The windows cracked and shattered, shards of glass scattered across the still shaking floor. Shelves flew off the walls while others tipped back and forth. Everything in the store was thrown about like paper, falling to the floor or bursting in the air.

Sound returned but only in the form of an intense ringing that made Bailey dizzy. He hadn’t even realized he closed his eyes until he tried opening them. The world was blurry from the dust and debris that fell from the ceiling. Bailey felt around for his glasses before he realized he was wearing them. His vision was simply blurry from the pounding in his head, whatever hell was raining down upon him and the shock coursing through his veins.

Groaning, Bailey tried to get up but, then he remembered Zane had thrown himself on top of him. He stopped, glanced to Zane, who had his face practically cradled into Bailey’s neck. Bailey sighed in relief when he saw that Zane was moving. At least that meant he was somewhat ok. The man groaned then he pushed himself off Bailey and opened his own eyes only to glare at the one beneath him.

“W-What?” Bailey coughed out, accidentally breathing in the air around them that was likely full of all sorts of things. He began to cough violently, his lungs attempting to push out whatever crap he had managed to breathe in.

Zane sighed heavily, as if the weight of the world was resting upon his shoulders, before pushing himself up, dusting himself off as he did. With a scowl, Zane spoke more to himself than Bailey, “Bad Luck Bailey indeed.”

Bailey flushed and got up with every intention to tell Zane off until he caught glimpse of what was happening outside the store. Suddenly, he could hear the screaming outside, the sounds of screeching tires, people running and sirens. Across the street a building was in flames with black smoke billowing up into the sky. Fire was shooting out of every window, engulfing the entire building and seeming to be ready to move onto the second. It was chaos outside and Bailey…his legs were shaking so badly he had to clutch onto Zane’s arm to keep himself up.

Zane cocked a brow at the feeling of Bailey’s fingers gripping his arm so tight it would likely bruise. For a moment, Zane had every intention to brush the boy off but, when he saw Bailey’s face frozen in fear he put a few clues together.

The time at the café, Bailey’s hands, it was no surprise the boy couldn’t move at the sight of the flames across the street. Hell, he didn’t even appear to be breathing.

So, with yet another sigh, Zane brought his hand up to snap his fingers before Bailey’s eyes. It was enough to break him from his trance but not enough to get him moving. Thankfully, the boys’ gaze turned to Zane and it seemed that helped because he finally took in a deep breath.

“We need to leave,” Zane stated and was fairly surprised to see Bailey nod. He couldn’t speak and Zane may have felt a little awful for being happy about that considering the circumstances. Whatever, wasn’t like Bailey knew that.

Again, Zane mentally cursed the universe for forcing him into yet another situation with Bailey. That time, Zane couldn’t even attempt to leave the boy behind. He grumbled then grabbed the boys’ shirt and began pushing him towards the exit. Bailey was stumbling over his feet so Zane continuously had to help him back up. Yes, he was grumbling the whole time while doing that too until they finally reached the crumbled street.

They had to get away as soon as possible. Zane suspected there was a villain nearby. If that were the case they could end up getting quarantined depending on how much damage was done. From his quick look of the street it wasn’t just the bank that was hit. He saw burning buildings to his left and right and could only assume the entire block, if not a few blocks, had been hit. Though there were sirens going off in the background they sounded distant and Zane wasn’t sure how long it would take for anyone to arrive.

It was clear there was an explosion upon seeing the building across the street. What caused it was unknown. For a second, Zane’s eyes lingered on the bank that had obviously been blown up. Then, before he started pushing himself and Bailey towards safety, a voice spoke from above that made escaping rather difficult.

“Hello, hello down there!”

Zane bit the inside of his cheek upon seeing a girl that he recognized from the news standing atop a building. If he recalled correctly she had recently broken out of prison or was helped out. He wasn’t paying that much attention to remember it correctly. However, she was trouble, he knew that much. Yet again, trouble had found its way into his life. Zane was beginning to think he needed to relocate preferably to Alaska. There couldn’t be anything crazy going on in Alaska!

Even from the streets below one could see the smile spread across the young girls face. She appeared to be having fun and that made most everyone’s blood run cold. Her short blue hair was easily recognizable even beneath her baseball cap, although, one wouldn’t think she to be a super villain in her civilian attire.

“My name’s Boomer!” She introduced herself though most already knew her. She threw her hands into the air as if she were announcing an act to a show instead of paralyzing everyone below her in fear. “And I’m here to have some fun with you guys.”

With her smile still on, she focused her gaze on a trembling couple in the street corner and, without warning, snapped her fingers causing a small explosion, like a firecracker, directly at their feet. The two screamed and jumped back just as she snapped again, and again, until they were basically dancing around the sidewalk for her amusement. It wasn’t until the woman dropped to her knees in exhaustion and fear that Boomer finally stopped.

With a frown, she asked, “Tired already? But we just started!”

Bailey was slowly returning to his senses by that time. Zane was attempting to inch them away bit by bit without getting themselves any attention. It was working; Bailey could see they were nearing the street corner, which he assumed they would turn down and run for it once they reached it. However, he didn’t like the idea of leaving others behind when it was clear Boomer wasn’t going to let them leave with their lives.