In that moment instinct took over, but they weren't the instincts I had hoped for.
Be it the screams or the nauseating smell of smoke, something pulled me to the source of the explosion. Vanir flashed into existence at my side and I appeared atop a nearby building, across it was a hotel going up in blazes.
Every fiber in my body begged for me to run, to leave it be. It was none of my business, I shouldn't get involved. But my soul knew that wasn't going to happen.
It something I couldn't help, a warped sense of justice breed by my own trauma.
...
WELLAN DEGENARUS
"What a drag." Fulus danced between my fingers, the three lines on it's back constantly flashing before my eyes. It was a Tier III Nexi, something akin to a nuclear warhead and I had six. Still, I was forced to obey, made a dog to Goulien, Leto, the whole lot.
The price for power.
"Elena! I assume I don't have to tell you what to do?" The shadow behind me rose and took the form of a beautifully stoic woman. Her features were sharp, her hair onyx, and in her eyes swirled a hurricane of malice. I had quickly gotten used to her features, but I could never get used to her strange way of dressing.
Despite being in her early twenties, she dressed in old Victorian clothing.
Elena grace, kneeling, gave a nod before disappearing.
...
DENZEL NIGHTINGALE
It was a hellscape...
Had I arrived minutes later, the building would've collapsed in on itself. The fire was spreading unnaturally quickly and it burned unreasonably hot, melting through steel beams like butter.
[The kids.]
I quickly made a list of priorities in my mind before teleporting to the floor beneath me, the one I was on had already been claimed by the inferno.
Going from floor to floor, I managed to find a few people who hadn't been burned in the fire. I used Vanir to evacuate them and bit my lip to the point of blood in an effort to suppress the pain from my still healing leg.
"STAY CALM!" I yelled to the scattering crowd while teleporting into the heart of a fire to get a pregnant woman.
A handful of people saw what I was doing and made efforts to calm the people around them, things would only get worse if they panicked.
But no matter how fast I moved, how hard I ignored the searing pain in my skull from pushing Vanir to it's limits, I couldn't move fast enough. Flames kissing my skin many times as I dove into fire after fire and debris cut my skin as I shielded a group of children from falling rocks. Vanir's teleporting was fast but not instantaneous.
It was too much, my body was already on the brink of collapse yet I had only made it half way through the hotel.
[It's fine, I'll collapse. I'd rather die here than run away, I won't be like them.] My thoughts spiralled as I kept pushing, blood trickling down from my nose and lip.
[I won't.]
[I won't.]
[I won't.]
[Not even if it cost me this life of mine, I refuse to be like those bastards!]
Two silhouettes blocked my vision, their silhouette. One was that of a large and tough looking man while the other was a woman that made one think of the word 'model'.
[They're not here.]
[They're not here.]
[I'm seeing things.]
"You seem distressed, why is that?"
I looked up to see a woman I was unfamiliar with. She offered me a less than comforting smile that clashed harshly with her unchanging, cold eyes.
She was beautiful, but that wasn't what caught my attention. She dressed strangely, like an old person, a Victorian noble, and a history nerd shoved into one person and her eyes didn't seem real. She gave off the feeling of half-death.
She didn't quite seem alive but I couldn't describe her as dead either, like a doll that had been given life.
[That's not what's important right now! The...fire?]
I looked around at the scorched yet clearly not on fire room around me.
"How?"
She gave the same less than comforting smile before introducing herself.
"I'm sorry you had to get involved, I'm Elena Grace. A Thorns agent."
There was the catch.
Before she could continue, Vanir flashed into existence at my side.
I was truly grateful for her help but freedom came above gratitude in my list of priorities.
My body appeared in a random alley I had visited earlier and collapsed against a wall.
[...]
[Why did I freak out like that?]
Once my heart rate had settled, my thoughts returned to the incident from a few moments ago. When I saw that I couldn't save everyone, that I might have to abandon those who needed me, I freaked out and went to a dark place.
I thought I had left those two in my past.
[Guess Dan was right, trauma's a b**ch.]
Vanir flashed by my side one more time and I disappeared.