Welcome to Gaia! ::

Pat had been out with friends but as the night had wound down he found that he didn’t want to head back to his empty apartment right away. So rather then take a cab back home he decided to walk, he could take care of himself. A very small part of him knew better, knew that darkness stalked the streets of Destiny City at night, hell he had been held captive breifely by those that controled the darkness, but he chose to surpress those memories… he chose to not fear the city he worked to help. Besides how many people mess with one tall a** redhead who tennded to carry around a pocket knife.

The knife had been a chrismass present from his dad and already it had come in handy when he used it to cut some cloth for a makeshift bandage. Granted it was a bandage for a teddy bear but who would tell the little girl that her ‘Mr. Snuggles’ didn’t need a bandage when she herself needed one. That particular call was happy ending since all they knew when they had gotten to the scean of the car accedent was there were casulties still traped in the mangled wreckage. Both mother and daughter were extracted safely, the mother had serious injuries but his buddy at the hospital said she was stable. The little girl though was a mirical since she had a few bumps and scrapes, Mr. Snuggles likely felt worse then the little girl if the size of the required bandage was any indication.

Pat shrugged a bit deeper into his coat, while mentally shrugging off his thougts, and focused more on his surroundings. He might be a tall a** guy but that didn’t mean he needed to neglect what was going on around him, especially at night in the city. He was walking past an alley when he spotted someone on the ground. “Hey. You alright?” He headed over and to his surprise realised it was a girl in a bright a**, skimpyish, outfit. She looked like she had just been through hell. “Miss? Miss? Are you ok?”

Pat put a gentle hand on the wounded girl’s shoulder. “Help is here. Don't move ok? I'm an EMT, just hold on.” He needed to make sure she didn't move incase she had more damage than he could see.

Pat frantically searched his pockets for his phone to call for an ambulance but to his horror found that he didn't have it. “Must have left it,” he quietly muttered to himself he was going to have to try to at least stabilize her. It was against protocol but he was not going to leave her here in the alley while he went in search of help, not while he could do something.

“Ok so I need you to talk to me. Ok sweetie? Talk to me.” He silently cursed his lack of tools as he surveyed the damage. She seemed to have either been bled on or was currently bleeding if the red staining on her outfit was any indication. “Can you tell me where it hurts? Does your head hurt? Can you move your arms and legs?” He had seen the torn and bleeding mess that was her leg but wanted to know if there were any further internal issues. The redhead was worried that by moving her or even treating her leg he would be making it worse. He shrugged of his coat and placed it over the girl as gently as he could before fishing the knife out of his pocket.

He needed to get the bleeding stopped. “Can you tell me what happened? Come on sweetie talk to me. Tell me anything? I'm going to try to bandage your leg ok? Do you have a phone or anything so we can call 911?” He was rambling a bit as he pulled off his black long sleeve shirt, leaving him in a thin undershirt. He cut a few strips of cloth from the bottom of it before folding it up to make a pad. “Ok so this is going to hurt. Stay with me here.” He glanced at her face trying to judge just how close she was to unconsciousness but the light wasn't the best and he didn't have the time to wait. He bent over her, the tattoo on his left bicep clear in the dim light, as he firmly pressed his shirt into her torn leg.

"From the top!?" Pat was about to admonish the girl for moving when she indicated she was pushed from the building. If she had fallen from the roof he would have expected much more serious injures, he knew there were reports of people who survived much higher falls but they were not typical. "Stop moving. Just rest as you are." He was anxious now to get her help.

As he tied off the shirt compression he mentally breathed a sigh of relief, she had feeling in her leg at least. His relief was quickly transformed into shock as the girl in front of him suddenly turned into someone completely new. "The ********!" He fell backwards and scooted away in surprise before coming to a stop and taking another look. The skimpy outfit was replaced with a much more weather appropriate clothing and for a moment Pat didn't even recognize the girl being covered with his jacket.

"Ah hell!" Pat hid his face in his hand as he tried to mentally come to terms with going crazy. First it had been the whistle that kept showing up everywhere and now he was beginning to see people who weren't really there. He wondered if maybe it was all connected to a possible head injury he sustained a while back, it was really the only way to explain everything... except the whistle had started to show up before hand. "Alright Pat, buddy, you aren't going crazy. Just focus on the task at hand." His little pep talk would have been better if the hand he held out wasn't shaking... or if the whistle that had been haunting him for the last several months wasn't currently glowing, coiled in a pile of golden chain, on the ground between himself and the girl.

“Pushed?” Pat couldn’t understand how anyone would push someone out of a building let alone the from the roof. He knew she had said that before but right then his whole world was turning upside down, and not in a good way. His purple eyes remained trained on the whistle like it was a rattlesnake about to bite, every time he turned away it disappeared. The girl he could explain away as maybe drinking too much, even though he only had two beers and they should have worn off hours ago, but the little golden colored piece of metal… that he couldn't just ignore it as a alcohol induced dream. Not now, not after this many times, or this often. He really was going crazy. No one else ever saw it, only him.

He was so focused on the whistle that he nearly missed what the girl said. It wasn’t until she told him to take it that he flinched. His eyes flicked up to her then right back to the whistle, it was still there, “You can see it? It’s real?” Pat reached out a hand, his fingers shaking as it inched closer and closer to the glowing metal. “I’m not imagining it?” After so long the concept of someone else seeing it, knowing it was real, was mind boggling. Every time before something prevented him from reaching the whistle; hot grease, the doorbell, the cell phone, soap in the eye. The list went on and on but finally he heeded the pull that he felt and after what seemed like an eternity his fingers brushed the cold metal before instinctively closing around the whistle as power like Pat had never felt before rushed through his body as if he had grab ahold of a live wire.

His already racing heart went into overdrive as Pat’s eyes fluttered closed. Something was happening and he had no idea what it was. Finally the feeling dimmed but did not disappear completely, his blood seemed to hum with the change. “The hell?” He absently opened his fisted hand and studied the whistle. A simple, shiny brass... not gold, whistle. Insignificant in every way. “What just happened?” He looked up at the girl, questions swimming in his eyes. The sound of a distant siren drew him back to the task at hand; the whistle could wait and so could whatever it just did to him. He never realised that he had completely changed outfit.

“We will deal with this later.” He needed to focus. Patch the girl up then have a mental break down. It had to be a mental break down, a full break from reality, it was the only explanation. Maybe he was performing medical assistance on an already dead person, or a mannequin, or a homeless person but it didn’t matter right then. He had a job to do. Patch up the girl, call for help, then collapse in a gibbering pile. Healing first. Insanity later. “We need to get you to a hospital. Where did you say your phone was?”

“No hospital? You need more medical attention then I have the training for!” He crawled back over to the girl and check on his bandage. It was holding but it looked like it was still soaking up blood, then again it was a black shirt so maybe not. “No way in hell, Lady. My place isn’t equipped for major patching.” He went to run his fingers through his hair in frustration only to encounter cloth. He tugged it off and looked at it in surprise. “The hell…” He had been saying that a lot lately.

The head cloth wasn’t the only change he finally noticed. His entire outfit was different, even his shoes. He had on ear rings! He was use to wearing studs or the occasional ones for cosplay but seriously? To just suddenly be wearing a pair was strange as hell. The redhead suddenly stopped his explorations, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “You know what I don’t have time or the mental capacity to deal with this break from reality. I’ll deal with it later.” He cracked his eye, saw he was still dressed crazly and sighed. He didn’t have time for this.

“Alright. Alright. I don’t have the sanity to argue with you right now but I am not taking you to my place. I’ll call someone, he should know what to do.” He fished in the girls coat and pulled out the girl’s cellphone. He diled in a number and as he waited for the other end to pick up the red head leaned over the girl to pick up his jacket that had fallen off her in all the insanity. “We need to keep you as warm as possible.” He spread the leather bomber over her before speaking into the phone, “What? No not you Xander.”

“Its Tortuga...The hell! Its Pat. I don’t know why.” The newly minted page nearly lost it when he answered ‘who is it’ with a name completely not his own. What the hell was going on with him? Could he have been roofied or something? “What… No… I don’t know Xander…” He quickly explained the situation as best he could, including both his and the girl’s new outfits before giving him their address. “Ok, yeah. I’ll be here.” He hung up the phone and slipped it back in her jacket pocket.

“Ok so my cousin is a doctor and he is coming to get us. Now explain this powering down thing, the outfit change, everything… anything. Keep talking to me ok?” He need her to stay awake.

The redhead couldn’t help but look at the girl with disbelief. Just thinking about his normal clothes he would change? He gaped at her for a few seconds before he realised she had slipped into unconsciousness. “s**t!” He checked her vitals and found them faint but steady. “Damn it.” He needed to get her to a hospital, he should have called for help but he did as she asked and called his cousin. Now all he could do was wait until the doc showed up. After checking everything he could once more he sat back on his heels and studied their surroundings. Just what happened to her? to me? he absently fingered the fur on the edges of his shirt. “Just think about normal clothes hum?” since both her and Xander seemed to kinda stress it he might as well give it a shot.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly, the better to focus. Jeans, his undershirt, tennis, and everything in his pockets including his cell. He visualized it, wished for it, and practically begged for it but didn’t feel any real change. But when he opened his eyes Pat saw he was once again in his normal clothes. With a sigh of relief he turned his focus back on the girl, at this point all he could do is try to keep her warm and keep her stable until help arrived.