Chunky Start. Your time is now!

(Borack can hear Eryn)

"Of course, Mr. Senator sir. By the way, did you know that craven, Seer Markam has deserted his post at the communication center and run off to who knows where? Deserted! He just up and left! I always knew that man was a coward, I did. Now he's gone and left poor Raena to take care of everything herself. Could you get another Seer to come help her out? Oh, and if you happen to encounter Markam, I would appreciate it if you take him aside and firmly reprimand him for abandoning his duties, thank you very much. Right sir, off I go then!"

Gersha heads back to the communication center. "Well hello again Raena, I'm as surprised as you that our next meeting came so soon. Here, Senator Obama wants this evacuation order broadcasted to the whole town."

After the message is delivered Gersha finds Director Walter and asks if she can sign off.

The group stops.
Joe searches around for the voice.
"Over there" Joe points at the young lady asking the question.

Michell slaps Joe's hand to the side.
"Damnit, Joe. Imagine some G-man in a suit started pointing at you in a pressing situation. It's very intimidating."

Borack turns towards Eryn
"Yes, of course. The more people helping, the better."

After hearing what Gersha had to say concerning the seer, Michell's face contorts with anger.
"What! A seer abandoning his post! This is outrageous. Someone with the prestigeous position of 'seer' should have more sense of responsibility."

"Yes," Borack says. "Should we come across Markam, we will have to question him. It is highly irregular for someone in such a position to abandon his post in such a situation. He may have an ulterior motive pertaining to the conflict at hand."

The group continues towards the garage. On the way, Borack says:
"Again, we are trying to save civilians, so we'll try to skirt around the edges of the conflict. Those who can drive, commandeer a (preferably large) car and follow my codillac."

She nods and follows, slinging her well worn rifle over her shoulder.

@wayne

Seer Raena greets Gersha with a hrumph, but does as she is told after hearing the details. Most of the Seers already know about the situation at hand and are responding in their own time, but it doesn't help to remind them.

Walter gives Gersha an exhausted sigh.
"Of course you can, and by Rimerian law you are entitled to a months worth of paid absence in such situations, but I doubt you'll have a place to enjoy it at a time like this."
Walter writes Gersha a check for a month's pay, and saves a copy for himself.
"I've already arranged for the most important assets to be loaded onto the next train out, if you wish to leave please feel free."

--

@ninaz and k-san

Thomas has enough clearance to requisition shipping trucks from the garage, and so he and his researcher friends grab 4 trucks. The rest pile in with the drivers, and together the 4 trucks follow Borack's Codillac.

Eryn is lumped with a mousy brown haired woman, since Eryn does not have a licence she could only stare with wonderment while the other woman drove.

(kaede, you wanna have a conversation with the woman?)

Doesn't talk, but instead watches how the woman drives. [Using Learn By Observation skill]

Obama's party drives around the city looking for bomb damage, but it takes a while to actually find anything. It seems like things aren't as bad as it sounds like, or maybe its because Lauden is a large city and it would take a while to shell it into smithereens.

As the party reaches close to the waterside, however, the damage becomes more apparent. The first sign of severe damage is a three story apartment building that had partially collapsed due to the shelling. Fire fighters scramble to deliver enough retardant to quell the spread of flames.

Borack stops his vehicle near the building (but far enough away that should the building collapse, the car would not be crushed) and approaches the fire fighters.
"Hello, We've come to help with the situation. As you can see, we have brought several large trucks to help people escape to safety. Is there anything we can help with over here?"

The firefighter looks really frustrated.

"Look buddy, there's people still trapped in there, unless you want to go in and save them stop interrupting us from doing so."

"Oh, thank you Mr. Walter, thank you so much!"  Gersha gleefully takes her month's worth of pay and goes to the bank to cash it in.

Regardless of whether the cash-in was successful or not, Gersha then goes to her favorite clothing outlet, "Perpetual 32", and obtains a floral print dress, pink ballroom shoes, and a fancy peacock-feathered hat and dazzling black gown combo. She continues her spree at a salon with some peach scented perfume and lipstick, then purchases some bolts of cloth thread and yarn at an embroidery shop, making sure to get one of every available color, or as many as she can reasonably carry in her large purse and hands.

She brings all of her goods back to her residence in the city, pours herself a cup of tea, and takes out her hooks for a nice, quiet afternoon of crocheting. She will be working on bringing to fruition her latest, most ambitious project to date: a multi-layered body length blanket...with sleeves!
It is an extraordinary idea, one that could revolutionize the very way people live their everyday lives. If mass production proves feasible, no longer will a woman have to choose between staying warm and retaining advanced motor function during the wintertime. With this garment, which she has affectionately nicknamed "The Huggie", you can do both! Or if it doesn't catch on, well, she and a couple of her friends can do both. It's a win-win proposition for Ms. Folsom.

Borack approaches Dr. Thomas.
"Is it possible for the S-2 to help stop the flames from spreading in any way? Is there any ice magic ammunition or something?"

@Wayne
Since Gersha and her frequented establishments were on the nicer side of the city, as Gersha had made sure it was so, all she held dear were relatively shielded from the carnage from a buffer zone formed by the poorer saps who lived closer to the bay area. Other than the worried looks of her friends, and a increase in the number of dirty looking refugees, not much had actually changed.

It was very difficult to start knitting, however, in between the sounds of explosions, and the loud noises that came from the streets full of extra people. There were also many local officials and Panalese military personal shouting out orders for civilian evacuation and riot control.

--
@k and n
Dr. Thomas shakes his head.
"We have sadly not  thought of such a use for the SP-2, although now it becomes apparent that it could really be useful for firefighting. The closest spell the SP-2 is equipped with is the liquefaction spell, which can dissolve solids into liquids. We could potentially melt away the wall, but that might cause the building to collapse."

He coughs briefly from the choking fumes that are emanating from the building.

"None of us have trained in spells to fight fires either, so it would take us around 10-15 minutes to prepare such."

He reaches into his coat and pulls out three liquid filled glass bottles that have extraordinary long necks to their spherical bodies.

"However, each member of our research team is equipped with three of these fire extinguishers, I suppose they could help."

Thomas takes a bottle by the neck, and chucks it into the flaming window. Upon contact with the flame the bottle instantly exploded, spilling a colorless liquid forth upon the burning surface. For everywhere the liquid reached, the flames were instantly snuffed out, but sadly a single bottle could only produce half a square meter of sanctuary.

"Excuse me Doctor, could that liquid be applied safely to someone to repel the flames from them?"

"Well, it will give your skin a rubbery texture for around 2 hours, and you still might suffer burn damage from extreme temperatures, but yes it won't kill you or anything since its easy to spill and we wouldn't want to kill ourselves either."

It may be difficult to start knitting, but since Gersha was planning on crocheting instead she has no problems getting started. The racket going on outside is a bit distracting to her work however, so Gersha dons her trusty pair of earplugs and fluffy maroon earmuffs.

kaede wrote:"Excuse me Doctor, could that liquid be applied safely to someone to repel the flames from them?"

The Chocolate Destiny Survival Guide wrote:2. If you're on fire, you should probably put it out. If you have the opportunity to set yourself on fire, you should probably not take it. You don't want to miss out on later opportunities to set other things on fire, do you?

Joe comments After watching the demonstration.
"hmm, these devices certainly have an immediate impact on an area and are impressive for their small sizes, but I don't think we can completely stop the advance of the flames with them."

Borack remains silent as he gathers his thoughts.
"These devices and the liquefying munitions would be very useful for assisting in the rescue of civilians trapped inside the building. As the young lady has pointed out, the fire retardant liquid could be used on a few rescuers as well as the trapped civilians while the liquefying munitions can help to clear a path to the civilians. I propose that four or five of us slather the retardant on themselves and enter the building. Having too many people go in might cause more harm than good as we would be bodyblocking each other. The remainder of us should prepare some of the safety nets that the firemen should have so that those who go in can escape safely should they be forced to exit the building from a height."

After Borack's spiel, Michell replies:
"You know we're going in too right? You're making it sound like it's not necessarily us that's going in and leading the charge."

Joe chuckles nervously and scratches the back of his head.
"oh, uh. Going into a burning building with a strange liquid covering our bodies. Yeah, I guess this seems to be some pretty legitimate business."

"Damnit Joe, man up." Michell snaps.

In response to his wife's criticism, Borack smiles before saying:
"Yes we will go. That makes three of us. Are there two more people who are up to the task?"

(Wayne, Gersha will be be crocheting for a while)

While Thomas looked extremely eager to charge in, the mousy woman that drove Eryn, and a lanky dark haired male volunteered instead.

"I'm Linda Forthright, and my specialty is pyrokinetics. I think I might be able to help."

"Name's John, I'm an alchemist. Not very useful, but I can help."

The five shatter five bottles of fire extinguisher and pour the liquid upon themselves. Although an itching sensation spreads through wherever the liquid flows and remains even after the liquid seemed to have vanished, nothing else particularly alarming happens.

Eryn watches as the group charges into the burning building with Borack paving the way, only to find that several firefighters are already inside pulling a fair number of unconscious people out of the building.

It seems that the firefighters already have the situation under control in the first floor so the group charges to the second floor where they find two fire fighters attempting to pry open a collapsed section of the building.

Before entering the building, the group grabs 2 extra flasks of the extinguisher so that they could clear a path to the exit in case things get too hot.

When the group encounters the firefighters trying to pry open the door, they join in to assist, having Michell at the position where there is the most mechanical advantage.
Should this tactic fail to produce results, Borack and Joe will ask the firefighters to move aside while Linda shoots a liquefying round from her S-2 at the collapsed section. Using her pyrokinetics knowledge, Linda will shoot at a spot in the collapsed section of the building such that burning parts of the building should not come crashing down to replace the original collapsed section.

"I'm a trained medic, I'll go assist the injured." She follows after the firefighters pulling out the unconscious people and begins looking them over, prioritizing the more injured ones. [first aid skill in use]

Gersha takes a break from her inventing session and takes a look in the mirror. "Hmph, Mother Necessity shouldn't look so plain," she thinks to herself. She changes into her new pumps and floral dress and resumes her great work.

@wayne
Gersha feels absolutely marvelous.

--
@kelvin
Michell manages to move some slabs aside while Linda liquefies the larger ones chunks to break them up. This process is repeated until a sizable hole is created in the collapse.

After the debris is cleared enough the group finds three persons, a mother and two infant children who are positively brutalized by the collapsed rubble.

--
@nina
There are trained medics at the scene who do not let Eryn get near the injured because she looks flaky does not have any certification.

(ok honest time, nina's been throwing up most of the day so ive been taking over her characters. i have no idea what this characters like to think of a thing to do so pass)

[Your talents will not save the city. Only a superman could possibly turn the tides. I suggest instead of "passing" you head for the train station and leave on the next train out if you are unsure of what to do. Nina's reaction can be dealt with after her recovery. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor, Miss Luthor.]

(Before this is over, we shall see if a portly old hag can cry. Also shes out of commission for two days docs orders.)

At the sight of the three brutalized persons, Borack visibly tenses up, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth in sadness and frustration at being unable to do anything.
[Activate Obamacare]

Joe, Linda, and John check the three's vitals (pulse, breath, etc) while Michell clears path to the window and checks to see if the others have finished setting up the net.

OOC: What's she down with? In any case, I hope she feels better soon. Please send her my regards.

While Obama tries his best to use his preternatural healing abilities to heal the mangled woman and children, the wounds are far beyond the scope of what he has to offer. All it does is close up the surface wounds, but they still look quite broken.

Joe, Linda, and John aren't trained in first aid or medicine, so all they can feel is a weak quickened pulse, what that means they don't really know. However, the easiest metric to assess, breathing, was still present in the mother and the older child.

As a good part of the wall had been blown away, it was quite easy for Michell make her way into an open section and see onto the ground floor. The firefighters have been holding out the net all this time in case there were any jumpers.

Joe, John, and Borack take the 3 victims down the stairs and to the medis while Michell and Linda follow the firemen to help out more people.
Joe, John, and Borack come back after they've delivered the 3 victims.

OOC: sorry people, i got sick, im back now though.

IC: Eryn goes off and looks for an injured person not being treated by medics.

@Kelvin

Michell and Linda continue to help more lightly wounded people evacuate but even with the fire retardant lathered upon their bodies they are starting to feel the heat.  Luckily Linda knows just the trick for the situation, and with a steady snapping rhythm in her fingers Michell also feels herself cool down.

The other half of Obama's party drop of the three wounded with the medics, and run back in to help. Together they clear out all the easy rooms, but the fire is spreading quickly from the east side of the building and there are multiple rooms cut off from access by raging blazes even fireproof people dare not venture in.

--
@Nina
Eryn starts treating a prepubescent boy who has only minor burns on his arm. At first he refuses, but is eventually convinced by the pain that he should accept Eryn's help.

Still it was quite a hassle as it was very difficult to get him to settle down, in between his wails and flails.

"Where's my mommy!!!! I want my mommy! And my brother too!"

"Shh, Shh, Shh. It's ok young one, I promise to help you look for your parents after I treat you ok?" [first aid skill in use] She gets the bandages from her first aid kit and tears some off. Next she quickly soaks the bandage with water from the firefighters and returns to the boy and begins wiping the burned area gently, removing any flaked skin. Finally she rips some more bandages off the roll and soaks it in a minute amount of the kits whiskey, wringing it of excess liquid, "This may sting a little, but this is going to help get rid of any germs, ok?" She very gently begins rubbing the burned area to help disinfect it.

The party tries to listen for any sounds that a survivor might be making (screaming, coughing, etc) and tries to smell for burning flesh.

@kelvin
Everywhere smells like its burning, and the smoky fumes are so shockingly unpleasant that Obama's party closes their enlarged nostrils seconds after taking a deep whiff.

They can, however, hear wall banging beyond the wall of flames.

--
@nina
The kid is still quite fussy, but Eryn manages to get things under control.

"My mommy is still in there! I was playing on the ground floor when Boom! Fire everywhere..."

She smiles at the boy. "Then I'll go in there and look for them ok?" She takes the boy by his hand and walks over to where the medics are treating patients, if the boys family isn't there she then walks over to Doctor Thomas. "Doc do you have any more of that fire repellent liquid?"

"They are all with Senator Obama," Thomas says shaking his head, "I can attempt to ward your clothing if you wish."

She nods "That would be appreciated."

Thomas takes out what looks to be a sewing needle and some thread from his coat pocket, and crudely embroiders Eryn's collar on the spot with a strange design.

Upon closer examination the thread is actual a metal, most likely silver, and is coursing with an unfamiliar magical energy.

"There. Its not precisely an enchantment that confers fire resistance, but one that projects a weak physical protection. It should be able to keep out fire and dust though."

"You have my thanks." She kneels down to look the child in the eyes. "Before I go I need you to tell me what home is yours, can you do that for me?"

Toss one of the extinguishers on the ground in the direction of the sound of the banging and proceed in that direction.

@nina
"We live on the third floor."
The boy points to a section of the building that should be burnt to a crisp by now.

--
@kelvin
One is clearly not enough in surface area, but three should be able to clear the way.

throw 2 more and advance towards the pounding.
Joe calls out:
"We're coming to help you, don't give up!"

Obama's party hears no response, but the banging continues. The group arrive at the wall that they hear the noise from, but the door several feet down is on fire.

Borack shouts out:
"Move a little bit away from the wall. We're going to take this wall down. Clutter may fall from above, so don't be too close."

Borack turns to Linda:
"if you would, please use the liquefying ammo in your S-2 to take down the wall after we've confirmed that the survivors have heard our instructions. Please proceed to liquefy any large pieces of rubble that may fall down as well."
and proceeds to address the rest of the group:
"We should all back up as well, in case anything falls down."

Borack, Joe, and Michell take a few steps back away from the wall.

The pounding stops, but Obama is unsure how fast they are moving.

After 10 seconds from when the pounding's stopped, Borack asks Linda to fire her S-2.

The wall melts away to reveal a young woman who is almost passed out upon the floor. The far side of the room had already caved in, and she had her back to the rubble grasping for air.

Obama quickly picks the woman up, damsel in distress style, [activates Obamacare], and carries her away from the smoke heavy area.

Look/hear for more signs of distress.

She tears enough bandages from her roll to wrap around her face, soaks the bandages in water and wraps it around her mouth and nose. "Is there any more of those dissolving shots for my rifle doc?"

(srry obama, talking is free action, you're going to be stuck there for a while)

"The ammunition is universal, it is the barrel and the chamber that produces the special properties."

Thomas' attention, however, is immediately captured by the rifle that Eryn indicates.

"Wait, how did you get that rifle? That seems to be a prototype earlier than even the SP-1. We never released any of those from the RHI research teams..."

She shoulders it behind her as if to hide it. "It was something my father left behind with my mom."

"Oh, may I ask who your parents are?"