HOURGLASS

Chapter Eight

Mike shook the unmoving figure by her uninjured shoulder. "Hourglass! Charlie!" His attempts did not succeed, only resulting in making her head loll against the floor. He sighed. "Sorry for this, kid." He muttered before gripping her injured shoulder, right by the wound, and shaking her. This did the trick instantly, and the heroine jerked awake, her green eyes suddenly opening and quickly dilating from the pain.

"You have to stay with us this time, Charlie." Paige said, helping to ease the hero to the floor. The drone hummed over, running a quick scan of her owner. The scanning lights flashed red over her head and leg wound.

"Charlie has a head wound which has resulted in a concussion, and I am detecting minor abnormalities in her brain waves, which could indicate a seizure is imminent." The drone announced. "I suggest you should delay the amputation until the abnormalities are no longer present."

Mike's head dropped at the news. Jonathan set a hand on Mike's shoulder, and Paige stroked a hand comfortingly through Charlie's hair. "Costa, where's the-" Paige cut herself off when her fingertips became damp. She lifted them up, confirming it was indeed blood. "Charlie, you really need to stay awake, honey." She said, placing her hand back where it had been mere moments ago. "She must have banged her head hard, Mike. There's a lot of blood here."

Mike grumbled out another swear and shuffled over to Paige. "Show me." He demanded, and Paige carefully lifted up Charlie's head and gently brushed her long hair out of the way. There, at the back of her skull, was a mess of blood-matted hair. "God dammit. How didn't we see this earlier?!"

"I did not mention this due to her healing factor. The blood has already clotted, and the concussion is almost gone." Costa stated. The drone watched Mike produce a sterile alcohol wipe from the medical kit and rub it against the wound. The wipe instantly turned red, revealing the injury, which had already scabbed over. "Would you like to know how this happened?"

 "No, thanks. I'm going to assume whatever fight she was in before this had something to do with it." Mike said, tossing the wipe to a dark corner of the pocket. His attention returned to his patient, whose eyelids were half mast. He lightly tapped her cheek, causing her green eyes to open a little more and focus on him. "I'm not liking her color. Costa, how much blood has been lost?" 

The drone scanned, then turned towards Mike. "She has lost approximately 3.4 pints of blood." The drone suddenly whipped around to face her creator. "She is experiencing an absence seizure. I am timing it right now."

Mike jerked his head back down towards the prone figure on the floor. Her eyes were glazed over, seemingly spacing out, and Mike swore yet again. Blood was beginning to leak out of the leg wound, the slick fluid causing the already existing puddle to fan out further. Paige gently cradled Charlie's head in case she thrashed, and Mike set to work on trying to stem the flow of blood.

After a seemingly long span of time passed, Costa announced that the seizure had ended. The glassy eyes regained a tiny spark of life and recognition, and Mike leaned over her to try to get her attention.

"Charlie? You just had a seizure, so now you absolutely cannot pass out. You hear me?" Mike ordered her, only to watch her eyes flutter shut. He furiously dug around in the medical kit beside him, which mysteriously had a syringe labeled "ADRENALINE" inside. "Costa, why is this in here?"

"I believe the EMTs packed it in from an ambulance in case you needed it, sir." Costa replied. Mike decided to take that answer, jabbing the needle into the meat of Charlie's thigh and pressing the plunger down. The clear fluid quickly emptied into her body and a moment later the life suddenly returned to the previously still hero. 

She shot straight up despite Mike attempting to pin her down by her shoulders. Her green eyes were bright with life, flying around the small pocket filled with concerned people. Almost immediately the pain came back, as did the sensation of warm liquid trickling down her hip from the puncture wound. Her mouth dropped open as she took in her predicament again.

"Ah, shit." Charlie mumbled, looking at her piss-poor excuse of a leg. Her now sharp green eyes flicked up to her companions. "Are you guys okay?" She asked, letting Mike ease her back down, deciding that position was more comfortable.

"We are all okay, hun. We need to get you out of here before we can help you." Paige said in a soothing tone. Charlie looked again at her leg.

"I'm going to assume you have to cut my leg off?" Charlie guessed, "There's no way that's salvageable." She said, gesturing vaguely to the limb.

Mike sighed. "Yes, I do. Your robot is going to assist me if I need it." He explained. "I gave you a dose of adrenaline, so that should give me ten minutes to do the amputation. Jonathan, can you find something for her to bite down on?" He said, only to hear his patient give a half-hearted chuckle. "What?"

"My increased metabolism. You have closer to four minutes, at best, before it wears off." She said, looking straight up at the rubble above her head. "Better get to it."

Jonathan produced his belt, doubling it on itself and putting it in Charlie's mouth. Mike gulped, steeling his nerves and grabbing the bone saw. "Whatever you do, don't look."

The bone saw lowered to touch the bone, and Charlie's brow furrowed at the weird sensation of having something directly touching her bone, surprised and unnerved at how she could feel it on her bone, and then Mike started moving the saw.

Charlie bit down hard on the belt, a keening sound of agony escaping from her throat. Costa projected her vitals, blood loss, and guided Mike on the cut. The scratchy sound of the bone saw cut through the small space, accompanied by the cries of the young superhero. Charlie's expression was pinched harshly against the pain, a few tears squeezing out from her closed eyes, when suddenly her green eyes shot open.

Just as the saw chewed through the last bit of bone, causing the now useless limb to separate, a loud rumble thundered through the space. Mike dragged the poor excuse of a leg into a corner before returning his attention back to the teenager. He grabbed all the bandages from the medical bag and began the process of securely wrapping the newly formed stump. Almost as soon as the first layers of clean bandages were placed on top of the wound, the material turned red with blood. 

The rumbling quickly turned into more fine particles falling on the group from the crumbling building. Paige saw Charlie's eyes suddenly hone in on some unseen thing above, and her hands flexed, bringing forth the warps her alter ego was known for. A large slab of ceiling above them suddenly cracked, and Mike quickly threw himself over the prone body beneath him. 

The large chunk of what was once the ceiling never hit them, and Mike jerked his head up to see that Charlie was holding it up with her time warps. "Okay, how the hell do we get out of here?" Mike asked the small group, keeping pressure on the still bleeding hip wound. 

Jonathan turned his attention to the door, which was still tightly jammed closed by the weight of tons of rubble. "The door isn't an option I don't think." He said, which caught the attention of the figure on the floor.

"Wait," Charlie said softly, then transferred the weight of the collapsing structure above to one hand and started to drag herself towards the door. "I think I should be able to pry it open."

"Charlie, I must advise against this course of action." Costa said warily. "Overexertion may cause further blood loss and muscle damage. Given your current condition, you may not survive this."

"I may not survive, but at least they will. Stairwells are able to handle a lot of stress, right?" Charlie reasoned, reaching the door and sticking her one foot and free hand to the floor. "Look, Costa, I have to do this before that adrenaline shot wears off for good." She said, already beginning to sag.