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| HOT PURSUIT
VOL 2 EPISODE 5
Cops scurrying to assist the fearful crowd in the evacuation. Corona sees the familiar swirls of glowing orange inside the restaurant..It looks bad. Smoke billows from that building. Even getting some of the bitter aftertaste of it from on top of the roof. The flames flicker and dance, almost hypnotically, inside the restaurant. Corona lands in the middle of the intersection and quickly begins to lower the temp in the area. Fortunately there isn't too much traffic on the street at this time of day. Corona can see the police further up Clinton street cordoning off the area, for any midnight traffic that might come by. Oddly, the crowd evacuating the building doesn't seem to mind Corona being there in the street.
......................................................................................................................................................................
Its almost midnight. Acting on his gut, Strikes heads toward the Manhattan Bridge in a yellow New York City cab.
The driver, a man from India, ignores him for the entire trip. At first it seems like hes talking to himself, chatting in his own language. But then he notices the wireless headset that hangs off his ear.
Somehow he manages to hit every red light. His meter keeps tickin. After 15 minutes, he wonders how much this is all gonna cost, when your attention is quickly diverted.
As he approaches the intersection, strobing lights of 3 parked police cars can be seen. They have pulled up in front of a building, where smoke an flame billow from the ground floor. Policemen race to cordon off the area, helping to evacuate tenants from the 5 story building.
You remember this building right away! Its the Jade Dragon, that restaurant where you had lunch!
Strike yells for the driver to pull over he quickly pays him and hops out the cab. Taxi driver takes his money and finds a safe place to turn. The police are tellin' him that he can't go that way due to the fire.
By now the flames can be seen flickerin' and dancin' through the entire first floor. The smoke billows ever thicker. Strike looks find an alley off the way, hoping, everyone will be looking towards the fire, so he can change and then head in that direction.
The gathering crowd, mostly of Asians... they're reaction to this event is mixed.... it reminds Strike a lot of the disaster that he faced in New Orleans...How every person in the crowd reacts differently... A pear shaped man with a droopy face and glasses watches the building sadly, as if hypnotized by the flames, as he watches his home go up in smoke. A woman in her early 20's in her nightgown and wears her hair up in an old fashioned bun is hysterical in tears, and she refuses to be consoled. He notices another woman, searching the crowd frantically. She's calling something, but he can't hear what she says. Strikes not even sure if it's Chinese or English because her voice is drowned out by the confused babble of the crowd. But when she turns toward him, he suddenly recognizes who she is. It is the friendly, attractive waitress who served you your lunch. Her face is soaked with tears. She doesn't seem to be looking his way. She just searches through the crowd frantically.
Strike having changed to his gray camouflagepants, chalk grey boots and tank top and light grey vest.
Sliding on his leather fingerless gloves. He always liked the feeling of those. Strike now heads back towards the fire, trying to hurry but not push too many folks out the way and cause any issues... will look for the waitress. Reaching the street the crowd has swelled by now. The cops are trying to control the crowd so nobody gets hurt as well as control traffic and help the evacuation. Strike calmly makes his way through the crowd scanning hoping to mainly catch a glimps of Corona or the waitress. Once close enough to hear the waitress she cries out "Lalu! Lalu?!" Some are wearing their nightgowns and pajamas, others are fully clothed gawkers. He catches sight of her in a corner... she's approaching a man in his forties. Strike begins to close the space to her still looking around for Corona. The thin Asian man clutches a brown leather jacket... He's wearing a Chef's uniform. He trembles as if cold. He turns toward the policemen and shouts something that Strike can hear. His voice is lost amongst the crowd.
Once close enough to hear the waitress she cries out "Lalu! Lalu?!".
"Excuse me..." Trying to look reassuring, "Is there a problem?.. I mean other than... well all this?" Strike waves his hand in the direction of the fire.
She spins around.. She's on the verge of hysteria. "My baby! My baby! Lalu! I can't find her!"
Strikes eyes widens suddenly, "What?! Where was she last?" **
Her eyes suddenly widen. "The building! Oh my god! She must be still in the building!" But before Strike can react, he see HIM...Swooping down from the sky...Like an Eagle looking for prey...CORONA. He lands right on the street in front of the crowd. The cops, already overloaded with the evacuation, directing traffic, protecting the crowd, and keeping people out of the area don't notice immediately. But Strike's looking right at him!
Corona looks at the building and spreads his arms and hands wide and begins to drastically drop the temperature in the area. Slowly and precisely the temperature drops. He hears a man.. he's been screaming in the general direction of the cops. Something he says catches Coronas attention. He shouts "And where are the firemen?! This would not happen if the fire station was not closed! This would not happen if police caught HOODLUMS like the White Dragon!" With that, he stops short, and does not say another word.
Strike sees Corona land brazenly in the middle of the street. He raises his arms, obviously an attempt to fuel the blaze...a shiver go down your spine- like you're COLD or somethin'. Maybe it's just the adrenaline pumpin'. Bein' so close to a super. Never BEEN in this situation before....
Strike looks at Corona and is torn as he looks at the fire. The objective of his search is sooo close but he can't ignore the chance of innocents in the fire. He turns to the waitress, "I will see what I can do." He then turns and ducks down a little in the crowd, slips on his mask and runs as fast as he can past the police into the burning building.
Corona has lowered the temperature significantly, but not enough to kill the flames yet. Corona thinks "Colder must make it colder.” Corona walks towards the building to get closer to the flames and see inside the building. By now the flames are starting to show up in the second floor windows by the way.
The police have the crowd moved back, but some are still evacuating, and of course the police are close to the building.
As Corona concentrates on the flames so they will not spread any more. Corona examines the general area, when he sees a masked black man in a costume trying to race toward the building. The cops see him too as he tries to move past one.
"STOP!" the cop demands.
Corona thinks "Finally some help, but who is he?”
But then, as quickly as the cop notices Strike, his attention is diverted.
A commanding female voice calls out: "CORONA! FREEZE NOW! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" The policeman whips his pistol from his holster and draws, looking in the direction of the call, coming from the west side of the building.
Strike continues to move towards the burning building, but not before giving Corona a look that speaks loudly, "Yeah, I see you and we have unfinished business."
Corona is too far to notice, of course...now that the police's attention are focused on him, it's his best chance to get into the building.
Regardless, Strike rushes forward, and suddenly the cops focus is back on you. "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU CAN'T GO IN THERE! GET BACK!" Strike ignores the cop and continues to rush in.
"Hey I said STOP!” The cop races forward to tackle him.
Like a moving man-mountain, Strike races forward and pushes his way past the cop, before he can take any action against him. He's down on the ground now, as he moves past him toward the open door. An orange wall of flame and thick black smoke cloak the entrance.
Strike yells back to the cop, "Sorry! there are people in there that needs saving!!"
As Strike moves toward the door when he hears another cop respond. "Hey! DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS?!" "Who?" calls the cop on the ground. "I think that was Luke Cage!!!" the cops says back.
"Man! No props for me! Someone always stealing my thunder!!!” Strike thinks to himself.
Strike grimaces at the fire, then puts is hand up in front of his face and charges in.
"I can't believe I tried to stop Luke Cage!" the cop on the ground laments. "Rookie!" the other cop answers.
Corona walks towards the building and brings the flames towards himself to get them out of the building snuffing them in the process.
"CORONA! FREEZE NOW! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!” yells a female cop. The voice, although he can't place it right away, is strangely familiar. For some reason, it brings back thoughts of college!
"OK you control the flames and I'll go arrest some law abiding person!” Corona states still concentrating on the flames to snuff them out.
"I said GET DOWN Corona! NOW!” she calls out again.
"Her voice sounds so familiar! Why?” Corona thinks. "Defy the cop with a gun pointed at me or let this building burn? defy the cop cant let this burn.”
As Corona continues to "speak" to the flames, commanding them to stop feeding on the building. Suddenly a blue blur with a hair full of brown curls charges toward him. Knocking him down onto the ground and is on top of him. Her sweet, high pitched voice seems in direct contrast to her forceful nature. And then Corona remembers...
"Guys, I need some back-up!” she calls out.
Corona banged his head against the pavement. Not enough to seriously injure him, but certainly enough to break his concentration.
Corona turns to see her face, even as he remembers her voice, and the memories flood back...Kathy Siwick.... the girl he dated in college. She still looks the same... Large green eyes, fair skinned, an Irish pug nose, long, brown, curly hair, that is currently held back by black scrunchy underneath her cap.
Corona states "Did you not see me putting the fires out and you go and do this officer Kathy Siwick?”
Maybe she's put on a little more weight, but in her case that's a good thing. She used to be so skinny.
His comment to her takes her aback." WHA- WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
He remembers her. He liked her enough. Of course the feelings never developed into anything like what he has with his wife....He remembers back then, when they first met, she seems somewhat shy. Maybe even mousy. But as he got to know her more, he got to know that underneath there was a strong spirit. A fiery personality. Although you liked her a lot, it started to seem like whatever he said, became an argument with her. And, of course the fact that she was a die hard conservative who considered all mutants a threat to national security didn't help. She was a nice enough girl on a personal level, but in the end, it wasn't a match, and so he had to let it go. But, despite all of the arguing, despite the incompatibility, she never took to well to the fact that he ended things with her. She seemed to take it real personal. In the end she wound up transferring to another school. Here she is now, on top of him, and he just stunned her by calling her by first name....
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