7586/Burning Down Midtown

Burning Down Midtown
Date of Scene:	22 May 2019
Location:	Lower Manhattan, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Sibil, Cody and Adam save office workers from a building fire. The Punisher plays save a life, take a life.
Cast of Characters:	Blue Marvel, Punisher, Sibilance, Nemean

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Blue Marvel has posed:
Manhattan is muggy and partly overcast. The radio says its 73 degrees outside, but it feels hotter than that. The sidewalks in Midtown Manhattan are bustling and traffic is crawling. The air is filled with the usual honks, engine noises, sirens and shouts of daily life. Food carts and trucks are being mobbed as people slip out of their buildings for lunch or grab something quick on the go between appointments. The taco truck at West 37th and 7th is doing a roaring business.

Adam walks along with the flow of bodies heading north up 7th. He wears a slightly tired looking brown suit with matching shoes and a stripped white shirt. His leather shoulder back is looped over his neck and slaps his thigh with a familiar thump at each step. Even over the noise of the street he can hear strands of music coming from the headphones of the teen in front of him, who is wearing a tuque despite the weather.

The Levi Fixler Building is a huge skyscraper of black glass. It houses a number of commodities dealers, a diamond exchange and one of they many sub-offices of the New York Securities Exchange Commission. At 12:16 pm, a huge explosion rips through the side of the building facing onto 37th. The 10th story windows blow out and a fireball billows into the air. Glass rains down on people and vehicles and vehicles below and people yell. The fire alarms in the building go off immediately and the building gives an ominous groan.

Punisher has posed:
"Frank, I think we have an opportunity to do a covert assassination for one of your financial targets." Microchip states over the transceiver as the Punisher drives along in Midtown.

It's been a few weeks since the Warehouse incident, and Frank Castle has been off the radar while he recovered from a near-fatal encounter with a grenade. The only reason he's alive is his vest is top-of-the-line along with his trenchcoat... and he had help from a very unexpected source.

Now, the Punisher is back in the war... and was on his way to a safehouse for a supply run when Microchip gave him the intel. "What do you mean, Micro? Something goin' down?" Punisher asks.

"The Levi Fixler building just got blown out. It's a perfect clusterfuck to get in and hit Davis and use the fire to cover it up."

Checking the computer screen in the Battle Van, Punisher brought up the location, and nods. "Not a huge one, but it's enough. You got an escape route?"

"I pulled up the plans for the area two minutes ago. I have two different ways for you to get out." The data is sent to the Battle Van, "Pick one."

Another nod, and Punisher brings the Battle Van into gear as he heads for the building, "I'll have to bring the flame resistant suit out for this, but it should work."

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil was down at street level. She was enjoying a hot cup of coffee, and rubbing at her sore muscles from her days of training. Even she could feel fatigued by the strain of trying to be better. She idly jangles the badge she uses to access the Triskelion in her pocket and stares up at the skyline, watching people wander on by. She sits up on the roof of a bus stop, dangling her feet.

Boom.

Her eyes squint, and then widen at the sight of a shower of glass, raining down on the road. At this time of day, it was her break time. A time for relaxation. She stares for several seconds, her heart pounding, as the fire and smoke washes out into the open.

She hops off the bus stop and tosses her coffee cup in the trash. She sprints toward the danger, leaping off the top of the vehicles in jammed traffic, bouncing and hopping, making shocks bounce and car alarms go off. Then she leaps into an alley where the stairwell access is, slides to a stop, turns to kick off and shoulder charges the door so hard that she blows it open, smashing the screws holding it in place. She rubs her sore arm after that, and then starts up the stairs.

All the while wondering why she's doing this. "Please be empty..." she says to herself. That's right, she's worried about the people on those floors, endangered by the fire. Unable to escape. Normal people that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Emboldened by her entrance into SHIELD, her talks with heroes and more, or maybe afraid of facing her own fears and anger, she heads toward the fire.

She has her phone in her hand on the way up the ten flights of stairs, calling in the explosion. "This is Ainsley Garcia. There's been an explosion at the Levi Fixler building. Firefighters won't be able to respond in time, I'm heading in to retrieve the wounded." She tries to stuff her phone in her pocket, but fumbles it on the way up. "Shit...!" She doesn't stop to retrieve it. Not enough time.

Nemean has posed:
A highrise explosion is enough to get the radio bands across the city lighting up. It's going to take a while for the various levels of manpower to respond.

Having been driving through towards his apartment, Cody Garrett happened to be in the right place at the right time to see the explosion. He immediately hit the lights and sirens on his unmarked car and whipped a U-turn, peeling out towards the burning building.

He stops his car about a block from the building, blocking the street to prevent any more traffic from getting through, and then climbs out. Moving to the trunk, he grabs a high powered maglite and a bandana to try to keep himself from breathing in too much stuff. Once equipped, he heads towards the building entrance, calling out to the people leaving, "Everybody who's not hurt get at least a block away from the building! You!" He points at one of the building security guards, "Start setting up a triage point where the EMTs can treat people as soon as they're here!" And with that he heads into the building, pushing past people and heading for the stairs.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Traffic quickly comes to an absolute standstill, but not before the Battle Van and Cody's unmarked car are able to get close to the building. People have gotten out of their cars and are staring up at the burning building. Judging from the visible bulging on the other visible side of the 10th floor, the fire has engulfed the entire floor and the other three sides of windows are in danger of collapsing outward. People have scattered away from the building on the sidewalk, as far as half a block anyway, and are variously looking up, taking photos or picking glass out of their hair. A few people with cuts from falling debris are being helped by random pedestrians. A middle-aged man in an expensive suit wretches up his lunch onto the pavement as he approaches a body on lying half over the curb. The body is scorched and smoking, thrown clear of the building by the blast.

People are only just starting to come out of the building. Two security guards are standing in shock looking up at the building until Cody yells at one of them. She looks at Cody dumbfounded, but the gears slowly start to work as the world comes rushing back for her and she gains focus.

"Right, on it!" she yells and slaps her co-worker's shoulder. The two set about getting people to move back. Two more security guards come running out the building and join in.

The alley smells like urine. Even in Midtown the alleys have their fair share of residents. Sibil passes a shopping cart loaded down with junk and covered in a dirty old blanket. A man is sitting nearby against the building, entirely oblivious to anything around him. When Sibil hits the door, the frame gives way and the door falls inward. A woman screams as the door nearly takes her out. The woman, looking remarkably put together in her pencil skirt and white blouse despite everything, sidles past Sibil with wide-eyes and runs out the door. She loses one of her heels on the way. She was only the first of a steady stream of people now making their way into the stairway from each floor as Sibil goes up. When it falls, her cellphone is kicked down another few steps by someone pushing past her. Looking up, there is smoke pouring into the stairwell from the 10th floor. The stairwell is empty above the 9th floor exit. Anyone who knows firefighting knows this is not a good situation. Even the highest ladders are not going to reach above the 9th floor, meaning the firefighters are going to have to try and fight this fire in the building and bring people down past the burning floor to safe exits below.

Adam flinches and raises an arm when the explosion happens. Glass rains down around him and peppers his jacket and bag. He looks up and sees the fire. He is rooted to the spot for several seconds while others scatter. He takes a step backward and then stops again, clenching his right fist.

Adam purses his lips and looks around. He sees the teenager with the tuque standing not far from him. There is a rush of wind and a blur, then Adam and the teen's tuque are gone. Adam rips two small holes in the tuque and pulls it over his head. Then he takes off, flying upward toward the flames and smoke coming out of the 10th floor.

Punisher has posed:
Close, but not right near it. He needed to get in without arousing suspicion, and that meant going in via a route no one is expecting; the rooftops.

He's already driven to one of the alleyways by the time the cordon was going on, and Punisher was already in his flame suit within a minute after parking. "Micro, I don't have a zipline gun in the van. I'm at the building just southwest, bring the cargo drone over with it." "Sure thing, Frank. I can get it to you in about three minutes."

He's on the rooftop by that point, and grabs it from the drone, before bringing a monocular to his eye and looking at the corridor of destruction...

It takes about ten seconds for him to find a spot in the inferno he could manage a line into... and in a moment, the Punisher is over the street on his gear, heading right into hell in a flame suit.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil doesn't pay much attention to the innocents running to safety. She knows they'll be fine. Her priority is making sure nobody gets killed because they got knocked out in a room full of fire. When she gets up to the 10th floor, she curses to herself in Spanish, and pauses to think, her eyes darting for an answer. She finds a box with a fire extinguisher in it nearby, which she retrieves and quickly examines to doublecheck how to use it. Then she curls her tail around it to hold it, and pulls her shirt off to make a quick face mask.

She gets up to the 10th floor, and heads through the door that got blasted open. She keeps low, which is very easy for her because of how small and agile she is, and she thanks her lucky stars that the explosion blew out all the windows on the floor. That means the heat has somewhere to escape to, and she won't get cooked instantly. She'll be using the fire extinguisher to make safe paths for herself and mitigate some of the heat, and scanning the wreckage of the floor with her vision for signs of mental life. The dead don't have a psychic signature, and she shouldn't waste time trying to rescue corpses. If she makes visual confirmation of someone that's alive, she'll start to pull them toward the door to the stairwell.

Nemean has posed:
Cody spots a phone on the ground as he moves up the stairs, scooping it up and tucking it into his vest. He'll find the owner later if he needs to. He's still pushing his way past people, "Keep going! Nice and orderly! Nobody panic!" He finally reaches the 9th floor, which doesn't have anyone on it. That's bad, because that means nobody can get down past the 10th floor. Great.

Before he goes to the 10th floor, he moves onto the 9th floor, grabbing a fire extinguisher and looking for anyone else who's around, before heading back into the stairwell. Maybe he can find a way to get up too the 11th floor, where there's no doubt people stuck there.

Blue Marvel has posed:
The rest of the windows on the 10th floor finally give away and shatter. A wave of heat, smoke and fire blows outward across the Punisher as rides the line. He comes out of it trailing a black whirl of smoke and passes through into the building. Even through the suit, the heat is intense and is followed by an inward rush of air and surge in heat.

The far side where the windows initially blew out is blackened and mostly empty. A massive jet of fire is pouring out of a hole the center concrete support that also houses the elevator shafts. Furniture, walls, everything seems to be burning. This floor was an open, wood and glass office. 'Evergreen Trading' is still visible on a glass wall that fell intact to the floor. There are a lot of bodies. Some burned, some half-buried, others seemingly fallen while trying to navigate through the smoke before it mostly cleared with the windows breaking. Now looking across the room is like looking across an oven with flames creeping along the inside of everything.

In the farthest corner from the initial blowout, six people are huddled under a long, highly polished conference table. They cough and hack in the heat and smoke, trapped by the flames outside the conference room and the yawning drop where the outer windows fell away.

The heat is brutal, even at floor level when Sibil enters the 10th floor. The fire extinguisher leaves a white chemical smear in front of her but its effects are paltry compared to the scope of the blaze. Her clothes are quickly covered in ash and fire retardant chemicals and she can feel the heat gathering in the fibres.

From the 9th floor stair, the air seems to push out of the 10th floor doorway and then pull in, strongly enough there is an upward draft that pulls at loose clothing. There are yells and screams from above the 10th floor door. There are people up there in the stairwell, through the smoke it is hard to see if they are trapped or too scared to go down the stairs through the smoke.

Adam flies in through windows that burst first. He hunches against the suddenly out and inflow of wind when the rest of the windows go and looks around. He doesn't bother dropping his suit jacket or shoulder bag, but seeing the jet of fire pushing out of the building's center shaft, he walks that away. His clothes warp and the artificial fibres start to melt in the heat. He reaches into the hole the fire is pouring out of and pulls back the concrete, exposing a large gasline that is ruptured and feeding fuel into the fire.

Punisher has posed:
Luckily, the flame suit includes an oxygen mask and small tank. He's not expecting to be here for long, and the suit is military grade, so it'll stand up for a while.

As he goes through the blaze, the Punisher doesn't even grunt or breath heavily from the heat; he's done fire resistance training in his time as Force Recon, and it's paying off here as he grabs the nearest fire extinguisher from one of the walls, and starts to use it to clear his path where he can.

As he finds the group under the conference table, he closes up the trenchcoat to hide the white skull on his vest. He's not trying to hide the emblem, but he's already seen his target underneath that table... and this is no time to spook the innocents.

"Hold on, I'm clearing a path for you." Punisher shouts through the blaze as he takes a crowbar and works his way over to them.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibilance is not immune to flames. She's getting cooked, she can tell. It's only by judicious use of the fire extinguisher that she avoids getting killed by the flames that lick the walls like the tongue of a dragon. She notes the presence of some survivors, however, overlooking the presence of the Punisher entering the building nearby in the chaos. She only realizes he's there when she spots him in her path. Her fire extinguisher is utilized with him taking the lead, to minimize the heat of the fire around them, the ash-coated snake person grunting as she works through the sting of the heat. She uses her strength to assist with his crowbarring, greatly speeding up his advance.

"There's a path through the flames, everyone, let's go!" She waves them out of the conference room once they get to it, and pauses to blast some of the chemical fire retardant at flames that get dangerously close to them. She digs a badge out of her pocket and shows it to them. It shows the SHIELD logo on the back. Despite her inhuman appearance, they can't deny that logo, and the picture of her smiling face on the badge as she quickly waves it at them to try and get them to listen. (Nevermind that she's just a trainee. She's not gonna let them get more than a quick glance.) "Don't stop for anything!"

Nemean has posed:
The blaze on the 10th floor seems too be the main source right now, but smoke and heat rises, which means the people above are still in danger. Cody pushes his way through the thick smoke, using hiss flashlight to try to find hiss way up to the 11th floor, to see if the door is blocked, or what is going on that is preventing people from continuing the evacuation.

He's worried that maybe the stairs were damaged in the blast or something that's keeping them trapped there, because there's no way the fire department is going to get up this high.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Working together, the Punisher and Sibil make their way through glass walls, burning furniture and past flaming wooden walls to the conference room. Sibil has left a tenous trail of white power behind her to the doorway, visible under the smoke pushing downward from the ceiling to just above head height. When the two reach the conference room, the four men and two women are wide-eyed under the table. Two of the men move first, and turn to help the women out. Their clothes look like they are melting in the heat. Paper on the conference table has ignited from the heat. With a crash, the wooden false wall on one side of the room falls. A wall roiling flame takes its place, playing across the ceiling. The other two men scramble out from under the table, one in a soot covered, expensive light-grey suit, the other in more conservative black. All of them have red faces that are going need serious attention, if they stay conscious long enough to get out. But they respond, dazed as they are, as much to the motions the Punisher and Sibil make as to any words. The plastic covering over Sibil's badge has shrivelled and pulled back, ID paper underneath is singing, turning brown. The six people hunch over and start moving toward the path of fire extinguisher exhaust.

Cody is engulfed in a roiling grey-black darkness that feels like it could sear exposed flesh and tries to seep up his nose and down his throat. The smoke rushes out of the 10th floor door and billows upward. It is a blind climb up the stairs, but if he goes up to the 11th floor the smoke thins enough to see as it concentrates in the center of the stairwell. There are people coughing on the stairs and looking out of the emergency exits on the 11th, 12th and who knows how many floors above. Someone shouts when Cody emerges from the black and everyone looks at him expectantly, frozen as he materializes from the gloom.

Adam reaches into the wall and takes hold of the gas line with his left hand. His jacket and shirt smoke and then catch fire, quickly revealing a dark skin. The tuque is fairing little better, smoking and melting. He squeezes the gas line below the rupture and line melts shut, cutting off the gas jet immediately. He looks across and sees hazy forms of people moving by the conference room. He reaches out one hand and a blast of blue energy runs along the ground cutting a straight line along the path Sibil laid down and out the window near the conference room. Flames are pushed back just slightly along the path, giving them a little help making it to the door. But between the sudden blast and that it looks like they would be walking through a parted Red Sea of fire, the people from the conference room hesitate and look to Punisher and Sibil.

Adam hears sounds of shouts from the elevator shaft. With a last glance in the direction of the conference room, he pulls the elevator doors open and disappears into the elevator shaft.

Punisher has posed:
"Go." Punisher orders of the group. Then, his eyes focus right on the man in the black business suit... and he walks right for him. The second he's out from under the table, the Punisher has him by the throat, and lifts him up just so, so that he can't go anywhere, but he can still breath.

"Davis Brackers. We need to have a chat."

The Punisher finally undoes the ties keeping his trenchcoat closed, and the white skull vest is easily seen as it opens up. "You've been a very... busy man." The Punisher leans forward, "I have some questions for you."

Without a word to the others, The Punisher starts to walk/drag Davis over somewhere with less flames to deal with.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil is cooking. She doesn't have much more protection than these people do, and hyperthermia is due to set in any second. But... She isn't at as much risk due to her naturally lower body temperature. She has some time. But not a lot. She tells them, making eye contact with the group, "You will die if you don't move. So move. Don't stop until you're out." The mind control may be seen as a bit much, but it's an extra crutch to stop them from even considering anything like giving up. Basically commanding them to live and run, even through pain and dizziness. They may even zombie to safety through near unconsciousness thanks to the control.

She spots Punisher, grabbing the man by the throat, dragging him out. She briefly considers stopping him, but does she really want to get into a fight with a man she suddenly realizes is the Punisher? She knows who that guy is. In her eyes, he's a lunatic, a man that could probably snap her in two for getting in the way, a man that may very well have reason to kill her as she is far from innocent herself. She decides not to push her luck, instead focusing on helping the rest of them get to safety.

"Shit...!" And her extinguisher ran out of juice. Gotta go. She escorts the survivors out as best she can, fighting the agonizing sting of heat on her scales.

Nemean has posed:
Up above one floor, Cody looks at the people cowering near the door, "Everybody listen up!" He's wearing an FBI jacket and a tactical vest under it, and has a flashlight, so at this moment he's basically in charge, "Everybody form a single file line and go down. Hold your breath through the smoke, it's thickest on the 10th floor. If anyone's injured, help them down first!"

He coughs loudly, reaching up to pull his bandana tighter, "Lets go!" He yells at the people at the door, waving his flashlight towards the stairs.

Blue Marvel has posed:
The man in the black suit stares at the Punisher with bulging eyes as he's taken toward the end of the conference table closest to where the windows blew out. He looks terrified, the kind of terrified that looses bowels.

The instincts of the others in the conference room are well-aligned with Sibil's suggestion, and the presence of the Punisher only makes them want to get out faster. They push close after Sibil down the slightly cleared path, cowering toward the middle as the flames start to advance back in again. But they move fast, desperate for escape, and Sibil and the five others reach the fire and stumble out into the stairwell. The people Sibil rescued are coughing and wheezing. They lean heavily on the railing and start making their way down as quickly as they can. A man's voice can be heard shouting directions up above and people start filing down the stairs from above the 10th floor, first in a trickle and then in a compact rush of people hurrying through the smoke.

There is a muffled metal screech and groan from through one of the walls where the elevator shafts are. Once a symbol of authority was there to tell them what to do, there was little hesitation. People pour past Cody on their way down into the thick smoke and beyond.

Punisher has posed:
As he gets to a corner of the 10th floor, dragging Davis with him, he pulls the man over to one of the blows out glass panes... and lifts the man in front of himself, placing Davis just inside the window.

"Davis Brackers. I've had you on my list for a few months now, but your home security system made it difficult to have a chat until now." The Punisher gestures with his free hand to the outside, open air, "normally, I'd take you for interrogation... but I know the mafia in the city would come after you." The Punisher starts to rummage through his pockets... taking his keys, wallet, phone, and the building keycard, "and I've got no interest in making arrangements to get you out of here."

The items are pocketed in a cargo pocket in his trenchcoat, before Davis is put into the nearby fire just long enough for his suit to catch fire.... and unceremoniously tossed out the window.

"Have a nice trip." The Punisher offers, after the fact, before he turns to head back to his original infiltration point.

Sibilance has posed:
Sibil doesn't stick around for too long after all of that. She makes sure to stay for the people coming down from even higher floors, helping lead them down, waving them to safety. She shows off her scorched badge, clumsily shoving her crispy shirt back on and grimacing at the pain. The command she gave the survivors has faded by now, and the sweet relief of not having to feel the echoing pain from the psychic connection created by the control.

Sibil will depart the building and get to the sidewalk, and then find somewhere to sit and wheeze for a while, covered in soot and white chemical dust.

Nemean has posed:
Cody does his best to direct the crowds as they move downwards. Seems that his arrival was enough to get people from a lot of the floors above to begin to evacuate. He ends up having to take a knee and try to catch his breath as best he can, but he's not leaving from the stairwell until the fire department shows up and he knows they'll be able to take over crowd control and get the fire out. These people need help, after all, he can't just abandon them.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Brackers begs and then screams when he is held in the fire. He grasps wildly at the Punisher when he is thrown out the window. Brackers' screams are lost to the wind, which fans the flames on his clothing. He arcs through the air like a falling star and plummets to the ground below where he crashes through a bus shelter and into the sidewalk. A news helicopter flies past. It just manages to catch the Punisher ziplining away from the burning building before the helicopter flies past and the man is out of sight.

Sirens can be heard and the first of the fire crews are just starting to arrive. They push their through the flow of people rushing out of the building and start pushing their way up the stairs. When they reach Cody they shout for him to head down with everyone else as they take over.

Outside people mill about. They get moved a short distance by police and security. EMTs have not arrived yet. Some people stare at the flames. Some hold each other. A middle-aged woman wearing a string pearls sits on the curb near Sibil. It is hard to tell well the soot ends and the running mascara begins. A few people have their phones out catching everyone coming out the building. No doubt some are actually journalists, or would be journalists.

One set of elevator doors bends outward. Adam steps out, followed by half a dozen shocked looking people. Adam's clothes are half gone, burned and charred but his skin isn't. He pulls open the doors of the next elevator over and more people come out. By the time he finishes four elevators have been opened and their occupants released. He looks out the front where everyone is headed and seems to realize something. Then he is gone and a door in the back of the lobby is thrown nearly off its hinges.

Punisher has posed:
Once back in the Battle Van, The Punisher starts to take off the flame suit. "Brackers had his keys and the fob for disabling his home security. I'll be heading over there now and seeing if we can manage to grab a desktop computer there." Punisher reports to Microchip over the Battle Van. As he sits down, he engine is taking out of idle.

"I think one of the reporters caught me leaving. We might have company on the way out. Keep an eye open for me." Punisher continues as he starts to drive away from the fire.

Nemean has posed:
Once the flow of people from the upper floors comes to a trickle, Cody makes his way down with the people, helping an older man out by supporting his weight as they go down. Once finally out of the building, and outside, Cody pulls off the bandana that had been covering his face and drops to his knees. He's going to need to get treated for smoke inhalation once the EMTs arrive, but he should live.