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The Charge heard the shout from above right after hearing the two loud thuds of the collapsing stories, accompanied by a few cries for help, of the apartment.

Catch them!? How!? she thought, already placing herself under the hole. I guess I have to improvise...

The Charge placed herself right under the falling kid, and, with a small step backward from the impact, caught him. "IF ANYONE HAS ANY SHEETS, TOWELS, OR ANYTHING ELSE, JUMP WITH THEM SO THAT WE CAN RIG SOMETHING UP! I DON'T KNOW HOW WELL I CAN CATCH EVERYONE!" she shouted back, hoping that the growing knot of people could also help her. Any electricity manipulation would only hurt the civilians more, so she had to think about other means of catching people. "FOR NOW, I'M GOOD, THOUGH. KEEP 'EM COMING!"

The Charge then looked down at the young civilian boy she had just caught. "Help me with any backup you can, please?" she plead. She was deathly afraid of dropping someone.

James Cross had now thrown a majority of the people down. They were now helping "Miss Electricity" below using sheets and other materials to catch the jumping people. With only four people left, all of them men, James ordered them to carefully aim for the blankets and jump out. It was then he saw Anthony through the other window at the end of the hall. He had been climbing the fire escape. 'Damnit!' James thought. 'Why didn't anyone tell me there was a fire escape?!?!?!'

He turned to make sure the men were jumping safely when he saw a figure across the street on top of the PU. He couldn't see anything specific because he was far away, but the man's arms were outstretched and it looked like they were shaking. James didn't have much time to examine this fact any longer because it was then that the ceiling of the building gave way and started to come down. James looked at the men still jumping and then at Anthony. "Watch out!" James screamed as the ceiling came down.

Not knowing what else to do, James threw his hands up and caught the ceiling. His legs buckled a little and James's heart sank as he started to go down from the weight, but then all of a sudden James slowly felt the strength to straighten up. He was holding the entire ceiling. 'What the hell has happened to me?' James thought in awe. It was then reality kicked back in and he threw his head towards the jumping men. "IF YOU ARE GOING TO JUMP... JUMP NOW! I MIGHT BE HOLDING THIS... BUT I CAN'T HOLD IT FOR LONG! JUMP!" The men quickly all lept out of the building.

James thought the danger was over when suddenly he heard a little voice... "Please... help me."

James looked and saw a young boy, probably about four or five, sprawled under the debris. James then saw Anthony, who looked like he was in pain. The ceiling's force was outrageous. James couldn't hold it up for much longer. "Anthony!" James managed to use his last ounce of strength he had to yell. "There is a boy trapped under the debris! I can't hold this for much longer! Help him!"

The Charge sighed a sigh of sheer relief as, after a few drops of both civilians and catching materials, there were enough people and sheets, mattresses, et cetera, to catch the civilians. As the last four men stared through the hole in the wall, the ceiling came down. Hard. The Charge cringed until suddenly the ceiling rose roughly six feet. The cop, oddly reminiscent of all of the pictures of Atlas that The Charge had ever seen, was holding the ceiling up. As this picture cemented itself in her mind, the last four men jumped.

The first three men landed carefully on the sheets, held up by The Charge and several relatively uninjured civilians, but the fourth man looked like he was going to miss the sheet by mere inches. Instinctively, The Charge dropped her corner of the sheet and placed herself right under the man. This is gonna hurt!!! she thought in a panic, but still she remained. The man did, in fact, just barely miss the sheet. Hell, he just barely missed the wall. There was no other way; moving the sheet would still require people on that edge of the sheet. The man would have come down not on the sheet, but rather the people holding the sheet.

The Charge managed to catch the man and provide him with a cushion before he hit the ground. Sadly, that cushion was herself. She groaned as the man pulled himself off of her, thanking her lucky stars that the man didn't have any pervy ideas when he landed upon her. There was no doubt that she'd be highly bruised in the morning, but it didn't feel like anything was broken or bleeding. "EVERYONE'S SAFE! GET WHO YOU CAN IF THERE'S ANYONE LEFT AND GET OUT OF THERE!" she managed to yell, hopefully loudly enough. She had had the wind knocked out of her, that's for sure.

"I... hope I didn't shock you... when you fell on me..." The Charge breathed to the man, especially winded because of her shouting, "That... sometimes happens..."

At least he's safe. I think I'll be fine, though I'm going to be at best sore and at worst bruised tomorrow and am really winded right now... How am I going to get my family to believe THIS!? Damn, I'm tired. This is probably my first big job ever. Heroism doesn't pay. It's not even that comfortable.

The Charge watched in shock as the cop managed to throw the ceiling, leap out the window, and still land safely. This guy's damn good... she thought. She then turned her attention to the "hero down."

"Step back for a second, I'm going to see what I can do..." The Charge coughed. The dust in the air was making it incredibly hard for her to catch her breath and she was still exhausted. She forced all of the electricity she still had control of, including her lightning-blades, which she made disappear, into her hands before hoping beyond hope all of the medical dramas she'd ever been forced to watch were useful somehow and placing her hands on his chest, below the armor on his shirt wherever possible, and tried to shock him defibrillator-style.

"That's all I've got, so I hope it helped..." she said and then stepped back to allow anyone who knew more CPR than she did to step in.

You know, first aid and CPR classes really wouldn't be amiss, seeing the number of unconscious people I seem to have to deal with recently...

Anthony was suddenly brought around and he jumped as electricity shot through him, "Ah," He said with a cough, "The boy....did the boy make it?" He asked the woman who seemed to be defibulating him with only her hands. "And James....Where's James?" He coughed again. His entire body ached horribly, with reason of course considering that he'd just jumped several stories into nothing but a rotting spring mattress.

He tried to sit up and felt his back shoot pain up through his spine, "Ah, tried too hard, only human." He muttered as he looked up to the woman and talked to her for the first time, "Wh-Who are you." He stuttered as his vision started to get less blurry. He squinted at her through the mask and tried to make out what she looked like. Not bad, first real heroing feat under his belt. There was the boy he'd grabbed out of the street but that techinically didn't count since he hadn't been in costume.

Anthony realized the error of telling James his real name but he didn't have a hero name.... He'd have to work on that. "Yes, My name is Anthony but don't let any of these clowns know," He said referring to the cops around them. He was mortified to hear that James was police, though he vaguely remembered James telling him so. "I think I'm ok, haven't tested walking yet." He placed his hands firmly on the ground and started to push himself up. He grunted, his strength seemed to have all but evaporated from his being. He collapsed and groaned helplessly. He tried again and this time managed to get up, "Well I can stand, but it looks like I'll be taking the bus home." This was unfortunate because last time he'd taken the bus in costume a group of teenagers had mocked him and thrown things at him...They were lucky they hadn't done anything to break the law or given him right to harm them. "You said your name was The Charge correct? Nice to meet you."

<< Previously.

Anthony found himself in the rarest of places he visited: A clothing store. And even more impressive then that feat was the fact that it was a formal attire store. The audacity of someone like himself being there was certainly in the back of his mind as he entered the store and was immediately harassed by a man who looked down his nose at Anthony's current clothing. And so it would go that Anthony would purchase his first suit in maybe five years. He was given several suits to try on by the rather pushy salesman who insisted on giving him multiple styles even though Anthony had been satisfied with the first.

To add to his annoyance Anthony could hear the whispering again. He often turned to make sure no one was there and was starting to get rather frustrated. He was certain that this time it wasn't just in his head. "Do you hear that?" He would occasionally question the man who would stutter and trip over his sentence as though suddenly at a loss for words. With a stack of ten or so suits he entered the dressing room and jumped almost out of his skin to see a monk meditating on the bench. "Greetings Anthony, I see you have come to purchase more material possessions. You recall this is only furthering yourself from true eternal happiness?"

Anthony didn't have time for this, "Shut up," He said as he un buttoned his shirt," The monk sat there cross legged with a smile, "Ah anger is an ugly emotion and once your mind is unclouded by it you wish you hadn't been so harsh." Anthony wasn't listening, "Shut up," he threw on a new pair of slacks. "Anthony I'm here to help you please," Anthony turned to face him, "I happen to be doing well on my own." At this point a sales person knocked on the door, "Uh sir is everything alright?" Anthony glared at the monk and whispered, "Not a word," Then aloud to the sales person, "Yes I'm fine." He waited for the sound of feet walking away but it didn't come, "Is someone in there with you? I heard you talking." The monk still smiling spoke, "Anthony, lies only make this worse," Anthony spoke again, "Shut up," he whispered, "No one is in here but me, please leave me be." Then he heard the footsteps and sighed in relief.

He chose a suit he liked and the monk even approved, "It is a very elegant piece of clothing, Anthony." Anthony turned, "You're just a figment of my imagination, I'm obviously tense which is causing this hallucination so I'm going to just not listen to you." The monk nodded, "Ah, acceptance, Before I leave Anthony I must warn you to keep a sharp eye out at the student dance." Before Anthony could respond the monk was gone. Anthony purchased the shirt and left.

<< Previously

After a little more research and a fifteen more minutes on the web Anthony had decided to make a stop by this Listerine estate to see what was going on there. He had high hopes he'd run into Oual but he doubted it. Something was sitting in the pit of his stomach that told him to avoid this situation right now. But that vision had given him his only lead and if that meant jumping in to a situation that wasn't pretty then it seemed only natural to Anthony that he should dive in.

His costume was in a duffel bag in the seat next to him as he drove to the other side of town. He would park in an alley way and change and then get to Listerine estate on foot. He needed to talk to Oual and Cross; and Laura Listerine seemed to have contact with both. He pulled up in the alley and switched the engine off and killed the lights. In a matter of seconds he checked his surroundings before emerging from the car, fists clenched, heart pounding and breathing heavy, hot air into the cloth of his mask. He decided he was going to try The Ghoul as a super hero name for a while though he didn't say it outloud. For now it was off to Listerine Estates.