There was a high-pitched sound, and he opened his eyes suddenly.

"What the f...?!"

Lawrence stared at his house... Or at least, what was once before his house. Right now it was just a big bunch of rubble and dust. Some pieces of what he thought was the hydraulic system sticking out here and there, but mostly it was that. Just... ruins.

"Alright. Someone's going to pay for this." It was the first decision he had taken. He wasn't even concerned about his own state. He was looking at the house he had bought with years of work, everything and anything he could claim as his own was... destroyed. He was pissed, really, really pissed. With italics, which were kind of a big deal since those had never popped up here before.

He felt the rage inside. It wasn't something hot, about to explode. It was ice-cold. Enough to chill everything he touched. Enough to calm him and let him decide his next steps. "First things first" he said. He said as he stood up, ignoring the cold tone of his voice. "Let us change to something more appropriate" he said as he stared at his ripped "I ♥ Worne" shirt and jeans. They were mostly unusable for the matter. He had light bruises all over him, but no deep or otherwise serious injury. He headed to the bathroom. Pieces of glass and brick hurt under his slippers, which were partially done for. The door was almost entirely broken, and the doorknob was completely unused. He kicked what was left of it, taking it down with no effort. Inside, he found the trusty first aid kit (which he had replenished the other day), taking out some alcohol and using cotton patches to disinfect whatever cut he found.

He ignored the curious onlookers and panicking bystanders as he headed upstairs (the stairs hadn't collapsed, thanks God) and into his room. The damaged part of the house, the one that took the full brunt of the explosion, was the one facing the street. That was probably the source. His room was on the back, which meant he could change in there with no people minding his business.

He opened the closet.

"Now, let us dress appropriately for the occasion."

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

"Acceptable" he said as he looked at his choice of clothes.

Lawrence was now wearing a black outfit that made him look like an overacted mafia villain. He had a heavy trench coat above a white shirt, with a red necktie fitting nicely on his neck. A pair of equally black pants, and dark brown moccasins. Toppled with a fedora hat which cast a shadow over his eyes. A couple of white gloves covered up the mark of meta humans, and did what they could to avoid fingerprints sticking everywhere.

Usually, he would've deemed the suit far too extravagant to even use it outside his house. In fact, he bought it after a cosplay he wanted to play on a certain superspy manga, the one with the psychic girl. You know, the assassin wife and the spy father?

Ahem. Anyways, now was different. He was going to commit an act of villainy, at least if he found someone was responsible for this and it wasn't some kind of accident. He needed a costume, like every good villain would... and he really liked the mafia look he had right now. But all of that was just happening in the background. Right now, he was just eager to find the bastard who had done this.

With a sudden puff, however, he was brought back to his senses.

Mika was there, staring at him.

"Chief?"

Her face was... hard to describe. He noticed a bit of fear, but mostly anger. Definitively not an expression a girl should be wearing, though he was not one for talk.

"Ah, Mika. Right on time. I want a report on the situation."

"Chief, you're not hurt? You didn't hit your head or something?"

"I have no critical injury, and I assume you don't either. Now, if you would please, report."

"Ah... but..." She looked at Lawrence's outfit. She probably wanted to comment on that, but finally decided against it and settled on telling what she knew.

"Right." She sat on the floor. "I was patrolling, just like you asked, and then everything went... boom. I rushed back to see if the chief was okay, so I couldn't check on the general overview. By the looks of it, several places on the city exploded. A lot of manhole covers were blown here and there, so the explosions probably came from there. Just a guess, though. There didn't appear to be any particular target, it was mostly houses and malls blowing up here and there. No deaths so far."

"Hmmm..." Lawrence closed his eyes. He frowned slightly, thinking hard.

"Very well. Come with me.'

"What you going to do, chief?"

"I have not the slightest idea. However, I presume we will find our answer in the sewers."

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"Eww, I have to get there again?" She made a face of disgust, shaking her hands in negation. Lawrence frowned. "Again?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I'd have to hide from bad people, so I went and hide there. There's an entrance practically nobody uses close to the orphanage, though the place is smelly and you never know just how many rats you're going to find."

"Say, bad people as in 'stole money from them and they want it back' people, right?" Her face went completely plain, and she said "Nope, not at all. Why would you ever think that" with stereo voice that was almost funny.

Lawrence sighed. He had guessed that much.

"Let us go" he gestured. Coming down the stairs again, he noticed the place had evacuated (most of it, some stupid onlookers had taken out their phones and were probably transmitting live on MyPipe). Several patrol cars were parked around, and some policemen were taking statements from the people around. He noticed as a familiar face was talking to the neighbor from the front. It was the cop that had brought Mika in. He grabbed his fedora hat and pushed it deeper in, trying to cover as much of his face as he probably could. "Say, your ability only allows you inside the parallel realm, doesn't it?" he asked to Mika.

"Yeah. I tried before, but no one other than me can come in."

"You tried before? How so?"

"Bad guys were holding me on the place. I used it to escape."

"To escape the people you stole from."

"I had to. Didn't want to starve to death."

Well, that was... actually fair. He still didn't approve it, but he at least had to forgive her. But that was not the time to be thinking of such things.

"You said there was a discreet entrance to the sewers. Show me the way."

"Aye aye, captain."

They turned on a corner, dashing past apartment blocks, convenience stores and restaurants alike. Lawrence was never a neighborhood guy, and he didn't exactly know any of the places, but he at least recognized them on sight. They kept walking straight ahead for a block or two, before Mika dragged him inside a dark alley (which he thought looked like the place were people were kidnapped or murdered, but didn't ever say a word).

"This is it?"

"See that?" She pointed to the emergency stairs poorly built at the side of a shady building. He was under the impression that nobody should've ever used those in case of a real emergency.

"I do. And?"

"We have to climb up those stairs and get inside the third window at the left."

"That is wrong at so many levels.' he sighed. He should've guessed as much.

"Don't worry, nobody lives in here. It's been abandoned since ages ago."

"How in earth do you get inside the sewers from here, anyways?"

"Someone blew up one of the toilets a long time ago. There's a hole big enough for one to come inside from there~"

"I've heard enough" he placed his hand on her mouth to stop her from speaking any further. "I don't want to hear about the blown-up toilet, and I certainly won't pass through there. Is there no other way in?"

"Well" Mika rubbed her knees together. "there is but..."

"But?" He asked expectantly.

"...It's next to a comic store."

...

Lawrence stared at her blankly. It took some time to understand just exactly what she said. Even more to process, and more than that to come up with an answer. Or rather, a question.

"What on tarnation does a comic store have to do with all of this?"

It was Mika's time to look at him blankly.

"What do you mean, chief? People there are all gross! There's the store assistant, who's always a freak working for extra cash to buy porn magazines and looks with lascivious eyes at every girl he sees! And then there's customers! They're all weird and have these creepy smiles on their faces! I feel less pure just looking at them!"

"Hey!" Lawrence couldn't help himself from dropping the 'mighty villain' facade and protesting. He was one of those people, and he certainly wasn't creepy! Not... Not that he knew!

Ahem.

"Look now, it's wrong to discriminate someone just because they like comics. I myself am one of those people, while not as hardcore as those you describe. People have their hobbies. And most important: we are going there right now, so buckle up and ass in."

That came out wrong, very very wrong.

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

"Dang, I don't remember sewers smelling so bad." Mika's voice came out nasal as she pinched her nose with her hands.

"You don't say. What did you think they would smell like? Guns or roses?" He chuckled at the pun. "You have to withstand the odor nevertheless. Best to ignore it like I am."

"You can ignore things you don't want to smell?" she asked with a hint of surprise on her face. Lawrence puffed his chest a little (just enough so that Mika wouldn't notice) and spoke "Well, I can control myself to some extent. That includes ignoring excessive heat, cold or foul smells. Of course, I still have to wear jackets on winter. I am not at all immune, just tolerant."

"That's so neat, chief. I bet I could've used it when I slept rolled up in newspaper."

Shut up kid, you're gonna make me feel like a bastard for sleeping in a nice, comfy bed all this time.

"Ahem" he cleared his throat, changing the topic of conversation.. "Say, do you happen to know how close we are to my house?"

"About... Two, maybe three blocks? I mean, it wasn't that far away anyways~"

Lawrence and Mika both shut up suddenly. They had heard the same thing...

Voices.

Muffled, yes. They couldn't even make sense of what they were saying. But they very much heard people further ahead. Which was wrong. Nobody was supposed to be down here.

Not that they were supposed to be there, either.

"Use you ability to go check" he said in a whisper. Mika made a military salute as she poofed out of existence, half a minute later, she appeared once again.

"It's three people" she muttered on Lawrence's ear. "Two of them have guns."

Lawrence's heart came to a stop. Guns. He hadn't summed guns into the equation... But he wasn't about to turn around either. Maybe he could have Mika knock one of them down and then... Then what?

Well, he would figure it out.

"Take one of the armed men down. I'll handle the other two." The fact that Mika didn't ask how put him a little on the edge, but he decided not to ask why.

"At my sign. One, two... Now!"

She disappeared just about the same time he started running forward. he heard a "Hey, who are~?!" and then a light thud he assumed was an unconscious body falling to the ground. He then ran full-speed forward, turned in an intersection and found a small room which he assumed was for maintenance. The scene before him looked almost comical: A couple of men in silly costumes (not that he was one to talk) jumping towards the little figure that was Mika, shielded behind a third guy.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Lawrence said as he stepped into the room. Everyone stopped on their tracks, looking back at him.

"Let us begin, shall we?"

The chunk of cold rage was getting heavier, and craving to blow out.