Aisha's Amazing Adventure: Aisha and the Fire, Part Two

Aisha and Missy were both held up at the command post, Missy using her power to bring in various groups, turning miles to feet as evacuees were being moved out. Some couldn’t be moved.

Dammit, let me use my Numbers… Aisha shook her head and brought them out. She daisy chained them so that her final number, was just over 1500 yards away, even as she strained to get a little more out. Just on the fringe of the wrecked apartment buildings.

Screw it. She brought out Number 4, because now nobody could see all her Numbers so she could say that one had gotten killed.

“What the hell?” Missy’s angry comment caused Aisha to turn around. A car had pulled up, and some firefighters were talking, but then…

“That’s Othala!” Missy said. “And Victor. Why the fuck—right, Truce.”

Aisha looked at them, as Othala went to a group of people who were injured, touching them. Both white and not white.

Why the fuck… What would Taylor think? Taylor was sneaky and…

“Shit,” Aisha muttered. “They’re here because they’re in trouble.”

“What?”

“Everyone’s pissed at the Empire because you know, me. Now they got their healer and whatever Victor can do, out in the open helping everyone, both white and black, you know, maybe the Empire ain’t so bad.”

“You can’t—“

“Nah, they’re full of shit, but look at the news Cameras.”

“Vista,” Armsmaster had driven up. “We need you to handle something else.”

“What?” Missy asked, puffing up with pride.

“We need to move the smoke and fumes to at least five thousand feet—at that level the wind will carry it out into the ocean. We do not want any of these gasses landing on the city.”

“Right,” Missy said, and pretty soon, she was going that… twisty thing with an antenna close to the fire. “It’s easier if I have something material to work with, air and light are harder,” she muttered. But now the antenna was looking weird as it somehow both stayed its normal height and was halfway to space. Around them a breeze started kicking up.

“Air up there is cooler, under less pressure,” Missy said, her voice strained. “More pressure, more heat pulls it up…”

“Good,” Armsmaster said. “This is Armsmaster. Maintain your PPEs but the majority of toxic gas should be gone.” Firefighters started moving in, with Bulwark leading them, fog spraying from a dozen nozzles in his body, a pair of big hoses linking him to the fire trucks.

“Where are the rest of the Wards?” Missy asked.

“Currently in reserve,” Armsmaster said. “Kid Win is prepping drones, but most of the others do not have powers that are as effective in S&R in this situation. Once we have eliminated the fire, Clockblocker can reinforce any remaining storage tanks.”

“Right,” Aisha said absently. But at the far end of her chain, Number 1 was in a half-demolished apartment. She went running up stairs, hammering of doors. “Yo! Everything’s on fire and it’s time to go!” No answers. Most of the doors were open and the ones that were closed…

People going to work? Fuck, I need…

“Hey, Beardmaster!” Aisha called. “Can you, like find out if there’s any way to find out who is at work at… um… Winchester Arms?” She shrugged. “My Numbers can’t kick open locked doors, so I need to know—“

“Wait one.” Armsmaster frowned at her name, but then nodded. “BBPD is trying to do a head count, but according to them, Winchester Arms allows rental by the week for cash. You’ll have to check by hand. Remind me to design a sensor system for your Numbers.”

“Right. Fuck.” Aisha started hammering harder.

No, this isn’t going to fucking work. “How long before the firefighters get there?”

“It’s too close to the main fire,” her boss said. “They have to clear a lane, first.”

Aisha nodded. “Yeah, fuck that.” Then she turned and ran to one of the fire trucks. Right, big ass helmet with air tank, go, big ass tool with claws on the end, check…oohhh big saw. That’d do it.

“Krewe, what are you do—“

And then she pulled and suddenly she was in a corridor. After all, she wasn’t breaking the rules if she couldn’t hear—

“Krewe, return to the CP immediately!”

Shit, the radio, and Beardmaster sounded pissed.

“Can’t, like, you know, too much fire, so I gotta just check the apartment. Besides, you said it was safe.”

“I said the majority of toxic gas should be gone. Secure your PPE now.”

Right. She fiddled with it, but she’d never actually done this. It wasn’t like the little masks they had tested her on.

Eh, good enough. Only a little would get in. Then she sent her numbers out. Number 1 for this floor, 2 for the floor below, 3 for the one right above her, and 4… 4 she just kept with her, dismissing the Number and sending it into every locked room to check.

“Krewe! This is Director Piggot, you need to secure yourself—firefighters are moving into your area, at which point you will return to the PRT immediately.”

Ohhhhh shit, she sounds pissed.

“I got like a few more floors,” Aisha said. “Then I’m done, but—fuck.” She heard something through one of her Numbers.

“Krewe? Krewe!”

“Nah, I’m fine, just found some kids.” She pulled and moments later, was standing in the room Number 3 had been in. Locked door, including like three chains. Well, it was that part of town.

Two kids. A little crying toddler who took one look at her and ran to the other person in the room, a kid that looked like she was about seven.

“What are you doing here?” Aisha asked. “Didn’t you hear the boom?”

“Mama says we have to stay here when she’s at work!” the kid said, the Alexandria T-shirt hanging on her frame.

Shit, she didn’t like she ate too good.

“Okay, we’re going to…”

Wait a minute. Fuck. What where they going to do? The place was surrounded with fire. Could she send her Numbers out and port back? Aisha had never tried it with two people before, and if one got left behind…

“I’m not going! Mama will be back here, and she said don’t go anywhere with strangers.”

Oh fuck me. “Um, right…” think, think, think…. “I’m not a stranger, I’m Krewe!”

The kid looked suspicious. “But…”

“Did you see me on stage?” The kid nodded.

Good. “Okay, like my power is making everyone my Krewe, so I’m not a stranger because you’re part of my Krewe.” She paused, and looked at the shirt. “And… I might be able to get Alexandria to say hi to you.”

“Really?”

“Well, she’s like sort of busy, but I can try.” People loved lying to kids, but Aisha had a built-in bullshit detector, and so did most little kids. She wasn’t going to tell her she would get Alexandria to drop by. She could ask Piggot and hell, maybe point out that if she was here for the kid, she could also punt Aisha over the horizon.

In fact—

“I will relay your request.”

Oh shit. Forgot about the radio.

[hr][/hr]

Colin watched at the sensor feed from Kid Win’s drones came up. Shoddily built in many ways, they were easy to modify, which is what they needed now, rather than the best possible design a week later.

If only the boy would focus.

The sensors cut through the blaze showing the ruptured tanks and Colin immediately informed the BBPD that operations in the factory itself would only be recovery, not rescue. Which was good, since they could hose it down from a distance, rather than risking anyone to go in. Krewe was two blocks away, a safe distance for—he frowned, there were two tanks, glowing red.

“I see two large tanks on the floor of the structure, sending the imagery. Can you find out what it is in them?” The facility was supposed to have files at city hall but they were outdated, showing equipment that wasn’t even there anymore, and some of the inspection reports were clear copies of earlier reports, just modified by changing the dates.

“Armsmaster, I’m going through the sales records and intake records from other businesses,” Dragon said. “I—Armsmaster, evacuate the area. Now.”

“All firefighters and rescue personnel, pull back,” Colin ordered. “What is it?”

“fifty thousand gallons of sulfuryl fluoride and other chemicals.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Vista! I need more distance between the fire and the city!”

Vista growled. This was doing several things at once. But she did it, and suddenly the structure was ten feet, twenty feet, a hundred feet away from its next-door neighbors, the distance still growing, even as she maintained the flow of air. Velocity was informing them that most of the fringe regions had been cleared and…

Then, for a second, everything went white as the entire building vanished, the shockwave visible to the naked eye, and even with Vista’s help, the buildings around it flexed, several of them collapsing as the fireball rose up, being sucked into the sky, thank god.

And then he had a second thought.

Krewe had only been two blocks away from that devastating blast.