In The Fire

Belle tries to blast Tattooed Man with the full force of the winds. Her hope is to distract him at least briefly, to allow her teammates to escape him.

Sonny-boy explodes the Tattooed Man. He (the Tattooed Man) is blown into the air, then hit with gale-force wind while not in contact with the ground. His kanji flash, but apparently whatever he chose doesn’t help when you aren’t touching anything but air. He flutters away like the leaves which are stripped from the trees, vanishing in the distance.

Sonny-boy knows his Power went home. Michael saw the Tattooed Man clearly hurt, but still moving his arms and legs. Belle didn’t see any details.

Christine, similarly off the ground, was also whirled away into the distance. Then she stops, short, as though brought up short by an invisible cord.

Ronald Richter staggers out of the flames. His clothes are on fire, his hair is fried away, his eyes are staring mad, and his face is difficult to look at. But the glowing kanji on his chest allow him to use his stolen Mover Power to lower her safely to the ground.

Richter crumples into his own flames. Voinovich frosts the fire out, but the damage is done.

+++

“Try to save Sky,” Voinovich said, as he hastened toward the fire.

Kaze bows solemnly to Voinovich and then headed into the fray. She tackles Sky and Fades him, leaving Yurasu’s bent-metal shackles behind.

Kaze shouts, "Giri Sutenresu!"

Yurasu shouts “Tetsu ishi!” automatically. It’s like a call-and-response reflex; Yurasu isn’t even looking in Kaze’s direction.

The Mover and the Heavy have also snapped to attention and bellowed “Tetsu ishi!” in alarming unison.

When the heavy sensation vanishes, Sky takes off running. He feels a partial return of weight as he breaks contact with Kaze and stops being Faded.

Now, instead of five Iron Guard facing Sky, five Iron Guard face Kaze.

“Kujiku-san!” says the Torch incredulously. “Kanojo wa iru Kaze!”

Rock, who did not respond to Kaze’s shout, smiles.

“You have chosen a strange time to return to speaking Japanese,” he says in English. “Some would say, too late.”

“Honorable Teacher Nigiru wants you alive,” he explains. “And the activator. The others, we can slay or not. Become solid again, and we need not kill your comrades.”

To the others, he snaps, “Kasai, kokkyō bōei! Keikoku!”

The Torch sets a wide area around Kaze and the Iron Guards aflame. No one can reach her now … unless they can Fade, Travel, Ice out the flames, or blow them out with winds … actually, a lot of people can reach them.

Seeing the fire surround the Iron Guard, the troops on the cliff top start shooting at the Grimnoir near Christine: Voinovich, Michael, Sonny-boy and Richter. Any of them who remains standing will probably be shot.