Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Jun 18, 2012 20:58:57 GMT -5
M8W1D5, Detroit slums, open
It's been unseasonably hot in the city. Tensions are high in this sprawling urban neighborhood. The current turf war between two large street gangs isn't helping matters. Later on, it'll never be entirely clear how the fire started, though the authorities will suspect arson, given the location of the run-down tenement building on the border between the two warring gangs' territories. It's a modest brownstone, badly in need of repairs. A developer keeps trying to buy it to tear it down, but the tenants can't afford to move elsewhere.
It's before midnight, fully dark, when the fire starts. Dan Benga is patrolling the neighborhood when he smells the smoke and sees the light on the other side of a row of buildings. If anyone asked him, he wasn't patrolling, because normal people don't do that. He's just taking the scenic route home from his gym. In the slums. At night. Through gang territory. With a sword.
Naturally, he investigates the smoke and finds the apartment building. There's no fire coming out of the upper story windows yet. He rips off a sleeve of his shirt and wraps it around his nose and mouth as he runs toward the fire. He knows nothing about fighting fires or resucing people from them, though he suspects he's going to ruin a perfectly good saber before the night is over.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Jun 26, 2012 12:01:36 GMT -5
That's definitely a building on fire, much to the irritation of the man somewhere on the opposite side of it from a certain slightly crazy gym owner. Randy eyes the situation with a dire look, for it doesn't look good. The place is well on its way to becoming a pile of soot and scorch, and though he knows a few of them, he's no firefighter. He considers; he could dial 911, assuming nobody else already has – and they probably haven't, because it's just safest to assume the worst – but he already knows that it'll be a while before a response will come. The sirens have been howling madly tonight. They're busy on who knows how many other calls.
Randy is not a firefighter. He has no training in fire rescue. (Hell, he has no real training in emergency rescue of any kind.) He's just a guy out for his evening run who happened across a tragedy in the making.
A guy who's a master spy robot in disguise. Yeah.
"Score another one fer the pinhead," he mutters as he dials.
<911, what's your emergency?> pipes the dispatcher on the other end of the line after a brief hold with some really lousy music.
"We gotta fire at <address>, just, eh… west of <intersection,>" he answers. "Dunno how many people are still in the building, but the building's already lit up like a dry Christmas tree."
<Thank you, sir. The fire department is on its way. Please stay on the line and don't–>
He hangs up, pulling his bandanna off and re-tying it over his nose and mouth. The fire looks like it's strongest on the northwest end of the building, lower floors; he scales a fence and then the fire escape on the southeast side. One of the tenants on the upper floor is in the process of removing a pet from the apartment; Randy shrugs and goes in on the floor below that. It's smoky and dark indoors, stinging his eyes. He should've brought some glasses. "Eh, I guess even I can't be prepared fer everything," he grumbles as he makes his way further into the apartment. "'Ey! Anybody in here?"
He was never very good with listening to authority figures.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Jun 29, 2012 19:56:21 GMT -5
"Yes!" comes the muffled reply, as Dan shouts back through a mouthful of shirt-sleeve mask and a shoulderful of angry old woman. He had to take her cane away because she kept hitting him with it. She refused to leave her apartment without her 'babies', an unreasonably large number of cats, both the real and porcelain knick-knack kind.
Dan wasn't having any of that nonsense, though with how difficult it is to get down the stairs with an elderly woman trying to gum your ear to death, he's seriously starting to regret not letting her die of smoke inhalation.
He nearly stumbles into Randy as he comes to the bottom of a flight of stairs. There's an ominous crack as something collapses on one of the higher floors.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Jul 3, 2012 19:18:00 GMT -5
What ho? Another amateur hero, Randy assumes, taking in the civvies and the makeshift mask as best he can with his eyes watering. He dashes the tears with the back of one hand and looks again. And he looks up. One eyebrow reaches for his receding hairline as he takes in the big guy's burden.
"Any more rabid grannies stuck up there?" he asks even as he wonders what, if yes, he's going to do about it that won't result in crispy Randy.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Jul 5, 2012 10:16:06 GMT -5
"If there are, I'm leaving them where I find them, and they can get cremated with their cats!" Dan replies, shouldering past Randy to deposit the revered elder outside the building, where a crowd of people will presumably stop her from re-entering the building, because it's unsafe for her to do that.
Dan rubs his ear as he re-enters the building, trying to get rid of some of the granny saliva. "I heard someone else up there, but I couldn't get to them," he says, heading back up the stairs to retrieve his sword.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Jul 19, 2012 13:56:56 GMT -5
"How noble of ya, big guy," Randy mutters under his breath at Dan's very broad back. He can't say yet that he's reminded of anyone, but there's definitely something about the bruiser that nags at him. He has no idea where this other person upstairs is, the whole place is burning to the ground, he could easily go with it, and he's probably going to run right into the mess anyway.
Sometimes he really wishes his survival instincts kicked in at more appropriate times.
"If I'm not back in five minutes," he yells as he starts up the stairs, "make sure they write somethin' flattering about me in the papers!" He can barely hear himself over the surrounding din; he has no idea if the big guy heard him. Either way, he's still an idiot with a really obnoxious conscience. "I can just hear Optimus Pinhead now," he mutters as he stops to try and get his bearings. He never would've thought fire could be so loud when it's all around him like this; fireplaces and campfires just give off that nice, sedate crackle.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Jul 19, 2012 18:16:54 GMT -5
"Whatever happened to truth in journalism?!" Dan shouts back at Randy over the roar of the flames. He's not entirely sure why he said it, he just met the little man. Something about him just seems to get under his skin, though.
He leaps over a flaming beam that's taken out part of the ceiling as he runs through a corridor. He doesn't remember that being there on his way down. His sword, at least, is right where he left it, lodged in a doorframe like a discarded fireaxe. (Perfectly good saber.) He pauses, covering his mouth as he coughs, crouching under the smoke. He thinks he can hear . . . a child, maybe? Someone high-pitched, coming from somewhere above.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Aug 8, 2012 14:22:15 GMT -5
…So has he met this guy and he just doesn't recall it? Randy has to wonder, though he's sure he'd remember meeting a slab of meat that size. He's almost reminded of Dinobot, in a way. Then he has to stop wondering and focus on not getting toasted as chunks of ceiling become flaming confetti on their way to the floor. It's hot and hard to breathe, hard to see with the smoke stinging his eyes. He keeps as low as he can without slowing himself down too much, but even he's only so flexible without the advantage of ball-joints that aren't wrapped in confining connective tissues.
A squeal and a deafening crack are his only warnings as a ceiling beam breaks loose and debris rushes down through the new hole just behind him. He curses shrilly but keeps moving, because he thought he heard something else just before that miniature collapse – a high-pitched sound that doesn't sound like the building giving way.
"If dat's somebody's pet," Randy grumbles, "I'd better get a friggin' reward for it!"
It isn't a pet he finds when he finally bashes open the correct door. It's a kid. His expletive is drowned out by the floor at the far end of the hall giving way under the fire's advance.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Aug 11, 2012 15:26:25 GMT -5
Dan plants his foot on the wall, grabs the hilt of his sword, and yanks it out of the doorframe he left it in. Weapon secured, he runs to catch up with the little guy. They may as well stick together, given the situation. His eyes water as he squints against the smoke and flames.
The little guy is on the other side of a sudden hole in the floor. Dan backs up, takes a running start, and leaps, landing on the other side and rolling into a crouch. Looking behind him, he sees the floor collapse further. Not getting out that way then.
He looks around for an escape route, trusting to Randy to grab the kid. Obviously he's going to, right? Spotting a window, he smashes through the glass with the hilt of his sword and looks down. "We can jump to the fire escape on the other side of the alley and climb down!" he shouts over the flames.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Aug 26, 2012 13:56:36 GMT -5
"Oh, yeah, sure!" Randy snaps back as he grabs the bawling kid. Can't be more than eight, the kid – the girl, Randy amends once he gets a better look at that soot-stained little face – and she promptly starts shrieking because there's a strange man bundling her up to his chest. He sort of wishes he had a jacket he could throw over her head and tells himself it's for shutting her up. Nothing at all to do with shielding her from the embers falling everywhere. "Lemme just strap the brat in this rescue harness I keep in my back pocket and we'll be on our way!"
Not that he isn't already eyeing the gap and trying to calculate the best way to make the jump with one arm useless making sure he doesn't drop the kid.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Sept 1, 2012 20:45:59 GMT -5
Dan flinches as a beam comes through the ceiling uncomfortably close, sending up a spray of smoke and embers. He growls in frustration, though it's almost a snort. "What are you waiting for? If you can't make it, give the kid to me and I'll do it." Dan's bigger, he can probably jump farther. Failing that, there's more of him to cushion the impact for the child if it turns out he can't make the jump.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Sept 4, 2012 13:13:17 GMT -5
"I trust you with the kid about as far as I can throw ya, chopperface!" Randy says as he snatches a sheet off the girl's bed and piles out the window. He doesn't think about saying it; he doesn't think about why he says it. The nickname just rolls off his tongue like that snort rumbled out of the big guy. It just feels like a natural thing to do, as comfortable as the grip of his blaster. He could speculate about it further, but he has a small distraction at the moment. He eyes the gap again, and the drop to the alley below. He knows ways to catch himself, to minimise the impact if he does fall, to avoid getting hurt badly. None of those ways factors in strapping an eight-year-old to his chest. "Sweetheart," he says very quietly as he loops the bedsheet around her and then over his back and around her again, knotting it, "I'm gonna need you to hang on real tight."
"I want my mommy," is all the little girl answers, though she takes surprisingly tight fistfuls of his shirt. He hisses some choice words at the heartstring-yanking tropes playing out.
"Believe me, that's the first person I'm lookin' for when we get outta here," he mutters. He is not a kids kind of guy.
He also isn't really a recklessly risk his backside for strangers kind of guy, either, but he doesn't let that stop him from climbing onto the outside of the fire escape and pushing off across the alley. The girl promptly starts screaming.
OOC: Will roll a die for next post to shake out the landing.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Sept 9, 2012 10:26:41 GMT -5
"Why do you have to be so frustrating?!" Dan shouts back at Randy over the roar of the flames, watching the smaller man go out the window. Once he judges that the little guy and his passenger are far enough away that he won't land on top of them if he falls, he'll back up as far as he dares into the burning building and make a running leap out the window.
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Rattrap
Major
Sarcasm as a Lifestyle
Posts: 695
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Post by Rattrap on Sept 23, 2012 18:10:28 GMT -5
Contrary is Randy's middle name. One of them, at least. He has a whole batch of human memories that tell him he's got about five different names – something to do with confirmation and a godfather – that he has to keep in mind whenever his ma calls asking him to apologise to his dad.
He seriously debates going through with it if he survives this.
Randy doesn't try to make a solid landing on the escape; he's going too fast and he'll probably break something if he tries. He tries to just hit the side of the fire escape with both feet and roll, twisting himself upside down so he can catch the next railing with less momentum as he keeps falling. This was a bad choice, he decides, when the girl shrieks and clamps her skinny little arms around his neck. Thinking she slipped loose of the sheet somehow, by reflex he grabs her with one arm and remembers too late that he's supposed to be stopping them from falling into the alley. He bellows out words his ma would jam a bar of soap in his mouth for even as he catches a railing. Muscles strain and pull in painful ways – something pops – and his hand goes numb for a second. He lets go and hooks his knees on the railing below instead.
"Would you shut up?!" he snaps at the girl. He doesn't quite succeed in not screeching and she doesn't really stop crying.
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Dinobot
Minor
Death Before Dishonor
Posts: 302
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Post by Dinobot on Sept 29, 2012 13:47:12 GMT -5
It's a long jump, and it seems to Dan that he sails through the air in slow motion. He almost doesn't make it, but he's not carrying a child, so he's able to catch himself on the fire escape with both hands. His arms and shoulders hurt like hell, but nothing is dislocated.
He looks over his shoulder at the burning building, then down at the little man and the girl. "Can you reach my foot? I can pull you up," he shouts over the sirens that have finally started sounding in the distance.
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