Max had been halfway across the empty lot -- half because she was anxious to get home, but also because she'd scared an old tomcat with her entry and was now chasing after it to make sure it wasn't hungry or lonely or angry or hurt -- when the crash [i]did[/i] throw her off her feet. Almost fifteen years spent in gymnastics accounted for next to nothing when Max was distracted, and between the dark, the cat, and the growing feeling of something about to go horribly wrong, distracted she had been. 

She hadn't seen what or where whatever it was had been when it made the noise, but whirling around, she was quick to spot a stout, thick pillar of smoke and dust rising from the gutted carcass of a half-finished building. 

For a moment, all she could do was stare. It was clear, even to Max, [i]something[/i] had crash-landed in the yard. It couldn't have been all that large, because the building was still standing, aside from some smoldering rubble knocked from crumbled walls. But it must have been going fast to shake the earth like it had, and anyway, all that smoke certainly couldn't be good, and anything coming from the sky, must have come from somewhere else first, which probably meant someone was inside the thing -- a helicopter? a private place? a motorized paraglider? -- and oh, no what if they were hurt?!

Max was running almost before she realized it. In her mind, there was no possibility of danger outside the possibility of someone being hurt. There was no room for anything else. Thoughts of fire, weaponry, UFOs, and War-Of-The-Worlds aliens -- all things that would have warranted consideration and a ten-minute daydreaming kick in any other situation -- were now null and void. There was only the potential of someone hurt and scared and by themselves, and Max couldn't just stand by and watch. 

She'd forgotten all about Mario and Theo, didn't know or care whether they were behind her. She had a cellphone and two hands, and she was going to help. 

She reached the gutted building and hauled herself through what had been a window before stopping again, eyes wide. 

It wasn't a paraglider. 

But it wasn't unharmed, either. 

Undaunted, Max stepped forward. 

"Um...hello? Is someone...in there? Do you need help?"