TWENTY-EIGHT

Hank watched sergeant Epps get carried in an ambulance on a stretcher. More ambulance could be seen in the distance, sirens wailing. He was wondering how Katie was doing inside. He hoped she was okay. Those were some terrifying villains in there.

The ambulance with Epps inside drove off as other ambulances parked. Paramedics hurried out of them.

“How many wounded are we talking about?” a muscular, Asian paramedic asked Detective Ortiz.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Might be a lot of them.”

“All right, we’ll get inside then,” the paramedic said.

“Wait a minute, it might not be safe in there yet. There’s some superpowered criminals still inside,” Ortiz told him.

“So what do we do? We can’t just leave the wounded in there,” the paramedic said.

Ortiz shrugged. “Johnny Bubblegum and some girl in spandex went inside. Hopefully they can the situation under control for you to safely enter.”

For some reason Hank felt Katie deserved more than just being called ‘some girl in spandex’. “She’s called Invulnergirl.”

“Right, whatever. Anyway, I’ll accompany you guys while you go in.” Ortiz loaded her 9mm. She walked inside the building, paramedics following her.

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Hank was struck with the bravery of the paramedics, entering the police station like that, not knowing what they would encounter in there.

It was like Katie’s mom was able to read his mind. “I know, pretty heroic, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.”

“That Invulnergirl is indestructible, Johnny Bubblegum is superfast… Those guys are just human. They’re the real heroes of this city.”

“Now you sound like your husband,” Hank thought.

“I’m not saying the superheroes are doing bad work. I am just saying the non-powered, everyday heroes of this city need some more credit.”

It felt weird to just stand there while more and more paramedics ran past him. Shouldn’t he do something besides just stand there as well? Maybe the paramedics could use some help. Maybe Katie could. She’d been inside for some time now. How was she doing? She’d been such a good friend. Saved his life in there. He made his decision.

He clenched his fists and started to walk towards the door of the police station. “I’m going to see if I can be of any help.”

Katie’s mom stopped him, grabbing his arm. “We just got out of that hellhole. Don’t.”

“Why not? The paramedics didn’t seem to hesitate. If we can help, shouldn’t we?”

“We’re not trained medical personnel, Hank.”

“True. But we know the insides, we know the situation. Maybe we can do something to help them.”

“Huh, pretty heroic kid. But if you go in there, I go in there.”

“Sounds like we’re going then,” Hank said. And in they walked.

Paramedics were doing their work, bandaging wounded cops, offering some oxygen. It was like a warzone. He heard a paramedic say, “Looks like someone already managed to bandage this guy up with some sort of make-shift bandage. Not a bad job.”

Hank smiled, he knew that would have had to be Katie’s work.

He could see Ortiz in the distance, gun drawn, covering the paramedics as they went farther into the building. He followed her.

Ortiz saw him. “What are you doing here? Get back outside.”

“No, I want to help,” Hank said.

Then Ortiz spotted Katie’s mom. “You too? Are you crazy? This place is dangerous!”

“We know, that’s why we’re here to help,” Katie’s mom told Ortiz. Hank was starting to see where Katie had gotten her heroic tendencies from.

“Just stay out of my line of fire,” Ortiz said.

That’s when Hank heard Katie scream, “Help! Help! I need some help!”

He ran past Ortiz, towards her voice.