"What happened?" Sophia demanded.
The man at the edge of the growing crowd outside the building barely bothered looking back at us. He simply stared, mesmerized by the the flames and smoke billowing out of the building.
"Some idiot had a meth lab on the second floor," he said. "It blew up."
"Nobody told me," Sophia stammered as I turned to look at her.
Had she spent so much time trying to follow me that she'd missed the meth lab in her own building? As a hero she was supposed to be observant.
"Your parents were probably trying to protect you," the man said, glancing back at Sophia.
She'd grabbed a long overcoat and thrown it over her outfit, reasoning that the people in her building wouldn't talk to heroes.
Personally I thought that they'd talk to anybody who could make this better.
"There's twenty seven people on the third and fourth floors," I said. I'd discarded the heavy inserts behind a dumpster, hoping they'd still be there when I got back. I'd also pulled a handkerchief over my face, a nod to Miss Militia and all I could do at the moment to protect my own identity.
"How do you know?" the man asked. He looked back at me and he started.
""The fire escape on the west side fell off the building," Sophia said. "The landlord hasn't bothered to fix it."
"And your parents?" I asked.
"West side."
Right.
Sophia had been a bitch to me, but her family hadn't, and I was hardly going to let them burn to death.
The problem was that my powers weren't the right kind for this. If I'd had Rune's powers I'd have lifted platforms to save people. With Kaisers I'd have made ladders out of stone.
Vista's powers would be perfect for this.
"Somebody call the Protectorate," I said. "Get Vista here; she can help."
Sophia was already digging out her phone, talking frantically into it.
I could see people in the windows screaming, too high to jump. One man did jump, and a moment later he fell to the concrete with a sickening thump. People ran over to him, but I could already feel his Ki fading. He was dead.
Twenty six people were still trapped up there, and at the rate the fire was spreading it would be too late by the time the Protectorate got here.
I was the only hope these people had, and I had no idea how I could save them.
With Stormtiger's winds I could have sucked the air out of the rooms, or blown winds so fast that the fire would have blown out.
I pushed my way through the crowd, and as I reached the front, I could already feel the heat on my face. I hadn't trained for this, but it was here.
A man was holding a water bottle; I grabbed it from him without asking, and I turned a little and doused my handkerchief with it before handing it back to him. I wouldn't be any good to anyone if I could;t breathe.
I ran for the building, and as I reached the base of the brick my legs tensed beneath me. I was at least fifteen times stronger than I should be, and so I shot upward, my hands reaching for a window ledge. I grabbed it and hauled myself upwards, smashing through the window with my fist.
Glasses shattered and if I'd been a normal person my arm would have been cut and sliced to the point that I could have bled out. It only stung a little for me, though, and I hauled myself into the room.
I could barely see; the smoke was thick and heavy, and I coughed despite my handkerchief.
I shoved my way into a bathroom, and I turned the shower on, stepping into it for almost a minute, letting my clothes become utterly soaked. It wouldn't provide a lot of protection from the flames, but it would be a little.
My shoes squished as I stepped out of the bathtub.
"What are you doing?" Sophia asked. She'd gotten rid of the overcoat and was in her outfit. Wearing a metal mask in a fire seemed stupid to me, but she'd chosen to do it. I was glad I wouldn't have to be the one who had to explain the third degree burns on my face.
"Can you take people with you when you phase out or whatever?" I asked, ignoring her question.
She shook her head. "Things maybe."
"Try to keep up," I said.
I kicked the door down and a moment later we were out in a hallway.
"There are people in the first, third and fifth apartments to the right," I said. "We need to get them to the roof."
"What are we going to do there?" she demanded.
"Better the roof than dead here," I said. "Come back and tell me if there's anybody you can't move. I'll move them."
She nodded curtly, not making a single snide comment.
I banged on a door; the Ki of the person inside seemed weak. I shoved the door open, and I saw an old woman on the floor. She was hugely obese, at least four hundred pounds, and a walker had galled over beside her.
"I'm here to help," I said.
A moment later I scooped her up. I could handle her weight, but she was bulky, and getting her through the door was awkward.
Sophia was doing the job of getting everyone out into the corridor. Some of them stopped and stared at me, a slender twig carrying a four hundred pound woman, but they all headed for the stairs.
The smoke in the stairwell was even worse than in the rest of the building. My eyes stung, and I could hear people coughing and gagging as they stumbled blindly upward, holding on to the hand rails or to the person in front of them because they were entirely blind.
I could feel the stairs groaning beneath up as we headed up; whether it was the fire or because the stairs hadn't been built to code, but I'd feel better when everyone was on the room. The others all preceded me; if the stairs gave way because of our combined weight, I wanted as many people to get out as possible.
As we reached the next two floors, I paused, letting the people in front of me get further ahead. I took gasps of slightly fresher air as we stepped into the hallway. I used my Ki sense to detect the life forces of the remaining people inside the building. I told Sophia which rooms had the living in them on the next two floors, and she raced to them. At least once I saw her reach through a door to unlock it to get to the people inside.
I could hear the sounds of arguments inside; apparently Sophia was having to force some of the people from their apartments, even though I wasn't sure why. Didn't they realize the building was on fire?
As the last of the stragglers streamed out in front of us, I stepped back into the smoke filled hell that was the stairwell.
There was an explosion behind us in the stairwell, and a ball of fire exploded.
"Go,Go,Go!" I screamed.
I tried to keep myself between the fire and the woman, but she was much larger than I was. She screamed as the fire washed over us. It hurt as it washed over me, but whether it was because I'd soaked my clothes or because I was tougher than a normal person, that pain faded.
Underneath us the stairs trembled. A moment later they began to collapse. I ran, and as I leaped for the safety of the rooftop, it almost felt for a moment like I wasn't actually touching the stairs.
We staggered to the roof, even as fire exploded from the doorway behind us.
My hoodie was smoking, but whatever Leet had done to it made it somewhat more fire resistant than normal.
The woman in my arms was sobbing. Blisters were already forming on her face and hands and I paused for a moment to pat the fire that had started on her legs. She was probably going to need some kind of surgery when this was all done.
Several of the others were injured as well, but none as grievously as she was. I could see that several people were having trouble breathing, grabbing for their inhalers.
At least half the people in the building were already up on the roof, waiting for us. They'd tried to get down through the stairwell and hadn't been able, so they'd taken the only other route available to them; up.
A quick head count showed us that we had everyone. Some people had brought their animals with them, pet birds and dogs and even a snake. I could understand the urge. The fire department hadn't even showed up yet, and in this part of town the whole building might be ash by the time they did.
"Now what, Heb...Hero?" Sophia asked.
"Does anyone here have asthma or a heart condition?" I asked.
Five hands shot up.
Considering the neighborhood they were living in I shouldn't have felt surprised. In most cities in the US the bad parts of town were on the south and east sides; this was because of prevailing wind patterns. The wealthy liked to be upwind of potential wastes.
"You guys will be next."
I eyed the surrounding buildings. The closest building over was only twenty feet away, but from the expressions on the faces of the people around me they thought that was too far to jump.
I hadn't seen anything in the apartments long enough to bridge the gap either.
I was still carrying the obese woman, and her sobbing and crying was getting annoying, even if I could understand why. Starting with her would get me away from it and let me concentrate on the rest, and it would give the others confidence. She weighed four hundred pounds, and there was no one as large as she was. If I could carry her to the other side that would give the others confidence that I could carry them.
Before anyone could ask what I meant, I started running. The woman was bulky and awkward in my arms, and she screamed as she realized that we were heading for the edge and she started struggling. My grip must have felt like steel for all the difference it made, though. As I ran for it, the woman grabbed my neck tight enough to choke me and buried her face in my neck. She had an unpleasantly sour odor, a smell of sickness.
As we sailed over the gap, I felt my Ki within me, willing it to propel me forward instead of down because I could feel that it was going to be close. For a moment I thought we weren't going to make it.
We did, although I stumbled a little near the edge.
I sat the woman down well away from the edge, and then I headed back. People were staring at me in my waterlogged, smoking clothes, and a moment later they rushed forward.
Sophia barked out orders, gesturing with her crossbow and they stepped back.
"I'm going to save everyone," I shouted.
The first to go was a child. She had to be eight years old. When I grabbed her she shrieked as though I'd pulled his arm off. A quick check showed that I hadn't.
The entire structure shook, and I knew that I didn't have time to be careful of people's feelings. A moment later I tucked her under my arm and I ran.
We sailed easily over the gap, and a moment later I set the child down. I was across the gap again before anyone could say anything, and a moment later I'd grabbed her mother. She was obese, but nothing compared to the first woman I had carried.
Each time I carried someone over I looked at the building on the way back. What I saw wasn't encouraging.
A moment later I'd grabbed up a man this time, and we were across the gap. Over and over again, person after person I brought over.
By the time I'd gotten to the sixth person they'd already gotten the door of the new building open and were making their way down the stairs, all except the obese woman who couldn't walk. She was still moaning.
I insisted on carrying people first, although people who could carry their pets in their arms without scratching me were welcome to do so.
The fire department arrived by the time I was working on my twelfth victim. I could tell it was going to be too late, though. It was already getting hard to breathe on the roof of the building, and the smoke was burning my eyes.
On the one side was the moaning woman; on the other was the sounds of dogs barking and birds crying out; they all sensed that something terrible was happening even if they didn't know what it was.
Or maybe they knew very well what it was, better than what the humans did. Some of the people stubbornly stayed, unwilling to be parted from their pets until the last moment.
Still at least there was air, and even though I was coughing people were getting saved.
I wasn't even sure which of the people were Sophia's family; after a while they all blended together.
By the time I'd grabbed the last of the people, there were only two terrified animals; a large mastiff who had to weigh at least two hundred pounds, and a sweet looking Labrador retriever.
Both were terrified, and I could see their owners watching as I tried to grab them. The mastiff stepped back from me and growled. I could feel the roof shuddering underneath me, and I felt a sudden moment of fear for myself. I was mildly bulletproof, but I doubted that I could survive having an entire building dropped on me, much less being caught on fire.
I lunged forward and cuffed the dog, enough to stun him. I threw him over my shoulder and I grabbed the other dog, throwing him over my other shoulder. He clawed and scratched at my back, but I didn't have time to worry about that as the roof finally fell.
I pushed against the roof, trying to leap forward instead of down. The laws of physics would have told me that if was possible, but I pushed my Ki to the very utmost. We hung still in the air for a moment, and for a moment it almost felt like we were going to fly, but then we began to fall. We didn't fall like we should have, though; instead we fell six floors slowly.
Landing wasn't difficult with that. My legs flexed under me, and I came to a stop in front of the astounded crowd.
Two motorcycles were there, with Armsmaster and Miss Militia there. Vista was getting off the bike as well, apparently she'd ridden with Miss Militia.
"Their owners are in the building next door," I said, letting the dogs drop to the ground. "They'll be back for them soon."
"Miss," he said, taking the leash. "I think you're on fire."
The bottom of my hoodie was smoldering, and I patted it out absentmindedly.
There's a four hundred pound woman on the top of that building. She has burns; I'm not sure how bad they are. You might need the Protectorate to help move her. There were several people with asthma and pretty much everyone is dealing with smoke inhalation. I'd expect the first of them to be coming out in a minute."
"You can't help?" he asked.
"I have a feeling they're more interested in interrogating me than letting me help," I said.
I could see how Armsmaster and Miss Militia were moving to flank me, which was not how people with peaceful intentions would move.
"Stop!" Armsmaster said.
Vista was behind them, and it suddenly felt as though the space around me was growing impossibly distant. I couldn't quite feel what she was doing, but it wasn't intended to let me escape.
I began to gather my energy. Whatever they intended for me, it couldn't be good.
As I gathered more and more energy, I felt the ground tremble underneath me. For a moment I thought it was the result of what I was doing, but a moment later there was a massive boom from behind me as the basement of the building collapsed, and a sinkhole began to spread toward the crowd.
The aura around me was suddenly gone, as Vista moved to protect the crowd. She intended the space between the crowd and the onrushing sinkhole.
I dodged behind the fire truck, pulling off my sweatshirt and hoodie and handkerchief as I did. I tossed them under the fire truck, and then I screamed and started running in the middle of the crowd that suddenly seemed to realize that rubbernecking at the scene of a natural disaster wasn't such a good idea.
Armsmaster seemed to be scanning the crowd, but I was careful to keep my head down and my hair covering my face as I ran past him.
A moment later I was down the street even as the Protectorate heroes were trying to control the crowd.
I hadn't even had my new sweatshirt for two hours and it was already gone.
A quick check behind the dumpster showed that no one had found time to steal the inserts or my backpack. I stuffed the former into the latter, and a moment later I was on my way home.
Sophia was still a bitch, but I'd saved twenty six people, and there wasn't anything she could do to take that away from me. I wasn't sure that would be enough to change me in her eyes, but that didn't matter.
I'd finally done something heroic, something other than getting into a fight and proving to my dad that I was just a fight crazed idiot like most of our ancestors.
Even the woman who had been burned would be dead now if it wasn't for me, and maybe this would improve my reputation with the Protectorate. After all, I hadn't blasted Armsmaster in the face like I'd wanted to, or even made a threatening move toward them.
All in all, I felt pretty good about the day.