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Vigilantes [M]


Chevi

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Camilla groaned, drumming her fingers against her arm and rolling her eyes. "Yes. I don't care." She shrugged. "They are bad guys. The last time I actually went out do you know who we were trying to stop? They were trying to destroy the whole of the city, do you know how many people's lives we saved that day? Or, I'm sorry, would you rather we stop and ask them if they really are bad guys before we kill them?" 

She groaned and released her arms, causing a cloud of ash to fly up at the motion. She coughed and tried to dust it off of her dress. "I thought you wanted to help people? You can here. You can't in prison. It's up to you, I don't have time for this I've got somewhere to be. So are you going to stop moping and incinerating your room?" 

 

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Lucius was not about to argue ethics with this woman. There was no use. Ironic, her saying she didn't have time for this, when she was the one coming into his room to throw a fit. What did she care if he made a mess?

"That's just the thing, princess" he folded his arms; he was not wearing his gloves, and as he was getting annoyed, he could feel his hands heating up. "If I wasn't here, I'd be in prison. So, does that make me a good guy or a bad guy?" He tilted his head. "I'm sure you people can make use of my powers... but you need me to control them first. So. What if I can't?" It was a defiant question, but there was a real fear underneath. He'd thought about this many times. "What if I never get control of this? If I turn out ot be useless? I get shipped back to prison, then?"

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"It makes you an idiot who clearly did something reckless and stupid and if you care to tell me what you did, I could confirm that, but no, I don't think you're one of the bad guys." She rolled her eyes. The academy had thorough vetting procedures and she doubted they would have accepted a man who was likely to be such a significant liability that they could be turned on those that resided here. 

But ah. Therein was the issue, clearly. She hadn't expected him to be so...unconfident and she frowned at him with bemusement for a long moment, letting the silence linger. "I don't enjoy the company of people so self-conscious and well...weak, just as a note. But for what it's worth, no they won't ship you back to prison I'm sure and yes you will get a handle on your powers. You have barely scratched the surface of what we do here...you just have to...commit to it. Essentially, stop being such an ass and burning shit down because you're embarrassed." 

 

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Apparently Camilla had come to his room to repeatedly call him an idiot and get his shit together. He did not respond well to any of those tactics.

"Okay, well, let me know when you're done with your three-year 'how to quit being an annoying bitch' course" He growled at her, opening the door to let her out. "You really just gotta commit to it."

God, that woman. Lucius had no doubt she'd make his time at the academy a living hell.

***

She did. Five weeks in, she was just as annoying as ever. They had training classes together, and she made a show of being the overachiever of the whole class. Lucius, on the other hand, was not really advancing at all. He was goo at hand-to-hand combat without powers, and the instructors were getting a more solid idea of how his powers worked when he did use them - but he was not any close to controlling any of it at all.

Which is why it came as a complete surprise when one evening someone banged on his door.

@Sara

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Camilla was flushed and breathless by the time she made it downstairs to kick Lucius' door hard with her booted foot. "Get up, get out!" She called to him and then, finding she had very little patience for being kept waiting, swung it open. 

She was dressed in a form fitting outfit that was all black but looked slightly ridiculous. As if somebody had decided that a superhero should be dressed like the movies. The only saving grace were the chunky combat boots and high-pony which were practical rather than fashionable. She was finishing up fastening the bullet proof vest over her chest as she glared at him. "We have to move, somethings wrong downtown. They want you with us, fuck knows why - they'll brief us in the helicopter." Because of course, superheroes to be wouldn't ride the subway.

 

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Camilla burst into the room. She had not done that since that first day. Lucius sat up in bed; he had only been half asleep, and also half dressed, but he still did not appreciate the intrusion. Camilla was in full field gear - looking kind of like a Barbie doll version of a vigilante.

"We have to move, somethings wrong downtown. They want you with us, fuck knows why - they'll brief us in the helicopter."

"They want me in the field?" Lucius stared at her. He was not even assigned to a team yet, given his powers' unreliability. Shit really had to be serious for him to get a call. He got out of bed and started putting on his training gear, for lack of a better option. He already had the gloves on. "Why the hell am I going with your team?"

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"Yeah, fuck knows why." She said breathlessly as she tightened the bullet proof vest until it was snug and then threw a spare vest at him carelessly. The kevlar could make quite an impact. 

"We have an elemental but they got injured a month ago, they're not up to full strength. Don't know why they don't give us the earth mover from the other team though." She glared at him and then promptly  turned on her heel and marched straight back out of his room down the corridor heading to the metal stairs that led up to the roof. "Hurry. Up!" She yelled behind her.

 

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Bulletproof vest. Lucius groaned as she tossed it at him, and put it on, walking down the hallway behind her. He had to admit, he was curious. Didn't feel ready to go on any kind of mission at all, especially not anything that involved bulletproof vests and her. But once again, they told him what to do, and if it all went sideways, it would really just be their fault.

"Yeah because one elemental is just like another" he muttered as they made it to the landing pad for the helicopter. 

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The wind at the top of the building whipped the hair from her ponytail against her face but she climbed into one of the helicopters where there were still two seats out of four, the rest of the team were in the other. She clambered in nimbly and glared as she sat squished between Lucius on one side and a heaving young man (super strength, go figure) on her right. She pulled down the headphones so she could listen in to the briefing as the machine whirred and buzzed to life and was up in a flash. 

"The Marriott down on fifth is on fire. This is a simple rescue and regroup, we don't think it's arson or motivated but you can never be too safe. There's hundreds of people trapped inside. You know your strengths, Cato is to go in first," The big brawny boy next to her, "And clear debris. Camilla will lead them out. Lucius is to direct the fire as we clear the floors, Cora is to find anybody lost. The other half have a similar brief, stay out of each others ways. Any questions?" 

Nope. Not from her.

 

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Lucius' jaw dropped as he listened to the briefing.

"We are doing what?" Before he could wrap his mind around it, however, they were already over downtown. He could feel the fire before he saw the smoke. His powers allowed him to sense flames, but the pull he felt in his chest right now... he had only felt that once before. Lucius cursed under his breath, gritting his teeth. This was not going to be pretty. "This is a bad idea."

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She glanced across at him as he muttered that this was a bad idea. She couldn't help but agree. He looked absolutely flabbergasted which made sense given he'd been a perennial pain in the neck since he'd arrived but...she supposed if you were fighting a fire, it made sense to have a man that could - apparently - control it on your team. She wished their water elemental hadn't been injured in that stupid training exercise. 

They were descending now and she felt her stomach lurch, both out of nerves and the motion of the helicopter. She grippe onto the arm rest as much as she could, squished in between the two men and tried to calm her nerves. How the hell was she going to lead the injured out when the flames - judging by the view out the window - were dominating every floor? She glanced at Lucius, speaking into the mic on her headset - "You have to go in first and direct the flames to different floors whilst Cato and I get them out, floor by floor. We should start at the top," She glanced up, "It'll give way first. You can do that, right? Right?" She fucking hope he could, and her fearful expression said as much.

 

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All of the building seemed to be ablaze. It was a whole lot of fire. Lucius swallowed, his powers already in overdrive in sensing all of the fire at once. He'd have to direct the flames... he frowned. He had control over fire, but he couldn't put it out, and he had only tried to direct a blaze this big once before. With mixed results.

"You better work quick" he noted shortly as the helicopter descended, and they jumped out onto the roof. "Can't do anything about the smoke, though. We get masks, right?"

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As if on cue, masks were dropped from the helicopter just as it started to pull back up. The four of them scrambled to grab them, but as ever with the Academy - planning was not at the fore of their minds and two of them had cracked glass on the visors. Camilla took one of them, swallowing her nerves with a shaky voice. She could feel the heat even from up here. "We can swap halfway through." She confirmed and glanced at the group. She was not a natural leader, or at least she didn't feel like one but Cato looked white as a sheet and Cora was fidgeting nervously next to her. 

She strode off towards the fire escape that led down the side of the building as she pulled on her mask. "C-can you direct the flames up here when we clear the floor below, and then we'll move down the building, I'll get the group to follow me and we pick up stragglers as we go down?" She glanced at Lucius as she descended the first few steps, her chest and eyes already burning.

 

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"For fuck's sake" Lucius muttered, putting on one of the masks. Flames couldn't hurt him, but his powers didn't extend to smoke. The academy might have been big on the heroics, but damn, they were under-prepared for this whole thing. They headed to the fire escape to descend to the top floor. Lucius could feel the pull of the fire beneath their feet.

"C-can you direct the flames up here when we clear the floor below, and then we'll move down the building, I'll get the group to follow me and we pick up stragglers as we go down?" 

"I can't direct an entire floor of fire anywhere!" Lucius protested, putting on the mask and following her. "Best I can do is keep the flames away as we move. It's a shit show in there."

It was. Reaching the landing on the fire escape, they were faced with smoke billowing out, and the heat of fire. Lucius pulled off his gloves and ducked through the window first. His hands immediately erupted in fire, powers reacting to the blaze. He raised them, and flames danced back as he moved, creating a circle of smoke and ash a couple of feet in radius.

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"That's not going to help anybody." She choked but he was already moving through into the landing. She followed him, as did the other two and she felt the heat immediately and smoke stung her eyes. They were in a clearing almost immediately and she pulled closer to him. She couldn't see shit through the flames and the smoke and from their body language, neither could the other two.

She exhaled sharply and shoved at Lucius. 

"You need to clear more than this, if I try and pull people to me they'll just be in the flames! Do something!" 

 

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This whole mission was a bust. What the hell had the Academy been thinking? Lucius would give them a piece of his mind the moment they get home.

They just had to get home first.

Camilla was not doing much, other than demanding that he do something. About an entire building on fire. Lucius swore. Fuck.

"I can do one thing, but you're gonna hate it." he snapped, taking a deep breath. God, this was going to suck. Focusing his powers, he raised his hands.

Fire wants to go up. It was a direction it followed more easily than any other; the flames rose to the ceiling, making the hallway look like it was suddenly upside down. The roof was not going to handle much of it, but for now, most of the space was free of flames, up to eye level or so.

"MOVE!"

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Camilla watched, wide-eyed and well...frankly...petrified as the flames lapped higher and higher and Lucius rose his hands to push them to the roof. His yell made her jump and it took a further few seconds for her to snap her own powers to attention. She fluttered her eyes shut and raised her hand, making a come hither motion. It felt exhausting but slowly - burned, ash-darkened people started to emerge from rooms - coughing and ducking the flames on the roof. Cato and Cora ran off in opposite directions sensing obstacles and the injured respectively.

She was shaking by the time they had a crowd of twenty or so standing in front of them, having expended more energy than she had in months. She was breathless and yelled; "GET DOWN THE FIRE ESCAPE. GO!" they began to move hurriedly, limping and groaning in pain as the other two finally made it back with the stragglers. How did they still have four floors below to go. She choked up at Lucius, eyes wide and afraid. "We can't do this." 

 

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Sending the flames up was one thing; keeping them up there was another. The roof creaked under the heat. Also, the pull of Camilla's power affected Lucius as well; if he had not been already standing next to her, he would have moved too. As things were, it was already hard enough ton concentrate. She was distracting.

People did come out, though, and moved to the fire escape in a haste.

"We can't do this."

Too fucking late, princess.

"Well, we fucking have to, don't we" Lucius snapped, giving her a glare. "Go!"

He waited until all three of them headed for the stairs, before allowing the flames to come back down, and turning his focus to the next floor. The air was heavy with smoke; his senses were overwhelmed with the fire around them. It took all he had to keep some semblance of control on all of it.

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Camilla, much like Lucius himself, did not react well to being yelled at. She shoved him as he released the fire back down around them. "Don't fucking speak to me like that!" She choked and pushed past him to the fire escape. She could see the column of people working their way down to ground level now she'd released them, and as soon as they were out into the night air she ripped off the cracked mask. It was doing her more harm than good. 

She ducked through a window first onto the next landing on the next floor and saw the flames snake their way up the curtains around them until they were in the middle of the inferno. "Three, two, one..." She coughed and glanced at Lucius - they needed to do this together or it would never get done. She closed her stinging eyes again and started to pull people towards her. 

 

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They returned to the fire escape and made their way down. Honestly, Lucius doubted they could do all the floors like this. They just didn't have the strength. He didn't have the strength.

And yet, there were people in there. People who were scared, and whom the firefighters could not reach. Lucius hated the responsibility, but also hated the idea of walking away.

"Remind me to tear someone a new one when we get back" he grumbled as they entered the next floor. On Camilla's count her focused his powers once again, sending the flames upward. It burned; not like the flames burned on his hands, but like muscles burn when they are overworked. "Get a move on!"

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Camilla pushed the remaining people from the ground floor through the door physically, but the motion sent her spinning and the second she was out into the air and away from the debris that was falling from the top few floors, she collapsed onto her back onto some singed grass, coughing her lungs up, body shaking. She had never felt so exhausted, and judging by the trudging steps drawing near, neither had the others. 

Everything hurt and her head was swimming. She heard a voice call over her as she panted, trying to regain her scattered senses. "93 people saved. Well done. Catch your breath, chopper in twenty." She didn't even have the senses to snap at him, she just wanted everything to stop hurting. 

 

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Lucius had lost his grasp on reality around the last floor. The world narrowed down to a tunnel of smoke and fire, something he was trying to keep at bay because something very, very bad was going to happen if he didn't. He wasn't sure how he made it outside, or if everyone else had; there was a blackout there for a few minutes before he started to come around, lying on his back in the grass. His eyes and throat burned from the smoke, and the drain on his powers felt like he had been scrubbed empty inside out.

Someone was informing them than they had done a good job.

"Fuck you" Lucius croaked to no one in general. It was a miracle they were still alive.

@Sara

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Camilla heard the curse next to her and managed to choke out a laugh although it was hoarse and she started to cough almost immediately after the first chuckle. She knew she couldn't pull herself to sit, that would take far, far too much energy which she didn't have, she did manage to roll her head to the side though and glance at Lucius - covered in ash and filthy black soot next to her. She didn't know where Cato or Cora were, or the other team, but presumably they'd made it out. 

"Fucking pointless." She choked as she started to try and unfasten the bulletproof vest she was still wearing. And then as she realised it was far, far too much effort she glanced back to him. "You okay?" No, clearly not, but neither was she.

 

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"Oxygen" Lucius croaked, waving a hand towards the EMTs working the scene. Everyone and their second cousins had smoke inhalation around here, but their team probably more so than others, even with the masks. "Chopper better have some."

He opened his eyes and squinted at Camilla, who looked about as bad as he felt. She asked if he was okay.

"Not even close" he said, with another coughing fit. It was unfair, having fire powers but not smoke resistance. "They always... put y'll near death... or was this a special occasion?"

@Sara

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Yes, oxygen sounded like an excellent idea. Unfortunately, there was likely to be absolutely none around here for their own use, instead she tried to focus on drawing in as deeper breaths as was physically possible, although that sent her coughing and her lungs burning at the attempt.

"N-never this bad." She managed to choke out, tears filling the corners of her eyes even as she tried to will them away. They'd saved almost a hundred lives, but they could have so easily lost their own. Nobody seemed to care. "I-I can't stay here." She croaked out, coughing again as she struggled to sit up as she finally ripped off the vest. That allowed her to breathe a little easier, but not much. She was evidently not thinking straight as she tried to crawl to stand unsuccessfully. "I-I need a drink." 

 

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