Disclaimer: Proper maintenance fixed problems before they occur.
HVAC
Emily did her best not to grin when the door to her office opened and her lead investigator slipped in. This promised to be good. She activated her anti-eavesdropping devices.
"Speak," the director ordered.
"Kid looked like she wanted to run away," the investigator reported. "She was already nervous getting called in, likely thought we were going to confront her on her off the books patrolling." He laughed. "She just sort of went limp when we pulled out the charts and then started eyeing the door."
"You had better have video," Emily growled.
"Oh, I do. Multiple angles and in the highest quality our cameras can get. You want to see the raw now or do you want to wait a few minutes for them to finish editing?"
IIIIIIIIII
Greg froze when he heard a groaning noise come from the pile. As deep as he was a collapse was unlikely to be survivable. He activated his goggles and looked around, only a few more feet and he'd reach the access hatch. He checked his route, maybe a fifty feet, maybe triple that if he couldn't fit through some of the tighter spots. It looked like it'd be close but he thought that he'd be able to make it. It took two nerve wracking hours to crawl to the access hatch which of course was locked when he arrived.
He spent thirty seconds contemplating the hinges and the lock before cursing himself as an idiot. Greg pulled out his pry bar and hit the door three times in succession, he waited ten seconds and repeated it. Three knocks replied.
"Can you hear me?" he called out.
"Who's there?" a muffled voice asked.
"I'm here to help, undo the hatch and let me in."
"Why?" the voice asked suspiciously.
"Your ventilation system's shot. I'm here to try to fix it," Greg relied. There was a long pause before the hatch cracked open.
A woman in a police uniform looked out suspiciously. "Is the attack over?"
"Should be," Greg said. "Mind if I come in?"
"Slowly," she agreed.
Greg pulled himself out of the rubble and into the cramped entrance of the Endbringer shelter. "Any idea why the backup didn't kick in?"
The woman snorted in derision. "Gangs steal the oxygen tanks and the scrubbers to use in meth labs. City decided that it wasn't economical to keep replacing them in this part of town."
"Leave the door open," Greg suggested. "It won't help much but every little bit, right?"
The officer nodded. "Come on in, I suppose."
"Thanks," Greg replied.
"HVAC system's in rough shape. Quit on us about an hour in."
"Show me where it is and I'll do my best to get it up long enough for more help to arrive," Greg suggested.
"This way," the police officer began walking down the stairs to the shelter proper. "Gotta warn you, it's hot and it smells like ass. I've got about double the amount of people this place was supposed to hold down there. Climate control quit before the ventilation gave up."
"It'll be fine," Greg said simply. "I promise I've smelled worse."
The officer looked over her shoulder. "Where?" she challenged.
"This isn't my first Endbringer fight," Greg said simply.
"Oh." She shuddered. "Come on."
The shelter was small compared to the other ones he'd seen and, as his companion had promised, absolutely packed with people. Condensation dropped off the walls and ceiling and the air stank of fear and sweat.
"He's here to help us! He's gonna try to fix it so we get some air!" the officer said loudly. "Try to make room for him to go by!"
Greg shuffled through the throng of people, doing his best not to bump into or step on anyone with moderate success.
"Well?" the officer asked, trying to sound confident.
"Well what?" he replied.
"Well can you fix it or do we need to figure something else out?"
"I can get it running but it won't last long," Greg stated.
"That's fine, it doesn't have to," she said in relief.
"No," he agreed. "No it doesn't."
One of the children, a girl of about eight gathered her courage and tugged on Greg's pant leg. "Um, are you a hero?"
Greg shook his head. "No, I'm just someone who does their best to help out."
"So why are you here then?" the child asked, confused by his answer. He was in a strange costume and everyone had calmed down after they saw him so what else would he be.
"I'm here help out because the heroes are too busy saving other people," he explained. "Don't worry, they'll be here as soon as they can, but things are really messy right now and so I'm here instead."
"Oh." She was pretty sure he was lying to her about not being a hero. "Can we leave?" she asked hopefully.
"No," Greg answered immediately. "Going out the way I came in is way too dangerous. One false move and the entire thing will collapse. I know it's tough but you need to stay here until they can dig you out."
"Are you gonna stay here with us?" the kid asked hopefully, spirits buoyed by the thought that the probable hero would be with them.
"No. I'm gonna leave as soon as I get this thing working again." Greg was elbow deep in the machinery trying to convince himself that finding and murdering everyone involved in the construction of the shelter was morally wrong. As yet he couldn't think of a reason.
The girl frowned. "Why?"
"Because there might be other people that need help so I need to go out so I can help them," he replied.
"But you said it was too dangerous," the kid accused.
"It is," he admitted. "But it's worth it because while staying here would be safer for me, it might be more dangerous for other people. It's simple, I might be able to help so I need to go."
It took another hour to get things to the point that Greg was confident that it would last long enough for aid to arrive.
The child watched her hero carefully pick his way through the crowd to the exit. "I still don't understand why he has to leave. He said it was dangerous."
"He's a hero," her father said. "Heroes are willing to do scary and unsafe things to help other people, that's what makes them heroes."
The child nodded in satisfaction. She'd thought so.
IIIIIIIIII
Missy's attention was focused on her teammate. The older girl alternated between staring dully at her phone and the casualty board. Missy felt terrible, both because of what she'd done and the fact that it looked as if she'd never have a chance to make things right. If things could be made right, the traitorous thought bubbled up, the only way to offer amends would be to admit that it was needed which seemed like a step in the wrong direction. She wished there was someone she could talk to about this.
The youngest Ward glanced up at the casualty board. It took a few seconds to find the name she was looking for and several more to realize the significance of what she was seeing.
Heart pounding, she rose from her seat and walked up to Shadow Stalker. What to say? "Uh, Shadow Stalker?"
"What?" the other girl asked dully, eyes fixed on her phone.
"Why . . . uh . . . how come the Unknown Parahuman's name's a different color?"
"Black or red?" the older girl's voice broke.
Missy's stomach dropped as she realized the magnitude of her error. "NO! Green! Green!" she said quickly. "Do you know why it's turned green? Cause it's green, it turned green."
Her teammate's head whipped up to look at the screen. "Means the crazy bastard ain't dead yet," Shadow Stalker's voice sounded odd. "He's alive, he's still alive and if he's hurt then he's not hurt bad enough to register."
Missy realized that the older girl was crying. Crying and doing her best to sound and act like she wasn't. "Thanks, that's all I wanted to know," she blurted out before fleeing the room.
IIIIIIIIII
Greg was half way out of the pile before his armband chirped, indicating that it had reestablished contact.
"Large group confirmed alive in the Endbringer shelter at my location for now," he reported. "The air's bad and the ventilation is on its way out so someone needs to dig them out as soon as possible."
"Understood," the band replied. "How are you?"
Greg's nose wrinkled, the voice sounded odd? It took him a moment to realize that he was talking to a real person. "Cuts and scrapes. I'll be fine if I can get out of the rubble."
There was a pause. "Rubble?"
"The entrance was buried. Looks like a building collapsed on it. I was able to work my way through it to get there. Warn any rescuers that it's really unstable, tell them to be careful cause it looks like it could collapse at any time."
The second pause was even longer. "Why didn't you remain in the shelter?"
"Is everyone accounted for?"
"Not at this time, no," the voice admitted.
"There you go." He grinned when he saw the sky. It was black with smoke and raining ash but it was still a welcome sight. "I'm out, please direct me to the next location."
"Understood," the voice sighed. "Two hundred meters north. Last known location of Wonder Shrew."
IIIIIIIIII
Katherina knew that she was going to die. No one lived after having the bottom half of their body burned almost to ash. She'd accepted that her death was possible from the moment she volunteered to stand against the hero killer.
Her thoughts wandered. She revisited old mistakes, old friends, and of long departed loved ones. She hoped and feared that she wouldn't be missed. It's fine, she told herself, this is fine.
Katherina felt something on her neck and she opened her eyes to see a bandaged head wearing a pair of goggles looking down at her and she smiled. It was a hero well known to all that faced the Endbringers. He was here. She was going to live. There was no doubt in her mind that he would not allow her to die.
IIIIIIIIII
Greg waited for transport with Armsmaster, both exchanging nods after seeing that each was still intact.
"The Search and Rescue reports compliment you on your efficiency," Armsmaster noted, using his version of small talk.
"Efficiency often means the difference between like and death" Greg replied.
"Indeed," Armsmaster said with a pleased nod.
"I've heard that parahumans often have to deal with an increase in violent impulses," Greg said, seeing as they were going to be there for a while so he might as well as get a second opinion. "I may have experienced that for the first time today."
"What were the circumstances?"
"I was repairing the ventilation system in an endbringer shelter and the poor design and shoddy construction... offended me," Greg admitted. "I know I shouldn't hunt down and execute the ones responsible for putting so many citizens in danger... but I am finding it hard to come up with sufficient reasons not to."
Armsmaster nodded and patted him on the shoulder. "In such situations that is perfectly normal. I'll forward you the list Dragon made for me."
Greg nodded. "Thank you."
Strider arrived and thy were back in Brockton Bay in a heartbeat. Armsmaster was the first off the platform, no doubt eager to get to work repairing and upgrading his equipment.
Greg stumbled off the transport platform and nearly fell down the stairs after he got back to the Brockton Bay PRT building.
Two PRT agents stepped forward to help him down. "Do you need any medical attention, sir?" the right agent asked.
"Panacea took care of it already, but thanks," Greg mumbled. "If possible could I get one of the spare uniforms I keep here and a shower?"
"Of course, sir. Would you like a meal and a place to sleep as well?"
"No," Greg replied, catching sight of a familiar figure. "I've got someone waiting for me."
IIIIIIIIII
Sophia made sure that she was able to see the Unknown Parahuman's return. She'd have been waiting for him in his assigned room but the security was too tight to slip through, Armsbastard had lined the walls with a mesh of electrical lines in all of the areas they'd considered important after the limits of her power had become apparent.
She slipped out of the PRT building and snuck to their rendezvous point the second he was out of sight. It seemed like forever before he arrived, every second seemingly taking an hour to pass.
"What took you so long?" she demanded the second he rounded the corner.
"Sorry." Greg said. "I tried to be as fast as I could."
"Come on," Sophia demanded, taking him by the hand and pulling him towards her hidden changing room. Her arms were around him the second the door closed. "I was worried," she explained, holding him as tight as she could.
Greg hugged her back. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Sophia snapped. "You don't have a reason to be sorry." She released him and stared into his goggles. "Get this shit off, I wanna make sure you're not hurt."
Greg smiled under his bandages, it was nice to have someone who cared about you. "Okay." His face was half uncovered when she ran out of patience and started undoing the buttons on his shirt.
"The sooner we get changed, the sooner we can go home," Sophia explained, trying to sound tough. "I haven't been able to get any sleep since you left and I'm really tired."
"Me too," he said. He reached for his belt only to find that she'd beaten him to it.
"Boots," she cursed. "Sit down so I can untie them and get them off you," Sophia ordered. She pulled his boots off followed by his pants leaving him clad in only his socks, t-shirt, and boxers.
Greg stood up and reached for his jeans.
"Not . . . not yet," Sophia blurted, sounding nervous. "I need . . . help me take my costume off too."
"I would be happy to," Greg stated, trying to sound confident. He allowed her to guide his hands to the hidden fasteners and undid every button, snap, and tab at her direction.
"Just grab it and pull it down now," Sophia whispered. "You've . . . you've seen me in a swimsuit and this is basically the same, right?"
"You're you no matter what you're wearing," he agreed as he finished pulling her costume off. "A costume or a swimsuit or nothing at all. You're still you and that's what matters to me."
"Likewise," Sophia said, pulling him into another hug. "I want more pictures," she said suddenly.
"What?"
"It can wait till after we get some sleep but I want more pictures of us together. I only had that one from the stupid PR event to look at while you were gone so I want more."
He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. "As you wish."
"Come on." She released the hug. "Sooner we get dressed, the sooner we can get home and get some shuteye. I'm fucking dead on my feet and I bet you're worse off."
IIIIIIIIII
PHO: EndBringer Fights: Cape with Bandages Covering his Face?
Page 01 of 22
PD-Burnout-0117 (Original Poster)
Anyone know who he is?
Iron Mouse (Verified Cape)
Why? What do you want with him?
PD-Burnout-0117 (Original Poster)
To thank him. He saved a couple hundred lives in the last fight including mine.
Iron Mouse (Verified Cape)
Yeah, he does that. No one knows what his name is, people just call him the Unknown Parahuman. What happened?
PD-Burnout-0117 (Original Poster)
I was the warden of an Endbringer shelter packed full of a hell of a lot more people than it was designed to hold. Power held but the ventilation died, backup was non-functional, and the one entrance was blocked. We were just sitting there hoping that we'd be rescued before the air went bad when I heard someone knocking on the door.
Well, I get it open and all I can see was a pile of concrete and rebar and a hand poking through it. He crawls out and tells me he's there to jury rig the ventilation system to keep it working until help could arrive. Well, I'm posting so obviously he succeeded. Crazy thing is after he did it he crawls back through the rubble to go help other people.
We got rescued about five hours later. Bullwhip and Lariat, husband and wife team of brutes dug us out. Bullwhip apologized for taking so long and told us that the pile in front of our door kept collapsing. Lariat said they wouldn't have believed anyone could have gotten through without bringing the whole thing down on themselves if they didn't know that it had been done and even then she said that even then that she only believed it because she knew who did it.
Iron Mouse (Verified Cape)
As I said before: Yeah, he does that. Do a search on him and you'll see more stories like that. He's saved a lot of lives.
Navy Bean
Why didn't you have the door open if you knew that you were running out of air?
PD-Burnout-0117 (Original Poster)
I was afraid the air was radioactive. Figured that suffocation was a better way to go than radiation sickness or being burned alive. The detection equipment wasn't working either.
IIIIIIIIII
Sophia insisted on holding hands after they were about half way to his house, claiming that it was because he was so tired that she was worried that he was about to fall over and that holding hands would make it easier to catch him if he did. Greg had happily agreed, it was wonderful to have someone that cared about you and even better when you cared about them too.
"We need to get you a key tomorrow," he said as the reached the front door.
"Don't need it with my powers," Sophia replied evenly.
"It's not about weather you need it, it's about the thought behind it," Greg replied. "Having a key means that you are always welcome." He frowned. "Not that you aren't always welcome now, but . . . but it means that I want you to . . ."
She bumped him with her hip. "I understand." The smile on her face was brighter than the sun. "You're saying that it means that I belong here."
"Yeah," he sighed. "I don't want there to be any barriers, not even ones you can easily get through. You're too important to me to have it any other way."
"Dork," she teased, unable to hide how pleased she was by the statement.
"And proud of it," he agreed as he opened the door. "After you."
"What a gentleman," she laughed.
He stepped in after her and locked the door before following her up the stairs.
Sophia wasted no time stripping down. "Hurry up," she said. "The faster we get changed, the faster we can get some sleep."
"True," he agreed.
Greg's eyebrows rose when Sophia immediately claimed his t-shirt the second he stripped it off and threw it on over her bra and panties.
"You only wore it from the PRT back home, right?" she said defensively. "It's still warm, I don't want to put on a cold ass shirt if there's a warm one available."
"Makes sense," Greg agreed as he pulled on a new t-shirt and a fresh pair of boxers.
She reached under his shirt and removed her bra. "Course it makes sense, I thought of it."
"I've never said that you don't have good ideas," Greg replied. He slipped into bed and held the covers up so that she could join him.
"Put your arms around me," Sophia ordered as she slid in next to him.
"Gladly," he agreed, pulling the girl close.
Sophia rested her face on his chest, listening to his heartbeat through the thin fabric of his shirt. The girl frowned, remembering what he'd said a few minutes earlier. No barriers. "Let me go for a sec."
"Sure." Greg hastened to comply.
Sophia shimmied around until she'd removed his shirt which she then deposited on his night stand. "Take yours off too," she ordered.
"Okay," he agreed, piling the one he'd been wearing on top of the one she'd been using.
Sophia reached down and pulled up her legs. Shortly thereafter her panties was sitting on the two shirts. "Boxers too."
"If that's what you want," Greg agreed, trying to keep his voice calm when he was anything but.
"Now hold me," Sophia begged, putting her head back on his chest to listen to his heart. It was going a mile a minute, she thought in satisfaction as she luxuriated in the feeling of skin on skin contact. "Good night, Greg."
"Good night, Sophia," he replied.
She wrapped her arms around him and let the furious pounding of his heart lull her to sleep.
AN: Was leaning towards Atlanta for the city.
Omake by dogbertcarroll
Greg waited for transport with Armsmaster, both exchanging nods after seeing that each was still intact.
"The Search and Rescue reports compliment you on your efficiency," Armsmaster noted, using his version of small talk.
"Efficiency often means the difference between like and death," Greg replied.
"Indeed," Armsmaster said with a pleased nod.
"I've heard that parahumans often have to deal with an increase in violent impulses," Greg said, seeing as they were going to be there for a while so he might as well as get a second opinion. "I may have experienced that for the first time today."
"What were the circumstances?"
"I was repairing the ventilation system in an endbringer shelter and the poor design and shoddy construction... offended me," Greg admitted. "I know I shouldn't hunt down and execute the ones responsible for putting so many citizens in danger... but I am finding it hard to come up with sufficient reasons not to."
Armsmaster nodded and patted him on the shoulder. "In such situations that is perfectly normal. I'll forward you the list Dragon made for me."