Boom, bang. Kaboom!

The explosions rocked the small China town city block. A neon sign fell. Fire crackled. People ran.

Right now, they were in damage control mode. Police, working with other first responders. Getting people to safety shelters, set up specifically for the event of yet another big New York moment. An X-men level threat. Just another day in New York.

He wasn’t sure who had set off the bomb. There was no obvious bad men laughing atop a building, fingers clenched towards the sky. There would be an investigation later. Detectives of fire department investigators. That would be a different department than his own. He wasn’t a detective, not yet. But he could help.

He ran towards a pile of debris, and helped shift it alongside a fire fighter. In his mind, he wasn’t differentiating between FDNY and NYPD. They were all on the same team. Together, they hauled a massive piece of metal free and tossed it to one side. A mother clutching a small child close to her chest was revealed. She was understandably upset. Ashton turned aside and let the fire fighter help them towards an ambulance. There were other things to focus on.

A woman gestured towards another building. She caught his attention, as well as that of another person nearby. He looked to the man, then towards the building. It was unsteady, but it wasn’t on fire. Yet.

”Well. Want to help me get their husband out before it all falls down?” He said.

You don’t go into law enforcement because of the glamour. It isn’t glamorous. You don’t do it for the money. You won’t become rich. You don’t do it for the work hours. They’re awful and the overtime never stops. You do it because you feel called to help your fellow man.This means that when a bomb goes off in chinatown on your day off, you put down your bag of egg noodles and go to work.

Sam wiped dust from his face and shook his head. The shock from the blast had shoved back against a wall. This meant he didn’t hit the ground, but it would likely leave a nasty bruise on his back. A ringing filled his ears but slowly was fading as the sound of yells, cries, and car alarms came back to him.

His sea legs underneath him, Sam sprang into action. He could see others on their phones calling emergency services, that was one less thing Sam had to do. Instead, he could focus on helping those in need while his brothers in red and blue arrived.

Pulling people free of debris, affixing improvised bandages and tourniquets, and helping to direct the first responders as they arrived on scene. Normally FDNY and NYPD have a long standing pissing match but when there was a real emergency they came together.

Sam had just finished pulling someone free of a flipped car when he noticed a woman getting his attention. She was gesturing toward a building. Sam saw she had also gotten the attention of a uniformed officer. Wiping sweat from his brow, Sam looked at the building. Not burning, but in a bad way.

The officer asked if Sam wanted to help get the husband out.

While not exactly what Sam was equipped for, either in terms of gear or spells. He nodded, ”Yes... Let’s hurry.” Sam moved toward the building as he pulled his badge out from under his shirt and let it hang in front of his chest so the officer would know he wasn’t just some passerby, ”It looks ready to collapse any minute now.”

Moving as fast as he could while keeping sure footing, Sam entered the building and called out, ”NYPD, we’re here to help.” Sam looked around through the falling dust, ”Call out or beat on something so we can find you.” Not willing to put all eggs in one basket, Sam set about looking as he called out. There was no guarantee the man he was looking for could hear him or respond.

The badge, Ashton noted. This was no random passerby. Hell. He might even have a higher rank than he did... which would not have been stretching things by any level of imagination. As they moved, Ashton gave him the smallest of nods. Both to confirm he saw the badge, and to acknowledge what the man had said.

The man and him entered the building. Ashton entered second, and NYPD plainclothes was already announcing their presence. Good.

Dust was falling. They stood there a moment. In Silence, save for the background noise of a New York City disaster. And then, there was a sound from somewhere ahead of them, just around the bend.

Ashton ran towards the source of the sound. A fist rapping against metal, and as he grew closer, a muffled voice. He stopped running.

He could see the man’s face, through a gap in rubble. A staircase to the second floor had fallen, and just the man’s luck, he had fallen with it. He was beneath the rubble. Trapped.

”NYPD. I’m here. Just on the other side. Are you hurt?” He called. Then waited. After a moment, the man shouted “NO.”

Good. Ashton let out a small breath he hadn’t been aware he had been holding. The man did not have a broken leg. No bashed head. As far as they knew. Maybe his relief had been premature, though. People can go into shock and think that they are fine, even when they certainly are not.

”Rubble looks piled on pretty bad. Can you move at all?”

“A LiTtLe!”

Ashton turned back towards officer plain clothes. ”Probably a bad idea to try and move this.” He said to him. Hesitated a second, then added. ”Hey... are you... cool?” He tried to directly meet his eye.

He had an idea. It was pretty blatant, but he doubted the man under the stairs would care. The guy had gotten so so lucky. He must have been crossing the stairs when they fell in, rocked by structural damage from a nearby explosion. And he had fallen into an open crawl space. A closet or something. Some place with open space and air... rather than jagged wood and nails. But time was limiting and if they waited too long... god, it felt redundant repeating the line, but... it would not be long before it all came falling down. Ahem. Yes.

Cliche department called, Ashton. They want that thought back.

Sam moved carefully, and quietly. He looked and listened for the woman's husband. When he finally heard a sound. Sam wheeled to look where it had come from and saw the officer springing into action. Good man. Sam moved to assist. The building was in a bad way, ready to go down any second.

The officer was speaking to the man who admitted he could move a little. The officer, Sam looked to see was Officer Drake, turned to Sam and said it was probably a bad idea to move the fallen staircase.

”Probably not.” Sam said in agreement. An attempt to move it could do more harm than good. That meant another way needed to be found. In response to being cool he said, Not sure this is the time to learn if I can restart jukeboxes. If you have an idea let’s save the man now and worry about fudging paperwork after.” Sam had to assume Officer Drake didn’t mean temperature-wise. Even in the spring air, all the running and movement had Sam feeling too warm for the jacket he was wearing.

”Im gonna trade places with the person. Immediately after that, hold up that broken wooden plank over there where I can see it.”

He basically knew his teleporting power by now. Lots of practice at the mansion and at home. He only hoped nothing fell on him while he was under the rubble.

Okay. He waited one beat for confirmation, and then did what he did.

Ashton traded places with the person trapped in the rubble. The person appeared where he had been standing. Smelled a little like cinnamon, but amid the burning, that sensory detail was likely lost.

Ashton brushed a tiny bit of blood from the corner of one nostril. Weight limits and all of that. People were more difficult to work with than objects. Speaking of objects.

Once his power was done recharging, he would trade places with the wooden plank, if the person did what he’d asked, he would reappear within a few inches of where the plank had been present.

He relied on trust for someone he did not know. And— bamf?