Without thinking, Farnan dodged pieces of crumbling drywall as they fell, using the cat-like reflexes that got him his vault security job to begin with. His keen observational skills showed him which pieces were about to fall, and he sidestepped, dodged, or jumped out of the way of what seemed an endless series of falling bits of building playing out in slow motion. As he worked his way towards what he thought was the door out of the room, a section of drywall caught him from behind, pinnig him down by his legs while more bits of cinderblock and rubble fell behind it, creating a load even his powerful limbs couldn't break free of. "I survived the monsters, a nuclear meltdown, army attack robots, Nadine's mouth, and now a collapsing building cheap shots me from behind? Really?" He tried pulling himself out by seal walking, but the screams of protest from his right leg didn't make that seem to be a realistic possibility. He then set to work pushing pieces of rubble off of himself, but as he was trapped facedown and unable to turn over he wasn't able to get good enough leverage on the pieces that counted to make any headway. Using a small rock, he started chipping away at some cinderblocks behind him, but after several minutes of furiously working, coupled with the lack of food or water in the last two days, he was not able to make any real progress. Feeling his strength fading, he put all his power into the loudest shout he was able to make. "NADINE" he shouted with all his might "I'm trapped. Get that bucket of bolts to come dig me out." Hearing his shouts, and following the trail of fresh white powder and rubble that was on top of the layer of dust, she turned at the stairs but didn't ascend. Instead she saw Jason's face, covered in chalk and debris, and his arms holding rocks trying to hit them against the huge burden on his back. If I don't get him out of there soon he'll be crushed she thought. Approaching him, she bent over him and started frantically trying to dig him out. "I'll have you out of here in no time" she reassured him, bending down to hug him. "Thanks" Farnan strained out, bracing himself against the weight that threatened to be the end of him. She soon discovered that the Army built things with real stone and real blocks, not the flimsy pasteboard and wooden frames that most civilian contractors used. "I can't do it, I'm not strong enough, but I know someone who can" she said, running her hand through Farnan's hair and freeing his face of the white dust. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Just hold in there big guy." "Don't worry, I'll be right here when you get back" Farnan said as she sprinted away towards the protectron. She wrenched open the access panel and looked around frantically for anything that would spell the answer to her problems. Her eyes came to rest on the personality module, which bore a chip that obviously didn't come from the factory, as it was composed of olive drab plastic and had a white star covering it's surface. She yanked it out, closed the panel, and flicked the power switch. It ran through it's power on self test routine, then turned to face her and said "shall...we...play...a...game?" Unbelievable thought Nadine, but without missing a beat said "No. state your designation and who you belong to. "IMSAI 8080, owned by Nadine Torelli and Jason Farnan." "Jason is in danger of termination by a collapsed wall, clear the wreckage." "Carrying out orders" said the Protectron as it walked down the hall and started warming up it's hand lasers. It used them to clear away the larger bits of debris faster than Nadine could have done half as much, and by the time she ordered it to stop firing, much of the pieces that would have required heavy lifting were now much smaller pieces. "IMSAI, refrain from discharging weapons for the remainder of the operation. Clear debris manually." "Carrying out orders" the robot said, as it began picking up large chunks of block and hurling them against the wall, smashing them to bits. Within the space of a few minutes it had disposed of the heavy blocks, rocks, and debris, which allowed Nadine and Farnan to clear away much of what remained pinning him to the ground. "I can't move my right leg" Farnan said to Nadine, as she went to pull him up. "There's a stimpack in the top pouch of my pack, hopefully it didn't break when the walls, came crumbling down." "Holding out on me, were you" she asked with a playful smirk, indicating she wasn't serious. "You know me, always keeping the best bits for myself" Jason said as he crawled forward bit by painful bit. Nadine got out the (mercifully) intact stimpack and disconnected the plates from Jason's right leg armor. "This might hurt a bit, so I'll give you to the count of three to brace yourself. One, two" she jabbed the needle into the part of his leg he was favoring and pressed the plunger "three." Jason started to protest, but the relief flooding into his leg silenced any sounds he might have made at her trick. The bones seemed to be setting themselves and healing at an exponential rate. Whatever was in those stimpacks once again worked their magic, turning what might have been a lifelong debilitating injury into mere moments of inconvenience. "I say the first thing we do when we get topside is get production of those things running again. They're bound to come in handy sooner or later." "True" she said. "I can't always be here to back you up or watch out for you." Farnan gave her a glare and started to protest, before looking at the collapsed room around him and at the white dust and bits of debris that still clung to his armor and pack. "Yeah well" he said, taking out a bottle of water and tossing half of it back in one swig. "Hey, don't hog it all. The rest of us want some too" Nadine protested, reaching out for the bottle. Farnan produced the other bottle from his pack and handed it to her.
