2013.08.09 - Fire Fighting

Now that school's out, the students at Xavier's have more opportunities to visit the city - and even more opportunities when they have the equivalent of a magical school bus AKA Pixie. She's good for providing transportation into town without having to rely on pesky trains and buses. One benefit of having your soul ripped out in Limbo, anyway! Although Pixie's not always discreet and it's with a flash of light that Megan, Cessily and Jocelyn materialize in the middle of one of the back streets in the quieter district of the Lower East Side. They don't exactly pass without notice, but at least it's not like appearing in Times Square. And it's not like they're discreet anyway - Megan's not wearing her hood up, so her pink hair could be seen from orbit.

"Here we go, guys! Metropolis!" She peers about her curiously and ruffles her hair. "Hmm, okay, my aim was a little bit out," she admits. "I don't see many shops," she says, disappointedly.

"I am so buying you a Metro North t-shirt," Cessily tells Pixie as they arrive. She turns her neck, twisting around to an uncomfortable to watch degree. "I think you missed slightly, Megan. It's okay, we can just head...." she narrows her eyes and gestures, "that way, and then up Broadwday. I think." She suggests with a paus.e Like Pixie, the silver mutant's not being particularly subtle today, with a pink tank-top and a denim skirt, leaving bare silver limbs to catch the light. "What do we want to look for first?" she asks, heading for the street.

Jocelyn rubs at her eyes as the trio arrives. Magical teleportation always messed with her sight for at least a few seconds. Jocelyn blinks the magic out of her eyes as Cessily speaks about where to go. Jocelyn is dressed in a pair of shorts and a green tank-top. She normally sticks out in a crowd, but when traveling with a pair of obvious mutants, it wasn't like she was the most noticable one of the group. "Yeah, that seems about right," Jocelyn responds, reorienting herself a little bit. "I think I have most of the stuff I need, though my closet probably needs a little filling out". She was still getting used to the idea of having at least a little cash to spend on clothes.

The police scanner is quiet today in Ben Reilly's apartment within the Baxter Building. Reed didn't want anything radiated, tested on or the like so Ben did what all teenagers would do from time to time when no one is watching: dance horrible to music and make a private spectacle of oneself while no one is watching. "We're up all night to get lucky, We're up all night to get lucky, We're up all night to get lucky, We're up all night to get lucky, We're up all night to get lucky, the present has no meaning," his computer speakers blare. Despite having the reflexes and skills of a human spider the powers did not grant Ben any rhythm as his dancing obviously needs some work. Luckily no one is there to witness the scenes that go on for five minutes.

When the song is over he breathes out and decides to just hit the street. Dressed in a black hoodie, the blue one had seen better days thanks to an experiment with radiation gone wrong, some long legged dark jean shorts and a bright blue t-shirt that features a cartoonish face of Heisenberg floating near two hands holding a beaker and test tube, Ben hits the streets with a smile and a jungle green colored back pack slung over his shoulder that holds the infamous Scarlet Spider uniform inside. He could never leave home without it. Taking one street then turning down another he pauses at something. Seeing a familiar face Ben gives a wave to Jocelyn as she is standing with a bunch of people he doesn't exactly know. One looks kind of familiar but he's horrible with names.

Pixie grins lopsidedly at Cessily and shrugs. "Dunno," she responds brightly, waving her hand vaguely. "Just... stuff!" She's like a shopping clusterbomb. She shrugs again, this time trying to get comfortable. She new feels right when she's got her wings covered up by her clothing and she's obviously aware of them laying under her jacket. "I just like looking, y'know? And we could go get a coffee," she says cheerfully, no doubt to her friend's concern. They're careful to keep Megan away from caffeinated beverages at the school. She looks around, peering down the street and notes, "They're someone waving at us. I guess we must look cool," she says cheerfully, before the grin drops from her face and she looks around some more. "Hey, can anybody else smell smoke?"

"And things!?" Cessily asys, trying and note quite succeeding to match Pixie's level of excitement. She hummms at Jocelyn and nods, "No reason we can't preview the fall season and dream of what we'd get if we had a black card," she says. Just as she hist the sidewalk, Cessily creases her brow and wrinkles her nose, sniffing at Megan's question. "Definitely," she says.

Possessing the ability to see energy, Jocelyn sniffs at the air and turns her head in the direction of it. "There is an awful lot of heat energy coming from that direction. My gut tells me something is on fire over that away," Jocelyn comments, pointing towards the direction the smoke is coming from. The teen then turns and waves at Ben. "That's Ben. Friend of mine," she adds. But she was not mentioning the whole Spider or Young Allies thing here. Those were things best left unsaid for now.

"We want to check it out?" Jocelyn asks.

Smelling the smoke Ben turns his attention away from the darling girls. His brown eyes are searching about trying to figure out what's up. He gives a goodbye wave to his friend then starts to head deeper into the city. Does the teen figure Jocelyn would follow? Probably. Although the other ladies are friends with Jocelyn Ben knows nothing about them. And even if Jocelyn is a MMA trained mutant that doesn't mean her friends are mutants nor does it mean they're heroes either.

Slipping into a restaurant the teen rushes into a bathroom, changes and slips out a window. Crawling up the building to the rooftop in the red and black Scarlet Spider uniform Ben looks about trying to find the source.

Pixie bites her lip and looks doubtfully in the direction Jocelyn indicates. "Ummmm... well, it's not my idea of a good time," she admits. "But we should. We might be able to help or something," she says, not quite her enthusiastic self, but gathering her courage to get involved. She peers along the street to where Ben was to find he's not there any more. "Your friend left anyway," she observes, then starts to shrug off her jacket, tying it around her waist. "I could go get an aerial view?" she suggests, conferring with the others. "Maybe get an idea of what we're up against?" Megan doesn't usually lack in enthusiasm, but she's not always confident enough to take the lead in emergency situations.

Cessily eyes Jocelyn. "We probably should," she says. Oh, the burden of being a hero and a paragon for mutant behavior. "Hey, where'd he..." she asks, looking for Ben, who's since disappeared. Cessily follows Pixie and Jocelyn down the street, towards the first, "Good idea, Megan. Joce and I can get in and take the heat. I think. Right?" she asks, looking over at Jocelyn. She's alreadyd pulling out her phone to call the fire department.

"Depending on how much it is, I should be able to weaken the flames by absorbing the thermal energy," Jocelyn says. She nods to Cessily and pulls in some kinetic energy to enhance her physical abilities. "I'll scan the building for life energy as well," Jocelyn adds as she starts to make her way to the building using the most direct, non-flying method possible. She knows where Ben is likely going, but she wasn't going to say anything about it for now.

Seeing the source of the smoke is easy when one is way up high. Ben lets a "Thwp" cut through the air and he swings off. The new web shooters are going on their maiden voyage today. Ever since the old pair went to The Spider, Ben hasn't really had the chance to fully test out the new ones. Today would be the day.

Getting closer to the building an idea strikes Ben and he doesn't go inside the building. "Clear a path," he yells then starts making a large area of webbing. It would work like the web parachute in terms of execution except it would act as a giant crash mat. The webbing is so far off the ground and aside from people needing to pull themselves off the webbing with all their might if he needed to push someone out of the building or they needed to jump the giant webbed area would catch and cushion them. Some temporary stickiness is just a small price to pay.

When the web is taut he lets out two thwips and both shooters have a stream connected to the building. "Geronimo!" Ben screams pulling at the webbing hard then slingshots himself to the top floor not really assessing the situation.

Pixie nods to Cessily and her wings flutter rapidly as she leaves the ground. "Just don't melt!" she calls out as she departs, lifting off from the street. It's not exactly deserted and she's able to get some space away from the crowds that are gathering in the area around the burning building.

The building itself appears to be one of the larger brownstone type buildings in the area - one of the older buildings in the neighborhood which has been converted into apartments. The smoke is spewing out of a number of windows on the lower floors - obviously where the fire is localized - meaning that it's entirely possible people are still trapped in higher levels. The fire department is yet to arrive, although sirens can be heard in the distance, so at the moment there's just a lot of people stood around, helplessly watching the building burn. From the reactions of some of them, they're residents.

Megan is absorbing all this and is about to fly back and report back to her teammates when there's a yell from nearby and she looks around just in time to see Ben catapult himself toward the building. Dark eyes open wide as she watches him land and there's a moments hesitation as she weighs up her options before she apparently makes a decision and darts after Ben, flying after him to offer what assistance she can. "Hey, wait up!" she calls out. "Air support coming in!"

"I try not to, as a rule!" Cessily calls back to Pixie. She rushes after Jocelyn, with the preferred mode of non-flying transportation for her being her feet. "Hello?" she says on the phone. "Yes, there's a building fire at...." she checks the sign and then gives the address. "It looks pretty bad!" she reiterates, before hanging up. "Five minutes," she says to Jocelyn, with a faint shrug. Can they help enough in five minutes? It feels like both forever and an enernity. "Man...." Cessily says, looking up at some of the lower floors, the second and third. "I'll see who's up there," she cells Jocelyn. Cessily jumps for a gutter, her arms and legs flowing out into tendrils and letting her climb towards the second floor quickly. The silver mutant swings over and smashes her way through a window, checking out how far the fire's gotten, and looking for people who may be trapped.

With the others all barging in, Jocelyn makes a mental note of their life energy signatures and starts drawing out thermal energy from the building. It wasn't going to be instantaneous for this building, Jocelyn figured as she takes flight and lands on the top of the building. But it would buy the others time to rescue the people inside, and hopefully help preserve the building.

As Jocelyn absorbs the energy, the flames should start to weaken and the temperature inside the building should start to drop as Jocelyn works on absorbing it. She is directing her absorption so that she's not pulling the energy straight through the building, but rather out and alongside the building's outer walls, just to avoid any extra damage that might occur.

Seeing Pixie fly in Scarlet says, "Pinky start pulling people out. If you can't fly people down push them onto the webbing. It'll hold," he says before kicking open one door. "I work with the Fantastic Four, trust the Ch-," he catches himself. Yesterday's Breaking Bad marathon is still fresh in his mind, "Physics," he corrects then looks about seeing no one. Pinky isn't meant as an insult he just doesn't know the mutants name or even a code name so Pinky would stick until otherwise.

Kicking open the next door Ben cries out, "Hello!?"

Moving inside he catches someone hiding under a blanket. A young boy around four or five is trying to hide from the danger. The boy cries out, "Spider-man!" Normally Ben would object to such a demeaning term but in this situation he would call himself Superman if it helped the kid trust him.

"That's right," Ben says and picks up the kid, "We gotta get out of here. Close your eyes and hold on," Ben rushes out of the room then jumps out the window. Instead of hitting the crash webbing a stream of webbing lances out and he swings to the ground dropping the kid. Repeating the catapult motions Ben flings himself back into the top floor. "You alright?" he cries out to pink haired girl.

The crowds start to edge back as the flames grow fiercer - but it may be that the main reason for making some distance is the sudden appearance of the assorted selection of would-be heroes who are abruptly crawling, running, melting and flying all around the building.

Megan backs off as Jocelyn lands on the roof near to her, giving her space to work as she draws the energy up the side of the building and she hovers nearby Ben, placing her hand on her hips. "Hey, wait, you're not the real Spider-man! The real Spider-man would say /please/," she scolds, and then she she's a sudden multicolored blur as she darts towards the building, aiming at the lower levels just above the fire and dragging out her souldagger from wherever it's kept usually. The glowing blade swings and a window shatters and then Pixie is through, disappearing into the building. She's out of sight for a few minutes, then reappears, darting back out through the window. "Can't find anyone on this floor, Buggy" she calls out to Ben. "I think everyone must have headed up away from the fire!"

Mercury rushes her way through the second floor, feeling the head bubbling up from below. She does feel a bit more melty, but is that accurate? It's just in her brain. Right? The silver girl uses her arms as battering rams to bust open doors and she works her way through fairly quicly, climbing up to the next floor with a quick dash through a very, very hot stair well. "Guys!?" Cessily asks, now on the third floor and seemingly alone. Where did the rest go?

Meanwhile, Jocelyn continues to work on trying to put out the fire, or rather draw in the fire. Jocelyn pulls in close to her capacity and launches a blast of thermal energy straight up, the bright red beam harmlessly disappating a few seconds later. She then resumes pulling in more heat energy, trying to put the fire out. It wasn't the most exciting job, compared to what the others were doing, but putting the fire out seemed like the best thing she could do in this situation. Those inside the building should start to feel the temperature decrease further, and the flames should start reducing in size or strength, and some may just disappear entirely before their eyes.

"Scarlet Spider," he corrects Pinky when he makes it back, "Floor clear then let's go below!" Slipping down to the next floor Ben starts kicking open the doors again, inside the room he starts to gently guild out an old woman that seems hesitant. "We can get you out of here I promise," Scarlet says then looks to the pink haired girl, "Got anything that can get this lady safely to her feet?" If need be he would swing the elder lady to the ground but would avoid traumatizing her unless absolutely necessary.

"Sure, whatever you say, Buggy!" Pixie replies with a grin and she darts up behind Ben. His attempts to avoid traumatizing the elderly lady probably aren't helped by the appearance of the dark eyes, pink haired, pointed eared mutant with wings suddenly appearing behind him, waving a glowing dagger. "Hi!" she says cheerfully, to the older woman. "I'm Megan. Let's get you out of here. Just grab my hand," she says, gripping the elderly woman's hand in hers before she can protest and then she waves the dagger.

"Sihal Novarum Chinoth!" she says in a hollow voice, then abruptly the pair vanish from Ben's sight, to reappear at ground level. Releasing the stunned old woman's hand Megan bows. "Take care!" she says brightly and then she's off again, swooping up the side of the building, her wings a blur, then pausing alongside one of the windows when she hears Cessily calling. "Hey Cess, hold on, I'm coming," she calls out, wielding her dagger.

Cessily thunks against a door. It seems to be locked. She thumps again, and then a thirt time and the door finally cracks, sending the metal mutant tumbling into the room. It's filled with smoke, if not flame, and hot from the fire below. "Hello!" she calls. It's the first locked door she'd encountered. Cessily waves her arms, as if she could just flail the smoke out of the way. She shoves open another door just as she hears Pixie poofing down. "In here, Megan!" she calls, finding a middle-aged man lying in bed. "I don't htink he's breathing!" she says with panic in her voice.

Absorb and release. Absorb and release. Jocelyn has a pretty good pattern going on here. Unfortunately, she has no communicator on her aside from her cell phone, and that probably isn't going to work well with the fire raging below. Otherwise, she'd come down to help Cess out with the injured person. At this point, a fair bit of the fire should be absorbed and dealt with, and Jocelyn was hoping to get the rest of it under control shortly. The teenager is sweating bullets up on the roof from absorbing so much thermal energy, but she's still going. This was why they did all that work in the danger room dealing with dangerous situations.

"Port him!" Ben says firmly not knowing CPR but at the very least getting him clear of the smoke would help. Hopefully if someone on the street would know CPR he would be grateful. Seeing the limp body just makes him work hard, faster, smashing open doors. He nabs someone's cat then leaps out of the window. Upon hearing someone cry out, "TINA!" Ben hands the cat over then flings himself back into the room. There's no rest of the wicked today. "Won't let anyone else get hurt," he says still unable to shake that limp body from his mind's eyes. Grabbing a pair of sisters that are inside Ben guides to them window and he says, "Gotta be brave okay? I promise you'll be okay," he gives one a light push then watches her hit the webbing that's been waiting to be used. Her sister gets the same push and lands in the webbing. People go to the girls and pull them free. "Pinky how's our patient doing?!" Scarlet yells to the street still concerned about the man.

CRASH! And Pixie arrives. Sure, she could teleport inside, but it just seems like a waste of a good dramatic entrance. She darts carefully between the broken panes of the window, taking care not to slice her wings and follows Ben to Cess's calls to locate her. "Hey!" she says, fanning away the smoke as best she can to try and get a look at the man, but quickly starts coughing at the smoke on the level, in some ways amplified as the heat is sucked from the flames by Jocelyn, leaving smoldering wood. As Ben works hard, smashing open doors, she moves to the bed, grabbing the man's limp hand, going to grip Cessily's arm, then quickly snatching her hand back, wringing her fingers. "Ow. Hot hot hot," she mutters, then coughs violently. "We need to go. I'll come back for you, okay?" she says quickly. "Some of us have to breathe /and/ aren't heat absorbent!"

Before Cessily has a chance to protest, she's gesturing with her souldagger. "Sihal Novarum Chinoth!" she intones, her eyes growing even darker as she calls on the magic in the blade and she and the man are both enclosed in the flash of light that reflects from the dagger, reappearing on the sidewalk, where Megan sinks to her knees beside the man, coughing. "Anyone... know CPR?" she asks hopefully as she wipes the tears from her eyes and people surround her, trying to offer their assistance.

She does try to protest! Cessily only manages to get her mouth open before Pixie shushes her and then teleports away with the man. Megan's good in a crisis, better than she might realize. Mercury, on the other hand, is rapidly heating up and not able to actually give CPR, it's best to get back searching. Cessily ducks past the door and clears the floor, then heads up another flight to keep up the search.

Getting off the building would be good, because it was getting rather uncomfortable up here. But Jocelyn wanted to finish putting the flames out, and so she continues absorbing, and finally absorbs all the fire and releases it into the air. The woman, soaked to the bone, then takes a breath and flies into the building, searching for people to help evacuate from the smokey building, channeling kinetic energy and 'blowing' the smoke out of the building as she flies and looks for people to help.

Ben keeps going pulling out, people, pets, anything and everything that needs saving. Big, small, or furry Ben would do what he can to escort them out to safety. Breathing out he looks to Cessily, "How many have you gotten out?" Hopefully someone would give him an update because he's not stopping until everything about the situation is contained. Or he would continue until the police, at the Firefighter's request, decide to come and start shooting at costumed people. Sometimes they would still do that. He looks at his fellow hero, "And whatever you want for the assist. I work with the FF and don't mind using their funds if you need or want something as a thanks behalf of New York."

Pulling out a few people, Jocelyn passes by the rest of the heroes. "Not seeing anymore life energy aside from us left. Think we're clear to leave," Jocelyn comments to Ben. At which point she's making her way out. She does stop down where the man who wasn't breathing, however, and gives him a quick dose of healing energy before she makes her way off somewhere a little less crowded. She didn't feel like answering questions or anything of that nature.