with a death beam set on low.”
Leslie smiled and knew her friend would be all right. “Sure, Ally! Let me get my coat and I’ll tell Dr. Anderson that I’m leaving. The fights are over and everyone is just resting anyway. I heard about this bar called The Bronze from Slayer BAS in
Avengers 5¹ . It’s in Sunnyvale, California. She says it’s a quiet little town in the daytime, but it has a night life to die for!”
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