[b]Foxpearl![/b]

Your plummet does make Xingtian desperately grab at your scarf and dig in their heels, putting all of their strength into halting you as you tumble down. Sky Gate City is so swank that this kind of multi-story waterfall is a common sight in community spaces in the skyscrapers. It's not just part of the agricultural systems, it's vital to balance the elemental harmony of the entire tower. This one drops down multiple floors, and even though the pool at the bottom is lovely, it's just a little too shallow for a safe landing. How lucky that you end up dangling from that scarf, with the armored menace starting to slowly pull you up.

Then the Vermillion Princess delivers a flying kick to the back of their armor, where she'd hit them before, and the momentum she'd built up on the way there sends Xingtian tumbling out into open air. Their attempt to activate their armor's thrusters just sends them cartwheeling down to the bottom faster, past you, yanking you down with them--

And the Vermillion Princess dives down after you, trailing her Sash, and grabs you by the wrists, your name on her lips.

[hr]

[b]Rain![/b]

[b]Boom![/b]

That is, as you find out by sprinting around a corner, the sound of Xingtian slamming into the bottom of a pool hard enough to crack the foundation. A heavenly cord leads up from the ruin of this villain's fall (like the fall of Lucifer from Heaven in that one American TV show) to the face of Foxpearl, who is suspended between floors by the Vermillion Princess's hold on her wrists. Not exactly the kind of heroic finish that Empress would have done.

In fact, Empress would probably pry the armor off, crush it between her palms, and then deliver the soggy mystery arsonist inside to the tower's security team, but she'd hang around to make sure that she could give a speech about how arson put everyone at risk, how the residents of this tower would be impacted by months of reconstruction, how damaging the tower's supports would have risked an inconceivable civic disaster, and how [i]disappointed[/i] she was. And then she'd do the Glare. And [i]then[/i] she'd pitch in with the reconstruction, stop to take selfies with residents with her silver hair up in a neat bun, and generally be the example that everyone in SGC is supposed to live up to.

But Empress isn't here right now. She's trying to keep the gates of the underworld shut to give the entire city time to fix the problem of the rampant ghosts. And so there's just you, stepping up to be a good neighbor like Empress knows everybody can be, and there's the fox (who you [i]just[/i] found out is one of Lady Foxfire's tails, just like she now knows how you came into your powers), and there's her.

The [i]real[/i] superheroine-in-training, stopping Hsien from slamming into the bottom of the pool while you were interrogating a hunky Triad member.

Thoughts on the Vermillion Princess, Rain? And, for that matter, thoughts on what you're supposed to do with Xingtian?