From the ground floor, Erin Razor watched her apartment burn for the Plot. She vaguely felt like she was supposed to be surprised or distraught, but mostly, she was just disappointed in the contrivance. She hoped that none of her neighbors were too affected.

Some days, Erin wondered if her antipathy with the apparently uncaring and intangible Plot was actually mutual. She had less doubt after days like this. 

Erin watched the fire department’s truck spray water into the gap of her broken-open front door on the third floor from the flashing red truck a couple dozen yards away. Smoke still billowed out of her window, like a ruptured chimney.

To Erin’s eye, it looked like neither of the apartments on either side of hers was burning, which was good.

Everyone who lived there was standing outside the building. Well, everyone who was at the apartment building at three PM on a weekday, at least. Erin’s helmet was with her bike, parked behind her as she’d just gotten off work on a cool Wednesday evening.

Erin wondered what exactly she should do in these situations. She had already talked to one of the firemen, who’d already been there, trying to fight the fire, when Erin had arrived home. She supposed she should call the landlord, then her renter’s insurance. Who were her renter’s insurance people, and did she have their contact in an email somewhere, or was that paperwork all up in the apartment somewhere?

No one from the apartment approached her. A few looked at Erin accusatory, as if she’d set the fire herself. More than a few of the people outside the apartment appeared to be kids getting off from high school. Erin didn’t recognize all of them, but she did see that several were taking video of the apartment flames... and of Erin herself, standing there, watching them record her.

Great, she was already online as having lost her apartment.

Erin pulled her phone out to dig through her emails to find her landlord’s number, in case no one else had called yet.

It turns out her landlord had been informed. They spent some time talking nastily about housing an ‘at-risk’ person like Erin. Erin was willing to take it for now, as it probably did have something to do with her. As her landlord started into Erin’s lease agreement, something caught the eyes of some of the crowd and Erin herself.

They all saw a huge human figure standing across the street where a strip mall lived. The figure appeared to brace themselves, then leapt over the four lane intersection across from her apartment to land on this side of a big oak tree that lived in the apartment parking lot.

Erin cut the grumbling of her landlord off by saying, “Oh hey, Pyrocles is here, so the fire should be out in a moment. Mind if I let you go?” After a pause of comprehension, there was a click and the connection was dead.

They didn’t even want to be within phone shot of a Protagonist, as it were. Erin put up her phone and watched the Protagonist at work. She felt the telltale electric feeling of being Puppeted across her skin.

The Protagonist Pyrocles was a figure cut from marble with shining blonde hair in what must have been the perfect mullet - for those who liked mullets. The white and red themed outfit looked like it couldn’t decide whether it was a Greek toga or a Roman cut set of robes, leaving a shoulder and part of his chest exposed, and revealing the gladiator sandals on his feet. Oh, and Pyrocles was about nine and a half feet tall and proportionally built, a towering figure only shorter than the old oak tree and the building itself.

As one might expect, Pyrocles looked absolutely nothing like the reserved Professor Brandon Lasko.

There was a shout from the crowd, “Pyrocles!” Erin’s eyes pulled from the hero long enough to see that everyone else was glassy eyed, staring at the huge hero, made into Puppets for Pyrocles’s dramatic entrance.

She didn’t roll her eyes, but she considered it. She was still glued in place, but Erin could look away from the glorious entrance to stare at everyone else. Erin wondered why she alone seemed able to look around.

The superhero loped from under the tree towards Erin’s apartment building. At first, he looked like he might take the stairs up to her third floor home until he leapt from the ground onto the balcony, surprising the firefighters at her door. They hadn’t heard the shout over the roar of the hose and the fire itself.

The hero had to duck his head to keep from hitting it on the apartment overhang. He said something and gave a small gesture with one arm. Flames suddenly began to lick along the hero’s hair and arms, giving evidence to his name.

The firefighters immediately stepped back, turning off their hose. Pyrocles stuck his head into Erin’s apartment. The fire on his head seemed to leave her doorway un-singed just as it left his hair untouched. Almost instantly, the smoke coming out of her apartment seemed to decrease. She didn’t see the fire through the window anymore, either.

Erin watched the hero talk to the fire fighters a little more, before carefully hopping off the balcony and landing with a graceful thud on two feet, barely bending his knees to take the impact. He sauntered over to talk to the chief of the firefighters, who was still Puppeted. As Pyrocles began to talk, he went to one knee, so that he wouldn’t tower quite so high above everyone else. He still towered.

The crowds were thinning as Erin watched; everyone not glued in place was likely desperate to leave the scene of the Protagonist as soon as possible. Erin’s own heart began to pound, as she realized where this was going to end up.

Their conversation ended and the chief motioned towards Erin, no doubt explaining whose home was currently more ash than apartment.

Knowing where this was headed, Erin was tempted to meet the hero halfway as Pyrocles stood and turned away from the chief. She refrained from such theatrics, wishing she could just go home, except that it was just so much ash now.

No longer covered in flames, Pyrocles took several long strides - all strides were long when taken by someone that tall, Erin mused - and was before her in no time. Even when Pyrocles was on his knee, he was still more than a foot taller.

“Erin Razor? I am Pyrocles.” Handsome as any man on a grocery store novel, he was a little solemn on the surface, but she could see the glimmer of irony in his serious nature. His voice was deep, but he seemed to be reserved enough to keep it from booming over the parking lot. “I believe the fire is out, but they need to check it over first.”

It was pretty clear the firefighters were doing cursory checks of her apartment now. Erin couldn’t tell if they were still being Puppeted or not.

“Wow, I didn’t know a tiny, one person apartment warranted a member of the Cavalry.” her heart was still beating fast, but her eyebrows were up as she gave the hero a look. Glib, she could do, even when she could feel her heart pulse at the back of her neck. She didn’t thank him. Erin was certain that it was somehow the Cavalry’s fault this happened, even if it was just second hand involvement by the Plot.

Erin hadn’t met Brandon again since that meeting at the burger place, but the discussion was at the forefront of her memory now.

The large man smiled slightly, but asked, “You are the same lady from the water treatment plant, aren’t you? With the mutagen and Doppelganger?”

“Yeah. About a month ago. We never crossed paths then.” Erin paused. “Thanks for stopping that. And my apartment.” She motioned vaguely to her apartment. It was as close as she could get to thanking him. She’d gone three whole weeks since the Viridian Dragon incident. Couldn’t the Plot just leave her the hell alone? 

Thinking along the same lines, Pyrocles winced. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. You’ve had some bad luck, ma’am.”

Erin scoffed. “It's not like you set the fire personally.” She paused, swallowing back the hard edge she had in her voice. Her skin and body buzzed a little as the Plot wordlessly warned her not to push too hard on the fourth wall. “I am just glad no one got hurt.” It had been a while since she’d gotten too close to the unseen boundaries set by the Plot, and the buzz surprised her.

Pyrocles had a strange look on his face, and Erin wondered what he was thinking. After a moment, he said, “Most people would be more upset if their apartment burned.”

Was he suspicious of her cavalier attitude? It's not like she started it. Maybe he was used to people bowing and scraping at his presence.

Erin really had nothing to do with the fire and she wasn’t going to act awed now. “Nothing that can’t be replaced. I was at work, so I didn’t get hurt.” Erin saw that Pyrocles still didn’t seem to buy it. “I’ve already had one kidnapping this year. Something really incredible is going to have to work me up into a fury. A fire? Psh.” Erin suspected it was more shock than anything keeping her from being more upset.

“Ha!” His deep voice boomed over the parking lot, and a few remaining people winced in surprise. His volume dropped again, saying, “That’s so? I’ll have to take your word for it, ma’am. Do you need somewhere to stay tonight? I know that The Ferret could find something for you...”

“Nope, I’ll stay with my mom or something. I’m fine.” Go on, get out of here, Erin willed, knowing that the Protagonist would leave when he was ready. “Don’t worry about me.”

Erin was fortunate - well, except regarding the apartment fire. While Pyrocles didn’t seem to quite be convinced, he nodded, glancing at the sun, as if it would tell him something. “I need to go, but if you need anything else from me, you-” He paused, realizing that, technically, Erin shouldn’t know how to get a hold of the Cavalry directly, and while there weren’t many people around, there were enough that even he ought to be careful not to blow their cover. “-I’ll check in again in a few days, in case you need anyone to clear up any questions. A statement, if you need.”

“Thanks. I doubt I’ll need it, but very kind. I think I better check on the damage, and call my insurance company.”

The superhero grimaced and said, “And people call us heroes. We get to do the fun stuff and then bound away. Best of luck ma’am. Have a good day.” He stood, ready to move on. No telling why a community college Ancient Literature professor was doing in Erin’s neighborhood in the first place, but no doubt Pyrocles was off to finish whatever his alter ego does on Wednesday afternoon.

“Yeah. You too.” Erin was already turning to face the police officer and fire chief who were milling conspicuously nearby. A moment later, and the superhero bounded away as promised, back the way he came, fueled by superhuman strength.

The fire chief and officer began to approach her as soon as Pyrocles was two bounds away. She figured she could always call the insurance people later.

The police officer seemed familiar- heavy-set and with a concerned look on his face, but the fire fighter spoke first. “We put the flames out, Ms. Razor, but my boys say there isn’t much left of the apartment itself.” His accent was southern, distant and not friendly. Neither walked within a few paces of her, like she might try to grab them and infect them with the Plot.

“Yeah. It looked bad. Is everyone else okay? Any other damages?” She was resigned to a total loss when she first saw all the smoke coming from her window.

“No, ma’am, it appears everyone else got out okay. The apartment below might have some water damage by the end of it, but that’s the worst of it. Shouldn’t even hurt their property. We don’t even think there was much structural damage.”

“That’s good.” Erin joked, not very humorously. “Very convenient.” The firefighter smiled at this, slightly sympathetic. 

The police officer asked, “So Ms. Razor, do you have any idea what may have caused the fire?”

“Not in the least. I don’t use the oven during the week, and my coffee pot shuts down after a couple hours.”

The police officer bobbed his head a few times. “And do you know if anyone had any grudge against you?” He paused, as if worried about how she’d answer.

Erin shook her head. “Not really, not personally against me. I don’t socialize much. Why, does it look like some sort of crime?” She hadn’t heard or seen anything from Doppelganger since that one call.

“Rightly so, it looks more like an electrical fire than anything else, ma’am. It certainly spread with a ferocity though.”

“Huh, it’s almost like something out of a bad story, isn’t it? Ah, sorry.”

The fire chief winced at the reference, but the officer seemed to agree. Erin wasn’t directly referencing anything dangerous, but often making such oblique references to the Plot were frowned upon by people who triedto keep their heads buried. Erin ought to know better than to be so dismissive, but she was tired from work, and from everything else. She was also trying really hard not to spend time thinking of all the things she’d lost in that fire. 

Officer Douglas, according to his nametag, continued to write things down. “You were at work all day today then, Ms. Razor?” He sounded like he was forced to fill out this information, not that he particularly cared about the answers.

“At work. I work at Divinilogic downtown.”

“That I knew. Thanks. If you don’t mind, we have a few forms you need to fill out. It should be quick.” The way the officer motioned triggered something in Erin’s memory.

“Wait. Have we met?” Erin asked, not making the connection yet.