100 Bad Days Makes 100 Good Stories
The roaring sound of engines was the first thing that Kara became aware of as her mind began to wake. They sounded like they were in the beginning stages of firing up and it slowly brought Kara back to the edge of consciousness. When she fully realized the sound she was hearing, she abruptly opened her eyes and jolted awake.
She found herself staring into the gaping darkness of space. As far as she could see there was inky black sky with bright stars painted in splattered dots. Underneath her was the vacuum of space with light-years of nothingness.
It felt endless, empty, and beautiful all at the same time. But the outstanding issue was that she was completely and utterly alone.
The last few hours events came to her as fast as her initial consciousness did. The explosion of Krypton. Her home being demolished. Her parents were dead. Her culture was dead and her city was gone along with all the millions of people who lived on it.
Her thoughts were running a mile a minute and in response her chest began to feel tighter. She tried to calm her heartbeat by taking slow breaths. Kara couldn't help the thoughts that flowed endlessly in her mind. She was scared, and was trying really hard not to be.
Everything Kara had ever known was blown into a million pieces and probably scattered across the universe. One day ensured to be recycled and used once again by the same process that allowed her to be created.
Kara couldn't help but think of her parents the moment it happened and could do even less to stop her intrusive thoughts. Did they explode? Maybe swallowed whole into the ground. Did it hurt? Were they scared? Could they somehow maybe be alive somewhere?
Kara felt physically sick to her stomach at the thought of her parents burning alive. Her stomach was turning in knots and she felt pain in her heart and body. It's the kind of pain that felt to her as if it would never go away.
She had never been so scared in her life, flying through space to a foreign destination in which she was meant to build a new life. No, at this point Kara didn't want to build a new life, she would give anything for the ship to turn around only to land safely on krypton in time for school.
She gripped tightly the armrests of the chair and took a deep look at what was around her. There were galaxies and stars and in between each point of bright light was an all consuming darkness. Stars were speeding by faster and faster until they became small blurbs of light indicating the ship was picking up speed.
A single tear slipped down her face as she stared into the never ending abyss.
Hours passed and Kara never moved from her gaze away from staring into space. Her body was buzzing with anxiety and her mind had gone silent and numb finally.
The gentle blue light awakened her from her unseeing stare and she blinked multiple times.
A small blue ball that the screen indicated was a planet was getting larger and larger at exponential speed. As she was looking down at the embedded screen warning sign in Kryptonese flashed upon the screen and advised her to prepare for impact.
The ship was moving so fast there was no time to admire the beauty of the blue marble because the atmosphere was rapidly approaching.
Kara was confident in kryptonian technology, but she was scared anyway. Nothing could have prepared her for the falling feeling that pushed up in her stomach and what felt like the rearranging of her organs from the downward force.
It was uncomfortable to the point where it deserved to be in the same category as pain.
The roaring got louder and almost became unbearable. Flames on the side of the ship were apparent and the nose of it was pointed too steep for Kara's liking. The entire structure was shaking in all directions, moving Kara's small body around the confined space to its will.
Several monitors began beeping at a rapid pace at a high pitch.
At this point Kara could figure out that something was very wrong.
She screamed and braced her arms over her head, curling up on herself as much as she could. The ground was so close now she could see objects on it and she held her breath as she prepared for the second most frightful event in what was the worst day of her life.
Fear was coursing through her whole body as she tensed up all her limbs.
One second before the ground closed in, Kara closed her eyes so tightly it scrunched her nose along with it. She felt her body being violently rocked in every way possible. She couldn't see anything even if her eyes were open due to the violence of the shake but a flurry of objects and particles thrown in the air from what she could hear.
The ship itself impacted and dug into the earth three times but came back up in a bouncing motion each time before it slowed.
Kara's vision turned black and she was knocked unconscious instantly as the Kryptonian vessel came to a stop on Earth.
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When Kara regained consciousness, she opened her eyes to peer out of the ship's oval window. Kara could see green demolished trees in halves and pieces all around. There was nature all around with fire spots from the ship's friction when landing. It was dark outside and appeared to be night.
Earlier all she could think of was getting out of the ship but now she didn't want to leave the comfort that the small space brought from her home planet brought.
The small Kryptonian was weary to open the ship's hatch since the air she was breathing in was technically from Krypton, and would be lost forever.
Her anxiety was preventing her from taking the steps to unlock the hatch, but was quickly overrun when a series of deep beeping alerted her to look down at the screen. Multiple symbols appeared along with a message in Kryptonese warning of an overheated engine. The next symbol taking its place after the initial one was an immediate evacuation message.
Kara took one last deep breath of kryptonian oxygen that filled her lungs and bravely opened the hatch.
The first thing she noticed was that it was cold. The air seemed to have a freeze to it, but was clean. Possibly even cleaner than her home planet.
After searching for any signs of life she shakily tried to stand up to climb out. She was hungry and thirsty and there was nothing aboard the ship that could help with either of those problems.
Her legs shook as she had some trouble supporting her weight when her feet touched the dense forest floor. She felt unsteady and sore when upright but still cautiously made her way out of the ship.
The beeping from the ship sped up and got louder but Kara couldn't see the symbols on the screen from her angle anymore. She took a few steps back to create some distance from her ship, which allowed her to see smoke rising from the backside.
Taking an additional step back Kara wasn't prepared when a fiery explosion stemmed from the back of the ship, sending her flying backwards. All kara could discern was being smashed into something hard and an immense pain radiating from her head and arm before her world instantly turned pitch black for the second time.
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Natasha made her way down to the lobby of the compound when she spotted Steve walking out of the opposite north elevator.
Steve greeted her with a light smile as he made his way to the doors to exit the lobby as well.
“Good evening” he acknowledged politely. Ever the gentlemen.
Natasha greeted him in a brisk but not unkind manner
She wondered if Rogers knew anything about what they were called in for so she asked.
“Any idea what this is about?”
“Your guess is as good as mine”
Rogers took his last few steps a little faster to be able to hold the lobby door open for her.
A habit that she knew that was ingrained in him.
Natasha glanced at him while walking out the door, and conveyed a quick “thank you” with her expression and body language but no words.
They both walked towards the quinjet that was parked on the grass, Rogers walking behind her. They ascended into the open hangar and she mentally prepared herself to focus for the upcoming task. She noticed that standing at the edge of the aircraft was Bruce with screens in front of him and Coulson standing near the cockpit going over flight details with the Clint who was already in his seat.
Natasha made purposeful eye contact with Clint as she walked in. The action in itself conveyed a greeting. What might be considered rude to most people wasn't for them for obvious reasons.
“Good evening Captain, Mrs Romanov.” Coulson immediately greeted with his predictable kind smile. His eye contact lingering on Rogers for a split second longer than what was acceptable.
Rogers didn't seem to notice as his gaze was directed towards the screens, eyes curiously skimming after he greeted Coulson.
Noticing where Rogers' attention was directed he began to explain the situation.
“Sorry we had to call you in but we caught something strong on the radar and we gotta move quickly. I hope you didn't have dinner cooking” Coulson finished with a smirk that indicated he thought his own comment was amusing.
Natasha liked Coulson and would definitely go as far as to say enjoys his comfortable presence. Natasha trusts Coulson and knows he's got the moral compass of mother Teresa.
“Where's Stark?” asked Steve as his head turned to look around the quinjet.
“He's engaged with personal business at the moment. To be honest, shield is not exactly sure what he's up to but has a feeling it's related to his new spider friend. He's also not overly fond of things falling from the sky, it's probably for the best “ answered Coulson.
Rogers held a curious expression at “spider friend” but turned to worry at the suggestion to aliens.
Natasha knew that Stark had a special relationship with Spiderman and had been following him too at one point. From Rogers' expression he obviously was not aware that Stark had taken an intimate interest.
She was confident in her assessment of him to understand that he wouldn't just skip out on a mission unless it was something really important to him.
Answering Rogers' concerned expression Coulson continued, “We caught an intrusion just outside the atmosphere headed just outside New York. Whatever this is we want to get in front of it and preferably before it decides to be unfriendly. It has an immense radiation signature. We haven't seen this type before so Dr Banner is here to help us track its progress and origin.Were diving in blind so proceed with caution.”
“The mission is meant to scope out what landed and bring them in for questioning. This is shield's way of being proactive. ” Coulson finalized.
“Do we have any more information on this at all? Other than the area of where it might possibly land?” Steve commented curiously.
“Other than that it's likely foreign, we do not ” responded Coulson.
Coulson interfered with “Wheels are up and we will arrive in one hour. We ideally want to intercept their descent but we should arrive just after it touches earth”.
“Roger that” She said seriously, making eye contact with Coulson.
Natasha slid into a chair and emulated relaxation for Steve.
He seemed uncertain but took a seat after she did. She hoped that her confident and uncensored posture would help his nerves.
During the flight Rogers held his gaze out the window, his serious expression telling he was most likely mentally preparing and getting into focus for the mission.
Bruce and Cousin created comfortable noise in the background as they worked on tracing the exact location and origin of the intrusion.
“See this” Bruce said, pointing to the blob in an electronic diagram that made some kind of sense to him.
“Its signature should not have that long of a tail. It's taking too long to scatter which means it's probably concentrated amounts being spewed off. Either the ship is bigger than we think or it's leaking something. It just doesn't look right”. Bruce continued to study the scan.
After a few more minutes of studying the exams he made an excited “huh”.
“Got 'em! We should be able to pinpoint exactly where it's headed, the route it's taking seems to remain steady so it's not actively steering, just falling” continued Bruce. I think it will land 15 minutes before we get there.
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Kara woke up and the first thing she noticed was that her head and arm were in an uncomfortable position. She was on her back sprawled out on top of large tree roots. When she tried to lift her left hand up to feel what liquid was tickling the top of her forehead it wouldn't move.
A jolt of panic rushed through her and she rapidly turned her head towards her arm so she could look at it. She was mentally prepared for something gruesome, or nothing at all in the space where her arm should be. But when her sight landed on the left limb it looked fine except for that it was now a bit dirty from the blast and had some small cuts.
She tried to lift her limb again to see if it was a fluke but it still refused to move at her command.
Your own body working against you is a completely different type of fear. Feelings of betrayal and frustration flashed through her mind as her limb would no longer cooperate with her. Using her opposite hand that thankfully was working perfectly, she tried to shift her left limb but that resulted in nothing but pain that traveled down the whole length of her arm from shoulder to fingertip.
Kara didn't really understand what had happened but she knew that this was something that would not heal on its own or fix itself without intervention. Which scared her immensely since she had no idea how to care for it and obviously would not be receiving help.
While taking stock of her injuries she found that she was dizzy, her arm hurt for unobvious reasons and that there was a tickle of something dripping down on the side of her head.
With her right hand she touched her head where she felt it and the tickling substance was not as friendly as she hoped as thick blood appeared on her fingers.
Distracted by her newfound injuries she barely noticed by the faint sound of machinery that was growing louder by the second until it was at a point where she was close enough to see it flying towards her location.
Her instincts told her to find somewhere to hide so she got up on her shakey feet and took as many steps away from her ship as she could. Kara was physically unable to get more than 20 yards away when she had to stop walking(really limping though).
The trees were rattling more intensely now and the aircraft was becoming unbearably loud as it began to hover then land.
Kara dragged herself with one arm into the nearby bushes at the base of a tree and curled up into as small of a ball as she could manage.
Peeking out from her bush she got a better look as it was in the process of touching the ground.
It was sleek and dark gray, a very geometric design and she could tell it was built for stealth just from the shape. It curiously had a giant logo of a bird in a circle on the side of it.
From between the leaves Kara could see that a ramp had then lowered and a large man dressed in red and blue walked out along with a small woman in all black. They both had a serious soldier-like nature to their stance and movements. Both had slightly bent their knees walking stealthily with weapons in their hands while their heads looked in every direction.
Moving in a sweeping police like manner they peered into her Pod and both agreed on something she couldn't make out. The woman kept searching her Pod while the man disappeared. Three more people made their way out of the ship to inspect her Pod and began inspecting it as well. One of them even began to bring out equipment with ropes.
Kara's gaze tried to shift back to the serious woman but then failed to find her. She was gone.
Kara's nervous energy was turning into panic when she realized the man was probably searching the forest for her while the women could have gone back into their own ship or she's in the trees searching for her too.
The serious nature of the two people made Kara very nervous so she pulled her head toward the tree to hide but lost her vision on them as a result.
They seemed to be speaking English, which Kara understood for the most part. Early Kryptonians made contact with earth and brought back english 18,000 years ago. It is not commonly spoken but since her family has the resources to teach her they did. She was still not comfortable speaking it, but she understood the main parts (mostly-ish).
Kara's heart was pumping so fast and she tried to take deep breaths. She closed her eyes to try to calm her heart down when she heard footsteps. In the distance she saw the man in blue white and red sweeping the forest.
Despite her efforts her heart pumped even faster. She could hear her own heartbeat and hoped that he couldn't due to how loud it was in her ears. This was unlike any game of hide and seek she had ever played in her childhood. This was real, and she could not get caught or who knows what these people would do to her.
The large man was approaching the path that led towards her tree, making long sweeping motions with his eyes, looking up and down as if he expected something to be in the tall branches instead of the bushes.
His footsteps were getting closer and there was nowhere for her to go. At this point he would blatantly see her if she left her bush.
Kara just needed to shift further into her bush and she should be able to stay hidden that way. There was denser coverage towards the base of the tree where the most water gathers.
She slowly moved her body sideways as stiff as she could and scooted towards the center of the bush. She took the first step she needed to be fully encompassed in the leaves.
When she put her second foot down to push herself back a tiny crunch of a leaf could be heard. Kara stilled, and held her breath to be as quiet as she could. She was petrified with the man being so close by but the sound was so subtle. She stopped her foot from completely descending on the crunchy leaf and barely grazed it.
The man stopped walking as soon as she made the crunch despite how careful her movement had been and said something quietly while holding his ear.
Kara held her breath and prayed for protection from Rao, She hoped she didn't just get herself killed.
Everything was still for a moment and the only thing that Kara could hear was her frantic heartbeat that continued to pump furiously.
In a single violent movement the bush was ripped away from her and pulled back, exposing her scrunched up form. The man had his weapon raised and a second away from attacking when he stopped midway. He stilled to look at her.
Taking the opportunity, adrenaline alone launched Kara up from where she was curled up in her small position and sprinted away (which looked more like a stumble tbh) while gripping her dislocated arm to hold it in place from her jolting footsteps.
Her body moved of its own accord to get as far away from the man and ship as quickly as she could manage. Her breath was coming out in large pants at every step she took and her arm was screaming at any wrong movement.
Taking the chance and taking a quick look behind her she noticed the man was still following her and right on her heels. He pretty much looked like he was not really putting in that much effort at all.
Wrong place wrong time but Kara's subconscious was a little bit insulted.
He held one hand up to his ear and was talking rapidly.
Kara's adrenaline was crashing as fast as it came and her dizziness became more apparent with each passing second. She knew now that she couldn't run the man and black spots began to take over her vision.
She made a sharp turn and pushed her whole body behind a tree using it as a shield, only daring to peek her head out to see if the man was going to keep pursuing her.
She knew she couldn't out run him. Deep down she knew that really didn't even qualify as running. Maybe panic stumbling. It doesn't matter.
Scared out of her freaking mind now she could feel her body physically shaking.
The man slowed to a halt and put his hands up in a surrendering manner. He made gentle eye contact with her and made slow steps towards the tree.
This was completely unexpected, hands up has the same “I surrender” connotation on Krypton which was a great sign really, but she absolutely doesn't trust him to not want to hurt her.
Kara couldn't help but hide her head behind the tree when he tried to approach again. She recognized this was childish but it did help her feel a little bit better. Like a blanket from monsters, the unrealistic barrier was a way of trying to keep herself safe.
The man halted his steps immediately.
In a calm but strong voice the man said “Hey there, we are not going to hurt you”, “Its okay”.
She wanted to believe him, she really did. But the thing is Kara was scared and was going to defend herself to her last breath if she had to. She would go down fighting.
There was another person she could hear approaching in a slow manner on the right side so Kara peaked her head out to see who it was. The woman wearing all black approached in a cautious manner with her hands going up in the same way the other man was a few seconds ago.
When Kara peaked her head out the man looked at her and she noticed his expression was so much softer than it was when he first came out of the ship.
“Hello” he said again kindly and waited a few seconds to gauge a reaction from her.
Kara was inspecting them and didn't think she could talk even if she wanted to. She was so scared.
“We put away our weapons. We will not hurt you” he repeated after making a show of convincing her he was unarmed.
“I am Steve. What's your name?”
The woman in black took over when Kara didn't respond and added “Is that yours?” pointing to the direction her pod was located, “ you must have traveled a long way to get here”.
Kara could do nothing but look back and forth between the two trying to pick up on their intentions. Her head was the only thing that was showing from behind the tree. She was shaking uncontrollably and wasn't sure if she could stop even if she tried.
Despite the lack of response the man and woman remained calm and friendly while not seeming angered by it.
“We can help you, it looks like you might have gotten hurt. How about you come out from behind that tree?” said the woman said in a warm tone.
Kara only lasted a few more minutes of their coaxing after that when her knees began to buckle and she couldn't hold herself up anymore. The way her knees buckled she could have sworn it felt like someone intentionally folded her in the way she had no control over it.. Her body slid down the tree and used her good arm to wrap around the tree to slow her descent. Unfortunately this movement caused her bad arm to move. A noise she didn't mean to let out escaped as she cradled her left arm close to her body to ride out the pain.
Steve and the woman appeared to stand in front of her. There was nothing in between the two parties anymore and Kara very much unintentionally shied away with her body language. Her head was producing a strong headache now and she was feeling sick as well as weak.
The woman took a step forward and crouched so she was on Karas level and stayed an arms reach away.
“Your arm looks really hurt, is that okay if I take a look at that?”, she said kindly.
Kara kept her head down and didn't keep eye contact. Her head was hurting and she just wanted the shaking to stop.
The woman scooted closer, making her movements known and predictable.
“It's nice to meet you.” she said ducking down trying to get Kara to make eye contact. “Im Nat”
Nat slowly reached her hand out and only then Kara realized what she was asking of her. Giving Kara no time to react before the woman touched the dense sleeve of Kara's white shirt.
Kara's body tensed up and froze at the contact, keeping her eyes trained on Nat.
Nat continued on despite Kara's discomfort and lightly checked for the cause of pain..
She took a while to check her arm but Kara thinks she must have done it on purpose because her adrenaline is fading with each passing second. This brought hunger, pain, cold, and tiredness slamming into her, capturing her attention.
Kara transferred her weight so the tree was bearing it and the pressure was off of her body.
Nat removed her hands and relayed to both Kara and Steve who was standing beside the spy scanning the area “I don't feel any breaks but there is definitely something wrong with your arm at the shoulder if you're holding it like that. We need you to come with us so we can help you sort out your arm. It doesn't need to be splinted to move if it's your shoulder.”. She held out her hand for Kara to take.
Kara was hurting and tired and could feel her body not cooperating. She felt calmer now and Nat did genuinely seem to try to help Kara with her arm.
The woman had been gentle but persistent so far. Kara knew she couldn't outrun them, even unhurt. If she went with them maybe they wouldn't expect her to try to escape. And if she dies, well at least she will be reunited with her parents and won't have to feel scared again in Raos loving warmth.
Seeing no other choice but to cooperate, Kara stretched out a small shaking hand to meet Natasha's open palm. Her hand was surprisingly soft, and felt just as a kryptonians hand would feel. The skin was the same texture and had the same natural groves on the palm made from clenching, bending, and stretching over years.
Kara lifted her eyes just enough to make contact with Nats, and she was greeted with a small encouraging smile.
Steve, who had been quietly speaking with one hand on his ear until now spoke to Nat, and Kara startlingly retracted her hand.
“The area seems clear, I also don't hear any other possibly 084s in the area, I think she is alone. Shield is sending backup to scan the area in depth. Does she need to be carried, or can she walk on her own back to the quinjet?”
“She has a pretty bad head injury. It might be best if you carried her. We also might want to hurry in case Ross wants to try anything”
Steve nodded in conformation. He crouched as if he was trying to make his posture as small as possible for her. He was such a large man it seemed almost difficult for his body to do that.
He stepped towards Kara and her body stiffened. Although unlike Nat he hesitated to pick her up and gave her time to decline since her discomfort was obvious.
She didn't. Not that she had any other realistic choice.
He wrapped one arm around her back gently and one under legs. She tucked her injured left arm in using her right so it was secure from the jolt of his steps.
Although Kara didn't like the idea of being picked up she was grateful for his surprising gentleness and care that he held her with.
She was completely swallowed in his strong arms and her body looked tiny in comparison to his.
Steve began walking once she was settled in his arms with Nat behind him speaking rapidly in a low tone with a hand pressed against her ear this time.
Kara was too out of it to catch what she was fully saying.
She strained her ears and could hear fractions of the private conversation such as “has not spoken, we don't know if she understands us at all… possible concussion... small, young, maybe 9-12 years old… Injured.”
Kara knew she was 13 Earth Revolutions, her pod told her that much when she traveled here.
Kara hoped the man holding her couldn't tell how scared she really was. She attempted to stop the full body shivers that were coursing through her by holding herself tighter to stop the shakes but it failed.
Steve gazed down at her sadly and spared her a quick kind courtesy smile when her eyes flickered briefly to him and then back down right away.
Their proximity made her nervous to make eye contact with him.
As awkward as being carried by a stranger was, Kara was more focused on keeping herself awake than being in such close contact with someone.
As they approached the ramp of the quinjet she could see that they already loaded her kryptonian pod onto their aircraft. Holy sht that was fast. It was comforting to know that she would not be separated from it, and that it's there in case she needs to escape.
There were also two men standing at the entrance of the quinjet. One man had really curly brown hair with glasses. The other man was bald, had a really kind face and was wearing a suit. He welcomed them and walked up the ramp with them as he spoke.
“Hello, I am Phil Coulson. I heard you could use some help with your injuries. We are going to get you medical attention first and then figure out the rest from there”
“This is Bruce, he will be helping too”, Coulson finished. Bruce introduced himself with a small shy wave and half smile.
She attempted to take in all of that information but already forgot the sentence's meaning while trying to understand the individual words.
Phil either already knew or didn't seem to mind as he led them deeper into the aircraft.
Steve carried her farther into the quinjet, and turned to Bruce to ask “where do you want me to set her down?”. Now that they were in an enclosed space his voice was as large as him, and was confident when it carried across the enclosed space. She got the impression that he was in charge here but he seemed to respond to the man named Coulson without hesitation so she wasn't sure..
“Over there would be good, I have the supplies set up” Bruce said while pointing to the designated area.
Steve gently lowered her on the makeshift table and took a few steps back to give her some space. Kara felt the need to fiddle with the bottom of her sleeve with her fingers now that the room was quiet and everyone was looking at her. As Bruce approached, her twiddling became more intense and she darted her eyes around the room looking at anything besides the man coming closer to her. The concussion wasn't helping with her confusion in which she couldn't grasp at her surroundings as fast as she needed to.
She felt dizzy just sitting there and the lights overhead were boarding on the side of painful.
Bruce's posture looked just as awkward as she felt on the inside. He was wearing casual but crisp clothing. He seemed to slowly approach her like virtually all of them had, like she was a scared sad animal. Well she was scared, but it made her nervous that they could see that and maybe exploit it in some way.
As soon as Bruce took stock of what he thought her injuries were and suddenly his posture became visibly focused and confident in what he needed to do next.
She saw that he grabbed a few instruments from the table then asked, “I heard you have a bad head injury, do you mind if I take a look at that?”.
For some reason Bruce himself had a sense of calm that caused Kara to feel comfortable with him. His body posture was welcoming and professional which made her inclined to trust him.
Kara re-focused her gaze into her lap and kept rolling the edge of her shirt in comfort but relaxed her body posture. These people have been nothing but gentle to her so far, so she decided to trust Bruce to help her at least.
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Bruce read the little girl's body language and when her shoulders deflated took that as a yes.
She was tiny and shook so intensely from what he suspected was nerves since the quinjet had a regulated temperature inside.
Her gaze was turned downward and she was keeping her hands constantly busy as though trying to use the excess adrenaline in her system. Her body was leaned into the wall behind her and he suspected that it was supporting her sitting upright.
The quinjets medical cot was positioned in the corner since they only take it out when they actually need it. It also needs to be strapped in for the flight just in case.
Nat explained to them over the Comm that the 084 was in the form of a child, and that it was injured. Bruce had rushed to set up the area with everything he needed for when they brought her on board.
His heartstrings tugged as she swung her legs back and forth minutely, confirming how young she really was. He was positive she was not aware that she was even doing it.
He grabbed a penlight and examined the large cut, then proceeded to clean/ bandage it. She was focused on her hands in her lap and zoned out after a minute of him working. Dissociation was common in children who have experienced traumatic events which made him even sadder. He luckily had a lot of experience working with children from his time in India.
Natasha was standing silently nearby and Steve was sitting down in one of the embedded quinjet chairs.
Steve was trying to pretend not to look, probably in an attempt to make her less nervous and more comfortable about multiple people around her. Bruce knew he was paying close attention and ready to intervene at any moment.
Bruce had taken scans of her shoulder with Stark tech that he gathered and used while she was zoned out.
He studied the scan scans and felt relieved it would be an easy fix.
“The good news is that nothing is broken, but it is dislocated. I am going to have to reset it and your arm should be okay in a few days”, he recited.
The child looked up and quietly listened to his words with no outward recognition of if she was understanding or not.
Bruce made hand motions while he talked and tried to show how it had to go back in place.
Thank god Clint was flying or that would have been a source material for him to make fun of Bruce.
The girl was clearly having trouble keeping her eyes open and staying upright.
Bruce began working quickly and approached her shoulder, placing his hands on her shoulder trying to feel with his fingers what needed to be shifted before he actually was to do it. The fabric of her shirt was extremely dense and was dense despite the light and flexible texture.
He was unable to feel anything underneath the strange fabric.
A quick intruding thought got him excited to want to see it under a microscope and study it.
“Natasha?” he quietly called. She was standing nearby keeping a close eye on Kara’s behaviors and reactions. Ready to jump in at any moment in case anything were to get out of hand and also for her report. Natasha usually was the best at reading people so she was usually designated to do the profiling.
The child was a mystery to Bruce since she was mostly unresponsive. Although her posture after his sentences led him to suspect that she understood at least partially what was going on.
Nat appeared silently by his side ready to help.
Bruce was a little bit worried about how the girl would react to what they were going to do if he was honest.
“The fabric of her shirt is very dense and thick. Actually it's a material I have never seen before…” he drifted off “I am not able to reset her shoulder with it because I can't feel where it needs to be put back in place” he said awkwardly while scratching at his neck.
Natasha seemed to understand what he was asking of her. The shirt has to go if she wants use of her arm.
Luckily for the both of them she seemed to be a second from passing out all together. She was leaning on the wall for support and her eyes looked like they would rather be closed.
Natasha did most of the work of lifting the hem of her shirt and continued the way up and over her head. Bruce worked on getting Kara's arms out of the sleeves carefully while she did this making it a quick process.
Bruce had been hoping she was wearing something underneath to help ease his conscience that he was not violating her privacy. He wasn't uncomfortable with nudity but she didn’t exactly give express consent with the communication barrier and Bruce was feeling apprehensive about it. Under the shirt revealed was a white silk simple bandeau that was 4 inches wide around her chest. Perfect. Although this emphasized just how young she was. It was very obvious that she had not gone through puberty. She also had a very petite, small frame.
There were dark bruises that were already forming in random places all over probably due to the collision with the earth, but they were concentrated on her shoulder.
The girl seemed to be more awake when the cold air hit her body and she realized what had happened. She sat up a bit straighter and seemed more awake. Without asking, Natasha moved to her long blond hair and gathered it in a hair tie at her neck to keep it from being pulled while Bruce inevitably set her shoulder
He now had clear access now and after a silent encouraging nod from Natasha, got to work.
Bruce was thankful for her help and explained in a whisper what to do while he would pushed it back in place.
“Okay, I am going to reset your shoulder now, this might feel uncomfortable”. Bruce said, trying to incorporate hand signals.
Natasha put her hands on the girl's back and other arm to be ready to hold her when she inevitably reacted.
Bruce noticed she was still shaking but scooted closer so that his torso was pinning her legs in place and lightly prodded her shoulder getting ready to push it hard.
The small girl began to visibly panic at being pinned in place and started to look around frantically.
Nat of course noticed her panic and probably knew that it would only make it harder on Bruce to pop the bone in place when she was tense. Nat gave Bruce a forceful look and he knew it meant to do it before she had more time to panic.
Bruce took this opportunity to apply as much force as he could to put pressure in the right spot and the bone did then slide back in place with an audible pop. She let out a short cry in pure surprise and her limbs instinctively tried to thrash as she resisted their hands that held her until the pain left.
There was a moment where everything was still when she stopped moving. The only thing that could be heard was the humming of the quinjets engine. Bruce and Natasha loosened their grip but were still gauging her reaction with their hands on her. The little girl's breaths began to increase in speed. Her eyes raised to meet Bruce's solidly for the first time and her expression looked defeated. He could feel sadness coming off her in waves.
Her lips were curved downward in a frown and it looked as though she was about to cry. Water welled up in her eyes that was probably beyond her control at this point.
Suddenly and to Bruce's utter heartbreak she let out a single hard sob, but she stopped it halfway with a hand covering her mouth.
After the first one came it seemed she also had no chance at stopping the others that followed.
Another muffled sob came, and then another. Tears started steadily streaming down her face and was accompanied by full blown sobbing that racked her body. Both of her hands came up to cover her face as she painfully cried.
She most likely wasn't aware of how loud and gut wrenching her cries sounded to everyone in the quinjet. They came from a place of deep sorrow and Bruce couldn’t imagine what she must be going through to make her cry like this. The sorrow was rolling off of her, and the pain in her cries is something he would never forget.
Bruce carefully unpinned her legs by moving away his own to give her some space. He moved his hands that originally held her in place to switch to rubbing her back. He had no kids of his own but was a natural because of his kind nature regardless. He felt bad that he probably sparked her to cry, but also knew that sometimes it's not the pain itself but the memories around it that can cause this type of reaction.
Nat to his surprise, did not hesitate to rub small soothing circles on her leg. After a few minutes of listening to the poor child sobbing her heart out he saw Nat begin guiding her small frame to lay down. He automatically helped her and lifted her dangling feet onto the cot.
Nat hopped on the med cot with her and began to stroke her hair after undoing it from the ponytail. Bruce decided to give her some space but only moved back a few steps.
It took 15 more minutes of continuous weeping before the girl began to calm down and her cries became small quiet hiccups until even that became silent. Nat, bless her soul, stayed by her to rub her arms and back in comfort.
The girl looked like she was seconds from falling asleep. Although before that could happen, she opened her eyes just enough to be able to see Nat and whispered to her so quietly that he would have missed it if anyone even sneezed.
With red rimmed eyes and wet eyelashes she looked into Natasha's eyes and whispered in a soft warm tone that could only be achieved by youth.
“I'm called Kara” in the most trusting voice.
Nat froze a millisecond before jumping into the situation headfirst and responding with “that's a beautiful name”.
And after a few moments of silence with Kara blinking into the cot Nat bent over and whispered back, “you can go to sleep Kara, you are safe here”.
That was all the permission the little girl needed. Kara let out a deep breath and sunk into a deep sleep.