"It's only three quarters of a mile from the D.C. Zeta tube," Robin answers, switching to a map. "If we're fast, we can be there in five minutes. And I've had mental defense training from Batman, but it's always good to have backup."

"I've had basic training from the Atlantean military as well, but I've never encountered a hostile telepath outside of training," Kaldur adds. 

"When I'm fast, telepaths have a hard time feeling my thoughts," Kid Flash chips in. "But I can't be fast all the time. I can do advance scouting and guide you all on the best route, though."

"I can stretch my shields to cover others," Miss Martian adds. "Although if Kid Flash goes too fast I might lose him. I think he should get the first amulet, and then Kaldur, and then Robin. I might also be able to fly us over faster than running?"

She sighs a bit frustratedly, and runs over to grab the defense talisman, and hands it over to Kid flash. 

"This should protect you from most things - physical and mental alike. Unfortunately, the rest of mine are in batman's testing, though either my blue or green ring should also work for mental defense in a pinch if we need it to, though giving away either of them reduces my ability to otherwise help. I'm not sure if you know where those are, robin, or if we could grab them? I can do it manually, too, so probably our best bet is just to zeta tube there and have everyone but kid flash stay close to me and miss martian under our protection 'til we figure out what's happening on the ground." 

"Batman passed the amulets on to Zatara earlier today," Robin responds. "But that makes sense. Get there, stay close to MM and Topaz, assess the situation and see how we can help."

Robin tosses Topaz a hastily wrapped crystal-and-batterypack cold-beam setup. "I don't know if it will help with firefighting, but it can't hurt to have along."

"Enough planning! Stuff's on fire. Let'sgo!"

Kid Flash heads for the teleporter, the others following him after a brief moment.

She catches it in a construct mitt, and sets it into her hands, checking it over. She doesn't know if growing the crystal will mess up the frequency response, so... not doing that! There's also the other cold gun mockup core she made, but that hasn't gotten frequency response testing either. 

Honestly, she feels pretty good about her powerset right now? She'll figure something out when they are there, right now, she just needs to follow up behind everyone and think of all the hope she can bring, storming onto the scene like the big damn heroes, and what she'll actually do on the scene. 

- and she idly starts making a cold crystal in her pocket, just in case that'll be useful for some sort of terrible improvised cold device or non-senior aqua-person's elementalism. 

Washington D.C. is unnervingly flat and well laid-out, so it's pretty much a straight sprint from the hidden teleporter terminus to the crowd of fire engines and ambulances around the main Cadmus facility.

Kid Flash still scouts ahead and talks to the fire chief while the others are en route, however. Then he arrives back to catch them up.

"So they have everyone who the staff will admit to being in the building out, but they're having trouble putting out the fire because they don't have direct access to the underground part. Also, one firefighter pulled out a badly burned grey ... something. But it was wearing a labcoat, so probably intelligent. They'll take whatever help we can give, but they especially need people who can get to the source of the fire and extinguish it, or who can safely scout the burning underground levels for any other trapped people, human or otherwise," he summarizes.

"Earth isn't my best element, but I could probably open a tunnel to the lower levels if that were needed," Kaldur offers. "Or guide water through the structure."

:Why aren't you— oh, right.:

Miss Martian does something, and now everyone has the ability to talk without words.

:I'm not really ... good with fire. I should probably stay up top to maintain this link and my group psychic shields. There are definitely still people in the building, though. I can hear them from here.:

She takes a deep breath, and sorts out her thoughts in a flurry of messages, tagging an intended primary recipient but keeping things open when the chatter isn't too bad. 

To Miss Martian:

:How precise is your ability to sense minds? Can you show us where the people are?:

To Kid Flash:

:The talisman should protect you from the smoke, so you might want to go scout things out.: 

To Aqua-person-of-some-description:

:A tunnel sounds like a good option to have, though it's probably worth checking to see if we can just fly down an elevator shaft instead to keep you fresher.: 

She tries to send a mental impression of what she's been working on with the cold crystals. 

:I can make these, by the way? I'm not sure if it'd be useful for your magic, but just wanted to mention.:

To the team, in general: ,

:Thought is to just go for it? Sweep the top layer to at least slow down the secondary fires, get people out enough that the emergency services can handle things, and then get down to source as quick as we can.:

:Oh, if this does protection from smoke, I can definitely do some quick scouting:

Kid Flash disappears in another blur.

:Uh. It varies based on distance and how much I'm splitting my attention,: Miss Martian informs her. :If I'm also keeping group shielding up and maintaining a contact network like this, and maybe helping the firefighters coordinate on a separate channel ... I can pinpoint people to a range of 200 meters if they're not shielding themselves, I think. Further if they're still conscious and helping.:

:That makes sense,: Kaldur agrees. :I'll focus on guiding water to hotspots in the structure unless something else comes up, then.:

He grabs a stream of water from a stormdrain as they run past. He's not going to comment on the unknown magic item because you don't, actually, use unknown, untested magic items in an emergency without authorization from a senior battlemage.

:Ifoundanelevatorshaftbutthestairsareblocked,: Kid Flash relays.

Miss Martian: 

:I think we're pretty safe here, for the moment? Likely should take a look and see how accurate you can get it with that being your sole focus. But even just having a general sense of how many people there are and how deep they are in would be helpful.: 

To the team: 

:Think I can fly everyone down the shaft, question is who comes with me to the lower levels to get to the source of the fire, and who triages things at the top, and if we do that now, or later. Thoughts?:

The lack of response from Kaldur is honestly expected, given everything? Mostly it's just in case it was a standard thing that they didn't happen to have on them, or something well established or analyizable on the spot, and she just - didn't want to feel stupid for not bringing it up if it was helpful? Really, she's just going to need to ask them to contact their - line manager? Armourer? Instructor? to talk about what she can offer them, and also figure out what her policy is for selling potentially offensive arms to military organizations. 

:I think I'll be best helping with the underground portion. Kid Flash, can you get the firefighters to send water down the elevator shaft or stairs? If so, I think Kaldur should come down too and direct it to the ignition source. If not, he should probably stay up here to do the same,: Robin comments.

:I should go down too,: Kid Flash says, even though he doesn't particularly want to be trapped underground in a building that is on fire, because he is probably the best here at search and rescue, Miss Martian maybe excepted.

They arrive on the scene. Flames billow from a high-tech (and burnt) looking building. Firefighters are mostly trying to stop it spreading, because of the hidden ignition sources.

:There's a group mind down there!: Miss Martian exclaims. :But it isn't panicked? It's mostly clustered ... really far below ground. I'm going to try and say hello.:

The building is even more intimidating in person, the way it juts up into the sky and billows with flame. Still, there's people to save, and it really does look like the sort of thing that can she help with. 

As she goes, she shoots her cold gun into the fire, trying to help where she can herself. Ribbons of blue light glimmer brighter for a moment as she reinforces their auras as they rush towards the elevator.  

:everyone ready?: 

Her brow furrows a little. Miss martian knows a lot more than she does about reaching out to that sort of entity, so there's little reason to say anything more 'til they've figured things out, even if the impulse bites at her a little. 

Can she get a power that tracks the source of a fire, gift? 

Sure, it can do a power that tracks things above their ignition temperature that are the lowest such things in their vertical column up to a range of 30 feet. Does that work?

hm. Ideally, she'd have some sort of dedicated flow tracker or really more ideally she'd know more about the fundamental structure a fire in order to make a more ideal decision? Or maybe some sort of sense of the greatest heat sources in her vision, or... 

She shakes her head. 

She's in a rush. Sure, something like that is fine. Worst comes to worst she can just sweep from the bottom up.