The lesson best learned the hard way (Humanity)

His eyes ran over the fresh printed pages of what looked to be news articles, inked words sprawling across the white expanse. Settled above these was a single image displaying two people in what looked to be be some manner of ornate costumes, an old article that Alexander had managed to find online. His parents had managed to become quite the heroic sensations within their time and that wasn’t something they could exactly hide, even if they wanted to. They weren’t any big time heroes like you would see going about their business, but people loved them, as well as feared them for various reasons. It was a different time them, before New York and before people feared their homes would be destroyed by some guy with a giant ship. Not that people were exactly overly welcoming with the super-powered types, but they were less open about trying to control them anyway.

Still, looking at the generation before him he could not help but feel a certain amount of unspoken expectations, despite the fact that honestly his parents just wanted him to live a normal life. He had these powers for a reason and maybe it was to help people. Just doing nothing with them felt like he was wasting his talents, and so he couldn’t just...well go along with that. The lights of his room flickered for a moment, before letting the florescent light continue to shine. At times he forgot how difficult actually controlling his powers could be, so taking a deep breath he reigned in the electrical energy buzzing through him. ”Well, guess it’s another night of….heroism and stuff.” He said, hoping that he could actually find something. ”Sounds kinda messed up when I think about it.” He then added, realizing that it indeed did sound somewhat messed up.

Regardless, he set the papers under a ruffled looking pillow on his bed, digging his super suit out from under his bed and quickly changing into it. Rather than doing what he could, which amounted to going through the front door and ricking being caught, he just went through his window. Despite being on the second floor, the impact itself barely even tickled him as he collided with the ground and took off running. He was a blur, too fast for any of his neighbors to really see and unless his parents went out of their way to look for him, well it wasn’t likely they would catch him doing his whole running thing.

Cars would sluggishly pass by him, people moving even slower and yet his mind registered everyone that caught his eyes really. There were a few he recognized from school, but they were likely out doing whatever it was they did. Sticking it to the man and whatnot as some teenager in the seventies or eighties might put it. Most teen lingo these days found itself lost upon him, might be that his mind was just moving too fast to really care. No one really noticed the person running past them at speed in the hundreds of miles per hour, just the wind that was whipped up from him doing that. He would keep running until something caught his interest, that being what looked to be a building on fire of all things. It looked...sorta business in design, likely had some employees still trapped inside.

Cliche but heroes tended to ignore the fact it was cliché when people were in danger. Afterall, he would be a crappy hero if he did ignore that, especially with what looked to be a few people trapped, pressing against likely windows they couldn’t break, not for lack of trying. Time was of the essence and his speed gave him plenty of time, so he ran. The front door didn’t hold up too well against his strength mixed with the fact he was going fast, buckling under itself and skidding across the floor as he stopped for less than a second. Quickly, he looked around to find some manner of stairwell and took it, zooming up it with record speed as he followed the cries of people, likely trapped by flames.

The only question going through his mind was one thing. Shouldn’t this place have something to deal with fires?

Silence crawled through the old, ragged house. The poor and impoverished estate left empty as small slashes of light marked the carpet through the closed blinds. The world moved on around this small, sad little house, but somehow inside it never seemed to change. The same boring furniture, the same boring tenant, the same boring ritual... Every single day. Life was a prescribed, predestined and mundane thing. No time to think, no time to feel. No time to truly be alive. That was exactly what this little, broken house was. A symbol of an equally broken man left to the wolves of the world.

The door opened at 10 to 2 and the man came up from his basement, looking at the odd hour of the afternoon before smiling at the progress he had made. He was perfectly aware of the dull and droll of his everyday life, his satisfaction insatiated within the waking hours. That was when he turned to other measures. You see what happened in this dull and broken little hovel was but a dark, powerless party in comparison to what went on beneath it.

The rapping and thudding of fists against a bag in a drum like fashion, as furious as it was focused. This was the drumming of life. The clangs and clatters of the metal poles he swung at, honing his skills and defenses. This was the chime of life. The sound of screams and yelps in pain as he injected himself with several poisons and debilitating substances. This was the chorus of life. The sound of crisp pages turning as he honed his mind and wits to be sharper than steel. That was the melody of life. The sound of metal grinding as he crafted his bullets and arrows. That was the symphony of life. But to go out and put it all together, to conduct this orchestra, to have the sound ring throughout the world...

...That is the meaning of life.

A boot hitting the ground as water splashes up from the ground, the reflection of the night sky disrupted in a violent upheaval. The sound of feet and the clattering of a fence ringing out, the man who ran against it pulling at it, hoping it would come down. The soft exhale of the vigilante turned as they walked towards their target.

"Oh Jesus...Christ. No, no, no! Jesus!"
"Gregory Mason... You've needed Jesus a long time. But haven't you ever thought it odd; that men such as you never truly realize that until AFTER they've done something irreparable?" The Vigilante's high grade weaponry wasn't aimed at the man quite yet as his boots left nothing but silence as they walked. The Man began to try and scale the fence, only to be quickly gripped by the ankle and pulled to the ground.

"Oh God, no! Aaah! P-please don't kill me!"" The man pleaded for his life. Fortunately for him, the aggressor of this act of vigilantism was more open minded, more accepting to his condition than prior. Perhaps it was a change of heart, seeing the blood of a child splattered against a wall...seeing the price of his actions and how the cost was paid. The imagery flashes before his eyes when he blinked. Every day since the event.

"You burned that family's home. You left them for dead...but you are not entirely at fault. You were a desperate man. A man in pain... and men in pain are volatile at best." The Vigilante said, the man nodding and agreeing whole-heartedly. His apologies were present.

"Oh God yes! yes that's exactly it! H-he would have killed me! God Please you have to understand!" Immediately there was a loud crack as the Vigilante's foot connected with the guy's rib cage.

"My name isn't God. Now I understand your situation...I've been looking into this matter for a long time. But every stone I upturn, every lead I follow turns to dust... But you...I'm willing to to take your situation into consideration. Three children, a wife in the hospital... Tell me who would kill you. Tell me who set the fire at the Arman Apartments and I will make sure they see justice before they can get you." The offer was generous... but unfortunately while the deal was upheld, Humanity only gained a glimmer of insight. There was going to be another attack at Argenas Incorperated... Wouldn't you know how surprised he was when the fire started. The Explosion took off and he was just now waking up.

His eyes opened.

Get up....Move. MOVE YOUR YOU'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE! He shouted in his midn as he began to stand up. The entire area was on fire. Quickly bringing his shirt up he began to crawl. The Smoke on the area wasn't filled to the lower areas of the ground yet. Breathing would be difficult but not impossible with the right discipline....

Within his slow moving world, Bolt’s eyes quickly snapped upwards to catch sight of what looked to be those little sprinklers that should be releasing water and yet they did not. Only two things made sense for this situation really. One of them being that someone skimped on the actual functionality of them, just paying off the right people to look the other way or they were being hella sabotaged, Alex only really devoted around a tenth of a second to actually considering the logistics of fire security before returning to his true reason for being here. If there was one thing he could credit these people with, it was they were just loud enough for him to find them. The problem with that being that a large section of the upcoming hallway with filled with fire, greedily rising and lapping at anything it could consume.

Move quick, limit the exposure, don’t let it burn me and it should all be good. Picking up the speed a little, he quickly dived through the flames as the feeling of the heat just proved annoying for far less than even a second. Sticking the landing, he kept running, slamming an elbow into the nearest door as it would crack, buckle and then break down pretty easily. The people within the room, looked shocked for a moment until they noticed...well that he was just some weird guy in a metallic costume. ”One, two, three, four.” He counted, making a mental note of everyone here and consider the best way that he could get all of them out of there. There was one idea, but it felt a bit too flashy for the situation, granted he did enjoy a little flashiness.

One of them likely had something to say, like “Thank god” or whatever, but he didn’t really have some to bathe in any adulation or hate. They wouldn’t really even have the time to react, as the window they were beating against only moments ago shattered outwards in large shards that would fall to the parking lot below, some breaking further and other shards retaining their integrity. Within that same instant, one by one they would vanish from the room, Bolt rapidly picking them up and making use of his speed to quickly run them down. It took all of three seconds, as four confused people would look about, relieved they were free of an impending death.

For Bolt however, things were not quite done yet. ”Four down, probably a lot more to go.” These business types afterall really loved their late hours, so it would make sense for a few to still be around. With greater speed he would check any office present, dipping around flames as he searched for anyone and finding five more on the upper levels within the flames. There was one that tried to hit him with a fire extinguisher, but not like they would be fast enough to do that, even on a bad day for him.

This all took about a minute, and that was when an explosion rocked the building, seemingly taking off a section that began to careen, large chunks of material and steel beams breaking off.

Okay, so that explained so much and yet so little at the exact same time. Someone was most likely blowing the place up, and something told him that there were a few more people. Maybe it was just his gut telling him, but he had to make sure, instead of just assuming like some rookie. Well, barring the fact he was a massive rookie. A quick run over revealed there was a sort of basement level, or that was his assumption, a little less nice looking compared to the rest but burning all the same.

Quickly he swept through the place, going as fast as possible without breaking any sound barriers, eventually coming up what looked to be someone on the ground or sticking pretty close to it anyway.

A speedster? Great, just what he needed right now. A derpy metahuman to try and save the world one hostage at a time. Don't ask how he knew that, there was a little voice in the back of his head telling him that this guy was green. He liked green usually, but this dopey rendition of a hero was not going to save them all anytime soon. They'd need to go with the next best option in this situation. They'd have to give the helpless their best chance. Coughing, Humanity was certain that the hero would try and help him up and out of there, that was their job after all. He had to wonder ow this metahuman was resisting the smoke's effects, especially where his mouth was exposed. That suit was pretty formidable looking too, if nothing else for the reason it wasn't over the top and flashy. Suits like that definitely had big things to hide.

"You're not. Get the valves." Humanity was coughing. The whole reason the buildings water supply system had not kicked in was the closed valves on the floor below. But to try and relay that information through his fits of coughing was almost impossible. "Basement. Valves." He said, coughing as he made a turning motion with his hands, like that of a steering wheel. If the building was up to code then there would be a sign plainly saying what and where the water valves were and where they needed to be turned. Hopefully he managed to gt that as Humanity remained close to the floor. He needed to figure out what to do with this smoke....once the water kicked in it would help stop some of the fire....but he needed out of the sub level... He'd probably make it to a floor higher if he could, before the water made things heavier.

The building was beyond saving....it's the tons of people left inside that were the priority now.

Times like this made being able to run very fast rather convenient. He didn’t really need to hold his breath long when he could run through a place pretty quickly, and his speed produced enough wind to keep the smoke from clinging to him, not that standing still for too long actually helped him in any way. It may have been obvious to the observant that he wasn’t breathing, keeping his lips pursed and consciously trying not to breathe in through his nostrils like his body wanted to by now.

This person would then try to talk, saying something about him not being and then valves. It only took a few seconds for his racing mind to actually figure out what he was trying to say. Water pipes, and someone had messed around with the valves so no water actually managed to get out to put the fires down. All Bolt did was nod, as he tried to mentally time how long he had until he needed to take another breath, one that would not likely be as clean as he would have wanted it to be. Furrowing his brows, Bolt quickly dashed passed this person, creating a great gust of wind as he did, likely blowing smoke away from them for only a second or two.

His eyes would dart around, looking for any sign of these valves, mind racing as quickly as he was moving. There was likely more people around, which meant he would have to try picking them up once the fire was put into a more contained state. Sure this place was ruined, but he was hoping no one had to die along with it. A few signs came into the peripheral, enough help to lead him in the right direction. Eventually he found something that looked like valves, all red and turnable.

Hope...I actually know what i’m doing. he thought to himself, gripping onto it and turning all of them as hard as he could, as this valve would turn rather quickly. Either this would get the water flowing or he was not even close to being finished with this little portion of the heroic process. Regardless, his lungs were beginning to protest the fact there was no breathing going on, so he had to get out to at least take another breath.

The man was away. That wasn't anything to be surprised about. The water was apparently restored to the building, but he needed to do something else. Smoke inhalation is one of the biggest threats in these situations. Suffocation is the true murderer in fires. The fire itself does nothing but burn. There were tons of people, many of them needed to breathe again. So he had to do what needed to be done. Scaling the stares he managed to reach the third floor as the speedster continued to catch their breath. He quickly went over to one of those desks, dragging it over to the window, flipping it over so that the bottom was facing outside and the table portion was towards the middle of the building.

Sitting in that little "pocket" he sat back, sinking in as much as possible before raising his hand and firing his grappling device right through the window. The glass shattered and the sudden release of oxygen sent a massive torrent of fire, enveloping around Matthew, but his being in the pocket kept him rather safe, but entirely too warm for comfort.

"God fucking-fuck me." He growled as he looked at his hand, the clove on his hand burning as he shed it, kicking it away with his foot. The fire expulsion was well worth it, between the water now pouring down, and the smoke funneling out of the floor, a lot more people were going to live. On this floor anyway.

"We gotta pick up the pace..." He said as he slouched back, panting as he took in some nice, clean oxygen. He may very well have condemned this building to the fire....but by God these people would have their chance. Well....actually.... by Bolt rather.

The water was restored to the building, coming down now upon him in a steady stream of droplets hoping to stem the tide of the fire. A  little too late, but maybe it would keep people from dying by burning alive anyway. Still, there was the whole smoke aspect of things, something that did not go forgotten within his mind as he quickly made for an exit, going as fast as he could without breaking the sound barrier. It only took less than a minute, yet he felt as if it were an eternity as his lungs continued to scream at the abuse of being forced to hold quickly stale growing air. When that time came to an end, he let the breath come rushing out out, taking a rather short reprieve to take a few deep gulps of air to alleviate the discomfort he was feeling.

This also gave him a quick second to look the building over, consider every floor that likely still had people within it. This night of heroism was far from over, but his eyes did fall upon a window shattering outwards, followed by a great stream of fire that threatened to devour them. ”Okay, looks like I need to go waaay faster than I am now.” He said to himself, realizing the dire situation that was happening now. Yet, that was when he noticed something, a vague figure standing atop the building, overlooking the chaos and yet undisturbed by it altogether. Bolt took in a deep breath, deeper than the one before and held it.

I can do this. He thought to himself, for the most part believing it as he dashed back I through the nearest entrance, quickly darting through the place as quick as possible. Scraping the line between breaking the sound barrier, even forming a little mach cone ahead of himself as he went along. He had saved a few people on the second floor, but that did not mean he had saved everyone there, as well as saving anyone on the four floors above that. It would be an annoying process, but then again that was part of his heroic duty. So with an impressive speed, he dashed through every room of the second floor, picking up anyone that he could find, making sure they weren’t suffering whiplash as he brought them along.

The fire itself was not becoming an issue, but fallen sections of the building blocked passage, some even falling on people. Luckily his strength proved useful within this stage of things, even if he could not lift the weight of the building itself. One by one, people would appear before the building, most seeing only a blur that had picked them up, and dropped them off in a small group. Still, there was s much to do that he didn’t even have time to really take a good breath. Once that was done, he ended up doing a sweep of the third, fourth and fifth, which appeared to be the most crowded. Maybe that was where all the hard workers congregated, but then again maybe it was his poor lucked showing now.

The guy was going plenty quick, but it made Matthew's job a little harder. It was hard to be a typical civilian when you were doing work. Granted every now and again there were civilians that decided to give a hand; however there were ways to counter any form of claims against him. In this situation it would perhaps just be best to focus on saving lives rather than selfishly hide the truth regarding his own identity.

   "We don't have long! Gotta keep opening windows. You get the people outta here. I'll do the breaking." He said with a shout. Not sure if the hero could hear him, he made his way out towards the staircase. The brick and concrete interior was hot, but nothing in this area was actually on fire. Up on the next floor things were just a bit different from the previous, in fact there were very little desks at all.  Walls of glass and conference tables, a few people already on the floor, smoke inhalation leading to passing out.  He quickly made his way around and lifted a chair and threw it against the glass, cracking it. Glass walls weren't easy to break after all, of course when there's a will there was a way.

   ...and he just REALLY liked to break shit.

   With another throw, a chair broke through the glass wall, allowing him to remove the barriers between "doorways" and the flames continued within each one. He had to rig a way to make this floor's windows shatter. But how was he going to do it? Looking around he had to find something. Either something to shield himself from the fire when it rushed for the oxygen. But no matter where he looked he couldn't find anything that would properly protect him. But perhaps he didn't actually need a shield. What about a weapon? Quickly he revised is search to find a collapsed security officer. Officers carried weapons...sometimes. Given the history surrounding rich people they tended to keep armed personnel.

    Searching the man over he managed to unholster a small handgun and made his way towards the stairwell he originally came out of.  Positioning himself behind the door slightly he took aim and let out one shot. Fire erupted as it began to fly out into the oxygen, glass shattering to the ground below. The second shot to help air it out even more had far less of an eruption, proving it was much safer than before....not that it meant much in a room full of fire.

  At this rate they wouldn't have even clear the windows of every floor before the fire consumed them all.

Bolts mind ran over the number of people that were likely left, doing the whole being trapped in a burning building thing. his thoughts were also on something else, the possibility that whoever had caused this was still in the building, likely waiting for the thing to collapse. A fire of this magnitude was not just something that spontaneously started, unless someone was being really negligent. It was on the return trip that things grew slightly complicated, a section of the building collapsing within itself, managing to bring down the stairs that would bring someone from the second to third floor. Everything was becoming more troublesome as he wasted time, meaning that he would have to step things up, considering he was almost reduced to the same dimensions as the things caught under the rubble.

Okay, that….complicates things. Bolt thought, giving a roll of the eyes before returning to more pressing matters. Okay, so tiptoeing around accidentally speeding up a buildings collapse would not do much when people would likely die anyway. So Bolt needed to move, and faster, so mentally preparing himself he did just that. With a great push, a loud boom echoed out as he stepped through the entrance to the second floor, causing an immediate amount of damage to the area around him. Everything appeared to move even slower as he ran, people nearly still as he stepped through one of the doors, not even registering that someone was amongst them. A large amount of fire had appeared to funnel through broken windows, though his attention was focused on anything humanoid.

Getting the people out of here from a different point would be annoying, but he would have to think creatively. Unfortunatly things such as a fire department did not act nearly quick enough, and there were never any hydrokinetic types around when you needed them. So someone as fast as his would have to do, even if that did not exactly help with the whole putting fires out thing. This floor however appeared to have even more people than the last, meaning he would have to take a bit more time along with the annoying detour to get all of them out, still he would have to do the best he could. Regardless, now was when he was thankful for a body that was pretty good in dealing with so much movement and heat. It was coming up to a minute when he had gotten everyone out of there, but that was when things got...complicated.

It was as if all at once the building shook, feeling as if it would give way very soon. If the fire didn’t kill them all, the n maybe they would end up being crushed under the weight of whatever material was in this place. This sudden shift ended with Bolt losing his footing just enough, slamming into a desk and spiraling as he hit a wall rather hard. He was certain he heard something crack, or maybe that was just a pop. Regardless, it really stung and knocked the breath out of him. Without thinking, his body took a breath in and he ended up coughing violently. Pressing himself low to the ground, he took in a clean of air as the building had to offer, his back and left shoulder giving slight protest against such abuse. The time table had just been pushed up, likely due to whoever doing this deciding they had their fun.

Things were getting more and more dire by the moment. An additional explosion thrown into the mix suddenly had his mind flying faster than the speedster in the area. He began compounding a list of powers that would have the same effect, or a similar effect to the explosions experienced. Of course that was difficult as he was slung in the stairwell, falling over it and beginning to fall. He reached out and grabbed the railing, grasping and holding on with a vice-grip. It was either that or risking a few story drop. Not anything he was enthusiastic about.

With a weakness playing in his wrist now, he began to curse under his breath. There had to be a way out of here. It was only a matter of time really before this entire thing came down. Truthfully he wanted to save these people. He didn't even know why he wanted to save them; but for the first time in a long time...he didn't even know why. He struggled to pull himself over the railing. He knew very well he had to evacuate now if he wanted to survive. Unfortunately, he was feeling either incredibly heroic...or incredibly stupid at this particular moment in time.

"Where in the Hell is this guy!? Needs to hurry up." He said as he pulled himself over the railing, grunting as he fell to the floor. He scrambled to get up and went to the next floor. Beams of the ceiling fell, things from the floor above crashing and burning like a Princess Diana joke. Man he had far too much going on his plate right now...

Time was becoming an even more precious commodity as the building began to fall apart, and people were still stuck within it. Okay, building still exploding. Which means someone is still around and doing the exploding. he thought to himself, though going after said person now would not stop the place from falling down around him. The only option that seemed apparent was to save everyone he could, hopefully all of them if his speed would allow something like that. Despite the annoying, nagging irritation in his back Bolt would keep going to try and do all that he could. Still, there were more floors and so he made use of that speed once again, darting and dancing around bits of rubble that were beginning to fall down. Anyone above him, well something told him they were having a bad time.

His mind raced, imagining all of the worst scenarios or rather all of the ones that he could imagine. That ended up being just everything blowing up, considering he tended to think in a more bombastic sense. There was no time to waste, even now of all times. Tense situations came with the whole being a hero thing, but all the stress only ended up leading to acne...and other stress related things. The next floor held a surprising lack of people, though why that was the case he did not have even the slightest clue, but took that as his luck finally being on his side for once. What he did notice was what looked to be an unconscious security guard of some type, though where their weapon went was something he found himself wondering over as well.

Maybe they were one of those types that didn’t need a weapon or maybe there was another reason. Regardless, he had moved the few people on this floor out as quickly as possible, something they were thankful for. Getting to the next floor required a little acrobatic work, moving over fallen debris and using bits of railing as leverage as he made his way up pretty quickly and found someone else there as well. This floor was in worse shape, beams crashing to the ground and  the sound of a few panicked people screaming for some kind of help. What this gut was trying to accomplish, well that was their business, though part of him just really wanted to move them out of here as well.

Keep his mind on the job at hand, rather than...well what could happen.

The speedster was finally caught up to him, though it left the question if he was simply taking it easy, being cautious or is he were in fact only so fast.  Regardless, it was nice to have him here. Especially since a hasty exit would probably need to be a thing soon. The fires were hotter here than they were before, and honestly without his suit this was getting too hot for him. He was only human after all, and without any additional protection he needed to worry a lot more about this sort of thing.

     There had to be a source to this...and if not there had to be a way to save everyone. Where were they supposed to go? What were they supposed to do?

  "There's too much going on." He whined a little as he seemed to slink back towards the stairwell. There was a figure in the fire coming around, stumbling as the roof above him began to break down from the exposure to fire. Things were going south real fast. Especially when the roof did cave and a large fireball was thrown towards them, Humanity forcing to drop back onto his rear and covering his face with his arm, the intense heat radiating from the fireball that went overhead singing the hairs on his forearm.

  you sassy bitch...

Well, he had met up with that strange masked guy once again, though they were not immediately something he worried about. His mind was more on the people that were likely still worried for their own lives, because that was a thing that tended to happen when buildings caught fire with people in them. Honestly, if he didn’t have to worry about the building falling down faster because of him going as fast as he could, the Bolt would have probably gotten everyone out. However, physics was a thing, and a thing that he really did not like at this moment in time.

The one in the mask would slink back, giving him a bit more room to do his own thing. That was when a large fireball came out, mostly moving along the ceiling, and making avoiding it as easy as quickly pressing himself against the floor. It seemed odd enough to him, at least to suspect the one that started all of this was close by. If it was some kind of pyrokinetic, then maybe he could...make them put out the fire. It was easier thought than done, but Bolt was confident enough within his ability to get that done, unless they were the super unreasonable type.

Okay Alex, you can do this. Just focus on your goal, save the people, that’s what heroes do. He thought to himself, trying to keep his cool so to speak. He needed more speed and worrying about the building would not really stop the inevitable collapse. So, he would just crank up the proverbial speedometer to the highest setting, and then he was off. Everything moved even slower as his body perceptions climbed to keep up with how fast he was moving, even the flickering of the flames appearing to move at a crawl. Honestly, it would look as if he disappeared to anyone that didn’t have the ability to follow something moving as fast as he was.

Precise control of his speed was paramount within the next few seconds, as he darted about, flickering through each room and moving those he found out with impressive speed. There was probably less than a minute before the whole thing came down, but at this pace he could do it in less than thirty seconds. Maybe exactly thirty to get everyone out, but this was all him guessing as he went about doing his things. There was a second where he swore he saw someone that didn’t quite fit in, might’ve been the all black and villainous looking gear.

Though they weren’t as important as the people in danger right now.