Volume 4: Metaphase

Issue 12: Inferno

Jannette Adrian Churchwell

By Nova

The Dynamobile screeched to a stop about a block away from the fire. Even from here though, we could see that it was bad. By the looks of it, an apartment building had gone up in flames and—even though several fire trucks had arrived and gotten to work hosing it down—the inferno looked no closer to stopping. Firefighters scrambled around in front of it, going in and out, trying their best to save people and extinguish the fire.

I stared at it, shocked. It was one of the worst fires I had ever seen; the building belched flame and smoke on a scale I could barely comprehend. It looked nowhere close to being contained. The roofs of the nearby buildings were already alight, and if I had to guess the whole street would be burning in minutes. The firefighters would not be able to divide their attention between search and rescue and containing the flames. “We have to go in, help pull people out of there,” I told the others.

I reached for the door handle, expecting everyone to be getting ready to move, when I noticed the others were shifting awkwardly. They kept their eyes locked on Renard, who himself was staring intently at the fire. “What are you guys waiting for, come on, let’s go!” I shouted.

Earthstrike shifted, avoiding my gaze. “Y-yeah, let’s just, uh, hear what ‘Nard has to say first?”

“Huh?” I asked. I turned to Renard, “What’re they talking about?”

“Shush,” Renard said.

“Renard’s… running the numbers,” Reef said.

“Oh, like putting a strategy together?” I asked. That made sense; Renard’s powers could help us formulate a more effective search-and-rescue plan.

“No…” Renard finally said, looking away from the blaze and back to us. His voice was… tired. “No… we are not going in there.”

No one said anything. “What?” I said, after a few moments of dead silence. I chuckled awkwardly, “Y-you’re joking, right?”

“No,” Renard said.

“What? Y-you can’t be serious!”

Renard sighed. “Based on the amount of civilians being tended to outside, the size of the building, and the hour of the evening, I estimate a minimum of twelve people trapped indo-”

“That sounds like a really good reason to go in!” I shouted.

“But due to the intensity of the flames, the insufficient number of firefighters present, and the current levels of oxygen likely inside the building… We would likely only save four to six people in the time those trapped have left.” Renard looked away from me.

“Then we should move now to save as many of them as possible!” I almost screamed the last few words.

Renard didn’t say anything. I looked to the others—none of them would meet my eye. “What the fuck guys, come on, let’s go!” None of them were moving, why weren’t they moving?

Cytherea was the one who broke their silence with a deep sigh. “Stitch…” she said, “you know which headline plays worse in the media?”

“What the fuck are you talkin-”

Cytheria interrupted me. “‘Tragic fire kills twelve last night,’ or ‘Dynacrew fails to save eight people in late night fire.’ Which one makes us look worse?’”

I stared at her, dumbfounded. “Are you seriously comparing a bad news headline to letting people die in a horrible fire? We can help them!”

“Can we? We save a few, maybe, but our powers aren’t built for this. Even you’ll have issues with the heat,” Cytherea said, her voice cold.

“We can still save a few! That’s a few lives you’re talking about!”

“Stitch! You need to think about the bigger picture here… remember Earthstrike’s VIRC?”

“W-wha-”

“We need to recenter the hero on the villain! We’re not about saving people from burning buildings or car wrecks or whatever… We’re about stopping villains, that’s why we’re here!” She was shouting now.

“And how does saving a few people now change that?” I shouted back.

“Because, if we’re going to do this thing, Dynacrew, without letting the corps or the government dig their hands into us… We need every good headline we can get!”

I gaped at her. “T-this is about fundraising?”

“We’re not Starlight, or the Titans, or whatever! They have their kickbacks and investors and sponsorships… All of this is only possible thanks to donations! We can’t have a bad news day!” Cytherea finally sighed and looked away from me. “We just can’t.”

I looked to the others. “Come on, not all of you believe this shit… right?” I asked. “Please?” I quietly added.

Renard didn’t say anything, and just turned away. “I-I’m sorry, Stitch, but this is the best way… the only way we can move forward,” Reef said, not meeting my eye.

“It does suck, it’s fucking stupid,” Earthstrike interjected. “B-but the bullshit… I mean, that’s how we roll. We can’t roll over for the corps or become a government lapdog like Starlight… right?” He looked away. “P-please, just understand that this hurts us too…”

I slumped back into my seat. “Car, route us back to HQ,” Renard muttered.

“What! Belay that, or ignore it, or just fucking stop car!” I shouted. Everyone turned to look at me as the Dynamobile jerked to a halt. “I’m not gonna let those people die! I’m going in, and anyone who wants to help can come!” I tried the door—it was locked.

No one moved. Cytherea shifted slightly, “You can’t go, Stitch. There’s pictures of you with us tonight. If you go in it’ll look bad for all of us.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I glared at her. “I don’t give a shit.”

“I can’t le-”

“Let me out, now,” I said. In an instant, I felt my power rush through me, through them. I felt their hearts racing, their muscles twinging, their neurons firing. The enclosed space of the car meant my power basically reached all of them right now… I could take them out in an instant if I wanted to.

“Let. Me. Go.” With each word I sent a wave of pain pulsing through their body, something I had never done before…

Until I hit Ramirez with it earlier today.

Dynacrew flinched at each pulse, and with a desperate gasp Cytherea said, “Unlock.” I tugged at the handle and the Dynamobile’s door flew open. I scrambled out of the car, the roar of the fire instantly audible as I put my feet on the pavement. I could smell the acrid smell of smoke in the air, so thick I felt like it was choking me.

Dynacrew gasped for breath behind me. “I-I see y-you learned something from Seraph,” Cytherea spat at me.

I didn’t turn to look at her. “No,” I said. “That one was all me.”

Without saying anything else, I rushed toward the blaze. I heard the slamming of the door behind me, and with a screech the Dynamobile fled into the night.

The firefighters scrambled around the flames, silhouetted against the blaze. In the chaos, it was hard to find someone in charge. Scores hugged hoses, unleashing torrents of water into the inferno. Others were spraying down the buildings around the fire, maybe to keep it from spreading? I didn’t see many going into the blaze, and the few that were did so at the edges, where the fire was weakest.

Was Renard right? Was this a lost cause if even the firefighters were steering clear of the heart of the inferno?

No. Even if it was hopeless, I still had to try. Even one life I could save would be worth it in the end.

I finally found the fire chief standing near a red SUV. She wore a heavy coat, and ash coated her face. If it wasn’t for the gold badge on her helmet, I honestly wouldn’t have taken her for the leader, and I only noticed her thanks to the constant stream of people coming to deliver her news, and the orders she barked into a radio.

I pushed through the crowd to get to her. Most people didn’t pay me any mind, and the few who shot me glares stopped after a moment, their eyes widening in recognition. They cleared a path for me to reach the chief, who didn’t seem to quite notice me as I approached. “Doc?” she said, barely giving me any attention as she toyed with some dials on her radio. “I don’t know what you’re doin here, but shouldn’t you be with the EM-” She stopped, her eyes suddenly widening as she eyed my hair. “A shit, Stitch is it?” she said. “Fucking finally, I was beginning to think you heroes were a ‘no-show’ tonight.”

“J-just show me where I can help,” I said.

The chief nodded. “Alright,” she said, pointing toward a cluster of ambulances and paramedics. “Look, we got twenty people with acute smoke inhalation, and a shit ton of civvies and my guys with burns.” She cast her gaze back toward the fire.

“O-okay,” I said. “Just tell me-”

“But…” she said carefully, like she was stepping on ice. “I don’t think anyone’s in critical condition, we got most everyone out of the building quickly enough…”

“Are there people still trapped?” I asked. I suppose Renard had already told me there probably were, but the chief would know for sure.

She nodded. “You bet. Seven confirmed, based on what the residents say, maybe more. This was ‘cause some idiot started a grease fire, everything went up so quick a few people were trapped while they were trying to evacuate.”

“Where?” I asked.

“The structure’s got a central atrium-staircase-thing. Just follow the hall straight from those doors and take the first right,” she said. “Fire’s too intense for my boys to get through, not without almost certain death for them and the guys they’re trying to get out. But we know that there’s a few civvies still there, trapped in a little pocket of oxygen I think.” The chief looked at me. “I don’t know you or your… powers too well, but I know you can heal people and yourself. Pretty quickly, right?”

I nodded.

“Go in, grab someone, and heal them and yourself while you get out.” She looked me up and down, a calculating look on her face. She was clearly trying to judge my strength. “And do it as many times as you can.”

I steeled myself. “I can do that,” I said.

“Then let’s not waste time, go!” the chief shouted. I nodded and bolted toward the entrance. The heat signed me before I had even reached the building, and as I neared the inferno it only got worse. The doors had been removed by the firefighters, and wind rushed around me as smoke poured out and fresh oxygen rushed in to fuel the flames.

Inside was Hell.

A veritable wall of fire blocked the hallway, roaring louder than I thought fire could. The heat was painful; I could feel my eyebrows beginning to burn away even as I stood more than twenty feet away. I stopped for a second, gulped, then charged through.

I had never felt more pain in my life than I had in that moment. I was no stranger to fire but this… This was something else. The few building fires I had gone into before were hot, but I had never seen flames burning this intently. My hair burned, skin sloughed off, and my costume was instantly blackened with soot. It took my entire strength not to stop and scream, but to instead push forward. I managed to push through the wall of fire, into the superheated hallway—which was only marginally better. Constantly regenerating nerves screamed in pain at the unbearable heat, while skin and hair regrew only to alight an instant later. I stumbled forward, coughing violently as smoke filled my lungs and my powers desperately worked to keep me in one piece—too preoccupied to even give me a steady stream of endorphins for the pain.

I took the first right I saw and—after around a hundred feet of stumbling, half-blind, through the inferno—I could see the stairwell the chief mentioned. I managed to make it there, calling out feebly to anyone who could hear me. I tried again, my voice catching on my throat as I choked on smoke. It was so hard to breathe, and my powers were being pushed to the limit to repair my soot-filled lungs, but I called out one more time.

No one responded.

I nearly collapsed at the foot of the stairs. Was I too late? Everyone really was dead?

Was Dynacrew right?

It was then I noticed the foot, sticking out from the upstairs landing. It was so badly burnt I took it for a corpse’s foot… until it twitched.

“H-hey!” I coughed, filled with new energy. I rushed up the stairs, and saw a man so badly burnt his skin had the texture of charcoal. “H-hold on!” I reached out to him and got to work healing the worst of his injuries… and pumping him full of endorphins to numb the pain. In a few moments, his skin rippled back to a healthier texture, still not entirely healed, but he’d live another day at least.

If I could get him out, of course.

I lifted him onto my shoulders, my muscles screaming in protest even as my powers kept them from giving out entirely. With one shaky step after another, I descended the stairs.

But with each step closer to the fire, my coughing fits grew more violent. He coughed too, and my powers went into overdrive keeping us both alive and breathing. But as I gasped for breath, I realized too late there was something even my power couldn’t provide.

Oxygen.

The fire had sucked it all out of this room, and we were too far from the entrance to catch the stream of outside air. My power could do a lot—and could even grab oxygen from the air touching my skin if my mouth was covered—but as smoke crowded me, it was powerless. I stumbled, collapsing to the ground with the man on my shoulders falling beside me. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, gasping for air that wasn’t there. I must have been doing the same—choking on nothing but smoke and embers—as the heat and flame closed in on us, my powers no longer regenerating the damage it was doing.

My vision faded. Then, I heard it; a sudden series of crashes, like something was smashing through the building from the roof. A dark shape struck the ground around thirty feet ahead of me, near the wall of fire that blocked the entrance. I gaped at it as the shape stood up, the silhouette resolving into something familiar as the long, thin shape of a spear became visible and flames reflected off her glossy, black helmet.

Ripple.

She tapped the ground with her spear, and an almost imperceptible pattern of waves rippled through the hallway. Wherever they touched, the flames grew weaker and weaker, the room cooler and cooler. Within a few seconds the entire hallway was almost devoid of fire—only the slightest of embers continuing to burn. Fresh air rushed in behind her, and with a hacking series of breaths, I breathed again.

Ripple now rushed toward me, her mouth moving but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I struggled to my feet, and—even as my powers repaired muscle and skin—my legs gave out from under me. The last thing I saw before darkness overtook me was Ripple silently screaming overhead.