[attr="class","cian"]the SANDSTORM around them finally starts to die down, reducing to nothing more than a dirty breeze by the time cian hits the ground. he settles against the warm concrete, legs stretching out as he tries to catch his breath.

"you'd be dead if i listened."

he coughs, spitting soot.

"yeah you fucking owe me."

his tips backwards, falling to lay on his back. he props one arm underneath his head and the other on his chest. he coughs again, groaning.

"scale of one to ten, how fucked is your leg?"

[attr="class","noodles"]boruta maher

[attr="class","cian"]when his own adrenaline starts to die down, he spares a glance down the road, then back up it only to see people running. he tenses, logic telling him to just stay the fuck down and let the pros handle it.

but where are they?

one's injured right next to him.

"you will if you keep this up. and fuck you, too."

groaning, he pushes off the ground, forcing himself to stand up. he takes a step, doesn't stumble, and scoffs.

he points.

"you want me to just go home while they're screaming for help, bo?"

faint cries can be heard past the frenzy of fleeing people, located a few buildings down. from its pitch, they sound like a woman, age unknown.

"say yes, send them to their fucking deaths, and i'll turn around and go home right now."

[attr="class","noodles"]boruta maher

bo shook his head. he’d been minding his business, doing as told until cian had ran out of nowhere, straight for flames.

he looked down at his leg briefly, not wanting to pull at the sticking pant leg. he gave a growling sigh from his chest, through pain and the frustration of their situation. shut his eyes a moment.

“if you really want to stay and help, cian… good.” winced with a step. ”no. i’m not gonna stop you.”

”take my team. just help from a distance.” his pleading eyes tried to hold cian’s more severely a moment. ”don’t go running into burning buildings.”

CIAN MAHER

[attr="class","cian"]"i'll try my best not to."

but he knows himself well enough to not make false promises. he has never been able to sit still, after all.

always active,

always running.

hasty steps carry him across the distance, slipping through fleeing crowds before arriving at where a few others have gathered. to his surprise, none of them have any pokemon.

who the fuck doesn't have pokemon in 2021?

"tch."

bo's words echo in his head, reminding him to stand his ground.

he swaps his pokemon out, calling out his gliscor, gabite, and probopass. he reaches a hand, snatches one of probopass' small units, then hands it over to gabite.

"go in, find them, and give this to them."

gabite and gliscor charge in, starting their search and rescue mission.

[attr="class","noodles"]boruta maher

[attr="class","cian"]restless in the way he paces back and forth, cian debates running into the building multiple times. perhaps he'd be faster than his pokemon. perhaps he'd have found the screaming person by now. but commitments and responsibilities keep him rooted in place, unable to do anything but simply watch as flames envelop the building.

finally, gliscor bursts out the window and it's all the signal cian needs.

"now."

probopass floats forward, activating its MAGNET PULL, and guides its triangular unit out the window, through the flames with a woman struggling to hold on. her fingers slip and when she inevitably slides off, cian's already there to catch her.

"fuck — you're okay."

one down, many to go.

[attr="class","noodles"]boruta maher