Summary:A hooded figure explodes out of a derelict building. Three heroes jump in to help in the aftermath. Log Info:Storyteller: whitestar |
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The building used to be a fairly nice apartment building…at least until the disaster. Somewhat damaged in the attack six years earlier but sturdy enough to not be in immediate danger of falling over, it was nevertheless abandoned. Then, as the owner happened to not survive the attack, the ownership of the building has been tied up in litigation between family members, continuing to stand empty. Being that it's near to the disaster zone, there's not a lot of people wanting to buy it up either, even if it the ownership was decided.
So of course, people without homes have found ways to sneak inside to find a warm, dry place to live. Mostly homeless, a few runaways, even just some kids who want to party someplace away from where anyone will see.
That's why it's a surprise when the building suddenly explodes in a strange white light, carrying heat and concussive force.
The shockwave blasts out several of the windows, shattering others, a good chunk of the north facing of the structure blowing outwards and collapsing into a fortunately vacant lot, as the building groans, its structural integrity definitely shifting towards the iffy side of things.
There are some shouts and screams and wails from those unfortunate enough to be caught inside by the blast.
Save one. A tall figure in a dark hoodie shoots out of the hole and flees skyward.
Jimmy had been getting up to some volunteer work, helping cook in a nearby soup kitchen; there can never be enough hands there. This keeps him nice and close to the area, and set to hear, to /feel/ the shockwave rushing outwards from the building.
Screams. Fear. At times like this, most people — sane people — run /away/ from the explosions and the dangerous flying beings.
Jimmy doesn't think twice. He doesn't even think once. He rushes outside, to the side alley. As soon as he's out of sight, a change overcomes him. Light bursts from under his skin, radiating especially from his face and eyes. He spreads wings of fire and launches into the air, pushing himself to soar at Autobahn speeds.
And so, he soon reaches the sky above the building. His eyes lock with the hoodied figure, but he keeps his focus on other senses, feeling for those down below: how much fear can he feel running like rain on his skin? Where do people need him?
Every now and again, a Goth has to go to the cemetery, right?
Eve totally belongs there, and honestly, she's been sprucing up the plant life at the Green-Wood cemetery and putting flowers on graves for the better part of three hours now. When you can generate a panoply of flowers, well, you can make everyone's grave look like someone cares, even if nobody does.
Or maybe even should in some cases. How was she supposed to know that was the grave of a notorious murderer?!
But then there's an explosion, a shockwave, and she's on her ass with a 'whoof' and a long ow. She's staring up in the direction of that figure she just saw shoot into the sky. This is probably well above her paygrade but there's bound to be people who need help so she's up and off in the direction of the building, and hey, when she puts her mind to it, she can really book it.
And book it she does at a solid forty miles an hour, jumping over cars and dodging foot traffic until she skids to a halt near the building. "Fuuuu—," she cuts herself off.
The figure in question is trailing a blazing white trail behind it as it continues away at speed. An alert eye might notice a definite wobble and some smoke rising off the figure in question from scorched clothing. It doesn't seem inclined to linger, almost out of sight already.
Jimmy can easily sense fear from at least twelve people in the building who are very afeared. But then, their building just blew up, and it's hard to tell who are injured and who are just trapped. There are others running out of the ruined building from the lower doors, but from the angle of the explosion, it looks like it took out not only the interior stairwell but the fire escape too, the latter having broken free of its mounting and crashed to the ground next to the building.
This is especially relevant because it looks like the building has caught fire, on top of everything else, and is starting to burn merrily around where the epicenter of the explosion seems to have been.
There's no way Jimmy can catch up with that white-blazing hoodie; even if the figure's wobbling, it's still far faster than him on his best day. So his attention turns on the building.
His eyes half-close as he focuses on that feeling of communal fear, and he hovers down to the upper levels. From there, he's more than visible for an approaching Elder Goth. He turns to her and beckons: they're more needed up here than down there. And with that, into the building he goes, still floating to make better time.
The first thing going through Eve's mind is 'hey where are all the real heroes'? Isn't this sort of usually their thing?
She stands there, stares up at the building for what must feel to her like an eternity but is really only a few scant seconds before she turns her gaze towards Jimmy. He's harder to miss, what with the beckoning and all. She points at the building and, well…
…well, she runs inside.
At the time of the explosion, Sarah Black had just left her flat and was coming down the steps of the building it's in, on her way out to pick up some takeaway for dinner.
The resounding *BOOM* from a few blocks away obviously called for a change in plans.
With a gesture, she called a portal into being, the oval rising open in the air, edged by glowing mystic geometries. She stepped through, emerging on a rooftop around halfway to the site, from which she could get a better idea of exactly where the chaos was located. Closing that portal, she opened another, coming out of the other end about a block from the burning building, and breaking into a run toward the scene. "Bloody hell," she mutters to herself as she rounds a corner and gets her first clear look at it…
(Sarah's current outfit, for a warm Brooklyn evening out: https://i.imgur.com/4qC8Xkn.jpg)
As Jimmy floats in, it's fairly easy to see where it happened. There are some oddities, of course. Mostly, that the explosion appears to have gone off in an exterior bedroom, which is good in some ways…most of the force blew outwards, rather than back into the building. Oddly, there are also bits of what appears to have been a bed and mattress, now in pieces (and burning merrily in the latter case) scattered around the room, some fetched up against the shattered walls. Part of the ceiling has collapsed across the door leading farther into the building, a beam blocking the door from being opened at the moment, though it could probably be shifted. Who knows how steady the rest of the roof is now though? But he can sense several people not far away, probably in other rooms.
In Eve's case, running inside she finds the last few of the squatters who were in the building heading to the door, one helping an older man who has blood running down the side of his head and a nasty looking goose egg on the side of his head where something bounced off it. The lobby is pretty empty, with rubbish scattered around and a decidedly unpleasant smell of body odor and urine in places. The ceiling above is cracked, with pieces of broken ceiling tiles falling down occasionally along with dust as the damaged building groans. The stairway looks….well, bad. In that it's choked with rubble that apparently crashed down and took out the door as well as part of the wall. NIt might take some climbing and squeezing to get up through there, depending how stable it is. There is an elevator however, though no power at the moment. Still, the shaft would go up?
Sarah can easily arrive at the building. By this point the injured who have made it out have found a more safe place in a small park across the street, which is not exactly perfectly safe if the building falls over. And there are rubberneckers outside trying to get an idea of what happened, though to the neighborhood's credit most of them are trying to help the people who made it out. Meanwhile, outside, distant sirens start to draw closer as first responders are alerted to the explosion, police lights in the distance cutting through the dimmer city streets here.
Jimmy takes in the room. From what he can see of the broken remnants, this was a home, as good a home as someone could make it. A person lived here. The same person who tore their way up and out?
No time for those questions now. He hears the voices crying out, feels their urgency. Trying the door finds no luck. With a grimace, he heads farther along the wall. His glow flashes brighter, the man drawing on more of his strength, and then diving fist-first with as narrow a profile he can get, to burst through and into the next hall. He heads to the nearest next room, to force the door and give people a way out. "Elevator." That one word shows the twist in his voice: echoing and reverberating, like two voices speaking at once through a loudspeaker.
Eve carefully gathers up the injured man like he weighs nothing.
To be fair, he doesn't really seem to have any weight to him at the moment given that she's enhanced her strength with a moment's focus. Once she's sure she has him secure, she darts outside just in time to see Sarah portaling into the building. She starts to say something, but well, who has the time?
Across the street she rushes and then carefully deposits the first injured man down there before she's wheeling back around to go back inside. She knows what she has left to do.
Down with the survivors across the street, Sarah is asking urgently, "How many are still in the building? Do any of you know?" The replies come almost all at once: "Um, a dozen, maybe?" "No hablo ingles." "This many!" "Well, there's the old guy, and the bald guy, and…"
In response, Sarah says, "Right. Looks like the police and the fire brigade are coming. Let them help you. I'm going to look for your neighbors." And with that, she turns, picks out one of the blown-out windows on an upper floor, and opens a portal up against it. Bracing herself and taking a deep breath, she steps through, and starts making her way into the structure…
There's a crash of falling plaster and metal as Jimmy bashes through…but the building holds despite the new hole, though the roof overhead creaks and gives a bit, more pieces falling off it. Beyond is a fairly standard apartment corridor that runs between apartments on either side. Some doors are closed, some are open. Near one, there's a shower of spark shooting out from time to time, as it looks like a broken water pipe has combined with some wiring (that was probably illegally hooked up) to create a electrified passage that's currently keeping a trio of teens from getting past it from the apartment they're cowering in. From the look of it, part of the ceiling collapsed, and there are two more beyond that look like they're unconscious and in bad shape. The three who are up look a bit dazed and shell-shocked, so perhaps they're not thinking the best either.
The injured man yelps in surprise as Eve scoops him up, his two friends following her out at a run as she streaks across the street, then back again. It looks like the first floor apartments have been pretty well evacuated at this point…anyone else left is probably higher up. Grey smoke is starting to filter down the street as the blaze spreads. It looks like the internal sprinklers haven't kicked on for some reason, though there's visibly a water cistern on the roof. Maybe a bent pipe?
As Sarah steps through, the floor shifts a bit under her. There's a rather distressing crack across it, the carpet torn along the fissure at least that makes /that/ one visible. Though certainly not stable. The apartment in question is empty, but moving out into the hall, Sarah will hear calls for help down the hall, past where several people are trying to get the elevator door open. From the look of it, that end of the hall is closest to the explosion, and is partially collapses here and there around the room the cries are coming from. The three at the door look relieved. "Shit, lady, glad to fucking see /you/! Part of the roof fell on Marta, we can't get her out, we were gonna try and get the fire fighters up here or somethin'…"
Outside, the first police cars arrive, police piling out to start trying to move people away from the stricken building. Fire engines aren't far behind from the sound of it.
Jimmy curses under his breath — probably something overwhelmingly tame — when he sees that spray of electrified water blocking the way. Time to get a little creative. As he approaches, he lifts his left arm. Out of nowhere appears a silvery shield, broad at the top and coming down to a point. He holds it up to catch the water and funnel it to the side, out of their way. With a lift of his chin, he beckons to the teens. "Can You Move Them?" It's usually bad to move an injured person… but it's better than leaving them here.
Eve can sense every inch of life in the area. Every rat and animal scurrying to get out of the disaster, you know? It's a distraction. She's curious about the sprinklers, of course, and perhaps if she's lucky she might be able to do something about it on her way up. She's got to clear the rest of the place if she can, calling out and asking if anyone's there. Her range on her ability to sense life isn't enough to cover the whole range of possibilities, try as she might, and she wants to be sure.
She's in a hurry, though, and on the move. IF that takes her to the cistern, well… she'll cross that off the list when she gets there, but she's definitely on the move. And fast.
"All right, let's get you out, then I'll see to Marta and anyone else," Sarah says to the group by the elevator. Pulling her wallet out of one back pocket of her cutoff jean shorts, she flashes her SHIELD ID to them. "I'm with SHIELD, WAND Division. You're going to have to trust me, here." With her free hand, she conjures another portal, the little park across the street and some of their fellow residents visible on the other side of the door-sized, oval hole in the air with its glowing border of mystic applied mathematics. "Just step through, it's all right."
The dust-covered teens blinks at Jimmy, looking at each other, before one of the boys says. "Y-yeah…" He and the other boy and girl head back in, then start pulling the two out while the water is kept clear, pulling them out into the hallway past the snapping wires. "Can..can you help them?" the girl asks, a bit shakily. From the look of it, it's probably good the two injured teens are out…one has an obviously broken arm, and the other girl looks like she has broken ribs from the bruises up one side that are visible past her skimpy top and the blood from cuts. Movable…but definitely need medical attention soon.
Working her way up the rubble choking the stairway, Eve can…well…slither her way up to the next floor, with some creative twisting and wiggling. She's now on the side of the building where the facade fell away, leaving open space beyond the far wall. There's currently a teen girl hanging from the strap of her backpack, trying not to fall as she's both hung up and stuck where she is, tears running down her dusty face. A large middle-aged woman and another thin, blonde European one are trying to push boards across to give her something to put her feet on, but there isn't' anything big enough to make it easy.
The three are obviously a little nervous, but don't take a lot of prodding to move through the portal, disappearing to wherever it comes out. That sorted, Sarah is free to head down to the room, where she finds an older man with a graying beard who looks Arabic in descent holding the hand of a middle-aged Eastern European woman who's pinned under a support beam and part of the wall. It's a good news bad news thing…the beam is pinning her, but on the other hand its slanted so it's holding the weight of the rubble…somewhat. The ominous sound of wood cracking slightly suggests it isn't up to holding it for too long. The man looks relieved. "Yes, please, she is here, I cannot move it…" he says in an accented voice. "Please…"
Firetrucks pull up outside, their riders jumping off and out to start hurrying to set up hoses, others with breathing units and axes heading for the front after talking to some of the people outside. Just as they're about ready to go in, the building gives a creaking groan, part of the damaged north facing peeling away from the building to collapse with a crash as the building…shifts. Tilting slightly. The firefighters back off immediately, looking frustrated through their masks, trying to find a way up. And then three people appear int he middle of them through a portal, which is a surprise. Eve also now has a much more unobstructed view of the outside, and the girl is wailing as what floor there was has collapsed under her as the two older woman scramble back.
Smoke is now in the air, stinging the eyes, and making it harder for Jimmy to breath on the upper floor.
Jimmy winces with the irritation of smoke in his eyes, but he can hold out for a bit. He's more worried how well the kids can handle such inhalation. As soon as they've brought them out of the room, he steps away and his shield disappears. The injured pair get a quick look-over. He can help them, at least with first aid, but not here.
Like he'd said: elevator. He heads straight to it, beckoning the teens to follow. Once he's there, he digs his fingers in between the doors. There's no electricity, but there /is/ a glowy strong man, grunting with the effort of pushing the doors apart. There's still no electricity, but there is a glowy, strong, /winged/ man. He takes the injured ones first — cradling the boy's arm carefully against his chest, holding the girl more by the hips than the waist, for the sake of her ribs — and he floats them down to ground level as the first pair.
After taking a moment to assess the situation, Sarah turns to the Arabic man and says, "Sir, I believe I can get her out, but when I do, it may get a bit more dangerous up here than it is now. So I'm going to need to send you out, first." She conjures another portal, the scene on the street below visible through it, then tells the man, "Go. Be safe. I will do everything I can to save her. You have my word."
"Oy vey," says Eve when she comes across the latest scene.
She's been doing this sort of thing a while and this isn't her first disaster rodeo, so to speak, but every situation is different. "Hey, relax guys. I'm a superhero. Name's Morning Glory. I make things grow. It sounds silly but right now that's gonna save you, okay? You all just need to hang on and I can get you out of this. You first," she tells the girl. She combs her fingers through her hair and then says, "Okay. You two," she tells the pair trying to help her. "I'm gonna need you both to hang on, okay?"
She's moving closer to the edge of the gap where the girl is hanging over, glancing down, taking stock of the situation.
"Hey, what's your name?" she tells the girl, trying to keep her calm while she runs over her options. "All right. I'm gonna grow some vines and they're gonna wrap around you, okay? And then I'll unhook you. Do you trust me?"
And then she is, in fact, growing vines. A bunch of them emerging from the palms of her hands, blood oozing down from where they cut through her skin. They grow and grow, looping around her arms and then rising up towards her.
"Just plants, kid. It's what I do. I just need you to stay still…"
It's the best thing she can do. There are no other good options she can think of on the spot.
The injured kids gasp and moan out in pain as they're carried, but remain unconscious as Jimmy gets them down to the first floor, just in time for the building to shift, parts of the roof coming down on the first floor in chunks. But he can get to the door. The firefighters run up to help the two teens away as their leader says. "How many more? Building's gonna come down, she's already starting to come apart!" The kids are rushed over to a nearby ambulance.
The two older woman step back the blonde saying something urgent in Russian, the larger woman starting to wring her hands, but bobs her head as she backs up too.
The dangling girl sobs. "T-Terri…" She swallow, taking a gulp of air, then nods, her eyes widening a bit at the vines growing out as she tries to hold still for them as they wind around her. The building makes another loud groaning noise, a crack running against the opposite wall like a spider racing across it, plaster crumbling as the wall starts to shift, cracking apart.
The man hesitates, looking back at Marta, then back to Sarah, before he nods curtly, stepping through the portal a bit reluctantly. But he's gone after that, leaving just the groaning woman who coughs on the ground, her fingers weakly curling against the beam keeping her pinned.
Then the room shifts as the building shifts with it, the floor suddenly gaining an angle as the rubble shifts, rolling towards the lower end of the room and crashing into it. Some of it shifts off the beam at least…but the way the floor wobbles unsteadily, then a good sized hunk gives way under Sarah's right foot.
Jimmy delicately hands the pair over to the firefighters, unburdening himself. He starts to lift off again immediately, giving just one word in answer: "Four." That's two trips, so he'll have to hurry — especially with the building shifting again. He grimaces as he reaches the upper floor again; with him remaining upright, everything now seems at an angle. He can't leave these kids up here any longer; his light brightens as he holds out his arms to all three of them. "Hold On Tight." He'll come back for that last one, but the sooner these teens are away…
Vines! Vines everywhere! Grabbing onto things where they can, anchoring walls, trying to reinforce structure! They're still growing!
Eve's sending them everywhere, up to and including the girl in question, once she's securely locked herself in place, as best as she is able. "You two might wanna hang on. Just in case things get collapsy around here," she tells the pair who remained present.
The vines reach up, then, and grab hold of the girl and her backpack, unhooking the latter from where she hangs to where she can be clasped and lowered, lowered a long ways down under Eve's control as she bears the weight, slowly lowering hr down as she holds onto the vines. Down, down down, still growing.
"Ugggh," she says, "I am gonna need to eat so many plants."
Meanwhile, up in the increasingly precarious room with Marta, Sarah is making and rechecking her mental visualizations of what she's about to attempt when the floor collapse nearly catches her by surprise. Nearly, however, is as close as it gets, her rather good reflexes kicking in and saving her from a fall or worse. Stepping a bit to the side, and into the doorway (on the theory that maybe the structure is a bit more solid there), she looks toward Marta again, and concentrates, before using both hands to form the gestures to open this next portal with the required precision…
And then the glow manifests, spreading out horizontally along the floor beneath Marta, its exit irising open in the doorway, vertically and facing Sarah. Gravity does the rest, propelling Marta through and into Sarah's waiting arms. "I've got you, Time to go," the young British agent says, closing that portal and opening another to the street and helping — or carrying, whichever is more the truth of it — Marta through.
Once she and Marta are safely out and on the ground, Sarah yells, "MEDIC! I need a medic over here!"
The building shudders, shedding more pieces that crash onto the pavement, causing the police outside to start pulling their perimeter back, though the fire fighters still lingers, refusing to completely abandon the chance they can help. A quick dart inside to the shaft again then up and he's back at the other three teens, who need little urging to cling to him in every way they can for the flight down, where Jimmy can set them on the floor outside…right before the elevator cable suddenly PING and goes slack, starting to coil as there's a rumble from above…though Jimmy has a moment to react before the roof of the shaft comes crashing down on top of the elevator car, driving it down into the ground as it crumples from the weight, before the main motor for the elevator smashes down into it, sending a cloud of dust and smoke billowing out from inside.
You'll need to find another way to that last life.
The floor under Eve vibrates a bit at the distance sound of the elevator's roof collapsing, but for once, the building doesn't break away further for the moment, possibly because the vines are actually acting as supports for the damaged room. The girl squeaks as she's picked up and pushed out, the vines extending to set her down on the ground outside. Now it's just the other two women left, who are eyeing the vines nervously. Or maybe it's the way the building feels like it's continuing to shift…
Marta lets out a cry as she falls through the portal and into Sarah's arms, the beam immediately shifting the rest of the way to the ground as it hits the floor and breaks through it, the wall of rubbing tumbling forward as Sarah leaps through the portal just as she can see a good chunk of the room breaking away to crumble, the onlookers outside seeing the building…settle, shifting and then twisting in a way it should as it loses another large chunk, cracks running up the remaining outer walls. Paramedics charge in and snag Marta as Sarah portals outside, helping the woman over to the triage area.
The good news is that Jimmy can only sense four people left inside. One in the corner, and the three on the second floor where that weird vine just grew out of and set down a sobbing teen girl, who also gets nabbed and pulled to safety by the firefighters.
Having so many clinging to him at once is a strain on Jimmy's strength, and it hurries him on the way back down. Not enough for an actually bad impact, but still significantly faster than the delicate floating he'd done with the injured pair. He unloads them, looks back up — and then comes the snap. With a wordless growl, he steps forwards and out of the shaft. Damn. So much for coming back up that way.
But there's more than one way to skin a cat, and he just saw Sarah drop someone off via portal. So this tall, glowing, winged man floats up to the SHIELD agent and points back up to the building. "Second floor. Rear corner. One more." He can tell that one of those other remaining people is Eve; she can handle those near her, but as far as he can tell, nobody else even knows about that one upstairs.
"Okay, you two. Climb on down. Don't worry. It's /perfectly/ safe," says Eve.
"Come on, now. Get to it. We can't doddle. Come on," says Eve, refusing to budge from the spot until the other two are down.
And then there it is.
"Mew!" That little life form she *hadn't* quite gotten around to. "Oh, come /on/ why did there have to be a /cat/…"
She's gonna be a bit longer, here, thanks to that. Even if she can get the other two moving. Vines. Take the vines, people!
Sarah tries to keep her multiple reactions to seeing Jimmy under wraps, in the interest of urgency and professionalism. She comes admirably close to succeeding, in the great British tradition, though she's not quite in the same league at that with a certain butler over in Staten Island…
"Right," she says to him. "On it!"
Portaling, unlike more energetic spells, like combat magic, normally doesn't take much out of her. But she's been doing a LOT of it in a short time, here, and to get to where she needs to be, she's about to do a bit more.
That's the rub — Sarah can only portal to places she's been, or to places she can see directly (within limits). And so she needs to be able to see a suitable window to get to that last rescue Jimmy just pointed her at. And running is going to be slow, and only wind her further. She portals past the corner of the building at an angle, to where she can see the side wall. Again, to get closer to the closest window to where Jimmy told her she needed to go. And…
If she needs to, she'll kick the window in, first. But either way, Sarah will make her way inside, calling out, "Rescue here! Call out, so I can find you…"
The blonde woman heads to the vine without hesitation, starting to climb down..really almost sliding down it. The larger woman…she's a bit more unsure about the idea from her expression. Sadly she doesn't look like the athletic type. But she at least tries…very, very slowly as she starts trying to make her way down.
And the firefighters come in handy here. Because they have a trampoline for JUST such an occasion, several snagging it out of their truck and setting it up, then hurrying over under where the woman is trying to make her down. After a bit of shouting up at her, she finally lets go with a yelp and plummets to land on the trampoline as the firefighters grunt a bit with the hit, but then get her and the other woman away.
Leaving only the adorable black and white long haired kitten, its fur all sooty with dust and smoke, who has found a dresser and hidden underneath it, not knowing what's going on but not liking the noise and the ground moving!
A quick conference and Sarah is on the move, the portal taking her up into the sky, then down again as she kicks in the window with a few well-placed boots. Inside the room is a young boy, maybe ten…it looks like one of the better rooms, in that there's an actual lock on the door and it looks like a family has been living here, though there's no sign of the boy's parents or anyone else. Perhaps they're out? The boy is coughing furiously, the smoke having gotten very thick by this point as most of the building goes up in the blaze. But he crawls towards SArah, enough that she can find him. And more importantly, she can create another portal just as she feels the floor tilt…and keep tilting as supports snap and the shriek of metal shearing can be heard, the walls starting to come apart…
Jimmy gives Sarah a firm nod. Swift and professional, and with a quick way up and down — albeit at an angle at first. He leaves that to her, instead turning to help with those down at ground level as best he can. Starting off with the trampoline, grabbing hold of its edge with both hands to help them keep it steady for those coming down. Once they're down, up he goes to join Eve in there. Who's left?
A cat. Well, they're all God's creatures. With a rush, the light leaves him, and he crouches down, extending a hand towards the cat. He makes a low purring sound with a rolled tongue, trying to coax it out. "If only we had some bacon or something." There just isn't time to be too nice; if the cat doesn't come out soon, he just starts glowing again to grab the poor thing and take it back out with him.
Eve is grateful when the last person is off her vines. She snips them from of herself and lets them falter. She can work her own way down without problem. She, really, was about to go find that cat. She could sense it, but then there's another life there waiting to grab it. She's relieved. She wasn't looking forward to trying to find the dang thing.
She hurries out, then, at this point, trying to get herself down the side of the building. She's more than strong enough to pick her way down and, in fact, drops the last short distance away from the trampoline with a 'whoof'.
"Okay. So that was fun." She's dirty as hell. At least these aren't her /nicest/ clothes.
Gathering the boy tightly to her with one arm, her eyes stinging with the smoke, Sarah focuses her will, and sweeps her hand in the gesture… and even if it does require a bit more effort on her part, this one last portal opens, and the young mage carries the boy through it just before the room… ceases to be a room.
Down on the street, near the ambulances, the other end of the portal opens, Sarah's stride becoming more of a stagger once she and the boy are through. The horrific sounds of the collapse behind them are heard as if only a few feet away — which, effectively, they are, for as long as the portal remains open — but then it closes, a gust of dust pushing through as it's irising down, quickly reducing to a point of orange-yellow light before winking out.
Once one of the paramedics has taken charge of the boy, Sarah collapses to her knees, the rough pavement biting their bare skin. Wrapping her arms around herself, as if somehow cold despite the warmth of the summer evening, she trembles slightly, eyes closed and taking deep breaths.
The cat peers out, wide green eyes, but the offer hand and the purring noise causes it to wiggle out from underneath its hiding place where Jimmy can snag it and run for the way back out. At least it's a lot lighter than three teens! And with a few steps as the building creaks and finally surrenders to gravity, Jimmy is leaping out of the hole to fly down as Eve grabs for her vine to slide down, hitting the ground running as pieces of the building crash down around her as she books it.
The building…drops suddenly, the first story just compacting down as something important gives way inside it with a shriek of metal snapping. The building twists drunkenly, wobbling as it tilts…and keeps tilting as it inner structures crumple as the building comes crashing into the ground, shaking it as it comes apart…seconds after Sarah leaps through the portal, a gush of smoke and dust coming through with her as the room behind disintegrates.
For a moment there's silence, other than the last sounds of debris shifting as the remains settle.
Then a cheer and applause from the watching people and first responders, along with a few back slaps and pats. Everyone is out. No one died.
Not a bad night of work.
Of course, there's the mystery of exactly what caused the explosion still…but that can wait for another day to investigate.
Jimmy holds the kitten to his chest for a moment as he lands again. He's… he should be tired, but he just doesn't feel it. The most exertion he's done has been raw strength, and that strain soothes quickly. So there's just this strange stillness, not breathing hard as he lets the kitten down onto the ground, with a few soft pets to its ears. He ponders to himself: can he keep a cat?
But more than that, he looks around. Everyone is celebrating. Now could be a good time to sneak back out. He turns to leave, to float up, up and away again.
For her part, Eve is going to take a bit of a moment to brush herself off. Jimmy is noticed. He /and/ the confused kitten. She's eyeing that kitten.
Hopefully she won't eat it. Right? She's heading that way as Jimmy departs, though. Maybe she wants to get it on the petting.
It's not long before another of the paramedics hurries back over to Sarah, offering her a bottle of water as he asks, "Are you all right, miss? That was… I don't know what that was, but thank you."
Opening her eyes, Sarah looks up at the man gratefully as she accepts the water, and then the offered hand up back to her feet. "That… took a lot out of me. I'll be all right after I rest for a bit," she reassures him. Then, past the medic, she spots Jimmy about to take off — literally, in his case.
"Oi! You with the wings! Can I at least give you a proper thank you before you go flying off?"
The angelic figure pauses, shoulders gone tense as he hears that voice. Yes, she's talking to him. Who else would she be talking about, saying 'you with the wings'? Well okay, who else would she be talking about /here/?
So he pauses, not running off just yet. But he keeps quiet, turning to face her. The glow remains; as far as he's concerned, that's as much part of a secret identity as putting a mask on. He does smile on seeing Eve taking the kitten; oh good, it does have a home to go to.
And Eve has given Sarah a brief smile. She looks like hell, of course, but it doesn't seem to have a deterred her any. She's got the kitten in her arm like a baby and is busy scratching its belly.
"Let's see if we can find who you belong to, huh?" And with that, she's wandering off to question the survivors. WHO'S KITTEN IS THIS, ANYWAY.
Quickly opening her bottle of water and taking a sip — all right, more of a gulp — from it as she walks, Sarah approaches 'you with the wings' with a warm smile forming. The mask of professionalism has fallen away with the passing of the crisis, and the open expressiveness of the young woman's features is revealed in its stead.
"That was some brilliant work," she comments, as she comes close enough not to need to raise her voice overmuch. "So, you have a name, Wings? Mine's Sarah. Sarah Black." She doesn't mention her profession or her employer just yet, on the off chance it might spook the man.
Now things get awkward, or at least /he/ does. There goes Eve, the one person here he knew, and there's someone else talking to him. He's like a deer in headlights. Or maybe he's a deer /with/ headlights, given those eyes of his.
He adjusts his clothing, getting his tie sitting front and center again; it got a bit rumpled in all the activity. "Thank You." There's something almost meek about his tone, as if he's trying to keep it from being too noticeable that his voice booms like a thundercloud. "Never Chose A Name." He really should have thought that ahead better. What can he call himself? 'Angel' is taken.
"New to the life, hmm? I had a feeling," Sarah replies, still with that warm, welcoming smile. She holds out her hand as she adds, "Well, Mr. No-Name, it's a pleasure to meet you. You from around here, or an out-of-towner like me?"
He smiles, lopsided and wry. "Not New. Just Not Deep." He's kept his toes dipped in it, but no farther; what's more /new/ is encountering others, instead of his intervention being one-and-done. He takes a step back, wings spreading; he should get back to that kitchen soon, right? "From Here." While his voice is like that, he uses as few words as possible. He's no Hulk; he just absolutely does not like the sound of his own voice.
There's a moment when Sarah's eyes seem to change focus — or perhaps to focus on something other than what is plainly seen. And then they go a bit wide, before she blinks and her gaze appears to return to normal. "Bloody he—," she begins, before catching herself and saying quickly, "Or maybe let's not say quite those words, hmm? You're… the real deal. I wasn't expecting that." Oh, she has questions. SO many questions. But she won't ask them now.
"I… think I'd better go have some dinner before I have any other surprises to deal with." And, well, now she has files to read, and reports to write, both on the incident and on Jimmy in particular…
Jimmy purses his lips when he sees that shift in Sarah's expression. He feels naked, though he resists the urge to actually put his hands in front of himself. There are a lot of answers he could give, too, but not here and now. So he just gives her a nod, perhaps too eager, when she suggests going and having dinner.
With that, his wings spread again, and he lifts off into the night. Soon after, he'll duck out into an alleyway. From there, he shifts back to normal, and, as best he can… gets on with his shift at the soup kitchen.