I seriously need to install a fuel gage on this thing.

Rather than risk the rooftop, or the window, Buck cuts all power to the engines, entering into freefall. A meter before he hits the ground, he slams the throttle to full, burning through all his remaining fuel, hoping to shed enough velocity to avoid harm from the fall. He will try to roll when he hits the ground.

Buck: Piloting Skill: +5 Roll: +1 Total: +6

Kip hurries back to the edge of the roof just in time to see Buck fall to the ground - and a moment later, Buck fires his jetpack again, killing his remaining velocity and touching down as light as a feather.

He's safe, but until he finds more fuel he's stuck on ground level.

Muttering under his breath, Buck begins looking around for something, anything semi-liquid and semi-flammable to use as fuel.

Kip, his services not needed to save Buck from a messy and unfortunate death, turns back towards the building the claw had come from.

"Buck, look on the way! We need to stop that thing before it fires again."

He leaps for a nearby tree and heads towards the building once more.

Buck is standing on the pavement outside the Post Office. There are no flammable liquids in sight.

Kip, in the meantime, faces a choice. There is a wide road ahead of him that must be crossed; he can take the safe(r) route, which involves heading down to ground level and charging across while the nearest lights are red; or he can leap over to a streetlamp, make a death-defying and unlikely leap over the road to the opposite streetlamp, and continue from there.

Going down to ground level first will be far, far safer. Leaping across the streetlamps - especially without a flying teammate to help should he miss - may carry significant danger but will be quicker.

And before deciding; there's an aspect compel coming into play here. The compel is for Kip's "Danger? Pshaw!" aspect... Dom can accept or reject it.

Buck is going to keep running down the street towards the "Lair Of The Lightning Caster!"(insert ominous thunder) and he's going to keep an eye out for potential fuel sources as he runs.

Kip leaps onto the closest streetlamp, narrows his eyes and uncoils the whip at his side. He takes a running start and leaps for the streetlamp on the other side, ready to lash out with his whip and grab a handhold if he needs the extra oomph,

Accepted.

From where Buck is now, the Lair of the ominous-thunder Lightning Caster is on the other side of the Post Office. He can go through the post office (assuming they have a back door or window), or around the Post Office. Over, being the way Kip went, will be more difficult unless he can find fuel. As 'through' is quicker and has no significant dangers, that's the way he goes...

--------------

Kip, meanwhile, makes a dangerous leap over a deadly road...

Dangerous Leap: Difficulty: 5
Kip: Athletics: 3 Roll: -1 Total: 2

The tip of Trouble lashes out towards the street lamp on the opposite end... and misses, snapping at the empty air. Kip falls backwards...

...time slows down, as Kip's senses try to cram in as much as they can in these last moments, looking for a way out, any way out...

--------------

Buck reaches the rear window of the post office, leaps out into the backyard, scurries through a chain-link fence into the backyard of another building, and in through its rear window. As he does so, he can hear a heavy, eighteen-wheeler truck trundle along on the street ahead of him. There's no way he can reach the street before the truck passes.

--------------

And, up in the sky, someone notices the falling squirrel. Wings folded in, a small brown blur drops like a stone, large ears like radar dishes aimed at Kip's falling form. steering to intercept his fall.

Is it a plane? No. Is it a bird? No. It is, in fact a small brown bat; she grabs Kip by the shoulders with her clawed feet, and, spreading her wings, manages to slow his fall and steer him away from the truck.

"What -" she gasps - "were you - think -" before deciding to save all her breath for flying; they're still moving downwards pretty quickly, but they're aiming for the pavement instead of the road and their speed is at least no longer lethal.

Kip gains a temporary aspect: Owes A Bat A Favour. Until that favour has been repaid, the temporary aspect stays, and can be invoked and compelled and generally used like any other.

Buck makes his way through the building, keeping an eye out for fuel, oblivious to Kip's peril, and subsequent rescue.

"Whooo!"

Kip lets out a yell as he feels the claws bite into his shoulders. His life had been flashing before his eyes, and he'd gotten interrupted at one of the good parts.

When they land, he pats his body down, making sure everything is still there and in working order.

"Thank you! Thank you very much. I owe you one, but I need to keep going. There's a mad scientist, a lightning machine and I need to get there before he shoots it again. My name is Kip, and you can call on me whenever you need anything. I mean it."

Kip folds his hands together and bows deeply to the bat.

"Thank you again. The name's Kip!'"

With that he leaps forward and scrambles up the nearest climbable object heading towards the building again.

"Wow." says the bat behind Kip. "Good luck!" she calls out as he hurries off.

The nearest climbable object is the fence surrounding the Lair of the Lightning Caster. Kip can see Hex walking away from an electrical box with an armload of fuses, completely ignoring the cat behind him. (Alright, it's only a kitten...) And thus, Kip hurries off into the other thread...

Buck, meanwhile, is on the other side of the street. He sees the bat wave at Kip (or, at least, in the direction that Kip had gone) before flying off on her own interrupted business. He hasn't found any suitable fuel yet.

Since he is down on the ground, he has to face the main road. For someone starting on ground level, it's more of a delay than a danger; the important thing is never to get under someone's wheel - under the rest of the car is fine, though, as long as one keeps one's head down...

Buck is going to work his way across the road with as much speed as he can get away with without getting run over.

In short, swift dashes Buck charges across the street, takes a breather on reaching the island in the middle, and then rushes on over the other side...

Before long, he's there. He can see the Lair of the Lightning Caster right in front of him. He can enter via the doggy door, or by climbing up the drainpipe and heading in via the roof.