[FIN] Hard to Handle

[BlackFireKitsune]

"How is your shoulder feeling, dear?"

"Fine, Mother," Sera replied with a soft huff as she leaned back in her seat, her gaze aimed out at the streets as they passed, her arm laying across the open window.

"Leave her alone, Adelaide, she doesn't want to talk about it. I don't blame her, that was complete bullshit."

"Don't speak like that, dear."

The conversation in the car, though initially focused on the competition in Kanto, drifted to the decreasing level of safety the couple felt in Camphoreon, as Seraphine's father carefully guided their car into another lane. Despite the fact Sera usually enjoyed being the center of attention in some cases, in this instance, she did not, and with a dramatic sigh she leaned forward to lean her forehead against the back of the driver seat, and her left arm flopped outside the car. The vexed drumming of her fingers on its exterior displayed her irritation. "Let's just talk about something else," she suggested, interrupting her parents as they pulled up to an intersection and slowed to a stop in front of the red light.

"Magius," a quiet, airy voice agreed beside Seraphine, the Mismagius invisible as per usual.  

[Suudonym]

On warmer days, it seemed like it would be kind of nice to be able to move around the city in an air conditioned vehicle. Of course, it was cheaper and less restricted to ride Leste, but for short distances it seemed a bit excessive to trouble his Pidgeot. Such were the idle thoughts that occupied Luke's mind as he made his way alongside the trafficked street, headed towards the casual endeavor of acquiring groceries.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While air conditioning would've been nice, and Seraphine definitely preferred it, her parents were still endeavoring to save as much money as they could, and decided to do this by not using their air conditioning at all. Saved gas, her father said, not that his daughter believed that for an instant, but then again she didn't understand much about cars beyond how to drive them (automatic at least) and what most of the buttons did.

The conversation did not, much to the brunette's chagrin, change from the competition, Team Rocket, and Camphoreon in general. All she wanted was for them to stop talking about it, seriously, and talk about something else. Anything else. Like maybe what they were doing for Father's Day - usually it was some big thing for her father, but not this year. They could talk about that instead, but no. Her fingers continued to drum along the exterior of the car in her irritation, her forehead pressed against the seat in front of her and her gaze pointedly fixed rather angrily on her shoes.

The light turned green, and their car moved forward into the intersection, and before Sera could even hope to comment further on their unfortunate topic, a second, larger vehicle approached from a side street. Unlike other cars, though, its speed didn't slow, and the red light didn't cause it to stop - it suddenly crashed into the left side of Sera's family's car instead.

The smaller vehicle ceased going forward and instead was propelled to the side, but the deafening sound and the screeching of tires ebbed as both cars slowed to a stop on the opposite side of the intersection. The smaller car's left had been crushed inward and curved snugly around the front of the larger vehicle, and at first, the occupants of both cars were very still. After a dazed minute or two, the driver of the larger vehicle exited with only a little difficulty, and made motions of obvious distress and disbelief.  

[Suudonym]

Luke reflexively moved in retreat from the sudden cacophony of screaming tires and crunching metal, turning his attention towards the ceasing din as he realized there was nothing dangerous approaching his vicinity. He stared immobile for moments that felt to move much more slowly than they did in actuality. It was the kind of thing one would hear about on television, a few distant words murmured by a too-calm newscaster or an overdramatized scene in some soap opera. He was stricken, unsure of how to react, though he only allowed himself to feel that way for a short moment before withdrawing his gear from his pocket to summon emergency services, advancing shakily towards the small, mangled vehicle in hopes he would be able to offer assistance to any occupants - for the thought that they had perished in the impact was the farthest in his mind.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

At first, Giselle had absolutely no idea what had just happened. Everything was fine and normal one moment, and the next their car had been shoved to the side like a toy and crushed, its occupants jarred and injured to varying degrees, while she remained perfectly fine. Funny how that worked, being intangible. Her pink eyes darted from her unconscious mistress to the similarly unconscious father, and at a soft groan they darted once more to Sera's mother, who shifted a little as she regained a bit of her senses. She, too, looked bewildered, though a terrified confusion quickly grew in her countenance. "Vincent... Seraphine..?"

Passersby on the opposite side of the street moved in as well, after their period of dazedness passed, and one moved to ask the woman if she was alright. The other two occupants of the car, however, remained unconscious, though the bloody state of the driver indicated that perhaps one victim might not recover from the accident at all. The Mismagius's distress grew as she appeared in the rear of the car, fretting over her unconscious mistress as the girl's mother dazedly stepped out with the help of a stranger, though she continued to ask about her husband and daughter. Giselle, unable to comprehend the situation and unable to ask questions to understand, quickly floated through the distorted roof of the car to hover above it to get a better view, and hopefully a better understanding, of what in the hell just happened.

Meanwhile, the sound of sirens echoed from some distance away as emergency services headed in the direction of the accident, thanks to the calls of several bystanders, including Luke.  

[Suudonym]

Seraphine.

The named the woman uttered twisted something harshly in Luke's stomach that immediately sent his thoughts spiraling through wonders of how common the name was. It was actually really common, of course. He knew at least three people with that name, surely. Probably a third of Camphoreon's population had to be called the same.

The sudden movement above the car drew green eyes towards a painfully familiar Mismagius. Knowing nothing good could come of it but unable to restrain himself nonetheless, Luke maneuvered to witness the state of the car's interior.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The front passenger's side door remained open from when a stranger opened it to help Adelaide out, and it offered a perfect view to the interior of the front of the car. Vincent remained unconscious and slumped back in his seat, the slowly deflating airbags covered in blood as well as a majority of his person, mostly his left side - part of which wasn't even visible due to the crushed nature of the car on that side. Seraphine, on the other hand, had fallen to one side slightly, and appeared partially slumped forward. She looked significantly less bloody, though some blood was dripping down the left side of her face and onto the floor below her.

Giselle was mostly focused on the cars below her, and only paying a little attention to the people surrounding them, though as one particular head of red hair moved forward, the ghost zeroed in on him almost immediately. "Mismagius!" She cried, her tones distressed, confused, and upset as she quickly moved down to his side, looking to him with a small amount of hope that he could offer any clarification or consolation. Why had this happened? How had this happened?

A minute or two later, two ambulances and several police cars pulled to a stop at various points around the intersection, the staff in the latter ushering bystanders away as well as securing traffic, while staff in the former moved to aid the two conscious victims as well as quickly assess the unconscious ones.  

[Suudonym]

Despite his experiences, the sight of blood was not one he could ever seem to respond to calmly. He gave no resistance when the emergency responders encouraged him away from the damaged vehicle, looking dazedly to the distressed ghost that was suddenly at his side. "Giselle--" His voice came dryly, disallowing him from pronouncing his inquiries after the location of her trainer - because surely the Seraphine he knew was not involved here.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The named ghost turned to Luke with an incredibly concerned expression. Was this even something she could have protected Seraphine from? She could have. Surely, she could have, and the thought upset her further. How many times had she failed now at the single job her mistress had given her?

EMTs moved into the open door to assess the father while the rear passenger door was opened to get to the daughter, though it was quickly found out that both would need to be removed from their own side, which necessitated the removal of the offending car. The procedure to separate the pair of cars took but a couple of agonizingly long minutes, mostly because the smaller car seemed determined to remain attached to the opposing vehicle. The endeavor succeeded, though, and once it did Seraphine's unconscious form fell to the side once again now that her left arm was freed from its place where it had been stuck between both cars. While most of her seemed relatively unharmed, or at least not outwardly, the arm that now fell to her side and off the edge of the seat was visibly mangled and coated in blood.

With the girl freed, several EMTs removed her unconscious body from the right side of the car first and onto a stretcher that was hastily boarded into one of the ambulances, while the others moved a little slower with her father. Adelaide, in tears for the past several minutes, had been ushered away into the same ambulance as her daughter. Eventually the father was removed and loaded into the second ambulance, though it was a little obvious from the behavior of the staff that the less bloody victim had been their priority, while the bloodier victim was not, and indicated a rather morbid result. The police, on the other hand, took their time gathering information from various witnesses as well as from the opposing driver.  

[Suudonym]

Seraphine, his and Rosie's Sera, mangled and bloodied and destroyed.

But that was impossible.

Sunlight caught on the chain and pendant of a familiar piece of jewelry around her neck.

But that was impossible.

She disappeared into the ambulance, carried away by the sirens.

But that was impossible.

Something drove him nonetheless towards one of the officers remaining on the scene - or rather, drove him to move to meet the officer as the woman approached him for his commentary on the situation. Her questions went ignored, receiving in reply only an increasingly frantic repetition, "My friend. My friend." It took little time for the officer to understand the cause of his distress, and he achieved passage through one of the cars to the hospital, following a ways behind the departed ambulance. Unsteadily he occupied a portion the time spent in transit generating a message sent to Rosie:

s'ilv ouspalît venzàl'hpitla, jepnse que SEra est mort  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rosie felt her gear go off, indicating she had a message, effectively this drew her attention away from the immense flames that her Rapidash was producing from his attack, driving him forward in his attack.

It was from Luke, and like always, it was in French. The only word she could recognize from it was the name "Sera"
Moving the message over to the translator, she tilted her head, confused when it didn't seem to translate any of the message. expect for the last part.
"Sera died"

Surely that had to be a wrong translation... like the rest of the message. But it still sent a pang of worry thought her.
Instead of texting bag, Rosie just his "call" and held the gear up to her ear.  

[Suudonym]

Luke was by now a familiar face in Camphoreon's hospital, though he was usually on the other side of such affairs, occupying the rooms for treatment while friends remained in the waiting room. Sympathetic though the staff was, no gentle reassurances could make up for the fact that no one could tell him anything about Seraphine except that she had been admitted. He realized, before he had the opportunity to take to pacing, that his gear was receiving a call, and though he pressed the key to accept it and raised the device to his ear, he could produce no sound more substantial than shuddering breath.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rosie listened to the tone ringing until it stopped, and made the soft clicking as if someone picked up.
But there was no other sound.
Blinking once she furrowed her brow, "Hello?" She asked, wondering if the call was dropped, until a breath from the other end startled her. It wasn't a normal breath, and it didn't help her worrying
"Luke?"  

[Suudonym]

The sound filled his thoughts with memories of what he'd seen, of the screeching and the bleeding and the face of his friend unconscious, and he stood shaking. "Please come," he said at length in a voice on the verge of falling apart. "The hospital. Please."  

[Blood_Goddess]

She asked no questions, the tone in his voice and the words that she could tell he was barely managing struck immense fear in her.
She fumbled with her gear, almost dropping it as she just focused everything on calling to her pokemon, returning all of them except for Perdy.

She didn't hold him back, Perdy tearing through the sky as quickly as Rosie could handle. Clinging to the bird, and not daring to tell him to slow down.
She felt like she had held her breath the entire flight, and even when he landed and she scrambled off of him, allowing him to glide after her into the hospital where he folded his wings as he slid into the building after his trainer.

Riding boots thudding dully against the hard hospital flooring as she rushed in, stopping only to look around for a familiar face,
"Luke!?" or the front counter where she could ask for Luke, or... SOMEONE!