"I'm fine," she replied, though the shake had jangled her nerves and she knew she would ache the next day. At least neither of them had actually been caught in the explosion, whatever it had been. "I hope everyone else is."

She looked at his coffee, then at what she thought must be his office building, from which still more people were emerging, then back at Tait. It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "Everyone's awake now, anyway. That will be cold by the time they remember it's there, even if you deliver it now."

Tait looked around and saw one of his friend from the office, he quickly walked over handed it to him and walked off, knowing his friend would understand. He walked back to Anya and smiled, "Let's go make sure no one is hurt, and I must admit, I'm quite curious as to what was the source. An exploding vegetable, really?"

Anya smiled. Well, that solved that. Then she realized she was still holding her boss's coffee, which she was planning to replace before she got to work. In spite of what Fred had said, the microwave hadn't been cleaned in a while, and his drink would end up tasting like garlic if it spent any time in there. She decided to offer it to a fireman or some other first responder who might appreciate it.

"Or a vegetable caught in the explosion," she said as they walked toward… well, whatever was smoking. "I couldn't really ta…smell anything else. But I'm not trained to sniff out bombs like a dog," she added.

When they got to where the emergency vehicles had converged, and the hastily-erected police-tape barrier, they saw a smoking wreckage of a building half collapsed in on itself. Neighboring buildings showed broken windows and signs of smoke damage. There had been a lot of evacuees, many with broken bones and abrasions, breathing into oxygen masks. No body bags, though. Not yet.

"Did this… Wasn't this Carl's Natural Stir-Fry?" she asked.

Tait looked at the scene before them and let out a slow wince, it definitely didn't look good. He saw a few injured people, though he didn't see anything that looked like a body bag so that seemed like a good sign. He walked over to one of the cops, making sure to turn on the dreamwalker charm (she looked like a Mundane), "Excuse me ma'am," he said with his best charming smile, "May I inquire as to what happened here?

(and wings doesn't really know.... *sweatdrop*)

Anya let Tait do the talking. Chatting with a fellow Arcane had been easier. Or maybe it was just that Tait made it easier. With a Mundane, particularly a suspicious policewoman… She doubted she'd get very far.

The officer turned, threw a speculative glance at Anya, then smiled grimly at Tait. "We don't know much, sir. There was an explosion, and we're investigating. I'm sure you'll read about the results in the papers." Then she returned to her crowd-control duties.

The crowd itself was filled with whispered rumors and speculation, much of them revolving around the words "kitchen," "glowing insects," and "pulp." That last probably referred to the blackened seeds that still stuck to bits of rubble and sidewalk, and the squash pulp that had found its way into the hair of certain casualties.

"It may be their problem, but I can't leave them with it!" With that, Gabriel headed towards the explosion at a brisk walk. He didn't really expect Zaria to come with him since she obviously didn't care about anyone that might have been possibly injured. Gabriel knew he couldn't do much for them, he wasn't a healer after all, but that was still no excuse to ignore others' pain. If there was an explosion, there might be rubble and he was a strong man that could help pull people out.

Tait walked back over to Anya, what could be described as a slight pout on his lips, "Okay that usually works a little better." He shrugged, "Oh well." He looked around, "Is there anyway we could help?" He asked, feeling a bit out of place.

Zaria took a jogging step after Gabriel, "Geez I didn't mean to offend you..." she sighed, "I just.." she trailed off, "I'm not use to caring. Heck I'm not even use to really doing anything but fighting with people."

"It's her job," Anya shrugged. "Officers aren't very suggestible." She studied the chaos, and the rubble, part of the crowd and at a bit of a loss. The police, the paramedics, the fire crews, they all knew what they were doing. Right?

One woman, though, probably from an apartment above where the restaurant had been, was sobbing into the arms of an officer. It was a normal reaction, all things considered, but then she noticed a group of firefighters studying the rubble. Someone with especially keen hearing might have heard a child's cries for help coming from the wreckage.

"Fine, just hurry up," Gabriel said, looking back at Zaria as she tried to catch up. He slowed his walk a bit until she was next to him. He blinked, then rethought what she said. "Wait, you seem to imply that you care now," he said a bit cautiously.

It wasn't long before they saw emergency vehicles speeding by, which Gabriel followed to a crown of people being pushed back from some sort of building. there were too many people around for him to tell what was going on. he could see people with injuries being taken away in ambulance's much to him alarm.

Tait looked at Anya, notcing she ws kinda distracted and followed her line of sight to the sobbing women, he motioned to Anya to follow him and he looked at the woman, "Ma'am, what is the matter?

Zaria opened and closed her mouth a few times and just look at Gabriel, not realy sure how to respond to that, so she just settled for glaring at him. She followed him to the scene of the accident and looked around her eyes widening, it looked relatively bad, though she had to admit there didn't seem to be much they could do.

Anya followed Tait, and again, let him do the talking. They remained behind the police line, but the woman was close enough to the boundary to make talking easy.

The woman barely looked at Tait. "My daughter, she's… She couldn't…. I couldn't get her out, I…"

The officer trying to comfort her added, "Ten year old girl, caught under the rubble. We think she's okay, but the fire crew is still figuring out how to remove it without…" He might have added "making it collapse," if not for his sensitivity training.

When Heather and Sam reached the corner of street, they knew something was wrong. A couple of police cars and one ambulance (as far as they could see) were moving swiftly towards the shopping district, Heather gasped and pulled Sam along, he had an unreadable look in his eyes as they sprinted towards the smoke they could see lazily rising over the chimneys of adjacent buildings. Panting they bolted into the street and Heather immediately took a step back. "Woah..." she whispered as she took in the smoking rubble that was once a local restaurant. Sam silently nodded in agreement, it was a lot to take in at once. After a long silence and much staring Sam wrinkled his nose, "Hetty, can you smell that?" He asked, covering his nose with the collar of his sweat-stained shirt. Heather sniffed and too wrinkled her nose. "It smells like... Burnt food?" She asked incredulously. At this distance even Sam's mundane nose and Heather's arcane-yet-not-powerful nose could pick up the scent of burnt zucchini.

Max stood there, a rather blank stare on his face as the man talked. And talked. And still, he talked. Rolling his eyes, Max almost left, but before he could, the hippie had become quiet, and now was holding out a grimy hand. He looked at the hand in disgust, and shook his head. "I'm not here just to visit. I'm here on business." Though he did notice his headache was feeling better, he wasn't going to give that to the hippie, it was the last thing he needed. Next thing he knew, there would be even more annoying creatures bringing packages to his doorstep.

Shaking his head, glared at the hippie now. "You're behind those little green freak of natures, aren't you?" He asked, watching to see the reaction. Inside he couldn't help but think Johnson was right, and that the hippie wasn't behind it, but he wanted him to be, since he didn't want to think what else would be the cause of it. A sigh escaped him as he awaited the answer.

Gabriel looked around, taking stock of the entire area while he ignored Zaria's stare. "What to do...what to do...?" he muttered to himself as much as to Zaria. He knew he wanted to jump into the rubble and see if anyone was trapped, but he couldn't go all crazy around a bunch of mundanes. they had laws and police around here. besides, the humans weren't totally incapable. still...He pushed his way to the barriers the police had set up. "Zaria, will you help me figure out what caused this?" he asked, knowing that she had followed him. He was already planning something a bit rash. he wanted to get past the barrier and into what was left of the building.

Tait looked kinda helplessly at the rubble, not really sure if there was anything he could do. He couldn't even use any of his Arcane powers to do anything. He looked at Anya, "Do you have any idea how to help?"

Zaria stared at Gabriel, "How the hell am I supposed to do that?" She sniffed the air again and sighed. "All I smell is burnt vegetables, that's it." she said. She shrugged, "I really don't know how to help, so if you've got a plan genius tell me and I guess I'll help."

Ted dropped his hand to his side, and stared at Max. He was still smiling, but the look in his eyes was quizzical, to say the least. "Little green…" What was Max talking about? The dude needed to chill, really. Ted scratched the back of his neck. He had a tendency to lose track of his creations from time to time, but little green ones?

Then it came to him. "Oh, you mean the Hoedown Aphids! Yeah, no, I know the fiddling is a little distracting, but they'll keep the regular aphids away from your flower beds. Great for your roses. You know they survive on sound? But, dude, if they bother you that much, I can call 'em back and replace 'em with Bouncer Crickets. Won't work quite as well, but they'll do."

A few new red-flag scents entered the scene. Something woodsy and floral, something else like blood and silver, and then one strange, faint mixture of sky and fire, metal and magic. Anya was very tempted to study the crowd, hone in on the scents, especially that last one, but that would have been too obvious. And she was supposed to be keeping her head down.

Instead she studied the rubble. She was a burrower by nature, and she meant to try spelunking one of these days (not to mention find an affordable basement apartment), but… She frowned. She was stronger than a human, but not by nearly enough to throw concrete around. Not that she was worried about being crushed. In naga form, she thought she'd be able to search the rubble -- human legs ran the risk of getting tangled in the unknown -- without much risk to her or the girl. Getting the girl out would be another matter entirely, though, not to mention going naga without being seen.

"Maybe," she replied softly to Tait. "There are other arcanes here. Maybe they can help. I can search, but not rescue, and not without cover."

Samuel shook Heather's shoulder, "Snap out of it, Hetty! The least we can do is help." she was shocked, but not for the reason Sam expected; Standing by a pile of rubble was the man from Heather's dream, turning bright red she said in a rather squeaky voice "Sure, Sam." and stood up. Not knowing where to go she stood looking around rather uncertainly, she didn't want to have to go where Tait was, but over there seemed to be the area that needed the most help. Sam waved his hand in front of Heather's face, "Wakey wakey" he said in a sing-song voice, "C'mon, looks like they need help over here." He continued in a more serious manner. He started walking towards the pile of rubble Tait was standing by, but Heather couldn't say anything without having to explain the dream which felt private, so she followed Sam and tried to stop herself from vomiting up her meager breakfast.

Gabriel looked back at Zaria. "Yes, I do have a bit of a plan, but I was just making sure you were willing to help. your heightened senses might useful," he said. "There isn't much for us to do out in the open without revealing our arcane natures, so I was thinking that we could sneak past this barrier and get into the rubble. I just have the feeling that something arcane blew this building up." Gabriel started looked around, trying to find a way past the cops, which were doing their job a bit too well. What they needed was a distraction.

Tait started to say, "Well I may be able to..." when he trailed off, his eyes landing on a young girl that was moving toward them. His eyes widened in shock, he never say people in dreams and real life, it was on or the other. Yet her was this girl whose nightmare he had never meant to enter, walking towards him. Shaking his head in shock, Tait tried to act normally, he turned back to Anya, "to be of service. I can trance some of the people..." That ability was definitely one of the darker ones dreamwalkers had.

Zaria smirked and said, "Lead the way, dragonman." she chuckled as she kept widening her nose in attempt to smell anything beside the burnt vegetable. She finally grinned and began heading towards a group of people, they didn't smell like mundanes at all. She turned to Gabriel, "You see that group of people, those four?" she asked, "They aren't all mundane. Perhaps they can help as well." As Zaria said this she shook her head, amazed that she was taking part in anything that was civil, normally she'd be causing something like this!

Anya didn't have to search the crowd after all. The scents drew closer on their own, and the people that carried them. The dreamwalker seemed shaken by the young girl who approached them. Silver and Blood made Anya herself a bit uneasy, but Tait's reaction seemed over the top for Forest and Flowers.

"Tait, are you okay?" she asked, thinking that trancing some of the people wouldn't be nearly enough, especially considering all the news crews and cameras in the vicinity.

"Hm?" Gabriel asked, following Zaria's gaze. "Those four? You may be right. at least one of them looks a bit out of place. Let's go talk to them then." He headed towards a man and woman who were standing next to each other. He stopped in front of them.

"Hello. quite an interesting thing that's happened here today," he said in a most polite voice, motioning at the rubble. "It seems to have attracted a lot of arcanes."

Tait had looked at her. The hope that she'd be able to help without being seen took a fiery nose dive and Heather hurried after Sam, swallowing her fears. When they arrived at the rubble Heather could hear a woman crying and immediately searched for the source, a woman in her late thirties or early forties was crying hysterically and was trying to reach the pile but was held back by a policeman. "I wonder what's going on..." Samuel said in a voice aimed at no one in particular. Heather just shook her head and walked up to Tait and the woman beside him, Heather guessed the woman was arcane from the way she held herself. Just as she was about to reach them and ask what happened, another figure started talking to them. He was rather tall and had blue hair, 'fashion.' Heather thought, and gave a sigh.

Tait gulped slightly and decided to ignore the girl withing being rude. He turned and his gaze landed on the blue haired man, do you imply what I believe you imply sir?" he asked.

Zaria bared her teeth at the man who seemed too polite for his own good clearly showing off a pair of nice fangs. "Well you and the misses," she indicated the serpent-like woman "certainly don't smell like mundanes." She turned to the young girlnor do you, madam" she said, all in typical Zaria attitude.

Gabriel whacked Zaria slightly in the arm and muttered under his breath. "Play nice..."
He acknowledged the young girl that had just walked up with a slight nod then looked back at the polite man.
"yes, I do believe that is what I am implying. We were actually wondering if you people knew anything about this first of all." It wasn't exactly what he came over to ask, but he figured it was a smart thing to ask anyways.

Heather seemed to have been invited into the conversation, she gave the vampire (she'd guessed) a withering look and said "How observant of you, vampire" and with a simple flick of her hair she turned away and stared Tait in the eye, biting her lip she said in the most confident voice she could muster, "What are you doing here?" and it was at that moment Sam decided to make an appearance. "Um, Hetty? Do you know these people?" He said rather nervously, Heather signaled for him to be quiet with a flap of her hand. "Not now, Sam."