2013.03.30 - YAL: World on Fire: Part 1

The video popped up online only about ten minutes ago and pretty much everyone was calling it a hoax or some dumb new marketing attempt. A video of a few people tied up and gagged in a ransacked apartment, then cutting to three other similar scenes. It was followed by an image of a flame and someone saying a simple few words.

"They're all gonna burn unless the capes grow a pair and come stop it."

Despite attempts to take the video down, it kept coming back up and so far, no one's been able to trace where it came from. A link in the description of the video led to a livestream with only a countdown on it. Shortly before the countdown reached zero, a few 9-1-1 calls were placed. There was a fire in the city but when the countdown reaches zero and video clicks on, it's definitely more than a job for the FDNY.

In a particularly run down area of the city, there's commotion at an intersection. That commotion comes from the fact that an overturned and partially exploded fire engine is burning in the middle of the street. Walking away from the truck and towards the center of the intersection is what appears to be a young man made of rock and fire. Wearing a sinister smirk, he seems to be waiting for something. Arms crossed, flames flare across his body.

The strange young man isn't the only thing on fire. On each corner, there's an apartment building. They had each been previously abandoned due to damages and were being repaired. But right now the ground floors are all engulfed in flames. Strangely enough...the fire doesn't seem to be growing. Almost as if it's waiting patiently as well.

Around the time that the lifestream clicked on, an alert went out among the Young Allies' phones. There was trouble and they were definitely needed.

'''BREEP! BREEP!''' Xavin's hoodie chimes, barely beating out the breakbeat booming from the speakers standing nearby. Mid-pop, she fetches her phone from her pocket, frowns at it, then proceeds to continue popping and locking right out of the cypher of a half a dozen or so young dancers from around Suicide Slum. Just before shimmying off of the cardboard dance floor, she offers a broad wave and a hasty, "We'll have to settle this later; there's a--/dance/ emergency!"

And then she turns a little bit further so that she's just moonwalking away, because it's faster. Not faster than walking or running, of course, but--faster; she'll take flight as soon as she's out of view.

Soon enough, her baggie hoodie and jeans have been replaced by a sleek purple and black uniform, and her lower half is enshrouded in flames; if nobody else has taken care of getting them all on the line by that point, she'll start jabbing and pawing at her phone in a frantic attempt to get everyone on the phone and conferenced together.

It's that time of day. Mom's at work and there's Chinese Food to wait for, and then to eat. Robbie baldwin planned on ringing up some of his teammates to hang out, and barring that he would have just watched movie, ate dinner, and vegged. However, the beeping from his jacket pocket stops him; it's the doo-doo-de-doo opening riff from the Kim Possible theme song.

He pulls out his phone and looks at it with a frown. "Sorry," he says to the guy behind the counter as he slams a twenty down onto it. "Gotta dash. Enjoy it, it's on me!" And with that, Robbie is out the door.

He scrambles to the nearest alleyway and hurls himself head-first against the brick wall. Instead of blood and viscera coming from caving his skull in, there's a noise like an uncoiled spring as his kinetic field comes to life. A few rebounds off the walls and soon Speedball is racing...as much as one can race while bouncing, along the rooftops to get to the place given via the message.

Billy Kaplan had just made it to the SoHo Apartment of his best friend to deliver a slightly early birthday gift for Eddie and a box of Macaroons and some home made candies for for him and for Thor and Sif as well when the allert hit his phone. He made sure that no one was looking or in the area before casting a quick bit of magic to teleport everything he was planning to leave behind into the apartment before casting a spell to teleport himself too the scene where the flaming rock person is.

On scene were the the young man made of rock and fire is waiting the sky starts to darken as dark clouds seem to come out of nowhere. The weatherman deffenetly said it would be a clear day, and virtualy everywhere else in New York it is, but for a few blocks around the flaming bulding there is a build up of pressure as the weather is slightly altered. There is a crack of thunder, and a flash of lightning, and where there was empty sky over the part of the intersection farthest from the flaming guy there is suddenly a figure. The mysticly powered mutant teenaged superhero Wiccan has appeared, and he does not look happy. He takes a second to take in as much of the scene as he can while chanting to himself, "IwanttobeabletotalktotheYoungAllies, IwanttobeabletotalktotheYoungAllies, IwanttobeabletotalktotheYoungAllies!" As soon as the spell has been finished all of his team mates, and any young Super hero near by in fact, will be able to hear what ever each other has to say as if they were all sharing a com system. "Please tell me this is working. Any Young Allies that can hear me this is wiccan I am on scene at the fire and I am going to need some backup there is a guy here made out of rock...and he is on fire."

Gabriel is sitting in the rat trap he calls an apartment, browsing the web on a third hand computer when he sees the last bit of video and its countdown. When the video clicks over to the actual scene of the fire he opens a windows and start desperatly inputing searches until he finds what he wants. Quickly printing it off he sprints out of his apartment and up the stairs leading to the roof of the building.

There was the whole matter of Sif, Trolls, and Dark Elves to be worried about but once Axiom got the alert on his phone and saw others were trying to reach the tram, he excused himself from the situation he was in and made his way along rooftops until he reached the area. He arrived in time for Wiccan's spell to take effect, stumbling a moment. "Wiccan? It works," Axiom responds over the mytic commlink.

The young man's smirk spreads into a dark grin when Wiccan makes his showy appearance. Black fatigue pants and a tactical vest on over his lava-like skin and the flames on his head flare up. "About damn time!" he yells up to Wiccan. Throwing his hands up in the air, the fires in all four buildings suddenly flare to life and begin spreading. The flaming young man then reaches down and scoops part of the street itself up, leaving glowing gouge marks in the pavement before hurling the ball of feiry asphalt at Wiccan.

Anyone paying attention to the livestream will see that the battle is being broadcast live. There's also small feeds showing the tied up hostages from before. There are no clues which rooms or even which buildings they're in but they're there and in need of rescue while the battle goes on outside.

Wiccan nods to himself and lets out a small sigh of relief once he knows at least one other person is online with his little communicaiton spell. He is about to say something, but his attention is drawn immediatly too the angery young man throwing burning asphalt at him. He does a roll in mid air dodging the first volley. "Thank Thor! Axiom, I have this guys attention already. Get inside and see if you can find the hostages and I will do what I can out here."

He says before pulling his staff up to hold in front of him while his eyes start to glow. "Ineedrain, Ineedrain,Ineedrain!" He starts to chant adding fuel to the magic effects he had in place for his enterance trying to make the clouds open up and dump water not only on the villian, but on the burning building as well.

Xavin's finger pauses mid-jab at the sudden sound of Axiom's voice. Having been in a couple of fights with Wiccan by now, though, she at least acclimates pretty readily to the unexpected contact.


 * "I'm en route,"| she transmits while sliding the phone into a pocket along her mid-riff. |"I just have to--"|

--decide which one of those four flaming buildings in the distance to deal with first; the Skrull banks to a sharp, but brief stop once they come into view, then thrusts her fist forward and rockets towards the nearest. If she's at all aware of the fatigue-wearing terrorist, she's apparently willing to trust him to her teammates. She'll flame off just in time to fall to its roof, body going limp and rubbery as she descends to make the fall as painless as possible; once she recovers, she'll set about trying to get inside and search the place for hostages--or /other/ unfortunates trapped inside.


 * "I'm in one of the buildings now!"| A beat passes as she glances towards the clouds pouring rain over another building.


 * "One of the /flaming/ ones; I'm searching for humans."|

Gabriel stands at the edge of the roof for a few moments staring at the image he's printed from the computer. About thirty seconds later his transformation is done and a large chunk of the roof is momentarily occupied by a coiled red ragon. Leaping off the roof he takes flight using the burning buildings are beacons and in a few minutes his shadow is passing over the street where Wiccan and his burning oppoenent are starting their battle.

"Speedball, on my way," chimes a voice through the comm; someone sounds like they're talking into a metal rain barrel, what with the echo. He's following the glowing red light that's in front of him, clearing about a mile per bounce. When he hits the roof of one of the non-burning buildings, he comes to a stop to really take a look at what's up. He says something under his breath, forgetting he's on communicator and probably R-rated. With a run, he leaps off the roof towards one of the buildings, past the fire truck. He's not aiming for the building, but a fire hydrant in front of it, to at least get some more water on that blaze.

"On in!" Axiom calls over the comlink. He just grins a moment when he hears Xavin and Speedball on the line too. Them being around makes him feel a lot better about this whole thing. On burning building number one, he turns and heads for roof access to get inside the building to hunt for hostages.

The superpowered entrance from Speedball makes quite a splash. Literally. The fire hydrant burts open to send water blasting into the air. Of course now that he's on the other side of the fire engine, he'll see that while most of the firemen inside didn't survive the crash there are a few injured and trying to pull themselves from the burning wreck.

There's no roof access for Xavin but the top windows are all smashed out and there is a fire escape. Inside, the whole place is a mix of wrecked and mid-repair. She'll find a couple human-shaped scorch marks along the halls but there's no one on the top two floors. If she checks the streaming video, it'll be obvious that the hostages aren't on the first floor since they're not on fire...but that leaves the 2nd and 3rd floors to search.

Outside, Ember laughs. "Oh no ya don't, you little piece of GeneQueer scum," he thrusts his hands upwards and flames burst into being. In the air they twist and shape until Wiccan has a rather large flaming dragong flying his way with jaws open wide. Ember hasn't noticed the 'real' dragon on scene yet, too busy focusing on Wiccan.

A coat of interlocking orange pebbles over most of Xavin's skin keeps her safe from the flames, but they don't do a thing for helping her search for hostages--except perhaps for move heavy debris, if the need arises. Still and all, she moves from apartment to apartment on the second and third floor, shouting things like, "Humans! I'm here to rescue you!" all the while in the hopes of finding them.

The stream of water from the hydrants is not directed, but it's better than nothing, which is Speedball's thinking at the moment. He lands behind the truck, and nearly jumps back as he lands right next to a firefighter corpse. At least he doesn't scream; he's had some experience under his belt by now. Still, the groans of injured people are all over the place, and he rushes to the nearest one he can find. "People," he says, over the comm. "I have injured firefighters here. I need to get them out. If this truck blows..."

He's not all that strong, but he going to try and pick up one by the arm, sling it over his shoulder, and bounce them away.

It takes a little more effort than Wiccan was hoping for to get the rain to start to fall. Once he spots that large flaming monster heading for him Wiccan can only take a breath and use something as a spell that he has wanted to say since he first realized his powers were more than just tossing around lightning. "You Shall Not Pass!"

He does not have a large rock bridge to slam his staff into, being that he is still in the air, but Wiccan does hold his staff directly in front of him as he casts the spell. The spell causes a glowing blue force field to shimmer into existence in front of Wiccan before it expands outwards and forwards towards the dragon shape made of fire with the intention of hitting the construct and disrupting it before it can even reach Wiccan or anything else.

When Speedball mentions the firefighters Wiccan all but winces for a moment wishing he did not have the tendency to take the most flash entrance possible. "Go for it Speedball, I'll keep drawing agro and do what I can." He says the last pausing just a little more of his power at the weather, "Ineedrain,ohpleaseplease,Ineedrain,Ineedrain,Ineedrain!" With that little extra the rain finally comes, first a few drops here and there, but building from the first sprinkling bits

OK, so Gabriel didn't think this completely through when he chose his shape. Sixteen feet of dragon is mightly tough to get into a building scaled for human inhabitants. But at least it should make for a mighty good distraction. After sound one circle fly-over above the scene he folds his feet about ten feet off the ground and comes to an intentionally rough landing with a loud 'THUMP' behind the flaming guy, "Hey buddy! There's such a thing as too hot. GIrls don't like it much when you burn the skin right off them. So how's about we take a chill pill and you tell us where the people are hidden?" As he speaks he crouches down low to the ground, looking like an over large panther or tiger getting ready to pounce.

Some day, she's going to need to learn to fly. Or make best friends with somebody who can fly. Or get a jetpack. Beast can work that up, right? Man, now she knows why all those independent heroes have some kind of super travelling. Ms. Marvel flies, Spiderman swings, The Flash is...the Flash. Cessily round the corner - wait, no. /Mercury/ rounds the corner!

Yup, she's all geared up and ready for combat. Or helping. Either way. Mercury runs down the street, straight towards the other young heroes. "Hey!" Mercury calls up to Wiccan. "hey! Anybody know who that is!?" "It's true!" she agrees with Gabriel, "We don't!"

Inside building number two, Xavin will start hearing people calling for help shortly after she starts calling out on the second floor. With the flames starting to grow more intense, Xavin will find the people in one of the freshly renovated apartments. But she'll also hear people inside yelling to be careful about the door. Should she ignore that warning, she'll get doused in some kerosene upon opening the door. Yes, the old 'bucket above the door' trick but with a flammable liquid instead of water. There are only four people tied up in the room, bound at the wrists and ankles.

The hydrant helps Robbie more than flaming building number three. It's helping to kill the flames on the truck. The firefighter Speedball helps mumbles a mix of thanks and that there are two more hurt still trying to get away from the truck. Thankfully it's a small guy and he lost some of his heavy gear in the wreck.

The fiery dragon slams into the barrier and rebounds off. It tumbles in the air but manages to stay whole. Wings beat the air and send little embers down on the street below. The rain falling not only starts to help keep the flames at bay in the building but it shrinks the dragon a bit. It doesn't stop it, the feiry beast lunging at Wiccan again.

Ember stumbles when Gabe-the Big Red Dragon lands behind him. Turning with a laugh, he keeps that sadictic grin on his face. "Like a lizard like you knows how to please a girl," he snaps, swinging arms in Gabe's direction. He's not trying to hit the dragon. No, there's a pair of small explosions under nearby cars that send a pair of them rocketing at Gabe to explode on impact with him. When he hears Mercury, Ember looks her way and sneers. "Like anyone'd touch a freak like you," ...he has no room to talk given his appearance but apparently he thinks differently.

"I've found the hostages," Axiom's voice comes over the mystic com-link. "I'm g-going to try to get them out now."

/Most/ of Xavin is sheathed in durable orange rock, so mostly, the kerosene just gathers in all the nooks and crannies covering her body, then sluices down to the ground and pools at her feet.

Mostly.

Her head, neck and left shoulder are all completely exposed, and thus drenched in flammable liquid; before she can move, a lick of flame catches her hair and rapidly races towards her scalp.

The resulting cry of shock and pain is audible over the commlink, but it's mercifully brief; a quickly and tightly applied forcefield is enough to snuff the flames out, and once they're clear, she bustles into the room to deal with the hostages.

"Come on," she hisses, shredding through bindings with invisible, razor-sharp fields as she holds her hand out towards the foursome. Her hair is several inches shorted, and whorls of raw, freshly burned skin are visible through the incinerated shoulder of her uniform. "I will protect you." Once they're clear, she'll make good on that promise--even if they /don't/ actually come to her; it's just a matter of throwing forcefields around the lot of them and carrying them out like so much live cargo.

They'll thank her later; she's sure of it.

"Good job, Ax-Man. Be safe. You too Wiccan." A wizard who tanks. That, like, totally violates so many rules! Speedball has the man's weight pressing on him, but he's able to get enough impace to send him bouncing out of the area, someplace safer. "I'll get them out. Promise," he says and turns to go back into the blast zone.

He does see Red Dragon appear, and he beams a smile. "It's the American Dragon! Dude, your show was awesome!" He doesn't stop to chat, and leaps behind the truck again to go after the other living folks, to get them away.

Wiccan blinks, and then blinks again when the little spots form the light of his spell and the fire dragon clear and behind the bad guy is...an actual dragon. "Never mind. I think that guy is going to tank for us now." It is most likely a good thing, Wiccan has played WoW enough to know that the mage should not be the one pulling agro anyway.

With new heroes showing up on scene Wiccan pulls backwards form the combat a little more muttering to himself. "Addthemtothecom, Addthemtothecom, Addthemtothecom!" The magic at least is easier than altering complex systems like the weather as Wiccan makes it so that the spell letting everyone hear each other easily now has the Red Dragon and Mercury included as well.

Seeing that the fire dragon is still holding together Wiccan dives to avoid it as it lunges at him again. "Fine, you want to do this the hard way..." He says while making sure that he does not get touched by the creature and trying to get behind it. If he can get behidn the thing he quickly chants out, "FeelthecoldofJotunhiem, FeelthecoldofJotunhiem, FeelthecoldofJotunhiem!" He chants while focusing on thoughts of cold before firing a burst of ice and freezing winds from the end of his staff at the fire dragon.

Wiccan cannot help but throw in his two cents though on Speedball's comment. "Totally awesome, but still not as cool as Ben Ten."

"Awwwww Man!" The dragon flattens itself as much as possible to the ground, letting the two cars mostly ram over each other then fall on top of him with much less force than they would have hit if they'd managed to sandwich him. For a moment it shakes its head in a surprisingly human gesture as it tries to shake off the impact.

Then he narrows his eyes and pushes back off the ground, shifting the cars and letting them fall to his sides as he literally growl, "That hurt. I think I might eat you for that one." Once the cars are far enough off him he opens his wings to their widest then fans them forward in one tight, sudden movement, trying to blow Ember of his feet with a gust of wind.

Mercury's forearms stretch out into long blades and she rushes at Ember. Her silver face looks serious, determined, and if one looks past that, quite hurt. She shouts angrily, "You're hurting people!" followed by a swipe which, if it connects, will indeed hurt Ember. The irony is lost on her. There's a pop and a snap as Mercury connects up to the comms. ~Magic?~ she asks. ~ I don't do so hot with mag.....where!? Are they okay!?~

The hostages scream when they see Xavin burning, thinking it's Ember come after them again for a moment. By the looks of it, Ember just grabbed random people off the streets. Some homeless, others still dressed for their jobs. When Xavin snuffs out the fire and comes in to free them, the hostages calm a little. Not a lot...but enough that they aren't panicking for the most part. There's various noises of discomfort and annoyance when they're bubbled up but they don't complain too much. There are three ways out for Xavin and her cargo...back up the way she came, down through the still burning first floor, or improvising an exit.

The fireman thanks Robbie, leaning against the bench he'd been placed on. He mumbles something about Speedball being a good kid before passing out. When Speedball arrives back at the wreck, one of the firefighters is trying to drag another out of the wreck but he's not having much luck considering he's only got one arm he can use and the other's apparently broken.

The firedragon goes flying over Wiccan, a few sparks raining down on the mage as the dragon passes. it arcs in the sky, leaving a trail of steam. They hurt as they strike him, burning little holes in his costume as well. As it turns, Wiccan will feel a familiar rush of power from his best friend that makes the spell that much more effective. The icy blast is larger than expecting. As the dragon comes down, it's head and one of it's wings are encased in ice. This makes the beast go into a nose dive, crashing down towards the street. The ice shatters and the remaining fire disperses.

Ember just laughs, sending fireballs flying at the dragon. "I'll give you one hell of a case of heartburn, handbag!" he snaps, lifting arms to shield himself from the wind. He gets pushed back several feet but stays standing, leaving a glowing trail of melted asphalt. The sudden slash from Mercury leaves a new glowing break in the rocky skin of Ember and leaves Mercury's bladed arm glowing with the heat. Ember curses a few times under his breath before swinging a fist encased in flames at Mercury's face.

Around the same time Wiccan feels the boost, a window in building number one shatters outwards with lightning. Moments later, Axiom floats out of the building carrying hostages on a magic platform. His costume is a mix of his own and Wiccan's at the moment. "Don't worry. Wiccan's m-magic is safe," he tells Mercury over the mystic link. "I've got one set of hostages. There are t-t-two more!" since he's sure Xavin rescued hers.


 * "This building is--hh--clear,"| Xavin breathlessly confirms as she squints at one of the apartment's walls through the squared frame of her hands. The invisible field around her body is great for keeping out the flames ravaging the building around she and the hostages... and the oxygen she needs to survive; after several minutes of running from floor to floor and breathing in fumes, going out the way she came is out of the question. Thus the wall, which, after a few seconds of contemplation, she makes disappear with a wave of her hand and a shockwave of invisible force.

"Hang on!" she instructs her charges as she and they are carried along in the shockwave's wake, right through the eventual hole; they are surrounded by a flaming shower of shattered building materials as they descend, and though she slumps against a wall once they touch down, she makes sure to maintain the field until the hostages aren't in any immediate danger of taking a brick or a length of rebar, or something to the face.

"There," she exhales, voice carrying to the hostages and her teammates all onceit looks clear; at that point, the fields drop, and she gestures in the general direction of the the closest-sounding sirens. "I--hff--suggest that you find help of some kind--I'm sure you need it, I'll--be right along." To prove it, she slumps further along the wall as she speaks, until she's pretty much just sitting on the ground, all the while blinking rapidly to try and clear the darkness settling in over her vision.

"I--just need to /rest/ a while..."

"Wic, we'll fight to the death about it later." Speedball pauses in his speech as others are added to the mystic comm. "Hi, I'm Speedball. Resident stufmuffin, haters to the left. Anyways, you guys are doing awesome, Dragon and T-1000 girl. Keep him busy." He sees the one firefighter struggling, and moves over to him. "We'll get them," he says, and tries to lift some of the wreckage. However, he's not strong enough, at all. But how...! "Got it," he says, and sticks part of his arm inside the wreckage. He slams said arm on the inside, away from the trapped man, which creates an impact. Therefore, bubbles. Which means more impact, then more bubbles, which wuill quickly overtake the volume of the space the third firefighter is trapped in.

Wiccan grins hearing the Red Dragon. "It is mutant powered magic if that makes you feel any better. No danger to anyone on the side of angels...or Dragons I guess in this case. And Speedball save the day now flirt later." He was about to make the same heart burn quip when Ember does it for him. The teen mage makes a mental note; find less obvious jokes for witty banter.

When Wiccan feels the boost from Axiom it is just at the perfect moment. He was starting to sag a little in the energy department thanks to slinging around some effects that have been mostly new to him and those burning embers hitting him. With Ember nicely distracted by Jake Long and the T-1000 and the energy top off form Eddie he starts weaving a spell to help get the rest of the people in need of assitance. "Showmewhoneeedshelp, Showmewhoneeedshelp, Showmewhoneeedshelp!" With the spell images start to appear around him wrapping around a non-existent screen where he can move them and zero in on them. Once he can find the last of the hostages in each building he will direct Axiom to the right floor and area on one and head for those that are trapped in the other.

.oO(Voices in my brain. Guess I've been hanging out too much with Deadpool. Whaetever works I guess...) The red dragon starts to stalk towards Ember only to rear up on his hind legs as the fire fire bolts hit him. "Ow! Crap! OK, so red dragons aren't invulnerable to fire!" The spots were the fire bolts hit are glowing red and the scales have warped the way badly tempered metal will when exposed to extreme heat. With a big jump the dragon takes wing, grabbing the bumper of one of the ruined cars in passing and using it to swipe at Ember as he flies past him, "How about ytou Silver Doll? How's the heat treating you?" Did he just flirt with Mercury? That Silver Doll sounded kind of flirty...

Mercury eeps and sees the flaming fist come towards her, suddenly bending and melting her body down halfway to avoid it, leaving her to have to pull herself back together and then try another swing. This time it's a large arm-club zooming out at Ember like a piston. "I'm not a robot!" Mercury protests over the comms. "How do we even slow this guy down? Ice? Water? That fire extinguisher chemical stuff?" She really should have asked about that in chemistry class last year.

Thos hostages are pretty grateful to Xavin for the rescue. So much so that two of them are offering shoulders to help Xavin get away from the area when she looks like she's passing out.

The firefighter makes a startled little noise when Speedball. For a moment it looks like he'll be yelling at Robbie to get out of there but then the costume registers with him. He watches what Speedball is up to and helps to pull the third firefighter free. Of course Robbie's smacking his arm against hot metal so he may be getting burnt. Once the firemen are free, the second starts helping the third up and away from the truck. "Thanks, kid. We need to get outta here!"

Axiom lands and ushers his rescued hostages away from the danger and towards the incomming sound of sirens. He looks up towards Wiccan when he notices the spell and flies towards him. The spell produces results quickly. In building three there's four hostages huddled in the top floor and in building four, there's three hostages out cold on the third floor. Axiom heads that way quickly.

When his punch misses, Ember lets the flames fly to blast a glowing pot hole into the street. Mercury's blow catches him in the stomach and sends him flying right into the car but Mercury may want to worry about the fact that there's flammable liquid on her arm now...likely Ember's blood. Ember meanwhile ends up sprawled on the street. Groaning he tries to get up only for something surprising to happen. A yellow blur shoots by and scoops the feiry teen up. Seconds later, all the assembled heroes will suddenly feel gravity slamming down on their backs like someone turned the gravity setting up to 11. Up in the sky are two more costumed young men. One is in yellow and has white hair and blank eyes to match. Wiccan and Axiom might think he's someone familiar given their fanboyism but it's not who it might seem at first given the fact that he's got Ember slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatos. The other young man has slick black hair and tight black costume, his hands surrounded by a glow of power. "So sorry. Our little mutant friend here wasn't supposed to come out. He's grounded. So sorry for the trouble and thank you for keeping him occupied," the young man in black drawls with a taunting tone. He nods to the one in yellow before they both start flying off. When they're out of sight, the gravity effects fade...and there's still two sets of hostages to rescue.

"Ow ow ow hot ow hot ow!" When the last firefighter is freed, Speedball's there shaking the arm that was inside, to try and cool it down. It's had contact with red hot metal, but at least it isn't on fire. His costume is charred and blackened in some places, the skin underneath red and blistering. "Ow, damnit," he mumbles, but he faces the two FDNY guys with resolve. "That, I can do," he says, puts an arm around each of their waists, and bounces off to where the Ambulance lights are coming from.

Wiccan gets to miss the rescue of the villain and the total 'Bwah!' moment posed by his friend. The instant he had the location of the last hostages he was gone, flying full speed at a window and chanting to himself. "Gonnaneedaforcefield, Gonnaneedaforcefield, Gonnaneedaforcefield!" A force field shimmers around him just in time to protect him as he smashes through a window into the building taking the fastest route he can without teleporting. Once he gets to his set of hostages he is quickly chanting spells to dissolve their bonds and surround them in bubbles of blue light to send them out and to the safe place where Ambulances and firemen are staging and doing triage with the injured already filtering out of the area.

Red Dragon slams to the ground again, this time not of his own volition as the gravity becomes strong enough to negate his ability to fly. NOt strong enough to keep him from turning his head to the side to be able to see the newcomers, "Hey! That's /our/ collar! Bring him back!" He's in the process of trying to get back to his feet when the extra gravity disappears resulting in him ending up rearing on his hind legs again. Since the 'bad guys' are gone he uses his long next to reach closer to Mercury and check up on her, "And who said you were a robot? Not me. How're you holding up?"

After checking up on the girl he asks, "So did we get all of the hostages out?" as he turns his head to look around and see what else is going on.

Ker-chunk! Some poor public works guy is going to have to fix that hole. Thankfully, that's not Cessily's problem, at least not at the moment. She makes very satisfying contact with Ember's stomach, sending him flying. "I'm on fire!" she reports, twisting her arm-club around, trying to envelop the fire to put it out. Mercurys' too involved in that task to notice the two flyers zoom in and snatch Ember away from them. "Wha....wha just happened?" she asks, baffled.

The FDNY guys make startled noises when Speedball bounces them to safety. One of them looks like he wants to grab onto the teen for dear life. Speedball finds quite a few ambulances set up and ready for the people he's rescued. EMTs quickly help take the firefighters from Speedball to get them to ambulances. One of the EMTs spots Speedball's arm and insists he let her treat it.

Luckily enough for Wiccan, his method of entering the room lets him bypass the trap at the door entirely. A section of floor by the door has been burnt away to give anyone charging in a nasty drop down through other holes in other floors all the way to the basement. The hostages aren't in the best of shape when Wiccan finds them, all passed out from the thick smoke filling the room. They're alive but they're dead weight in terms of being carried out.

Thankfully for Mercury, the fire goes out when smothered. The rain from Wiccan's spell helps too, the whole area a mess.

"I've got the last of them," Axiom calls over the comms as he floats hostages out of the last building. The fires are dying down in the rain now since Ember isn't in the area. "I'm pretty s-s-sure we won."

A beautiful woman wants to make physical contact with him! Except that it's an EMT and it's all professional. It's only when she makes Speedball stop that his adrenaline rush starts to fade out, and he realizes that he's got some pretty bad burns. He gasps with the sudden rush of pain, and she leads him to a gurney to sit on before he passes out. "You guys're awesome," he says through the comm. "Just so you know. I got burned. Over with the ambulances-agh!" Sure, the burn creme can sooth the pain, but applying it hurts like hell.

Once he has the hostages out of the building Wiccan follows out into the storm he whipped up to start with. He ends up coming to a landing in the middle of the destruction caused by the villain, rain still pouring around him while he closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths. "Axiom, do me a favor and if I pass out make sure no one draws anything on my face with a sharpie. Everyone else before the com spell ends awesome job." That said he starts to chant, this time it takes him a bit longer than his normal three iterations to get hte spell out. "Iwanteverythingfixed, Iwanteverythingfixed, Iwanteverythingfixed!" When the spell goes off there is a crack of thunder, oddly the first one since Wiccan's appearance no matter the storms and a wave of blue energy washes away from the teen fixing everything torn up by Ember as it passes. Or at least almost everything. There is only so much even Wiccan can do and the first floors on all four buildings are still going to need a lot of refurbishment, but at least all the structural damage will be fixed.

Once the light passes in the center of the combat zone Wiccan is no longer standing. Instead he is laying there passed out but still breathing and perfectly ok physically speaking.

With those rapid undulations of her arm, Cessily's no longer on fire. She doesn't really burn, not anymore, but it's no fun to be on fire, and it does kind of /melt/ here, which is arguably even worse. "Hope he's okay," Cessily says as Speedball gets loaded into the ambulance. "This whole thing might actually work out," she observes. "Who wants to go get coffee?"

Red Dragon thanks everyone else through the mystical comm link, "It was fun. Good job and all that. Now its time for me to get out of here before /I/ start a panic." He bunches up his back legs under him then jumps into the air. A few strong flaps of his wing and he's high enough to be almost invisible then he disappears completely, as if by magic.

Axiom nods, continuing to boost Wiccan while he works. "We'll c-c-come get you in a minute, Speedball. Wiccan's fixing things," he reports over the comm. The power booster stays close by Wiccan, watching as his magic restores damages. He's right there to catch Wiccan when he passes out. When things are done, he helps his team out of the area with powers borrowed from Wiccan. He'll take them back to the Terminal for rest and recovery. Of course he's glad his own injuries are hidden, not wanting to worry his friends. More members of the FDNY arrive to assist in putting out the remaining fires and NYPD members show up to help as well.

The stream continues to display this all for a few moments longer before cutting out. Static and a simple message are displayed on the screen before it all ends.

"This is just the beginning - Your Betters"