Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: NPA Headquarters

as written by Architect

The others on his floor had been running for the stairwells and emergency exits, and Arawin was quick to join them. A dozen or so people raced down the stairwell in a panic. Fed up with being surrounded by the mass of bodies, Arawin squeezed himself out of the stairwell and onto a lower floor. He paused to catch his breath, his face had gotten hot within his mask what with being so packed together in such a small space. He walked the length of the floor, away from the stairwell and down a hallway. He was sure there would be another way down somewhere, he just hoped it would be less claustrophobic.

Arawin noticed that it was notably quieter in this section of the building. He wondered why until he happened upon a corpse impaled by some rebar.

A quiet breeze brought a refreshing chill to his face, and Arawin looked to his right. Almost immediately the building around him opened up into the air, offering him a view of the city. It was clear he was near the point of impact of whatever had hit the building. He let out a whistle of disbelief.

Before he was done however, he felt the ground beneath his feet shift. And the floor gave out from under his weight. He let out a shout of surprised that lasted only a second or two before he landed on top of a printer on the floor below.

He groaned and got back to his feet. When he got his bearings once more he could hear the sound of someone approaching. He looked down the hallway and noticed that there was someone else on the floor, someone who looked like they were looking for survivors.
 
as written by Tiko

As the TAF, NPA, and Sarael worked diligently to try and combat the flames while clearing the area and evacuating the nearby buildings that would be in danger should the HQ fall, the inevitable came to pass.

The upper floors gave out first and the building seemed to crumple in upon itself, and with the added weight of each floor it only gained in momentum.Windows blew up, support beams snapped, and cement rained down from above until nothing more than a heap of rubble and fire remained of the once towering structure.

A billowing cloud of dust and smoke flooded the surrounding streets, and many of the emergency personnel themselves were caught up in the collapse, but many more had been evacuated to safety.

____

Sonya took the steps two at a time as they made their way down the winding fire-exit. Just ahead led the side door with a red sign hanging above it that read: EXIT

Sonya's hand was almost on the release mechanism to open the door when a deafening sound swept past them. Her eyes went wide in fear and for a moment she froze.

Two doors lay within reach. The exit, and the emergency basement access door.

As the building began to give under its own weight, and floor after floor began to crumple in rapid succession, she threw open the emergency basement access door and all but dragged Rick in after her.

Darkness swallowed them up as the door slammed shut behind them, and the tremors of the building coming down shook them so violently that Sonya lost her footing. Overhead the cement cracked and gave way as it collapsed down upon her.

____

When all at last fell silent, the only sound to reach Rick through the inky darkness was the faint dripping of water in the distance - nothing more than water from broken pipes if he was fortunate.
 
as written by Script

Sarael was within the lobby of the building when the collapse happened, forging a path through the flames. People ran past him in groups of two or three, latecomers to the evacuation who had only just managed to make it to the bottom floor. Alongside him worked several emergency workers, helping escort people from the building, unblock doors and quench fires.

The threat of collapse was an ever-present concern. Sarael knew he could save himself if it came down to it, but there were so many people still here...

The rumbling noise was the first warning, and Sarael might not have realised what was about to happen had one of the firefighters not yelled.

"The building's coming down!"

He had only a few seconds to act. The pages of his spellbook turned in the same instant he began to recite the words of the spell. The walls began to shake around them and people were running for the door. They wouldn't make it.

"Stay close to me!" he yelled, "Closer!"

As the sound of the collapse became thunderous, he raised his hand. Arcane magic bloomed around him and those around him.

"Wait!"

He turned his head. A young blonde man and a dark-haired woman staggered out of the stairwell into view. The man was limping on a clearly broken ankle. Those around him cried out for them to hurry as plaster began to rain from the shaking of the ceiling overhead.

Sarael held the magic on the cusp of being cast, focus evident in the bead of sweat on his forehead. Some of those beside him began to urge him to go, but he refused to go when there was any chance more could be saved.

The ceiling buckled. The weight of the entire building rained down, and Sarael cast. He and those around him vanished in the same instant that the building hit the ground.

They reappeared in the street outside to the sounds of screaming, well clear of the expanding cloud of dust. Rescue workers close by were startled by the flash of their arrival, but quickly recovered enough to run forwards and help those that needed it. Sarael let out a long breath, lowering his arms, closing his eyes and allowing himself a pause of rest that also served as a moment of bitter silence for those he had been unable to save.

"Thank you."

The young elf opened his eyes again at the voice of a woman.

"For waiting. You risked your life for us." She glanced over her shoulder to where the blonde man with the broken ankle was being helped onto a stretcher. "I have to go. But thank you."

Sarael nodded his head, his expression remaining neutral. The girl hesitated as though perhaps expecting a smile, but when none was forthcoming, she offered another of her own before hurrying after the man.

It hadn't been a risk, Sarael ruminated. He'd been prepared to transport those at his side out when they were out of time regardless of whether the couple reached them. But it would do her no good to know that. Just as it did him no good to know he had done everything that he could. He could no more have single-handedly prevented the building's collapse than anyone.

Magic was a gift, but sometimes its limits were made brutally apparent.
 
as written by Faithy

Aries came across corpse after corpse, no one alive it seemed on the floor he was currently creeping through. He was becoming increasingly agitated and a little flustered because he knew the likelihood of finding anyone alive was growing slim the longer he searched. Not only that, the trembling and shifting of the building was most definitely not a good thing. Any given moment, the entire structure was going to collapse and he would more than likely die due to his heroic nature.

“Damn it…” He snapped his head up from the corpse he had recently checked at what sounded like someone falling through the nearby roof. Jogging over towards where the stranger was at, he started to say something before the area they were in shifted tremendously, the roof falling in all around them while the floor started to collapse at the same time.

“Look out!” He didn’t even know why he shouted, especially since he was falling to what would probably be his death. When he slammed down on top of a desk, he rolled off, groaning while attempting to get back up, knowing that if he didn’t actually get out of the building, that would be the end of it.
 
as written by Script

"Delaney, Vince, Jenson, I want you working with the fire department to clear smoke and fires. Walker, Patil and Kent, you're to head up three teams to move in as soon as it's safe. Lock onto any living minds you can find in that rubble and lead the response teams to them. Defer to their expertise on any excavation, but do offer your assistance. Move out!"

Though her jeans were torn and her hair filled with flecks of dust, Sophia Harte, a high-ranking NPA psion hadn't missed a beat in beginning to direct her team of psychics to assist in both the evacuation and now the search-and-rescue operations. Their skills would be invaluable in fast-tracking the location of any individuals trapped alive beneath the rubble.

Locking onto the location of the fire department's temporary staging point, she began to hastily make her way towards it to lend her assistance in coordination. As she got halfway through the crowd of evacuees and respondents, however, she froze.

The young woman's eyes lit up with brilliant white light as the Svalinn called on her, along with several other NPA agents in the area. Power flowed from her mind towards the government centre where a team of Oracles battled against one of the terrorists responsible for this calamity.

As quickly as it had happened, it was undone.

Sophia screamed, dropping to her knees and clutching at her head. Those around her were shocked, some running to her side whilst others called for paramedics. The light in her eyes flickered between pure white and ominous darkness before finally it blinked out. She shuddered violently, grasping at the floor numbly as the effect of whatever had touched the Svalinn seared her mind.

But after a few long moments, whether by sheer willpower or by some other grace, she clenched her fists and pushed herself upright. With a harrowed edge to her eyes, she shrugged off those around her inquiring as to her health. There were others within the collapse suffering far more, she noted.

As screams erupted a short distance away where one of the other psions linked into the Svalinn had dropped dead with blood oozing from his ears, eyes and nose, Sophia strode onwards towards the staging point. She had no time for weakness, there were lives to be saved.
 
as written by Architect

As the ground gave way underneath Aries, He would feel a hand grab onto his wrist. The desk, and the ground fell and plummeted towards the earth, but Aries would not. Clutching to his wrist was Arawin, who floated in the air as if it were the easiest thing in the world. The falling debris and rubble of the collapsing building seemed to flow around them. Beams bounced off the air around them, and concrete slabs broke apart in midair, not even the dust showered on their clothes.

Looking down, Arawin saw many other incredible feats be performed throughout the carnage. There were, however, many who could not escape as they did. Arawin gave Aries a reassuring nod, before looking away. He carried them through the air, floating inside of an invisible bubble, and gently brought them both to rest atop a nearby building.

When his feet touched the ground, Arawin released Aries and began to brush himself off.

"Well that really sucks to see..."

____

Rick couldn't hear himself say it, but he knew that when the building had started to fall all around him, He had cursed pretty damn loud.

When he opened his eyes, well, when he thought he opened his eyes, He felt an immense pain fill his body. It radiated from his left shoulder, and traveled along the length of his back and arm. He tried to move, but felt himself pinned by something heavy. He felt the weight on one of his legs, and heaved a sigh.

He took a moment to fish through one of the pouches on his belt. After a few seconds a crisp,

snap

echoed in the darkness, followed by a dim, dull green glow.
 
as written by Tiko and Architect

Sonya groaned as she blinked her eyes in the murky green lightning. There was something warm and sticky on her face and she reached a hand up to touch the ragged gash across her brow where a chunk of concrete had struck her. Other bits littered the floor around her, and she was half covered in the debris that had fallen free from the ceiling. She couldn't quite seem to find her words through her dazed confusion.

Rick was relieved to hear a groan that wasn't his. It meant at the very least she was alive. He felt extremely exhausted, and his body screamed at him in angry pain. He breathed heavily as he lied on his back, too frustrated to get a good look at whatever was holding him in place.

"You in one piece?" He groaned out into the murky light.

"I think so. What happened?" Sonya asked.

The blow to her head had her thoughts all muddled up, and she was both dazed and confused.

"Seems like..." he had to pause to take another heavy breath. "Think we had a building dropped on our heads."

"Fuck me...." Sonya murmured.

How many people had still been inside the building when it came down? She rolled over on her side, trying to push the bits of concrete away from her so she could sit up, but the movement just left a wave of nausea rolling through her.
 
as written by Faithy

At one point he was falling towards his death and the next he was levitating in the air. Blinking, he glanced up at the individual who he had shouted the warning to, surprised to see him floating in the middle of nothing. Even as the building continued to crumble around them, the two remained safe. Was he dreaming? Had he already died? Absolutely nothing made sense to the male and he just looked around, his body aching from the previous issues with the destroyed structure. Still, he had a lot to be grateful for and was pleased when they soon moving away from the NPA headquarters to a close building. Once released, he stepped back, not out of fear, but well, no, it was due to a little bit of fear.

“Thank you… I owe you my life. I hope the rest of my teammates were able to get out. Any idea of who attacked us?” Aries was immediately serious business and knew that there was still a job to do. He felt the need to get back over there and start scouring the building for survivors despite it being likely that barely anyone got out safely.
 
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