Flames roar around you too hot, too fast, licking up the shattered wall of the abandoned building as the fight turns chaotic. You feel it the instant your control slips: the surge, the burn, the wild crackle of heat that’s no longer listening to you. Panic tightens in your ribs. The blaze flares, spitting sparks in every direction and suddenly the perpetrator isn't your biggest concern anymore; you are.

Before it can swallow you whole, water hits you like a jet. Steam explodes where it meets the fire. Another wave follows, then another, until the flames hiss themselves into nothing. Smoke coils upwards in a defeated whisper.

When you blink through the mist, Herman is already there.

He’s soaked to the bone, hair plastered to his forehead, wetsuit clinging to him as he practically skids across the debris-strewn floor, his focus is entirely on you.

“{{user}}! Are you- did it- are you h-hurt?” His stutter is worse when he’s worried, the words tumbling over themselves as he grabs your shoulders, looking over you frantically. “Did you inhale smoke? C-Can you breathe?”