Post by Miles Morales on Jul 4, 2018 19:34:38 GMT
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6 May 2015; 21:43
Phillip's foot impatiently tapped against the asphalt as the entire Company Eight crew waited outside of a 7-Eleven on Church Street. The sirens of the nearby fire truck had been silenced, but the lights emanating from every facet of the vehicle were still as bright and attention-grabbing as one would expect. Inside of the store, Jackson and Iseul were frantically browsing the shelves in search of one item in particular, something that Iseul had insisted they stop for. Company Eight, along with multiple other divisions, received a call from Emergency Services regarding an uncontrollable fire at the Independence Plaza. Their building was only a few minutes away from the corner of Harrison and Greenwich, and the short distance made their timely arrival all the more important. Phillip was under the impression that such a fire could've been handled had they been there faster, but here he was, standing in front of a store waiting for two kids to quickly buy something.
Unfortunately, the term "quickly" was being stretched far beyond its definition.
"Cain," the chief angrily called out, hoping to grab the attention of one of his more punctual subordinates.
"Cain Beauregard, at your service," he responded, stepping away from the rest of the crew.
"Let me vent for a moment here," Phillip began. "There's currently a massive fire burning not five minutes from home base. We're currently a few miles away from both that fire and the base itself for what reason, exactly?"
"... Park said he needed to get water, sir," Cain replied, clearly understanding the direction of the conversation far before it started to turn.
"Mm, yes," he continued. "So how do you think headquarters will look at us when they find out one of their trucks stopped traffic in downtown Manhattan just so some new kid could grab a few bottles of water?"
"I doubt they'll think highly of us, sir," Cain replied. "Then again, you could've easily told us to go straight to the plaza. If you didn't think he had a reason to put several lives in danger just to go to a 7-Eleven, you wouldn't let him, would you?"
Phillip gave no response and instead chose to shift his attention back towards the storefront. Inside, he could see Iseul throwing two cases of bottled water on the counter while Jackson stood next to him, a confused expression on his face. He knew why Iseul needed to stop, but he was still pressed for time. The two of them promptly exited the building, each one carrying one of the cases they'd just purchased. Without even acknowledging the captain's demeanor, they boarded the truck and placed their respective items on the floor next to the driver's seat.
"We should get moving now," Iseul called out. "I got everything I needed."
The rest of the crew, though confused, boarded the back of the truck and made their way off towards Independence Plaza. Ever since the advent of Quirks, the lines dividing each Emergency Service began to disappear. Certain companies among the FDNY took on broader purposes, such as search and rescue groups now handling direct firefighting and vice versa. On one hand, it made it harder to individually train recruits, but it also made it easier for everyone to deal with the fires closest to them. Since Company Eight was so close to the location of the fire, they would've been the first to arrive and begin handling the situation, but given their stop at 7-Eleven, their crew was the fourth to join.
The heat and smoke started to permeate the area a mere mile from the building. The crew looked up at the Plaza, a series of luxury high rise towers that had caught fire not long before their arrival. Iseul could see some of the flames licking at the higher floors while smoke poured from the bottom. Exiting the truck near the intersection at Greenwich and Franklin, Phillip and the remainder of the crew stepped out onto the pavement, eager to figure out what had happened and how they could help. Phillip himself rushed over to the Communication Division, one of the few specialized groups remaining in the Emergency Services. Everyone in the group wore tan, baggy suits with large boxes on their backs, each one housing a phone and several mechanisms that connected those on the field to those back at headquarters. One of the members of the group immediately noticed Phillip and jutted a phone in his direction, subtly letting him know that HQ wanted to have a word with him.
While their boss was getting yelled at, the remainder of the group scattered around the plaza to gather information and get themselves set up for work. Despite being somewhat experienced, Iseul didn't know where he should start. He went up to the front seat of the vehicle and grabbed both of his cases of water, setting them out in front of the truck.
If I were a professional, where would I be right now...? He thought to himself.
Though he was somewhat preoccupied with his thoughts, he wasn't distracted enough to miss the distant boom originating from the top of the complex. He looked up to the building right on the corner of the street, watching as some of the upper levels began to collapse in on themselves. Chunks of brick were falling into the unoccupied Plaza, but others were headed directly into the street. One section, in particular, was descending right over the pavement where Phillip and the Communication Division were standing.
Without wasting a second, Iseul ran over to Phillip's spot, the cases of water staking and tearing apart behind him. Just as the brick was roughly ten meters above them, the cases exploded, dragging the water from each bottle over to Iseul. He skidded to a halt and firmly planted himself in the ground, moving pulling both of his arms away from the water and towards his body. The liquid surrounded everyone in the immediate area, spinning rapidly while forming into a hemispherical shape. He clenched his fists, rapidly increasing the density of the barrier to the point where not even stone could penetrate it.
It was his first technique, one that would remain a staple in his character for his next three years as a firefighter. As the barrier formed, he called out its name, shielding the group from the overhead debris:
Daem!
A flash of light briefly lit up Coney Island Creek Park, refracting off the dew on nearby vegetation like a field of green glass. The porcelain teen drew water from the sea and formed a weak defense around himself and Tracey, rapidly spinning and shaping the liquid to form a dome of rotating water. The natural gas that had been building up in the room was ignited, producing a bright flash and a potent fireball that completely encompassed the two. With his arms out to his sides, Iseul attempted to hold together the barrier that separated them from the scorching heat, but it was clear that his defense wouldn't hold for long.
I don't know what the hell Tracey can do here, he thought, but I need to get her out first.
As the barrier became thinner and thinner, Iseul chose to sacrifice the remaining water and used it to push Tracey out towards the sea, leaving her collapsed on the sand as Iseul was consumed by the roaring flames. He covered his face with his right forearm over his left, but as expected, everything from his wrist down to his elbow was scorched. At that point, the fire changed shape once more and blew him through the west wall, throwing him down against the sand.
"Only a few seconds in and you're already disappointing me," a voice called out, though Iseul was too preoccupied with the burn on his right arm to hear it. He grabbed onto his scorched flesh and screamed, rolling onto his back while his entire body convulsed in pain. Though every firefighter received their fair share of burns, they were usually from brief contact with hot objects, not from a condensed fireball hitting them at point-blank range.
Despite his struggle, Iseul managed to prop himself up with his good arm and got back onto his feet. He doubted the man's intentions, but the simple tactic he used would drastically impact Iseul's fighting style. He was one arm down, and he needed both of his arms to use the full extent of his abilities. Looking to his left, Iseul noticed that Tracey had already picked herself back up, and she was looking between the man on her left and Iseul on her right. He was glad that if he had to be in this situation, he wouldn't be alone.
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," he began. "Not everyone can be a winner here."
He stood at the center of what was the first floor's expansion, though the walls were too scorched to call it that anymore. He raised his left hand up to Iseul and his right up to Tracey, causing the familiar scent of natural gas to permeate the area. Iseul kicked back, launching himself two meters away from the spot he had been in while Tracey seemingly disappeared out of thin air. The spots that they were both in ignited in another condensed ball of flames, though Iseul could now see that the fire took on a more spherical shape rather than being an uncontrollable flame.
So he covered the area in natural gas and raised his hand to ignite it, Iseul though. Can he control the combustion? What kind of Quirk is this?
Just as he concluded his thought, Tracey appeared to his right, landing on her feet as if she had jumped all the way from where she was standing. She opened her mouth to say something, but the miasma of gas came back a second time. They both leaped to the side, Iseul moving closer to the sea while Tracey moved closer to the residential neighborhood. Another explosion went off, though this time the fire shot directly upward rather than forming a ball. Iseul looked at the man's stance, taking note of his he seemed to be giving a "thumbs up" to the spot he had incinerated.
When Iseul was first struck he was blown back at an angle, leaving him just out of range of the sea. Now, though, he was able to pull a torrent over from the ocean with his left hand and spiral it around his body, forming a thick ring of water that he could use as he needed. Tracey leaped back over to Iseul, covering a wide distance as if it was nothing.
"You smelled that too, right?" Tracey asked. "White trash over here is setting off gas bombs."
"We're thinking on the same wavelength then," Iseul replied. "Keep yourself moving and don't let him get you. We still don't know how fast his gas moves or how he causes it to combust. All I can tell is that he's working at long range. If I back you up, can you get close to him?"
Tracey turned her attention back towards the man and weighed her options. Not a moment later, she began to sprint in his direction with Iseul a few meters behind her. Tracey was extremely fast, hinting that her agility from two days prior was definitely from a Quirk, and she was able to close the distance the distance between herself and the site's intruder. His face seemed to scrunch up in frustration, and he raised his right hand towards the two once more. This time, Iseul could see the coin-flipping motion he made with his thumb before a torrent of fire shot in their direction. Iseul used some of the water he pulled from the sea and shot it forward alongside his left arm just as Tracey lept over the stream of fire, allowing the two attacks to collide and cancel each other out.
From six meters in the air, Tracey descended with a kick aimed directly for the top of his head, a decent strategy given his preoccupation with an approaching Iseul. The man panicked slightly, flailing his right arm up at Tracey and his left towards Iseul. His combustion worked just as it did before, sending another stream of fire towards Iseul from a mere three meters away while the area over his head ignited in an uncontrollable explosion. Iseul rolled to his left while Tracey was thrown further back into the air, leaving her vulnerable to a second attack.
Iseul watched his expression and studied his abilities. He was no combat expert, but a little bit of analysis went a long way. Given his distance from the explosion and his level of control, Iseul considered the idea that the gas could originate from his body. He also took his method of ignition into account. His close-range explosions were limited in size, and his long-range ones were more dynamic flame constructs. The further away they were, the more disadvantaged they'd be.
Iseul threw his hand out behind him and pulled in more water from the sea. This time, the torrent was larger than his whole body and it came in faster. The man raised his arm towards Iseul and set off another fireball in his direction, but the water shielded him just as it did earlier, and with much more efficiency. His hand stayed extended in an attempt to burn through the barrier, but while his attention was elsewhere, Tracey leaped in from the west wall and planted her foot into his side. His fire disappeared immediately, leaving Iseul with slightly less water to work with.
The intruder's body was thrown towards the patches of grass, but he showed a minor feat of agility by using the momentum to roll through the sand and eventually rotate back onto his feet. Though they had done some minor damage, Iseul and Tracey had also given the man some distance once more.
"He's easily distracted," Tracey yelled, running over to Iseul's side as a fireball encompassed the spot she'd been in. "Don't give him any distance!"
Iseul nodded in her direction and ran forward, dragging the mass of water alongside him. As he ran, a section of the mass broke off as a dense torrent and began to drill into the ground directly behind him, shooting forward just as fast as he'd been running. The intruder was switching his attention back and forth between Iseul and Tracey, igniting streams of fire that they both had easily dodged. With every attack, he took more and more steps backward, though the uneven terrain and his vector of movement made him much slower than the two that were approaching him. Tracey quickly changed her trajectory after dodging yet another stream, moving in an arc that would end at the man's left side. Iseul, on the other hand, continued to beam forward, though he split his torrent in half and sent two arcs of water towards the man, one aiming for his right and another going overhead.
The intruder looked in all directions, taking note of how he'd soon be overpowered. His next move was too quick for them to follow, but at the same time, it was irrational. The area in front of him flared up like a massive bomb, producing a wall of fire that forced Tracey to stop and evaporated Iseul's torrents. Behind the wall, however, some of the man's flesh had been scorched, causing him to involuntarily call out in pain.
I get it now, Iseul thought, running parallel to the wall while drawing in more water from the sea.
His gas is coming from his body, Tracey thought, mirroring Iseul's actions at a much faster pace.
And he needs to concentrate just to keep himself from getting burned!
Their thoughts and actions synced up. Iseul's underground torrent punched through the ground and slammed into the intruder's chin. Just as it did, Tracey leaped in from the side and delivered a flying kick to the man's head, sending him soaring in Iseul's direction. This is where the tide would finally turn.
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