Network - video

[bringstheheat]

((a few days after this where Mick discovers something about himself.))

Did any of you wake up here.. different?

[He hates this, he hates asking for help. But he needs it. He needs to figure out why he's randomly lighting on fire before someone gets hurt.]

You people with powers. Metahumans. How do you control them?

Comments

[goodviberations]

Sorry. I'm sorry. I heard you curse, and I just reacted.

[He feels like an idiot. He doesn't want Mick to think he's afraid of him, but he'd taken his promise very seriously. There are people they both care about in that building.]

[bringstheheat]

It ain't you. I can't.. [A sound as he struggles for the right word, only compounding his frustration.

..

Is it just you Cisco, or is Mick's shirt starting to smoke?]

[goodviberations]

Mick.

[Calm. Cautious. He can see the smoke starting to curl up from his t-shirt, and Cisco is totally not prepared for this.]

I get it, man. Really. I've been there. But you have to take a beat and breathe.

[bringstheheat]

No you don't. [How could he? He had been taken against his will again. Had things forced on to him again.] It's all happening again and someone I care about is gonna get hurt again.

[goodviberations]

[Cisco is way out of his depth here. Mick is right. He has no way of knowing the extent of everything that had happened to him while he was off with the Legends.

But there's someone who would know better than him.]

Mick? Mick, listen to me, okay? Stay here. Don't move. I'm gonna get help.

[Once he's sure that Mick has heard him and isn't going to run off somewhere, he opens a breach back into the apartment building.]

Sara! Sara, I need you!

[strongerthanyouknow]

[ Sara is busy. Not that this is anything new. But bookshelves are hella heavy and they don't move themselves. Especially not when you're 5'6" and refusing to consider the notion of asking for help. It's just a bookcase. There's a whole section of time, or five hundred, falling apart.

Still she stops with a half roll of her eyes as her name gets shouted down the hallway. Again.
Sara crossing the room, to half appear through her mostly always open door. ]


This better not be about some video game system or movie again.

[goodviberations]

It's Mick.

[Because long-winded explanations will only drag this out and make the situation seem less serious.]

I need your help. Please.

[He opens a breach, offering her his hand.]

[strongerthanyouknow]

[ Her expression goes serious in a second, and her hand goes out to grab his. It's still not not-weird. The tunnel of pulsating light behind him, but it's not the first time she's seen it either. Everything, everything else entirely, is forgotten in a second on the words before it. ] Where is he? What's wrong?

[goodviberations]

I breached him outside. It's his powers. I can't get through to him.

[As soon as her hand is in his, he's jumping through the breach. A moment later they're on the sidewalk, only a few feet from the still-smoking Mick.]

[bringstheheat]

[Again. It's all happening again.
Whatever agency Mick had was stolen again.

Lenny with a shattered hand.
The eyes of the team staring at him like he was some sort of monster in that cell.

Lenny.
Dead.
Dead.

This time Mick is more than smoking. His arms are on fire. Blazing. His shirt is long since gone, the skin along his scars glowing like living fire. Lost in his attack, lost in the past, the fear. The certainty that again someone is going to get hurt because of him. Die because of him.]

[goodviberations]

[Oh crap. Oh crap. Did Cisco make a mistake in leaving him alone? He's gone full-on Firestorm, and the way his scars glow makes Cisco worry that Mick might not be as fireproof as Jax and the Professor.]

Mick, buddy, can you hear me?

[strongerthanyouknow]

[ The level of bad goes from something is wrong to flat out fuck in less than a second. The heat and the scent of burning and Mick. Mick. It up everywhere. Worse than earlier. Staring at the fire with a gutted fixation that looks all too like the edge of something that merges barely muted fear and danger in those eyes.

While Cisco is begging a question Sara doesn't wait for and Sara's voice does ask.
It's level and loud, not a question but a demand for attention, before walking toward him. ] Mick.

[bringstheheat]

[It's delivered with the same sharp intensity, the same way that Snart would snap his name to get his attention, to pull him out of his head or out of his hurt and anger.

While it's not Leonard, it's still enough.
Because it's Sara.

Sharp and clear and cutting through the static in his head, even as the flames continue to flicker and dance along his arms and back.]

I can't stop it.
I don't know how.

[goodviberations]

[Cisco may not have the same connection to Mick that Sara does, but if there's something he knows something about, it's dealing with out of control powers. He can help with this.]

I think they're tied to your emotions, man. The more angry or upset you get, the hotter the flames. You have to think about something that calms you down.

[strongerthanyouknow]

[ She knows Mick well enough now to see the moment he hears her. She couldn't even define whether it's a flinch, or just a shift in attention, even without a chance of where he's staring, how he's standing. She doesn't stop coming closer, and the heat is even more intense this time. Just like the fire. Just like the glowing under those burns

Where is Leonard when he'd be good to have here, too?

Dangerous. Getting close. But when had Sara ever held back in that. ]


We're going to have to figure that out, Mick. I don't know why this is happening, but I know you won't let anything happen. I need you to breathe.

[bringstheheat]

[Breathe.
He has to breathe.
Calm down.

It would be so much easier with Leonard close but in the past year and a half or so Sara and Mick have formed enough of a bond that she can reach him.

A grunt as he scrubs at his face. The flames along his arms and back start to dim.]

I can't.. it's too much.
Too much.