maskormenacelogs | This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never

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This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never

WHO: Jacob Taylor and Power Girl
WHERE: Outside an office building in De Chima
WHEN: Let's say backdated to Friday afternoon!
WHAT: A fire at a research lab in De Cima leads to a chance meeting and some impromptu heroing between two ImPorts
WARNINGS: Mild violence?

Jacob is having an interesting time lately with his walks. First wandering around Heropa led him into a chase involving crows and earrings, now he has come to job-hunt in De Chima just in time for things to start exploding. Part of Jacob isn't all that surprised when the steel and glass facade of a building called 'VisaLabs' blasts outward into a fireball: De Chima has a reputation for bleeding-edge research, and Jacob has spent enough time around certain Salarian scientists to know what that means.

It's a bad situation. A blast that big, there have to be plenty of injuries among the office workers inside, and considering how quickly fire and smoke spreads across the face of the building like a stain, not everyone is going to have time to evacuate. Jacob himself is poorly-attired for any impromptu rescue work: just slacks, a jacket, and a nicer shirt than usual in case he wound up in a job interview. He's pretty sure these clothes are going to get messy before this is over.

The thought of walking away and leaving things to the firefighters and paramedics never enters Jacob's head. In a moment his body is covered with a shimmering purple barrier of biotic energy, and he's rushing forward toward the burning building that people are running out of. Somewhere behind him, sirens begin to wail.

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"Holy —"

On the opposite street is Karen, in De Chima to meet up with her business partner to discuss what else their office is going to need before November. Of course it would be in her luck to have that put on hold as the fireball rips through glass and steel, sending glass and debris out into the middle of the streets and causing alarm in the civilians below.

That blast didn't just sound big, it looked big and unable to carry on with her plans, she darts off into the nearest alleyway and quickly change into her costume. Seconds later, Power Girl emerges and she zips off toward the building.

Before she can enter it, she catches a glimpse of a familiar shimmer she hasn't seen in some time. Maybe luck is on her side this afternoon.

"Jacob!" she calls, flying closer to ground to grab his attention.

"Power Girl?" There's a voice Jacob wasn't expecting to hear. He's in the middle of talking to a few of the evacuees when Power Girl swoops toward him. Turning to see her, Jacob smiles a bit. A heavy-duty superhero is a welcome sight right now, and he says as much.

"Wasn't expecting to see you here, but it's a nice surprise. Things are a mess in there. I could use the help." He swivels to point at one of the topmost floors of the building, barely-visible behind the growing clouds of smoke. The fire keeps spreading and growing in intensity. He doesn't know what 'VisaLabs' was experimenting on, but apparently it's pretty flammable. "Talked to one of the employees. It sounds like most of the people still inside are up there."

She glances up immediately, squinting a bit as she scans the interior of the burning building with X-ray vision. She spots multiple people crawling to the ground, trying to get to a fire escape which is blocked off by something heavy — debris, most likely. Using thermal vision, she also notes fire is blocking the fire exit.

Of course.

"We've got to move fast. Their ceiling is already unstable. Explosion tore through some supports." She stretched a hand toward Jacob. "Going up?"

"You know it." Jacob's not used to being flown through the air by another flying person- even in the future, that kind of thing is almost unheard-of. But he doesn't hesitate to take Power Girl's hand. He's seen her in action; he knows he can trust her.

"I say you keep the ceiling from coming down around us while I float people out of the building." He grips her hand tight, ready to get to work. More evacuating workers run past them, some of them sparing a sideways glance for the two ImPorts as they flee for their lives. "Sound good?"

She lifts him carefully, but without wasting any time as they have little to spare. Up Jacob goes, like he's nothing but a sack of feathers to Peej. She circles the building from a safe distance, scouring its exterior for any openings that aren't covered in flames or smoke or both. She may be sturdy, but Jacob, as far as she knows, is not built the way she is.

"Sounds like a plan!" she lifts them higher now, finally finding an opening large enough to fit the both of them that won't scorch or blind them immediately. "Hold on... this might get bumpy. And hot."

She zips toward the building, taking a deep breath and then exhaling the air in her lungs in one thin, cold stream. It's enough to keep some smoke and any heated metal beams and glass from burning Jacob, but once they're in, the place heats up again in mere seconds.

Jacob's not used to being a sack of feathers for anyone. He is definitely not used to seeing someone blow air from their mouth hard and cold enough to quench a fire. The way he's being carried, Jacob is close enough to Power Girl's head to feel just the thinnest edge of her ice-breath nipping at his ears. Even after this long around ImPorts, he's astounded. How can one person wield so much power?

He'll be amazed later, though, because right now he's being air-dropped into the middle of a fire. Jacob's biotic barrier flares and flickers around him as it works to deflect some of the heat and debris swirling around the interior of the building. The office is already unrecognizable as a place where people worked every day: all twisted steel, melted plastic, and blazing fabric from cubicles going up in flames. The heat is intense, as is the noise- roaring flames, a shrieking alarm.

There are still people, though. The two closest to Jacob are already unconscious, likely from smoke inhalation. Jacob holds his jacket over his face and tries not to breathe, while gesturing upward with his other arm. The two office workers float limply into the air and drift backwards, out through the hole Power Girl just flew them in through. It's a level of biotic precision Jacob usually doesn't have to call upon, and it takes all his concentration to guide the two civilians safely downward to the parking lot outside.

Two down, God knows how many more to go.

While Jacob tends to those entrapped in the flames, Peej's head veers upward to take a good look at the ceiling. Even Jacob doesn't need super-vision to hear the loud groan of metal bending under the weight of burning desks, paper, and other parts of the building while it also weakens with the flames heating up its structure.

She can hear something breaking in a floor or two above them and then a crash of some kind. It's complete pandemonium and she's got a second to figure out what she should be doing before she takes off toward the ceiling, slamming a hand through it so she can grab hold of the support beams threatening to collapse through.

She can't hold onto it forever, but she can manage it until most are cleared from this floor.

"How is it this place has hovercars but not fireproof buildings yet?!"

"Good question! Remind me to ask Holiday-" Jacob immediately regrets opening his mouth as he accidentally breathes in soot and smoke. He almost doubles over coughing. Without proper protective gear, his eyes are watering, which makes it hard to see the next set of injured employees. If I keep doing this thing, I'm getting a real uniform, he thinks to himself.

He keeps at it, though, forcing himself to straighten up and wiping his eyes. While Power Girl handles the disintegrating ceiling, Jacob staggers forward until he sees another trio of civilians: an older woman crouched in a corner, huddling two younger interns under her coat. Jacob fires up his biotics, and hesitates for a moment. He can't handle three at a time, he's not that strong, so he takes the younger victims first, levitating them through smoke-filled air and walking backwards so he can guide them out of the building. He'll just have to hope the third victim hangs on until he can come back and finish the job.

"Jacob?" Peej calls worriedly from above, trying to peer through the thickening smoke and flames.

Once he's regained himself, most of her concern subsides as she refocuses on the ceiling. The metal beam feels alarmingly hot and weak in her hands and she's barely applying pressure to it. She pushes forward, trying to double it over and put it back in place so she can get onto the floor and help whoever else is trapped.

The metal continues to groan and she only releases it when she feels it's relatively safe enough to step away from for about a minute.

She moves quickly through the fire, finding the third victim who is having trouble breathing already.

"Hang on," she hisses and scoops her into her arms, moving as fast as she can toward the window. The woman panics naturally, afraid they're going to jump and Peej does jump, but rather than plummet toward the grounds she floats a safe distance from the flames.

Jacob wants to tell Peej not to worry about him, but the sentiment is lost between coughs. He's grateful when she leaves the ceiling to evacuate the third victim. While she's flying the woman out of the inferno, he has a couple seconds to look around and take stock.

His barrier's weakening in the intense heat, and Jacob concentrates for a moment on shoring it up, biotic power flowing out of his body to reinforce the shell of energy keeping his body safe. Then he looks around. The office is an orange-flecked cloud of smoke, haze, sparks, and the hulks of ruined walls looming out of the fog as indistinct shadows. He can't see any other civilians, but visibility is so bad right now that barely means anything.

What he can see is that while the ceiling is holding up for now thanks to Power Girl's attentions, the ground is starting to give way beneath his feet as the fire guts the building below him. The office carpet is already a cinder, and the floor below is sagging and crumbling, chunks of it dropping away to expose raw, fiery pits below. While Power Girl is outside, Jacob does what he can to slow the damage, using his biotics to float desks and chunks of rubble over the gaps in the floor, temporarily plugging the holes. It's a crude measure, and he knows it will buy them just a few extra minutes at most.

Once Power Girl is back inside, Jacob goes to her and yells over the roar of the fire. "I can't see anyone else! Too much smoke! Can you clear the air for us?"

It takes her longer than she wants to to return to the building, but the older woman, though safe, is now experiencing a panic attack no thanks to being entrapped in a burning building and then having to jump from it without a safety net below. She can't fault her too much for it right now; not everyone likes to be hauled off in the middle of the air like that.

She waves a hand in front of her face to clear the smoke from it. She can't see Jacob, but once she hears him, she takes a quick breath (making a face at the fumes she inhales) and then blows, pushing and thinning the smoke out for a moment.

"You've got a few seconds before it thickens!"

"Only need a few!" The thinned smoke is a double blessing for Jacob. He's got a chance to take a couple breaths that don't leave him wishing for respiratory gear. He looks around, and there they are: two more unconscious office workers, a man and a woman, lying limp in the far corner of the room. One of them, the man, is pinned beneath a metal filing cabinet: a middle-aged management type who almost certainly has broken bones.

The smoke billows again, dark and voluminous, but Jacob has his destination fixed in his mind. He doesn't hesitate before plunging forward once more. The cloud envelopes him. Cracking and crumbling sounds fill his ears: the floor is collapsing. A chasm opens up before his feet filled with molten metal spikes that were once part of the building's frame. Jacob runs at it, leaps over the flames, lands without breaking stride, and doesn't stop until he has reached the civilians.

The cabinet comes first, glowing blue as Jacob biotically Pulls it off the victim and tosses it over his shoulder with a wave of his hand, letting it tumble down into the pit he just jumped over. The people require a more careful touch though, especially the man who almost certainly has cracked ribs after having a file cabinet land on him. Jacob is careful as he levitates both the unconscious bodies and sends them floating back toward Power Girl.

"Two more headed your way!" He calls out, hoping she can hear him over the din of collapsing structure. This place isn't going to hold together for much longer.

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This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never

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Sorry for the delay!

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i'm sorry for how late this is

don't worry about it!

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