Sarah rubbed her eyes, trying to get the stars to clear out of them. She couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing too. She had laid down on the ground at some point, but she wasn't really sure how she got there. Wasn't she supposed to be heading for computer science? She coughed, someone had burnt something, she could taste it in her throat and instinctively tried to spit it out. It smelled awful, way worse than even burning plastic. She could smell that too. She suddenly felt a pair of hands under her arms lift her up, and she would have jumped if she'd been able to figure out where her feet were.

She got flipped over onto her back and dragged along. As she was moved, a tiled ceiling swam into view along with a pale face. As she focused, she realized the man's face was only pale because it was covered in thick dust. Glancing at her hands, she saw she was covered in the same stuff.

The ringing in her ears was going away, and she could hear Alexa talking, "damn it, we told him to wait. He had no idea, the stupid idiot..." Alexa kept talking, trailing into increasingly vulgar curses. The older girl was on her feet and was pacing in the hallway here at the hospital. Right, Sarah realized, they were at the hospital. They were visiting Finn, and they were talking to him when he tried to use the fog and did something. And then something loud and bright happened.

A pair of guys were shoving Finn's bed out of the room, trailing hoses. She heard hissing and guessed that someone was spraying a fire extinguisher inside. That was probably the powder she was covered with. She could smell smoke in the air - burnt plastic and metal odors filled the floor so strongly that everyone was probably bothered. She looked down the hall, and yes, it looked like they were moving all the patients from their rooms. Alexa reached a hand down and helped Sarah stand up.

"You ok?" asked Alexa. "That was kinda crazy."

"I think so?" answered Sarah. "What happened? Did you see?"

"With my elf eyes, you mean?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you read a lot," said Alexa. "Yeah, though. It looked like a bolt of lightning zapped the wall, and the wall wasn't happy about it."

"Lightning? Inside?" Sarah said. She shook her head again, still confused at the world. She was still wobbly, although her steps were getting more steady as she followed Alexa.

"Told him to wait, didn't we?" said Alexa. "Stupid moron jock."

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"Oh," said Sarah. She stopped suddenly, realizing what had actually happened. The red light Finn gathered had been what made the blast of electricity. She'd been dazzled by the light and deafened by the blast. She'd probably jumped out of her chair onto the floor when it had happened. And Finn had done it, he'd made the explosion without even considering the consequences.

"Think he'll try it again?" asked Sarah.

"That idiot? Probably. We're probably lucky he pulled everything he could reach. It'll make it hard to do it again right away," said Alexa. Sarah glanced around, the room they'd been in was bare of fog, and everything else she could see in the hallway was teal. Finn had pulled the red out of the fog. The idiot hadn't just made lightning, he'd made it as strong as he could manage in his tiny little hospital room.

Alexa waited by the elevators, watching where the nurses were taking the other patients as they pulled them from the room. Down two floors, it looked like. The girls turned and took the stairs. Sarah managed one flight and had to sit down for a moment, she was dizzy with the effort and still feeling stunned. Alexa went off ahead.

Catching her breath, Sarah followed at a slower pace. By the time she made it down, Alexa was totally out of sight. Sarah picked a direction and walked down the hallway, but she didn't see anyone and couldn't hear anyone specific over all the hospital noises. The hallways felt like a maze to her, and she was suddenly worried about even finding her way back to the stairs. There were signs everywhere, directing her to various places, but they didn't make any sense to her. If anything else, they made things worse.

She looked up and down the halls, and noticed patches of pure blue fog in all the teal. Alexa must have been pulling the green out of the fog as she walked. Sarah didn't know if Alexa was doing it intentionally, or if she was just pulling in little bits to help her recover from the explosion, but she had left a perfect trail for Sarah to follow.

Very soon Sarah was able to make out Alexa's voice, growling at Finn. "It isn't just pretty lights, and if you'd waited for us to explain we would have said so. But no, you couldn't help yourself, could you? You just had to stick your fingers in the toaster, never mind how bad an idea that was. We're lucky we're alive, you moron."

Finn sputtered, but Alexa kept going, "You have no idea what Sarah and me can do, none! And none of us have an idea about what you do. So don't flipping do anything! It can't possibly be that hard."

Sarah finally turned into the hallway where Finn had been dumped. He didn't have as much white powder on his face as Sarah and Alexa, but there were dark smudges of soot across his face, and he was missing eyebrows and a lot of his hair had burned away. That was probably what had smelled so bad. Sarah couldn't help but sniff; yeah, that was what smelled so bad. She reached up and felt her face and head with her hands, and pulled the end of her ponytail where she could see it. Her hair was filthy like the rest of her, but otherwise, it seemed fine.

"Listen, and actually pay attention," Alexa was saying. "There's no way they'll let us stay now. Behave yourself. Quit doing shit for just a day or two, and they'll let you go. Call Sarah or me and we'll help you figure stuff out. But quit being an idiot."

Sarah nodded along, and the two stormed away. Sarah was lucky that Alexa was along to guide their way back to the stairs.