<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">She'd already picked out a small spot where there's a little bit of metal exposed in the truck, touches it, and attempts to send herself through the side of the truck to the outside and land on the ground.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><strong>"Holy shit!"</strong>The disappearing act caught Happy completely off-guard, and it took him a second to realize Voltaje was now outside and hadn't been vaporized or anything.<strong>"Cool!"</strong>he noted, while reaching for the metal latch of Jane's seat belt.  Only a few seconds had passed since the whole thing had started, just long enough for Athena and Voltaje to spring into action, leaving the "civs" for Happy to attend to.  The shift in weight produced by the heroes' movements caused the whole vehicle to shift back and forth in the Elemental's grip, which tossed around the people inside, which in turn caused even more shifting and tossing.  The truck had the very old-style waist belts that basically guaranteed that in the event of an emergency, the passengers would be held fast to their seats and would flop around in every direction like pieces of spaghetti.  Both the doctor and Talpert suffered just that fate until their young companion managed to free them with a couple quick motions.<br/><br/>Being free made the flopping around get worse, of course.  Happy seized both of Talpert's shoulders in a hard grip and held him still just long enough to look into his eyes and give him a single command:<strong>"STAY."</strong>It sounded like an order to the family dog, but his intentions were good.  The speedster's limited ability to perceive movement more slowly as he himself accelerated made him an ideal candidate to help the civilians out of the truck -- as his teammates had perhaps surmised -- but it would be hard enough to accomplish that one person at a time, much less trying to help both simultaneously.<br/><br/>He managed to open a side door, heft Jane (a little roughly) out of it, and deposit her onto the ground, with a hard shove that sent her stumbling away from the fight area.  He was climbing back in to retrieve the PR guy when his plans went a little awry.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"Athena! Jump!"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><em>''Athena'?!?  What about <strong>us</strong>?!?'</em>he had just enough time to think to himself (at higher-than-normal speed).  A vision flashed through his mind of two charbroiled male corpses, arms wrapped around each other in terror -- the very last thing they'd had time to do in their lives:  a sudden, unintentionally-homoerotic gesture ... It was kind of flattering that his teammates apparently trusted him to safely evacuate the non-powered bystanders, but he kinda could've used another<em>second</em>or two to do it in.<br/><br/>One<em>half</em>of one second later, both he and Talpert were balled up on the ground after a painful landing, rolling away fast from the combatants, even as Athena's foot rushed at the Elemental's face, and a ball of crackling white energy shot over their heads, bound for the automotive death-trap they'd just narrowly escaped.