The Emperor's Dragon II

The Man on the Inside

Exodus Rubble was a career hero. He was listed on official rankings but only ever on the published lists, not on those that were announced at the fancy events. He was currently at a career high of Rank 682, which probably had something to do with the spate of shootings that had occurred.

He spent most of his time at the emergency office, and sortied as a First Responder when a call sounded like a Hero would be needed rather than just a first responder. Far be it for him to take work from the paramedics.

So that meant he usually went to fires, car crashes and other things like that. It wasn't hard work but it paid the bills and since he wasn't usually fighting villains, it wasn't even particularly dangerous work. Being a hero was, if you picked the right role, pretty cushy and Exodus intended to retire soon. He thought he could buy a small patch of land and run a market garden, or work in a convenience store. He'd need to do something but nothing strenuous.

"We got an alarm!"

He looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Where from?"

"Precept building," the dispatcher who monitored all the alarm points responded after a moment.

Exodus sighed. He didn't know the building, which meant he had to treat it as real. Not like the Acuity building. They had alarms almost every second day when someone did something stupid. He put down the magazine and went to the dispatcher. "What do we know?"

The woman was looking at the blinking lights on the panel as if they would tell her something more. They probably would. Alarm codes had been established a long time ago. They might even pre-date quirks but it was all blinking lights to him.

"Looks like the building sprinkler system got set off," she replied.

Darn, that probably meant a fire. Exodus Rubble hated fires. It took forever to get the smoke smell out of his hair and the ash got into his costume and ugh... this one was probably a write off already. "Anything else?"

"Building is occupied by Nise Kai and the Precept Company. Don't know anything about them," the dispatcher said, this time referring to a book that was kept with information like that. It told them what hazards could reasonably be expected on site. "No chemicals at least," she added brightly.

He nodded and knew he couldn't dawdle further. "Someone probably had a late night ciggie and didn't put it out right when they left," he muttered.

"Probably," the dispatcher agreed. It happened sometimes. Late night staff just needed the ciggies and didn't go to the smoking points. They triggered the smoke alarm or accidentally lit something on fire, which triggered the sprinklers and then everyone had a bad night.

"Do you want back up?" another dispatcher asked.

Exodus shook his head. "Lemme see what's happened first," he instructed. The alarm would have already gone to the fire brigade so they'd be on their way too. He'd just get there faster but he could call for more hero back up now if he thought he'd need it. "I'll let you know who should be sent once I get there," he added.

That got him a laugh. The dispatchers knew what he meant. They usually called it clean up or fuck up. Clean up referring to crews who'd help dry out everything that the sprinklers had doused and fuck up mean the insurance because something worse had happened, though in practice, having your office space doused by sprinklers was pretty bad.

"I'm heading out," Exodus announced to the dispatchers. It got him a wave or two, but they'd already turned back to their screens.

Yeah, he liked his cushy gig.

-ted-

"Just stay calm," Yakuni said to Eri. He had no idea what was happening but he knew something was. The Eight Bullets were agitated and he hadn't seen Overhaul all day. So right at the moment, staying calm was the most important thing.