I stared in disbelieving awe at Shawn for a long moment. Shaking away the revere, I glanced at Al, then Cara or Jascia, whoever it was, then at all the downed neighbors, then the growing fire licking the ceiling. A neighbor, leaning against the wall, collected himself to also survey the scene. The fire first, then me.

“The truth has been revealed! The great deceiver has come to claim the souls of the innocent! I am will not fear your wrath. I am firm in my belief; God will prevail. You will not drag my soul to the fiery pits of hell!” The man yelled as he fled the room.

“Langu- I’m not-” I tried as the man stumbled out the window. “For the love of death, I’m getting really sick of that guy.” I sighed as a couple more people, free of Jascia’s spell followed the crier with pale faces, unwilling to take their eyes off me. I chose to ignore them.

Hoisting up Cara-slash-Jascia’s limp form, I ran from the building into the front lawn. I wouldn’t be able to grab all of the people before the fire consumed the house. I remembered the couple that insisted on coming along. It was lucky that they did.

“Dale!” I shouted as I set the teenager in the grass near the road. “Get off your lazy butt and help!” Then I ran back to the house to grab Shawn since he was close to the door. Leah ran to the gothic girl’s body and Dale stood next to her then toward me with confusion on his face. The fire couldn’t be seen from outside, so the only sign that something was wrong was the delusional man screaming of my blasphemy and me leaving the house with unconscious people.

“What happened?” Dale asked running toward me.

“Shawn tried to help.” I replied. Dale knowingly grimaced as I handed him my foolish apprentice. Dale took the man-boy into his arms, looked at him, then immediately dropped him onto the grass as if I’d handed him something disgusting. I looked at him incredulously. He shrugged in response, grabbed Shawns arm, and left him next to the girl Leah was looking at. Grass muffed up the kid’s pristine hair as he was dragged.

“I approve.” I said to him.

“I don’t.” Leah scolded. “What does that mean, ‘Shawn helped?” She mimicked my manly, totally cool manner of speaking as she asked.

“Shawn helping is like a code red. He probably beat everyone with a shovel and started the building on fire.” Dale answered for me.

“Holy death, that’s exactly what happened.” I said. Leah looked between us shaking her head. I tapped Dale on the shoulder and added: “C’mon, there’s a bunch of people that are about to burn to death.” We ran back to the house toward the ring of unconscious minions. I skipped all of the other victims to get to Al.

She laid on her stomach, so I rolled her over. Her hair was tied tightly back in a ponytail, but some of it had loosened and come out of it. Her forehead was sweaty, and strands of hair were stuck to it. I’d never seen her so helpless before. I brushed the hair out of her face with a finger. I shook away my concern, and returned to myself.

“Water powers would sure be handy about now.” I commented derisively to Al’s unconscious form as I picked her up gingerly. Dale snorted.

“You’re so petty.” Dale admonished. “Grow up.”

“You just dropped Shawn in the grass because he’s – well, he’s Shawn.” I shot back defensively, a little more high-pitched than I would have liked.

“You have to read the room. What I did was hilarious, and he deserved it. These people are about to burn to death and you’re cracking jokes. Not cool, man. Not cool.” Dale chided.

“Just shut up and grab someone.” I replied gruffly.

I gingerly picked up Al and started running to the door. I tried to heal her while I ran, but physically, she’d only sustained minor wounds. Unfortunately, fixing her didn’t wake her up. Apparently, unconsciousness wasn’t something I could fix. Oh well, I thought; she probably would have blamed me or try to put out the fire with more fire.

Gently placing my mentor on the ground near Leah and the other two people in her care, I remembered the danger of Jascia’s power. I pointed at the teenager. “Leah, if she wakes up, knock her out. I really don’t want to fight more of her super minions while trying to save everyone.” My hulking compatriot charged out of the burning building with a person over one shoulder and another like luggage. I stared at him with a disapproving expression.

“What?” Dale asked me in response to my body language. “I’m not going to spare your ego while trying to save people. I’m much stronger than you.” He dropped his payload but didn’t give me a chance to retort before he took off again.

“Why are you just standing here while my husband risks his life?” Leah complained.

“I hate this.” I commented, taking off after him.

Dale made a show of picking up another two people. I’ll show him, I thought. Using superhuman strength, I put a helmeted guard on my left arm, stacked the soccer mom on him, and completed the pile with the spider monkey kid. Finally, I heaved the griller over my other shoulder and picked up the whole group.

I followed after Dale, and when I made it to the group Leah was tending to. Dale turned to see my smug face carrying twice the amount of people than him.

“So immature.” Dale commented. The grill-master slumped off my shoulder and we all watched helplessly as he hit the ground face first.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Leah asked like a mother scolding her child.

“Saving people?” I replied with a placating smile while setting down my burden of people like firewood. She pointed at the man that had face planted.

“’ Saving people.’ He says.” Leah mocked then pointed. “You call that saving people?” Dale shook his head in disappointed agreement.

“Yes?” I asked. She tsked in response. After a moment of standing there, her face grew hot.

“What are you standing around for?!” She exasperated. “Go get everyone else!” I noticed she specifically directed her fury at me. Dale’s stupor disappeared quicker than mine and bolted back to the inferno.

“You’re as bad as Shawn.” He insulted as he ran.

“Take it back!” I shouted at him, following close behind.

The light of the flames flickered in the windows and smoke billowed out of the second story. We had to take three more trips to get everyone as the fire continued to engulf the house. By the end, Dale and I were both coughing. Leah confirmed that everyone was alright.

Al was coming to. She sat up holding her head and looked around. She got to her feet and stalked toward me. I watched her questioningly until her fist flew toward my face. I hastily ducked the attack. I had expected violence from her as soon as her eyes fell on me. Before she could punt my face, I put up my hands to defend.

“Wait!” I pleaded. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“Don’t try to lie. Clearly you messed up again.” She yelled, gesturing at the house ablaze. “You took too much of my energy and couldn’t control it.”

“You know – that does make a lot more sense.” Dale commented with a nod.

“Shut up, Dale.” I gestured to the grassy-haired pretty boy. “Shawn came in, trying to act the hero, and hit everyone with lightning. It’s his fault everyone’s unconscious and the house started on fire.” Al’s anger diminished, but I held my defensive stance just in case. “

“Oh.” She remarked, then reappraised the unconscious fledgling mage. “I’m impressed.”

“Are you kidding me?! You tried to murder me, and he gets praised?” I complained.

“Stop whining.” Al scolded. “You’re acting like a petulant child.”

“He’s always like that. If you don’t coddle him, he start crying.” Dale said to her, shaking his head at me. He came over and patted me on the shoulder. Using his best talking-to-a-little-kid voice, he added. “You did a good job, Jesse. I’m proud of you.”

“I hate you.” I said, shrugging his hand away. Al looked around at all the people lying in the grass. She gestured to them and looked at me expectantly.

“Well?” She asked.

“Well, what?” I responded.

“Aren’t you going to heal them?” She asked.

“They don’t need healing. Leah said they were all fine.” I assured.

“He doesn’t look fine.” Al pointed at the griller that I’d dropped. His nose was bleeding. I didn’t have time to defend myself.

“He did that.” Dale said directing his thumb at me. “The man asked if he could help save people, but Jesse just punched him in the face.” Dale was messing with me.

“I did not.” I pouted. Walking over, I casually put a hand on the man’s face, and he was healed in moments. Afterward, I perused the line, assessing each victim to mollify my companions’ disapproving looks. Only a couple had minor scrapes and bruises, so I healed them as well. I accidentally tripped over Shawn as I passed him by.

“Let’s go.” Al said cracking her neck. She had an evil grin on her face as she picked up Car-ascia’s limp body. “We have some questioning to do.” She placed the teenager into her fancy car’s trunk and got into the driver’s seat while I roughly tossed Shawn into the back seat. Apparently, we were off to do some questioning .