Fixing a spelling error on her chart, Ashley nearly jumped out of her scrubs at the horrific sound of scraping metal, glancing up to see a large copper man trying to fit his helmeted head underneath the door. For a brief moment she reached for the alarm button on her collar before she spotted the girl it was carrying in its arms.
"Goodness, what happened?"
"Feh..." The girl in the wine-dark leotard and leggings lifted her head, her long curly black hair tumbling off of her face. "Took a nasty hit, leg hurts too much to stand on. Hawk said it could be broken."
"Hmmm..." Ashley tapped her foot in concern, looking her over and seeing one of her yellow knee-high boots twisted at an odd angle. "Well you did the right thing coming here. Can you get Talos here to set you down on the examination table?"
Argonaut waved her hand, faint glyphs appearing in the motion of her fingers, and the metal man obliged and gently set her down where the speedster had been a moment ago, before rusting over and collapsing into dust as Ashley tugged on a fresh pair of rubber gloves. "You'll have to show me how to do that, Lord knows I could use one of them around here some days," Ashley bantered, gently assisting the hero in sliding the boot off her leg, before grabbing the portable x-ray.
"It....mmmph....comes in handy," Argonaut said, gripping the sash around her middle to brace against the pain. "He's certainly more durable then I am."
"Don't you have the Golden Fleece? I imagine that gives you a leg up."
Argonaut rolled her shoulders, the golden fabric serving as her cape shimmering under the examination lights. "Not if I'm getting tossed though buildings. Works great against bullets and acid, not so much against physics." A cheery electronic tune played, Argonaut's olive-toned skin paling slightly as she fetched her phone out of the secret compartment on her pouch and forcibly turned it off with a scowl on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"Mom and dad. Probably heard about how the fight against Dr. Sabah went-AAAGH!" Argonaut arched her back as Dr. Armstrong twisted her foot and made a loud cracking sound.
"Just a dislocation, going to put a cast on this until the tendons heal up," she reported, fetching some plaster and bandages from the cabinet behind her. "And I'm sure they're just concerned about you."
"They're probably more concerned about the sponsors," Argonaut winced through tears of pain, though still managing an impressive amount of sarcasm. "Looks bad for the brand if the amazing Argonaut eats dirt in a fight, better put her back on cat rescue for the next month." She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. "I can't deal with this, Doc. All this corporate shit..."
"You're not the first hero to come into my clinic complaining about it," Ashley chuckled, wrapping up her leg with a deft hand. "Back when I was in Needle and Thread, they had me doing field work out in the UK and I happened to find myself stitching up one of their heroes, Queen Galick. Had a lot of the same problems you did, what with her father's company HaxTech sponsoring her."
"Small world."
"She made it work though. Leveraged her celebrity over there to get all those moneyed interests to dance to her tune until she could break away," Ashley explained. "And I bet you could do the same. Being the daughter of a famous mythological figure has to count for something."
Argonaut winced as the cast tightened around her leg. "But won't that cheapen me? I mean, Hawk and Gattaca, they don't need to throw money around, not like I do." She lowered her head, and Ashley took the chance to put a comforting arm around her shoulder.
"You're still a hero, Medea," she told her firmly. "The money won't matter in the end. What will is the lives you save, and the good that you do with the gifts you were given. Don't ever forget that."
Clenching her fist, Argonaut took a deep breath and straightened out her back. "Y-you're right...thanks Doc."
"Always happy to help," Dr. Armstrong smiled at her, Argonaut weakly returning it as the last bandage was wrapped. "And there we go. I'd keep that on for a few weeks then come back and we'll see how you heal up. Just ah, if you could, maybe just levitate out of here instead of using Talos again."
"Fiiiine," Argonaut smirked. "Could use the practice anyway."
Ashley pulled her phone up to check her patient list again, glancing up for a moment as the clouds parted outside the window and let the sunlight through. Smiling a little, she scrolled through before realizing the sunlight was still getting brighter, the light reflecting into the room starting to hurt her eyes. "What on earth?" she sputtered, shielding her eyes. "Medea?"
"That's not me!" she insisted as she covered her eyes, the room fading to white around them from the intense brightness. "Maybe it's a-MMPH!"
The light suddenly dissipated as though someone flipped a switch, Ashley lowering her arms to see what looked like a golden scroll wedged firmly in Medea's mouth. She spit it out into her lap and tore the seal open in frustration, scanning the contents before a look of shock crossed her face.
"It's....it's from my great grandfather!"
Dr. Armstrong rubbed her eyes. "Your great grand...well, that certainly explains the sunlight."
"The gods never contacted me before now," Medea uttered, sounding awestruck. "I didn't think they still would, they retreated from mortal affairs centuries ago. I wonder why one of them would want to see me now."
"Who's asking to see you?"
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