"This...the realism so well-done." Sphere said as he turned to Ember Saint. "There's only slight inconsistencies...it's like 95% real as far as I'm concerned or even more. I'll give Sebastian and the others props for putting this together so well."

He considered the woman across from him. Eva.

"Eva hmmm..." he replied to her.

"I don't think you even need to ask, really. I suspect that it will be hard for emergency rescues to get over to them within ten minutes, and while some people may be saved I suspect there will casualties or even fatalities. If we can get there in time I can ensure that no one asphyxiates. And Ember can always chop us a hole in any falling debris or what have you with that over-sized sword of his." he said, giving Ember a quick smirk before looking back to Eva.

"Tell them at the reception if they eat all those wrapped bacon hors d'oeuvres thingies before I get there that I'm tornado-ing the place and going rogue. So for the love of God tell Sebastian to make me a plate or something." he said as he turned to Ember Saint.

"Well bro what do you think? You wanna go with me and do some bus servicing?"

The suit of what appeared to be some sort of stylized medieval heavy plate armor sat there in the helicopter staring out the window for most of the trip.  He of course agreed to this test as he wouldn't have been here otherwise, however, even knowing it was a simulation did little to prepare him for just how real everything seemed.  "For gods sake I can feel the wind!"  His head turned to Sphere.  If not for the head movement, one might be just assume he was actually a manikin with a museum set of armor put on it.  The helmet swiveled around to face Eva now as she spoke.

"Eva...  Of course we are going to help."  Ember Saint nodded already starting to undo the seatbelt and stand up grabbing the grab bar over his seat to steady himself.  He was not a tiny man standing around 6 feet 3 inches and with some muscled girth putting him around 210 lbs, but he moved with some ease for someone of his size--especially in the armor he wore.  His deep voice had come from inside the plate armor.  Strangely the sound was not muffled as one might expect from such a full face covering helm as he wore and instead seemed to only add a little reverb to his baritone.  He started walking towards the exit and only chuckled at Sphere's ultimatum shaking his head in amusement.

With that a pair of golden feather wings sprouted from his back as he continued to the exit. Each of the deep golden feathers seemed to be edged with a reddish glow as if they were instead slowly burning embers in a dying fire--a harmless effect apparently as nothing seemed in danger of bursting into flames at the moment even when he brushed them against something on his way to the door.  There he stopped before opening the door however.  He knew the rush of air and sounds of the blades spinning would probably make it too hard to hear him.

Ember Saint waited for Sphere to get closer.  "I think you are right about the timing of the ESU getting there.  Okay: First we just worry about getting to them without making their situation worse.  Then..."

He paused with a sigh as he tried to reign himself in a bit as he slipped right into "emergency mode" as his mother called it when he started bossing others around when there was a crisis.  His training just seemed to kick in naturally at times like this.  He however realized he wanted to keep his real identity secret so he had to try to change the tone of authority he had initially taken to a more agreeable one.  How successful he was at that was of course was for his audience to judge.  "Then I guess we find out how many we have and how many of them are injured.  If they can't be moved and fast, we have to get them fresh air ASAP...  Sound good?  Uh... of course if you had any other ideas..."  He quickly added the last part in effort to try to be more collaborative than barking orders as he was often at the city fire department...

OOC: Just FYI...please always assume Sphere has Living Planet active unless otherwise stated. Right now, it's active although Living planet is continuous and not noticeable. He will be activating Wind Mantle now though too, and sustaining it.

Sphere nodded at Ember Saint.

"Locating them and then getting to them will be first priority. I'm not super worried about there being injured - I can take care of that if we get there quick enough. However, the problem is that if you want me to be relatively quick about it I'll be mostly powerless to do too much else besides sit there and look pretty. That's where you come in." he replied. "I can only do so much at once. And while I can heal multiple people at once it takes time for me to build multiple healing wind steams and even then I gotta maintain their potency or the healing will take a long time." he continued.

"In that case, it will be up to you to protect us from things like falling debris, help locate people I cannot see immediately, and so on. Because if I gotta divert energy to hold up a falling ceiling or something then that's energy I can't use to heal people. And if things are falling on me, well...that's not good either."

OOC:  Because I forgot to put this into my first post,
ACTIVE POWERS:  Ember Plate armor, Smoldering Golden Feathered Wings


Ember Saint nodded.  He thought of mentioning his own healing ability... but then decided not to.  His was very limited and as of yet, he was not that good at it so he figured it was a last resort and not their first line.  "I would say only focus on healing injuries which will limit mobility so leg injuries and major bleeding so we can get people moving.  Heal the rest once we are out."  He inwardly cringed as he slipped right into Emergency mode again--and again he tried to dial it back.  He also didn't mention what happens if they find dead or actively dying... in a triage situation that would mean leaving those actively dying to do just that and save those who can be saved... then again he hoped Sphere's powers were really all up to snuff for healing as he hoped they were.  "I'll try to find a way to weld up the ceiling when we get down there to make it as stable as I can but... if tons of rock start falling, we both will have a problem."  He looked back to Eva and tapped the mic on his wrist for his radio as a test.  "Eva, any word on which the tunnel entrance might be closest to the accident?"

Ember saint:
"Eva, any word on which the tunnel entrance might be closest to the accident?"

Eva nodded.  "We're en route to the Battery park entry-way."

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was actually two tubes, one eastbound, one westbound, traversing the space between Battery Park and Manhattan.    Spanning over a mile and a half, it was the longest continuous underwater vehicle tunnel in North America.

The helicopter took them to the Eastbound side, near the Governor's Island air exchange building.  Battery Park entryway, which was currently free of impediment (Brooklyn side is outbound only at the moment, as that appears to be where the accident was.  Cars were backed up both ways, though...

Eva claimed to have camera access.  she noted that there was a flickering of lights on the far wall that suggested that there may be a fire in the vicinity, but that she did not have an adequate view to confirm.  Standard tunnel traffic lights are on and functional, for what it's worth.

Getting into the tunnel wasn't difficult at all.  But cars were backed up all the way, both ways.  Eastbound traffic was stopped up because an route X28 bus was on it's side approximately half-way through the tunnel, spanning both lanes.  Two more cars were lodged right up against it's underside.   A small crowd was gathering on the traffic side, as some of the passengers from the bus were climbing out of the windows on the top-side of the accident.

Two men--one wearing a grey uniform of some sort, the other wearing jeans and a visi-vest, were assisting people out of the bus, itself.  There were several green emergency crack-lights scattered around the bus.

There was water seeping from the ceiling of the tunnel.

The lighting in the tunnel flickered sporadically.

"I've just got word. We've got another one inbound from Governor's Island.  Don't know who yet."  Eva said.  "And I've got all sorts of reports of something moving underwater in your direction from the lower bay.  Something big.  More intel, when I've got it."



--
OOC:

Powers In Play

• Ember Saint
  
  • Ember Plate Armor: Impervious 4 Protection 7
  • Thematic Immunities
  • Smoldering Golden Feathered Wings: Flight 7 (250 miles/hour)
• Sphere
  
  • Living Planet: Immunity 17
  • Wind Mantle: Impervious Protection 10

Not bothering with any dice type stuff for getting into the tunnel.  No real drama in it.  You get there.

@EmberSaint:
Do you want to continue to sustain the Wings once on-site?

Sphere exited the helicopter with Ember Saint, and flew into the eastern tunnel. If Ember had problems with his wings, Sphere would use his power to grant Ember orbital flight so he could maneuver freely in the tunnel until they got the scene of the bus accident, at which point he withdrew his power back into himself as he knew Ember would be able to get around just fine, with or without his wings, given his firefighting background.

Instead, Sphere focused on surveying the scene and taking in what was going on.

"We'll check out what's in the water shortly. But first, we need to look for injured and evac them from the tunnel. There's water leaking in too which is bad bit so far it's just a trickle. But I'm guessing whatever's swimming around in the water grazed the tunnel on accident and caused all this." he said as he tapped his earpiece, replying to Eva.

He turned to Ember.

"Hey man...I think that we should first look for any injured. If anyone's critically wounded I'll start healing them but otherwise I'm going to gather everyone up and fly them out the east side of the tunnel with my orbit. Are you able to use your fire power to spot-weld or melt cracks in the tunnel together to buy us more time and stop the water trickling?"

The two uniform guys wave Sphere and Ember saint over.  The visi-vest guy appears to simply be some sort of construction worker.  The guy in grey was a postal worker.  Simply good samaritans in a time of stress.

The postal worker stepped up to Sphere, but his eyes kept drifting to Ember Saint.
"Most are out of the bus.  But there's a few left inside.  Can't get to them.  A woman under a crushed seat near the back.  Three others, I think.  There's a couple of signs on fire about half-way back.  Electrical fires.  Seem to be controlled. nowhere near the gas tanks." His cheek was streaked with sweat and oil and something else, which might've been blood.  "I'm hoping that with the fire thing he's got going on, that he's fireproof... "

"There's a woman and a kid in the fiat."  the visi-vest guy said.  "can't get to them, I can hear her, but can't get to her.  She says she cant' reach the ignition to turn the car off..."

The fiat in question is crushed under the bus.   

Ember Saint spread his wings and flew.  The slow burning embers on the edges of the feathers seemed to spark to life as he moved leaving a trail of still seemingly harmless sparks and flames as he went.  There was nothing subtle about it.  Though he was not as quick as Sphere, he managed quite well on his own.  He used his wings when needed and would scramble over obstacles on foot if necessary.

The word of something out there in the water was not very comforting but he had been in bad situations before.   Ember Saint just shrugged.  "Can't do much about that right now, so we focus on the task at hand."

Once inside the tunnel he began inspecting the cracks nodding to Sphere.  "I might be able to weld it shut, but I really wish I had something to shore up the ceiling."  He was about to begin to try welding when the two men approached.  Their information confirmed his worst expectations: people were trapped.  He regarded the bus and the squashed car, getting the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach about it. Sure he had seen terrible traffic accidents, but many of them had very bad outcomes.  He hoped their powers were enough here.

"Yeah I'm fireproof."  He eyed the wreckage a bit more then turned back to the men.  "Thank you both for stepping up.  We appreciate your help, please get yourselves to safety.  I will get the woman out of the bus first, then we will worry about trying to get to the car."  He slipped right into emergency mode again, but this time didn't try to pull himself back from it as he projected authority into his voice.  He looked to Sphere and nodded again as he approached the bus.  Just being nearby was all he needed to quench any flames and even reduce the heat of the area back to normal as he went.  He idly mulled over how useful this power would have been to have in his daily job years ago.


He climbed inside the bus through one of the emergency exits, perhaps the one on the roof as the bus was now on its side.  The wings disappeared once he needed to squeeze inside however as if they were never there.  Once inside he would work to locate the woman inside the bus.  "Mamn?  Can you hear me?"  He called out.



Using nullify alternate power on any flames nearby.

Snuff the Flames: Burst Area Nullify 10 (Alternate; Counters: Fire and Heat, DC 20; Burst Area 3: 120 feet radius sphere, DC 20)


Maintaining the armor for now.  Letting the wings go.

Sphere nodded.

"Ember if you can focus on keeping fires in the area from igniting, I will deal with the car while you deal with the bus. If possible, try and get the woman out of there and we can heal her. I'd be afraid to move the bus away from the car without you here to stop the car from igniting on accident. You're gonna feel movement but I'll go slow and easy Ember so just do what you gotta do in there." he said, grateful for Ember's fire-quelling powers.

He probably can shut the ignition off with his fire nullify too, as well as the electrical fires. Ember's ability to quell fire and heat was super useful!

He moved over to the car that was wedged under the bus.

"Ma'am? If you can hear me I'm going to move the bus off of the car, and then I'm going to get you and your kid out ok." he said as he gathered his winds to himself.

And suddenly, the air began to churn around Sphere. Mind you, it was already churning in a weird way due to his wind mantle but this was a more external sort of churning as a breeze began to form from nowhere. All of a sudden, it began to swirl furiously for a moment several feet in front oh him before it condensed into what could only be best described as a concentrated stream of air. Like a tendril of water, but made of wind and air instead. Mostly it flowed forward away from sphere but now and then it spun like an itty bitty tornado or something.

"Stand back everyone please!" Sphere shouted as he got to work directing his air at the bus!

OOC: Using move object to gently lift the bus off the car. He'll move it slowly so as to not throw Ember off his feet or anything like that. It will feel more like the bus is levitating off of the car at this point. He'll then move it a little bit eastward down the tunnel by like 30 feet just so he can put it down away from the bystanders.

I'm committing 20/24 pp in my dynamic array to get move object 8 which is 25 tons for me (as he has increased mass 2). The internet says a bus should be 17-20 tons so this definitely enough to lift it. He'll sustain the effect for now.

@EmberSaint

The flames inside the bus died and withered away, deprived of the energy it needed to continue.

The scene inside the bus was... complicated.

There was a very large man, probably around 250-300 lbs, wearing a red sox t-shirt and very dirty sweat-pants.  He was spread-eagle against one of the two-person seats, his neck at a strange angle, a small line of blood trickling from the side of his mouth.

Underneath him, a forearm in pale blue.   A woman's voice called out. "It's my leg. I Can't move.  This guy's so... uh... fucking big...  Oh.  Oh!  it hurts."   her voice was slow, though, and a little bit slurred.    but it's volume increased immediately.  "Michael.  Michael?    It's okay baby.  We're going to be okay.  Help's here.  Michael, where are you?"

"Hurry please." The woman called. "Find my son. I can wait.  I'm uh... not going anywhere."  The woman coughed and there was a buzz and snap but the surge of energy through the sign-board didn't do anything, the triggers for combustion stalled before it could start.as sparks crackled nearby.

Two other passengers were behind the big man, also prevented from moving much.  A thick-set woman in jeans and an older black man.  Both looked dishevelled and confused, but physically unharmed.

"I can almost reach the window on this side." the heavy-set woman called out.  "But this guy is crushing us."

The big man had been seated on the seat in front of the woman.  THe impact that sent the bus over on it's side and crumpled and twisted the seat he'd been in.  He'd been hit in the head by a dislodged hand-rail, and he'd spread-eagled when he'd landed, badly, on top of the woman.


@Sphere

Even with this, the entire bus started to shake gently.  The entire bus lifted up into the air...

Many of the crowd had gathered, giving the two heroes a reasonable distance.  But there were cel-phones out, and the occasional flash of photographs being taken.

"Sweet Jesus,"  the older black man said inside the bus. "Are we flying?"

It took nearly half a minute for Sphere to move the bus--gently--to a cleared area.  It took some careful repositioning, and there wasn't going to be much traffic movement either way through the tunnel for some time.

After he lay the bus down,  Sphere went to the Fiat.  The was a woman and a man.  No child.

The woman was in the passenger seat.  A tiny redhead with enormous glasses and braided hair with white flowers in them.   There was blood in her hair and down one side of her face.  She seemed to be awake and oriented, moving, although the crushed state of the car prevented her from being able to escape the vehicle.    She was making noise but wasn't real coherent...

The man--a slim caucasian with a black metal-band shirt and frizzy brown hair--was slumped forward, his chest had caved in with the force of the impact against the steering wheel.  He wasn't breathing.   The scent immediately around the vehicle made it pretty clear to Sphere that he wasn't going to be able to save the driver...



OOC:
Wings Gone. Armor still active, Nullify successful
Array/Gust of Wind in action MO:8
Bus moving successfully
Threat of fire nullified.

Sphere ignored the crowd gawking at him as he went to work, as focusing on being delicate was more important so that he didn't hurt Ember or the other people in the bus. While he had the power to just fling the damned thing down the tunnel or fly it out or something, it took him 30 seconds for the repositioning rather than instant as he was keeping things as delicate as he could.

Once he set the bus down as gently as he could, the stream of air flowing from him to the bus suddenly dissipated in a soft poof of air. He turned and quickly hovered in the air over to the car before landing and going to the woman. He could Kiss Ember right now for his fire retarding abilities, although frowned when he noticed the driver was quite obviously dead. While his winds could so some seemingly-miraculous things from a medical and scientific standpoint alike, reviving the dead was simply beyond even a living planet. That was something in the domain of the real God with a capital G.

But he could still help save the living, and give them a chance to see tomorrow.

"Miss Red?" Sphere said in his patented smooth voice as he went up to the car.

"I am going to try and save you, but I don't know how hurt you are. I'll help you, but it may hurt or at the very least be scary initially before it gets better. But you know the saying...one step back, two forward! So keep the faith with me. One, two, here we go!" he said as he pointed at the woman.

He took a deep breath before blowing it out, and the air around his pointing hand began to suddenly start to noticeably churn a bit before it began to emanate soft-hued, somewhat subtle but definitely visibly golden sparkles. This super-charged air began to flow from Sphere toward and into the woman as he put down his hand, causing a stream of flowing life-giving wind to flow from him to her that would start to quickly heal some of her wounds.

As this was happening, another stream of air suddenly that looked like the one that had moved the bus before flowed separately from him into and around the car.

And it started pushing outward!


OOC: Sphere stopping move object initially, then using second wind at full power the equivalent of a round or two to heal some of her physical damage. I realize she's still stuck in the car but he's bolstering her first as his initial attempts to free her may hurt her so this can offset that and prevent her condition from worsening.

After he heals a round or two worth of damage, he's going to then activate his move object power and have it start pulling the car/pushing outward from within on a need-to basis to "un-crush" the woman enough so she can get out. He'll use his dynamic array and Set The regeneration to rank 3 and the move object to rank 6 which I think ought to be enough to pull the car away from her while helping keep her on the mend. He can concentrate and push it up to rank 7 if need be without disrupting the regeneration as it is sustained.

Ember Saint grabbed a hold of one of the seats to steady himself when Sphere lifted the whole bus riding out the transfer while assessing the scene there so he didn't risk falling over someone in the bus.  There were some inconsistencies with the report given by the two guys who had told them what to expect to say the least here.

Not that this was entirely surprising as he had seen it several times on the job.  In a crisis, some people were not as reliable with giving information due to their own fear and panic tainting their memory of things.  He frowned under his helm at the dead body of the large man, the tell-tale signs were there, the obviously broken neck, lack of breathing etc, the guy certainly looked dead and there was no coming back from that--at least as far as he knew.

Unfortunately he had seen a few dead bodies in his time so it was nothing totally unexpected for him.  He had seen his fair share and then some of some horrible car crashes, a suicides by gunshot to the head and hanging, and more than a few cardiac arrests had given him a plethora of experience in that front.  Still it was not exactly pleasant when trying to rescue people and finding the dead piled on the living like this.

Ember Saint listened to the woman start to shout about her missing son as he approached.  Grabbing the dead man's arms he quickly confirmed the man was dead with a quick pulse check before he pulled him off of the woman to get a better view of the rest of the bus passengers and the woman herself here.  He would then carefully lay the man off to the side as much as he could in the confines of the bus interior.  While he did so, he spoke, the deepened voice having the strange reverb quality it as he did so.  "Mamn, how old is Michael?  And was he sitting next to you when the bus crashed or was he sitting somewhere else?"

He activated his Thermovision to count how many warm bodies there were here and see if he could find a child.  There was no outward indication of this activation, the dark eye slot of the helm he wore remained opaque to the outside observer.




Check for a pulse before I move the man just in case.  Do I need a roll or can I assume he is really dead as he looks?  I have Strength 3 and can lift around 400lbs so do I need to roll or can I just move him?


Activating Thermovision and trying to find the boy as well as try to see better in the inside of the bus here for finding the survivors among the wreck.  Rolled perception just in case it was needed.  WOOT, my first roll!

22:52, Today: Ember Saint rolled 19 using 1d20+8.  Perception.

@Sphere
"...So keep the faith with me. One, two, here we go!" he said as he pointed at the woman.

She nodded, her lip trembling, but she didn't speak, only looked over wide-eyed at him, trembling like a doe.

Almost immediately, he could see the change in her pallor.  Her fae went less ashen and while the blood on her face didn't disappear, there was a certain energy and vitality that wasn't there moments ago.  Seeing that effect never got old!

The woman gasped--it wasn't clear whether it was pain or pleasure or surprise.  Her mouth shaped into a little "oh, then there were tears on her face as she looked down...  her  hand was still tightly entertwined with that of the dead driver.

Rigor Mortis was still way too far off in time, so it wasn't an issue... this was strictly an emotional thing, and that wasn't something Sphere could do anything about.



--
There is no doubt about it.  The driver is dead.  the damage to his torso is simply too much to heal, even with Regeneration 10.  there is no pulse, no breathing.

While your strength is certainly sufficient to lift him, the crumpled frame of the fiat has his legs crushed, pinning him to his seat.   She, on the other-hand, could probably be removed fairly easily.  The driver took the vast majority of the impact.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:26, Tue 16 June 2020.

@Ember Saint
"Mamn, how old is Michael?  And was he sitting next to you when the bus crashed or was he sitting somewhere else?"

"He was right here.  Right be... beside me.  He... Oh, god.  Michael!"  She started to squirm in her seat as panic was starting to set in, then she winced visibly in pain.

A quick glane around the cabin of the bus showed that the boy was close by.  Like, right beside his mother, but underneath the big man.  Ember Saint rolled the big man over actually revealed a young boy's arm and upper torso.  He'd been squished against his mother's side when the big man fell into them.

He was perhaps seven or eight years old, with dark skin and a messy halo of curly black hair.  He wore a plaid shirt and little worker coveralls with a cartoon man hefting a hammer emblazoned on the front.  There was actually a little construction-site style hard-hat beside him, displaced when Ember Saint moved the big man off of him.

However, lifting the big man off of the woman and her unconscious child revealed another problem.  There was a piece of steel--it looked like the backing framework from the seat that had been in front of her--twisted and stuck through her left leg.  It had narrowly missed the boy by inches.  With the removal of the big man, it started to bleed, pulsing slow ans sluggish, spreading out in a widening dark stain against her denim pants.  It wasn't a big bleed--not the femoral artery--but it could be the iliac vein.

Moving her was going to be difficult if Ember saint wanted to do it without risking aggravating the puncture injury.


--
You can lift the guy off of them no problem.  Pop Culture familiarity might tell you that the kid's dressed up like Bob the Builder.

Sphere continued to push the car "outward" away from the woman if she still was stuck, although stopped once he knew she was no longer pinned in the car. He continued to let life-giving energy flow into the woman.

OOC: Turning Second Wind up to max ranks so she can enjoy another "tick" of regeneration if she is now no longer pinned by the car.

Sphere took hold of her free hand, and looked at her empathetically.

"Look ma'am...I know you care about him. But you know and I know that there's nothing we can do for him right now. That he's with God now. But YOU are still alive. You still can keep going. And I know that he wouldn't want you sitting here in the middle of an underwater tunnel with a leak in it in the middle of a traffic accident like this." he said.

"I think you know that what he'd want most is for you to live and to keep going. For you to let go of his hand, and take mine instead. Because he knows you'll see him soon enough - the rest of your life is a blink of an eye to wait to see him again in heaven. So take my hand and let me get you out of here. You've got a full life to live still, so don't waste it by staying here in this car."

He's going to use his persuasion skill and be all charismatic and stuff, and his skill mastery (persuasion) to count as rolling a 10. So his net result is a 22. He also is attractive, which would boost the result to a 24. He's of course convincing her to come with him instead of stay in the car where it's potentially dangerous.

Eyeing the now revealed impaled object in the woman's leg, Ember Saint knelt and quickly made sure the boy had a pulse and was breathing.  Thready and fast pulse.  Shallow, but he was at least they had that small victory.  These facts zipped through his mind automatically as he quickly glanced around and finding the dead man had a belt, he quickly pulled it off and wrapped it around the leg of the woman.  "Michael is alive."  Ember Saint said, his voice gave no doubt he was telling the truth to the woman.  Or at least he tried to convey this enough to cut through her panic.  "I have to stop the bleeding so we can get you and everyone else out of here.  This is going to hurt."  He said the last just before pulling the belt tight--very tight in effort to make the belt a tourniquet, placing it just above her knee to better pinch off the larger blood vessels that fed the lower leg.

Then Ember Saint stood and faced the roof of the bus in front of him stepping away a few feet to be clear of the survivors.  The bus on its side it was pretty much a wall now.  "I'll make the opening larger so we can get everyone out easier."  With that he held out his hand and suddenly an impossibly large sword seemingly made of blackened steel and flame grew from nowhere and stabbed right through the roof like it was made of tin foil. He quickly cut out a 5 foot wide section to make it easier to get people out kicking the bit he cut away from them.  The sword disappeared as quickly as it came and he switched back to making sure the edges of the opening were cooled with his nullifying ability.

"I'll get Michael out first then I'll be right back for the rest of you."  While things cooled rapidly from his powers, Ember Saint called out to all the survivors in the bus.  He knelt and scooped up the boy carefully.  "Is anyone else able to walk?"


Switching Array powers from Nullify to Activating Flare Ember Great Sword
  *ALTERNATE* Flare Ember Great Sword: Damage 10 (Alternate; fire,
heat, psychic, DC 25; Impressive, Multiattack, Penetrating 5,
Reach (melee) 2: 10 ft., Secondary Effect, Smashing)


Then switching back to nullify.

  *ALTERNATE* Snuff the Flames: Burst Area Nullify 10 (Alternate;
Counters: Fire and Heat, DC 20; Burst Area 3: 120 feet radius sphere,
DC 20)

@Sphere
Definitely a success on the roll.   She's rather in awe of Sphere's manner.  If it wasn't for the fact that her partner is dead right beside her...  Well, the shock of it is quite overwhelming.

She choked back tears and squeezed her eyes shut. "I... <I*>can't.</I>" she said through a dramatically withheld sob. "My arm...  I can't move my arm!  He won't let me go!"

She reached out with her distant arm, pleading with Sphere.  But her left hand was still entwined, fingers laced together with that of the dead driver.

This was a world where crazy superhuman powers explained a lot of strange stuff, and he'd certainly seen his share.  So, the question remained... how can he extricate the woman's hand from the driver's hand, inside a crushed vehicle?

I have no idea why my post didn't go through.  I suspect I toddled off to bed and closed the browser before posting.  Sorry for the wait.  I'm a bit mote present for the next few days.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Mon 22 June 2020.

@Ember Saint

Heh.  Sounds like someone has first aid training in real life!  Love the detail!

"Is anyone else able to walk?"

The two others behind Michael and his mother were bruised and battered, but essentially uninjured.     With the big man out of the way, they were able to move forward and actually helped with the transportation of the child.

The advertisements along the length of the bus started sputtering sparks again, but only briefly.   It took only moments for Ember Saint to carve a hole in the side (top) of the bus to allow easier egress for those inside.

Situation update.   ~We've got a... uh... a dinosaur in the Upper Bay.  The things' four storeys tall.  An actual damned dinosaur!    Reinforcements are still 60 seconds out.~

Then, after a moment. ~Okay.  That thing is heading up-stream and it's determined.   I've done a fly-by and it's huge. It just---Holy Crap!~

There was a muffled boom and a jarring impact that shook the tunnel, causing the seepage to increase ever so slightly.   Sphere could feel the atmospheric pressure immediately decrease as most of the air movement inside the tunnel stopped.

~Coast-guard helicopter is down.   That thing's going to make contact with you in about 90 seconds. I don't think it's going to step over the tunnel all nicely.  Get those people out of there!~

Eva was pretty exuberant, but she didn't tend towards vulgar language.   On the other hand, can you imagine suddenly seeing Godzilla emerge from the water?

"A dinosaur?  Great."  Ember Saint repeated.  He was sure this was familiar now, but right at the moment he had other things he needed to do here.  "Get moving as fast as you can!"  He ordered the ambulatory people from the bus pointing the way Sphere had the others moving.  "Take the boy, I'll get his mother!"  He said as he set the child into the arms of those who were helping him get Michael out.

There was no waiting for a response as he turned with all haste to go back into the bus for the trapped woman--as he had promised.  "Alright, time to get you out."  Seeing the time crunch was upon them with the announcement of the...  godzilla for all he knew, Ember Saint seemed to hesitate just a moment---like 2 seconds at most as he grabbed the woman by the shoulders with one arm.

While he wasn't a speedster--as far as he knew.  He used that brief time to weigh the odds.  He knew that taking time to cut off the impaled object below her leg to leave it plugging the hold was not going to happen if they wanted to have a chance to make it out of here.  He made a judgement call--one that would be quick, but messy.

...not to mention painful for one of them at least.

"I'm sorry, we have no time to do this any other way."  He said to the woman.  He silently thanked god he had placed the tourniquet tight.  With a sudden burst of movement, he grabbed the woman, by scooping under both of her legs with the other arm not around her shoulders and without warning yanked her up and off the spike through her leg.  He quickly ran outside and his brilliant smoldering wings erupted from his back.


Knowing that damage to her leg was probably going to painful and debilitating for her, he set her down a moment and tried a power he had that was still new to him. It was an attempt to undo the damage he had done.  He was fully aware that they were running short on time but he knew he had to do this--at least try.  He used his right arm to support the woman and placed the other arm on the injured leg.  "Grant me the strength."  He muttered, though he was clearly not speaking to the woman now.


Ember Saint felt the struggle inside his mind.  Anxiety reared its ugly head as he felt the sickening feeling in his stomach.  It happened like this every time he had tried it--with more failures than successes as he tired to use this power.  Usually his a power set was primarily a destructive power.  Hence it always scared him when he tried this usage of it.  He had found out his power had potential to heal one frustrated day on the job dealing with a dying patient--and he had run out of things he could do with the physical tools he had at his disposal... so he used his power to heal out of desperation.

To his surprise--much like now, it worked!  The power surged and it was the moment of truth as he tried to He felt the energy flow from his hands into her body and then he swore he could feel it flow through her battered body and straight to her wounds to try to close them!


OOC: Activating my wings to prepare to fly once I get this heal attempt done!
Smoldering Golden Feathered Wings: Flight 7 (when they appear, they
seem to smolder at the edges when still and trail harmless flames
when flying, fire, psychic, Speed: 250 miles/hour,
0.5 miles/round; Wings)


Using this:
Warmth: Healing 2 (fire, heat, psychic; Energizing, Persistent;
Unreliable (roll))


22:59, Today: Ember Saint rolled 18 using 1d20.  Unreliable roll.
Greater than 10 Success it works!

22:59, Today: Ember Saint rolled 18 using 1d20+2.  Heal check!
The check says it is against a DC 10 and I rolled 18... so that is cool!

Sphere frowned at her, but it wasn't an unkind frown. More one of empathy mixed with stoic determination.

"He was holding your hand not to keep you here in the car, but to help keep you in this life. To help you not go flying through the widnshield. And he succeeded as you're alive now and even healing as we speak." he replied firmly.

"But there's some sort of huge monster swimming around outside the tunnel and its coming back this way. We've got to go - you and the rest of the people out there - before it caves the tunnel in. So I'm going to do something that's kind of gross but I want you to know I have nothing but respect for your lover here. But I'm not letting you die today!" he said as the healing wind that he was channeling began to subside. He knew she was healed all the way or at least enough to be able to move and act normally again.

Instead, a flurry of air suddenly swirled around their hands before dramatically being "sucked inside" through any little microscopic gaps there were between their hands. It was like the air itself was worming and slithering between their hands. And it suddenly began to push and pull at the man's hand while leaving the woman's alone like there was an intelligence behind it. And the air pushed with unnatural strength until with a wrenching sound it forced the man's hand to open. At which point, Sphere took hold of the woman and pulled her out of the car.

So diverting power to move object to muscle the man's hand open and free the woman. Even if it ends up sounding kinda gross. He then pulls her out of the car.

He turned to the other people.

"Listen up people! Something HUGE and monstrous is swimming around out in the bay. It's what caused the accident by knocking into the tunnel. And the thing could collapse the tunnel at any moment! So everyone huddle together - including any wounded. I'm flying you all out of here out the east side. Stay close and don't leave my orbit!" he commanded.

"Ember! Can you please help get everyone on the bus out and put together in a huddle with the rest of the bystanders? I'm gonna orbit everyone out of the tunnel and then come back and drag the bus and car out to unclog traffic while you get people coming into the east side of the tunnel to stop even if you gotta make them stop!"

He tapped his com.

"Eva? If there's anything you can do to get the traffic on the west side of the tunnel coming in to stop please do so. Even if you gotta park the copter in front of it and stop traffic. If that thing hits the tunnel and breaks it while traffic is flowing people will die."

So 90 seconds no pressure (kidding)! So What Sphere is trying to do is get the bystanders to huddle up - they kind of already are naturally but to stay huddled and hopefully ember can get the bus folks to join them too. Then he's gonna crank up tethered orbit and "scoop" everyone up and fly them out the east side. It's a 30 foot radius so he shouldn't have trouble getting them all. And at the speed he can go he'll have them outside the tunnel in a blink of an eye.

Then he'll go back in and use move object and lift the bus and carry it outside the tunnel too. That should restore the traffic flow. If Ember can stop inbound east->West traffic and Eva can stop inbound west->East traffic then we can avoid people dying when that thing comes back around in 90 seconds.

Even as Ember Saint lifted the woman from the bus, concentrated on closing the wound in her thigh, he could feel the edges of his world fraying, pixellating and dissolving...

For Sphere,. it was like a bubble had burst around him, and sound suddenly became at once louder and more indistinct, a cacaphony of sound before it was all silence.

~~End Simulation~~

Awakening from the Simulation left them with a slight buzzing in the ears that fade over the course of about a minute, and a slight disorientation, unsteady balance.

All four of them were in the same room, and Dr. Tupol Khan and his assistant removed their own head-gear.

Doctor Khan was an older black man with dreadlocks tied back over his shoulder.  He had a beard and glasses and looked very weary.   The woman ducked out of sight and went to a telephone.

"Give yourselves a moment.  we're still trying to work out the disorientation side-effects.  It'll take a moment or two."

After a moment, he went to the side, returned with a couple of bottles of gatorade.

"You two did well.    That was an actual real-world scenario.  Emerald Star, Lachesis, Earth-Mover and Alicia Alvarez managed that scene.  The world might remember the 'Fishzilla' incident, but I was more interested in empathy and how you dealt with the more personal one-on-one interactions involved in bystanders coming face-to-face with deaths you could have done nothing to prevent."


Ember saint.  It is my understanding that you have the ability to emit heat-oriented energy.  What was the thought process that led you to decide that lifting the impaled woman off of the aluminum pole was the better choice?


"Sphere.  You exhibited a great degree of empathy to the woman in the car.   That particular element was emulated from a documented power-eruption in Czechoslovakia in the early 2000s.  The driver had been involved in an accident and his flesh had essentially turned to organic stone.   You didn't pursue that line, which is okay.  Because you appeared to weigh the sudden introduction of a time-constraint to the scene.  And you asked for help."

"The two of you appeared to work well together.  Several metas tend to worry about 'taking order' in the field.  It's not my place to comment on group dynamics, but being able to make requests and fulfill requests, no matter how they're phrased is a key component of good teamwork."

"The woman behind Doctor Kan had been talking on the telephone... she hung up and then nodded to Doctor Khan.  "Gentlemen, congratulations." Khan extended his hand first to Sphere, then Ember Saint,  "The only thing stopping you from acceptance into the Aegis program is your signing the final contract."

"Now.  Apparently, Director Maddox wants to welcome you to Aegis West." He said with a smile, brushing the dreadlocks from his side.   "Let me be the first to say welcome aboard."

OOC:  I'm very please with the style and manner in which you details the use of powers in OOC comments.  It makes it so very much easier to follow and work out the mechanics-dynamics of what's going on. 

His sense of relief at the successful healing suddenly turned to dread as the woman in his arms began to dissolve.  At first he thought he just vaporized her and actually began crying out--though found his words choked.  In the real world he let out a strangled incomprehensible yell which cut off as his eyes started adjusting to reality again.  His frantic movements caused him to nearly come out of the seat they had him in for the simulation.

"Holy Shit."  Ember Saint finally got out, his first actual words.  "I was... not expecting THAT.  I mean you said it was going to feel real but...  wow."  Ember Saint finally said shaking his head a moment.  "I thought that scenario was starting to sound familiar.  I guess I was a little to close to the trees to see the forest there.  It's a bit different being in the center of things than it was, uh, where I actually was that day.  I honestly didn't recognize it until they mentioned Godzilla--er Fishzilla, whatever."

Collecting himself he focused on the debrief and their question.  He pondered it a moment before responding.  "Time."  He said then he continued after a brief pause.  "I knew we had a very short time left and trying to cut the pole off under her, and without burning her leg off of course would take time.  Then stabilizing the impaled object so it didn't rattle around in there and cause more damage as it would be still left in her leg, would take a lot more time that frankly we just didn't have.  However, I decided I could instead move quick and then try to heal her afterwards.  A lot less traumatic to her than a field amputation... which is... messy.  Still it is Life over Limb in regards to rescues like that that get a ticking clock."  He allowed himself a smile.  "It worked."


The praise for their teamwork was allowed to pass without comment by him.  He only gave a nod in acknowledgement of the words by the doctor.  It was second nature for him.  He trained to work as a team in his day job at the firehouse.  Of course that brought up a thought that brought a little frown to his face.  He was a little disappointed he was going to have to go part time there so he could have the time for this rather unorthodox career path he found himself in.  Of course his friends and family would only know only that this was a "consulting" gig for some private company as part of his cover--an agreement he hashed out before he got to this step as necessary precaution.

The mention of the acceptance made Ember Saint blow out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.  He suddenly was trying to stand.  Though unsteady at first, he managed to not fall over by manifesting his wings for better balance.  The golden feathers seemed to be ever smoldering all along their edges giving the new appendages a dazzling look like old coals in a dying fire.  They put off some very faint light but no heat.  Embers occasionally dropped off the feathers to the floor only to disappear harmlessly as if never there.  However anyone who touched his wings would actually feel they were not unlike giant wings of some sort of bird of prey.  Ember Saint held out a hand shaking it firmly with the doctor.  "Just give me a pen."

Sphere wavered a moment as he snapped out of the simulation and came to. It was a deep and immersive simulation despite him knowing about it and he couldn't stop himself from being disoriented. Thankfully though, due to his uncanny direction sense it wasn't as bad as it would have been for a normal person although he took a few seconds to focus his wind on himself and use it to clear out his head of any physical abnormalities and quickly restore his equilibrium before the microbes started to get agitated or something.

"Oh yes good 'ol Fishzilla." he said as the others gathered and Ember regained his senses.

"I wasn't there for that one although I remember Sebastian recounting it to me that Lachesis' group was the one who fought it." he added.

He turned to Dr. Kahn and graciously accepted the Gatorade and praise.

"Well it was hard not to feel for the woman. Any decent person would have done what I did after all. The only difference is I have a pearly smile and wind powers is all. Otherwise, it all was common sense and human decency." he replied.

"So I didn't want to be mean and make her feel bad.  But at the same time. I had to put my foot down and let her know dying wasn't an option. And yes...when she came back on the comm and warned us we had 90 seconds I knew play time was over and that we had to get those people out of there. Like ASAP!" he said.

"And of course I asked for help. Unlike most men, I'm not afraid to ask for it when I need it. And Ember was great too. I knew that I had a better ability than he did to move the debris out of the way and move people out, but I also knew that it was only due to him the car didn't set fire and explode and also I knew he'd be better in that bus with his precision fire power and such. He basically helped control the scene while I manipulated it and that's how we saved them. So given we had a shared objective of saving people from the tunnel, it's only natural that I asked him for help." he continued.

"Even with powers you can't be everywhere at once or do everything at once. You have to delegate and share the work. And Ember was great - he was so competent and responsive in his actions and didn't once get macho on me when I suggested a course of action either. That in turn helped me trust him even more when it came time to get the people together and block off the tunnel."