Day of Reckoning by Micah B. Edwards

Author:Micah B. Edwards [Edwards, Micah B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Superheroes | Supervillains
Published: 2018-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

- Chapter Nine -

Inside the car, I scramble into the backseat to stare at the incredible sight. Even with my eyes squinted nearly shut, it’s almost impossible to look at, but I can’t imagine looking away right now. The bolt continues to crackle in place, writhing like a tormented snake, a spark trapped between the globes of an immense Van de Graaff generator.

Beneath it, the building has burst into flames, but that’s the least of it. The windows shatter explosively, showering the street in broken glass to mix with the hail. Molten metal drips from the roof, forming knife-edged stalactites as it runs from the gutters and spattering to the ground in hissing, steaming piles. Every exposed piece of metal from the doorframe to the roof is edged in glowing, crackling electricity, and the entire structure buzzes like a tremendous swarm of locusts has descended upon it. The noise shakes the car, vibrating it so violently that I can feel the buzz as much as hear it.

Fiery tendrils abruptly explode forth from the broken windows, reaching up as if to grasp the rain and the lightning itself. They’re gone in an instant, and still the lightning cascades down. Through the blackened holes in the sides of the building where the windows were, a burning light starts to shine as the fires spread inside, joining together to create a true inferno.

And then, suddenly, the lightning is gone, leaving jagged afterimages in the center of my vision. A man runs out of a nearby building to see what’s happening, and only then do I realize that the entire display of nature’s power has lasted no more than ten seconds from start to finish. The aftereffects are still ongoing, of course; the melted metal is still sending up clouds of steam from the roof and the street, and it’s joined by thick black smoke as the fire begins to really take hold, roaring its defiance against the rain beating down upon it.

I open the car door and lean out of the backseat. “Hey! Hey, you!” I shout to the man gawping at the burning building. He turns to look.

“Call the fire department!” I instruct him. He stares for a second longer, then turns and runs back to the building he just emerged from. From inside the car, I hear Regina’s slightly hysterical laughter ringing out over the speakerphone, and she says something I can’t make out over the sound of the rain and hail.

I close myself inside of the car again.

“What was that?” I demand.

“I said, it’s a bit late for the fire department to do anything here, don’t you think?”

“No, not ‘what did you say.’ ‘What was that,’ meaning ‘what did you just do?’“

“I trashed Ichabot’s storeroom. Like we planned, more or less.” There’s still humor in Regina’s voice, along with more than a hint of madness, but it’s tinged with malice now, too. On the whole, not really a combination I’m excited about.

“Yeah, but remember the part where I was going to go inside and check to make sure it was empty? That was sort of a key part of the plan.

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