[b]Lynn[/b]

[i]This is the stupidest thing I've ever done. I could've run. I could've left Spoons and gotten clear, I could've - [/i]

Archie came into the kitchen, angry and hulking. Whatever damage Natalie had put on him was still there to some extent, but he was already licking his wounds pretty well. For a brief moment, one that Lynn would have difficulty admitting to herself happened afterwards, she thought deliriously that she had seen Clarita running out of the cafteria, or that Cesar might take off the lizard head and everyone would come out laughing, but that moment passed.

The one advantage of this thing being twice Lynn's size and easily forty-five times her weight was that it took a while to build up momentum. Lynn always got smoked by the taller guys on a straightaway, but she could dart and duck around them all day. Lynn pressed herself back into the tile, the dull [i]whoosh[/i] of the flames around her in her ear. She waited as Archie came into the kitchen, having to slow down for just a second to change direction. That was one thing, at least - he wasn't going for Natalie, or whatever scrappy little fuckers were dumb enough to hang around in the cafeteria still. Just a second to pick its speed back up. All she needed. All she needed. This was the first time Lynn had gotten a really good look at the thing. This close? Fifteen feet away? It was tremendous. It was massive. Lynn felt nothing short of utter horror. [i]God it could eat me. It could rip my arms out. It could -[/i]

Lynn snapped herself back to reality. The lizard was ten feet away now because she'd screwed around, and Cordelia Lynn Holmes was not about to go out whimpering and shaking.

Lynn spared one second to glance down at her useless arm. "Ka-boom," she said, her voice hoarse.

Lynn inhaled sharply, and on the exhale, put all the strength she had into her fire. There was a strange sucking noise in the room as all the oxygen immediately whooshed in. The burning aura around Lynn burst up a good two or three feet, melting a hole in the ceiling above her as the oil in her hand ignited. The air pulsated off her, rippling out and turning the entire kitchen into a convection oven, rattling the cabinets and sending pots and pans clanging off the shelves and racks. As it did, the ovens began to burn as hot as their wiring allowed. The fryers shook violently against their metal frames, their frames glowing and bending and warping. The water, both from the ceiling and idling about as moisture in the air, turned to steam in a split second, and there was a brief acrid smell as Lynn's clothes were seared off her. Lynn's feet were no longer wearing shoes, but some puddle of melted rubber and cloth that, even amongst everything else, sent up a particularly awful reek. 

Then came the fun part.

The oil Lynn had spilled all over the floor - oil that so happened to be underneath Archie at this present moment, as all ten feet and two and a half tons of him barrelled towards her - caught. 

Everything was fire. The air, the ground, Lynn, the metal in the room, everything that was not literally water. The metal fryers, oven coils, and all the metal in Lynn's immediate vicinity went white-hot for an instant, immediately cooling back down to red as Lynn's supernatural haymaker passed. Lynn flared white herself for a moment, something blindingly bright and sharp as all her senses were numbed to heat and sound. For a second, she burned like a star. Just a second. There wasn't enough oxygen, or fuel, or enough Lynn. Somewhere, Lynn's plan of dropping knives in the fryer came to fruition, as red hot blades - or, rather, pieces of them - exploded out across the kitchen, knocking holes in cabinets, the ceiling, putting a dent in the fridge, and slicing into Lynn's side (she did not feel this - unsurprisingly, it was cauterized rather quickly). This was compounded by the shrapnel of everything else that exploded, which was quite a number of things. Lynn had not anticipated there being as much oil in the cabinets as there was. She hoped at least some of it hit Archie, with enough force and heat to slice through his side. All of this happened as more water rushed into the room, and whatever wasn't converted into steam splattered the grease further, egging the fire to spurt and explode further. Lynn's power meant everything flammable became more flammable, and everything not flammable had an asterisk next to it that said partially flammable. Everything that could boil boiled more easily and everything that could blow up just needed a mild suggestion instead of proper ignition. 

All the oil met Lynn met the fryer grease met the open air and a forty five foot plume of flame blasted out the window of the kitchen, liquidating the nearest table and charring the ones after. Whether by an active part of Lynn's supernatural subconscious, or lucky positioning, or divine intervention, Lynn's hoodie was spared. The heat and fire that blasted upwards briefly liquefied the metal ceiling, along with the lightbulbs, wiring, and everything else above the oil fire. With Lynn's presence - and her powers - removed, they were rapidly cooling, but even the purely-non-parahuman thermal energy left in the room kept a few drops of everything that had been above them dripping down, hardening on the floor. It didn't need to be parahuman hot in there. It was still really fucking hot in there. Lynn had just gotten the ball rolling.

Lynn had a brief momnet of lucidity as she realized the ringing in her ears was her eardrums exploding from the noise. She could not see anything through the steam and smoke. To indulge in a cliche, Lynn was not entirely convinced that she was still on the mortal plane. It certainly looked a lot like hell. 

She blinked around, struggling to move, but most of her body was not cooperating. Her head was spinning and her arm wasn't working. Was it not working before? Molten plastic dripped off her fingers. [i]The jug.[/i] Lynn blinked. She was no longer in the kitchen. Lynn was almost certain she had been in the kitchen a moment before. She had, in fact, blasted herself through the kitchen wall into the storeroom, where a few industrial sized containers of food were idly blazing around her. There was too much smoke and steam and fire inside the kitchen to see if she'd even fucking scratched Archie or not. It would be just her luck that the lizard was fireproof.

[i]Get up. Get up you fucking bitch.[/i] Lynn heaved and pushed herself up, and then it happened. Lynn threw up ash onto the ground, something clotty and dry and black. She gasped for air, Christ she couldn't breathe - but only smoke came out, her eyes watering as the bitter taste flooded her mouth. Lynn thought she said no, but her lungs wouldn't work. Lynn began to shiver, and she could feel the heat of her hair die back down. Her leg wasn't holding her weight, and wouldn't bend to help her stand up. She looked down at her arms, which were covered in charred something or another. The entire path from where she'd been, some thirty feet in front of her, to where she was, was covered in ash and soot. [i]Well fuck me. Nothing ends easy.[/i] If she hadn't kicked up enough smoke and ash to blind that thing, it was not exactly going to have a difficult time following where she went. Unbeknownst to Lynn, her back had not taken the force of being thrown through a wall so easily, and there were a number of deep lacerations that made her phoenix tattoo a rather avant-garde piece at the present moment. Lynn managed to put all of her weight on her good arm, pulling herself an inch at a time behind a sack of corn. Lynn pushed herself as far against the wall as she would go. 

[i]I'm not going to die shivering. Stand up. Stand up![/i] She felt [i]small[/i], she was naked and cold and she couldn't even stand up. She was pathetic. No wonder the lizard thrashed her. Stupid. [i]Stupid![/i] Lynn managed to turn herself around against the wall and looked down, trying to pull her legs under her and sgrab the bag of whatever was next to her to pull herself up.

There was half of a butcher's knife, still red-hot, sticking out of her right kneecap. 

Lynn reached to grab it, thinking that it shouldn't be there, she should yank it out. She reached out. [i]Why is there plastic on my fingers?[/i] she wondered. She tried to grab at the blade but her hand missed it. She missed it so badly she slumped over. 

"Oh," Lynn murmured. She blinked. There was a warm breeze from the next room over. She was shaking. But that warm air coming in - that was nice. She was getting cold.