The sound of a gun going of may not have been as common in the apocalypse as it once was, but it was still every bit as polarizing.
As soon as the shot rang out, everyone in the crowded street began scattering like roaches.
Some ran for cover, others used their powers to protect themselves.
Malachi and Morgan were the only ones who remained standing upright and instead looked for the source of the gunfire, and the person who'd been hit.
Malachi found three gunman on a roof nearby.
Morgan found the man who'd been shot. The only detriment to this? It was Arias.
The shining leader of the new day was lying in the middle of the street; clutching his chest and screaming.
"W-Was that gunfire?? A-Are you okay, Malachi?!"
Celeste's panicked voice on the other line was all Malachi needed to draw his attention back to the real world.
"I-I gotta call you back, I'm sorry." Mal apologized.
With a click, he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and looked at his fiery companion.
"...No." Morgan shook his head.
"We need him."
"I don't need anything but a Mordello and a neck pillow, lad."
"..."
"...Fuck, I said no!"
"You know what's coming. We need to atleast make sure he's alright."
"He locked me in a blasted test tube for months!" Morgan reminded.
"I never said he wasn't a dick." Mal shook his head and shrugged.
"He is a massive dick!!"
"But he is one of only three primordial blessed in the world that we know of. Think of it not as us saving him, but as us saving his powers instead."
"..."
"...Please?" He shrugged.
"...I am starting to see how you were able to talk seven different women into sharing you." Morgan grumbled.
"In all honesty I never really had to do very much convincing after Anna." Mal realized.
He didn't really notice it before, but at a certain point the girls just kind of started making friends with each other and everything kind of just clicked into place.
Morgan wondered if Surtr had blessed him with better looks then would he also be living that kind of life.
"Nope."
Malachi held out his hand and a ball of cyan electricity formed in his palm.
Recognizing what he was about to do, Zazu quickly tried to talk him out of it.
"T-That might inconvenience the people here, boss..."
Malachi waived his hand dismissively. "It'll be fine, I promise. I just need to turn out the lights for a couple of seconds..."
"If you say so..."
Malachi finished charging the sphere of energy and it released a single pulse.
Nothing too dramatic, and yet it disrupted every electronic system in a mile's radius; rendering a portion of New York pitch black for a span of 3 seconds.
One of the fleeing gunman was running along the side of the building when it happened.
Everything in front or around him became pitch black.
As if that weren't disorienting enough, he suddenly felt 'something' grab hold of his body and pull him backwards.
The next thing he knew, his bodies was colliding with a hard surface and he and his associates were rolling on the ground all over each other.
Not half a second later, all of the lights in the city came back on.
Now, the fleeing gunmen could easily tell that they were right back on the roof where they'd first split up at.
And there was one more person here with them.
"See, Z? I'm sure nobody even noticed."
"Alright, boss, I guess I have to give it to you. That was indeed very 'P'."
"..."
"...Too muc-"
"Yea, too much."
"I'll work on it." The bird nodded.
Mal raised his hands above his head and a dome of shadows encased the roof.
As the men slowly started to get up, Malachi realized they didn't look any different from ordinary citizens.
However, their body temperatures were quite a bit lower... dangerously low in fact.
"Evening to you, gentlemen."
Malachi tipped down his glasses so that his blinding purple eyes were visible.
"Why're you all cutting out so soon? I was just hoping to ask you a question or two."