"Hey boys," Kimona called out. "Are you joining us for girly gossiping later?" She had arrived with Terri to The Power of Three's Vegas home for a post honeymoon debrief with Mindy, who was hosting.

Holt and Blane were laid out in their bathing shorts soaking up the hot sunshine.

Unmoved by Kimona's greeting, Blane responded bluntly. "Hi. No way."

"Owhhh, are you sure? We'd love you to join us!" Terri said joining in.

"Nope." Blane called back just as abruptly.

"Well it's such lovely weather, we might come and sit near you. I hope you won't mind," Kimona said playfully.

And with that threat of the girls imposing themselves upon their quiet sunbathing time, both Blane and Holt got up.

"Do what you like, we'll go somewhere else," Holt said. "I like you all, but not enough to endure listening to you chat on and on."

"Yeah," Blane echoed as they walked towards the house where the girls were stood. "Hi Terri, I hope you had a good honeymoon though," he said as he walked past her.

"Yes, thanks Blane. See you both later."

The brothers walked down the corridor to where their bedrooms were with the sound of laughter coming from the garden.

"So, what are we actually going to do instead then?" Blane asked.

"Um, I don't know. We can just go anywhere we want."

"I know, but we never actually do that, do we?"

Holt looked at his brother thoughtfully. "You're right, we don't, do we? I don't think we've been anywhere other than America, or somewhere in space."

"You've been to the North Pole, don't forget."

"And London that one time!"

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that one," Blane admitted.

"So do you want to fly to somewhere for a proper visit? Japan? France? Mexico? Ooh! I'd love to eat Mexican food from Mexico," Holt asked hopefully.

"Naaah, let's not start today. Mindy will be pissed if we went without her," Blane quickly said. A mischievous grin then spread across his face. "I know! I think we should get a dog."

Holt blinked rapidly as he bewilderedly wondered where that suggestion came from. "A dog?" he repeated.

"Yeah, let's go to a pound and see if there are any dogs we can take."

Holt shook his head, not quite believing what he was hearing. "Riiight, well let's agree to go. because the only alternative is listen to the girls talk and talk and talk, but let's also agree to not get one until we've spoken to Mindy."

"Deal," Blane said. "Let's get dressed and meet in ten?"

***

"We're not going to every dog shelter in Nevada, are we?" Holt asked as they left their third one. "We're just going to fall in love with more and more dogs and it's going to be hard to choose one."

"We could get one each?" Blane suggested walking into the lot. "Then we can get three."

"But already I've seen two that I really like," Holt groaned. The pair ascended gradually into the skies so that they could still talk casually. A few bemused members of the public looked up but carried on their way.

"I'm just thinking the girls will still be there so we don't want to go home just yet," reasoned Blane, his eyes twinkling.

"Ok, fine. Let's do a couple more shelters."

They flew off in the direction of the next, but from their height overhead, a very troubling sight caught their eyes. Instinctively they banked down towards the burning building with the dark black cloud of smoke trailing out from it.

"The smoke hasn't billowed out too far, it's not long started!" Blane guessed, shouting out over the noise they made cutting through the air.

True enough, the fire department hadn't even turned up and people were screaming and crying out in the street outside. The brothers landed abruptly on the road, much to the surprise, shock and relief of those who had managed to evacuate.

The four storey apartment complex was on a quiet residential street in the suburbs of Las Vegas, and the fire looked to be on the third, fourth and roof space of the building.

"How many are still inside?" Holt asked, instantly taking command of the chaos.

"I don't know!", "Maybe six!" and "My record collection's in there!" were all things that were being shouted out at them.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Strike has already gone in!" a fraught looking woman said urgently. Being Vegas residents, the triplets had become familiar with the have-a-go vigilantes that operated around the city and it's suburbs. Strike was one of them, able to run and jump into a roll that made him look like a bright pink human bowling ball being rolled down a bowling lane, giving him the moniker of 'Strike'.

"Go!" Blane shouted to the evacuees, pointing to the safety of the street, as they ran towards the building themselves.

The brothers managed to make it to the second storey where the conditions were a lot worse. Neither of the brothers were affected by the heat of the fire but the thick smoke made it difficult to see through.

Holt stepped on something squishy. Luckily the bright neon pink outfit Strike wore still stood out through the smoke. He picked him up and flew him out back down the stairs and laid him on the road, before flying back in. In the background, sirens could be heard approaching.

Re-joining his brother in the building, they pushed on with checking the apartments, easily barging through the front doors to see if anyone was still in there.

Upstairs, was a different story. There were two more to check. The boys barged into the first apartment. The smoke was heavy and the floors creaking below them as the fire licked along the ceiling and on what looked like every textile.

"Oh crap, Holt," Blane shouted out. Sprawled out on the floor, as if they were crawling to the door, were the bodies of a mother and a small child, burnt and charred. Next to them lay their pet dog.

"It's too late for them," Holt said grabbing Blane's arm. "Let's check the last apartment!"

"No, you go. I'll look after these!" Holt nodded and left Blane stood, physically unaffected, in the inferno.

Blane walked to the external wall of the apartment, placing his hands on them. With a little will, he managed to create a hole the sized of double French doors, sending the rubble and brick down onto the ground below. He went back to the family and picked the small child up, placing her over his shoulder. He put the dog under his arm and then with his free arm, picked up the mom and flew them out of the hole onto the road, which was now filled with fire trucks, personnel and unravelling hose pipes.

A small team of fire fighters ran over to take the bodies from him. Blane shook his head to indicate that they were dead and they nodded in a sad acknowledgement.

"Just someone go in and get my records, please! Oi space guy!" Blane could hear being shouted from the cordon, filling him with rage. He stormed over and identified the materialistic man desperate for his records. When he saw Blane wasn't doing anything, he called out to him again. "Oi, hey you, Space Guy! My apartment's number two. Can you just go and get my record collection? They're worth a lot of money to me!"

Blane went for him, grabbing him by his arm. "Are you serious? You're whining over records?" Blane pulled him along, taking him to where the mother and daughter he had just pulled out lay in their body bags. "I just pulled these out, dead, and all you can worry about is your records. I'm not even sure what records are but I get the sense that they are not the same as human lives which are worth more than money!"

Holt descended and stood between Blane, the record collection guy and the body bags on the floor. "Blane, don't do this. Leave it. Let him go back behind the line of tape."

"I'm sorry that they're dead, but-" the man tried to say.

"Shut up," snapped Holt. "Or I will let my brother show you the real cost of the fire." The man hurried off. "Let's get out of here, brother. There's nothing more we can do here."

"Holt, that sucked hard. That poor kid... The mom who couldn't save her. And the little doggy too. There was nothing they could do. Nothing we could do."

"I know, it wasn't pleasant at all. You ok?"

"I don't know. I just don't like dead kids. I prefer them running around, happy and getting to grow up." Holt nodded in agreement.

For a few minutes the two didn't say anything, then Blane broke the silence. "You know what might cheer me up though?" he said, a wry smile creeping across his face.

"We're not getting a dog now. I said we need to speak to Mind first."

"Oh, but I'm just going to be sad all day now," Blane teased, sticking his bottom lip out.

"I'll get you some ice cream instead?" Holt offered as they flew off into the sky.

"Ok, I will accept the ice cream," Blane agreed.