Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Xmen Revolution. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Wax in the Fire; Guthrie Family
Topic Started: May 19 2014, 06:29 AM (200 Views)
Icarus
Member Avatar
Darkforce Wings, Vocal Manipulation
May 1st, 2014
4:15AM




It was a quiet night in the simple apartment building on the outskirts of New York City. Melinda Garcia and her two children, Louis 7 and Francis 4, slept soundly. Mark Mitchel, a recently divorced man just had his first successful date since his ex took him for nearly everything he had. Jay Guthrie returned from a late shift 30 minutes ago and crashed on his sofa bed, not even bothering to open it up. Denise and Robert Jacobson slept after trying for their first child. There were a few others in the building among its four floors. But for the moment, no room more important than 1B, Mrs Jane Hofferman.

Mrs Hofferman was 72, she had 2 children, and 5 grandchildren. Up until last month, she lived with her husband Bill. But Bill had a heart attack while driving, causing a three car accident, luckily with no injuries to any other drivers. Bill had a special place in many of the tenants hearts, he always greeted everyone with a smile, always asked how their days were even if someone didn't want to talk. He did them all a service as well. You see Jane was a smoker. Every night she had a cigarette right before bed, usually in bed. Sometimes she fell asleep with it in her mouth or between her fingers and her ever loving husband always took it from her, putting it out before going to sleep himself.

Bill wasn't around anymore though.

A lit cigarette fell from Jane's hand onto the carpeted floor. Things started to go up quickly. A defective smoke alarm in the old woman's apartment didn't sound things off until it was too late for her. However the smoke traveled as the fire started to move through the apartment building, quickly attacking the first floor as the building slept.

Jay started to stir at the smell of smoke, it billowing into his room from his door and through the vents. His detector was ringing constantly. He coughed several times before getting to the floor. He knew there was a fire escape right out his window. He could escape easily. But then he started to hear cries coming from another room. He recognized the voice of the single mother and the screams of her sons.

Jay looked at the window. It was his job to survive, wasn't it? He could get out, leave everything to the fire department that should be on the way already, if they were not already outside ready to barge into the building. Hellfire taught him to survive against any odds. All the means to do so where before him.

Somewhere else he learned that there was more to life than just surviving though.

He ran through the smoke. The hell the quiet apartment building had become was frightening. Did something else catch on fire that caused its acceleration? It must have, though he didn't know what. Maybe someone had paint thinner or something of that nature lying around for some DIY redecorating. It didn't matter.

Thankfully he was a rather strong individual despite his size and weight, a remaining gift of his mutation that had been mutilated years ago. He broke through one of the doors that had been shut. Melinda and her sons coughing and wheezing, the youngest didn't seem like he was moving at all.

"Come on!" Jay yelled through the roars of the flames that were engulfing the building. He kept low, trying to avoid breathing too heavily. Wishing he had kept one of the rebreathers that Forge had made, rather than just his body armor. He guided the family through the smoke which was becoming impossible to see through. Took them to his room next door which still had an opening to the fire escape.

Jay helped the mother down, carrying the youngest before giving him to his mother. Thankfully he was breathing, just really out of it. He told her to call 911, before he went back up into the burning building without a second thought. He knew there were others still in there, not many though as he saw several tennants faces out on the streets already.

He got back into his room through the window. The world dazed for a moment. He cursed his missing wings and their healing factor, wishing he had them at the moment. Or something. Jay started for his door again. His steps felt like slow motion despite his speed.

Creak.

The floor budged from under him. A sharp inhale as he started to fall back as everything moved from under him. Old wood and years of unseen damage finally giving way as he fell through the floor to the second, and then the first. The world went black.




3 hours later, 7:30AM

New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell

He had been in and out of lucidity for a little while now. They told him he was a hero, and that he came out remarkably well. The fire department got him out of the building not horribly long after he went back in. Him and the decased Mrs Hofferson being the only bodies retrieved from the building. Everyone who had been in there was alive thankfully, a few minor burns and smoke inhalation, but everything was fine.

It was discovered with the scans they had done that his bones were hollow, like a bird's almost, but incredibly strong despite two fractured ribs, and his left forearm which was now in a cast. Likely from the fall, or something falling on him. He had several burns, most of it on his back and shoulders, but there was a reddness to his face from minor first degree burns. A second degree burn on his back, though mostly around his left shoulder and upper arm. Whatever may have landed on it, probably was rather hot. Other than the burns and broken bones, there were several cuts, two of which required quite a few stitches.

But he was alive and in for the moment no longer in the ER as he had some pain killers in him so the injuries would not feel so bad, along with fluids. The smell of burnt hair still felt like it lingered, his long hair singed off to an even messier do that was rather lopsided. Not that he noticed, he hadn't had a mirror or anything.

Quite frankly he didn't care. He was alive.

"Mr. Guthrie." A nurse spoke up at the door. "Your family is here to see you, should I let them in?"

Jay looked at her puzzled for a moment. His family? How did they know he was here? Then he remembered. He had any of his siblings in New York or close enough to it that if anything happened to him and his body was found in whatever state, they would know.

"Uh yeah, sure. Tell'em to come up." He said back after the pausing thought. Wondering which ones would come. Melody lived closest to him now, staying in Mutant Town with friends. Then there was Sam and Paige at the school... would either of them be there as well? He could picture Sam coming in right away, grabbing him by the gown and calling him an idiot or something of that nature. It was just how Sam showed his love, Jay had always figured. At least towards him. He even looked forward to it after another brush with death.

Then there was a thought of another, Marie-Ange Colbert. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since that night several days ago. His drunken binge to forget about her failing at every corner, nearly costing him both of his jobs and his rent on the apartment that now was probably ashes. Almost all of his stuff probably with it. He was grateful he for once had the hindsight to invest in some safety measures and keep valuables in a lockbox which happened to also be fire proof. As well as his most cherished guitar in a rather expensive case that had similar qualities to the lockbox. That case also happened to hold the remaining tokens he had from Hellfire hidden inside, but no one would get in without the combination lock code. That was for another time though.

He would have to talk with Marie...especially after this close encounter with death. He would have to make a choice in his life. He needed to make several choices. Maybe this was a sign for his future. He had no idea what it meant but maybe it meant something.

He saw them come to the door. He had no idea what to say to them, whether they saw him or not when he was not awake. Everything hurt still despite the drugs, otherwise he would have given some sort of half assed wave. Instead he said one word.

" 'Sup?"

He smiled, his eyes uncontrollably starting to get a little watery against his will. Maybe it was the drugs, maybe it was years of repressed emotion, but in that moment, he couldn't believe how lucky he was to see them all again.
[align=left]Posted Image[/align]
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Melody Guthrie
Unregistered

Mel hadn't been back in the area for long. She'd made her calls to everyone to let them know she'd made it safe and sound and how to get a hold of her. Soon after she'd settled into her new place she'd ran into Jay on her way to lunch after a job interview. She'd made sure to exchange numbers and give him her new address in Mutant Town before they went their separate ways again.

It had been a long time since she'd seen him and it made her feel about better leaving home behind after talking to him.

She'd seen the fire on the news before she'd gotten the call that her brother was in the hospital. The inferno had been frightening. The firefighters had struggled to keep it contained. Something had kept it burning with an unnerving intensity. It had been a good thing they had gotten his brother out when they had. The building was little more than a shell now.

She'd found out in a roundabout way. She hadn't done the official change of address stuff yet, the phone she was using belonged to her friend she was staying with, and so she'd found out from Sammy after he was called. It was probably better she'd heard about it from him than some stranger at least.

She might have been last to know but she'd been closest. So she'd been able to visit him first, everyone else had a two hour drive or longer. It was scary seeing him like that, pallid where his skin wasn't scorched, hooked up to IVs and bound up in casts and bandages. Now he was awake and slightly propped up with pillows in the hospital bed and he didn't look nearly as fragile.

"Sup?"

Her lips quirked into a smile.

"Jay you shit, you have any idea how much you scared me?" she asked her brother, walking in and sitting at the foot of his bed even though there was a few chairs by his bed. She wanted to hug him but between the burns and broken bones she restrained herself.

Her smile trembled slightly looking at him, but she just said, "Ah'll trim your hair if you like..." It was damaged in places and lopsided. The real hurts she couldn't do anything about, but she could fix that at least. If he wanted.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Cannonball(old)
Member Avatar
Thermochemical Blast Field
Sam waited wordlessly at the door as Melody went right in. He'd done the same at the elevator door. At the Reception Desk. He'd done the same at the entrance to the hospital. He was angry and he was still on the fence about Jay.

Sam didn't understand it. He'd never really been the type to hold a grudge, but Joshua had so much on his side with the X-Men, with the School, with his family. Sam couldn't fathom what rationale had led him to side with the Hellfire Club. They'd 'rescued him' (more like accidentally stumbled on him, given their own telling of the events of the Hellfire Raid on that Purifier nest). It wasn't like the X-Men hadn't been looking. It wasn't like Sam hadn't been out all hours, scoring every inch of God's creation.

It still hurt was all, he couldn't drop it like he thought he should, and that hurt even more.

"Sup." came his rasp and Melody went in, and he let the two of them have a moment while he collected himself. The Doctors had filled him in, at least a little, and it was at least something to be proud of, even though pride mingling with resentment was an emotion Sam didn't think he could navigate right now.

He wasn't going to lecture. He wasn't going to begrudge. Not here or now. Melody wasn't a superhero. She had no stake in the X-Men. She was here to see her brother, and as hard for him as it was, he had to put aside his irritations for that.

"Mom's gonna skin you." He said from the door, arms folded. "Skin you and stuff you and hang you on the wall, just so she knows where you are forever."

Finally his shoes carried him into the room. He hated the stink of hospitals. Too clean, too sterile. They always felt colder than they needed to be. No color. The curtains stank. The floor was slick. He squeaked his sneakers as if to make sure of this. His arms, they stayed folded over his broad chest.

Eyes resting on Icarus there in that hospital bed he gave a slow shake of his head.

"You're some sort of lucky, Littlewing." He said. "Don't know what kind but some kind."

[align=center]Posted Image[/align]
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Icarus
Member Avatar
Darkforce Wings, Vocal Manipulation
He smiled weakly as his sister came in instantly cursing him. "Yeah wasn't...really thinking of that. Not sure what I was thinking going back in there. Just..." Jay stopped his speech for a moment, trying to remember what was running through his mind. He knew what happened it just, well it just happened, like instinct. Instinct he hadn't used in so long it felt foreign. He caught himself looking at Sam before his older brother even entered.

"Yeah Melly, that sounds good, probably been due for one anyways. Really don't want to walk around looking like Skrillex." He tried to chuckle but his chest just ended up hurting and he winced a smile.

Then Sam entered. His smile faded for a moment, locking eyes with Sam for a moment before looking away at his cast covered arm in a sling, and burns that made their way out of it and up his arm and splotched the rest of his exposed skin. He expected the lecture, but instead got something else.

Jay smiled.

"Yeah...she probably will." He nodded wanting to laugh but stopped himself. "You haven't told her yet have you?" Jay asked looking at the two of them. "I was kinda hoping I'd be able to do that on my own. Its been a while since I've called her anyways..." Plus he felt like him hearing her voice would be comforting and her hearing his would be the same.

The red haired Guthrie nodded, scratching at the stubble of his face that didn't burn away. It would have hurt with the burns on his face, if it weren't for the pain killers. Thank the lord almighty for pain killers.

"I dunno, maybe I'm immortal or something." Jay tried to joke but it fell flat. "Seriously I don't know, honestly sometimes I wonder which myself, but this time... I did it right." For the first time, he felt like he finally had a near death experience that was honorable, or note-worthy. Not because he was suicidal, not because he was weak, not because of anything other than the fact he was trying to help people. Nothing could take that away, and maybe that was the feeling Sam felt being with the X-Men, the thing Jay never understood.

"But hey, still here, still alive, something worth celebrating once I can have a beer again." He let himself recline against the pillow behind him.

"They said something about me staying the rest of the day and night for observation, and I'm free to go tomorrow morning... I don't want to sound sudden or burden either of you... but any chance either of you know where I could stay til I get a new place?" He really hated the thought of asking this. "I have no idea what survived the fire but... I got next to nothing again I think." He was avoiding one solution, going back home. Going back to Kentucky, with all of that baggage. He didn't want to bring that back to them. He still had so much to sort out.
[align=left]Posted Image[/align]
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Melody Guthrie
Unregistered

Melody tried - and succeeded about as well as Jay did - not to grimace in sympathy as her brother smiled through his pain. She wasn't sure whether he'd rather she fuss or not, but she didn't like too much fussing herself and didn't want to inflict that on anyone else.

She watched her brothers' exchange with silent concern, as few of their siblings were particularly happy with Jay. Neither were many of their school friends, at least they weren't last she'd seen them. It was a few years now since she'd seen their old classmates though so that was all she had to go off of. But whatever tension was behind the words, nothing came of it. And it was true. Their Ma was going to freak out as bad as she did when Jeb and her got caught in the explosion.

She shook her head at Jay's inquiry. "Ah didn't know what to say," she said, but that was a lame excuse. She had been scared to call Ma and tell her Jay was hurt, in the hospital. But Jay said that was what he wanted, he wanted to tell her himself. She just remembered talking to her after the explosion. She'd almost been convinced to come home then and there.

Some kinda lucky... her lips quirked slightly at his immortal quip. Lucky. They were all pretty damned lucky. They had so many near death experiences. "Ah'm just glad you're okay," she whispered. "And all those people. You did good, Jay."

He wouldn't be going through the pain he was if he hadn't gone back in, but people would be dead. At the same time, her throat felt tight knowing that the place had caved in, that he'd been trapped like she'd been trapped.

A place to stay? She thought about the apartment she shared. It wasn't as tiny as some in New York, it wasn't a bad neighborhood, and she'd be there to make sure he didn't overdo it while he was recovering. And she knew that her friend wouldn't mind in the least.

"Well. If you don't wanna go home, you can stay with me and the girls." There was still the option of him going to the school for a while, but she wasn't sure - that was two hours away. That was up to him though. And Sam. "If you want to."
Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · New York City Archives · Next Topic »
Add Reply