[P2:FIRE] Exploding

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Elsa's brow furrowed as she watched the teams compete. In truth, she'd been somewhat worried throughout most of this round. Nothing had happened, and she couldn't shake this ominous feeling that something was going to go down. Priya had made her move: that tape let Elsa know that she'd been fucking with her team dynamic and working to undermine her authority. Elsa had countered by suggesting that most of her team be here, waiting and watching. She knew that Liz probably didn't approve, and she would wager that Erika wasn't thrilled either, but it had created an excellent team. Beau, Riley, and Devyn had actually taken the lead, thanks to a fair amount of teamwork and their abilities being incredibly useful for this sort of thing. Elsa alternated between watching them and keeping an eye on her other people.

She'd been paying so much attention that she noticed something... strange. Her brow furrowed as she looked but she thought... she thought she saw Elena coming out from near the mechanics of Challenge four, the one involving fire. And was that... Priya? Elsa turned to look to the closest group:

Riley, Beau, and Devyn.

Then she felt her phone buzzing. She pulled it out immediately, looking down at the message: EXPLODING OF THE FIRES IN LIBRARY MUCH FLAMES IN BURSTING PATTERNS "Fire," she repeated. "Fire!" she had to get word out, but how? She... she... maybe if she let Riley know? Her power, she could reach him, prod his mind, if he just slowed down.

Yes, the mechanical bits were definitely acting up. Elsa focused, stretching her mind out to Riley as best she could, hoping that she could manage this... somehow. She linked her mind to his as she always could, delving into his thoughts, trying to will him to somehow read her own mind:

the machine's going to explode; there's going to be a fire. Be. Ready.

[Riley Coleson]

Riley was actually a little surprised at how well the trio of him, Beau and Devyn did. They made up quite the nice team, and although Devyn (who he still wasn't convinced was actually a chick) was a little more competitive than the rest of them, but in reality, Riley didn't mind. He was having a lot of fun. These kind of things was exactly what his power was made for. He thrilled in this environment. The attention, the applause, all eyes on them...

Although the challenges were hard, the three of them managed to get by and actually do quite a nice job. How Riley managed to stay as focused, was beyond his ability to understand. But, here they were. Actually taking the lead, getting ready to move onto the fourth, and last challenge. And then Riley could feel something tugging at his mind. Almost as if he was desperately trying to remember something he'd forgotten. As if something was moving inside his brain, poking through his thoughts, and then there was a voice. No, not just a voice. Elsa's voice.

"the machine's going to explode; there's going to be a fire. Be. Ready."

Instinctively, Riley's head jerked to the side, trying to find her face among the masses of people. She wasn't on the field. How had he heard her voice? And then he realized the grave message of the words, and the blonde stopped what he was doing, halting for a brief second before shaking the weird sensation off, and made a bee line towards Beau, waving his arms, making a time out symbol with his arms.

"The machine's gonna blow!" he called out, waving his arms still, attempting to get Devyn's attention as well. "It's going to explode!"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau had worked with Devyn before, so he wasn't that surprised to find that they fared fairly well now. Slightly more surprising was that they both worked fairly well with Riley. Beau supposed that he could blame whoever put the three of them into a group together for that, be that Elsa or Roxana or Fate or who knows what. They'd actually been taking the lead, and Beau was feeling pretty darn good about that. He didn't see any reason not to let Devyn sneak on ahead, since she could definitely use a win and all.

Just as Beau was about to jog up to join Devyn at the fourth challenge though, he saw his other partner running into view. Beau could feel the reassuring strength and toughness that he picked up everytime he got close to Riley sliding over him now, and he moved closer to Riley to pick up more, especially if what he thought he heard was what he actually heard.

"Didja say that the machine's gonna blow?" Beau asked, leaning forward to hear better over the noise. "You don't mean that machine?" he waved a hand toward the machine spitting fire and, well, now sparking and looking very explodable... the same machine that Devyn happened to be bounding dangerously close to.

"Oh, hell."

[Devyn Solway]

When Devyn heard who she was put on a team with, she already knew that they were going to win the event and take home the win for Bellefonte Academy. Devyn was doing it for her school but mainly it was for the distraction and the chance to use her power without anyone watching her closely and worried about what she was going to do. She and Beau were friends, but she was still on the fence about Riley. She knew how much her friend liked that boy and she still didn't fully trust him, and there was another reason there too but she didn't think about it. She focused all of her effort actually working as a teammate with Beau and Riley, for the most part.

She did run ahead most of the time, just too excited to stand still for too long, and for the most part she was in her other form for half of the events. She was currently in her shadow beast form now as they headed towards the next area for challenge. Bounding ahead like some large shadow wolf from hell that looked like they just wanted to play. The next challenge had to deal with fire so she thought it would be best to be in a form where she had something of a shielding and the cold wrapped around her actual body. She could still feel everything in an odd indirect way but that was not what was currently on her mind.

What was on her mind was the fact that there was this machine that looked like it was about to explode or something. She figured it was supposed to be doing whatever the hell it was doing, but she could not help but to move closer to check it out. There was no saying about how curiosity killed a wolf. She did stop and turn around when she was pretty sure she head both Beau and Riley say something about something exploding. Thank you for enhanced hearing. The fur on her dire wolf sized body stood up, that familiar chill of danger crawled up her spine. She moved to run to head back towards Beau, but the blast was already going off; spewing flames, debris, and a shockwave from the explosion.

The result for Devyn was her large shadow beast form was sent flying back in the direction of Beau and Riley. Hitting the ground hard and going completely still for a moment before the shadows broke down and fell from Devyn's body. Leaving her body there, unmoving.

[Riley Coleson]

Now, Riley was torn between making a run for it and trying to get as many people out of the arena as he possibly could, or leap forward to help Devyn. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but if it stood between him and Beau, he figured it was better for him to be on the front, considering how he had the most experience with his power. "Get people out of here!" he called out to Beau, making the motions that he was going to move forward and at the very least try to get Devyn away from the flames.

Luckily, the shemale (?) seemed to have heard them talking -- or rather, yelling, and seemed to be heading back. A relieved sigh fell from Riley's lips as he turned towards the crowd, waving his arms trying to get their attention. "Everyone, get out of the arena!" Of course, the loud noise from the every growing more chaotic machine made it hard for his voice to rise above the noise, and before he knew it, the machine went completely out of control.

The sheer force of the blow was enough to make Riley stagger backwards. Covering his face with his arms, Riley fell further backwards, feeling the heat and the flames radiate from the machine. He felt himself trying to regain his balance, as his power kicked in, making sure that his body took no serious harm -- or at the very least, tried preventing it. It was in moment like these that Riley was happy Beau was a skilled enough power mimic to copy his powers without actually touching him.

Blinking, Riley lowered his hand, squinting his eyes as he looked around, his blue eyes falling upon Devyn's motionless form. "Shit!" he yelled as he ran forward.

[Beau LaRoux]

Explosions, hell, Beau hadn't signed up for this. He was tempted to make a crack along those lines, like he'd seen in so many films and what have you. He couldn't quite stop himself from chuckling a little at the pure insanity of it all. He was supposed to be just a normal college student, romancing his fiance and making music, and yet this was the second time in just under a year that he'd found himself in peril to protect otherp eople.

"Good idea, 'cept I don't reckon gettin' too far from you is gonna help!" Beau yelled. He could already feel the flames starting to warm his skin, and he wagered that only by keeping Riley's power within could he be doing as well as he did. Still, Beau did turn to yell at the crowd for a few moments, waving an arm and insisting that they could handle the situation. That struck him as the way to go: tell people to run away while heading straight toward the source of all the trouble.

Things got worse: Beau felt it too, though he had a little less distance than Riley. It still rocked him, enough that he had to pause. He too saw Devyn laying not far away. "This is jus' gettin' better an' better," he drawled, before moving forward, steadying Riley for a moment. "You reckon we can do anythin' 'bout the fire?" he asked, jerking his head. "'cuz I'm thinkin' we should be gettin' Devyn an' the others outta the fryin' pan," Beau was already taking a few steps forward, trusting on his ability to at least keep hold of Riley's. Beau focused on the other guy as hard as possible, already feeling the toughness working his skin.

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn didn't hear anything anymore, or to be accurate all she heard was a loud pitch ringing in her ears. If she had been conscious the high pitched noise alone would have caused her a lot of pain due to her ears being sensitive. In her current state however, her ears were just bleeding a little as she lay still on the ground. Everything was black, but then again when she would use her powers everything was always black for a moment until her shifting was completely.

This was different however; this darkness was one she knew of before whenever she would pass out. In this state while in complete darkness she was still half aware what was going on around her. She could hear the high pitch ringing; she could feel the cold still lingering to her body as heat came from somewhere else. She remembered being thrown back from the blast and hitting the ground hard. She was pretty sure something was broken, or perhaps out of place but could not be for sure. All she knew was that she was not waking up on her own for the moment.

[Riley Coleson]

With Beau's help, Riley found his balance. Still using his hand to cover his face from most of the flames, Riley's eyes traveled quickly over the room. "No," he shook his head. "Little for us to do here," he agreed. "We just gotta get people out and safe and hopefully the academy will send someone to deal with this shit." He didn't hesitate when moving forward, trying to make his way towards the motionless Devyn, all the while making sure he didn't stray too far from Beau; at this distance, he didn't want to even think about what would happen if the other guy stopped mimicking his powers.

Grabbing Devyn by the shoulders, Riley hoisted her up over his shoulder. "We have no time to check her out. This thing might blow again." And as such, the blonde started making his way towards the exit, trying to move as quickly as he could, while still making sure that Beau was following. This was a mess; a total and absolute mess, and he didn't want to think what might have happened hadn't Elsa warned him right in time.

His mind traveled to Elsa; he wondered if she had gotten out okay. And then Vera; he didn't even know where she was. Was she even in the arena? Had she gotten out okay? Had either of them? Furrowing his brows, Riley turned his head to look at Beau for a moment. "Did you see if.. If everyone else got out okay?"

[Beau LaRoux]

No, Beau definitely did not like staring down the flames and wondering if there was anything else he could or should be doing right now. It felt like a repeat of the SPECTRE nightmare all over again. He did wonder if he should be agreeing with Riley, that someone else should be coming forward and cleaning this mess up but.. wasn't Beau supposed to be that person? However, he knew damn well he wouldn't be of use to anyone without the right power set.

"Right, let's get people out the damn way," Beau agreed. He nodded, looking around for a few moments. He kept part of his attentions on Riley, wholly focusing on him, hoping to somehow latch onto that power. Most other people seemed to be handling themselves well, so Beau just nodded, nodded and took off to take the lead, moving stuff out of Riley's way and getting ready to potentially take any more hits.

Had everyone else gotten out? "Don't know for sure," Beau admitted, looking around. His mind immediately went to Liz, wondering if she'd be pushing forward to try to get to him. Her power would actually help with this set of circumstances. Beau chewed his lip for a moment, before hearing some not-so-distant voices yelling, yelling about some sort of collapsed entrance.

"Don't look like we're gonna get any sort of break," he said, looking over to meet Riley's eyes. He wanted to make sure that the guy was with him before he started moving forward, heading to the sound. Two super-strength users should be able to get an entrance hacked out, at the least.

[Devyn Solway]

It was getting hot, uncomfortably so. Devyn could feel herself starting to stir a little bit, not in movement but as in waking up. She didn't even get to open her eyes when she felt someone grabbing her by her shoulders and lifting her up. Pain shot through her entire body from the source of the injury of her arm. "Son of a bi-" Devyn choked out, wincing. She almost yelled but held it back as she clinched her teeth. Green eyes were open now, scanning around where she was and trying to place everything together to understand what was going on.

Right, there was an explosion and she got caught up in the blast, being still relatively close to the device when it decided to go boom. Was this? Yes, this was Riley caring her and not having bothered to check her for any injuries. Jerk. Still, it was better than being left there and risk well burning alive. That would have been less than fun. Beau was here too, she could hear his voice just barley over the ringing in her ears. All her senses were out of whack and it was causing a massive headache to develop.

She could smell the smoke, what was burning. The loud ringing was still in her ears and her eyes burned from no longer having her shades. She didn't fully catch what the two of them were saying as she just closed her eyes and tried to get a hold of her sense. With her good hand she started to clinch tightly at Riley's shirt. "Dude...so built." Devyn muttered out. It was nice to be carried around but she didn't really want to be a damsel in distress. There would be no one there when she would wake up at the infirmary so she didn't want to be babies. She just needed a bit longer to recover and then she could be useful.

[Riley Coleson]

Nodding in Beau's general direction, Riley's eyes snapped to Devyn; he couldn't help but to chuckle softly at her comment. Or his. He still wasn't sure. Following after Beau then, Riley kept Devyn hanging off of his shoulder without any problem. After all, carrying a human being was no feat for someone who could lift a car -- this was like lifting a banana and Riley was actually tempted to point that out, had it not been for the serious situation at hand, and the fear of getting clawed to pieces.

Well, the three of them had their work cut out for them, and the sooner Devyn decided to recover, the better. At least, Riley hoped she would at the very least be able to walk on her own, because from looking at things, the two boys could use as many free hands as they could possibly get.

"Man," Riley muttered, shaking his head. "Makes you wonder what caused all of this. One would think the machinery was secure enough to handle all of this..." he trailed off, shaking the thought away. It wasn't his job to think. His job was to act, and to make sure that people were safe. He was no brain and all muscles -- at least, that's what he'd been hearing for the longest time, and oddly enough, he was OK with that.

[Beau LaRoux]

Yes, this definitely wasn't a situation that Beau liked, at all. he thought he heard Devyn stirring, but there definitely wasn't enough stirring to make Beau feel all that great about that situation. Riley seemed to be in agreement, and his assessment had Beau nodding. "Yeah, heard that the Bellefontes had everythin' all set up an' all," he let out another breath, but knew they had to push forward and Beau did so, heading onward, straight toward that sound.

It looked like people had gathered around the closest entrance, only to find that fire or something else had apparently caused enough debris to gather around to block the entrance. Beau didn't need to look long before figuring that they had to do something, and he knew that it would take at least both he and Riley. A conscious and moving Devyn would help too, but they had to work with what they had.

"Devyn alright enough to sit down somewhere? 'cuz I reckon that if we work at that," he jerked his head to the rubble, "we can get it cleared an' get folks on outta here." It sounded like a plan. Then they could help with relief effort and general security: stuff they were actually trained for and able to handle.

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn was starting to feel a little bit better; well no that was actually a lie. In fact she was feeling a lot worse as they spoke and her ears were practically screaming for silence. The ringing had gone away but all her five of her senses were out of whack. She kept her eyes shut, biting back the pain and just trying to get a feel for what was messed up with her. Other than her a few of her sense and her left arm also doing its own form of screaming in pain, she felt generally okay. She could feel that she had a few scrapes on her here and there, but for the most part her shadow beast form had did its job and protected her from any serious damage.

She missed most of what the two boys were saying, but at hearing her name she already tried to get out of Riley’s hold so she could get off her shoulder. “I’ll be fine. Set me down.” Devyn muttered out, speaking quietly due to her ears still bothering her. She even kept her eyes closed but she didn’t really need to worry about her current condition when she could still use her power. It was like getting a new body on top of armor so she didn’t really see the point in them worrying about her at all. There were others that they needed to help, and that Devyn had to help to.

For a moment she wondered if the people she cared about were okay. She even debated for a moment if she should go off to find and check in on all of them, but had a feeling that would do any good. "If I just go running off. Don't chase me, I'm moving away for a reason." Devyn pointed out. She knew that she still ran the risk of losing control over herself by a certain point because she was still not yet stable. She didn't want to hurt them. By now she expected to be set down and once she felt her feet touch the ground she would start pulling shadows to her in order for them to comply cover her. Her form would change then, going as large as she was capable, and getting ready to help out. She could still lift things up, clear the area, and even move people if she had to.