[Kathy Howard]

WRITE A STORY OF A HERO!

Kathy had been surprised when the call came in. She was no stranger to PR events, but to be called in for one in San Francisco was a bit of a surprise - after all, the Bay was the home of Paladin, the exemplar and golden child of the Hero Program. Even if she was unable to make it, Surge spent most of his time in the Bay area as well and he was another of the original heroes, albeit retired now. It was a little odd to call in a primarily NYC hero like Celerity when you had such starpower right on your doorstep; then again it wasn't like Celerity was ever a bad choice for a PR stunt, she did them all the time all across the country and she was damn good at them.

She was apparently supposed to appear on stage alongside another hero, one Doc Holliday. Kathy had heard of the other woman, a mix of good and bad news - she was an excellent surgeon and frequently saved lives through her work, but was also a hero more in the vein of Tank than of Paladin or Celerity herself, in that she had developed a reputation for her use of lethal force to bring a stop to conflicts. Hannah had been careful to couch it in different terms, but Kathy could read between the lines easily enough; even compared to Tank Holliday's willingness to kill was not exactly a crowdpleaser and had left her with a rather negative public image, so the Program wanted to bolster perception of her and therefore perception of the program as a whole by putting Holliday on stage next to a hero that was far more popular and wholesome - what better way to improve the public image of a controversial hero than by putting her on a stage beside a literal shining knight?

***

A PR event could be anything, at least in theory. In practise the Hero Program tended to go for one of a handful potential options. There were the hero introduction events, a meet and greet to introduce the public to the new hero on the scene. They'd bring the hero up on a stage, tell everyone about them and what they could do, and then there'd be an opportunity for people to ask questions - the whole thing would be quite strictly controlled of course, there were plenty of hero hopefuls who'd do appallingly badly if put in front of the tabloid press with no shield to protect them. There were school visits and talk show appearances.

This was one of the more common types, a Program sponsored charity event at a San Francisco children's hospital. It was a good choice, in Celerity's humble opinion; it was an excellent way to make Doc Holliday seem more family friendly, and drew attention to her work as a suregon. She was there herself as the eyecandy, more than anything else - something pretty to distract from Holliday's less than stellar reputation.

Celerity turned up half an hour early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. They couldn't exactly start the event early, not when the star of the show hadn't yet arrived, so she instead busied herself making nice with the doctors and nursing staff, so that by the time Doc Holliday came traipsing through the door she'd already put a smile on everyone's face, and was currently telling a few nurses a rather embellished tale of when she'd come to the Bay to help Paladin against those three metas a little while before.

Celerity waved cheerfully at her costar for the afternoon, gave her condolences to the nurses for cutting off the tale in the middle of its telling, and strode over to greet Holliday. "Hey Doc Holliday, I'm Celerity and I'll be your partner for this whole shindig."

She offered a hand for a shake.

aeron at thq

[Deleted]

Goddamnit, she didn't hate kids, and those bastards were using it against her.

'Rehabilitating' the image of her alter ego was not something that particularly worried Virginia. In fact, she didn't give a rat's ass about it either way. Yeah, so the media thought Doc Holliday was an asshole - so what? Putting aside the fact that it was an accurate assessment, what the world at large thought of her didn't have any bearing on future decisions regarding the maximum necessecary force to resolve a tense situation.

Yet her handlers the Hero Program disagreed, instead finding that Doc Holliday's lack of positive media associations was dentrimental in both the long and short run. When she'd gotten done telling her bosses that this chartiy crap was detrimental to her ass, they'd more or less ordered her to go, banking on enough of that military instinct being intact that she wouldn't defy a direct order. The thought had crossed Virginia's mind, more than once in fact, but in the end she had begrudgingly caved.

Any consideration of spoiling this dumb event by making a scene, just to stick it to the man, had vanished when she found out where she was going. Even Virginia, underneath all that weary cynicism, couldn't bring herself to be too much of an ass in front of a bunch of children. Certainly not sick kids, anyway. Someone had figured that out and played her like a damn fiddle.

Thus had she come to be entering a hospital, not to actually work, but to try and convince people that she wasn't the massive jerk the media made her out to be. As Reynolds would have said, she always loved taking on the impossible cases, didn't she?

In spite of the full getup, cowboy hat and bandanna and jacket and all, she felt practically naked as she stepped inside. The Program had insisted that, even though those revolvers were a core part of her schtick, they couldn't be allowed anywhere near the premesises. Didn't even let her keep the holsters or the ammo belt. She'd wanted to get crabby about it, though she'd caught herself in time to stop - probably really was for the best that she not parade around a bunch of children with firearms.

Naturally, they weren't letting her do this alone, either. Almost like they didn't trust her not to be a raging bitch. Whatever the case, Celerity had already shown up to chat up the doctors and get everyone in a good mood - and probably to look good. Lord almighty. The shadow of her hat helped to hide Virginia's eyes as they darted straight to the breastplate, emphasis decidedly not on plate. Okay... okay, maybe there were some perks to getting thrown into playing with the other kiddies.

There was confidence and kindness pouring off the heroine in droves as she approached Virginia, greeting her in a sweet tone that seemed to perfectly match what she'd heard about the teleporting protector. Virginia, by contrast, just muttered a "Hey" in reply, tipping her hat very slightly. No way she was even going to try and match up to that level of Extraodinarily Nice.

Hell, she was doing good not to be smelling of booze right now.

Scratching her chin under the bandanna, she hesitantly moved towards doctors and nurses, feeling almost like an invader than a guest. Used to be that she would dream of getting to come into a hospital every day and surround herself with medical professionals. Now she just wanted to get the hell away from them, with their eyes that were probably judging the hell out of the killer standing before them. "I'm, uh... I'm... Doctor M-"

She stopped short suddenly, catching herself. Dumbass. "Doc Holliday." Damnit. She glanced back at Celerity, partly because she was probably judging her a bit less, and partly because she wanted another quick glance at that chest. "Sooooo... sick kids. Upstairs, right?"

[Kathy Howard]

WRITE A STORY OF A HERO!

Okay, Celerity thought she'd worked out why it was her here instead of Paladin. Alice was a sweetheart, but she wasn't as good with people as Celerity was; her public appearances tended to rely on her sheer enthusiasm for heroism and her general niceness than they did her people skills. Doc Holliday certainly had the Western look down pat, even if the bandanna was more common for Western villains than heroes, but her people skills left a lot to be desired - Celerity hadn't seen a person so nervous to say hello since Tod Quinn asked her out in eigth grade.

Nearly giving away your real identity to a bunch of strangers? Her entire personal history would've been public knowledge within an hour if she was left to do any press event on her own.

But then, that was why Celerity was here wasn't it?

She swept in behind her colleague, a deliberately flamboyant move to draw attention away from the awkwardness of Doc Holliday and towards herself instead. "I'm looking forward to meeting them. It's always nice to see the people we're here to protect. But before we go, there's something I'd like to say," she gave an elegant courtly bow, one hand over her chest and the other thrown out to the side. "You, ladies and gentlemen, are the real heroes. We're out there fighting villains and having fun, but you've all saved lives that I would've been unable to. I salute you for that."

The line was corny, right out of a comic book. But it achieved its purpose, it made everyone there forget the awkwardness with which Doc Holliday had greeted them, and meant that when Celerity and the other hero left the room they left everyone there with a smile on their face and pride in their breast.

Now that they were alone, Celerity nudged Holliday with an elbow and gave her a bright, kind smile. "Don't worry too much about any press that show up, I'll handle them. You just focus on giving the kids something nice and fun to remember. This is all about them, about making them happy. Just remember that and you'll do fine."

aeron at thq

[Deleted]

Pretty clear based on that just who the real hero was here, huh? Virginia swallowed inaudibly as Celerity managed to pretty eloquently defuse the tension created by her own awkward attempt at a greeting. Just like that, the mood lightened, and everyone walked away looking plenty pleased. If she hadn’t known that her own utter lack of social skills were to blame, Virginia would’ve thought that superhuman charisma was one of Celerity’s powers.

Nope. Just knowing how to actually talk to people. She nodded in thanks as the other woman assured her that she could handle the press - that was a nice, large weight off her shoulders. Still left her with having to deal with the children though, and that… that was a bit of a different prospect. That was something she might vaguely be able to handle, miraculously enough. And for once, the Army had left her with something useful.

“Well, least it’s not my first time dealing with kids in a hospital,” she muttered just loud enough for Celerity to hear. “Used to see a lot of them overseas. Outreach stuff, helping out the locals with medical issues…”

She trailed off, her march up the stairs suddenly stopping. For just a moment, the doctor stared off into space, hand suddenly gripping the rail so tightly that her knuckles grew white. At the corner of her vision, she struggled to dismiss the vision of a little boy weakly trying to hold in what was left of his stump of an arm, the shock so strong that he didn’t even looked pained, or anguished. Just… gone.

When she finally got the courage up to snap her head over in the sight’s direction, there was nothing there.

She glanced back at Celerity, eyes wide as dinner plates. For a moment, she just lingered in silence, barely forcing out a few more words “Sorry.” Well, one word. A sigh exited her mouth. “You, uh… if you could just, uh… help me out with the kids, too, though, cause uh…. Been a couple years. Might be rusty.” And just ever so slightly prone to some pretty horrific recollections.

[Kathy Howard]

WRITE A STORY OF A HERO!

Celerity felt a weight lift off her shoulders at Holliday's words - some people reacted poorly to excited children, but if her fellow hero had some experience then that was one thing Celerity wouldn't have to worry about.

Another, far heavier, weight smashed down on her but a few moments later when Holliday froze mid-step, staring off into space for a few seconds before twisting her head to look at empty air. Celerity had encountered veterans before, a few before becoming a hero and a lot more since. Tank was one himself, but Holliday seemed much, much more fragile in that moment than Aaron ever did. That kind of reaction... Celerity wasn't a soldier herself, she couldn't possibly hope to truly understand what Holliday had gone through, but compassion was not something she would ever be limited in.

She stepped up a few steps, turned, and sat down facing her colleague, her face grave. They'd arrived early after all, there were still five minutes to go until the event was supposed to start so none one could begrudge them stopping to talk.

Kathy looked Holliday in the eye, though she'd misjudged the height difference and actually had to lean forward to do it. "No need to apologize. I'm willing to help wherever you need me."

She shuffled closer so that her face was only around a foot away from Holliday's, not that there was anyone there to hear them. "How about this, you stick by me while we field a couple of questions from the paparazzi, and then we'll do our round of the ward as a pair as well? We promised the kids they'd get to see two heroes after all, and surely having both of us at once is better than one at a time?"

She offered a hand, affecting a western drawl and with her trademark grin back on her face. "Whaddya say partner?"

aeron at thq

[Deleted]

There was an instinct Virginia had, a natural compulsion to reject anyone trying to offer her some support. Some old mix of her father's stubborness, that 'handle your shit' Army attitude, and the irritability of her typical at-least-one-third drunk state that inclined her towards shoving off any such offers. Right now, though, when she was nervous, isolated, and depressingly sober... the part of her that refused aid was a lot quieter.

So when Celerity effectively offered to help prop her up through the worst part of this uncomfortable affair, Virginia bit herself back from snarking at the smaller woman, or telling her to get the hell out of her face. Instead, she briefly closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to pull herself together into someone who could hold steady through a barrage of paparazzi, reporters, and innocent kids who'd probably be filled with questions she didn't have good answers to. Still wasn't looking forward to it, but having someone at her back... that might make it easier.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay, that... that sounds good." She nodded, still clearly nervous, but at least put at ease a bit by the only undisputable heroine in the room. Was she a doctor behind the mask? God knows she had the bedside manner for it. "One condition. I reserve the right to want to beat the shit out of anybody who asks about my nonexistant love life, or if I've had botox, or... whatever the hell crazy paparazzi ask celeberties about." She didn't exactly keep up with that. "Promise I'll try not to actually do it."