Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

(Ignition Knight: 87)

What the hell kind of thought was that? You need to go to your sister right now, even if you drop dead on the doorstep. Though... Bandages? That could work. Shit, can I even touch cloth without it bursting into flames? You spend a desperate minute trying to find some way to stop your Aura and after taking a deep breath you focus, feeling the fire in your chest, still burning and getting hotter every second it's left to blaze. You take that feeling and try your best to smother it, when that doesn't work you try to cage it or just squeeze it all back in and you have some measure of success there, you stop setting new things around you on fire and now the fire in your chest just silently flickers rather than blazing its heat for all to see.

(Bleeding: +5 Shrapnel Wounds = 5 Total Damage
Ignition Knight: +13 Base Resilience, Bleeding Bypasses Base Resilience, Dice Negated = 0 Total Damage Resisted

Ignition Knight Health: 14 - 5 = 9)

Now that everything around you is only mildly burning with heat you can't feel, rather than blazing like the heart of a star, you shakily drag yourself to your knees and then your feet, stumbling your way towards the nearest wall. Once you reach it you prop your shoulder onto it, sliding along it until you reach the door of what looks to be an over the counter pharmaceuticals. Pushing off of the wall, you stagger into the shop and nearly fall over a dozen small boxes. Looking down at them, you see a destroyed shelf, it's contents spread across the entire store. Ignoring the pain, you flop down to the floor and rest your back against the inside wall with a hiss.

Reaching out, you grab the largest roll of bandages and frantically start unwrapping it. Drawing out a long stretch of the cloth, you start wrapping each of your legs as best you can, biting your lip to suppress the whimpers that try to force their way out. Past experience guides your hands through quick motions, the finish is a little sloppy, but it's good enough. The holes slowly trickling blood down your back seem to be mostly been contained by the weird armour that appeared, though you have no idea if or how long it would remain. In that case. You grab a fresh box of bandages and push your way to your feet, hissing quietly at the burning agony flaring all the way up your back.

(Bleeding: +1 Bandaged shrapnel wounds = 1 Total Damage
Ignition Knight: +13 Base Resilience, Bleeding Bypasses Base Resilience, Dice Negated = 0 Total Damage Resisted

Ignition Knight Health: 9 - 1 = 8)

Seeing as you don't seem to have any pockets in this black thing, you tenderly stand up, slowly limp out of the store and back in the direction of your current house, trying your best not to slip on the pools of blood that flow from the corpses lining the streets as you pass them. You try your best to keep your eyes pointed solidly forwards, only the though of your sisters safety in your mind. If there is one of them, then there might be more. You need to get to your sister and get moving as soon as you can, you haven't been here for that long, so it's a bit of a shame, but you were going to have to skip town sooner or later.

(Bleeding: +1 Bandaged shrapnel wounds = 1 Total Damage
Ignition Knight: +13 Base Resilience, Bleeding Bypasses Base Resilience, Dice Negated = 0 Total Damage Resisted

Ignition Knight Health: 8 - 1 = 7)

By the time you manage to stumble home you're short of breath, the klaxon finally falling silent as you approach the door, a jet of some kind screaming overhead, helicopters hovering around the blazing inferno that was the mall. Your fire might have grown out of control, slightly. You intended to knock the secret knock on the door, instead you loose strength and fall into it, sliding down it in a way that pulls every injury in your back, a short scream being torn from your raw throat. The sound jolts the person inside into moving, soft footsteps rapidly thumping down the stairs.

"UNA, OPEN THE DOOR!" You shout through the door the best you can, normally you would have done the whole secret knock thing but you are just about managing to stay conscious and you can feel the quickly scabbing injuries on your back torn open where you slid down the door. "NOW!" You lie there for a few seconds as the door behind you lets out a series of rattling noises, the bolts being undone before the door swings open behind you, letting the bleeding lump that is your body fall back into the entryway. Every muscle in your body clenches in the agony at the impact, but you just dig your hands into the floor, wooden floorboards cracking under your armoured gloves.

"Cerys?" Your little sisters sweet, confused voice comes from above you, her hands grabbing your shoulders and slowly dragging you into the house. Once you pass the door she rushes over to it and throws it closed, pushing the multitude of bolts it has closed and runs back to you. She flitters around you for a moment before you grunt and point to the kitchen, having lost the ability to speak coherently. She follows your arm and nods, grabbing your shoulders again and dragging you over the carpet, leaving little slicks of blood as you pass.

Once she manages to pull you into the kitchen, she props you against a counter and throws the draws open, rummaging through them until she finds a large box with a red cross on the top. She flips the top open, only to find it mostly empty and heavy with dust, looking up you, she starts breathing faster. Before she gets too panicked you drop the bandages by your side and roll off of the counter, roughly dropping your face onto the floor, exposing your bloody back and legs to her.

It takes her a second of staring before she gets what you want and crawls forwards on her knees, sliding through the small slicks of blood that you've left on the floor as she reaches your back. She hesitates for a moment before running her hands along your shoulders, looking for some sort of seam or clamp that is holding your armour on. You're not quite sure how, but you know there isn't one, so you focus like you did when you suppressed the fire and try to do the same thing for your armour. It takes a good ten or twenty seconds but eventually you feel a slight weight on your back dissipate, followed by agony as every wound that had been pressured by the backplate is suddenly exposed to open air.

With your back free, your sister starts running a wet cloth along it, drawing lines of pain that feel more like she's pulling your skin than washing it. After a minute she stops, your back mostly blood free, You relax slightly, bracing for the next stage. The first dab feels cold, then suddenly explodes down your spine, a cry of pain escaping you before you can muffle it. Una makes a distressed noise, but doesn't stop, each moment feeling like someone is driving a red hot iron further into your body. You press your forehead into the floor as hard as you can, tears running down your cheeks as quiet whimpers force their way out of your lips, your sisters disinfection not stopping as she dabs the bleach soaked cloth onto your back again.

You hear her suck in a breath when she's done, wiping down your back with a fresh cloth before pulling back and looking at the box at her feet. Reaching down, she pulls the entire roll of bandages from the box. Giving your shoulder a tug she drags you to your knees, the rest of your armour fading away with a shaky thought, leaving your top completely bare to the chilly air. She pauses for a moment, steeling herself before starting from the top of your shoulder, you drop a hand on the beginning of the bandage and nod your head.

It takes her a minute to wrap your upper chest, having a little difficulty with the shoulder to rib loop that she started with, but she manages to pull the top half tight in a way that makes it difficult to breathe. Regardless, you let out a relieved sigh as the pressure numbs your back a little. With your centre regained, you help her with your lower back, the process going much faster and from there you dissipate rest of your armour completely, leaving you bare as you work on removing the shoddy bandages you threw around your legs.

She quickly washes the blood off before reaching towards the bleach again, you close your eyes and rest back against the counter, grabbing your knees you look up and nod at her hesitant look. The next three minute are even worse than your back, as every dab sends each of your legs spasming uncontrollably. When you are finally finished you take a moment to regain your breath before waving your arm at your sister. "Help me up."

She crawls over the discarded supplies and gently pulls you to your feet, despite you towering over her by at least a foot she still helps prop you up as you stumble towards the stairs and then up them, towards the bedroom that the two of you have claimed for yourself while you stay here. She reaches past you to open the door to the master bedroom, then helps you to limp over and gently sets yourself down on the sheets. A blissful sigh sounds as you sink into the mattress, taking your weight off of your protesting legs, bandages already showing little flecks of blood on the surface.

Turning your head to look at your sister, who was sitting next to you looking like she is still halfway to a panic attack, you gave her the warmest smile you could muster, visibly calming her frantic twitching. "Go downstairs and make sure the place is locked down, windows, curtains, doors. The do the upstairs and come back here."

You feel a little bad to be ordering her around right now, but you need to make sure that your recovery won't be interrupted by a passing looter, or the military searching houses. She gives you a nervous nod and sprints out of the room and down the stairs, you hear her rushing around, checking on all of the ways of entrance and making sure the curtains stay closed as they are. You hear her come upstairs and do the same thing before she practically skids into the room and rushes to your side.

She looks like she's about to cry, as panicked as she is. So you reach up and hook your arm around her waist, dragging her onto the bed and rolling over so you are curled around her and giving her a full body hug. The two of you lay there for a long time, just quietly reassuring each other of your continued existence.

After a long while, you can start to feel yourself drift off, the blood loss making it hard to stay awake in the blissfully comfortable bed. "Don't... answer for anyone ok?" You know that she already know this, but you need to make sure before you pass out that she won't make a panicked mistake. When you feel her nod into your chest you let out a long sigh as you close your eyes. "Then I'm... just gonna... rest for a bit."

YOU are Una, Cerys sister. She's come home bloodied and really badly hurt and there was a siren and you heard screaming and roaring and your sister is hurt but she's safe now.

[] Stay With Your Sister As She Sleeps (Skip to Cerys the next day)
[] Look Around The House For Anything You Might Need (Play as Una for the rest of the day)

+3 XP You contained your Fire
+1 XP Found medical supplies
+5 XP Una preformed triage
+5 XP Una is safe