Pyractomena Borealis Part 8
By Katsu (no Miko)
--Standard Disclaimers Apply
--This part courtesy of my first, second, and third line bosses, and their 
decision to have a three hour long pitch and bitch session today. :)


The Sanrio display behind us exploded in a flash of bright light and blue 
flames, the sound momentarily deafening me. Instinctively, I threw myself 
to the floor, just as a blue plastic Pochaco lunchbox, which just happened to 
be covered with hungry yellow fire, went whizzing by above me, right 
about at head height. Damn, that would have hurt.

Before the lunchbox had even flown completely by, I was already making 
like a cockroach and scuttling for the dubious safety of a pants display. Out 
of the corner of my eye, I saw Heero scurrying my way, gun in hand.

Well, I felt better. Even the perfect soldier couldn't perform a successful 
scatter for cover without looking like a bug. Glad I wasn't the only one. 
Without a moment of hesitation, I dove underneath the rack of pants and 
peered out through the forest of legs to keep track of what was happening 
while I decided what to do.

A plush Hello Kitty winged its way by, its utterly cute little face a mask of 
fire. I could see it flying towards the witch, who hadn't even flinched when 
the display exploded. She didn't make a move to dodge or anything. About a 
foot away from her chest, the stuffed animal halted midair, staying there for 
a moment before it flared up into a fireball and was consumed completely.

Ok, as much as I hated to admit it, this lady had *guts*. I know I wouldn't 
have been able to stand my ground if confronted by the Hello Kitty doll 
from hell. Then again, I can barely stand my ground against the normal, 
non-spicy variety--I have a pretty low tolerance for sweetness, and those 
things make me go into sugar shock.

I glanced over to the side. Heero had been closer to the rack than me, and he 
was already there, laying on the floor like I was to utilize the small amount 
of protection the pants had to offer. He was staring straight ahead, and his 
eyes were wide, the pupils so dilated that they almost completely swallowed 
the blue of his irises. "Heero!" I hissed. No response. Not a good sign.

I glanced forward again to see what he was seeing. The witch was looking 
right at us, now, the tattoos on her face almost glowing in the now 
flickering light; half of the overhead lights had gone out in the explosion, 
probably lost to a Keropi pencil set lodged in the circuitry.

Heero wasn't looking at her, though. He was watching the fire. The plastic 
display was still flaming merrily away, deceptively cool looking blue 
flames crackling along the shelves. The air was getting hard to breathe, full 
of the stench of burning plastic and insulation, presumably coming from 
somewhere in the ceiling. All of the white acoustic tiles over the display 
were gone, and I could see flickers of orange light dancing along the 
concrete of the real ceiling. Pieces of paper and cardboard, pink stationary 
and playing cards fluttered to the ground, their fall much to slow to be real.

That's how it always is; I don't know if it's an effect of the explosion or the 
semi-close brush with death. Whatever it is, there's always a moment of 
perfect stillness after the destruction, where the entire world moves like just 
a few seconds are stretched out into several hours, and there's no sound or 
even feeling, really. Fights are almost the same way; the world holds its 
breath and waits for you to move. As crazy as it sounds, it's one of the most 
beautiful, perfect things I experience. For that instant, you're not afraid, or 
worried, or angry; you just *are*. Now, it had only been maybe eight 
seconds since the explosion, but it felt infinitely longer.

There was a flash overhead; something in the ceiling sparking. It was like 
some kind of signal--all at once, time returned to its previously scheduled 
programming (already in progress.) The fire alarm went off, and so did the 
sprinkler system, showering freezing cold water down on us. I, manly man 
that I am, let out a protesting yelp. I don't like being cold, ok? I also don't 
like being surprised by the cold.

Heero still hadn't moved, and we were out of time. I could almost feel the 
floor rumbling, and over the sound of the fire alarm and the steady hiss of 
the sprinklers, I could hear muffled screaming. The people on the floors 
above us and below us were panicking, since the fire alarm was most likely 
going off in every part of the building--not to mention that anyone in the 
immediate area would have heard the explosion. It was probably already a 
stampede; time to make tracks before the panic spread out into the street 
and turned into a full-blown riot.

The best way to stay out of trouble, other than to not cause any to begin 
with--like that would happen in *my* lifetime--was to be somewhere else 
by the time the authorities had arrived. I learned that one a long time ago, 
before I even knew my own name. I didn't really want to spend a night in 
the police station for an act of pyromania I didn't commit, and I also knew 
that simple inquiries had a tendency to dig up the most interesting dirt, 
which would be a bad thing.

I snapped my fingers in front of Heero's face and got rewarded by him 
grabbing my hand in a bone-crushing grip. Oh yeah, and he stuck his gun in 
my face as well, but I was used to that by now. Really. I love it when he 
does that. It's so cute. Right.

"Heero, it's just me, chill!" I hissed at him, prying my one hand out of his 
grasp and shoving the gun to one side with the other. "I know you like 
watching the pretty flames, but we have to go. NOW." I grabbed him by the 
wrist and managed to drag him out into the open before he managed to 
object in any way. The moment I left the protection of the rack, my bangs 
got plastered to my forehead with the water still raining merrily down 
courtesy of the sprinkler system.

Heero finally snapped out of whatever had him distracted, disengaged my 
hand and grabbed my wrist in turn. I didn't mind if he took the lead now. 
With my bangs making me look like the Shaggy DA I couldn't see much of 
anything anyway. Sometimes I wonder why I put up with long hair.

"Maxwell..." the sound hissed above the fire alarm.

Oh yeah. The witch. I always forget the *little* details.

I turned toward the source of the voice, scraping my bangs away from my 
eyes with my free hand. The witch was looking--if looking was the right 
word--right at me. Water was cascading around her in an egg shaped shell, 
flowing down to the floor. It was hard to see her clearly, but I had the 
feeling that she was still perfectly dry in there. One of the benefits of being 
a witch, I guessed. "Nice trick." I commented.

She ignored me. It was probably just as well. "We will talk later, Maxwell."

With a lot more bravado than I felt, I flipped a salute at her. "Take a 
number, lady. I'm one popular, happening guy." Sister Helen always said 
that I never could stand to let someone else have the last word.

Before the witch had a chance to say anything else, Heero and I took off 
running. Or, to be more accurate, we took off running as well as we could 
considering that the floor was an absolute mess of wet ash and paper--not 
exactly the best material for stable footing. Still, we were doing ok in the 
speed department, heading for the far end of the floor where the emergency 
stairs/fire escape was located, when suddenly, *IT* struck

"HEERO!"

I'd thought that I'd heard her just before the display went up. I guessed I was 
hoping that I'd imagined it. If only.

Relena threw herself out from behind a display of now soaking wet 
sweaters and ran for Heero. Heero, to his credit, didn't jump like I did, but 
he did turn really quickly and began to bring his gun to bear on Relena.

As much as I really wouldn't mind Relena permanently disappearing, I 
figured that letting Heero cap her because she'd startled him and he was 
feeling hair triggered wouldn't do a lot of good for anyone. So as he was 
turning, I reached out and plucked the gun from his hand, immediately 
tucking it into the back of my pants, under my shirt. I was so fast that Heero 
didn't even notice. What can I say...an interesting childhood leads to useful 
skills.

While Heero was busy staring at his suddenly empty hand with a 
wonderfully dumbfounded look on his face, Relena ran right into him, 
wrapped her arms around his waist, and immediately burst into tears. Heero 
let his hand drop and looked down at the girl that currently had her face 
buried against his chest. Then he looked up at me, his face a mask of 
complete and utter confusion.

I was torn between grinding my teeth and wanting to slap Relena away from 
*my* partner, and just wanting to laugh because Heero had never looked so 
completely and totally lost before as long as I'd known him. I settled for the 
middle ground as far as diplomacy went. "We can't leave her here." I almost 
shouted in an effort to be heard over the alarm, sprinklers, and the rising 
sounds of panic coming from beneath us. "Let's go!" I pointed at the 
emergency stairs door for a second before a set out at a scrabbling trot, 
trying not to slip and fall.

Heero followed me, half-pulling and half-carrying Relena along. A couple 
seconds later, I kicked the door to the emergency stairs. There wasn't any 
real reason to kick it open, since it wasn't jammed or anything...I'd just 
always wanted to do that. I held the door open so Heero could bring Relena 
through, then let it slam shut. The sounds that had been nearly deafening us 
for the past five minutes abruptly retreated to a soft, almost imperceptible 
murmur as the door shut. For a long moment, the only sounds in the 
stairwell were Relena's quiet sobs and snifflings, and the sound of water 
dripping off of all of our clothes and hair and onto the floor.

Heero looked down at Relena, as if making sure she was still firmly 
attached and there was no easy way for him to escape her. Then he looked 
up at me.

I looked at Heero. Heero looked at me. After a pause, I shrugged in answer 
to his silent question. Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously--whoops, maybe 
I'd thought he was asking a different question. Nah. With a soft sigh, I 
stepped forward and put my hands on Relena's shoulders, gently prying her 
off of Heero. It was harder than it sounded...the girl was clinging to him 
worse than sticky latex to a car door--do NOT ask me how I know--and I 
had to put a lot of effort into getting her let go. "Ne, Relena-san...let go of 
Heero. He needs to breathe. Come on..."

Her grip loosened a little and I pulled her back to stand on her own, much to 
Heero's very obvious relief. I could feel her shoulders shaking under my 
hands, and she had her head bowed. Water was dripping from her bangs in 
thin streams. "Alright...now, are you ok?" I peered down at Relena, trying to 
see her face. She muttered something incoherent, and I tried again. "Come 
on, girl, are you ok?"

This time, I could hear her answer, kind of. Her voice was really soft and 
very choked. "I don't know."

I sighed quietly to myself and looked at Heero. No help there. With another 
sigh, I pulled Relena into my arms. She resisted weakly for a moment. "It's 
ok." I said quietly, and she started crying all over again, clinging to the front 
of my shirt. It didn't really bother me like it usually would, if for nothing 
else than the fact that my shirt was already completely soaked. Some tears, 
snot, and wrinkles wouldn't hurt it. I looked down at Relena and couldn't 
help notice that the ends of her hair were singed. She must have been really 
close to the display when it exploded, which would also explain why she 
was so upset. As much as she followed Heero around, she'd never really 
gotten close enough to the action to be in danger after the
first time Heero saved her--and I'd had it on good authority that she'd gone 
off an had a round of hysterics after that was done. Even with the hot dog 
cart thing, she and Heero had been pretty far down the path when it had 
gone up. She hadn't been close enough to feel the heat of the fire.

Curiously enough, I found myself having a lot of sympathy for her. Relena 
might have been the same age as Heero and I, but she was still a kid, and we 
were soldiers. What we considered to be ordinary and every day would 
make most civilians wet their pants and then some. I looked up at Heero. He 
was looking at me really oddly. I understood that. I didn't make any secret 
of the fact that I wouldn't feel bad if Relena dropped off the face of the 
earth, and here I was, letting her cry on me. I shrugged at him. I used to 
wonder why I felt the need to be nice to Relena, considering she rarely even 
acknowledged my presence. It was probably because I thought, deep down 
inside, Relena had a good heart. It didn't mean that I liked her any more, or 
that she was any less of an insufferable, self-righteous little snot, but it 
meant that I was willing to cut her slack that Heero wasn't. I knew how hard 
it was to find genuinely kind people in the world, but I also knew they 
existed. I don't think Heero did.

I gave her a couple minutes to cry. I didn't want to wait around any more 
than that, so once the time was up, I gently pushed her away. She scrubbed 
at her eyes with her hands. "Feeling a little better now?" I asked quietly.

I guess who she'd been crying at finally dawned on Relena. She glanced up 
really quickly, then looked away. "I'm fine." She said, rather coldly. I wasn't 
really expecting any thanks, but still, it was annoying.

It was pretty obvious the little moment of acting like an actual human being 
was over, dead, and buried. Not that I really cared. "Good. We need to get 
out of here now. I'm assuming you left your monkey boy in the parking 
garage?"

Relena shot me a glare that could have curdled milk. "Pargen is waiting for 
me in the garage, yes."

"Great." I put on one of my best, most charming grins, then abruptly turned 
her around and gave her a little push toward the top of the stairs. "Let's go. 
Time's a-wasting." I ignored the malicious but lovely thought of what a 
bigger push would have done. The short-lived, temporary truce was over on 
both sides, after all.

"Heero..." Relena started to turn.

"Not right now." I said before Heero had a chance to open his mouth. "We 
need to go. Either get moving or get out of the way."

Relena, the contrary little beast, planted herself firmly in the middle of the 
stairway and glared at me. "I'm not talking to you. I need to talk to Heero."

We didn't have time to argue with her--we'd already wasted MORE than 
enough on her. I looked at Heero. Heero looked at me. I jerked my head 
toward Relena and grinned. After a moment of consideration, he nodded, 
the corner of his mouth twitching like he was trying really hard not to smile. 
"Let's GO!" I yelled. At the same moment, Heero and I charged at Relena. 
We each grabbed an arm, lifted her up so that her feet were several inches 
above the floor, and barreled down the steps with her between us.

The look on Relena's face was priceless. It almost made everything else, 
explosion and all, worth it.

***

Through an unspoken agreement, Heero and I didn't talk about what had 
happened at all until we'd been back in the dorms for a while and both of us 
had had a chance to get dried off and change our clothes. I took some extra 
time to take a shower. Ash or something had gotten into my hair, and the 
sun shining down on us on our way back to the dorms after we'd ditched 
Relena with her butler had baked it in.

I secured my towel firmly around my waist and grabbed my hairbrush 
before I opened the bathroom door. Heero was sitting at his desk, firmly 
attached to his laptop as always. "Well, that was fun." I said as my opening 
sally. Heero stayed silent. "The witches are after us now."
 
Heero stopped what he was doing and looked back at me. "I noticed."

That was helpful. "Do you think we can avoid them long enough to get this 
other thing cleared up? I've got a one cluster fuck limit."

"It depends on how much the witch is going to press the issue." Heero 
shrugged. "If she's waited this long to find us, I doubt that she is in a hurry."

"Yeah, but she knows who we are now." I pointed out. An odd thought 
occurred to me. "Do you think she's the one that blew up the Sanrio 
display?"

Heero turned around in his chair to look at me. "Unknown." He said. "There 
are no indications that she did..."

"...but no indications that she didn't." I finished. "She didn't seem very 
surprised by it." I sat down on my bed and started brushing my hair out, 
pausing for a moment to flip the radio on, first. I could listen with half an 
ear and see if they said anything interesting about the fire when they got to a 
newsbreak.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything. She may have been surprised, but 
could have hidden it very well."

"Or she could have set it off, though I don't know why she would. That 
woman sounded like an absolute fanatic about keeping things out of sight, 
and setting fire to the place you work, more notable right by where you 
work, isn't a good way to keep a low profile. I don't like this. Two 
explosions like that, happening without probable cause. It's too much to be a 
coincidence."

"We established that it was possible that the hot dog cart had a bad gas 
line." Heero pointed out.

"Yeah, and then we also established that neither of us trust that theory. And 
I'm sorry, there isn't probable cause on this one. Kitty-chan, while cute and 
fluffy, is not known for her talent at spontaneous combustion."

Heero snorted.

"What is it...first time's a coincidence, second time's a happenstance, third 
time's a conspiracy." I shook my head. "We're already on time two. I've got 
a bad feeling that there's going to be a time three. All this...the witch 
showing up, another explosion...It's too convenient. I don't like it."

"You think someone is trying to eliminate us." We'd both thought that from 
the start, but now, on the second try, it was pretty much confirmed.

I hit the bedpost with my hairbrush. "Jesus, Heero, when is someone NOT 
trying to eliminate us?"

He shrugged. "Relena was present and both explosions. It's possible that 
she's connected to them."

"What, as in setting them?" I thought. "It doesn't make sense. She's 
annoying, but I don't think she's crazy enough to be homicidal. And how 
would she be setting the fires? She wasn't even near the hot dog cart."

"After the last half year, you believe that a person must use purely physical 
means to achieve a goal?" Heero asked, raising his eyebrow.

THAT stopped me dead in my tracks. "What, you think she's using magic? 
Like some kind of pyrokinesis?" I shuddered. "I hope you're joking."

Heero shook his head.

"God, now that's a scary thought." I put my head in my hands. "Someone as 
unstable as Relena wandering around with the ability to blow shit up with 
magic." I shuddered.  "I think I'm going to have nightmares now, thanks."

"It's a possibility." Heero said, before turning back toward his laptop.

"--caused the evacuation of the new Takada department store in the Tokyo 
shopping district." A woman's voice was saying over my radio. I turned the 
volume up a little and went back to brushing my hair, my train of thought 
derailed. "Hey, they're talking about us, Heero." I looked out the window, 
listening to the radio with half an ear.

"Hn."

"No one was injured by the fire, though severe damage was incurred on the 
second floor and several people received minor injuries during the 
evacuation of the building. There are rumors that the fire was caused by an 
explosion of some sort--"

"You'd better believe it, lady." I muttered at the radio.

"--not been confirmed or denied. The fire at Takada is the fourth major fire 
that has occurred in Tokyo today."

My eyes got wide. "Oh shit...Heero, are you listening to this?"

"The other three fires, one on the other side of the Tokyo shopping district 
and two in the residential area located to the west of the military base, are, 
like this one, still under investigation."

There was a scraping noise as Heero pushed his chair back. I felt rather than 
heard him come up to stand behind me.

"--state that there is no probable natural cause for the fires and arson is 
under investigation." The announcer paused. "In other news--"

I reached out and turned the radio off. Shit. "This isn't good." I finally said. 
"Four fires. No probable natural cause. Arson investigations. This is starting 
to get a little too interesting." I looked up at Heero, who was being as 
impassive as ever.

"We have other concerns now." He said. "I just received a transmission. We 
have a mission tomorrow--all of us."