How To Ruin A City

Chapter Thirty Two

Nic

Horrible things always happen in stores when you live in a society where supers run rampant, so you're always on alert when shopping, whether you're a civilian, hero, vigilante, or villain. Paying attention to the signs should key you in on if someone is about to try to rob the place. Why wouldn't you? Your life is on the line each time you want to make a quick trip inside to grab a box of pizza rolls.

It's fun when you're the one robbing the store, though.

Don't roll your eyes.

At 9:05, the only bad thing happening inside a 24 hour convenience store was a small little robbery I was assisting Glacier on. We weren't stealing any money, just filling up shopping carts worth of food and toiletries we were going to drop off at a donation box after. The sole thing we planned on keeping was a box of stale donuts.

At 9:15, the bad thing happening in the grocery store was Polar Ice and Blazing Sun trapping us in.

I pulled Glacier out of the way before ten civilians storming towards the exit got a chance to trample her, watching the poor shoppers get met with a tide of blue flames blocking the door.

Blazing sighed, tightening her fists before lunging at them with a snarl. They reeled away with screams of terror and spread out in different directions.

"Escaping like that wouldn't have even worked!" Polar snapped, gesturing through the glass windows. "Hello, idiots, huge ice wall outside blocking the entire perimeter!"

"Yeah, but that shit is melting faster than the polar ice caps," some civilian deadpanned.

The power had already cut out awhile ago due to a thunderstorm raging on overhead, so our only illumination came from controlled flames. Cries of terror kept echoing off the tiled flooring from some of the customers while a pair off to the side placed money on which villain team would win.

All four of us paused when one chimed in, "Bet they all kill each other and we die burning in a fire."

Dude, why the fuck would you say that?

Polar blinked rapidly. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Go wait on the other side of the store," Glacier muttered, flicking her middle finger at them.

"Civis these days," Polar sighed. "Alright, can we continue now? You guys all placed your bets? Good."

Glacier made a show of cracking her knuckles before storming forward, skirting around some fire on the ground in front of her. Blazing, still distracted by the betting happening behind her, only turned around when Polar shouted a warning, head instantly snapping back as Glacier slammed a fist into her face.

"You little bitch!" Blazing gasped, gripping onto her arms.

Glacier instantly phased out, just in time to avoid getting shot in the stomach, materializing behind her. She spun and kicked her spine, then clutched her stomach.

Polar winced and glanced over at me.

"Oh, are we--?"

"Yeah!" he replied, already in front of me. I barely had time to react before that fucker picked me up and tossed me across the store. My back hit a checkout booth hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs.

I'm dead, I died.

I rolled onto my stomach, unable to draw in a breath while a few tears hit the floor. Pushing myself up, I snagged a grocery divider and turned to smack Polar in the face with it. It snapped in half over this nose.