[center][h1][b]ANDREW[/b][/h1][/center]

[hr]

You know, there were some things Andrew had never really thought about dealing with. Exploding doors, men with fireballs for hands, and someone moving in fast forward motion were among that illustrious (and not well liked) list of things he’d never thought about that he was now regretting having no contingency plan for. In fact, they were just about the [i]only[/i] things on that list. 

He didn’t usually sit around making lists of things just so he couldn’t plan for them. Plus, that would have disqualified them from the list in the first place aaaand… He was babbling in his head.

He wasn’t sure if that was more or less sane than babbling out loud, but hey, at least he was willing to acknowledge that he was way out of his depth right now and didn’t know what was going on. But he could summarize the situation pretty succinctly all the same. It was bad.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

It took him a moment longer to realize that he was standing frozen on the sidewalk in front of a crashed car, ambulance, definitely an ambulance, and much as he was grateful for the reprieve it offered, he didn’t like the reminder it gave him that he was in no fit state for whatever he was about to do. Probably something stupid. But he was still standing, which was better than any worse case scenario, so he might as well do something with that good luck. And though he was sheltered from the fireballs and had no idea where the running dude had gotten to, he could see that another guy, hopefully on their side since he’d just pulled out a knife, was obviously focused on something, and he snuck around to look for himself just in time to see that knife lodge itself in the fiery man’s hand. 

Good aim. And definitely on their side, good, great, because if that wasn’t the kid who’d tackled him, then Andrew didn’t know where the youth had gotten off to, and it didn’t really matter, because either way, the guy with sparkplugs for hands didn’t look like he was playing around. [b]“Cripes!”[/b] 

He ducked back behind the ambulance when the fireball was tossed their way, covering his head because it seemed like the smart thing to do, and was half a step towards the driver’s door, thinking to get him out of the line of fire, or at least out of the vehicle that was under attack, when that other guy got there first. [b]“Aw hell…”[/b] Tonight was not awesome. Tonight was the very definition of blown to hell. 

Well aware that he wasn’t likely to be any use in a close quarters fight with someone who could move that fast, or really, with anyone, Andrew backed off before he got in the way, or attracted attention, hissing towards their impromptu ally with the above par knife throwing skills, trying to keep quiet. [b]“Hey, can you uhhh…”[/b] Do something about that? [b]“Help the driver? I got to get the, uh, the kid.”[/b] 

Yes, this was a great plan. He didn’t wait for an answer. Didn’t have time. Sparkplug and thief chaser were much closer together than he was to either of them, but if he picked up some momentum… maybe… He’d already been reminded twice today that lighter meant people could throw him farther. He had no idea if he could time it right, or what he’d accomplish once he got there, but hey, if you didn’t try, you weren’t going to succeed (at potentially getting fried). He set a foot to the ground and started running (so much slower than Speedy, thank you) before fear could freeze him up again. He could already feel his heart skipping a few beats—and no, it wasn’t because it was in his throat, good excuse though—and his breathing had already been ragged, but he couldn’t stop once he’d started.

It was mostly just a matter of flinging himself forward as hard as he could manage and then letting momentum do the rest. He couldn’t carry anyone fast enough to get out of range of a fireball or whatever had ruined those doors, but he could distract the man, maybe for long enough to let the kid get off the ground at the very least. And as he dropped his density, he did pick up speed, or at least, each step took him farther until he drifted up a little too high and had nothing to push off of besides air. Then he started slowing down again, but maybe, maybe he was close enough.

With a determined, out of breath growl to see this through no matter what, Andrew forced his density back up as fast as it would go, higher, higher, higher and he didn’t even notice when he passed the usual cut off point because he was focusing all his energy on just getting there before Sparky did anything. But he arrived with quite a bit more weight behind him than he’d ever intended, barreling straight at Ren.