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Rather quickly, the girl caught the "Sailor Atl's" queasy look after catching sight of her injury. She grinned as best as she could and pointed out "I ain't takin' it out until I can bandage the f*cker up. Otherwise I'd just be bleedin' everywhere. GUSHING!"

Once more, she looked back, wanting to check up on where Zuniga was. Such a casual glance that shouldn't have been a problem at all. Except for the fact that sh*t was happening, and it was happening fast! The bridge was breaking, the Youma lurched to one side, knocking some of the braver people slightly away. Sailor Iris managed to catch a very quick (and uncertain) sight of someone with tan skin and dark hair being flung up into the air a bit from the bridge's sudden (yet gradual) destruction.

Had she thought about it, she might have realized that her attack might injure someone, as it had done with that nega-b*tch. Yet now was not the time to think. She had to act, and act fast. Rather sharply, she pulled her hand away from the Sailor boy and tightened her hand again in a fist. A sharp sting of pain echoed through her whole arm, but she just grit her teeth in a determined fashion. Don't show weakness she thought on an almost instinctual level.

Her hand felt like like it was burning this time as the light began to glow from her fist. Within a moment, she had flung her attack towards her civilian friend with a sharp scream of "IRIS RAINBOW RIBBON!"

In all honesty, Zuniga hadn't even had time to react. He had began to wander over to the Sailor Scouts, and the next thing he knew, he was airborne. He felt that momentary realization that he was going to, in fact, die. Before he could even come to terms with such thoughts, he suddenly felt a minor burning sensation around his wrist.

The boy was now dangling by his wrist from a ribbon of rainbow light, created by the girl Sailor Scout. Sailor Iris had saved him, but for how long? The life line that he was attached to was flickering slightly, and pain was sharply stabbing at the Rainbow scout's arm. Stupid quill, making everything more difficult!

Before the other Sailor Scout had managed to make it to where she was leaning over the bridge, she couldn't help but mutter "Damn, yer a heavy sonova b*tch!" She grinned weakly, as if trying to make a joke to relieve the pain that was probably going through Zuniga's wrist. She could hear a faint repetition of the word "Sh*t!" from where she was at, but fortunate for her, the tan boy was not struggling.

As she heard the Sailor Atl approach from behind, she offered a strained chuckle. Assuming it was the rainbow he wanted to grab hold of, she advised "n'less ya wanna burn yer hand, I'd suggest not grabbin' onto th-rainbow." Without another thought, she offered the only suggestion she could think of. "Grab me around th'waist and pull!" Good thing she didn't have time to think about whether or not this scout was a pervert or not, or else she might have hesitated.

Her ribbon flickered again, threatening to release the boy dangling at the other end. Tightening her grip and pulling as best as she could to retrieve the fish-bait civilian on the end of her ribbon, she grunted out "Hurry!"

With the extra help, Sailor Iris was finally able to start pulling the rainbow back by taking steps in the same direction she was being pulled. She hardly noticed the arms hugging about her waist, as per her request. She was concentrating on the task at hand, which was to not let the rainbow fade yet.

It would take about 6 or 7 feet of moving back before the boy was able to get to the bridge's splintered landing. Using his good hand (that was not being burned by a flimsy rainbow), he felt around the edge and began to try pulling himself up.

The dark haired boy had grabbed on just in time, because within seconds, the rainbow crackled out and faded. Even though she was being held onto by the waist, she felt her legs somewhat give out under her, causing her to mildly droop in the boy Scout's arms. "Go help him!" she barked out, her voice still energetic despite how physically exhausted she was now.

Sailor Iris flumped down onto the bridge hard. While Sailor Atl was tending to her friend, she latched onto her right forearm with her left hand. Though she was restraining her facial expressions, the pain was still getting worse, and though applying pressure with her opposite hand wasn't helping much, it was still a vague relief.

Zuniga, who had saw his life flash before him as he fell from the bridge initially, finally felt a vague sense of relief when a hand reached out and grabbed onto his arm. In an attempt to not be some dead weight, he used his upper body strength to the fullest extent he could by attempting to pull himself up onto the bridge. He wasn't going to be useless while being saved. When his feet found an inkling of footing, he further assisted until with one swift tug from the Sailor Scout boy, Zuniga was pulled up onto the bridge once again.

"Dude! Thanks!" he panted out, glancing over the edge of the bridge. His wrist which had been lassoed by the girl's rainbow looked rather deeply burned and smelled a bit like charred flesh. He rolled his wrist slightly, which in turn, caused him to make a face that shouted out "Oh god, shouldn't have done that!" Yet, he offered a grin to the gangly Sailor boy and brought perspective to the whole situation. "Muchacho, don't apologize for savin' my life! Rather be injured than dead!" In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but be grateful that his legs hadn't been injured. A soccer player could handle having a wrist injury.

For a moment, the girl sailor looked from where she was at to her friend with a hint of a smile on her lip. Then, her golden eyes glanced to the rest of the civilians. Hopefully, they were safe. God damned, they better be safe!

Zuniga's expression went from one of relief to one of anger. As if he had completely forgotten about the monster, he shouted "What the hell, man! Seriously, what the HELL?!!!" A mix of emotions were starting to run through his mind, which he couldn't really grasp fully. All he knew was the fist on his good hand wanted to take a punch at this guy. He was a string bean of a boy, so Zuniga could take him out.

The blonde was relieved that everything was okay for now, but her ears were drawn to the noise that was just beginning. Sailor Iris pushed herself up with her good arm, then marched as best as she could towards the current commotion. Where as Sailor Atl was timid and weak, she was quite the opposite. Without a thought, and treating this in an instinctual manner of friend-versus-friend, she pushed her way in front of the tan skinned civilian. She grabbed him with her left hand by the collar and drew his face up close to hers.

She literally shouted into his face "Look! Shut the hell up and get yer a** to a hospital! So the bridge got f*cked up when we were tryin' to save yer asses?! If we had been planning on destroyin' the bridge, ya think I woulda volunteered t'be the pincushion? Or for that matter, ya think anybody would be volunteerin' for that job?!"

She shoved the boy back, then shook her head as she turned to the other Sailor Scout. She began to march, but as she walked, she grabbed onto Sailor Atl's right arm with her left hand. She began to pull on him as she walked, as if trying to force him to go with her. For a moment, she literally turned to Zuniga and saw him just staring at her. She shouted back "Go take care of your damned wrist!" before turning back to her current path. She was going to get this guy to help her with her own injury, so she needed to drag him back to where she left her things.

The two Sailors soon vanished from common sight, and Zuniga, who had been watching the whole time, finally decided to also leave. His route was more direct, fleeing the scene and aiming to find some sort of hospital to take care of his injury. It was minor, but he might as well get it checked out by a professional.

Sailor Iris had actually led the other Sailor Scout into a bush, where she had her bag. She hadn't explained a thing yet, but she soon enough sat down and began to dissect the backpack with a single hand. Her injured arm was just held out limply at her side as she attempted to find something in her bag.

In the middle of her dissection, she casually brought up "...Soo... yer name was Sailor Atl? Pretty wicked attack ya got there! If only I'd been so lucky!" She chuckled a bit before pulling out what seemed to be a long cloth bandage. It was rolled up tight and looked quite new. She still didn't explain a thing as she tossed the clean roll at the boy.

"Duuuuuuuuuude!" she said in a nearly scolding tone. It wasn't quite that sort of tone though, due to how casual it was. "Atlas, just shut the f*ck up. You helped. The end. You know what would 'ave happened if ya weren't there?" She held up her quilled arm. "Jus' imagine that all over m'body. Oh, and that guy. He would have lost his hand and fallen, or that stupid f*ckin' rainbow woulda gone out and he woulda fallen."

At this point, with her left hand she began to rip away at the cloth of her right hand glove. Having the glove there when she bandaged the whole thing up wasn't going to do much good. Sure, it disappeared when she transformed back to regular ol' Ellie, but it was still pointless to keep the glove there. She'd always have a new one when she transformed back into Sailor Iris. When she was able to rip off the the portion of glove that started about where the quill was in her arm, she paused for a moment, gritting her teeth out of pain. Her eyes looked over the quill, then they went back to looking at the Sailor boy.

"Sh*t's about t'get messy. I'm gonna pull this f*cker out, an' yer gonna bandage it up tightly. Ya look like the boyscout type, so I ain't acceptin' any half-assed jobs." Before she even got an acknowledgment from the boy about him accepting the job, she gripped onto the large quill with her left hand and began to pull. Having as much grace as the tomboy she was, she lifted up a leg and stepped on the palm of her right hand, as if to keep the arm from moving too much during the procedure.

"OH F*CK ME!!" she grunted quite loudly. It wasn't a smooth removal, just because the quill was very similar to that of a porcupine's. It even had the indistinguishable little barbs that made removal hurt. Brute strength was getting the job done, but it was causing more pain than if she had the quill surgically removed. As the quill jostled and slowly began to exit the initial entry point, blood began to pool up and ooze out slightly.

((OOC Note: Due to the glitching in the guild, all the rest of the responses were done in PM and edited into the final post before the glitching began))

When the quill was finally removed, Sailor Iris tossed it to the side. The quill itself was stained a reddish color about two inches along the edge. As the girl had predicted, the moment the object was out from beneath her skin, the blood was flowing almost like it was water. The wound was getting wrapped up tightly, but as her warm was getting tended to, her golden eyes happened to catch a glimpse of Atlas' color draining from his cheeks.

"Sorry 'bout this, Atlas, dude," she apologized. In an attempt to bring a bit of cheer to the situation, she lightly added "Heh, at least these clothes clean themselves, right?" She offered a smile, though it didn't even look remotely similar to her usual cheeky grins from before.

When Sailor Atlas was nearly finished wrapping her wound up, she lifted her foot up off her hand and wiggled the fingers a bit. There was a bit of dirt on her palm, but otherwise, her hand itself still seemed usable. "I think that should do it!" Whether or not this guy was done, she began to pull her arm back. Fortunately, the wound was nowhere near her elbow, so she could still bend her arm like usual. She continued to wiggle her fingers experimentally, looking them over. She didn't even look at Sailor Atlas as she offered a "Thanks dude! Couldn't have done that without'cha!"

For a moment or two, she continued to wiggle her fingers, then she glanced over to Sailor Atlas finally. "So, ya think a good excuse fer this injury would be a power drill t'the arm? Ya know, fer the hospital?" It was obvious she didn't want to be calling this an attack from a random porcupine monster.

"N-n-no, it's okay," Atlas replied, withdrawing her hands from Iris's personal space and immediately commencing to wring them. A few flecks of blood had spotted them a bit here and there, but he was paying no mind to them (or, at least, trying very, very hard not to). He could, at least, emphatically agree it was a Very Good Thing the fuku washed and repaired itself while in whatever wizard space it was spirited away to during his hours as a civilian.

He gave a sigh, this time of relief, when Iris tested out her patched-up arm and found it to be in working condition. Seeing that the girl would be okay and she was in high spirits about it lifted Atlas's own a bit, enough that he allowed himself a small smile of his own--

"P-p-power drill to the arm?!"

And there went his composure for the umpteenth time that day. His fidgeting hands dropped several inches into helpless open poses, and he struggled for a few seconds around half-formed responses and quarter-formed apologies for his half-formed responses. He probably wasn't the best one to ask.

All seemed to be well, until the squeamish boy seemed to yelp out at her excuse. Were she the sensitive sort, she might have tried to calm his nerves by gently reassuring him that it was all okay.

This was not how Sailor Iris rolled. Instead, she just belted out a hearty laugh and slapped the boy on the shoulder. Between "Hars" she managed to explain "Dude! Ya think I'd tell mah parents 'bout a porcupine Youma?!" It took her a moment or two to calm herself, and by this time, Sailor Atlas would receive several well-meaning slaps to the back. If she had thought about it, she might have realized that maybe her friendly gesture was possibly hurting the boy.

When she was done laughing, she sat there and began to catch her breath. She leaned over her lap and glanced up to the boy. "It ain't a far fetched thing with me an'the power drill though. I do a lotta work in the garage." Having caught her breath, she pushed herself off the ground with her left hand. With her good arm, she swung the backpack she had been dissecting onto her shoulder. The worn demin backpack hung onto her shoulder in a nearly lazy fashion. Standing in front of the boy, she offered her injured hand towards the boy. Whether it was meant for a handshake or for assisting the guy up to his feet, she really didn't specify.

"Dude, yer okay wit'me! We should hang out sometime!"

Iris's reaction to Atlas contained almost nothing in terms of outward sympathy for him - however, the taller boy was very used to such noncompassionate cheer. He went to a reform school for boys, after all. Unwanted and unhelpful backslaps were a fact of life, and they were taken with no real change in his mood. They didn't upset him more, but he didn't cheer up at the friendly gesture either. He just flinched with every rap against his shoulder.

Really, with the hair and eye color put into consideration, Iris was almost like a female Franz. With a heavy accent.

This thought made Atlas groan involuntarily.

His handshake was not one that would leave a lasting impression: like the rest of his being it was full of uncertainty, and perhaps even a tinge apologetic, as if he wasn't sure touching Iris's hand was okay even though she was the one offering the gesture in the first place. He had hoisted himself up to his feet of his own accord and given the girl his decidedly pansy greeting, hoping she wouldn't mind the blood spatters on his gloves (something told him she wouldn't).

Pulling his voice back out of the pit of incomprehensible stammering, he said, "Th-th-thanks, I g-g-guess... umm... s-so your arm's okay now?"

Sailor Iris' handshake was strong and firm, matching that of nearly any decent guy. However, she seemed less than satisfied with the one she received. Not even attempting to hide this fact, she commented "Yer handshake needs t'man up!"

The girl was grinning quite a bit, seeming to have no worries at all. So it might have come as a surprise when she confessed "Naw, still hurts like a b*tch! No point in fussin' over it now though."

She shrugged a bit, then turned to leave. However, she remembered one thing. Slapping herself along the forehead, she chuckled out "Oh god! Almost forgot!" It wouldn't do her much good to wander to the hospital still in her Sailor Scout uniform. She'd get arrested before actually getting to her desired destination. Stopping in place, her transformation became undone, her adorable uniform soon enough replaced with grubby street clothes. She turned back to the boy and waved her good arm in his direction.

"Oh yeah, name's Ellie by the way! See ya around, dude!" She paused for a moment, waiting for some sort of response.

Atlas's handshake did not seem intent on "manning up," and neither did the rest of him - really, it must have come to little surprise in retrospect to Ellie when, after allowing his own fuku to vanish in senshi-space, he revealed himself to be the clumsy, apologetic dorky kid she'd run into earlier that day.

He'd fully expected her to shove off after introducing herself, so it took a moment for him to notice that after her goodbye she was still standing there, waiting for him to say something. "O-oh!" he said, managing make a stammer out of the single syllable of the word, "Er- I-I'm S-simon... ummm... nice too meet you?"

That seemed odd to say. They'd already covered the handshake part of this.

"S-see you later, I guess..."

Content with the response, the blonde girl began to jog away. She was mildly amused at how that nerd was her temporary partner. However, there were more important issues to tend to now, such as heading to the hospital. She'd have to push the snickering out of her mind now and concentrate on finding her way to the hospital before her bandage started to soak through with blood.

[FIN]