Super: Origins (53 page)

The hollow boom that followed caused a moment of silence all around, and Lex surveyed the stunned faces in flickering flames from the fire and flashing emergency lights on the fire trucks. Feeling her face burning with embarrassment, she raised her voice.

“I'm sorry,” she shouted, “I should have let everyone know that was expected.”

At her pronouncement, activity started up again, some people looking at her with annoyance or confusion but generally accepting what she'd said and getting on with their work. Lex turned to find the engineer staring at her now, but he grumblingly complied when she requested a large tape measure and some chalk. As she walked back towards the front of the building, Lex called out on her communicator again.

“Serena, are you and Roger back on the ground?”

“Yes,” the redhead answered. “He's working on smoothing out the burrs on the pole.”

“Good,” Lex replied. “Could you meet me on the front lawn? I need your help getting to the roof.”

A moment later, Serena appeared, grabbed hold of Lex's arm, and she watched the scenery abruptly change from the entrance of the burning apartments to a high view of the buildings surrounding them, somewhat obscured by smoke and flames. Lex got her balance as she looked around a moment, nodded, then headed towards the edge of the flat roof.

“Where are you thinking about making the hole?” Serena asked.

Lex laid out the measurements the engineer had given her, trying not to get too close to the gout of flames that sprung up along the edge, and then began drawing some marks. “Well,” she replied, pointing to the middle before she started the measurements for the next side, “About here. I was hoping you and Roger could do it together. Something about the size of a couple of people and the pole on each floor, all the way down to the ground floor. He cuts and you transport the rubble and the two of you out of the way before everything falls to the next floor. Do you think you can do it?” She patted her now overly-warm hair as she finished drawing, hoping no sparks had flown into it.

Serena smirked. “I think I could. Or we could make a big mess. I'm willing to try it, either way.”

Lex shrugged, her shoulders tight. “It'd be better if you could, especially for the structure. My backup plan is to borrow George or Casey when they get over here and have them push the debris out of the way. We'll have to wait to start, though, because I'll have to ask the fire fighters to make an announcement to get people to move from the center of the building.”

Nodding in reply, Serena added, “Yeah, and we'll have to figure out how to get the pole up here.”

With the ghost of a smile, Lex nodded back. “I have some ideas about that.”

She finished marking out a rough circle and turned back to Serena. “Can we go back down? I need to touch base with Riss before the others get back.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Serena said, reaching out with a wink, and then the two stood on the front lawn once more. Lex smiled in return as she made her way over to Riss' temporary headquarters under a tree across the way. Her friend sat on a little blanket with a number of laptops spread out before her, dusting ash from a computer screen with her sleeve, and looked up as Lex approached.

“Hey,” Lex said as she sat down beside the other woman. “How's it going? Did you and Lily manage to set up the same sort of tracking system as before?”

Riss nodded and showed Lex a spreadsheet. “It was a little easier since I have access to the building occupant list now. We're checking everyone off as they arrive, as best we can figure if they're injured and non-responsive. We're just keeping counts for anyone whose identity isn't clear.”

“Good. Did you hear from Clara about hooking into the security cameras for the building?”

Riss' eyes darted around the area before she nodded, showing Lex a number of video feeds from her laptop screen from all over the building. “Yes. I just heard from her a little while ago.”

The next thing she did, however, was to change to the laptop Lex had given her and show Lex a different feed. It seemed to show the basement of the building, and Riss pointed to something in the corner of the room. Lex took a closer look and a quick breath in as she nodded. It appeared to be a big grate, large enough for a human to get through. She nodded as she sat up straight, trying to stop from breaking out a huge smile and now scanning the area for Clara herself.

“Well, thanks for keeping an eye on all of that,” she said, meeting Riss' gaze. “If you could keep a special watch on the basement, I'd appreciate it. We're all paying attention to the upper floors, so I don't want to miss it if someone gets lost down there.”

“Will do,” Riss replied with a tiny smirk.

Lex approached the firefighters afterwards, asking that they make a loudspeaker announcement telling people to back away from the center of the building and choose one of the wings to stand in. Then she went to request that one of the support people they'd arrived with bring food, and came back to the front of the building in time to see George, Casey, and Joan arrive, each spaced out along the pole and carrying it slowly.

“Thanks, everyone,” Lex said, approaching the group as they reached the front lawn. “Could you just leave it here for the moment while I work with Serena and Roger to get the building ready? The snacks and drinks should come soon, so dig in if you want to once they do.”

Joan and Casey nodded as they slowly lowered the pole to the ground, but both of them ended up glaring at George when he went faster than they did, almost pulling Casey off balance and nearly dropping his end of the pole on Lex's foot. He shot an angry look at Casey before stomping off towards the Alpha team van. Casey and Lex both glanced at each other and shook their heads. A moment later, Lex took a little time to run a hand over the now smooth surface of the pole, verifying the job that Roger had completed.

“All right,” Serena said, clapping a hand on Lex's back, “are we ready?”

Lex nodded, looking over to see Roger at the redhead's other side. As she blinked once, they suddenly stood on the roof of the burning building, the sounds of the city farther away and more smoke billowing by than before. Briefly explaining to Roger what she and Serena had discussed earlier, Lex watched as he listened, looked at the spot she'd marked, and considered for a moment.

“Shouldn't be a problem,” he finally said with a nod. Looking at Serena, he raised an eyebrow. “Ready to try the first one?”

Serena stepped forward with a smirk, standing behind him and laying a hand on his shoulder. “Fire when ready,” she replied.

Lex watched as two focused beams of yellow light emerged from Roger's fingertips as he pointed his hands down at the circle she'd drawn on the roof. It took a few moments, but she could see smoke and dust as the light began to penetrate the roof's surface, and then he turned slowly, following the circle, Serena mirroring his moves. After a couple of minutes, Lex saw the two of them jolt as Roger finished the cuts, and then they vanished.

“Serena, Roger,” Lex called on her communicator, her voice shaky and her heart pounding in her throat as she stared through the hole into the floor below. “How did it go?”

Then the two of them reappeared in front of her, Roger smiling and Serena laughing. “It went OK, but the best thing was the look on George's face! I decided to land the first one right by the Alpha van.”

Serena continued laughing, and Lex tried hard not to join in. “That's good,” Lex said tentatively, “but maybe you could just put the rest on the edge of the lawns or in the alley behind the building?”

“You spoil all my fun,” Serena said with a fake pout, then smiled again and turned to Roger. “You ready to do the next one?”

He nodded in reply. “As soon as you are.”

Lex watched as they completed the next few floors, then waited as Serena rested for a few minutes before catching a ride down to the ground with her. The redhead waved and disappeared as Lex went to collect Casey, Joan, and George.

Once she found all three of them and had gathered them back near the pole (reluctantly, in George's case), Lex went through the plan she'd hatched for getting it up on the roof.

“I thought we could start by having all three of you push the pole upright and lean it on the building. Then, Serena can take either George or Casey up to the roof. After that, whoever's on the ground starts pushing the pole up, Joan takes the middle and pushes, and whoever's on the roof starts pulling. When the person on the ground can't reach it anymore, Joan and the person on the roof work together to get the pole all the way up there, and then the person on the roof pulls it in so that the long part of the pole is mostly on the roof. Do you think that might work, or do any of you have other ideas?”

“Sounds good to me,” Joan said.

Casey shook her head. “I think that should do it. Whichever position will work fine for me, I'm not picky.”

George was silent for a few minutes, staring at the ground and frowned when he looked back up. “There must be a better way to do this.”

He glared at Lex, but Lex smiled in response. “Come on George, you know the ladies are going to need your help.”

By then, his expression was aiming for a glare, but a lot of his anger seemed to have evaporated. “Well, since you put it that way, just remember that afterwards. I'll be on the roof.”

“That's fine,” said Lex, nodding as her eyes slid to Casey, who stood nearby with a neutral look on her face. As their glances met, however, the blonde rolled her eyes and Lex forced her laugh to sound like a cough.

When Serena and Roger appeared about a half-hour later, the passage through the building completed down to the lobby, the operation to raise the pole began. It started off rocky, the pole teetering in the air for a few moments before the three could lower it to rest against the building. After that, Casey, Joan, and George worked together smoothly to raise the pole the rest of the way to the roof.

Lex turned to Roger while the others worked. “Could you come inside the building with me? There's one more hole I'm going to have to ask you to make.”

He nodded in response, so they both put breathing gear on and went inside. The firefighters had cleared the lobby of all furniture, so the only things left to see were the wall-to-wall Persian carpet, the massive front desk, and the carved stone figures in each corner of the ceiling. Since it had a high ceiling, a lot of clear air sat near the floor. When Lex heard a call over her communicator some seconds later, she took her breathing mask off to respond.

“The pole is on the roof,” Joan announced. “What's the next step?”

“The three of you should raise the pole up again, but start to slide it into the opening in the building when you get some height. Serena, can you get on the roof and help them once the pole is inside? Look at where it is and tell them where they should move it so that it goes straight to the bottom, OK?”

“Yes, boss,” Serena's voice crackled over the communicator with a hint of laughter.

“Keep me posted if you run into any problems,” Lex said. Then, she turned to Roger. “We should keep clear for the moment, but what I want you to do once the bottom of the pole is here is to make a hole of about the same diameter. I'm going to ask the folks on the roof to fit it, and then drive it in a bit so that it sticks. I figure we'll probably still have to have someone on the roof to steady it, but if it's solid on this end, that should help out a lot once people start using it. Make sense?”

Roger nodded after a few quiet minutes, and then asked, “Have you worked for any other team before? With the way you're running this operation, I figure I should have heard of you, but I haven't.”

“No,” Lex answered, shaking her head. “I just finished my probation on this team not long ago.”

“Well, let me know if you ever feel like moving to New York,” Roger said, shaking his head. “We could definitely use someone like you there.”

A crash interrupted their conversation then, the noise coming from somewhere far overhead. The two of them automatically stepped back a little farther from the hole in the ceiling.

“Hey, Serena,” Lex called over her communicator, “how's it going up there?”

There was a soft curse in response, and then the redhead spoke. “It's all right…we just got hung up partway down. Up and back a little to your left, Casey,” Serena said a little more loudly.

Lex and Roger continued waiting another few minutes, both sets of eyes glued to the ceiling. Lex jumped involuntarily several seconds later when the pole appeared, not quite in free-fall but obviously not completely in control. After a moment to let the noise subside once it landed, Lex asked the three on the roof to wait while she measured the pole, estimated about where it should sit in the center, and stepped back so that Roger could do his work. Since the pole was leaning in at an angle, he had no trouble completing the new hole in the floor. Lex had been about to ask Casey, George, and Joan to try to place it when she heard Serena's voice over the communicator.

“Are you done with the last one?”

When Lex replied in the affirmative, Serena continued, “Give me a minute. I've got an idea that should help with what we need to do next.”

Several minutes later, Serena showed up in the lobby with a few bottles of cooking oil. The redhead opened two, handed one to Lex and began pouring her own bottle around the hole Roger had just finished. She shook her head as it sizzled a little because the edge was still hot.

“You can hit the pole up,” Serena said to Lex with a grin. “Proper lubrication is very important for an operation like this.”

Lex blushed and turned away as she started doing what Serena had suggested. After a little while, she couldn't help giggling and looked back at Serena. “Good idea,” Lex said.

The redhead coughed then, because the smoke had started to get thicker in the lobby. “OK, I'm going back up to the roof.”

“Thanks for the idea,” Lex said, finishing up applying the bottle she had in her hand.

“All right,” Lex said over the intercom, “Will someone please move the pole again now? Roger finished the final hole down here, so please line it up with that. Serena, be their eyes as much as you can. Once it's in place, we'll let you know, too.”