Many are called, few will answer.....
July 17th, 2013
Dear Father,
I was continuing my research on Sinister's hostile take-overs, today, Father, when Hal notified me that there was a serious building fire downtown. I needed a break from the research, but this is not the kinda break I would be actively seeking. I got down to the scene in under a minute and assessed the building set up. The one on fire was 80 stories high with fire starting around 60. The closest building was a 30 story so there was no way for me to get up there on my own.
I approached the fire captain in charge of this situation and asked him for assistance (i.e. a ride on one of his helicopters to get to the top of the building). He looked at me, shook his head and told me that there was no way in hell he was going to risk one of his pilots to get me up there.
Looking past him, I saw a number of news vans and decided that the odds were in my favor to get a ride up there if I found a cub reporter over there who needed the BIG story to make a name for himself. And on first try I found the right reporter, Bobby Lane. He jumped at the chance and convinced Ace Markinson to pick us up and fly us to the roof. I told Ace to just get me close to the roof, I can jump. Ace got me there, but the stress of the heat winds made the trip.... rough.
The moment I landed on the roof, I ran for the only door visible. As I approached the door, which was open, three things hit me at once. First, that door being open is creating a fan for the fire, sucking a lot of air through a very small opening. Second, the company that built this building put a lot of people's lives at risk by being cheap enough to have only one emergency staircase. That is very dangerous in a building this large, to say the least. And third, the fact that the door was open and creating the air tunnel is not a random happening. Someone had to prop the door open. That is when I noticed movement out of the side of my eyes. I looked to identify the motion and saw PoleCat thumb his nose at me and jump off the side of the building. I know he can't fly, and that the jump he just made was LONG (about 2000 feet to the ground), but the shape of the bulge in his back told me he was cliff jumping and the parachute will get him down safe. While I was tempted to jump after him, the lives of the innocents kept me focused. I called Hal and told him to contact the police and inform them that PoleCat should be sought for questioning about the fire because he is, at this moment, fleeing from the scene.
I shut the door (to remove one source of oxygen feeding the fire) and started down the stairs. My first thought was to see if the staircase was closed and usable as an escape rout for the victims. When I got to about the 62nd floor, I could see that flames had taken over this exit rout. I moved up a floor and broke open the fire hose. It was an idea that looked great on paper, but there was one massive problem -- there was no water in the system. So I had to ditch that idea and start herding the people up to the roof. I found some smaller fire extinguishers and handed them out to some of the bigger guys with instructions to take position at the end of the lines heading for the roof and use the extinguishers to hold back flames from the rest of the line. I found out later that the men actually used the extinguishers more to put out combusting clothing on the other people than on the flames leaping up the stairs.
When I finally got everyone up to the top I saw that the KABC-TV helicopter was still hovering over the building and I tried to wave them away. Bobby tossed me a walkie-talkie. I talked to him and he insisted that I let him pick up victims. None of the choppers from the fire department were approaching, so I had to let him toss down a rope. He was only getting 4 or 5 at a time, so I started searching through the cb channels on the walkie to contact the pilots of the other choppers. The right channel was easy to find. I just had to listen for screaming people. The pilots were yelling at the director, asking for permission to approach the building to pick up the people on the roof, and the director (who sounded like a 22 year old on his first day at work) was screaming back "NO... NO ONE WILL APPROACH THE BUILDING."
I broke in to the conversation and said, "Look. You guys can argue this all you want, but as of now these people have maybe 45 minutes to live. Pilots, ignore the director and get your machines over here. NOW." As I finished the statement, I saw Ace fly in for his fourth pick-up and a sudden burst of heat took over control of the flight and smashed the chopper into the roof. It was a hard landing but the real damage came when the wings broke off because of the impact and flew down into the roof, creating large open gashes which were wind tunnels that were sucking the flames higher and faster. I clicked on the walkie-talkie and said, "Make that 15 minutes to live."
A few of the pilots broke rank and flew for the roof. The first pilot to approach was the marine who was the loudest in the conversation with the director. Unfortunately, a wind caught his tail and bounced it off the building. He was able to pull away, but the damage to the tail blades were enough to make a safe approach impossible. The choppers behind him took pause, but I got back on the line and said to the next pilot in line, "SOLDIER... We have people to save here. Get moving." The helicopters were able to weed the number of victims left on the roof to 30 but the flames were starting to come up through the holes opened by the chopper blades and the choppers could no longer approach. I chose at that moment that I was going to have to do something drastic. I told everyone who could to grab a hold of me cause I was going to jump. I went feral and prepared to leap. The appearance I took on actually scared some people away from me and closer to the fire. I called to them the only way I could... with the international finger statement, "Come here...."
Before I could get all the people to come to me, two beings appeared on the roof. I had no idea who they were, but could understand all they have to say. They were very logic oriented creatures who calmly discussed the fact that they had been called to this place for a reason, and they guessed it was to save these sentient beings. I would have helped them understand the situation, but in feral form, speech is not an option. Eventually, they figured out what they wanted to do and they did, in fact, stop the fire. With the flames gone and the wind calmer, the choppers could get the rest of the victims. I shook the hands of the beings which saved us and then went down into the building so do a scan for the smell of accelerants. Nothing was found. The early findings by the Fire Department say that the fire was caused by electronic sparks... frayed wires. I am sure that PoleCat was the person who frayed those wires, but that will be difficult to prove.
Love,
James
Dear Father,
I was continuing my research on Sinister's hostile take-overs, today, Father, when Hal notified me that there was a serious building fire downtown. I needed a break from the research, but this is not the kinda break I would be actively seeking. I got down to the scene in under a minute and assessed the building set up. The one on fire was 80 stories high with fire starting around 60. The closest building was a 30 story so there was no way for me to get up there on my own.
I approached the fire captain in charge of this situation and asked him for assistance (i.e. a ride on one of his helicopters to get to the top of the building). He looked at me, shook his head and told me that there was no way in hell he was going to risk one of his pilots to get me up there.
Looking past him, I saw a number of news vans and decided that the odds were in my favor to get a ride up there if I found a cub reporter over there who needed the BIG story to make a name for himself. And on first try I found the right reporter, Bobby Lane. He jumped at the chance and convinced Ace Markinson to pick us up and fly us to the roof. I told Ace to just get me close to the roof, I can jump. Ace got me there, but the stress of the heat winds made the trip.... rough.
The moment I landed on the roof, I ran for the only door visible. As I approached the door, which was open, three things hit me at once. First, that door being open is creating a fan for the fire, sucking a lot of air through a very small opening. Second, the company that built this building put a lot of people's lives at risk by being cheap enough to have only one emergency staircase. That is very dangerous in a building this large, to say the least. And third, the fact that the door was open and creating the air tunnel is not a random happening. Someone had to prop the door open. That is when I noticed movement out of the side of my eyes. I looked to identify the motion and saw PoleCat thumb his nose at me and jump off the side of the building. I know he can't fly, and that the jump he just made was LONG (about 2000 feet to the ground), but the shape of the bulge in his back told me he was cliff jumping and the parachute will get him down safe. While I was tempted to jump after him, the lives of the innocents kept me focused. I called Hal and told him to contact the police and inform them that PoleCat should be sought for questioning about the fire because he is, at this moment, fleeing from the scene.
I shut the door (to remove one source of oxygen feeding the fire) and started down the stairs. My first thought was to see if the staircase was closed and usable as an escape rout for the victims. When I got to about the 62nd floor, I could see that flames had taken over this exit rout. I moved up a floor and broke open the fire hose. It was an idea that looked great on paper, but there was one massive problem -- there was no water in the system. So I had to ditch that idea and start herding the people up to the roof. I found some smaller fire extinguishers and handed them out to some of the bigger guys with instructions to take position at the end of the lines heading for the roof and use the extinguishers to hold back flames from the rest of the line. I found out later that the men actually used the extinguishers more to put out combusting clothing on the other people than on the flames leaping up the stairs.
When I finally got everyone up to the top I saw that the KABC-TV helicopter was still hovering over the building and I tried to wave them away. Bobby tossed me a walkie-talkie. I talked to him and he insisted that I let him pick up victims. None of the choppers from the fire department were approaching, so I had to let him toss down a rope. He was only getting 4 or 5 at a time, so I started searching through the cb channels on the walkie to contact the pilots of the other choppers. The right channel was easy to find. I just had to listen for screaming people. The pilots were yelling at the director, asking for permission to approach the building to pick up the people on the roof, and the director (who sounded like a 22 year old on his first day at work) was screaming back "NO... NO ONE WILL APPROACH THE BUILDING."
I broke in to the conversation and said, "Look. You guys can argue this all you want, but as of now these people have maybe 45 minutes to live. Pilots, ignore the director and get your machines over here. NOW." As I finished the statement, I saw Ace fly in for his fourth pick-up and a sudden burst of heat took over control of the flight and smashed the chopper into the roof. It was a hard landing but the real damage came when the wings broke off because of the impact and flew down into the roof, creating large open gashes which were wind tunnels that were sucking the flames higher and faster. I clicked on the walkie-talkie and said, "Make that 15 minutes to live."
A few of the pilots broke rank and flew for the roof. The first pilot to approach was the marine who was the loudest in the conversation with the director. Unfortunately, a wind caught his tail and bounced it off the building. He was able to pull away, but the damage to the tail blades were enough to make a safe approach impossible. The choppers behind him took pause, but I got back on the line and said to the next pilot in line, "SOLDIER... We have people to save here. Get moving." The helicopters were able to weed the number of victims left on the roof to 30 but the flames were starting to come up through the holes opened by the chopper blades and the choppers could no longer approach. I chose at that moment that I was going to have to do something drastic. I told everyone who could to grab a hold of me cause I was going to jump. I went feral and prepared to leap. The appearance I took on actually scared some people away from me and closer to the fire. I called to them the only way I could... with the international finger statement, "Come here...."
Before I could get all the people to come to me, two beings appeared on the roof. I had no idea who they were, but could understand all they have to say. They were very logic oriented creatures who calmly discussed the fact that they had been called to this place for a reason, and they guessed it was to save these sentient beings. I would have helped them understand the situation, but in feral form, speech is not an option. Eventually, they figured out what they wanted to do and they did, in fact, stop the fire. With the flames gone and the wind calmer, the choppers could get the rest of the victims. I shook the hands of the beings which saved us and then went down into the building so do a scan for the smell of accelerants. Nothing was found. The early findings by the Fire Department say that the fire was caused by electronic sparks... frayed wires. I am sure that PoleCat was the person who frayed those wires, but that will be difficult to prove.
Love,
James
posted by GreyWolf at 11:10 AM
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