In Which There Is a Building And It Is On Fire

[Rattrap]

"Gimme a nano-klik, wouldja?!" Randy squalls indignantly, trying to pry that tiny arm loose before the kid chokes him out. After a moment, he adds in a wheeze with the blood rushing to his head, "…Okay, two nano-kliks!" Fortunately, keeping his legs hooked on the railing is much easier than holding on one-handed. His arm hurts like hell. It doesn't feel broken, at least.

Now, when the big guy tells him he can pull them up, Randy expects that he'll have a foot within reaching distance once he gets himself pulled up to grab said foot. He's never going to complain about sit-ups again, he thinks as he curls his whole torso upward, extra weight and all. Everything below his ribs pulls and he's pretty sure he'll be feeling it worse in the morning. Maybe he should start running with a backpack on so he can get a better feel for how things work with a dead weight load.

In the meantime, at least he looks awesome.

[Dinobot]

There is indeed a foot within reach for Randy to grab. While the smaller man is doing his inverted vertical crunches, Dan takes the opportunity to wrap his arms through the bars of the fire escape railing so that he doesn't lose his grip from the extra weight. This is not going to be a fun exercise.

He tucks his head to look down at Randy and the kid. "Any time!" There's a sort of a crunching noise. It wouldn't even be audible over the burning building next door if it weren't so close at hand. However, it's right by Dan's ear. One of the fixtures holding the fire escape in place has started to work its way out of the brick.

"You've got to be kidding me. Hurry up down there!"

[Rattrap]

“Who do I look like? The Blue Blaze?!” Randy has the horribly misplaced urge to tie this guy’s shoelaces together at the earliest possible opportunity. Juvenile? Yeah. Satisfying? Hell yes. Instead, he just grabs Dan’s instep, then shifts grip to his ankle. At least he’s upright now and the girl has stopped screaming.

He doesn’t climb up, though. He shimmies onto the next landing down instead. Closer to the ground in a controlled fashion is what he wants, not a plummet on a crappy old fire escape that decided Murphy was its best friend and fell itself clean off the wall.

Screw Murphy. What a jerk.

[Dinobot]

"You look like you didn't drink enough milk as a kid!" To say nothing of the smell. But the little man has decided to climb down, apparently. Dan is fine with that. He hauls himself up onto the fire escape as quickly as he dares, keeping an eye on the bit that's coming loose so that he can be ready to go into a controlled fall if he needs to. Hopefully he can just climb up to the roof. It's shorter than climbing down.

[Rattrap]

Randy debates shouting up at the big palooka, but screw that, the guy ain't worth the effort. Ground. Randy wants the ground. He's had enough of heights for tonight, though his passenger apparently thinks hopping down the fire escape is a whole lot better than jumping to it in the first place was since she can peel her eyes away from his shirt long enough to look now and again. He wants on the ground, he wants the kid off him, and he wants to go home, drink all the beer, watch a couple titty flicks and crash on the couch. He's supposed to have tomorrow off.

Finally, he hits the ground and rolls with the impact. Then he can't untie the sheet fast enough, nor does the girl waste any time taking off to find her family.

"Can't a guy get a thank you when he saves somebody's life?" he mutters under his breath. "Yeesh."

[Dinobot]

Dan manages to get onto the roof without the fire escape collapsing, though the metal structure is just barely hanging on. He growls down at it and gives it a few swift kicks until it comes crashing down. Better it break now than when someone is trying to use it.

The roof access of the building is locked, but he kicks it in and walks down the stairs, garnering confused and fearful looks from the residents as he passes down into the street.

Fire trucks finally start pulling around the corner, sirens wailing, as Dan brushes himself off and stands next to Randy. "Want to go get a beer?" he asks.

[Rattrap]

Randy is just starting to wonder if the big guy plans to vanish into the night like some kind of surly meathead dark knight when there's suddenly a talking, sooty wall beside him offering drinks. He thinks it over. He's filthy, scorched, sweaty, reeking, and dehydrated as hell. Now is the best time to get a beer with a total stranger, he decides without the slightest hint of sarcasm. He earned the blasted thing.

"Sure," he says, pausing to check his aching arm. It doesn't seem dislocated, but it hurts; he probably tore something. If he gets drunk enough, he won't notice. Bonus! "You're buyin' the first round," he adds. Maybe he should rig up a sling for his arm. He immediately vetoes that idea. He doesn't feel like broadcasting that kind of handicap around the big fella. No particular reason aside from a gut feeling of dislike, which he tells himself makes no sense; by all accounts, his fellow amateur hero is almost kind of decent. Though he doesn't have a problem with leaving an obstructive old bat to burn to death. (Randy might not either, circumstances pending, so he probably oughtn't criticise. He will anyway.)

[Dinobot]

"Wonderful. There's a place a few blocks down where the beer is an acceptable medium between cheap and good," he states, heading off in that direction and slipping away before emergency services can start doing annoying things like trying to be helpful. He examines his sword as he walks, noting the dinged, dulled, sooty blade. "Ruined a perfectly good saber tonight," he gripes conversationally.

[Rattrap]

"Who the heck brings a sword to a fire call anyway?" Randy demands once he catches up to the big guy, dry throat turning his question into something of a screech. He settles for tucking his hand in his pocket to take some weight off his sore shoulder since he isn't going to screw with making a sling for the moment.

---

OOC: Fade to beer?

[Dinobot]

"I wasn't going to leave it on the street to be stolen," Dan responds, shortening his stride slightly to allow the smaller man to catch up. He lets out a phlegmy, rasping cough. His snot's going to be black for days from all that smoke.

"Have we met before?"

OOC: Fade to beer!