"Sapphire, how does your power work against fire? We need to keep it away from Mack and Silhouette." With any luck, the spell on Mack would break soon, and he could take care of himself. Jacob ran upstairs, focused his Dissonance on Vesuvia and shouted, "KNOCK IT OFF!"
Sapphire looked around. "I can't control fire, just non animate solid blue!" She replied. But maybe, Sapphire located a blue dresser, across the room. Felxi her hands, she disassembled it, and sent the parts across the room, and they flew around Silhouette, forming a kind of shield. After it was in place, and would stop most flames, she just sprinted towards Vesuvia, and placed one silk glove on her forehead, and started to read her mind. Sapphire gasped as she relized her plan, and she then fainted, due to the heat.
Tim rushed to the nearest window when he heard the fire, and began whistling as he opened it. He'd be alright, he was always alright. He could be wounded, but not killed. That was the great and terrible thing about his power. Certainty. Tim had never had a bad day in his entire life. He'd always had an above average day. Never a great day though. Most of his life was mediocrity, and for the most part, he'd been fine with that. Able to tolerate it relatively well. Admittedly meeting no one he ever really liked was annoying, but not burning to death was a good trade off. "So, I know you told me not to do this before, but, good luck guys." He said, as he climbed out.
Vesuvia was hit by one of John's lasers in the shoulder. She staggered, but the laser was just absorbed into her fiery body, making her burn brighter. The villain was just about to throw a fireball straight at John's face when Danny sprayed her with a hose. She screamed and the fireball poofed into nothing. Her flames burned lower and her whole body shrunk until she was 2/3's of the size that she had just been. It would take more water to completely snuff her out. Jacob arrived and used Dissonance. Vesuvia howled in pain and clapped her hands over her ears to try to block out the piercing sound, but it still echoed painfully in her head. While she was still distracted, Sapphire made a shield that blocked the water Danny had been spraying. When Sapphire ran up and touched Vesuvia's forehead, she saw a dark room, a dozen ninja's standing against the walls, and an incredibly old Asian woman sitting in a huge gold-painted chair. Then Vesuvia's fire scorched Sapphire's hand and left a horrible black burn on her palm before she passed out. "Enough!" Vesuvia screamed. She jumped straight up and burned through the ceiling, leaving a smoking hole. Silhouette groaned as she started to wake up. Then Vesuvia burned back down through the ceiling behind John and Jacob. She waved her hand in a broad sweep and knocked them both on their asses with a burst of fire. She stepped over them and created a huge fireball between both her hands to burn them to ashes, but before she could throw it, Silhouette talked to her. "How did you find me?" Silhouette asked to distract her. She struggled to stand up, leaning on the wall for support. "I erased my identity when I became a hero. All records of me are destroyed. There is nothing linking me to Mack or this house. How did you know to look here?" "You idiot!" Vesuvia snapped. "I don't see like you, I see heat! Morgana came to me for help after you beat her up and took me to the street where all those people saw you. All I had to do was you follow the heat trails your stupid flying van left behind and it led me directly to this place." Vesuvia smiled and showed all her glowing white-hot teeth. "Don't think we'll let you live again, Silhouette. Morgana is collecting the others and they are all coming here soon to help me finish you off...but I think I will finish you off first!" Vesuvia lifted the fireball over her head to throw it at Silhouette.
"Hold my hand," Jacob sang. "Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river." Though his jaw wanted to clench in pain from being knocked over and splashed with fire, his smoky, honeyed baritone was unimpeded. "Hold my hand. Ooh baby, it's a long way down, it's a long way down." His ocarina had been knocked from his hand, his harmonica put away in a pocket. His voice, though, was right there. Focusing his power in the elemental, Jacob hoped to ensnare Vesuvia, at least long enough for one of the others to do something more permanent. "If you get sleep or if you get none; The cock's gonna call in the morning, baby." Jacob got to his feet and moved towards her, eyes locked on hers, wrapping the words around her. (Edited to correct lyrics)
After being fire-whipped to the ground somehow, now of all times, the horrible pun came to mind that for all her personality flaws, at least this villain was objectively hot. Quickly moving on, he slid himself down from under her and scrambled to his feet. Making sure he was between Silhouette and that fireball, he was about to start talking with hopes of at least slowing her down. He was also genuinely curious what kind of a life she must have had to become a person like this. However, with Jacob singing that beautiful tune, hopefully, that would no longer be necessary. So what could he do against her? his gun was useless and he didn't have any superpowers to do awesome stuff. This space was too confined to fight a villain like this. She has the upper hand in close quarters, so we need her out in the open. "Everybody move! Get outside of the house!" He made sure to yell within the beat of Jacobs song, hopefully not disturbing his power, and then quickly moved over to Silhouette. "Are you alright?" he asked, as he tried to support her and guide her to the door. Then he noticed something. The support beam that kept the part of the ceiling above Vesuvia intact was already crumbling and losing structure due to the burning heat. He drew his weapon and aimed at the weakest part. Hopefully the others had heeded his advice. "Jacob! Timber!"
Vesuvia had frozen in place when Jacob started singing. She stared at him with anger, then suspicion, and finally her features settled into a soppy, lovey-dovey expression. "You know...I never really had love in my life," Vesuvia said in a dreamy voice. The fireball in her hands disappeared as a deep change came over her. Her flames turned light pink and burned low, making her look more human. Now they could clearly make out the outlines of her heart-shaped face, long wavy hair, and curvy figure. "Maybe...maybe you could show me what love is?" Vesuvia asked Jacob in a childishly hopeful voice. And then John shot the support beam. The whole house creaked and groaned and swayed. Vesuvia looked up at the ceiling with mild shock and her pink flames burned a little brighter, with red at the tips, but she was too far under Jacob's spell to realize the danger she was in. "We have to get to the Supervan!" Silhouette yelled. "You heard Vesuvia! Morgana and Electric Man and the Block will be here any second!" She gently moved from under John's arm, limped into the living room, and started dragging her brother out the front door. The flames that had covered the porch had been extinguished by Danny when he sprayed Vesuvia, so they could safely exit that way. Still gripping the unconscious Mack with one hand, Silhouette pressed the big silver 'S' on her belt and the van beeped and unlocked all its doors. "Someone grab Sapphire, she's still knocked out!" Silhouette ordered. The house had not collapsed yet, still supported by the walls, but it was dangerously close to caving in. Vesuvia was clearly visible through the front door, a bright pink torch with wide, lovelorn eyes. "Are you really going to leave me, Jacob the Piper?" Vesuvia asked with both hands over her heart.
"Yes he is." Tim shouted over the roar of the flames, he hadn't gone far. By stating near the house it meant that the right people would get out safely. Once again, his power was pretty damn useful for saving lives. At most crime scenes he'd normally just wait outside and have people get better results than usual.
Sapphire groggily awoke, and saw the house start to cave in. She saw Vesuvia standing about 7 feet away, prices of rubble burn to ashmon contact. Her hand, ugh, it hurt! The rest of the house started to crumble, and Sapphire only had time to construct a flimsy shield with the dresser parts before the house caved in on her.
Danny watched as the walls swayed and sprinted back into the building, I need to get Sapphire, she... can't die like that. He felt the rubble jolt his back as the walls came crashing down and saw Sapphire cover herself with blue wood. That would never be enough! The deep sounds of the foundations failing and bricks grating against each other as they fell thundered through his ears. He grabbed for her wrist but the raining bricks came down covering them both. I've done it again.
Jacob hesitated, then dove for Vesuvia, tapping her on the forehead as he sang, pushing with his power, driving her into unconsciousness. He couldn't let even a sociopathic villain die like that, and they might get some information out of her. He drug her out to the yard and turned to see Danny run in for Sapphire. "Shit," I swore. He ran back in in time to see more of hte building start to collapse onto them. He took a deep breath and started shouting his Dissonance at the rubble, trying to break the objects down to less crushing size.
Most of the rubble broke into pieces when Jacob played Dissonance, but Sapphire and Danny were still trapped under the rubble. Silhouette had put Mack in the backseat of the flying van and hopped into the front. She rapidly pressed some buttons and the van extended its wings and hovered off the ground. Then she spun the wheel toward the house and pressed another button. The laser turret popped out of the front of the van and released one powerful blast. The rubble that covered Sapphire and Danny was blown away and they were both free. "Now get in, before we all die!" Silhouette screamed. Just as she lowered the van so they could all get inside, there was a huge flash of purple light in the backyard behind Silhouette's ruined childhood home. Morgana, Electric Man, and the Block had finally arrived. Morgana grinned evilly at them, even though two bloody tissues were stuck in her nose and in her ears from the fight at the Stronghold. "Time to finish the job," Morgana told the two villains at her side. Upon hearing Morgana's voice, Vesuvia's eyes suddenly snapped open. She looked around at Jacob pulling her, the others still struggling to get in the van, and the evil villains that had just appeared in the backyard. Then Vesuvia quickly got to her feet and turned to Jacob. "You silly goat," she told him with a sad little smile. "Your powers don't work on me as strongly as a regular person. That's why Mack's still knocked out and I'm not. I'm an Enhanced and I've done a lot of evil things in my life, just because my parents locked me up in a lab and experimented on me. No one ever loved me, but that's not a good enough reason to be a monster." Vesuvia leaned down and kissed Jacob fully on the mouth, her warm breath flowing down his throat and filling him with erotic pleasure. "This is my chance to try to redeem myself," she told him, her pink flames burning brighter than ever. "I will distract them so you all can get away. Go. Now." Then Vesuvia flew into the air and dived at Morgana, Electric Man, and the Block, throwing a fireball at each of them. The Block just flinched when the fireball hit him in the chest, but he was not harmed. Electric Man blasted the fireball that was coming at him with a bolt of electricity before it could hit him. But Morgana was too surprised to do anything and the fireball hit her in the face. She screamed and fell to her knees. "MY FACE!" Morgana howled in a deep, horribly pained voice. "SHE BURNED MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!" The Block growled angrily and crouched to put his huge hands on the ground: rocks popped up out of the earth and morphed into his body and he started to grow bigger and bigger and bigger. Electric Man threw electric bolts at Vesuvia to keep her away and she flew in complicated patterns to avoid his attacks. "Everyone, GET IN!" Silhouette ordered, honking the horn on the van several times.
Sapphire was scared. She was trapped under rubble with Danny. What do I do? Am I going to die? She started to panic, before a blast echoed through the air, and the rubble was oliberated. Struggling to her feet, she grabbed Danny, and limped towards Silhouettes car. Her head was bruised, her hand hurt, her leg was definitely broken due to a falling rock, but she crawled/stumbled towards the van with Danny's shirt clutched in her fist. She saw the raging battle between Venuvisa and the other villains. Could she help? Raising her burned hand, she sent the blue door crashing into Morgana. Stumbling away, she fell unconscious, half her body in the back of the van, the other half hanging on the pavement.
Jacob blinked, stunned by the elemental's kiss. He watched her launch herself at her former allies and felt torn between joining her and honoring what she obviously expected to be a sacrifice. Had he flipped her moral compass around with his spell, or just swept away enough emotional debris for her to make her own decisions? And he really rather hoped that kiss wasn't an indication of attraction to him. If so, it would be very awkward, given that he was gay. Ultimately, he did as Silhouette ordered, and ran towards the van. "Sapphire, Pigeon, come on!" He called over the sound of battle.
The moment he squeezed the trigger he realised he’d made a big mistake. Not only was the threat already neutralised, but half his team was unconscious on the floor. He ran towards Sapphire, but a big chunk of roof already collapsed right in between them, blocking the way. John thought about blasting it with his gun, but he wasn’t sure how far it would penetrate. There was a very good chance it would come out through the other end and risk hitting Sapphire. Not good. Cut off from the safety of the front lawn, he decided to make a run for the back door. That was his second big mistake in little under two minutes. This one, however, was not his fault. Morgana and the gang appeared only a few feet away. The bright purple flash was clearly visible, even through the thick smoke. Luckily, he was not. Although he was sure there was at least one of them who would be able to sense his presence or something, they were focussed on Silhouette and the rest of the team getting into the car. However, that would not last long. Might as well make use of the element of surprise and die on his feet, giving his friends a distraction. If it had been a movie, one with a decent cinematographer, this would have been an awesome scene. Burning house, thick smoke, slowly revealing the silhouette of a man. A man with a big hat and a big gun. Then, after he stepped outside of the smoke, he stood still for a second, hand twitching above his gun, staring his enemy down. Sadly, the entire scene was wasted on the bad guys, who didn’t even realise he was there, or at least didn’t think him worthy of a second thought, the moment one of their allies turned on them. What do you know, she was a good person after all. Running and jumping over the garden fence, he fired a few quick shots on the big, stone guy’s legs, hoping to mess with his balance enough to give Vesuvia an extra advantage, and then he bolted for the car.
Once again, Tim found himself humming the tune of Sweet Home Alabama, gently walking to the van considering he was closer to it than any one else. He thought everything was going well, all things considered. When he entered the van he took a seat at the back, making sure to buckle up his seatbelt. There's no need to say that he was a very cautious man.
Danny stumbled to the van with Sapphire who was once again using her powers, only for her to collapse in front of him. She's done too much, far too much. Grasping her under the arms he clumsly half dragged, half carried her the final few inches onto the van. Bruised, he slumped next to her, too out of it to even heave himself onto a seat. Jacob's foot steps as he ran onto the van bounced around Danny's head, making him wish he could switch his ears off or tell everyone to shut it. Out of the dark one last man was sprinting towards the van, John, firing into the gloom.
Everyone was in the van. Silhouette yanked up on the steering wheel and it shot up into the night sky, angry blue flames shooting out of the back. Below, they could see that the Brick was taller than all the houses on the block. The rocks he had absorbed made him massive, a psychotic massive giant. While Electric Man was still shooting bolts at Vesuvia, and Vesuvia was trying to stay out of his range and avoid Block while still holding his interest, the Block reached up and grabbed Vesuvia by the hair. She screamed out in pain and he banged her down against the ground, repeatedly. By now the van was high in the sky, but they could still see Vesuvia's bright pink light suddenly go out. She was dead. Even from this high up, they could hear Morgana's high-pitched evil laughter. "You know, Piper," Silhouette said shyly as she pressed the button that would turn the van completely invisible on the outside, "I think what you did for Vesuvia was really nice. She was an evil bitch that helped kill my team mates, but I still think it's nice that she felt love...even if it was just for a little bit." Mack groaned and sat up. "Is it over?" he grumbled. "Yes, it is," Silhouette replied. Then she climbed into the back seat with Mack, leaving the driving seat empty. "Now, you get up there," she told her brother. When Mack was about to protest that he had never driven a flying van before, she gave him a look like death and said, "I need to sleep or I will pass out. I'm hurt and I'm tired and I'm hurt. Did I mention that I'm hurt?" "But!" Mack spluttered. "It's easy, I already put in the coordinates of our destination in the Supervan," Silhouette snapped. "It's on auto-pilot. Just sit in the goddamn driver seat and put your hands on the wheel, so if something comes at us, then you can take control and keep us alive until I take back over. Now, sit in the stupid seat. You're a doctor. You'll do fine." That said, Silhouette put her head between her knees. Before she fell asleep she told everyone, "Hey, you should all probably go to sleep, too. Wake me up when we get to our destination." Then she went completely silent. A few seconds later, she started to snore like a pig.
Sapphire wasn't any doctor, but she didn't think any of her wounds were fatel. Her broken leg hurt the most, but the thing that needed the most attention was her hand. Her palm was black, blood and pus was oozing out. Her head was pounding, she gingirly lifted a glove to her head and saw both were torn beyond whatever sewing skills she had. She threw her gloves out the window along with her tattered belt. Whit shirt, white pants, white combat boots, those would stay, but she needed gloves, preferably white with blue, and a blue leather jacket. It helped channel her powers.She needed to get more clothes. Panting as she sat next to Danny she started talking. "Thank you for saving me." She said. "I don't think we have properly met." Sapphire held out her unburned hand with a small laugh. "I'm Emma."
Danny gladly shook her outstreched hand. "I'm Danny. And Joey should-" he stopped, remembering what had happened. Bile rose again and he had to turn away. After five awkward seconds he turned back again "Sorry about that. I think I'm getting travel sick." Danny grinned, trying to pretend that Joey was little more than a name. The van jolted as it hit something below, making them both slid across the floor. "We should sit somewhere a bit more secure." he mumbled as they slammed against the door. He stood up and offered his hand, pulling her up. "Everyone has gone to sleep from the looks of it, and I do too." he said stifling a yawn.
Jacob was feeling the strain of the evening. He'd used his powers a lot, and somehow convinced a supervillainess to switch sides and sacrifice herself. Had she been so emotionally starved? He looked over at Sapphire, who was in pretty bad shape. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked, taking in her burns and other injuries. Those had to be hurting like a *bitch*. "I can put you under until we can get you patched up properly."
Sapphire struggled to put on her seat belt before her fumbling fingers finally clicked it into place. "I- I'm doing OK. I'm just claustrophobic. And I'd rather not be unconscious but thanks for the offer. I'm feeling tired anways. Excessive use of my po- po- power." She said drifting off to sleep on Dannys shoulder.
Danny froze. What do I do? Sapphire's breathing was perfectly aligned with her heart beat and was strangely soothing. Her hand was in a terrible state and Danny wanted to do something but as usual couldn't. Why am I so useless? He closed his eyes to try to block out the day and quickly entered sleep, his head resting on Sapphire's.
Watching that pink flame die out was a sad thing to witness, but it also felt right somehow. Some people should not live forever. She found redemption at the end, she was probably better off where she was now. For the second time tonight, John was praying with tears flowing from his eyes. He still felt pretty bad about everything that happened. After all, pretty much everybody’s injuries, with only the possible exception of Silhouette, were a direct result of his actions. He was all set to apologize to everyone, when he found them all snoring. Not such a bad idea actually. Settling deep into the more-comfortable-than-it-looks car seat, he easily dosed off after a long journey and a long night. His last conscious thought was something along these lines: “Poor Mack, stuck in a truck with a bunch of snoring heroes.”
Jacob shrugged. It was Sapphire's choice. He hadn't planned on seducing her, just knocking her out until she could get proper medical treatment. "Looks like you'll have your work cut out for you," he said in a low voice to Mack. "Sorry all this came crashing down on you."
