God she hated these kinds of nights. Where the air was thick and it smelled like something was going to happen. It was similar to what she had seen people act like when they lived in the country for their whole life. They could smell the air and know when a storm was about to roll in. Well, Roxie was like that. She couldn’t sense a storm, but rather, she could sense was something bad was going to happen. The air tasted...electric, like flecks of invisible charged copper were drifting openly, grazing her tongue before dissolving into the ether. She hated that taste -- it reminded her of blood.

Roxie couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling, even after she left the corner store. Her arms were laden with her purchases for the week, just a few odds and ends that she would need to get her to her next paycheck. The bag was hardly heavy for her, but it was still a little unwieldy, she just had to have that damn baguette. As it continued to poke her in the cheek, she finally had enough and simply snapped out, biting off the end. While chewing she eyed a man who was passing, watching her with a mixture of interest and fear. She smirked and gave him a wink before continuing on.

Arriving at the corner, she nudged the signal button with her elbow, flicking her hair over her shoulder. A whistle cut through the air, followed by a passing “Nice ass!” before disappearing in the distance. She merely shook her head -- as if she didn’t know that. It was the reason why she wore the tight-fitting, curve-enhancing jeans. The black, crop top with the Bazookas & Chrysanthemums band emblem emblazoned on the chest hugged her lithe frame and exposed her extremely toned stomach. However most of that was covered by the black leather jacket she wore over her shoulders. She knew that she looked good, she was fine flaunting it, so long as people kept their hands to themselves, she would take a compliment, even a derogatory one, from time-to-time.

Upon seeing the blink from a red hand to a green man, Roxie stepped down onto the asphalt, her bare feet barely noticeable under the flare of her jeans. She didn’t need to wear shoes, considering that the soles of her feet were essentially the same material as asphalt and would protect her from any harm. The good thing was that people hardly seemed to notice. With Vegans and New Age people running around New York all the time, in similar attire (or lack thereof) it seemed far more commonplace than not. God bless these strange days indeed.

Roxie just made it across the street and turned to head to her building when it happened. She felt the quiver roll across her skin, that sense that indeed something was going on. It was already past nine at night so there was definitely no planned demolish or street construction. So what was--

BOOOOOM!!!

Roxie snapped her head back. About a block away she felt the explosion and destruction before it even happened. Fire crackled and screams filled the air. Cursing under her breath, she dropped her groceries and took off in a run, following the sounds of fire around the next corner, and another, and came to a stop once she saw the cloudy smoke. This line of the street had a combination of businesses with homes above them -- and there were huge chunks of the building missing, along with a fires ranging. It would take time before the fire department got here so she needed to act.

Little care for her own safety, not that she could really be hurt, Roxie ran straight for the burning building -- she knew that there were people inside. Here was the tricky part, she couldn’t be hurt -- but it all depended on the state of her surroundings. There were enough standing structures to definitely boost her strength and durability, but considering that a large portion of these buildings were damaged now, her strength was going to wane. So she needed to act fast. The more that was damaged, the more that fell apart, the weaker and more susceptible she would become.

”Time to get the lead out,” she grumbled. Running for the building, Roxie jumped and crashed through the second story window. Boldy she walked into the flaming room and began the search. ”Hello!? Anyone here?! Tell me where you are!”

Explosion downtown. Structure unstable. People possibly trapped inside.

There was always an initial burst of adrenaline when a call came in for the X-men to help. And this was one of those cases when help really was needed; not to watch a perimeter, or fight a bad guy, but to literally bring people out of burning buildings. It always made Mirror feel like they were doing the classic, oldschool superhero stuff, instead of... fighting weird witches in parking garages, or whatever.

Gawain made it to the scene faster than any of the rest of the team. The building was not very far from the Mansion, and he knew the mirror routes well enough to make it. It was his power that was most needed anyway; if there were people trapped inside with now way out, then mirrorwalking might be their only chance.

Walking in the few reflecting surfaces left by the explosion, Gawain entered the building. The smoke did not reach him this way, and he did not threaten the integrity of the structures... but he could also not see much of the interior.

"Hello? Anyone in here? Help is on the way!"

A groan and a faint call came from one of the rooms. It seemed like part of the ceiling caved in. Mirror swore; he had no way of walking someone out if they were trapped...

Fire and smoke. That was all that Roxie could see once she landed inside the building. The structure of the building was getting worse by the second. Thankfully there were enough solid structures in the surrounding buildings but she could already feel the fires trying to creep into them, slowly diminishing her strength levels the longer that they were allowed to go. Before long, if she didn’t get out of there, she would be too weak to get out herself so she needed to move.

Grabbing a handkerchief from her pocket, she wrapped it around her nose and mouth, blocking out as much of the smoke as she could and immediately set to work checking the building. She found a lost dog and a little girl in one of the apartment bedrooms. Both in hand, she leap out of the nearest window and onto her two feet. Once on solid ground she let both go before she turned and threw herself back into the fire and ash. Finding the kid’s unconscious father, she brought him out to safety as well before returning for another sweep.

Ugh, she could feel the fires already having an effect on the neighboring buildings. This was taking too long and with the fire department only now arriving, it would take a minute or two before they could set up the hose and start combating the flames. In the meantime, she needed to keep moving. Shielding her face as best she could, Roxie began to climb higher, the sounds of someone shouting for help drawing her attention. There were others! Dammit, people needed to learn to evacuate.

Leaping up inhumanly over several steps at a time and Roxie made it to the floor where she heard the ruckus. Where were they?

”Hello!?” she shouted.

>>"Hello? Anyone in here? Help is on the way!"

She blinked in confusion. The roar of the flames made it difficult to understand those words fully but it definitely was the sound of someone in, possibly in distress. She turned toward the source, she guessed, and immediately reared her leg back and kicked in the door with her bare feet. The wood crumbled beneath her strength, allowing her entrance into the fiery room. That was when she saw the person, standing there, just as confused.

She turned her eyes away from a flare of fire before she shouted to them. ”Hey! I’m here to help! Are you hurt?” She advanced, ready to pick the person up and carry them out with the rest. It seemed that her job is just never done.

Gawain could hear sounds from the pile of rubble, and he thought he could make out a body, maybe two. He needed to plan, and be quick; once he exited the mirror, he would only have minutes to try and rescue people, before the fire and the smoke made it impossible. He would have to get to them, assess the situation, move the rubble, and take them outside one by one. Fast. He was about to step out when an unexpected response came to his question.
The door came crashing down, and he could see another figure through the smoke.

>>”Hey! I’m here to help! Are you hurt?”

"There are people trapped under the rubble here!" Gawain explained, stepping out of the mirror to see her better, and moving to get a closer look at the victims "Are you with the fire department?..."

Roxie continued to turn her gaze away from the flames. She knew that her body was strong, that she could take hits that most couldn’t, but she wasn’t about to risk burning her eyes out. She could probably take the hit but she wasn’t going to play with her powers, especially when the building around her was getting weaker by the second. So she had to remain focused. Stepping into the room she shied away from the flames but called out to the only person that she could see. Where they a tenant? She assured them that she was here to help.

>>"There are people trapped under the rubble here!...Are you with the fire department?..."

The person advanced. That costume and he certainly didn’t look like the run of the mill apartment tenant. As a matter of fact, he looked pretty familiar. Her eyes settled on the X symbol on the uniform and it made sense -- X-Man. She wasn’t sure which , though. She had lived in New York for several years now, and she knew of the team, but very little details. They risked their lives, they helped people, that was all that mattered to her.

As the man inquired if she were part of the fire department, Roxie snorted. She splayed out her arms, gesturing to her scorched jeans, her leather jacket, and the crop top and exposed her flat, well-toned stomach. ”Hunny, do I look the fire department?” She shook her head as she made her way to where the people trapped under the rubble were. ”I’m just a passerby lending a hand.”

Roxie seemed fairly unafraid of the flames and really only concerned herself with keeping them away from her face. Reaching over, she pulled off her gloves to reveal the black-lined bottoms of her hands and fingers. She wrapped them around a fallen piece of debris that looked far too big for her. But, still, she managed to lift, pushing the debris up with little effort, but doing her best to be mindful of the integrity of the building around her. The last thing she needed to do was aid in its collapse.

A small snarl on her lips, she lifted the heavy piece of debris, setting it aside with a loud THUD. She turned to start clearing more so she could get to the victims but stopped to glance at X-Man. ”You going to do anything other than stand there with that stupid look?” She grunted and pulled up another large pile of plaster and wiring. ”Come on!”

>>”Hunny, do I look the fire department? I’m just a passerby lending a hand.”

No. She did not look like the fire department. She also did not look like police, or X-men (obviously, although she could have been from the other side... hell she could have been Jorge from the other side, as far as Mirror knew). She did not look like she was trapped or needed help. She was just... a passerby who burst into a burning building to save people. Kindred spirit, with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

And... super strength?

Gawian whistled as she picked up a large piece of debris and moved it aside. She was wasting no time moving weights that would have caused trouble to people much larger than her. As he moved closer, he also noted her hands. As if he needed another clue that she was a mutant.

>>”You going to do anything other than stand there with that stupid look? Come on!”

Gawain nodded and moved in, finding his way to one of the people lying under the debris. It was a middle-aged woman, conscious but clearly in shock. Gawain checked to make sure all her limbs were free before he lifted her. First priority was getting people away from the fire and falling ceilings.

"Free the other one! I'll take her outside." he told the mysterious helper as he walked back into the mirror (which seemed to be on the surface of a wardrobe door). It took only a few minutes to make his way downstairs and to the growing crowd of ambulance and police vehicles outside. They already knew to bring some mirrors. A few more minutes and Gawain was back. "Hey! Still here?"

Roxie didn’t like to be stared at unless the intention behind it was purely lustful. There was something about being wanted that usually made her feel pretty good. Didn’t happen all the time as people complained that it was too difficult to move past that bitchy exterior that she so firmly held onto. Whatever. They were mainly losers anyways and this, right now, was decidedly not the case. After all, if someone got a raging tent while being surrounded by fire and cries for help, then they definitely had issues.

Roxie had issues, sure, but she wasn’t nearly that bad.

When she spotted that the X-Man was just staring, she could feel her irritation rise a little. She knew that a random bystander jumping into a burning building the help was probably out of the ordinary, but it shouldn’t be such a distraction that she needed to worry about saving yet another person. So, while she may come off a bit more blunt than she would want to, she did so in order to get him to focus. He could gawk afterwards, if he wanted, but right now they were on a time limit.

After moving the massive amount of debris, that seemed to knock him out of his stunned demeanor. Already he was jumping into the thick of things. Before long, he was dragging an elderly person, clearly in shock, out from underneath. Only when she was in his arms did the X-Man shout to her.

>>"Free the other one! I'll take her outside."

She nodded. There were no need for more words.

Once he was gone, Roxie turned her attention to the other person, a young man who had been trapped trying to help the woman. He wasn’t conscious and with a nasty gash on his forehead and his leg, Roxie feared for his safety. While it may be unwise to move someone with such an injury, she couldn’t very well leave him there. So, carefully she scooped the man up, turned and leapt through a gaping hole in the side of the building. Once on the ground, Roxie deposited the man with the nearest official and turned, jumping her soot-covered butt right back into the building. She didn’t know if there were more, but she was not leaving until she was sure.

>>"Hey! Still here?"

Roxie leapt into the room just as the question was uttered, she found the X-Man standing there, seeming still on the lookout for her. She tapped him on the shoulder. ”I got him down to the paramedics, but I don’t know if there are anymore. I only brought out one other before I saw you. May be more upstairs.”

Gawain looked around to find the mysterious helper; it was hard to see anything in the dust and the smoke. When someone tapped him on the shoulder, he jumped, spinning around ready to fight a second before he realized who it was.

>> ”I got him down to the paramedics, but I don’t know if there are anymore. I only brought out one other before I saw you. May be more upstairs.”

"Let's check upstairs, then." Gawain nodded, heading for the hallway. How the hell did she get someone out and come back? Through the hole in the wall? But they were... high up. Did super strength come with high jumps? Probably.

The building around them creaked and shuddered as the fire ate away at parts of it. The explosion had destabilized some structures. Gawain moved fast, but refrained from slipping into the mirrors again. Now that he had help, they needed to coordinate.

"So, strength huh" he noted as he walked around some rubble and up a flight of stairs. "Way to stick with the classics..."

There was another creaking sound, and some faint clanking noise. Gawain tilted his head towards the elevator shaft.

"You don't happen to have super hearing, do you?"

Roxie blinked, eyeing the man closely as he jumped and whipped around to face her. Apparently she had caught him off guard. In a way it was probably a good thing that it was her and not some kind of thug because, really, it wasn’t all that impressive. In all honesty the display might have earned a laugh and a snort from her had thee situation not been so dire; making fun of someone while in a burning building was not the most ideal circumstance. Though that wasn’t to say she wouldn’t bring it up later. In the meantime she would have to bite her tongue, at least until they could get out of here.

Were there more? She wished that her senses were a bit more honed but she could have sworn before she left that she had heard more commotion upstairs. There was every possibility that it was just the house succumbing to flame, but she didn’t want to risk it. While she had the strength and durability, she was going to use it to her advantage.

>>"Let's check upstairs, then."

She nodded. The pair of them quickly exited the door and bolted for the staircase. They began to climb, taking several steps at a time. Roxie could have easily leapt over the other but given the collapsing structure around her, she didn’t want to risk it. If she landed too hard on a weakened step, she could break through, weakening herself further and go tumbling down into the smoke. No, the longer she was here, the weaker she got, but she wasn’t going to quit yet.

>>"So, strength huh...Way to stick with the classics..."

She rolled her eyes. ”All I’m missing is the tights and the cleavage window in my shirt,” she smirked from under her handkerchief.

>>"You don't happen to have super hearing, do you?"

They came to a stop, unsure of where to go next. At his comment, she rolled her eyes. ”I’m not Superior Girl. I’m strong, I can take a hit, but --” she was just about to mentioned her one weakness, she paused. She could feel it happening. The building was giving away further, starting with the staircase beneath their feet. She grabbed the X-Man by his shirt and dragged him away, just as they began to fall. Standing in the doorway of an apartment, she looked up to see one more level. Her eyes fell back to his. ”Take the last floor! I’ll check this one!”

The rest of the X-men were probably working rescue as well, but it was nice to have the extra backup with super strength, even if this chick was not exactly MRC sanctioned.

>> ”All I’m missing is the tights and the cleavage window in my shirt,”

"We can fix that" Gawain grinned as they climbed the stairs. The banter, however, was interrupted by some creaking sounds...

>>”I’m not Superior Girl. I’m strong, I can take a hit, but --”

But the stairs gave way. Gawain was grabbed and dragged to safety just in time; with the lack of remaining glass surfaces around, he would have definitely taken a fall.

"Thanks" he huffed, looking up at where the hallway above them opened to the next level.

>>”Take the last floor! I’ll check this one!”

"I'll need a mirror" Gawain frowned, looking around. There was a glass door a few steps into the hallway; it reflected just enough that it might work. "Don't smash too many glass things, okay?" he told her before he disappeared, teleporting one level up to check for survivors.

Roxie didn’t fancy herself a superhero. That was too comic booky, nerdy for her. When it came to what she did and what she could do, she also saw herself as more just a responsible citizen. When you have powers the likes of hers, it is essentially your duty to get off her ass and do whatever good you can. To sit back and just watch the city burn around it is just...negligent. Truly she couldn’t imagine anything worse. Therefore she resolved that she wasn’t a superhero, she was just someone who wasn’t going to stand by and watch people die.

Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to utter a clever quip every now and again. She had the classic powers but she didn’t running around, wearing tights and allowing a full glimpse of her chest through an highly inappropriate breast window. Really, the one comic character she heard about had that in her costume and it was ridiculous! What was the point? Bah, but now wasn’t the time to get into it -- peril and all that.

After pulling the X-Man away from the collapsing ground, she breath a small sigh of relief and before she glanced around them. She was running out of time. They needed to get the lead out or they were going to be in some serious trouble. The building wasn’t going to last much longer. So after she gestured for the hero to take the top floor, she turned to make a final sweep of this, all the while knowing that her time was precious and limited.

>>"I'll need a mirror...Don't smash too many glass things, okay?"

Roxie nodded. ”Okay! Go!”

She turned her back and barreled into the room next to her. This one, thankfully, proved to be empty. The window in front of the fire escape was broken open and a quick glance proved that the occupants had fled probably the second that they hear the fires crackling through the building. Good, that was one less person she needed to worry about. Still, she made a quick turn through the apartment, calling out, before she exited and tried the last two on this floor.

Another was empty, seems like it had been for awhile. Probably a vacancy. She turned and burst into the last apartment and there, in a corner, found a man pinned under his fridge. He was barely breathing at this point but Roxie acted fast, easily lifting the fridge from his body. It seemed he was a bachelor...but then he heard the soft whining of a dog nearby. Glancing back she found a large lab, padding left and right nervously. That was two that needed to be extracted.

In no way having the time to play it nice and easy, Roxie hefted the man onto her shoulder and managed to scoop the large dog under her arm. The dog squirmed and tried to nip at her in panic but Roxie ignored it...until she could feel the teeth start to push through. Her arms wiggled and she knew that she was nearly out of time. Running head long for the nearest window, Roxie broke through it, catching a cut across her eyebrow, but she still retained enough strength to land shakily on her own two feet outside -- and that was when she felt (and heard) the snap.

The bones in one of her ankles broke and Roxie could feel that spiderweb of pain flare across her body. She stumbled, limping as she set both the man and his dog on the ground, whistling sharply for paramedics to investigate. She was outside again and she could feel her strength returning but her ankle was already beginning to balloon and the blood from the laceration over her eye was starting to drip in front of her. And yet, still, her eyes looked towards the building and waited.

She hoped there was enough time for the X-Man to get out. There had to be.

The building was about to collapse. That was clear from the creaking and the groaning and the way debris was falling everywhere. The smoke and the fire were just the extra damage to deal with, and they made it a lot harder to see if anyone was trapped inside. Gawain swept the upper floor, making sure to check under piles of debris and behind doors, but did not find anyone. He was about to turn and find a way out when he heard the clanking again. Tilting his head, he listened. It was too regular to be a coincidence.

"Hello?" he called out; the banging, as a response, got louder. He circled back, following the sound... but did not find anyone in the hallway. Then it finally struck him. The sound was coming from the elevator shaft. "HELLO?"

Frantic clanking responded to his call, accompanied by yelling that was almost muted by the walls in between. The mirrorwalker looked around, scrambling for the nearest reflecting surface. There had to be a mirror in an elevator, right? Was this building fancy enough for that?...

A few moments of walking later, Gawain was staring in the face of a terrified woman from the black screen of a dead cellphone. "Hey!" he said, as cheerfully as he could muster, but she still screamed, and dropped the phone. "Hey! I'm here to help! Listen, we don't have a lot of time. I'm going to take you out of here, okay?" She nodded, then shook her head, then sobbed a little. Gawain sighed. "It's gonna be okay. I'm here to get you. You'll just need to take my hand, and we'll walk out through the mirror together. Okay? Here we go..."

He stepped out of the reflecting surface. In retrospect, that was a bad move. The elevator creaked, and gave way, sliding with a metallic scream as the breaks gave way. The whole building was finally coming down.

A few tantalizingly long moments later Gawain, with the woman in his arms, fell out of the window of a police car parked outside, and landed painfully on the concrete, a few paces away from where Roxie was sitting. He managed to roll in a way that he took the blunt of the impact, and it knocked the air out of his lungs. "Ugh... Owww...."

Roxie was limping. Her ankle was hurt but she knew that it wouldn’t last too long. She had twisted it worse before. It would heal, with time. While she was pretty durable, if her powers were weakened by neighboring structures, then yes, she was as vulnerable as anyone else. That was a problem with her power. If she were harmed when she didn’t have her increased strength, then she simply needed to wait and let her body heal up like a normal person. It was probably one of the only “normal” things about her. Of course it was.

After landing incorrectly outside of the building, Roxie limped away, letting the paramedics deal with the man and his dog. Pulling the scarf down from her mouth, she breathed in the (semi) clean air for a second before she descended into coughing. The fabric had done what it could but there was only so much smoke it could have filtered out. Another hearty cough and already she could feel paramedics trying to lead her away. However, she stubbornly refused to move, instead keeping an eye out for the X-Man.

In order to get them to shut up, and not punch their faces in, Roxie finally agreed and took a careful seat on the back bumper of an ambulance. She let them check her vitals, marvel at how resilient her skin was, and generally look at one another completely stumped. It was clear that they didn’t deal with many mutants. However before she make any said comments, she was startled by the sudden movement out of the corner of her eye as someone barreled across the ground with another person in tow.

>>"Ugh... Owww...."

She breathed a small sigh of relief. It was the hero and he was fine. Shaking her head, she arched her brow, watching as he managed to move onto his feet. It was quite the heroic save but clearly he was a bit worse for the wear himself. Still, he didn’t look as bad as she was feeling so there was probably room to throw a few jabs his way; just for kicks.

”I give that landing a four…” she said with a smirk. ”...Maybe a five. I’ll throw in an extra point since you were trying to protect a civilian.”

The paramedics were not even surprised anymore when an X-man fell out of a mirror. They took the woman away to examine her; she seemed to be in shock, but otherwise mostly unhurt. Gawain, on his part, got back to his feet and looked around, noticing the super-strong woman sitting on the back of an ambulance. He limped over, sitting heavily next to her with a huff.

>>”I give that landing a four...Maybe a five. I’ll throw in an extra point since you were trying to protect a civilian.”

Gawain arched an eyebrow at her and chuckled.

"Well, I didn't see yours, but I'll go out on a limb and guess you didn't stick the superhero pose either" he noted, nodding at her swollen ankle "Super strength doesn't come with durable bones, huh?"

They'd both made it out alive, and mostly in one piece. People had been saved. It was not a bad tally for the day. Gawain offered a dust-covered hand.

"Gawain. They call me Mirror in the field. You can guess why."

It was a pretty impressive landing. Now that her adrenaline was beginning to wane, she could feel the slight shake in her limbs from how much she exerted herself. But above that she could feel her strength returning to her. Now that she was out of the burning building, she could feel the durability of the city around her. This wasn’t the best kept part of town but it was close enough to make her feel strong again. The sinews of her muscles were becoming firm but in a way it almost made her ankle feel worse. She sighed. She was going to have a limp for a little bit.

Watching the X-Man, she smirked. She was glad that he was able to find another person in the building and really hoped that it was the last one. The thought that they could have left anyone behind was almost a little too much to bear so she would make sure to be out of the area before the rescue crews started their grisly search. She wouldn’t forgive herself if others had been left behind.

But she wasn’t going to be negative so soon. For the time being she would count this as a victory. They had rescued people and that was all that mattered.

>>"Well, I didn't see yours, but I'll go out on a limb and guess you didn't stick the superhero pose either...Super strength doesn't come with durable bones, huh?"

She snorted when the hero limped over and took an exhausted seat at her side. The ambulance jolted at the sudden addition of more weight but it wasn’t as if the paramedics were going to shoo them away. They just literally ran into a burning building and risked their lives to save others.

Roxie glanced to the hero sighed. ”Oh I landed it,” she corrected. ”But my ankle didn’t think it was as cool as it was.” She gestured to her bandaged joint. She wasn’t always the most open when it came to discussing her powers, but she would ignore her discomfort for now. ”I am durable...but it depends. For some reason my strength, resilience, it depends on the city around me. The building we were in was falling apart, hence, when I jumped out, my powers were weak. But, I should be okay now.”

There was nothing wrong with sharing her abilities with an X-Man. After all, it wasn’t as if she could deny she was a mutant now. As she stared ahead, she turned only when he began to introduce himself.

>>"Gawain. They call me Mirror in the field. You can guess why."

She smirked. Then she took his hand to shake. True to her explanation, he would feel the tight squeeze she gave his hand. ”Roxanne,” she greeted. ”Though most just call me ‘Roxie’.”