Rabbit watched dumbfounded as the vigilante woman emerged from the flaming office, Mateo gripped tight under her arms. She set him down, then turned and went back inside without a word. Rabbit’s legs felt numb, stuck sitting in the dirt of the parking lot with her body defying any order from her brain to [i]move.[/i] She felt… she didn’t know what she felt. Ashamed, perhaps? Embarrassed that a stranger was doing what she had failed to? Angry at her own helplessness despite her power? 

The vigilante came stumbling back out of the door, carrying Erik with her. The woman’s legs seemed to give out beneath her, and this time Rabbit’s body obeyed the command to move. She jumped forward, just enough to catch the vigilante on her way down and leaving them both kneeling in the gravel, close enough to feel the burning heat of the fire. “No, that’s- that’s everyone,” Rabbit answered, her gaze resting on Erik’s limp form. She could see his chest rise and fall, barely; still alive, then.

It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair, but how else could this have gone? She wasn’t cut out to be a hero, something she understood perfectly, and never would have attempted if she hadn’t been pushed into it by an overbearing dog in a nice coat. Rabbit scooted back away from the vigilante, listening to the sound of sirens echoing closer. Fire trucks, and likely an ambulance or two as well. Late, but enough to handle the situation when they got here. 

Looking around, Rabbit saw the vigilante had come in a truck of her own. On her way somewhere else? “Thank you,” she said after some hesitation. “We- we should be fine, now. Once the… the trucks get…” She faltered. The vigilante looked like she hadn’t quite recovered from the smoke, even if she looked otherwise unharmed. Rabbit was anchored to this parking lot so long as the hero was still here, to maintain the illusion of an ordinary office worker; if the woman couldn’t leave, neither could she. 

“Are you alright?” Rabbit asked tentatively. “You’re not- you didn’t get hurt?”