[lonewolf]

Ah yes. This was absolutely completely stupid. But damn, was this going to be a lot of fun. 

The inner kid within Mark loved a bunch of really stupid things. Illegal Mexican fireworks, throwing firecrackers into water bottles, and creating impromptu flamethrowers with aerosol sprays and lighters were some of the things he got into during his childhood with his younger brother. Now that he was an adult he had access to much, much bigger things. This building in front of him? This was going to be his masterpiece. Sometimes it really paid to be a teacher. 

Today he was going to be testing this Jason kid, which was going to be interesting. He barely came up to Mark's waist and could easily be mistaken for a child. He had to double and triple check that this kid was even on a college level. But either way, he was one of those kids that need just a little bit extra remediation. So he had called the kid out to Ground Beta for a special training session. Once he arrive Mark would look over at him, smirking. "Hey, kiddo! Got a special challenge for you today! See that building over there? You need to pull all five civilians out as quick as you can!" He'd indicate a small two-story coffee shop a little ways away. There was something more to this, though. It couldn't be that simple, right?

"Right, and just for you I have a special challenge." He'd depress the button on a detonator he had in his hand. Almost a second a later the shop would burst into flames, sending glass shards out into the street.

Kupo

[Kupo]

---

| ★Jason Riviera★ | @crystalprincekupo
Location: UA Campus, Tokyo, Japan. | Current Status: Training with Lone Wolf!
Now Playing: The Score - Born For This

---

Besides all of his classes, both practical & theory, Kupo's days were usually either training or rest days. Today was a training day, which meant waking before 05:00 and spending the morning (after shower & breakfast) doing some kind of intensive training. Today, Kupo was training his fighting style/form. Fluid, acrobatic movements chained into swift, impactful kicks. Somewhere between martial art and dance. As the morning drew closer to noon, Kupo wrapped up this first training session with a break, then headed to Ground Beta. He'd been somewhat surprised when Lone Wolf had invited him to a private training session, but Kupo was never one to refuse help nor a chance to learn and improve. Arriving, he was wearing simple (and very light) workout gear, a green bandana for aesthetic, and his typical wonderstruck expression. "Hi, Mr. Lone Wolf! Thanks for offering to do this with me!"

Kupo listened and followed Lone Wolf's point to the indicated building. His expression shifted to one more quietly confident, smile widening. A rescue challenge? This was his specialty, and it would seemingly be no trouble. If Kupo had learnt anything from their lessons though, it was never to trust a 'simple' scenario presented by Lone Wolf. Dropping lower into a running stance, Kupo readied himself for the activity. He'd learnt from a young age to always ask clarifying questions, helps to prevent misunderstandings. "Quick question, but are these actor civilians or dummy civilians? The two sound differ-" Kupo was very quickly cut off by the building he was tasked to run into bursting into flames. Explosively. 'Right, there's the twist,' he thought, 'special challenge... he must know, right? Lone Wolf has to be testing my ability to act in weakness scenarios!' Kupo very briefly froze up, adrenaline engaged by the new severity of the situation, but just as fast his heroism broke through. No freezing, no hesitation, people need saving! "Nevermind, doesn't matter, this is urgent!"

Kupo rushed forward with the great animalistic speed his Quirk granted him, checking that the dark grey medical device around his left wrist was on and working before stopping just short of the burning building. Kupo took a brief few moments to assess the situation. Canine ears twitched around listening for any sign of 'civilians' amidst the roar of the fire. Bright green eyes scanned the café for routes of safe entry & exit for escorting both healthy and injured civilians. This process repeated as Kupo quickly circled the building. The fire spreading to neighbouring buildings was also a definite risk, but not one the arctic rescuer was equipped to directly combat. In a real rescue, that'd be the firefighters' jobs. When Kupo had found his angle of approach, he entered the café via a top floor window, bringing his bandana and fur collar up to cover his mouth & nose. Heat and smoke rise, the people most at risk in a burning building are those on the top floor.

[lonewolf]

Lone Wolf, appearances aside, was perceptive enough to know Jason was that much more susceptible to heat compared to most other students. He didn't quite understand the how or why, but he made it a habit in his career to not question why the brown cow that ate green grass produced the white milk that turned into yellow butter. There were principles in this world, and so long as he knew what those principles were followed there was a way to predict how things would turn out.

Hence a large reason why he was forcing Jason into this mess in the first place. Mark knew that situations like this might end up happening, which could lead to bad things happening. While many might call this situation uncontrolled, it was leagues more controlled than out on the streets every day. Thankfully, the concoction that Mark had used was made up of predominantly gasoline, so there was less of a chance of those inside having shrapnel or concussive injuries was low. That said, anything that could catch fire was on fire, and that would definitely be the case in the small office on the second floor. Clearly this was where the manager did the work keeping the books, and a dummy would be sitting in a chair with the desk and papers all around it all on fire, flames threatening to lick away at the "civilian's" clothing.

Kupo

[Kupo]

---

| ★Jason Riviera★ | @crystalprincekupo
Location: UA Campus, Tokyo, Japan. | Current Status: Training with Lone Wolf!
Now Playing: Jacksepticeye, The Gregory Brothers - All the Way

---

Entering the second-floor office, Kupo was immediately hit with the heat of the room like a wave washing over him. It was incredibly uncomfortable, to start, but not quite painful yet. 'Okayokay, I can handle this!' He takes a couple seconds to take in the room. One 'person', fire close, wooden internal door. Kupo bursts forwards, landing behind the chair with the dummy in it. Partly to follow protocol, partly to reassure himself, Kupo took a second to speak. "Hi! I'm pro hero Snow Fox, here to help you!" Yes, a hero, that's what he's trying to be. Heroes can't hesitate. He pulls the dummy backwards out of the chair, rolling it to douse any flames on the clothes before jumping back towards the window. Now, how to deal with window rescues again? He ran through the process, mumbling what he'd been taught in order to stay focused. "Help to window- yep. Minimise harm, have another hero catch... heck." No other heroes, just him. Thinking on his feet, Kupo used them to jump up against the top of the window frame, launching himself off it down to ground level. His trailing foot nudged the dummy sat on the windowsill, knocking it down after him. With a little difficulty, Kupo caught the dummy once he hit the ground.

Once he made the catch (and lowered the dummy to the floor), Kupo set off around the building to enter via the other second-floor window. If he could avoid travelling via internal hallways/stairs, where his exit routes could well be blocked off by fire, he would. Once inside, Kupo assessed the situation once again. Wonderful. He found himself at the top of the stairwell, with two doors visible on the floor. The one opposite was most likely the room he'd just been in, so what about the one nearer to him? The landing was indeed on fire, some of it having started to lap at the floor and doors. Kupo went to try the door, but found it wouldn't open. Locked. With a few steps back (almost touching the flames himself), Kupo kicked open the door. A broken lock was minimal collateral damage, he thought. He looked into the room, checking for any more 'civilians'. The device on his wrist beeped in protest, noting that Kupo's core temperature had risen to dangerous levels. He dismissed it, at least for now. 'Yeah, I know!'

[lonewolf]

In terms of the upper floor, no other civilians would be there. On the lower, however, would be a small café area with chairs and tables and a counter with what was supposed to be pastries (but in this case were facsimiles, to Lone Wolf's dismay). In this area there would be one dummy closer to the street window, two more in a chair near the back, and a final dummy knocked back on the other side of the counter. The temperature would slowly be rising, but at the very least on the lower level things wouldn't be as smokey.

Kupo

[Kupo]

---

| ★Jason Riviera★ | @crystalprincekupo
Location: UA Campus, Tokyo, Japan. | Current Status: Training with Lone Wolf!
Now Playing: Shady Cicada - Breaking Point

---

As soon as he'd clocked that the upper floor was now free of anyone needing rescuing, Kupo made his way back to the top of the stairs. Seeing that they were already engulfed in flame, the small boy made a pinpoint jump down to a spot on the lower floor. As he fell, the wave of heat assaulted his body. Now in the café area, the temperature was already past a point where his medication could no longer help. He was way too hot. There was pain now, beyond the prior discomfort. Nausea and dizziness.

Still, he couldn't give up yet. His mind fixated on the heroic drive that spurred him to action in the first place. There are no other heroes here to help these people, only you. Are you gonna let them down, you little kid? Are you gonna fail, pup? No. The reality that this scenario was fake slipped his mind, bordering on confusion. One bounding step at a time, he rushed to the civilian by the window, bringing them to the door.

Kupo hadn't even been in the building for more than about a minute collectively, ignoring the time spent navigating between rooms outside. Still, his rapidly worsening state could be seen on any cameras throughout the café. It could be seen clearer, as he exited it. The fox boy dropped to the ground, rolling this 'civilian' to extinguish any flames. He almost vomited, barely preventing this with a hand over his mouth and some deep breaths. God, the cooler outside air felt so good. Jason took a moment to catch his breath and cool off (as much as he could), before heading straight back in.

The couple in the back would've been next, had a wooden object not snagged his tail as he passed, briefly transferring the fire to the fluff before Kupo put himself out. This sharply snapped Kupo's attention out of the trance-like state he'd seemed to enter. 'This is fire, what am I doing?! I can't be here!!!' He realised quickly that if he wasn't more careful, he could become another casualty of this fire. Self-preservation now snatching the reins from blind heroism, Jason assessed the situation. He couldn't carry 2 of the dummies quickly, in his state. But he'd seen another one, down behind the counter, as he was clearing the stairs. An injured civilian? He needed to save them first. If this were real, surely the able-bodied ones could get themselves out the door?

Losing this clearness of thought to the heat haze, Kupo acted before he had any more time to think. He vaulted the counter, propping up the fallen dummy over his shoulders. He needed to get out. Escape, right now. He didn't have much more time before the fire consumed him. Oh, he knew it wanted to. 17 kg of fluff and naivety, perfect fuel. He began to make his way to the door.

Notes: I plan next post to be dealing with whatever last complication there may be, then Kupo getting out and collapsing. Whether you wanna end it there with Mark's reaction, or skip forward to a conversation between the two once safe, can be discussed :)

[lonewolf]

Mark would be casually eating an apple in a lawn chair some distance from the fire, watching the show unfold. As much as he didn't care to do his job, once he started a scenario like this he knew he was responsible and had to keep an eye on things. Especially since this one couldn't take heat like other students could.

Still, the amount of work Jason had put forth was impressive. Mark anticipated that he would get one, maybe two people out before throwing in the towel before identifying he was out of his depth. He had to admit, he was impressed. Doesn't change the fact that he's dumb. All these kids are. Seeing him get the last body out he stood up, began strolling over to the inferno as he pressed a button, the robots that were in charge of fire prevention beginning to move into action. "Hey, Foxy, you ain't dead, are ya?" he asked, looking down at Jason as he laid there. "If you're dead, do me a favor and stop. That's too much paperwork for me to do."

Kupo

[Kupo]

---

| ★Jason Riviera★ | @crystalprincekupo
Location: UA Campus, Tokyo, Japan. | Current Status: Training with Lone Wolf!
Now Playing: Panic! At The Disco - Hey Look Ma, I Made It

---

There's a lot of things in life that you take for granted. Water is bland until you find yourself in the desert. Any food tastes like a gourmet meal when you've been starving. And breathing? You only realise how good breathing feels once you're gasping for air or choking on smoke. Contrary to popular belief, the smoke is the deadliest part of a fire, which is why it's so important to stay low. Staggered steps on shaking legs carried Kupo out of the 'coffee shop', dropping the dummy civilian and collapsing about 10 steps past the threshold. Not as far the protocol he'd learned would deem 'safe', but as far as Kupo could make it. Heavy breathing, akin to panting, could be heard. Alas, of all things to complain about, it wasn't much quieter outside. Hearing something that wasn't his name but might as well be, he realised he was being addressed. "Nope, not dead~" he squeaked, transitioning from a 'fell over and ate shit' position to actually sitting up to face his teacher.

There was a giggle at the suggestion that he simply 'stop' being dead in that scenario, but supposed that wasn't impossible given what Quirks could do. Maybe, in a more sound state, Jason would've been concerned that his potential death posed more of an annoyance to Lone Wolf than a concern, but right now he was just happy to be alive and out of that building. The summer midday air wasn't cool in any respect, but compared to actual fire it felt great... for a moment at least before the beeping protest of Jason's medical device woke him up a bit. Idly, he reached into his tail fluff and was glad to find at least one vial intact. "4/5... but I don' really think that's what you were testing me on, right? I could've been a lot quicker, spent less time in danger myself focusin' on the injured ones, should call for backup first of anythink... how would you deal with a rescue like that?" Without much consideration, Kupo posed the question to Lone Wolf. While talking, he'd been refilling his device. It was important to check for motor control and mental clarity after potential heatstroke, keep himself thinking and fidgeting. And hey, he wasn't throwing up, so that was a good sign.

Getting to his feet after a minute or so, Kupo was noticeably off-balance, but managed to go a few paces back-and-forth before looking around for something. "Where... there it is!" Retrieving his bag, Kupo pulled out a sports bottle decorated with star stickers and drank from it. Back to sitting cross-legged, now further from the building, it wasn't hard to see the swaying tail despite his obvious rough condition. As it dawned on Jason that there was likely nothing more to this training exercise than that test, he wracked his brain looking for more. For some additional 'twist' or lesson that he'd missed. Had he... been set up to fail? Surely not, right? Hopping up as quickly as he'd sat down, Kupo moved to exit the USJ. "I'm gonna go see the nurse now, see you later Mr. Lone Wolf!"

lonewolf

[Jinx]

☆ MISSION SUCCESS ☆

We didn't start the fire, it wa- Oh, we did? Oops.
Great thread you two!

+ 7,500 EXP!!

Kupo: 17,500 // 25,000
Mark: 46,000 // 53,500

tag: Kupo,lonewolf