Step City

Being the opportunistic, or in her words ' the entrepreneurial’ Field Medic Doctor Dru was, she had alerts set to her phone for STEPer fight streams in the RD, especially if they had certain buzzwords. NSFW, Gore, broken limbs, audience injury and the like would ping her throughout the day and she would skim through each stream as they popped up to assess the damage, the location, the amount of people and how close a Vendy was nearby.

It wasn’t their favourite thing to do, thus it being only a sometimes kind of job, but it allowed her to save some lives while making some creds or getting a few life debts in return for her work because life wasn’t free on this island, especially in the Research District.

Today she’d caught the end bit of a stream between two Ditos messing each other up: The fire one was causing some damage but the acid making one was going a little haywire with their attacks, melting off shop signs and causing collateral damage. She winced a bit when one sign for a shop had melted off in the background and landed on some unsuspected Square-

The ambulance siren blared for a moment as the good Doctor switched on the engine of her ambulance and began to drive towards the danger zone, southwest of the Research District.

By the time she’d arrived, the fight had finished and the Ditos were out of sight, though the scars from their battle seemed to linger. She had to slowly manoeuvre around pools of still bubbling acid, eating away at the road, keeping an eye out for any injured Squares or Ditos to shake down fix for a fee.

The fighting usually didn't get this bad. With battles streamed and credibility on the line, most tried to avoid this level of destruction. Not those two. The fire one was spitting flame randomly about, but at least with fire theres a range. Stand far enough back and you can avoid getting cooked. The acid one was wild though. Not even halfway through their fight and they'd started raining acid down in streams like a sprinkler. Luckly, most people had managed to get out of the splash zone, Cham included. But this poor guy, whoever he was, got the short end of the stick. Smashed by a falling sign, some big fancy thing that hadn't been lit in years. At first Cham thought that he'd died. Getting hit that hard by something that big didn't *look good*.

Once the fighting had stopped, or moved on, Cham rushed out to help, their feet sliding against broken glass from the shattered sign. They made a half circle around the crash, eyes frantically looking for somewhere to grab that wouldn't cut them. They locked on to a metal bar, part of the bracket that had secured the sign to the wall above that was still good. With a deep breath they began to lift, barely managing to raise it, before turning to onlookers and shouting through strained muscles "Don't just stand there, help!"

There was a delayed wave of reactions from the small crowd who had come to investigate. Some turned and left quickly, others stood in either morbid fascination or disbelief, and eventually some people came to help. "Allright, on three. One, two, **three**"

The sign wailed in protest as it gave away, flipping over. Easy part over. Cham leaned down, knees cracking glass as they took a pulse. Still alive, thank the crown. They began looking over the body of the guy, assessing damage as best they could. ||The guy was bleeding from his head, which was not a promising sign, and his arm looked like it had another joint now. A break. great, another bad sign.|| "We need some help over here!"

Dru saw the grouping of people around on the side of the road as she drove closer, squinting slightly to see if she could see anyone who needed her help through the crowd. She pulled up right near the crowd, parked up and locked her doors tight before the tall dito skated over towards the edge.

“Yikes.” Dru said quietly to herself as she saw the injured Square sprawled on the sidewalk before unhooking her magical girl wand from her belt.

“Alright, move out of the way.” She said loudly as she began to shove and elbow her way through the crowd. “Alright, who needs help and who's paying?”

Cham began to feel around the back of the guy’s head, before the commotion of the Doctor pushing through the crowd caught their attention. They shifted, hand finding the wound in the guy’s head and applying a bit of pressure, before their head turned and snapped towards the Doctor. “Over here.” They cried out, a little strained from the stress of the situation. They moved, brushing the glass out of the way with their legs as they slid off to the side to allow access to the broken body.

“This guy. That sign fell on him.” Cham said simply, looking up to the extravagantly dressed stranger. A little furrow in the brow, and they looked back down to the injured guy. “You got this?” They asked, motioning to ||the twisted, broken arm and the gaping head wound.||

With a sweep of her arm and a lot of barking orders, Dru got some of the crowd to disperse, especially with a few good swings of her heavy wand near some of the gawker's heads to spook them off, clearing a pathway towards the injured patient.

“Babes, I’m a professional.” The magical older girl doctor said to the sickly looking pale kid as she skated an arc around the two of them. Her Vibe sparking up as her arms whipped around her body in a quick series of intricate patterns, all moving on time to an unknown beat.

The doctor then powerslid to a stop in front of the two of them before assessing the hurt Square’s injuries, wispy threads softly drifting over the Square’s form, their head wound flow of blood already beginning to stem.

The doctor moved quickly and efficiently as she began to check them over, asking them questions about before looking up at Cham.

“Need to take em to my ride.” She said abruptly before getting up and skating over to her ambulance. A few moments later she skated back with a hover-gurney in tow and with a few button presses, it lowered dow closer to the floor.

“Help me get em on there.” She ordered Chem, assuming the Square and them were together.

Cham’s eyes lit up at the whips that threaded the wound almost shut, a flash of freckles dancing across their face like a constellation of brown stars before fading back into the ivory paleness of their cheeks. They looked back up as the Doctor left, trying to adjust the unconscious guy so he wasn’t in as horribly uncomfortable a position. In that short span of time they could think clearly for the first time since the guy got hit. *Green, another Banditio* they thought, eyebrows punching in the centre as they contemplated what that even meant.

When the Doc came back with the stretcher, Cham went right back into help mode, lifting the guy up by the shoulders, making sure to rest his head against their chest so it didn’t snap back when he was lifted. He wasn’t too heavy.

Quickly enough, the two STEPers got the injured man on the stretcher and with a few quick taps, it hoovered upwards and Dru easily maneuvered them into the back of the Ambulance. Once they were securely docked in place, a light came down and scanned the prone Square before a couple of holographic displays popped up, alerting and highlighting each injury. As Dru turned and placed her hands in the sanitizing dome tucked in the opposite wall before putting on a pair of fresh gloves, she turned to Cham finally.

“Hey, you know this guy, babes?” She asked before spinning to retrieve a vial from one for the glass coolers, already prepping a syringe to ease the pain.

“He’s too out of it so are we going for the Full heal or the Partial heal? Full heal costs more of course, but better than waiting for a broken arm t’ heal, y’know?”

As they pushed their way through the crowd, Cham warned people to move. Their path was a blur as Cham’s attention was focused on the breathing of the guy. As the hover-stretcher moved up, Cham had to pull their head back to avoid getting cracked in the bottom of the jaw.

Cham stood just outside the threshold of the ambulance, looking around at the back of the ambulance, their freckles rippled across their face in small bursts again. At Doc’s comments, they were snapped back to attention.

“What? No, no idea who this guy is. Wait… you want creds? You came to us!” Cham’s brow furrowed, the tips of their hair began to flare blonde and their eyes blue. *A Vulture*

The Doctor didn’t pause as the needle pricked into the seal of the vial, though she did let out a huff of annoyance at Cham’s words.

“I came to see if people needed my expertise.” She corrected them as she tapped a gloved finger against the syringe, getting rid of a few air bubbles with a little squirt.

“You don’t ask a Vendy to fix you up completely for free, do ya?” She rolled her eyes as she gave the Square a little dose to help with the pain before disposing of the needle and made her way to the back doors. All 7plus feet in skates of the doctor stood up straight as she leaned out the back, looming over Cham before looking out at the rest of the dispersing crowd.

“Anyone know this fellow? And if so, you paying or am I dropping them off in a Vendy?” She waited a moment, making eye contact with a few of them but they shook their heads and looked away from her.

“Nah? Then ah kid’s going to the nearest Vendy then.” She gave a wink down at Cham before ducking back in, making sure everything was locked down for transport.

Cham pursed their lips, trying their best not to pull a face of disgust. It made sense, but that didn’t make it feel any better.

Cham stood up straight, putting a hand on the Doc’s forearm to stop her in her tracks, and eyed her up and down.

“Are you a Dito?” They asked, slowly taking their hand away. Cham was pretty sure they knew the answer, but best to judge if this Doctor was trustworthy with simple questions.

The Doc’s eyes traveled down to the hand on her arm, then back to Cham’s face, clearly not amused by the unwanted touch. She slowly slid her free hand back to her magical girl wand on her waist, ready to clock this creep when they asked her if she was a Dito…

…

???

She looked at Cham, then at her green magical girl outfit, then to her green skates and then peered around at her green, bedazzled Ambulance and then turned back to Cham.

“Wha’ gave it away?” She barked out a laugh as she took her arm back.

Cham wasn’t laughing. Their cold gaze grew colder. They began to move from side to side, swaying a little and letting their arms loose down by their side.

“Ditos cause a scene and get innocent people hurt, then a Dito comes along and dangles hope in front of people who are hurt. Forgive me if I’m drawing wrong conclusions here, but it seems a little messed up to me.”

Cham continued to sway, eyes moving between the wand and the Doc’s face, clearly anticipating trouble, but not *trying* to get into it.

“You don’t feel a sense of community? A sense of responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves? What if UG came through here and knocked you down? Wouldn’t you want to live, rather then loose a good chunk of what you have, or your life?”

“ Pfft.” The doctor’s hand came up to her mouth as she hopped out the Ambulance to cover her laugh, but she couldn't hold it in and threw her head back as she cackled loudly.

“Stupid.” Dru belted between laughs as she shut one of the doors and then moved for the other.

“Why aren't you preaching to the people who were standing there gawking, huh? I’m still offering t’ drop em off to a Vendy and what are they doing?” She easily peered over him at the other Squares as she smirked. “Jack shit is what they’re doing.”.

“And what are you doing?” She prodded them in the chest to move them out of the way so she could close the other door.

“You're just yammering away while your ‘not friend’ could be bleeding out.”

Cham sighed, pushing the Doc’s hand off to the side, and jumping up into the ambulance alongside the guy. “I’ll preach to the people who have the power to heal, if healing is what’s needed.” Cham quipped, stood in the ambulance alongside the guy, checking the wound in his head, checking his breathing.

They looked at the Doctor before she closed the door. “How long till we get to a Vendy?” They asked, clear they were weighing up options.

“Ey, no. ” The Doctor’s demeanour turned serious as this stranger just stepped into her workplace without being invited. The cheek!

“I don’t know you, I don’t fucks with you. Get the fuck out.” The heavy wand was being wielded now, ready to bash this kid’s bean in and dump them in a Vendy with the Square.

“You want a ride, you ride up front, but with t’ way you're been actin', you can hang on the side if you must.”

Cham leaned back as the wand was pointed towards them, keeping the casual, swaying energy they had started the first time the wand was hinted at. They stood on the edge of the ambulance’s rear, heels hanging off the back and toes keeping them anchored to the vehicle. The soles of their Crocs lipped around the metal corner of the ambulance, separated from their heel and pinching the entrance to keep Cham from falling back.

“And I don’t know you. You came here to pick up a guy and pressure him into paying for a service he might not be able to afford. You can see why I might want to keep an eye on him.”

They could feel it now: the buzz of their Vibe in their chest. It wasn’t much. They couldn’t do anything with it yet, but it pulled towards Doc with an eagerness.

“You clearly don’t like me. I clearly don’t trust you. But there is a man there who is suffering. We can work out exactly what’s going to happen once we get him patched up. As a doctor… if you are a doctor, *Dito*, you have his life in your hands. Are you really going to let someone die because he’s not conscious enough to pay you?”

“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.” The Doctor said rapidly as she wound the wand back as if she was about to hit a home run.

“I stabilized him, eased his pain, and was going to drop him off t’ a Vendy for free, which mind you, I charge less for a full heal by the way. And all you’ve done is given my lip, cheek, headache and stepped into my ride without my consent. I would of sliced your face open right now if there wasn’t this unconscious guy here. Unhygienic, y’ know?” She skated a little closer, ready to bop them if they didn't step out of her Ambulance right this isntant.

“But you know what, get out. I’ll dump him here and you can take all your kumbaya’s and your creditless, no wheeling having, no respect of self employed workers, unmoisturized self and carry him to one.”

Cham moved back further, one foot backed off to the road below, the other still on the lip of the ambulance’s threshold, ready to spring back up if the Dito decided to try and close the door on them. They looked over to the guy, now too far away to see how he was doing. Panic swelled in Cham’s chest, the blonde tips of their hair flashing copper red before darkening back to black. They had no colour in their face to loose, but their expression looked flushed of more colour somehow. This was time being wasted.

“Alright. How much?” They asked, looking back up to the Doc with a shake in their voice and a hand held up in vague surrender.

“I’m sorry. He needs help. How much is it?”

Dru’s eyes narrowed as she watched Cham back up further away, at the flash of colours literally stain their features as they went through a flurry of different emotions, but not far back enough for her to lower her wand. This wasn’t her first rodeo, you couldn’t trust a person till they were halfway down the street…

Realistically she could leave the Squares here and be done with it. The injured one wasn’t in enough trouble anymore that a little carry to a Vendy would send them into shock. But now this brat was willing to part with cash… She still wanted to say no because of the headache they caused her, but that could lead into a fight… Weighing her options, the Doc lowered the wand an inch as she skated forward a foot, motioning them back up a little more so she could step out.

“A compound fracture is a little more difficult to heal, but I’ve fixed more of those that you’ve had years alive… How much you got? And if it's not enough, what’s your blood type?”