Smoke billowed through the swinging double doors of the kitchen while fire alarms blared a high-pitched squeal. All the while, screaming voices ebbed in and out as the doors swung back and forth after the blast, opening, and closing.
Milly was still reeling from the shock as the fire sprinklers kicked in.
What happened? A gas leak? A bomb? Whatever it was, it was bad!
“MILLY! Milly, come on!” Niki screamed as she pulled on her hand to get her away from the table.
Most of the other patrons were already making a break for the front door. No hesitation, as if they’d trained for identifying the shortest escape route.
Milly stumbled as she left her seat inelegantly and nearly slipped on the wet floor if it weren’t for Niki catching her. Niki pulled her along and followed the crowd while Milly tried to get her bearings, but they were at the far side of the restaurant, so they had to go past the kitchen doors.
As they approached, the screaming suddenly got louder. A lot louder than just moving closer could’ve explained. Then, Milly spotted that on the final inward swing, the doors made a sudden unnatural stop as though they’d hit something inside that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Immediately, Milly dug in her heels and yanked Niki back.
The double doors slammed open with enough force to bounce off the wall right where Niki’d been a moment ago. There was no time to celebrate as a horrific mound of flesh, eyes and screaming mouths spilled out with the doors.
Milly and Niki backed away in unison while they stared aghast at the amorphous blob the size of a melted hippo. A pungent smell of burned flesh rolled in along with it, some of the parts of its body were covered in burns. Whatever it was, it wasn’t fireproof.
The screaming was so loud now, it was ear-splitting. Milly could barely think straight as she shared a look with Niki, they were trapped while that thing was between them and the exit. Niki motioned back to their table, there was a window.
Nodding, Milly ran back there with her and kicked the glass. Nothing. Just a throbbing foot for her trouble.
Fortunately, the screaming briefly abated.
“We need something heavy!” Milly called out to Niki while she looked back at the creature. It was devouring the abandoned dinner nearest to it. About a third of the mouths were too busy gnawing on everything from the pizza to the wooden table legs to scream. Another third were biting at the floor, allowing the mass to flow forward to another table, closer to them this time.
Together, they grabbed a wooden chair and swung it into the window. Nothing.
Outside, people were noticing their plight and two men ran up to try to kick the window in while a third went for his phone.
The screaming got louder again and Milly pounded the glass, too terrified to look back and see how many tables were left between them and it. However, the paling faces on the other side and increasingly frantic shouting gave her a terribly good sense of it.
Tears messed up her vision, and she reached out to grab onto Niki, who responded in kind as they turned in time to see the blurry mountain of teeth rapidly approach. It was too fast to avoid and too big to go around.
Milly could see the burned patches of flesh flake off, revealing dozens of mad eyes spinning around looking for their next meal. More and more of them located them and remained transfixed. Two. Four. Six.
All they could think to do anymore was clutch each other and scoot into the furthest corner as the creature crashed into their table like a tidal wave then washed toward them.
Desperately, Milly kicked the chair toward the thing. It wouldn’t hurt it, but it was the only thing she could think to do that would buy them another second. It vanished into the gaping maws, wood splintering without any effort while the eyes now all focused on her, as though the action had drawn their ire.
The gnashing mouths drooled and screamed a maddening cacophony of noise as it crept closer to the trembling girls with none of the speed it had used to devour its other meals, drawing out the agonizing moments toward its trapped prey as though it was forcing itself to slow down and savor it. At the same time, the eyes were losing focus, one by one spinning off in random directions. One of the eyes settled on the curtain and a flabby pseudopod reached out to tear it down and slurp it up like spaghetti while others took spiteful bites out of the curtain before it was fully pulled in.
Milly could feel her very bones rattle inside her as she clutched Niki close and turned her deeper into the corner. She’d never been so scared as she looked the creature in its eyes. “G-go away…” she tried to scream at it, but she could barely produce a whisper.
The moment felt like it dragged on forever.
The glass suddenly shattered inwards along with a whole desert-worth of pale yellow sand. It smashed into the creature with enough force to sandblast the horrid features off the front of it while forcing the creature back.
“Back off, you secret hotdog ingredient!”
Just outside of the shattered glass stood a girl with pale sand-like skin and beach blonde hair that was braided behind her.
Milly recognized the Arkwright uniform, the same black-purple skirt and white blouse, but the girl was missing the tie and her jacket was tied around her waist. She looked to be a couple of years older than Milly, maybe sixteen, an upper classmate.
Extending a hand, she made a fist and the sand trail on the floor of the restaurant flowed back toward her and pooled at her feet before she spread her fingers and the sand rapidly snaked along her body and sprayed out once again to blast the creature while it roared.
Milly stared wide-eyed at the fight taking place no more than two steps away from her. She didn’t dare move for fear that the creature would remember they were there and devour them at full speed.
The creature’s flesh was torn and ripped by the attacks, but new eyes and teeth bubbled to the surface just as quickly. It was horrible to see.
Suddenly, the view of the carnage was obstructed by the face of a smiling girl of a similar beach blond hair and yellowish complexion as the first. She looked the exact same, but her skin wasn’t sand.
“Hi,” she said as she gently reached out to put a hand on each of their shoulders. The next moment, they were outside on the far side of the street. “Bye.”
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And then she was gone again.
This one Milly recognized, it was the vanishing girl she’d seen at school earlier. She couldn’t even bring herself to say thank you before the girl was gone. The whole thing was overwhelming. She just wanted to cry.
Niki didn’t look like she was doing any better. Her eyes were puffy and red while the less was said of her running nose, the better.
“Oh, thanks a lot, Stella.”
A ginger girl kneeled down in front of them with an annoyed groan, once again wearing the same uniform. She looked at them for a moment then spoke.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. Okay? ACE is on the case, yadda-yadda. Just relax. It wasn’t that scary at all, right? You’re big girls. It takes more than that to ruin your day. Just try and get comfortable for now.”
Her accent was warm, Irish, maybe? Not that it mattered right now.
“Are you c-crazy?!” Milly yelled as soon as she managed to find her voice. “W-we could’ve died! And, and the noise!”
Niki hugged Milly tighter and pinched her shoulder to make her stop. “T-that’s Ruth.” She hissed under her breath. “Just agree with her.”
Milly gave her a confused look, but before she could ask her any questions Ruth grabbed them each by a shoulder, demanding their attention.
“That’s right. You should.” She flashed a smile. “You two were so brave in there, remember? Do you think just anyone could’ve survived that? No way. You two are awesome! Could you tell me all about it?”
Milly wanted to argue but… Why did she feel like she’d just had hot chocolate with marshmallows? It didn’t make everything okay, but she felt a little warmer and more contented. They had been brave. They weren’t even crying anymore and they’d only just gotten out.
As they told Ruth the story, she looked very impressed. Giving the occasional gasp as if reacting to a good campfire story.
Midway through, Stella briefly popped back in to drape a blanket around them then was gone again. It was nice, given that they were both soaking wet and the adrenaline of the whole thing was starting to wear off.
By the time they finished, Ruth had taken out a handkerchief and cleaned up their faces.
“Woah, Niki, you are such a loyal friend, good on you for not running out on the country girl. I guess they don’t have supervillain drills out there. You are so brave.” Ruth smiled as Niki looked flustered and gave her a head pat before she turned to Milly. “And you. First day in the big city and you’re already saving people. You kept a cool head and noticed those doors! What an adventure you two had. You’ll be talking about this for days, huh?”
Yeah, it had been a bit scary, but it was true that they had one heck of a story to tell now. They’d done so well in a situation where anyone else would’ve gone to pieces.
Stelle popped into existence next to Ruth. “So, uhm, Terra’s been fighting that thing for a hot minute but it’s healing and it keeps swallowing her sand. Pretty soon she won’t have any left to throw at it.”
“You girls sit tight.” Ruth stood up and dusted herself off before she surveyed the battle raging in the restaurant.
Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t like they had anywhere better to be.
It was only then that Milly realized the fight had been going on the whole time. She’d been so absorbed in talking with Ruth that she forgot about it! How did she miss that? It had been screaming from across the street the whole time.
“You got everyone out, right?” Ruth asked then received a nod from Stella. “Well, that’s something. It wasn’t eating the sand last time, this is bad.”
While the two of them were discussing what to do, Milly watched the battle going on. It was true, the creature was healing the attacks almost as fast as they were inflicted.
Terra, the sand girl, was keeping it busy, but she looked as if she’d run a marathon in the span of… however long this had been going on.
Other than the sense of warmth that had her head swim a little, Milly felt a sort of lucid serenity. “What do you think?” She quietly asked Niki.
Niki furrowed her brow as she thought it over. “Terra can’t hurt it enough. Stella’s teleportation can’t hurt anyone. Ruth… doesn’t exactly have a combat Power…Terra will have to hold out till someone can come help, but that better be quick. Or we’d have to figure out how to stop it from healing so fast.”
“Yeah, so far it’s shrugged off every hit. It’s not even burned anymore.” Milly felt a little bit of that desperation bubble up the surface again as she recalled the scene inside. “…Wait, that’s it!”
Milly tugged on Ruth’s vest.
“Maybe if we lure it to the desert somehow we—What is it now?” Ruth asked, looking down at Milly with clear aggravation. “We’re in the middle of saving the day.”
Despite the sharp response that probably should have made her second guess the wisdom of interrupting a couple of heroes, Milly didn’t feel cowed at all. “It was burned when we first saw it. That doesn’t make sense if it can heal this fast. Maybe it heals burn wounds more slowly?” Milly offered the tidbit of insight without concern.
“Huh, worth a shot.” Ruth turned back to Stella. “Find me something that burns hot, even if it doesn’t work, it’ll be cathartic.”
“Aren’t you bossy?” Stella laughed then teleported away. Only to appear on Ruth’s other side and plant a quick kiss on her cheek. She was gone again by the time Ruth swatted the empty air where her stomach would’ve been.
Teleportation must’ve been convenient because it only took about ten seconds before Stella was back with a couple of bottles of lighter fluid. There was no way she’d paid for those.
Meanwhile, Ruth had been going around talking to bystanders and had apparently found herself quite a few volunteers who each took one of the bottles and set out along with the trio of heroes to confront the creature.
One of which Milly recognized as their waiter, who had apparently escaped out the back. After a quick discussion, he disappeared around a corner again. It only took a moment before fire sprinklers turned off.
It was interesting to see them work once there was a plan. While Terra was keeping the creature occupied, Stella repositioned people around the area as the fight went on, but she always teleported within arms reach of someone else, though she could position her passenger within her own reach to spread people out.
After just a few moments of this, the creature was soaked entirely, as was a good portion of the restaurant itself. Hopefully, they had good insurance.
Milly squinted.
There was something strange. Occasionally, the creature would abandon its fight with Terra and go after a volunteer that had gotten a little too close, but after a rapid lunge in that direction it would exhibit the same menacing stalking behavior that Milly and Niki had been at the receiving end of, but these people weren’t trapped in a corner and fled immediately to a safer distance.
“Everybody back up!” Ruth called out as she ran from the building. “Stella, now!”
“Hi,” Stella said to the creature as she teleported within just a few paces of it, holding a lit lighter. “Bye-bye!”
Stella vanished, but she didn’t take the lighter with her. It clattered to the floor and with a big woosh the whole creature was engulfed in flame. The screaming mouths grew louder at the first but lost volume as more and more of them succumbed to the fire.
Rather than just stand there and burn up, though, it retreated back into the kitchen.
Terra chased after it, but she soon came back and set about using blasts of sand to smother the pockets of flames that were licking at the restaurant's moist interior. Once she’d made her way outside, she approached Ruth and Stella.
“Looks like it broke through a drain in the kitchen, I saw it slither back down there. It shed a lot of the burned mass to make that escape happen, though.” Terra cracked her knuckles with a smirk. “Next time it shows up, we’ll make sure it sticks around for the whole barbeque.”
“Oh, I love barbeque.” Stella clapped her hands together excitedly. “Maybe we could celebrate?”
“Ugh,” Ruth feigned a dry-heave. “Don’t talk to me about roasted meat, right now. That thing smelled horrible toward the end there and it didn’t exactly start out smelling like roses.”
Terra and Stella shared a look. They each slipped to one side of Ruth and wrapped an arm around her waist as Terra spoke up. “Well, maybe we should call it a day and see about taking our mind off this who—Oh, you dumb bitch!”
Terra broke away and knelt down by Niki and Milly, snapping her fingers in front of their faces then turned back to Ruth. “Did you forget to undo it, again?”
“Oh, don’t blame me for this. They were basically broken when I got them.” Ruth folded her arms as she squared off with Terra.
“Fix. Them. Now.” Terra jabbed her in the chest with a finger to punctuate each word.
Ruth glared at her. They each narrowed their eyes until Ruth was the first to blink.
“Ugh, fiiine. They are probably over it by now anyway.” Ruth knelt down in front of them again and rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but then paused and reached for her phone instead and snapped a picture to the audible annoyance of Terra.
“Is something wrong?” Niki asked.
“Remember when I told you two to get comfortable?” Ruth asked with an air of innocence, though she couldn’t suppress her grin entirely. “Well, I don’t control what you find comfortable. I only made it so that you don’t feel self-conscious about doing it and… You two have been cuddling in the middle of the street for like five minutes.”
Just like with the fight across the street that she’d somehow completely missed, Milly was suddenly keenly aware that she and Niki were both clutching onto each other. Now that she thought about it they’d probably been that way since before they were rescued when she was too scared to care. And apparently after, when Ruth’s Power was keeping them from caring.
Milly and Niki shared a long awkward stare before they quickly let go and scrambled a few steps away from each other. Milly wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole then and there. She wasn’t even sure why it felt so horrendously embarrassing. They’d nearly died.
Ruth was biting a curled-up finger in a faltering attempt not to laugh. “Feel free to blame me.”
Oh, Milly was already all over that!
That was an awkward walk back to their dorm.