As it turned out, Ariel could not carry Dr. Warts. She had the thrust and lift necessary, but she lacked the strength to support his weight. Instead, she risked bringing down the building around them as she blasted her way through the side of the building, pulling Dr. Warts along. He was fortunate enough not to have sustained serious injury from having part of the roof cave in on him. Once she got him to the EMT who had been patiently waiting on her to come out of the fire, she had raced back into the building and saw no one else alive. But something had been troubling her and she asked Dr. Warts about it.
"What did you mean when you said that this was all your fault?"
Dr. Wartz was pale and laying on a gurney, his mouth covered with a respirator. Ariel could hear sirens approaching. Apparently this event was important enough to send additional help. She didn't have much time.
"N-nothing," Dr. Warts wheezed. "It was just that I had left the front doors unlocked and we were working late."
Ariel didn't believe him. But he was pushed into the ambulance along with nurse or lab tech or whatever. As the door closed, Ariel's fire wings sprouted and she jumped into the sky just as a couple of police cars rounded the corner followed closely by a pair of fire trucks. She hadn't seen a fire truck in the area in years, not since the St. James Building caught fire when she was 11 years old.
She raced into the night sky as fast as she dared, taking a deliberately circuitous route to double back to the night club to fetch her clothing.
After landing on the far end of the alley across from the Electric Cowboy, Ariel made her way cautiously towards the street.
The flashing red and blue lights of Advent City's police department let her know that she wouldn't be getting her clothes back. They appeared to be waiting on her and taking witness statements. Backtracking down the alley, Ariel launched into the sky and headed towards home.
She was really going to miss that pea coat.
(( I'm going to take a break here and wait for everyone to catch up. This is how I see things playing out. Ariel stumbled onto a provider for some of the medical stuff the BIG BAD needs. Maybe Dr. Warts changed his mind about the supplies or whatever else. I also have an alternative track involving the theft of a medical transporter, an unusual thing to have on that side of town.
I would like to have Ariel somehow blamed for the fire or at least wanted for questioning. I would like for her very public debut to be the kind of thing to attract the attention of the Reciprocators, if possible. I'm going to post a side story - a news blurb (like I used to make on Formspring) that details how the media views Ariel Ablaze.
Lemme know if this is workable. I'm not married to any of it ))