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[color=Orange]"Have not the fear, human laborers!"[/color] shouted Koriand'r over the din of twisting metal and rushing water. [color=Orange]"In your time of needing, salvation has made the arrival!"[/color]

Swooping down into the well of muck, Starfire took hold of a steel I-beam, one weighing over half a ton, and with a strained grunt lifted it off of the legs of a pinned worker who had been submerged almost over his head before being freed.

[color=MediumOrchid]"This has to be the worst job we've ever done,"[/color] Rachel muttered as she held out her hands, emitting tendrils of shadow that snatched picked more terrified workers out from the swirling cesspools where they had been drowning, snagged by loose cables and falling debris. A wave of sludge crashed against the side of the pool, splashing across her deep blue cloak and black tights. [color=MediumOrchid]"The worst [i]by far.[/i]"[/color]

The Jump City Sewage Treatment Plant was falling apart in a spectacular fashion, with dozens of workers trapped in danger of particularly revolting deaths. Exits had been blocked by toppled equipment, safety gear suffered freak accident failures, and loose tools and pieces of industrial scrap quickly became potentially lethal shrapnel. Rachel and Kori had caught news of the incident over the police scanner, and were on the scene to try and keep the emergency from becoming a catastrophe.

Around them, old rusted metal groaned from pipes that had inexplicably clogged all at once. Then, with a series of pops and pings, screws and rivets burst loose from the immense water pressure, whizzing and ricocheting through the plant like bullets.

[color=MediumOrchid]"Everyone down!"[/color] Raven yelled as she stretched out her ethereal essence-- what she had deemed her 'Soul Self'-- to snatch the speeding bits of metal out of the air, or throw up black shields to protect workers as they hit the deck. She had learned that her...unusual...circumstances of birth allowed her to do things that other people couldn't, projecting her soul into the physical world to do any number of things. Telekinesis was just the shallow end of her abilities, but it was one she had to use most often when doing 'cape and tights stuff.'

As Raven reached out with her spiritual powers to contain as much of the disaster as she could, Kori glanced over at her pale-skinned partner from the far side of the plant and could not help but feel a swell of admiration. In her daily life, Rachel Roth was dreary, dour, and put up a wall of cold contempt for people around her as a defense for her shyness and fear. When she adopted the persona of Raven, however, she was powerful beyond her own imagination, and had the courage and the confidence to use that power to become an incredible force for good. Others looked at Rachel and saw only the darkness of her regalia, the shadows she projected. Kori, however, saw past that darkness to the shining light within.

Kori felt herself distracted for a moment, musing if her friend could ever be aware of how beautiful she truly was. Then a pressurized tank ruptured behind the orange-haired alien girl and doused her with a few thousand gallons of raw sewage.

"Help!" cried a panicked foreman, trapped high up on a walkway that was beginning to buckle and collapse around him. "For the love of God, help me!"

[color=Orange]"There is no need to make the panic,"[/color] Starfire consoled the screaming man as she rose from the muck and scooped him up into her arms. [color=Orange]"You shall be of the safeness and sounding momentarily!"[/color]

Kori plucked the frightened man from the falling structure, gingerly placing him on the ground before taking to the air again, her hands glowing with clouds of neon green plasma. Slinging the bolts of emerald fire into the mounds of twisted steel and crumbled concrete, she blasted clear a path for the workers to begin to escape, then flew back into the maelstrom of debris and sludge to save the others trapped inside.

[color=Orange]"The structural integrity of this place is beyond the point of failure!"[/color] Starfire called out to her partner. [color=Orange]"We must get the rest to--"[/color]

[color=MediumOrchid]"Look out!"[/color] Raven interrupted her, engulfing an enormous gantry in shadow and catching the massive structure before it would have slammed into Starfire from behind. All around them, walls and supports began to crumble, and more sewage flooded the entire plant.

Throwing out her hands, Raven spilled forth more shadows, her Soul Self seeping into as much of the surrounding area as she could to hold it all together. While her mystic abilities cost Rachel very little in terms of physical exertion, the mental strain of projecting herself this far over so much was tough to bear.

[color=MediumOrchid]"Can't...hold it for long!"[/color] Raven said through gritted teeth. [color=MediumOrchid]"Get....everyone....out!"[/color]

As Raven struggled to keep the crumbling plant together, she saw her friend flitting through the disaster, bobbing and weaving between collapsing structures, swooping and diving with otherworldly grace, picking up the endangered workers one by one and two by and placing them on the path to safety. At first glance, it would be all too easy to dismiss Kori as an empty-headed cuckoo, a bubbly ditz who ate weird things, didn't understand personal space, and threw herself at every attractive person who paid her the slightest attention. Rachel knew, though, that most of the time, she was simply out of her element. When she was Starfire, the alien warrior princess and champion of the people, she was a sight to behold. Starfire moved through battles and calamity with a deftness that made it all seem trivial, making as full use of her body and her powers the way a master musician would their favorite instrument.

It was impossible to watch her in action and not be entranced.

Which, unfortunately, had the effect of distracting Rachel long enough to miss a final rupturing pipe, that splashed her directly in the face with a jet of sewer water.

[color=MediumOrchid]"[i]Acckk---blegghhh! Pfffbbbtt!"[/i][/color] Raven sputtered and spat, trying to shake herself off as she was now drenched head to toe in substances she'd rather not think about. Her Soul Self began to falter, and she could feel the thousands of tons of metal and concrete begin to twist and shatter despite her efforts. Any much longer, and her powers would fail entirely, leaving her to be buried or drowned--probably whichever was worse....

Somewhere in the back of her head, Rachel was begging for another shift at the Big Belly Burger, answering stupid questions from mouth-breathing customers. On the other hand, being doused with offal and refuse was still only [i]slightly[/i] less unpleasant than talking with Kitten van Cleer....

[color=Orange]"Friend Raven!"[/color] Starfire called out as she flew towards her. [color=Orange]"The civilians have arrived at the safety! We must now evacuate ourselves!"[/color]

[color=MediumOrchid]"....right..."[/color] she said with a sigh of exhausted relief, retracting her Soul Self and letting the section of the plant finally implode on itself. Starfire took one arm around Raven's waist and took them both into the air, keeping the other hand free to blast away any last bits of rubble that impeded their way.

As they rose hundreds of feet into the air over the chaos and wreckage, Kori and Rachel looked over the scene with a mixture of triumph, relief, and guilt. They had managed to keep everyone alive, but half of the sewage treatment plant was in ruins, which was going to be a major hardship for the people of Jump City.

[color=MediumOrchid]"Well....that..."[/color] Rachel panted, [color=MediumOrchid]"....was awful."[/color]

[color=Orange]"We have saved many lives tonight, friend Rachel,"[/color] Kori said, comforting the pale girl as globs of sludge dripped off of them. [color=Orange]"This is a night we should remember with the pride! Next, we must report our actions to the Chief Gomez, and provide helping to the investigations into how this was made to happen."[/color]

[color=MediumOrchid]"Maybe later,"[/color] Rachel brushed her off, wringing out a sickening brown-gray liquid from her cloak. [color=MediumOrchid]"Before we do any of that, I think I'm going to take a shower and lie down for a while."[/color]

[color=Orange]"I am in need of the washing as well,"[/color] Kori admitted. [color=Orange]"We should--"[/color]

[color=MediumOrchid]"For the last time,"[/color] Rachel interrupted as they flew away into the night sky, [color=MediumOrchid]"The shower is for one person at a time..."[/color]

[hr]

[color=SlateBlue]"You couldn't help yourself, could you?"[/color]

[color=Violet]"Oh, relax, I was just rehearsing. All they'll find is a freak coincidence. A grease-ball clogging up a pump here, some faults in the foundation there. The place was begging to fall apart anyway. All it needed was just a little bit of bad luck. Besides, the plan is to keep them exhausted, right?"[/color]

[color=FireBrick]"Yeah, but [i]I[/i] thought we were supposed to do it in little ways, right? That was way too big!"[/color]

[color=SlateBlue]"Quite correct. If the alien and the witch girl are not to detect our presence, we must be more subtle in our attempts to weaken them."[/color]

[color=Violet]"[i]Fine[/i], no more pyrotechnics. Not until Friday, anyway."[/color]

[color=FireBrick]"Right. On Friday, that's when we put on the [i]real[/i] show!"[/color]

[color=SlateBlue]"Yes. Until then, keep them on their toes, keep them from recuperating. But don't let them catch on....not until it's too late for them to stop it...."[/color]