Thank you everyone who has taken the time to read my story, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Trollhunters or Flash, the only thing I own are my ideas.
Screams echoed through the night as people ran in all directions, trying desperately to get away from the flames and flying debris. People tumbled from the doors of the burning building and into the chaos of the street. Alarms filled the air, adding to the overwhelming wall of noise that erupted immediately after the explosion. Jim and Claire fought their way through the frantic crowd, making their way towards the flaming building. Making it to the front of the crowd, they ran up to two women, both were covered in soot, one was screaming and frantically trying to run back into the build while the other held her back,
"What is going on?!" Claire asked the calmer woman, hoping to get answers and assess the situation before taking action, "is there anyone still in the building?"
The frantic woman spun towards them, grabbing Claire's shoulders in a vise like grip, "MY CHILDREN! MY CHILDREN ARE TRAPPED ON THE SECOND FLOOR!" she wailed, breaking down into tears and falling to the ground, sobbing.
"This is an apartment building, there could still be dozens of people inside and the staircase to the second floor collapsed," the second woman explained, "The firefighters wont get here in time to save them." Her eyes were watering as she said this and her voice cracked at the end. Jim was surveying the building during this conversation and turned to Claire,
"Claire, I want you to stay out here, help take care of the ones who made it out, calm them down and distribute the water in our bags, and make sure no one runs back into the building." She gave him a sharp nod and a quick "be safe" before kneeling on the ground in front of the sobbing woman, speaking softly to her. Jim was just about to run into the building when a man from the crowd latched onto his arm, forcing him to turn and face the man,
"Where do you think you're going, kid?" the man was fairly tall but still had to look up slightly to look Jim in the eye, and stepped back once he got a good look at Jim's face. Jim ignored the pang in his chest from the man's reaction,
"People are going to die in there, someone has to help," he replied, turning and running for the entrance before he could be stopped again. He charged straight in, the fire roaring around him. He stopped once deeper inside, his ears pricked and alert for any signs of life. The flames licked at his skin, uncomfortably hot but not burning. The burning wood floors sinking and bending slightly under his heave structure.
"HELLO? IS ANYBODY IN HERE?!" he shouted, getting no response. He pulled the hood off his head, ashes falling in his hair as he looked around corners. Creaking above his head was the only warning he got before a large metal beam fell through the ceiling, he threw his arms up to cover his face, the beam hitting him and setting his sleeves on fire. He tossed the beam away and swatted at the fire consuming his jacket. The sound of a child's scream caused him to jump back into action, and he ran on all fours in the direction of the sound. He found where the stairs had been, seeing the collapsed structure in pieces below the broken hole in the ceiling. Looking up he could see about six or seven people huddled together as close to the ledge as they could get, trying to stay away from the fire as it closed in around them, a couple bodies lying lifeless on the floor below them, blood pooling around them from wounds caused by debris they landed on. Jim ignored the corpse by his feet and gazed up at the people on the ledge, seeing three children, an elderly couple, and a woman holding a bundle in her arms, most likely a young infant, judging by the terrified wailing.
"Hey, is everyone alright?" Jim shouted up to them, hoping that he wouldn't startle any of them off the ledge, due to them not noticing him yet. The young woman whipped around, and nearly fell off if not for a hand grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back in place. A man, most likely her husband, popped his head out to look at Jim. They all looked startled at him, the elderly woman gasped and her husband stood protectively in front of her,
"What are you?" the younger woman with the baby asked quietly. Jim sighed and shook his head slightly,
"It doesn't matter what I am, I'm here to get you all out. Start lowering the children down and I will catch them, then you can start jumping down next," Jim instructed, stretching his arms out as one of the older kids came closer to the ledge. The boy, no older than nine, nodded and started to sit down, preparing to jump from the ledge, when the elderly man put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him,
"I ain't jumpin' into the arms of no demon," he stated sternly. Jim sighed again, running his hand through his hair and gripping one of his horns, realizing that he probably looked a lot like a demon in this situation, his sleeve burned up to his elbows and in tatters, his pants not much better. Being dark in coloration, with horns and surrounded in flames most likely wasn't helping either,
"I'm not a demon, Sir, I'm a troll, and I just want to get you guys out of here, the building is going to come down on top of us at any moment and we are wasting time," he reached his arms out once again, "Please, let me help you."
The man gave him a wary look, then glanced back at the fire that was quickly consuming the second floor, he nodded and stepped back from the young boy. The child gazed down at Jim, took a deep breath and pushed himself of the ledge. From the expression he gave, it seemed that he had not expected Jim to be so tall, because he was caught almost immediately after his body left the edge of the floor. Jim smiled at him and lowered him to the ground, turning and setting the boy away from the pool of blood. His nose crinkled as he noticed that the puddle had spread over his feet in the short time that he had been standing there, covering his toes and claws in the sticky red substance. Ignoring his discomfort, he turned back around and grabbed the next child, repeating the process till all the children were on the ground behind him.
Next, the woman with the baby came and sat on the edge, clutching the infant tightly to her chest. Jim took a step forward, trying to get as close to her as he could, at this point not caring about the sticky puddle he was stepping in. He reached up and grabbed her legs while her husband helped lower her down by one of her arms. He grabbed her waist and brought her closer to him, carrying her over to the kids behind him, and set her down carefully. The baby she held had been crying the majority of the time they had been in there, though stopped when she caught sight of Jim's face, only to burst into giggles when he smiled down at her. The woman looked at her child in suprise, then at him, repeating this multiple times as Jim turned back to get the elderly woman, being lowered down in a similar fashion as the first woman. Once Jim set her down she reached up and patted him on the head between his horns,
"Why thank you, young lad," she smiled, her face crinkled in that cute, sweet old lady way, and even through the smoky smell, he could tell she smelled like oatmeal cookies. He returned the smile, nodding in acknowledgment and returning to get the elderly man, who grumbled about being carried but settled down once by his wife. Jim turned around one last time to grab the man, who thanked him and joined the others.
"Is that everyone?" Jim questioned as he looked over all the faces. He shifted, starting to feel uncomfortable in the heat, and coughed from the smoke in his lungs. He had noticed that the kid's coughing was getting worse and some of them had burns that were already blistering, he needed to get them out fast.
"This is everyone that was with us," the young man replies, counting heads, and nodding, "Though we don't know if there was anyone else stuck on the other levels." Jim glanced back up to the second floor,
"Okay, all of you head that way to the door, my girlfriend, Claire, should be right outside with water and the firefighters will be here soon," Jim instructed, then crouched and leaped up to the second floor, only for it to give out from under him. In the millisecond that it took or him to fall, he attempted to flip himself around to land on his feet, unfortunately only making it halfway. He slammed down on his side, wood splintering under the impact, His head smashed into a iron rod sticking from the ground at and angle, hitting him just below the base of his horn and making the world spin. He had no time to recover, though, as the rest of the ceiling decided to come down on top of them not a moment later. He leaped to his feet, jumping in the way of the other people and threw his arms up, catching the crumbling ceiling. Arms shaking as he held up the collapsing building, growling from the strain placed on him,
"GO!" he shouted through gritted teeth, the people trembling below him. Suddenly there was a man dress completely in red standing in front of them, appearing to materialize straight from the fire itself. Though the man's face was covered by a mask, his shock was clear, mouth agape and eyes wide.
"What on earth?" he stumbled back, looking at Jim, then the ceiling, the people on the ground, then back at Jim. Jim growled, We don't have time for this
"Stop your gawking and get these people out of here!" he growled out, glaring at the ceiling and snarling as his arms started to shake harder, "I can't hold this forever!" The man's face hardened, eyes filled with determination, and he was gone again, the only sign that he was moving rather than teleporting was the blur of red and the streak of lightning he left behind. The red streak zoomed past repeatedly, people disappearing one by one and being transported to safety. By the time the last person was taken, Jim's whole body was shaking furiously, the weight of the ceiling determined to crush him. He was dizzy, blood dripping down his face, coughing wildly as the smoke threatened to suffocate him. Suddenly the man was back, standing next to him,
"Is there anyone still in the building?" the man had to look slightly up to look him in the eyes as he asked the question,
"I don't... *cough*... know, I was heading to the second… *cough*... floor when the ceiling collapsed," Jim's voice was strained and he was wheezing. The man nodded sharply, becoming a blur again and leaping through the hole in the floor above them. He reappeared mere seconds later,
"That's everyone, let's get out of here," the man jolted forward, shoulder pressed in Jim's side and arms wrapped around his waist as they shot out of the building. The force of the building collapsing behind them flung them ungracefully to the ground and into the crowd.
"JIM!" the shout was heard above the rest, and Claire pushed her way through the ocean of people, dropping to her knees at Jim's side and placing her hand on his chest, "Jim are you alright?" she looked at him, worried, studying his features and injuries, "Can you stand?" he hesitated, debating, then nodded and started to get to his feet. Claire helped support him and he leaned heavily on her, swaying. His position did not last long because as soon as he took a step, he fell back to the ground, the crowd whispering and staring as he went into a coughing fit. The man in red came to his side, his voice sounding far away as he talked to Claire,
"It looks like he has a concussion, and he inhaled a lot of smoke," the man and Claire whispered a bit more, though Jim didn't catch the rest. The crowd had started taking pictures, and the flashing lights of the cameras were not helping the throbbing in his head. The man turned to him, "I going to take both of you to somewhere you can get medical attention," and that was the only warning he got before the man was wrapping his arms around them and the world became a sickening blur of lights and color.