The pillar to Heaven built in Hell

The drive back was relatively uneventful, Cebra was not in much of a talking mood after what happened. The guilt was nothing new to Cebra as he had been the cause of many people getting hurt. This was a result of him trying to help and save people. As they closed in a slight red glow comes into the distance. Cebra takes notice and perks up to the glow and smell of smoke.

"Jeannie... Something is wrong. That smells like smoke, it's coming from the safe house!.

Pulling up close to the apartment complex Cebra see's the chaos ongoing. The ambulance treating injured victims, the police securing the area and the firefighters going into the building and spraying it. The fire high up roars and blazed out of Cebra's apartment as well as others. Immediately Cebra jumped out of the car and rushed to the barrier made by the police. Cebra looked around for a way inside past the police, the only way was to go up into the adjacent building and leap from that structure to the burning apartment. Without a second thought her ran off to the next apartment building.

"Jeannie let's go before we're identified, we can go up the building there. Where the hell is Sam? I hope she wasn't hurt in this."

Cebra ducked into the nearby alley and ascended the building via the stairwell. When he reached the top and looked across the thought that his powers were offline didn't even occur.

"Jeannie let's go!"

yikes your house is like on fire! she follows him not sure exactly it was they where doingshouldn't we like wait for them to put the fire out? or help, well maybe Sammie was still at her thingy she went to do, so she'd be ok then

Every second counted now. Sam hurried back to the burning building and studied the crack up close. It was as she had feared, the explosion had done some serious damage to the structure of the building here. If left unchecked, the crack would become bigger and bigger until the sealing would no longer be able to support the top floors at which point the entire building would come crashing down. She couldn’t let that happen, not when there were so many people still trapped inside.

By quickly listening to her surrounding she learned there were still thirteen people spread inside the building. Four of the on the top floor. There was no way she’d be able to get to all of them before the crack would become too big the support the rest of the building. She’d have to keep the building from collapsing while the civil serviced tended to those still inside.

Her first action was to shoot powerful ice blasts from her eyes to extinguish the nearby flames. That should make it easier for her to breath in here and hopefully stop the fire from causing any more damage. At least for the time being.

Now came the harder part, supporting this place. She hovered a few feet up, enough so she could touch the sealing easily. Sam put her hands against the sealing and pushed the two parts back into place. Small dust particles fell down as she did so.

The building was secured, for now. The problem was that the moment she left, the crack would start getting bigger again. Unless she found something else to support the building in her stead.

Sam lowered her head a bit and again fired powerful ice beams from her eyes. Rather than using them to affect a larger area, she focused them to that slowly but steadily a pillar of ice formed. It could be a time-consuming process and given the ravaging fire, it wouldn’t last. But it should free her hands long enough to move the rest of the people trapped inside to a safer location.

Cebra wanted to jump in anyways despite jeannie's objection only, realizing a moment later that his powers though nearly restored are not yet operational. He stares at the burning building unable to do anything, without even knowing if Sam was caught in the blast or hadn't returned.

"Damn it! I cant believe I'm so useless like this!"

Cebra stares helplessly at the burning building unable to even do what the firefighters were doing. Another thought occurred, one that only hardened his anger and self loathing. There was no doubt Orion was responsible for this, when Cebra looked to the next building he noticed all the power was off. All the surrounding buildings had no power now that he thought of it. It was an EM weapon meant to destroy Cebra and disable his nanobots. Francine likely gave up where Cebra was through her torture, he didn't blame her at all. Once again his personal crusade led to other people suffering. Cebra stopped for a moment when he thought he saw a glimpse of Sam inside the building.

"Sam? Was that really her? Jeannie was that?.. Did you see that?"

hey it's Sammie, hi sammie! Jeannie waves to sam

In spite of being inside a burning building, Sam was making good progress with her supportive structure. The ice arc that would prevent the building from collapsing while she was away was nearly finished. Just needed to be made a bit sturdier in the middle where it had the most chance of breaking. With the heat coming from the fire she didn’t want to take too much risk. Another pair of chilly, ice blue beams shot from her eyes, reinforcing the arc structure where needed.

The job was nearly finished when her enhanced hearing picked up a familiar voice shouting her name. Jeannie? Puzzled Sam looked around, but the energetic blonde was nowhere to be seen. Still, if she was able to pick-up her voice amidst all this chaos, they couldn’t be too far away. Unfortunately, it was too dark for her outside to see anything clearly.

“Jeannie, is that you? Where are you?” she asked, projecting her voice on a supernatural wavelength so no one else could hear them talk. “And Cebra, is he with you?”

She shook her head. What was she saying? This was no time for idle chatter. She had a building to support and people trapped inside who needed to get out of here as fast as possible. All while the person responsible for the attack was still at large! She couldn’t expect either of them to help her with the first, it was too dangerous, but she might at least warn them about the culprit. And maybe they could catch him too if he was still around.

“Never mind that now. Someone shot a rocket at the building. It exploded right in Cebra’s place. I’m busy here, but whoever did it might still be around. If so, you’ve got to stop him. I doubt this place can withstand another explosion like this!”

hun oh yes where both here, a rocket how scary you can get all kinds of stuff in the mail these days, huh so we should find who shoot the rocket

jeannie looks up in the sky huh think that cloud might be suspicious? Jeannie looked to cebra confused she wasn't sure how to track a rocket it was blown up so there wasn't any clues really

Cebra looks at Jeannie confused for a moment, what exactly was she doing talking to herself? After a second he realized Jeannie was communicating with Sam.

"Jeannie are you talking to Sam? Wait did you say rocket? Someone fired a rocket at the building?!"

Cebra clenches his fist and closes his eyes. the beating of his heart throbs all the way to his head. The anger seared into his mind taking over, it was all he could do to hold himself back from shouting out. Thanks to Sams help the fire fighters had an easier time dealing with the flames and saving people.

"Jeannie... the rocket came from that direction."

Cebra points southward.

"The best vantage point would be from that general direction, also there's no clear line of sight for few buildings down. EM weaponry leaves radiation even in the area it was fired, if we find a place where the electronics are malfunctioning we'll know where the rocket came from. Though I doubt the assailant is hanging around, assassins... they dont stay in the area long."

Seeing that Sam had things handled here Cebra gets down from the building avoiding attention by slipping into the alley. He makes his way south with Jeannie to try and find the assassin that blew up an apartment full of civilians.

yup sammie said a rocket hit the building, huh will that's good we know where to look. even if they left I can pick up the trail with my super puppy nose power. she follows along behind him to search for the rocket launching assassins

Sam was relieved the hear Jeannie and Cebra were both doing fine. That was one less thing to worry about. Though this did not last very long when Jeannie suddenly went ‘dark’. She couldn’t say if this was because Jeannie had stopped talking, or because all the noise around here had managed to drown out what Jeannie was saying. And she might have just put them on the trail of a rocket shooting lunatic without being able to hear if they needed help. Immediately she felt much worse than a moment ago.

“Focus on what you’re going right now, Sam,” she reprimanded herself. “There’s people out there who still need you.”

She inspected her ice arc one last time. The lives of many people relied on it, she couldn’t be too careful. Once she was certain the construct would hold for the time being, she flew out and made her way to the top floor.

Two of them were easy to find. And elderly couple that lived a few floors above Cebra’s place. They both sat on a couch in the living rooms holding each other’s hand with a serene expression on their face while the smoke filled the room. If they were aware of Sam’s presence, they had chosen not to show it. Under normal circumstance, she’d have knocked the window to draw their attention. Time being of the essence, Sam went for a more direct approach by knocking though the window.

This action did earn her the attention of the couple though the smoke made it hard to see if they were pleased with her arrival or upset because she damaged their window. Whichever it was, she didn’t have time to worry about it now. These people had got to go out. And right now!

Without wasting another precious moment, Sam lifted the couch with its two occupants from the floor and flew it out. The couple just sat there when it happened, not even moving a muscle.

While she flew them down, Sam noticed the fire brigade had erected large ladders to get the few people that were still trapped inside out. She counted eight people being evacuated this way. Together with the couple she was carrying and the two she knew where still on the top floor, that made twelve people. That left only one person unaccounted for. She’d have the easiest time finding someone inside. Thing was, none of the ladders seemed long enough to reach the top, leaving her the only person who could reach them at all. That was a problem.

Heading down a series of alleyways and streets Cebra and Jeannie end up at a baseball stadium. From the positioning of the structure and it's height Cebra can tell that it's the best vantage point to strike from. He only knew this because he himself had committed such acts of assassination, not something he planned to bring up though. There were no large crowds around this night and it was relatively unguarded.

"Jeannie can you climb this building? If you cant you can hold on to me but we need to get to the top. Maybe whoever it was left something behind so we can find them, some trace evidence or even an Electro-magnetic radiation trail."

A flurry of thoughts occupied Cebra's mind such as this being more of a distraction than assassination attempt. Orion had tried many times in the past to capture Cebra but nothing so reckless and sloppy. He also wanted to get back to sifting through the information he had acquired so they could plan there next move, the quicker the better. Ever the strategist Cebra forcibly shut down the guilt he felt over the tragedies that occurred and focused on the task at hand. He was psychologically conditioned through his development to be a shrewd, emotionless soldier. While it was a morbid design he still used it to his advantage turning his skill set back on his enemies.

Cebra felt the surge of energy run through him as his HUD came back online. All of his systems were finally finished restoring. Something was different however, the Cyco program was now on it's highest alert level. This was both a good and bad thing, Cebra would now be much more aware of dangers from the environment and possible enemies. If Cyco took over control well, Cebra didn't want to think about that horror. Cebra grabbed the trash bin near him and shaped two metallic spikes to help him scale the building. His implants were also active to help him climb fast and easy.

"You ready Blondy?"

ok then piggyback ride she hopes on his back ready for the ride up the building

Sam took a deep breath. Those two people up on the roof were next to each other. It would be saving two people with a single flight. And a lot less time-consuming than searching the hole building for a single missing person. Who she might not even find. It was the moments like this she hated: calculating who had the best odds to make it out alive and save them while leaving another to a potential death. Why couldn’t she just save everyone? She was a superhero, wasn’t that what they were supposed to do? This thought kept running though her head when she took off.

She was halfway when her hearing picked something up. A soft, irregular breathing accompanied by heavier breathing, the cracking of wood and a curse throw into the mix. Without thinking about it, she halted and turned her X-ray vision to where the sound was coming from. There was a woman trapped underneath a bookcase, likely knocked over as a result of the explosion, and a fireman trying to get her from underneath it. The missing person.

Immediately she changed her course. He fastest way there was smashing though a couple of walls. Normally she tried keeping damage to a minimum, but since the building was essentially lost anyway, she figured it didn’t matter.

The fireman looked up when she entered the seen. There was no time for pleasantries now. She lifted the bookcase, allowing the fireman to get the woman from under it. A quick look with her X-rays told her the leg was broken. A nasty fracture but considering the circumstances it could have easily been much worse. Still, she wouldn’t walk out on it.

Not that she’d have the time to do so in the first place. Sam doubted the ice arc she made would be able to support the building much longer. She’d have to get these people as well as those on the roof out in one go. Difficult, but not impossible. The tricky part would be to carry them all at the same time. Weight wasn’t much of a problem, but she only had one pair of arms.

She looked up. The people on the roof were almost directly above her. It could work. She just needed to be fast.

“I’ll be right back,” she told the two people. There was no time to explain her plan, they’d just have to trust her.

Sam took off, she flew in a straight line up, crashing though several floors in rapid succession until she reached the roof.

“Stay right here,” she told the people on the roof before returning down the way she came.

Sam had now created a tunnel big enough for herself and two more people to fit through. She helped the woman get up, making sure she didn’t have to lean on her broken leg, and carried her and the man to the roof where she dropped them of before disappearing through the hole a second time.

Now came the trickiest part of all. She flew underneath them, put her hands against the ceiling, and pushed. With a loud crack the ceiling came loose and she took off with her charge. And not a moment too soon, the building underneath her came crashing down.

She felt bad for Cebra’s possessions still inside, but she was pleased with herself she’d managed to get everyone out on time. Hopefully she’d have as much luck finding Jeannie and Cebra. She didn’t know where the two went after she told them about the rocket.

Upon reaching the top Cebra scans the immediate environment, it was clear EM radiation was present. The trail was growing weaker as time passed but it led down the side of the building. When Cebra looked down on to the streets he could see the trail leading off towards the docks. Whoever fired that explosive was heading for the docks, Cebra was going to make him suffer for this.

"Jeannie we need to head to the water, whoever did this is going in that direction. When we find them I'mma strangle the bastard till his tongue pops off!"

Cebra leaps off of the structure coming down fast, he lands with a hard thud and in a reckless vengeful manner sprints off to the docks. Making his way in a blur past a few homeless folk and locals much to their surprise. It must have been 1:00 AM by now and the streets were flooded with artificial pale orange light. Cebra stuck to the small patches of dimmer light and shadow to avoid giving himself away. The last thing he wanted was to attract the police his way, frankly it might be a good idea if Sam didn't see either. Cebra intended to do horrid things to this assailant in order to know the name of who sent them, then he'd murder them. There was no mercy for those who take innocent life, death was the only thing these people understood.

huh yeah that does seem like a good way to go think it was pirates? jeannie being a catgirl makes a slightly more landing then follows along behind him huh should we tell sammie? huh she wasn't sure how the voice in her head thing Sam did worked,hello sammie is this thing on? testing testing.if your done playing firefighter, Mr.cyborg used his robot vision to find out which way team rocket blasted off.

we are heading to the docks, so catch up when you can

Sam her arms trembled when she was finally able to put the celling and its occupants safely to the ground. Even though these people were used to far more impressive feats of strength, they all looked in awe of what she’d just accomplished. All were silent until a single person began to applaud. He, or she (Sam couldn’t say), was quickly joined by others. Before long the majority of the crowd was clapping their hands while the people on the roof left to search for the loved ones. Even the little kid who she got out came to thank her in person.

Sam blushed, unsure what to say or do. While she had received public thanks for her actions before, it had never been on such a scale. Usually it was just a couple of people. She wasn’t even sure if she deserved their praises. She had only done what anyone else would have done too. Plus, hadn’t she been here, the building might never have been attacked in the first place.

All of this noise combined with her own confusion made that she didn’t get everything her enhanced hearing picked up. It was unmistakably Jeannie’s voice, mentioning something about the docks. Sam figures that was where the trail had lead them.
The docks were spread over a large area, searching it all to find two persons would take its time, even for her. She’d best be on her way right away. There was still a big pile of debris behind her, but the fire fighters seemed to have it under control now. With no people in any immediate danger, there wasn’t much she could do around here any more.
Sam told the young boy she was only doing her job, gave the crowd a polite nod and took off.

Once she was out of reach, she contacted Jeannie and Cebra. If either of them answered, she’d be able to pinpoint their exact location and save her the trouble of having to look for them.

“I’m on my way,” she told the both of them as she flew over a sleeping city. “Where are you now?”