Even through her bunker gear, Pyrrha could feel the heat of the burning building. Her layered jacket did its best to keep the worst of the heat and flames from touching her, but despite its layers of heat-resistant material and Kevlar, she still boiled inside it, her sweat mixing with the smell of rubber and the smoke of a dozen other fires.
Anything not alight with flame faded into darkness, shadows left by the heavy smoke that billowed through the room, spreading until it ballooned up against the ceiling. Through her mask and hood, she heard little outside the crackling fire and the sound of flinders, the wood of the house snapping and popping as the vapor inside boiled and turned to steam. It came from everywhere, the ceiling, the floors, the cabinet smoking in the corner, permeating every space it could as the house warped and burned. All of it underlined with the steady snap-hiss of her SCBA mask, making sure she had the air she'd need in this inferno.
Her radio crackled, a harsh voice barking orders on the other end. She listened, noted the movements of her fellows, and kept going, never taking her eyes from the room. According to the family, their kids had still been in the house when the smoke had forced the parents out. From the radio, one of the kids had been found, but that still left one.
Stepping through a doorway, Pyrrha glanced about the room, looking for weaknesses in the building as much as a young boy trying to hide from the flames. She didn't like what she saw. The fire had already weakened this portion of the house, compromising the support beams until the ceiling began to buckle. She gave it another five minutes at best before the room caved in.
Stepping back, she reached for her radio, about to call it in, when she heard it—a low, choked sob coming from behind the sofa. Changing what she's been about to say, Pyrrha thumbed the radio, then settled herself and strode into the room, skirting the center of the room as she made her way to the child sheltering behind the couch.
He panicked as she came around the side, breathing mask making her sound like a low-budget Darth Vader. Before he could run any further, Pyrrha held up her hands, making sure the boy's attention was on her and not the burning room ready to collapse.
"It's okay," she said, as calmly as she could. "Your mom and dad are outside. Let's get you to them, okay?"
She already had the boy bundled up against her by the time he nodded.
Something snapped, cracked, then cracked again, followed by a long, painful groan as the ceiling finally crumbled. Pyrrha whirled back to look, just in time to see the room starting to fall apart around them, the boy's screams echoing in her ears. Instinctively, she grabbed the boy and put herself between him and the falling debris, a part of her glancing desperately for a window she already knew wasn't there.
She felt something snag her jacket, yanking hard, pulling her off her feet as air whooshed past her head. She braced for impact, for the bruising impact of the floor or the house caving in around her … and then the cold hit her, the sudden lack of heat as uncomfortable as the hellfire she'd walked into. Pushing with her legs, knowing she needed to move, she stepped forward, the boy still in her arms.
Her foot met pavement.
Blinking to clear her vision, Pyrrha turned, and looked back along the darkened suburban street at the burning house .
"Kevin!" Someone cried, followed by the mother's insistent hands taking the boy from her arms. Pyrrha didn't fight her—still too stunned at the sudden shift to do much more than stand and watch.
The whooshing sound came again, accompanied by a small, thin blur of red and yellow lightning, zipping round the house once before heading straight for Pyrrha. With a scatter of sparks, the red-dressed figure skidded to a stop, the last vestiges of her lightning still zipping over her suit.
"Went room by room," the figure said, stretching one arm over her head before letting flop back to her side. "You two were the last out."
"Glad to hear it, Flash." Pyrrha sighed as the adrenaline started draining from her, then reached up and pulled her breathing mask aside. The smell of smoke hit her nostrils, but the cool air was a godsend after walking through that blaze. "How'd you know to come?"
Vale City's very own superhero just shrugged, still bouncing from foot to foot as she worked off the excess energy from her run. "Wasn't too hard. Big orange beacon. Sirens. Police scanner."
"Might be faster to just have dispatch send you," Pyrrha laughed, then looked back at the burning house. The line had already advanced on the building, hoses spraying in at the center of the blaze. The gray smoke that had billowed up from the windows was turning white as the water hit the flames, the orange glow that illuminated the rooms slowly beginning to subside. Satisfied that they wouldn't need her help for a few seconds, Pyrrha let herself flop down onto the low wall that ringed the garden path, hands starting to shake from the aftermath.
"I can't be everywhere," the Flash smiled and sat down beside her. "Plus, you guys do most of the heavy lifting. I'm just the backup."
"Except when you're first on the scene." Shaking her head Pyrrha gestured over to where the parents were standing with their children, EMTs trying to pull them apart long enough to get them all to one of the ambulances. "Plus, you call that 'backup'?"
The red-suited figure leaned forward, saw where Pyrrha's eyes looked, then grinned sheepishly beneath her mask. A pile of stuffed animals, toys, family photo albums, and a very carefully draped wedding dress lay beside one of the family's cars—which Pyrrha knew had been in the garage when the trucks pulled up.
"I had time, and I figured … well, some of that stuff's going to be irreplaceable, and it'll help the kids to have something. Plus, I wanted to check for pets. Wasn't gonna leave a dog in there if I could help it."
Pyrrha just laughed and shook her head. "Well, I appreciate the help. Although, I hope we won't need it too often. Can't get in the habit of expecting a rescue."
"Come on, Nikos," the Flash said, glancing up at the taller women through the eyeholes of her cowl. "You gotta know if something went bad I'd be there for you." She paused, and for a second, Pyrrha could have sworn she saw the shorter woman blush. "I-I mean, I've got super-speed, but you guys actually put yourselves in danger to help people with stuff like this. Backup and the occasional rescue's the least I can do."
"You sure you don't want to give your number to dispatch? Pretty sure we'd have the fastest 911 response team in the country."
The Flash just shrugged, that sheepish grin back on her face. "Think I'm a bit too unofficial for that."
For a moment, the two of them just sat there, staring at the now-put-out fire as the second team went in to check for any smolders that could start it up again. Then Pyrrha stood, hands no longer shaking. "Thanks for the help, hero. I gotta get back in there."
"Right. Right. Um … one sec." With a flash of red and yellow and a blast of wind, she was gone. A second later, the Crimson Comet was back, the wind rustling the leaves of the garden bushes and making Pyrrha's jacket flap. Not even out of breath, the shorter woman stepped over to Pyrrha and pressed a handwritten note into her hand. "It's … a burner I have. For emergencies. Just in case there's a really bad fire or someone trapped, or I mean I'm okay with the kitten-stuck-in-a tree thing too, since it'll be faster for me to just zip up and get it, but if you ever needed anything—"
"I'll keep it in mind." Pyrrha laughed, tucking the paper into one of the inner pockets of her gear. Then she looked down at the young … well, she assumed the Flash was young. She was definitely shorter than Pyrrha, but it was something about the eyes that cinched it. The idealism no one who spoke to her could miss, the genuine desire to help, and the obvious joy at being able to. Nothing about Vale's resident superhero felt jaded or cynical, even two years after she had first started zipping around the city. Honestly, Pyrrha thought, looking down at her, that's probably one of the reasons people like her so much.
Her mouth was already open, a half-baked and increasingly implausible suggestion on her lips, when a black-and-white police car zipped by, bypassing the fire completely, their sirens blaring at full blast.
"Duty calls," she smiled, and nodded towards the receding klaxon. "Looks like you've got a full docket tonight."
Flash just stood there for a second, staring up at her. Then she blinked and nodded with a start, looking just as if she'd caught herself dozing off. "… right. Yeah. Okay. Be seeing you, Nikos. Stay safe." She took a few steps back, hopping from one foot to another as she built herself up, then crouched and took off after the squad car, turning into a long, red blur and leaving lightning in her wake.
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