Pietro and Crystal - Take a Break
Feb. 13th, 2007 05:02 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsWhile taking a break from giving piggy-back rides to homeless guys, Pietro finds Crystal clearing snow and offers to help.
It wasn't that Pietro needed a break from evacuating the trapped people Dayspring was finding for him. He wasn't at all tired. But it only made sense to take a break while the Red Cross arranged for more facilities to hold the next batch of evacuees. Besides, there were other things he could do.
The familiar sound of continuously-blowing wind caught his ear, and he headed in that direction to find Crystal clearing snow, tailed by a few Red Cross volunteers with salt buckets who were making sure the streets didn't re-freeze in her wake. "Crystal!" he called, pulling down his mask so as to be better heard over the wind. "Would you like an assistant?" He grinned. "I'll drive if you steer."
Crystal looked over at Pietro, glad to see a familiar and friendly face, and smiled. She had been very happy when she found out that Pietro would be traveling with the other mansion residents to offer his assistance. "Sure, go ahead." She was glad to be outside and useful this time as a Red X volunteer instead of being mainly stuck inside a building playing air conditioner. True, she had been helpful that way, but it just wasn't the same as being actively involved with helping people or being able to use her powers in other ways. The tents seemed to be heated properly, otherwise she might have found herself playing heater to people other than herself. Plus, it was good to be able to be involved in something that served a purpose, something that wouldn’t turn out to be a wasted effort.
Pietro stepped up beside her and rolled his shoulders a few times to warm up. Then he flung his arms out in front of him, whirling them into a nearly-invisible blur. He pushed the vortexes straight ahead, as hard as he could; all force, trusting Crystal to provide the finesse. And for all that finesse was mostly what he'd been learning from her, he'd grown better at this, too; the twin whirlwinds extending from his hands were tighter these days, and fed into each other rather than fight for the available air.
Crystal's generated winds died down as she turned her attention to the new whirlwinds. Very good. It had been three months since Pietro had suggested that first experiment with using their powers together, and now they were in a situation where that work and practice had the opportunity to pay off with a real life application. Hovering six inches above the ground, Crystal looked at the combined vortexes and concentrated. The air Pietro was working with started off quite cold, just like the rest of the air in the area, but slowly began to grow warmer. Crystal knew that most people didn’t like the cold and would have preferred working in an area with a much higher temperature, but Crystal was actually glad for the opportunity to work in this type of environment. There wasn’t much reason to heat the air when you were in a warm climate, and she was fairly certain that no one with a walk-in freezer would want her to practice there.
Crystal's touch on the wind was no less welcome for being familiar, and as the winds warmed they didn't so much blow the drifted snow around as cut right through it. Pietro took one step, then another, and soon they were halfway down the block, leaving damp pavement and streaming gutters in their wake.
"How much of this did they ask you to clear?" he asked over his shoulder
"All of it," Crystal answered innocently, looking straight at Pietro, then grinned. The events of the previous day still weighed heavily on her mind, but there was something about being around a friend that allowed her to push those thoughts to the side, at least for the moment. "I am supposed to clear whatever I can without overextending myself. I am under direct orders to avoid fatigue, powers related or otherwise." She’d nearly done that yesterday, hadn’t she, by trying so hard to focus on multiple powers-related tasks at once without taking a break?
Pietro chuckled. "That must be the standard lecture. I did mention it takes several hours of supersonic travel to wear me out, but that didn't appear to make much of an impact. Let me know if you need a break, hm?"
Crystal nodded. Not everyone had also received the lecture from a quite protective older sister, not that Medusa didn't have good reason for it considering the coma Crystal and the others had been in a few weeks earlier. And of course there was that little fact that Crystal had dropped out of the sky on her first time out with Red X, a fact her concerned sibling was only too well aware of. "I will need to take a break in ten minutes," Crystal told Pietro. She was definitely going to take breaks this time, just as she had done when Nathan had suggested it yesterday morning, there was no question about that. As close to the ground as she was staying, it wouldn't be a gory splattering death she'd suffer from this time due to powers fatigue. This time, she'd freeze to death, and wouldn’t she look silly then?
Pietro grinned at her and redoubled the force of his winds. "We'll be clear across the city by then."
It wasn't that Pietro needed a break from evacuating the trapped people Dayspring was finding for him. He wasn't at all tired. But it only made sense to take a break while the Red Cross arranged for more facilities to hold the next batch of evacuees. Besides, there were other things he could do.
The familiar sound of continuously-blowing wind caught his ear, and he headed in that direction to find Crystal clearing snow, tailed by a few Red Cross volunteers with salt buckets who were making sure the streets didn't re-freeze in her wake. "Crystal!" he called, pulling down his mask so as to be better heard over the wind. "Would you like an assistant?" He grinned. "I'll drive if you steer."
Crystal looked over at Pietro, glad to see a familiar and friendly face, and smiled. She had been very happy when she found out that Pietro would be traveling with the other mansion residents to offer his assistance. "Sure, go ahead." She was glad to be outside and useful this time as a Red X volunteer instead of being mainly stuck inside a building playing air conditioner. True, she had been helpful that way, but it just wasn't the same as being actively involved with helping people or being able to use her powers in other ways. The tents seemed to be heated properly, otherwise she might have found herself playing heater to people other than herself. Plus, it was good to be able to be involved in something that served a purpose, something that wouldn’t turn out to be a wasted effort.
Pietro stepped up beside her and rolled his shoulders a few times to warm up. Then he flung his arms out in front of him, whirling them into a nearly-invisible blur. He pushed the vortexes straight ahead, as hard as he could; all force, trusting Crystal to provide the finesse. And for all that finesse was mostly what he'd been learning from her, he'd grown better at this, too; the twin whirlwinds extending from his hands were tighter these days, and fed into each other rather than fight for the available air.
Crystal's generated winds died down as she turned her attention to the new whirlwinds. Very good. It had been three months since Pietro had suggested that first experiment with using their powers together, and now they were in a situation where that work and practice had the opportunity to pay off with a real life application. Hovering six inches above the ground, Crystal looked at the combined vortexes and concentrated. The air Pietro was working with started off quite cold, just like the rest of the air in the area, but slowly began to grow warmer. Crystal knew that most people didn’t like the cold and would have preferred working in an area with a much higher temperature, but Crystal was actually glad for the opportunity to work in this type of environment. There wasn’t much reason to heat the air when you were in a warm climate, and she was fairly certain that no one with a walk-in freezer would want her to practice there.
Crystal's touch on the wind was no less welcome for being familiar, and as the winds warmed they didn't so much blow the drifted snow around as cut right through it. Pietro took one step, then another, and soon they were halfway down the block, leaving damp pavement and streaming gutters in their wake.
"How much of this did they ask you to clear?" he asked over his shoulder
"All of it," Crystal answered innocently, looking straight at Pietro, then grinned. The events of the previous day still weighed heavily on her mind, but there was something about being around a friend that allowed her to push those thoughts to the side, at least for the moment. "I am supposed to clear whatever I can without overextending myself. I am under direct orders to avoid fatigue, powers related or otherwise." She’d nearly done that yesterday, hadn’t she, by trying so hard to focus on multiple powers-related tasks at once without taking a break?
Pietro chuckled. "That must be the standard lecture. I did mention it takes several hours of supersonic travel to wear me out, but that didn't appear to make much of an impact. Let me know if you need a break, hm?"
Crystal nodded. Not everyone had also received the lecture from a quite protective older sister, not that Medusa didn't have good reason for it considering the coma Crystal and the others had been in a few weeks earlier. And of course there was that little fact that Crystal had dropped out of the sky on her first time out with Red X, a fact her concerned sibling was only too well aware of. "I will need to take a break in ten minutes," Crystal told Pietro. She was definitely going to take breaks this time, just as she had done when Nathan had suggested it yesterday morning, there was no question about that. As close to the ground as she was staying, it wouldn't be a gory splattering death she'd suffer from this time due to powers fatigue. This time, she'd freeze to death, and wouldn’t she look silly then?
Pietro grinned at her and redoubled the force of his winds. "We'll be clear across the city by then."
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