Hi. I'm Hannah, and we are not doing this. I am not crazy, I do not hear voices, and you are not inside my head. Do you understand me? Now go bother somebody else. I'm busy.
I park my motorcycle across the street from my smoking, partially collapsed facility and climb off. "I'm here, Ian. Status?"
"This is a bad idea, Tamara," crackles his voice through my helmet headset. "You shouldn't be here."
"This is precisely where I should be. The emergency responders are all tied up, this place is my baby, and you're my friends. Now, what is your status?"
"We're still digging through the rubble, but we're almost out. It sounds like things have calmed down upstairs."
"Yeah, I don't see anything moving besides the smoke."
"Smoke?"
"Coming out of a collapsed part of the west wing. I don't see flames or glowing. Let me check the infrared..." I lift the visor of my helmet and bring my thermal scope to my good eye. "It's still pretty hot, but I think whatever was burning is done." I scan over the facility and pause when I reach the hole in the side. "I see two bodies just outside, one hot and one warm."
Ian gives a sigh of relief. "Maybe Roger made it after all."
I lower the scope and shine a flashlight on them. "Neither one of these is Roger. One is Wheels, and the other is a woman I can't ID from here."
"A woman? Probably Patty Thompson, then; it was her shift. I thought she was a goner."
"Might still be; she's looking pretty bad from what I can see." I take another quick look around the scene to check for danger or victims and then jog over as quietly as I can, hoping whoever attacked isn't still lurking. Wheels was glowing with a normal level of body heat, so I focus my attention on Patty first. I can tell that it is her, now that I'm close, and her state makes my stomach roil. Lots of blood loss, faint pulse, no breathing, cool clammy skin, exposed bones poking out of both legs and one arm. Meanwhile I can hear faint gurgles coming from Wheels; gurgles are generally bad, but at least they mean he's breathing. I take a deep breath to suppress my anger and worry; there's work to do. "Hurry up, Ian. These two both need immediate attention; I think Wheels has a punctured lung, and Patty is... not good." I yank off my helmet, grab a barrier from my first aid kit, pinch her nose, and give her a quick lungful of air. While that soaks in, I fish out gauze and bandages so I can start binding her biggest wounds, pausing occasionally to give her more air. I don't know how many of her limbs we'll be able to salvage, but as long as we can at least save her, we can give her as many replacements as she needs. I take care of my people.
The gurgling coming from Wheels has almost faded by the time I hear a crash of rubble from inside. "We're out!" calls Ian.
"Over here! I need more hands! Hurry!" Ian and Sean escort the five techs who'd been trapped down in the labs with him over to me, then Ian breaks off to start scouting the area while Sean stands guard. "Alright, you three, take over with Patty here. Sayid, Lynn, help me with Wheels. Sean, tell Ian to bring back a pair of stretchers when he's done scouting." I hesitate for a moment and stop one of the first three. "Inid, get ahold of Ray Llewelyn first. We'll need a proper surgeon out here." I turn my attention to Wheels and start doing what I can in the meanwhile. "We have got to stop meeting like this," I mutter.
"What are they doing," Hannah asks me.
I lower my binoculars and pass them to her. "They're getting him onto a stretcher. His mask is on the ground, but they have a cloth tied around his upper face."
"You mean a blindfold," she says as she looks for herself.
"I don't think so, Hannah."
"You're still fond of her, aren't you?"
"N- No, of course not."
"Sure you are. I'm not mad, Joe, but it means you're biased."
I shrug. "Maybe. But what do you want us to do? Bust him out?"
"It's what he'd do for us."
"Yeah, but I don't think that's our best move right now. We're not doctors; he needs more than our first aid skills this time."
"So we bring him to Jeff's hippie friends."
"How? The roads are still chaotic. There's no bus service and Jeff won't be able to get through it with his Jeep either."
Hannah frowns, then points at Tamara's motorcycle. "The bike. We'll have to steal her keys and then tie him to my back or something to keep him from falling off, but it'll work."
"Grand theft, huh?" says a voice behind us. We both jump and spin, and a girl in a long leather coat with a bandana over her mouth ducks under Hannah's fist. "Whoa there," she says softly. "It's just me."
"Paula?" says Hannah.
"I do not know this 'Paula' you speak of. I am The Masked Flame."
"Oh God," I say with a groan. "Now he's got her doing it too." I sigh and turn back to Hannah. "Look, I think you're overreacting. If Tamara was the enemy, why didn't she act back at Deepwell Elementary?"
"Because she'd just been kidnapped and was still alone. This time she's fresh, has a bunch of minions, and is on her own turf."
Paula shakes her head. "I'm with Joe on this. I did some pretty thorough investigation on her back when I was digging into the Tolman Flu. As far as I can tell, she's firmly in the chaotic-good quadrant."
"I hadn't pegged you as a gamer," I say with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not, but the other members of the Coldriver Chronicle make you and George look like little wannabe geeks. You should see Lucy's minifig collection. But seriously, I think we can trust Tamara."
Hannah sighs. "Fine. We'll let her hang onto them for now."
"Them?" asks Paula. "Plural? Mind filling me in on what's actually going on? All I know is that Wheels was last seen heading this way, then I got here to find you two debating whether to steal a motorcycle to get him away from Tamara."
"You know his mom works here?" Hannah asks. Paula nods. "Well, he got a text from her phone, but it wasn't her. He assumed it was Terence and skated off like a bat out of hell to rescue her."
"He had his radio," I say, "but he wasn't talking. Just kept growling to himself. And then something must have hit him because it went dead. I grabbed some gear and arranged to meet Hannah here in case we needed to bail him out."
Hannah nods. "It wouldn't be the first time."
Paula tilts her head and looks past us toward the people collecting George's scattered gear outside Winston Biotech. "So you got here and saw them collecting him? I guess they've brought him inside to tend to his wounds?"
"And his mom," says Hannah. "We haven't seen Terence anywhere, though. We're not sure if he's run off, if he's lurking, or if Wheels managed to knock him out somehow."
Paula nods and stands up. "Alright then. I'll go keep an eye on Wheels in case Terence comes back."
"Wait, what?!"
I stride away from George's timid little elves like Mrs. Claus on Boxing Day. There is a beach out there that should have my name on it, but instead the name is Winston Biotech. Not much of a beach, but George isn't much of a Santa. Still, he's mine, and I'm not the sort of dame to let my man go hurting alone. I know he's hurting, because his blood paints the facility's yard in a macabre Rorschach test. I can see his wheels in the two thin tracks, his mom in the thick, ragged one, and his coughing fits in the small splatters. Here they stop and thicken, smeared where he tried to help her before falling to writhe like a worm on a hook. There they transform, replaced by dark red footprints, worker ants bringing the injured back to the hive. Like Alice I follow the trail down the hole into a medical wonderland. Bad memories surface like reeking, belly-up fish, but this is not Pharmedica, and I am no longer merely Paula Peterson.
"Hey!" shouts a burly guard, fingering a nightstick like it might cure his impotence. "Who do you think you are? Get out of here!"
"I am The Masked Flame, and I mean you no harm. I'm here to watch over Wheels as you treat him, and to protect you all should his attacker return."
"Very funny, little girl. Now go home."
I shake my head firmly, aim my hand toward the wall opposite us, and push determination out my palm. The blazing flame of my will bursts forth and roars up the wall like a hungry hellhound. I hold the leash tightly as it licks the ceiling, then with a wave of my hand the flames are dismissed, evaporating like students after the final bell. "I mean what I say, and I say that I mean you no harm. We are allies." It is a struggle to remain serious amid the flood of endorphins my power releases, but like Noah I sail through the storm. The guard releases his own flood and backs away, stammering prayers and crossing himself with jerky motions. I stalk past, tracking my wounded mate into the subterranean jungle of laboratories. Here there is light, a cold florescent glare stabbing into my retinas.
I penetrate deeper into the warren of of chambers pursuing an ever fainter trail, every faded red footprint another lead weight in my heart. And then finally I arrive. Two doors, propped open to a large room. The hall's painful glow pales next to the searing light spilling from this chamber of healing. Inside, voices chatter like chipmunks. Tinkling chimes of metal implements ring, a chorus of sharp tools. This is not a good china shop to bull my way into. I force myself to relax into a meek stance, then knock softly on the open door and slide into view, hunching slightly to appear less threatening. "Hello?"
I blink and look up at the soft-spoken girl in the bandana standing shyly in the door to the lab. Something like the faint smell of burned meat surrounds her. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" My first thought is that she's the one who attacked my facility, but her attitude wouldn't fit unless it was an accident, and what happened to Patty was no accident. My phone buzzes on the counter and I gesture for Sayid to answer it while I keep my eyes on the intruder.
"I am The Masked Flame, ma'am, and I am here to observe and protect."
Her voice is earnest, but she's not making good eye contact. "A codename? Interesting." That and the fact that she's made it past Sean make me think she's another of these superhumans that have been popping up, but which one? She doesn't match the build of any of the people who were at City Hall tonight. She's too short to be the girl who lasered Chester Mart. She could be Cassie Quinn, but she's too pale, and Quinn has brown eyes. Makeup and contacts could account for that. By all accounts I've heard, Quinn cannot turn off the scent she creates. If she learned to mostly mask it, leaving only that burned meat smell, that could explain part of her codename. But what's the flame part? Is her scent a combustible gas of some sort?
I shake my head. This is probably somebody unknown, somebody with pyrokinesis. Still, just to be safe I make a mental note to reach for my pepper spray instead of taser if I have to fight her. My facility has seen enough destruction tonight without a stray spark blowing her up if I'm wrong. In the corner of my eye, I notice Sayid adjusting the grip on the scalpel he's holding rather than going for the gun he always carries. Good, good. He mutters what sounds like a confirmation into my phone, then hangs up and turns his full attention to the girl.
"Yes, very interesting indeed," I mutter aloud. I've been wanting to get my hands on one of these supers. Pharmedica was way out of line in their actions, of course, but what they've managed to accomplish... it almost makes me regret leaving them to form my own company. If I'd known what they'd been up to... well, I'd have left even faster, but then I'd have taken a break from biotech to do some corporate espionage. And now a likely superhuman has just walked right into my lab. This tragic night might just have a silver lining. "To observe and protect what, exactly?"
"Him, and you."
Ahhhh, it's not that she can't meet my eyes. She just can't keep her eyes off Wheels. I nod to myself. So, Patty's little psycho has finally found himself a girl his own age. That's a relief. His crush on me has been flattering, but also more than a little creepy. "I understand, Miss Flame." I give her a knowing smile just to test, and... yep, there's some blush creeping past her bandana. Okay, so she's not a hostile. That's good; we won't have to fight. On the downside, I can't justify taking her as an involuntary lab rat if she isn't a hostile. We'll have to do this the hard way: by gaining consent. "So, I have something you want, and you have something I want. Let's make a deal."
She raises an eyebrow and her voice goes hard as her stance shifts. She's been trained to fight? I file that detail away and focus as she speaks. "I am not here for deals, and Wheels's well-being is not a bargaining chip. I thought you were better than that, but if you threaten to hurt or neglect him, I will burn you to cinders. He is mine." She's making eye contact now, that's for sure, and her piercing glare is impressive. She even started to growl toward the end!
I can't help but chuckle a little. "Your teenage infatuation is very cute, Miss Flame, but you misunderstand me. Wheels's well-being is not on the table; I assure you that I have every intent of getting him patched up and back on his skates as soon as possible, regardless of what path you choose. What is on the table is whether or not I permit you to remain within my facility while we do it."
"And what is it you want?"
"I want to study you, obviously! Find out how your powers work!"
Her face twitches and her hair bursts into flame. "No!" she shouts. "Never again!"
"Okay! Okay! Calm down!" She must still have bad memories from her experience with Pharmedica. I hold my breath while her hair sputters out and she returns to her calm, angry glare. "That was a bad idea and I should have known better. I apologize. How about you just give me a blood sample and we call it even?"
"No. You forget that my offer was to protect you, not just to watch. It's already a fair trade."
"Oh really? And how did you get down here, might I ask? I think that you owe us restitution for whatever you did to Mr. Flemming."
She winces a little bit and her voice softens slightly. "He's okay, just scared." She glances at Wheels again, then back to me. "Still, I'm going to have to decline. DNA can be identified." She glances at him again and then nods to herself muttering something I don't quite catch.
I roll my eyes. "There were a finite number of people at Pharmedica, Miss Flame, and a large number of those were documented in one way or another. Unless you have been very creative, I now know your gender, body type, voice, skin color, and approximate age. Possibly also your eye and hair colors. And of course, the more appearances you make in the future, the more information you'll leak. Besides, I already know who Wheels is, so-"
Her eyes widen. "You peeked!"
"Didn't need to. I already had suspicions, and he let enough slip to confirm those suspicions when he helped me with the Cueballs. And let's be honest, he's not exactly subtle, is he? That's why I tried to help muddy the waters by corroborating those rumors that Peterson girl started about Wheels being female. Anyway, my point is that between what I already know about you and about Wheels, it would be pretty easy to unmask you if I actually cared. But I don't. It's your power that interests me, not your identity."
She sighs. "I told him it would be silly for me to worry so much about secrecy."
"So, is that a yes? You'll let me take a blood sample?"
She hesitates before speaking. "I, uh... no. No, I don't think..."
She's nervous now, not mad. Good. I soften my voice. "What if I let you do the prickly bits yourself? Will that be easier? You'll be in full control of the needle."
"I... yeah. Yeah, I think I can do that. Probably."
I give her a big smile. "Well then, welcome to the family, Masked Flame." I give her a sidelong look as I return to intubating Wheels. "Try not to set off my fire alarms while we work."