ROCKETEER

Chapter 10: Stupid Pyromaniac

                                             "What fire does not destroy, it hardens." - Ocscar Wilde

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When I was a little girl, I would look at all the stray dogs and cats I passed on the street and wish to save every single one. I guess I related to their pain, their starving, flea-infested bodies. Diseased bodies. 

I wanted to love and care for every single one. I still do, as an adult, and this pain is what led me into the shelter down the road from my apartment, the fullest one in the city. Every animal I passed hung my heart lower in my chest until I reached the Rainbow Bridge part of the shelter. That is where I met my Draco, one of the dogs that had been there since a puppy. He was so skinny, he didn't even look up when I walked up to his cage. When I told the volunteer I wanted to see him, he cowered in the corner while she went in and looped the leash around his neck. He walked out, his head low. 

As soon as he looked at me with those chocolate eyes, I had to have him. Had to save at least one of them. 

I fell in love with him. He was shy and unsure, but I trusted him and he let himself trust me. The day I took him home was the best day of my life. The first day I saved a soul that was in trouble. That was three years ago. 

Now here I am, racing to save him again. 

I heard sirens as I flew over the city, and a spiral of smoke tainted the sky. I flew faster. I got to my block and landed on the street running. Firemen and Pro Hero Backdraft were zipping around squirting water at the building, which was in smolders. My heart broke, but I kept running. I ran past everyone and into the front doors and activated my quirk to levitate me to the higher levels through the incinerated stairs. The structure of the building was still there, and there were tiny fires everywhere. I reached my floor and ran down the hallway, parts of the floor crumbling and giving way. The air was thick with smoke, so I put my visor down and held my breath. 

I burst into my apartment through the burning door, looking around wildly for any trace of Draco. His ball lay in the middle of the floor. 

I heard screaming and looked to my left to see the wall I shared with my neighbor crumbling with a giant hole. There was a lady kneeling on the floor in front of a blocked door, crying. 

I hovered over her, grabbing her shoulders. 

"Ma'am, you have to get out of here! This building will fall any minute!" She jerked out of my grasp. 

"My baby! His room is blocked!" She wailed, pointing at the fallen dresser blocking the door. 

As much as I hated it, I pushed Draco to another part of my mind and focused on shoving the dresser, using my wing to push my body. The lady finally got up and helped, and together we moved it enough to get through the door. The lady went to open it and I stopped her. 

"The room might be unstable, I'll get your baby." She nodded, her eyes full of shining tears. I gently opened the door with my gloved hand, feeling the heated metal. Debris fell from the ceiling, and even more smoke-filled this room, I looked around and spotted a crib, and floated to it. The swaddled baby lying on the dirty mattress looked up at me, his face contorted in silent cries. I picked him up and held him close to my chest. 

"Shhhh, you're all right, your mom is here." The baby coughed. I had to get him out of this room before his tiny lungs gave out. I hovered over to the open door. 

I handed the lady her son, and she cried harder, holding him close. 

"Thank you! I thought he would die in there-" A giant crash sounded very close. I shoved her. 

"Go! You have to leave before the building collapses!" She looked at me one moment more, before turning and running down the hall with her baby. I floated back to my apartment. The ceiling had fallen in, sending ambers and ash everywhere. I coughed, holding my sleeve over my mouth. My eyes watered through my visors, blurring my vision. 

I crashed through the debris, flying to Draco's room. the door had burned away, and he was nowhere to be seen. 

Maybe someone's already gotten him out. 

I flew back into the kitchen and through the apartment door. The hallway floor had almost completely fallen through. 

I coughed, my lungs straining for fresh air. I was completely blind, feeling along the walls to get to the stairwell. 

Should be just a few more meters-

A blast of heat hit my back, and I fell. The flames seared through my suit, burning my skin. I cried out, my knees landing on what was left of the floor. The pain reached up my back to my neck, and I smelled burning hair. I choked on the polluted air, my throat closing up. I screwed my eyes closed. 

Come on, Moonshine. Don't let a little fire that you caused-

I caused this. I put all these people in danger-

I mustered up my strength and reached up the wall for anything to grasp onto. My hand closed around a bar, probably a handicap grab bar, and I hauled myself up, the charred skin on my back sending pain shooting through my whole body. I groaned, and stepped, holding onto the bar tightly. 

The bar meant I was close to the stairs, then I could fly down- 

A piece of ceiling fell directly to my left, taking out a chunk of wall with it. I pressed up against the bar, feeling its stability screws being ripped out. The bar came off the wall, and I crumbled back to the floor. The pain in my back was blinding, I didn't even know if the skin was able to form my wings anymore. I gasped for air, coughing up pieces of ash. 

So this was it, dying in my own home. This is what death felt like. It hurt so much. I thought death was supposed to be painless.

All of a sudden, the sensation of the floor disappeared, and I was falling. No, not falling, floating. My hazy thoughts were confused. My wings weren't able to form, so what was holding me up?

A flash of red, and I understood. Hawks's feathers were lifting me, up and towards the stairs and down them. I let them, my body turning limp as it focused on the pain spreading through my body. 

As the feathers carried me down, I heard someone talking, no, laughing. I forced my burning eyes open and looked up the stairs where the feathers had taken me from, and a figure stood amongst the dark smoke. 

Time seemed to slow down, and the figure's voice ground against my ears:

"Don't worry, little hero, I won't destroy your life all at once. Just pieces, so it will hurt even more."

The figure raised his hand, and a ball of blue fire shot towards me. I squirmed, clamping my eyes and mouth closed and the feathers moved faster, keeping out of reach of the fire's tendrils. Its heat licked my face, and I couldn't breathe, my nose and throat scorched.

I felt myself free-falling, the heat slowly receding into blissful, beautiful nothing. 

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1270 words

A/n: 

This chapter was dedicated to my fur baby Draco, my black lab pup who is my whole world.