[h2]Arrival:[/h2]

A rerun news report and a three hour cab ride didn't spell anything resembling good news or even positive outcomes for our hero, in fact he was certain by the time he got there he wouldn't even have anything to do. This was much to the chagrin of Might, whose entire purpose in living is to help people, at least he thinks that's his purpose. 

So when the cab finally did come to a screeching halt outside of the crackling green dome of light, Might was almost happy to see that catastrophe had struck. Though that would be a morbid line of thought, it was more that he was happy that he had something to do and people to help. 

[color=8dc73f]"What in Sam Hill is that!? Look here towel boy, you didn't tell me that there was some sort of voodoo juju going on! Get out of my cab!" [/color]The cabbie screamed in his face, Might hadn't told him why he wanted to get to Philly so urgently. It was sort of undertstandable, though Might hadn't asked him to drive inside. All he asked was to get here, and now that he was, he was fine with being kicked out of the cab. 

There would be no tip for the cabbie, as Might stepped out of the car with a meek and insincere apology. [color=f26522]"Sorry man. Whoops."[/color] There was really no regret behind his voice, though he tried his best to make the most sincere face he could. 

[i]He failed.[/i]

This only infuriated the cabbie more, who was now screaming at the top of his lungs in a near unintelligible dialect of English that was the strangest mix of Southern and New Jersey that he had ever heard. I was fortunate that the man drove away when he did, Might didn't want to get into an argument with him about why he was even here. 

Though as the cabbie drove off in a huff, Might realized that his ride just bailed on him and wouldn't be coming back.

Regret would have filled him like water in a glass, if his right arm hadn't suddenly begun to glow with its dim crimson radiance. It turned his mind from himself back to the people inside of the dome, those folks in Philly who didn't have the chance to evacuate might still be inside the dome and if that were the case, he might run into some newly born metahumans. 

Most people don't get a life or death situation to acclimate themselves to their newfound powers like he did, how many people are inside and freaking out? 

[h1]Entrance:[/h1]

Slapping his cheeks and reaching down between his legs to grab hold of the extra cloth of his tunic. He wrapped it around his legs and then tied it together in front of his groin, girding his loins up nicely. With cloth no longer impeding his legs, Might stepped towards the dome with his right arm extended. It was slightly transparent, though through the gateway he could see no living people. It was a mostly abandoned, and this worried him deeply. 

If they weren't fleeing, they were gathering or already gone. This conclusion was jarring enough that he actually spoke aloud, instead of internally monologuing. "Neither of those can be considered preferable." Fortunately he was never out of character, so. Well, y'know, any unwitting spectator doesn't catch him with his gritty normal voice. Honestly just a preference, breaking character means that he's dwelling on the life he can't have.

Anyway.

As he approached the thinning dome, he extended his right arm through the veil. It felt strange, it tingled a little. But not like an electrical charge, more like goosebumps. If he were human anymore, this might have had a greater effect on him. Fortunately for everyone's sakes, he is far from human these days.

The dome parted around his body and the glow of his arm grew in luminescence, though only marginally. It cast a crimson glare on his face, offsetting the unseemly green that the light passing through the dome overhead imparted to his visage. The strangely green glow of his eyes too was offset, made even brighter by the verdant dome above. 

There were distant crowd sounds that he could vaguely perceive as he broke the membrane of the dome, it seemed to leave a hole behind in the strange energy dome. It seemed that it was thinning out so much that anything that passed through it would leave a clear mark. Or perhaps that was just him and his unnatural presence. 

Might stepped up into the air, over and over. Placing each foot over the other in the same way as a man climbing a flight of invisible stairs, it gave him a distinct view of the roads ahead. What he saw as he crossed the precipice of the nearest rooftop was awful, in the streets there were people huddled around eachother. Vaguely barred off the rest of the city by dumpsters, cars and barriers. An effective blockade against what was happening nearby, it was a single man who was mutated so horribly that he was barely recognizable as a human. Though his shape was that of a man, his body was encased in a shell of flame and smoke. Unlike normal flame, he was passively ejecting streams of unnaturally bright flame. 

Might didn't know much about sciences beyond forensics, but he did notice the difference between fire and whatever he was encased in.

The man was covered in solar flames.

Might's mouth was met with an awestruck silence, two words managed to creep from his lips. [color=f26522]"My god."[/color]

He was a walking star.

[h1]Welcoming Party:[/h1]

When his moment of silence passed, his subconscious finally allowed sound to enter his ears. There were cries of fear every time a tongue of solar flame erupted from his body, it cut through concrete and steel alike as it passed over them. Like a plasma cutter or a hot knife through butter, it melted crude jagged lines of red hot marks into the surroundings. From over twenty feet away he could feel the heat. 

Tongues of plasma erupted over the barricade and the huddled crowd screamed in fear and pain, sunburns almost instantly among anyone whose skin was exposed. Adults pulled their clothes open to cover the children from the light, though it left them vulnerable. 

Might's ears focused on something strange and haunting.

Crying.

Not just the crying of the crowd, crying from outside of their makeshift barrier. 

The man of fire was sobbing and panicking, he had no idea what was happening to him. Nor did he seem to have any control over it, it was going wild and there was nobody that could be there to help him.

Not even Might was immune to everything that he was spewing forth, it was difficult to even look at him from the brightness of his body. The hero's eyes squinted tightly in a futile attempt to lessen the strain on his eyes, it still burned him painfully. 

From his airborne position, he allowed himself to slide downwards. As though he were descending a cliff in a risky but expeditious way, it put him right in the center of the walking star's corona. his clothes heated up almost instantly. The top layer of his skin immediately began to drench itself in sweat, trying to compensate for the sudden and sharp change of temperature. It was incredibly painful, it felt like a smokehouse cranked to eleven.

The man's panic rose even higher upon seeing Might enter the danger zone of his solar radiation, he screamed and cried. Toppling himself over to the ground and crawling backwards with his elbows. Though this only served to bury his forearms into the concrete, leaving him to only panic and struggle more. 

It was like he was wading in tar with his sluggish and unnatural backwards swimming crawl, strings of burning plasma erupted from his body, Might was forced to raised his arm to catch one before it blasted across his face. It lashed his arm like a whip and burnt away a layer of skin painfully, leaving the next layer exposed to the air and heat. It was so terribly painful that his legs nearly gave out from the pain alone.

An unspeakable pain ran from his arm to the rest of his body, and he had no idea how to deal with this. An adversity so distant from normal and totally out of his element, with no frame of reference to work from. This man needed help, this man was in danger of hurting others and himself. And Might couldn't do anything except sit and stare. 

The retired detective frowned, covering his face with his arm once again to catch another oncoming lash of plasma. Another agonizing burn crossed his forearm and split his skin almost explosively. With a sudden epiphany born from pain and adrenaline, Might stepped forward and extended his right hand. Breaking down his own thoughts from the moment before.


[h1]Hurting others, Hurting himself:[/h1]

Might couldn't prevent him from hurting other people if there were people nearby, so he had to get him away. Though this was to be the singlehanded most painful thing he's ever experienced in his life, he knew he wasn't going to get hurt other than superficially. 

With his extended right arm, he grasped firmly on the man's left leg and yanked violently, forcing him from his molten hole in the Earth with a violent jerk. The white hot burning of the solar man flooded his right arm with an intolerable pain, it was to a point where he was forced to shut his eyes tightly.

 Just to prevent himself from having a visual hallucination from the shock of it all. 

He screamed in unison with the even further confused man of flames, the two screaming for wholly separate reasons. Lances of energy shunted from the solar man's body as Might hoisted him up by the ankle kicking and screaming like a newborn babe. 

"I can't help you first!" The hero managed to choke out as he stepped up the air in long dragging footfalls to double the height he would normally gain.  His voice quavered back and forth from the gritty voice of Detective and the commanding tone of Might. Staying conscious alone was torture enough, so maintaining character was honestly the least of his concerns. 

The man of the sun wasn't able to understand what he meant, nor was he able to calm down. Now he wasn't just a hazard to everyone around himself, he was actively hurting this man, and being dragged off like some sort of animal. The panic and terror that confounded the man's sense of self was causing the bursts of energy to more actively erupt from his body. Scarring Might's arm and somehow managing to miss his body entirely, in fact, even Might's clothes were uncannily untouched by the licks of flame.

Even though his clothes were unharmed, skin all over his body was burning from the proximity to so much UV. It was beginning to blister and would absolutely be hell to deal with later, but nothing was going to ever be as bad as this is right at this very moment. 

Might hoisted the man through the air, sprinting at this point. He turned his head away from the man to look behind himself and see if anybody in the makeshift barricade was in harm's way. They were fine, from what he could see, so there's problem number one out of the way.

Hurting others.

Now that innocents were out of danger, Might could focus on saving the man from himself. There was no natural formations of water around here, but there was Gustine Lake. Northwest of the city center of Philly, and it was one hell of a hike out of the way. At this point, Might was crying and barely able to breathe from the strain of keeping himself upright and holding this man. Now only two lives were in danger, Might's and the man on fire. 

What took three minutes felt like days of effort as Might lifted the man through the air and over the highest buildings. The sky was filled with ionized air that burnt his nostrils and made breathing even more of a struggle. He was lightheaded, and his vision was beginning to split and waiver. The lake wasn't totally visible, in fact, he wasn't sure if his vision wasn't entirely hallucination or factual imagery. Whatever the case, he had a plan.

Might screamed at the top of his lungs and gave the burning man a violent shake, giving the other man's screaming a pause. The words that he hollered out were simple enough, but they would not be as simple as he would like to make it out to be. [color=f26522]"I'm going to drop you!"[/color]

If you could see his eyes, the walking star's eyes would have bulged out of his skull in an almost cartoonish fashion. [color=0076a3]"No please! Do-"[/color]

He was swiftly interrupted with a clarification. [color=f26522]"I'm going to drop you into water! Maybe it'll extinguish you!"[/color] This wasn't how a star worked, in fact, Might knew that it was the exact opposite. Something about oxygen and hydrogen breaking down in a star, but maybe it would overload him. At least cool him off for long enough to give Might time to think of a better plan. "I need you to be my eyes! Where's the lake!?" 

It took him a second to put two and two together before the words finally clicked, the man made of sunlight was able to meekly direct him with only a few words. [color=0076a3]"You're close, but turn right! Up ahead!"[/color]

Thankful that the message was simple and brief, Might made a sharp turn to the right and sprinted towards the lake. Blind and stumbling over invisible obstacles that his brain made up in its agonized stupor. He couldn't see, he couldn't smell, and the only thing that he could hear was his own screaming. After getting the answer from the solar man, he had immediately begun screaming in agony. 

It was a mad sprint towards the lake, and Might didn't even pause when the man screamed that they were over the lake. Might immediately let himself and the man fall to the lake, falling almost forty feet down to the water. An enormous splash followed by a boiling of the water erupted from their impact zone, Might surfaced first and quickly swam away from the rapidly boiling water. His body covered in first and second degree burns, save for the skin underneath his clothing. It was almost a godsend that his loins had come undone while he was in full clumsy sprint, it kept his thighs and calves from being burnt beyond recognition. 

Once he reached the shore he gasped and plunged his right arm into the soaking sandy mud, a plume of steam erupting upwards from the hole. Might let out a scream and threw his head backwards, gripping the elbow of his right arm tightly and gasping for air once his scream paused. 

His eyes peeled open and turned towards the boiling water, the man of solar fire was suspended by violent bubbles in the water. Of which he was the source.

While he sat there at the beachfront, watching the man roil and boil at the head of a storm of white bubbles, he noticed the speed of the bubbles decaying. It was slow, but the temperature was going down. The former detective raised his voice as high as he could, shouting out commands towards the solar man. [color=f26522]"Dunk below the water! You're cooling down, but you need to be doused entirely!"[/color]

It was hard for the man to hear him over the sound of water boiling so violently near his ears, but he managed to pick up on dunking. He plunged himself beneath the waves as best he could, resisting the violent thrashing of the lake. As the water licked over him, the lashes of light and flame were pushed off of him like wax melting off of clay model. Like it was some sort of coating, rather than coming from his body. 

Might watched the energy shunting away from his body and dissipating as it reached the water's surface. He didn't know what this meant, it was so far outside of his depth that even this small victory was relieving. Whatever the case was, he had managed to save at him from himself. If a weak victory. As the man was now swimming back to land, and he didn't know if he would suddenly reignite once he exposed himself to the air.

To the hero's relief, he found that the man didn't burst into flames on leaving the water. 

He crawled over to the water's edge and extended his left hand to the man, pulling him out of the water and onto the shore. They both lay there panting and heaving their chests from exhaustion, with the situation at hand at least slightly resolved, Might looked over at the formerly burning man and chuckled in a daze. [color=f26522]"I didn't even ask your name."[/color]

The man could hardly believe how much Might's voice sounded so very commanding even after what had just happened. "My name is uh." He paused, taking in a deep breath before speaking. [color=0076a3]"Joheness Burgess."[/color]

The hero chuckled and managed to peep out a pair of words. [color=f26522]"I'm Might."[/color] Before his head fell backwards into the sand and he fell into relieving unconsciousness, a calm slumber was to be the only relief from the pain he was enduring.

And it would only get worse once he awoke.