Rising Waters: Angel and Jean

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Angel and Jean head out to convince a man to come back to safety with them. It's not as easy as they had hoped it was going to be.



There was water everywhere. Jean shuddered lightly as she hovered above what she'd been told was a museum; there was water up practically under the eaves of the roof, although at least the rain had stopped. She wondered how much convincing she would need for Scott to take her on vacation somewhere with no water. South Africa was out, after her last trip, but she might be able to swing for Egypt. Lots of sun for him in Egypt. Angel's boat came into view around the corner of the street turned waterway and Jean refocused, scanning quickly through the neighborhood houses. #Mr. Novak's still here,# she sent. #Looks like they didn't convince him to leave last night. Time to try again?#

In the boat and below where Jean was hovering in the sky, Angel flinched just slightly at the telepathic contact. They'd been working on her hesitation around them and she'd gotten better but it was slow going. It felt like everything was going slow these days. She blew a stray lock of hair out of her face before reaching up to tuck it back into the braid. #Yeah,# she sent back hesitantly. She might have been able to get the Professor to lock onto her in the middle of a crisis but she was still feeling her way around this back-and-forth mental talk stuff. #We'll see if we can convince him to come with this time.#

Angel turned towards her guide and boater. "Dr. Grey-Summers says that Mr. Novak hasn't left yet," she relayed, voice rising slightly to be heard over the noise of the water.

"Oh, well, that just figures," David Greene said with a sigh, angling the motor to cut up what used to be 18th Avenue towards C Street and the home of the man in question. "Don't get me wrong, it's heartbreaking what's happened, but there's a limit, you know? A time when you've gotta say 'enough's enough'. Life's more than just history, no matter how important your history is. 'Sides, we'll recover. Did last time."

She'd done her homework on the trip over so she just nodded, looking around with a sad expression on her face. "You can make new memories," Angel said, though she knew the man in question was older. His entire life was right there in that house and maybe he was thinking there wasn't much time left for him to make those new memories...

Angel pictured herself in his position and had to wonder if she'd leave or if she would stay among the pieces of her past.

John nodded, falling silent. He'd chatted briefly with Mr. Novak yesterday, and did understand his reasoning, but at the same time, boating on the swollen river was downright dangerous and, while he trusted his skills and his little ship, John didn't hold with endangering little girls, no matter what the volunteer director had said. Not that he'd say anything of the sort to Angel. Girl had spirit, that was sure.

Seeing that her message had been passed on as the boat turned towards the last occupied residence in the area, Jean nodded to herself and followed a few feet behind and above. Better to let Angel and her guide talk to the old fellow. Chances were good he wouldn't take well to her showing up outside his window, floating above the river.

Keeping a tight grip on the side of the boat – good swimmer or not, she did not want to end up in those waters – Angel waited until they were closer to the house before leaning forward to get a better look. A good section of the house was now under water and the nasty stuff was sloshing against windows and wood. The entire bottom half had to be completely gone at this point, she realized.

"Mr. Novak?" she called out, voice loud enough to be heard.

"Back, are you all? I've been perfectly clear," the voice came from one of the windows on the top floor of the house which was open, and soon a head leaned out to gaze at them, eyebrows raising when he caught sight of who was in the boat. "I've clean water and non-perishable food. They tell me the river's not rising any more, or not much. I'm fine."

Carefully, Angel scooted towards the end of the boat she she could peer up at the older man's face with ease. "But Mr. Novak, it's not just the water, you know?" she argued, frowning. "There's got to be all sorts of nasty things in the water and floating around in the air - you could get sick!"

"There's worse things in life than being sick. Get to be my age, girl, and you stop being afraid of dying."

John Greene frowned at that. "Come on, sir," he called out. "I know you still got family. Your boy's in Austin, right? And grandchildren. Seems like a pretty good reason to not go courting trouble to me."

"Ain't seen them in years," came the reply.

Angel scooted further towards the window as her frustration rose. No wonder this guy was making people back at base camp shake their heads. "Sir, the entire bottom of your house is totally underwater. Who knows how long until the bottom decides that it wants to visit with other houses or something?"

"My grandfather built this house, back when this city wasn't much more than a trading town on the river, sending crops and goods down to the Mississippi. Real solid workmanship." Mr. Novak considered them, then shook his head. "Nope, I'm staying right here."

"Careful," John said as he saw Angel scooting forward. "You keep your grip solid now, you hear?"

She turned back to nod at him, to show him that her hands were firmly on the boat and she had no intention of going in the water - when mother nature had other ideas. The waters beneath them were moving at a fast pace and there were things in it.

Like the tree branch that surfaced suddenly as it smashed into the side of the boat, turning them with the force of the blow. If Angel hadn't been in the middle of turning around, she would have simply rocked with the motion. But her movement went against the rocking and she suddenly found herself tumbling overboard with a short scream.

"Angel!" Jean cried out, starting to reach for the girl telekinetically, but hesitating. There could well be other underwater debris and she didn't want to risk hurting her in an attempt to save her. Particularly not when Angel could, hopefully, save herself.

Almost the second Angel went into the water John was reacting, shutting down the motor instantly, stilling the dangerous blades and letting the current push the boat away from where she'd gone in, eyes scanning about for sign of the girl. He couldn't leave the motor off for long, the boat would end up plowing into the side of a building, like as not, but he needed to give her a chance to get clear.

Mr. Novak, though, was the surprising one. Seeing the young girl fall into the water he yelled out, "No!" and reached out, almost as though he could stop her. If his will alone could reverse time it would, things the volunteers coming by and saying about putting others at risk through his choice suddenly becoming clear. "Damn you, boy!" he raged at John. "How could you bring her out here?"

Half-way through his sentence, ten feet away the water started to bubble and boil, writhing as though it had been introduced to a very hot object.

And it had been. Underneath the surface of the nasty, swollen river, Angel had instinctively surrounded herself in her fire shield. Good thing, too, as she was being buffeted by large objects, causing her to be pushed away from the boat like some sort of on fire pinball. She had good lung capacity but she had no intention of staying under there for long - good swimmer or not, the current was far too strong - and she thrust down as hard as she could with her powers, aiming for the surface.

#Up# she sent frantically to Jean, hoping she was going in the right direction.

#Good girl,# Jean sent as the trail of boiling water and the frantic thought gave her enough of a location sense to reach out and pull a bubble of water and Angel free of the river.

Which left the two men gaping at them in shock.

Angel was now floating in a ball of river water several feet above the air and, for a moment, she looked both disgusted and irritated with the fact that she'd fallen in at all. She tucked both legs in for a moment before straightening, using the downward stroke to guide the sudden burst of heat and energy to boil the remaining water around her into vapor.

She felt the bubble around her ease and then she was floating through her own power, gasping in deep gulps of air. "Oh...my...god," Angel said at last, face screwing up into a grimace. "That was so gross!"

"Are you all right?" Jean asked, giving Angel a visual check. No obvious marks or cuts...

Mr. Novak's response, once he found his tongue, was rather less prosaic. "How did you do that?" he asked, still staring at the two of them. "How are you doing that?"

"I flamed up right as I hit the water," Angel assured Jean, "which considering what was under there? So totally a good idea." She turned a sheepish look towards Mr. Novak and gave him a little wave. "Surprise, mutants?" She cleared her throat, rubbing the back of her neck. "Um..."

"Oh. Huh." Mr. Novak still looked more than a little stunned from the proceedings; small girls falling into the flooded river and then setting themselves on fire and flying about provided rather more excitement than he'd planned on for today.

John Greene, at least, had known about his two companions abilities, although he hadn't expected such a display. "Right useful skill you've got there, miss. Ma'am," he added, including Jean with a nod. "Though now I'm wondering how you're supposed to get back in the boat, Angel. 'D rather you didn't set it on fire, personally."

"Oh...yeah." Angel stared quizzically down at the boat. Even a gentle drop into it might tip it over and she was not about to send either Mr. Greene into the water or herself back. But if she touched down right on it, setting it on fire was a really strong possibility. She tilted her head back up to stare at Jean. "Dr. Grey-Summers? Could I get a hand, please?"

"Of course," Jean said without pause. #I can catch you as you let go of your power,# she sent, using a light mental touch to sense the exact moment Angel was no longer supporting herself and carefully lowering her into the boat.

The two men watched this proceeding with interest and a certain amount of alarm as Angel's fire winked out and she thoroughly failed to fall again, but all John said was, "Right useful," before turning back to Mr. Novak. "Now see here, you. You want to keep bringing us out here, making sure you're all right and all, or will you finally see sense and come away."

"I..." Mr. Novak said, pausing, and finally looking away from Angel back at John. "Yes," he said quietly. "Yes, you're right. I'm being selfish."

Angel nodded, looking slightly disgruntled from her not really a near miss but satisfied as well. "When the water level drops down and it's safe to come back," she said, "I'll come back with you and we'll take a look around, okay?" She glanced up towards Jean, shoulders dropping slightly as her stomach grumbled. "In the mean time, I could murder a sandwich."

"Yes, we need to get you some food, Angel," Jean agreed, shooting John a curious look; she'd not expected the old man to give in so quickly, and wasn't entirely certain of the procedure from here.

John was perfectly willing to take the lead here, though. "All right, Mr. Novak. You've got ten minutes; go pack a bag with some clothes, any medicine you need, all of that, and then we'll get you out of here."