As Griffin and Dria left Dria’s apartment, she asked, “So, what you got planned for the day?” He thought about it briefly before saying, “Probably just go on patrol, y’know, win the undying love and support of the general public. You?” “Goin to work, prolly do some more meditating when I get back. “Yea, why is it that you sit in the middle of a room silently for several hours?” “It helps me center myself, keeps my powers in check. See?” She held both her hands up in front of her and as she began to concentrate, a glowing orb of energy appeared in her hands. Griffin stood mouth agate. “Uhh….keep working on it, huh? You sure you don’t wanna start patrolling with me, Babe? You’re getting better at this whole control thing.” She looked at him and grinned. “Tempting, but no, you’re the superhero here. I just wanna learn to control my powers, and occasionally have a little fun with them every now and then. ‘Kay? Now I gotta go. Later.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and went around the corner before teleporting away. Griffin ran into a random alley before changing into his costume.
He emerged moments later as Lightspeed. He took a deep breath and simply remarked, “Ah, it’s a good day to be a hero.”, before beginning his patrol, leaving a streak of light in his wake. In a few hours, he took a break. “Slow day today, 1 minor robbery, 4 purse snatchers, 2 guys who didn’t scoop up after their dogs. Damn.” Just then, a police cruiser flew by him, sirens blaring wildly. Griffin’s face lit up. “SCORE!” He replaced his cowl and followed behind. The cruiser led to a burning school. The joy immediately drained from Griffin’s face as horror filled his eyes. The 3 story building was engulfed in flames. Police officers and Firefighters were interchangeably rescuing children and attempting to put the fire out. He approached a policewoman and asked, “Officer, what’s the damage?” She turned and looked relieved when she saw him. It briefly warmed his heart to know that his presence had that effect on the public. “Lightspeed, thank God you’re here.” “Yea, yea, what can I do to help?” “Well, we need more people on the hose, so if you can, we’ll need you to get more of the children and faculty out of there.” “No problem, officer.” He ran toward the school, but stopped short as a large explosion erupted from the building, resuming his approach as it died down.
It was easy enough to begin with, simply snatching up everyone he could grab and running them outside to safety. However it became harder as he went up to the second floor, but he seemed to manage. It wasn’t until he reached the 3rd floor that the job became difficult. The third floor was all but demolished, and people were buried by debris as it continued to fall. After dropping off a load of people outside, there was another explosion, and he noticed a little girl dangling from a piece of debris just out of reach of a fiery death. Griffin’s eyes widened and he ran faster than he ever had before, too fast. Just as he took off, the girl fell. He was in the perfect position with just the right timing to catch the girl as she fell. However, when he reached out to catch her, he phased through her. He tried to stop himself, but he was going too fast. He phased through the wall as his eyes widened further in terror. He couldn’t even manage to slow himself down enough to turn, so he didn’t even see the little girl plummet to her death. He phased through the wall of the neighboring office building, and suddenly stopped, tripping over multiple desks and other objects in the building, hitting his head on a desk and passing out. He woke up several minutes later, immediately springing to his feet, and leaving the way he came. He arrived outside to see that the fire was extinguished, and went to meet with the policewoman. Rubbing his head, he asked, “I get ‘em all?” “I think so. Where’s that little girl?” He hung his head. “She didn’t make it…” He tried to no avail to keep the tear in his eye from falling. “Oh, my God…” the policewoman gasped. Electricity crackled in his clenched fist before he took off for home.
He stood in front of the apparent complex and simply stared at the building. It would be a few hours before Dria would come home. After a moment, he ran up the side of the building and collapsed on the roof in tears and shame. He wept deeply at his failure for several hours, slumped over upon himself. He was pulled out of his pity party by a familiar glow behind him. Dria wrapped her arms around him from behind, saying, “You weren’t downstairs. I saw on the news…Babe, I’m so sorry.” “I tried SO hard to save her, y’know? But in the end, I was TOO fast. And I was so cocky, so arrogant….I can’t believe myself… ““Babe, you gotta see that you can’t always be there to save everybody. It’s not your fault, you tr-““But it IS my fault. I stepped up, I made myself responsible, and I failed….” “Clearly, you need more time to dwell on this.” She squeezed him, said, “I’ll be downstairs.” and disappeared in a flash of light. He sat for a while longer, then took a deep breath, wiped his face, and stood up. He sniffed and said, “She has a point, but that doesn’t make me any less responsible. Either, this sulking won’t help anything.” He ran down to the apartment, briefly stopping to change back into his civies. He walked in saying, “Babe, what’s to eat? I’m starv-“He froze mid-sentence in shock when he saw the Doctor in their apartment, holding a strange-looking apparatus to Dria’s face, who appeared to be unconscious. The vial attached to the device was full of a glowing blue liquid. “What the HELL are you doing?!” The Doctor didn’t speak; he simply grinned and disappeared in a flash of light. He shot towards her, yelling hysterically. “Dria, babe, are you ok? What’d he do to you?” She didn’t respond to him. He check her pulse, she was alive, but seemed to be in a comatose-like state. He couldn’t help but notice that her skin looked flushed and pale. Griffin was still yelling hysterically to get a response from her as he picked her up. “Dria, Babe, please wake up! Dria? DRIA!!!!.....”
He had tears in his eyes, as he ran her full-speed to the hospita