trans_9 | Reign of Destruction

One thing about Batman was that he put the Boy Scouts to shame. 'Always be prepared' wasn't just a motto, it was a way of life. So the other boot had fire repellent. It wasn't easy to ignore the smell of burning plantsuit, but he did his best. The floor shifted uneasily underneath him, giving way just as he spotted a bar that he was able to jump to. And that he used to swing to a more reliable bit of the floor.

He crouched a moment, listening through the fire and the sound of the rebreather. It took a moment for him to hear anything over it. Turning, he tried to pinpoint the sound of yelling and finally started running toward the sound of it, stopping in front of a door. The screams were definitely coming from behind it. He could pick out three voices, though ages were harder to determine. Not that it mattered, anyway.

"Stay near the floor," he shouted, looking at the door. "And I need you to back away from the door." Dick really hoped Stacy's translation program or whatever it was was still working. The screaming did quiet some and he had to take it that the owners were following his orders.

Nodding to himself, Dick took a step back and kicked the door in, then had to drop as smoke billowed out of the room. That wasn't good. He started crawling forward, looking around to try to find the owners of the voices, which seemed to be mostly crying now. "It's okay," he said, reaching out and finding a small hand. "We'll get you out of here. How many are here?"

There was more sniffling and the hand turned to clutch his. "My brother and sister. And Wuffles."

"Wuffles?"

"Our cat."

Dick took a breath and nodded. "All right. Let's find your siblings and the cat and we'll get you out of here.

It took a few minutes to gather the others. Luckily, the other two were quite a bit smaller than the oldest. Dick gathered them up, having the oldest hold on to his neck while he grabbed up the smaller kids. The little girl held the kitten against her chest. Dick busted out the window, using a decel line that he shot up on the roof to give them a way down. "You know, I really wish this was the first time I'd ever done this," he said as they got to the ground, getting the kids down. "Come on, this way. We need to get you guys evacuated." And he needed to get back into the fire to check on the others.

Aeneas let out an odd sort of squeak, wincing as his throat stung. There was no sense in him trying to talk at this point, so instead he resorted to giving Katara a worried, pained sort of look, as if to say, ”—What? Me, take care of all of this? Are you serious? What could possibly—?”

The alien turned around and got his answer. It was not the one he was hoping for.

A surge of fear-induced adrenaline increased Aeneas’s abilities by several times, despite the fact that he was utterly exhausted and unable to keep up the wave-making that had been so useful to keep a steady mist on the back edge of the house. But at least the others were starting to get people out; several adolescent creatures and their cat were the first ones to make it to the bottom, escorted by one of his shipmates clad in an odd uniform. Aeneas motioned at them to come closer with a wave of his tail, mandibles cracked open to cool his chapped windpipe, managing a trill over the roar of the flames and the shrieks of the Ohm behind him:

“—They can stay with me until we evacuate the others, it might be dangerous to send them off to the shuttles in such small groups,” he insisted hurriedly, eyes squinted shut with discomfort and concentration, “You should go back in and continue helping the others. Please.”

The floors were unsteady the further up he got. Dean was trying to listen for any cries.

"Anybody still in here? Where are you?" He yelled to any possible remaining residents. He got near one of the blown out windows, and his eyes widened. He hoped his commlink still worked as he barked, "We got Ohm coming, repeat, Ohm. We need to get everybody out here now!"

He turned to move, and that's when the section of floor under him collapsed.

"Dean!" Loren had just returned from guiding out one of the occupants. She tried to run over to him but there were flames in the way. "Dean, are you O.K.?" She looked around a bit, then found one area where the fire was not as bad. She covered herself with the extra cloth she had been given and dove in.

Dick had gotten the message, of course, then heard the sound of the floor going through the comm. He nodded to Aeneas, pushing the children that direction. "You'll be safe with him," he told them before shaking out the rebreather to clear it and heading back into the fire on Loren's heels. "Any idea where he was?"

A floor down, and there was for the moment, an unconscious hunter. One of his legs was at a weird angle, suggesting a break. Possibly multiple, there was numerous bruising, and if Dean had been awake, he would have heard the crack also as two of his lower left ribs broke. Luckily the mist had drawn the fire away, but there was still some smoke, and he lost his rebreather. He would be unresponsive for a bit if not longer.

No help yet, and Katara gritted her teeth. They were still working on getting everyone out of the house, and that was going to cost her: this Ohm was still putting up a resistance even though it had no idea why its movement was so restricted. Katara might be a lot stronger now, but if she had to keep holding down an Ohm like this, it would start to diminish pretty rapidly. So she was going to have to improvise.

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. Bloodbending took quite a lot of concentration, and was something she had only done with humans before. Luckily for her, the Ohm's body actually needed quire a bit of water, so it wasn't immune. What she HAD noticed was that spit and what it was doing to that civilian. She closed her eyes, steadied herself, and then rammed the Ohm to the ground as hard as she could. If it didn't get up, she was racing back to help the others in the fire.

If it did get up...it went without saying she had a lot of work to do.

Loren let out a short cry as the heat of the fire burned her skin but she made it through otherwise unscathed. "There!" Loren spotted Dean and made her way over to him. She grit her teeth together as she passed through yet more fire and had to smother some flames that had spread to her pants legs before getting to Dean.

"Dean? Dean, can you hear me?" Ducking low, she took off her own rebreather to place it over his mouth so he could briefly get some oxygen.

Dick followed Loren through, having to pat at his own clothing before he knelt. He picked up Dean's rebreather, shaking it slightly before shaking his head. "We'll need to get him out. He can't keep it in his mouth when he's unconscious."

He looked Dean over quickly before nodding and handing Dean's rebreather and his last ~~Bat~~ fire repellent capsules to Loren. "It'll probably be easier if I carry him. I'll need you to make sure we have a path out, though." The building was rapidly falling down around their ears. If they didn't get out of here soon, all three of them would probably burn.

Loren nodded, reattached her own rebreather, and then put Dean's over his mouth. "Alright, let's get him up. Loren grabbed Dean by the arms and lifted him up as much as she could, trusting on Dick to take him from there.

This wasn't going to be comfortable for Dean in the least. Especially since they didn't have time to check for injuries. He knew what he could probably expect, so he did his best to be careful of ribs and arms. But Dean was a good few inches taller than Dick, which made picking him up unwieldy as hell. "Sorry, Dean," he said, working his shoulder into the other man's stomach and lifting him into a fireman's carry. "Right. Let's get moving, quick as possible."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Loren said, trying to scout out an escape route. "Alright, follow me."

Aeneas’s energy reserves were running extremely low, the heat and lack of oxygen were slowly but steadily choking him where he stood. Breathing nitrogen could only go so far, especially on a planet with comparatively little of it to go around; besides, the delicate gills that collected the gas were by this point badly damaged, bleeding and falling apart through their protective feather coverings. It would take weeks for them to grow back.

But the Ohm was stirring. Katara had already rushed past him into the flames after she’d slammed their attacker (or at least he assumed she’d gone back in), and though it had stayed down for a few minutes it was, no doubt, starting to recover. Aeneas kept a wary eye on it as he continued to manage the fire, gathering the children close, picking up Wuffles the kitten and keeping it cradled by his chest so that it wouldn’t wander off; an odd sort of protective instinct welled up inside him, unknown until now, strong and violent and honestly bloodthirsty in its motives. The alien found himself unconsciously baring his mandibles and raising his tail above his head, loosing a steady hiss of warning and fear as he prepared for the worst…

"I have your six." It wasn't quite like working with Barbara, but there was definitely something about Loren that reminded him of her. So he absolutely did follow her through the flames and back out into the open air, coughing a little as the rebreather slipped. "We have a casualty. We need to get Dean back to the ship, ASAP."

It was only barely working, and she was sweating as a result, gritting her teeth. Boy, but this was taking a lot of concentration and time, and she couldn't even see what was happening in the burning house. She was, however, getting quite anxious at what was going to happen if she didn't continue bloodbending this Ohm.

"Guys, help please!" Katara managed to say, taking a shallow breath and digging her heels harder into the ground. "We can take it down!"

Reign of Destruction

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