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Chapter Five: Burn, Part One

It was a nice day in the library, besides the defining silence. No one questioned silence in the library. While no one dared to disturb the silence and setting off the librarian sitting in her desk, reading a book and monitoring that no one would do something crazy or stupid. Still even later there would be a respect for the written literature, some books with cursive writing weren't able to be translated to the internet, or some people simply wanted something not stored on their hard drive.

Through the times all in all, people would still return to the library and check out their books keeping the system alive and keeping the meeting stop alive. As people walked under the massive windows, light shining onto the tables and warming people as they sat down and took a peek at the preview of the book.

But still trouble was brewing at the time, under which the library something bad was happening, something filled with trouble. The old pipes, still passing inspecting but a horrible danger to people, stayed under the floor and were kept somewhat in check. The pipes carried water and carried liquids from all sorts of systems.

Still even in the age of neutrinos and nuclear power powering the world the library still worked on an old concept, oil. Not extracted from the ground, but instead created, made by combining useless materials from decomposing plastic and using it in order to create massively efficient fuels that would produce non-dangerous materials.

And all in all this material still burned and it burned efficiently, it burned so hot and so expansively. The pipes that carried this material underground was a layer under the sewers, all from the source and all this heating a few buildings, not many and not a majority but enough that the system worked in the end. But still the oil in the library needed to be sent through the old and rusted pipes of olden days and if someone applied just pressure on it in the wrong way.

A pipe beneath the library begins to shake, inbound pressure from the oil pipes below the ground causing some pipe edges to buckle. The metallic edges buckling as the heater that burns the oil unable to keep up with the pace and suddenly the edges between the pipes get all the pressure. As the pipes feel the pressure the oil starts to push through them. And it happens on all the pipes, and then as the leaks start to leak out they continue to the next edge of pipe and to the next and the next continuing towards the heater and then as oil leaked out onto the floor it started to pool. Five pipes, left and then four, and then three all bursting with pressure and leaking oil onto the floor.

The pipes continued until they reached the heater, the emergency safety conditions activating and closing off the pipe from the heater. And as oil started to leak out the connection suddenly the oil started to push through, suddenly and seemingly like magic a grip forming and push open the valve. And then the oil was not only able to leak into the heater but seemingly with accuracy it jumped in and jumped out, tiny dots of flaming oil jumping out.

And then it hit the pool, igniting the oil in a blue pool of fire and seemingly causing the entire pool of oil to explode. The building shook and suddenly a massive explosion blasted up through the library. A flaming swirl of fire, flaming up into the air and knocking books and people out of the way as it caught the wooden floors and wooden backing of the building.

The entire building caught on fire and it swirled in its inferno as the building seemingly started to catch on fire. People ran for the front entrance, as they found their ears and hearing silenced and everything they relieved on useless in this situation, they only had one thing to rely on that they would need to survive and they had the human idea of survival pushing them forward, that they would survive and that would make it out of the building, that pushed everyone forward as the building caught on fire.

And as even the librarian made her way out of the building sheading a tear for her burning books, she two knew that she and to survive. She had to rebuild and return to this one day and she knew as she ran down the concrete steps that she would.

Seemingly by coincidence or maybe planning a camera was focused on the building, this time the microphone and camera of Sally Sparrow. The reporter's van parked near the library as she stood on the other side and recorded the library either for some sort of piece to put in a day where nothing was happening or some sort of news report for later.

"Holy shit!" Sally screamed as she ducked and behind her a massive fireball shot up in the air, the windows of the library turning red as they started to melt, looking up in disbelief the reporter looked as the building caught fire and she was there, she was first and only reporter there, that was her chance. Quickly she took a breath and walked forward, her camera man following her as they moved to a better vantage point.

"We are here at the New York Public Library where seemingly it has just been engulfed in flames, people are running out in panic and seemingly something crazy has gone on!" Sally said into the camera as she moved out of the way and let her camera man capture footage of the massive smoke plume in the air that was rising up.

The camera turned towards the people running out of the building, in seeming panic and like that the image was captured by the camera, gathering the information and turning it into a signal that was transmitted to the van and bounced off a satellite dish, going all the way up into space and back down to the regional signal manager.

Then it was transmitted to the station and as someone saw it on the screen a person clicked a button and interrupted the morning transmission. The signal was overridden and instead Sally's feed placed on it. It transmitted out back into the signal manager and then to the multiple carriers of the signal and then back out into space, multiple signals going out until it reached a building.

And then it went into a building and into a set of tvs, everyone who was turned onto that the channel getting a look of the building. And one just so happened to be turned on to the channel would be Dustin Smith. The shark looked in disbelief as the public library was caught aflame. Standing up Dustin put down his spoon in his bowl of cereal and walked towards the television set.

As Sally looked around suddenly another massive fireball emerged from the building. The manhole covers started to shake and suddenly a tiny fire ball blew out, Dustin looked at the pipes at suddenly he realized something.

"There's explosive material in the sewers! No not again." Dustin turned as his face soured, realizing the process was starting again. The shark looked down at his hands and then promised himself, the shark would not let anyone else die because of Ronan. His eyes looked at the screen image and Sally seemingly screamed at the camera man as he turned his camera down towards the ground.

"It seems that the same explosion had spread out through the sewers, how an explosion can transfer through the sewers is beyond us but we seem to be observing some sort of new phenomenon." Sally said as she touched the manhole and then suddenly the camera went out. The signal reverted to static and Dustin knew what happened, another explosion this one propelling the manhole cover into the camera, hopefully not the camera man but that was Sally's problem not his.

Dustin wiggled his fingers, activating his powers as he scanned for water below him. He tried to feel for water, but he couldn't feel anything. He couldn't feel water below him; it was seemingly rushed out of the sewers. Dustin looked over towards his bowl of milk. Someone had to do this to the library, this wasn't some man made disaster, this was terrorism and someone had deliberately attacked the library.

Walking over to the table, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and pulling it up to his face, he dialed a number. It was Con Edison, they had installed most of the pipes below the city in recent years and they would information he needed. Turning on his perception filter, as to make sure his voice was covered Dustin brought the phone up to his face and waited a phone rung.

"Hello, this is the Outsiders we need some quick information. How old are the oil pipes inside the New York Public Library, I do need this information very quickly so just put me through the pipeline." Dustin said as Riptide, he needed this information. He wondered something and started to pace around his room as he waited for information to arrive.

"Yes, ok the oil pipes were installed in the fall of 1986, about a hundred or so years ago." The lady on the phone said as Dustin wondered would that be old enough for them to break down. Dustin shut down the phone with the information he had and wondered. Should he do something, should he investigate?

The lack of water in the sewers, told him that something was wrong, something felt fundamentally wrong on it and he wasn't sure if he should do something about it. Was this some sort of supervillain doing something, would this be Ronan do something like this? Would he explode a building for attention? Dustin groaned as he paced around the room and he tried to understand what was happening.

"Can I handle this; is my mind in the right place?" Dustin asked himself questioning if he was even right in this situation, taking a breath he walked over to the counter and raised his hands. Looking at the milk, he grabbed onto the water inside the milk and started to raise it. At first pure water came out, but as more and more just pure milk was released some of it came with the water, the hydrogen bond too strong to repel his pull.

Ending up with a somewhat milk-white liquid in his hands and a bowl of cereal and milk powder Dustin put the liquid back and allowed the milk to return to normal. Walking away from it Dustin knew that while he was the King of Sharks and the King of Water, he was the not the king of liquids, he couldn't raise liquid nitrogen all he had was the ability to manipulate a little bit of oxygen with hydrogen attached to it.

Oil seemingly now was his enemy, unable to be touched by his hands and able to resist his powers. Dustin walked away from the bowl of cereal walking towards the door and grabbing his jacket as he opened it and locking it, walking out into his apartment building he walked down the single flight of stairs down to the ground floor.

Anger flooded his soul, he didn't want Colin to help him or Elias, he needed to do this on his own, he would defeat his enemy of oil and he needed to do this on his own. But he slowed down, he needed to remind himself that this wasn't some sort of crazy person, this could still be some sort of disaster and he needed to keep his mind clean. His mind was getting caught in this idea that something bad was happening, he just needed to check the sewer and make sure that nothing stupid was happening below the ground.

Walking outside, Dustin made his way near to an alley and walked back in it, this was his shot and in the mild winter and early spring he opened up the private sewer access he had placed in his backyard for some reason. Opening it up, suddenly a layer of smog and steam flooded out of the sewer. Pushing it away, Dustin knew that was a bit wrong.

And thus he jumped in, landing in the sewers Dustin landed on the ground and found his feet were wet. Landing on it, he looked around the sewer and tried to see what the material was. Pulling his phone out, he looked down on the ground and knew that it was oil, the murky black substance on the ground moving as his feet moved around. Walking forward, Dustin looked forward as he suddenly lost his grip on the ground.

He fell over and landed in the deep oil, his body was covered. Dustin groaned as his body was covered in the slick substance. Closing his mouth, Dustin screamed mentally for a second and then stood up. Dustin stood up and looked around, attacking a light to his head and turning it on, activating It and letting him see through the tunnel. He wondered if the werewolves would be in the tunnel this time of month and he wondered if be in danger. Dustin walked forward, through the darkness.

Looking through it he wondered how many possible people could have done this, Ronan surely couldn't have been the only force that would have done this, or could he. The werewolves wouldn't want to throw out their only transportation form Hudson Valley and surely they wouldn't want to cover themselves in oils as they did so, and so Dustin threw them out of calculations.

What about the mutants, maybe they climbed out of the center of the Earth and hit some pipes on the way up, maybe they were beneath his feet on the first layer of the sewer pipes and they were slowly coming up, and eventually Dustin would encounter them. Dustin shivered; he didn't want to fight the mutants again, so he threw them out of the running for the sheer improbability of getting out of the center of the Earth.

He outright denied the idea of one of the Superhero teams doing this, they wouldn't be stupid enough to do that and that would surely make New York a warzone again. So Dustin threw them out and that left him with no one, no one else to seemingly do this act.

He wondered who did it them and he wondered what it would all mean. Surely it wouldn't be some sort of new supervillain and someone who could manipulate the oil around him. Breathing slowly, Dustin walked forward and looked around as he walked forward and looked through the sewer, he seemingly had a look of dread on his face.

Looking down he looked at his leg, the oil was rising. Walking forward, he wondered how long it would be until the sewer was completely filled. He looked ahead, his feet walking against the slippery metal, his arm against the wall and holding himself up. Walking forward, he found trash in the sewer.

Obviously it was the same crap that one was against the ground, but now it was free to float around. He pushed it around, looking down at the ground as he waked forward until he suddenly saw something different a hand on the oil it was floating and unclenched. Dustin froze as he saw it and didn't dare to look forward.

Pausing he moved his feet around and the hand floated around, it was a body, it had to be a body. He looked up and held his breath as he looked and saw it. It was a Neuroseeker, it's body seemingly rotted and his armor marked. As the oil floated around, the armor seemingly was pushed out his entire body bloated and expanding slowly as bacteria broke down the person.

Dustin held his breath as he smelt the decomposing body and backed up, he didn't want to be here. He just walked forward slowly and looked away from the body not wanting to focus on it. He pulled his foot past it and tried to ignore it, as his foot touched it. He felt the floating body and then suddenly something horrible happened.

The entire body popped, the skin broken open and Dustin looked away as he felt its contents on his ankle. He ran forward and ignored the body, the shark smelt the rotting smell and found himself overwhelmed with emotion and horror as he suddenly had to bend down and release his breakfast. He puked into the sewers and started to gag as he released everything.

The green of his stomach was released to sewers and Dustin decided to take a breather, this was horrible everything felt horrible and he felt like he wanted to die. He didn't want to see that, it was someone that he had seen before. It was someone he had killed and he didn't feel right.

Bending over again, he started to puke more and he felt like he wasn't ready to see that yet. Walking forward, he hoped to get away from the body and get back to finding out who was really pulling the strings. He tried to ignore it and push himself forward but his mind kept going back to the body.

He ignored it and continued to walk forward, and then looking forward he suddenly saw something in the distance. It was a glow, it was a massively bright glow and suddenly it appeared. Looking forward, he tried to figure out what it was and then he realized what it was. It was a massive burst of fire; Dustin quickly looked around and found a set of ladders. Running towards them and at the same time towards the fire, he started to run forward.

Grabbing on the ladder, Dustin quickly climbed up and threw the cover off and climbed onto the road. Quickly dodging a car, as he shifted the cover on to the manhole, Dustin ran away. Plugging his ears and tried to signal to the people around him that something was going to happen. People seeing the outsider ran away and suddenly a massive burst of fire blasted out of the manhole cover and then the one down from that and the one from that.

People looked surprised and screamed another explosion engulfed New York City, the manhole landed next to car and spun around as the dust settled. Smoke rose out of the sewers and seemingly to the people was a smoking gun as Dustin stood up and looked around, no one was injured or suck by the manhole and they stayed clear of the fire. Looking around traffic was stopped and people looked surprised at the case of fire from the sewer.

"Outsider, Outsider go away; we don't need you to stay!"

Dustin looked around; he was in his Riptide costume. They couldn't have thought that he was somehow related to this. Yet somehow the people seemed to be turning around him, a crowd gathered around him and Dustin quickly realized that these people weren't here to peacefully protest against him.

Quickly punches were thrown and Dustin found himself blocking punches as people surrounded him, chanting at him and punching at him. Dustin quickly found himself backing up as he tried to avoid the crowd. But people pushed him back into the crowd and Dustin realized that adding his punches to the fight wouldn't help him and his reputation.

"Please stop this, this won't help me defeat whoever is doing this and you need to understand we are doing our best!" Dustin said as he raised his fists and blocked the punches. The crowd smiled and then someone started to part the crowd, like he was Moses. The crowd parted as a man with a soild shirt and tie, with slacks and seemingly leather shoes appeared.

"I am Samuel Seabury and allow me to offer some thoughts on the proceedings of the Outsiders." The man said holding some notes in his hands. Dustin backed up as the crowd parted and he was allowed some space. Dustin looked confused as the man stood seemingly he must have been some sort of scholar and he must have been leading the group of people.

"The Outsiders present themselves as a larger threat to New York with their powers causing outages to water services, and killing multiple innocents during their proceedings with Supervillains." Samuel said as he read from his paper and then seemingly looking up to Dustin smiled. Dustin was facing someone with mastery over language and someone who would use everything he had in order to win.

"And are you suggesting that the city would somehow be less safe without the Outsiders, without the Superheroes? Are you saying this city should just bend over and allow the supervillains to do whatever they want to do?" Dustin said trying to raise the similar argument that had worked before, suggesting that the city would be worse off without the Outsiders; Dustin would need more time to raise a better shield.

"And why not have a military army to defend the city, using normals and using numbers to overwhelm enemies and lessening losses." Samuel said quickly responding, surprising and not surprising Dustin. He expecting an answer like that but he wasn't expecting how quickly he would respond.

"Ah but even if they are as trained as we are, they still don't have superpowers they might only have guns or exosuits and think about the cost of that and think about how much to pay each and compare that to three of us, and how little we are payed in comparison." Dustin said, surely this man would respect the fiscal cheapness of how much the Outsiders are payed and how cheap they would work.

"And you think putting that much money into a program isn't worth it, we need to make a bigger investment into a program to protect people, killing supervillains instead of being overwhelmed and letting them escape and if you think that three people are enough to keep a city safe then you might be mistaken." Samuel said as he smiled and the crowd make a few noises. Dustin was taken back; he didn't think he could respond to that.

"Well then good argument, but you don't have the votes. If we were to even manage to convince the mayor to put it on to a referendum, then even what this tiny portion would barely be enough votes to counter our supporters." Dustin said as he raised his arms and questioned the man. Smiling, Dustin seemingly figured that he had won but the man was still smiling.

"I don't know where you where you were for forty-five days, maybe getting high like the teens you are but the people have turned against you, and maybe enough people will raise up against the group that abandoned them and killed citizens on 9A and is unable to hold members to their program." Samuel said as Dustin realized that maybe the crowd was run over. Dustin backed up the crowd parting and booing at him. Dustin backed up as the people spat at him and seemingly New York was fractured.

"Let me remind you New York like Rome wasn't built in one day and it won't burn down in one day as well, so keep that in mind while I go find the person who is doing this so feel free to leave me alone while I attempt to do my job." Dustin said as he backed up and Samuel smiled, walking over and grabbing the manhole cover. Samuel rolled the cover over and Dustin grabbed it, waving goodbye as he ducked into the sewer and covered the hole.

Secretly under his face, Dustin was worried was he in the right, was everyone against him. And should he give up, should the Outsiders be restarted. He had somehow broken every rule in the Outsider handbook and maybe those rules were put in place for a reason. Dustin climbed down and landing on the ground, he found the sewer empty of oil.

Seemingly the sewer had cooled off in the time from the explosion and putting his hand on the wall, it was only a bit warped but most of it was still just a bit warped, the dirt keeping the pipes from being warped out of control. Dustin looked around, he was worried. Seemingly Dustin had found himself a rival to talk against and someone to fight against.

But he wondered was he in the right and did he had the right to do what he did, everything that he did and everything that he fought against. Everyone who died while he was fighting against a force, the soldiers underground and Octavius, everyone facing against him. He wondered if he was right.

Was he right, was he fight to fight. Dustin walked forward surprised at his thought, he wondered if the man was right, was he and his forces right. Did they have the right to send the dogs after his sent, and he wondered if he could do something. Could he write his way out of this, the people were looking up to him for what he needed and what he wanted.

Looking back he wondered if he had the right and if he could anything against the people coming to him. Could he write his way out of hell and could he make the people believe in him. Total strangers against him and total strangers with him would people come for him for his deliverance.

In the eye of a hurricane there is quiet for just a moment and would this be the way for him to protect his legacy. Would he be able to make do with what he had and be able to use the quiet and make it out? He wondered if he had the ability to do what he needed and what he wanted.

He wondered if that was what he needed, but for all in all this was the eye of the hurricane and he needed to do something. He felt worried, he felt worried, sick inside and he wondered if someone would strike him if someone would do something to him or his friends. He needed to keep himself floating.

He was the King of the Sharks and he needed to keep floating, floating was what he did and he didn't let himself to sink. People believed in him and he was allowed himself to be New York Bound. He defended himself in face of ignorance and resistance and know was the eye, this was quiet before anything happened.

He kept floated every day ever since his mother died in his arms, she died but he didn't. Dustin couldn't seem to die and he floated his way out and pushed him out and made himself believe in himself with Ronan and grew strong when he felt, he didn't let hell engulf him and he would fight to revolution and wouldn't let himself be drowned! He would survive!

But still he's barely able to save a fly, looking ahead seemingly the gas in the sewer started to condense and looking forward, seemingly a person appeared maybe it was his mind looking for something in the fog or maybe it was an illusion being presenting to him trying to discourage him from going forward. Two people appeared in the fog, both soldiers both with guns.

"Give up Outsider, you couldn't save us and you let us die under the Earth, we will never receive a proper burial thanks to you and you've done nothing." Ping said as Dustin walked forward the two soldiers floating forward, Dustin knew they were an illusion trying to trick him; someone was trying to make him go back and stop which meant he should continue forward. Dustin pushed forward at an impressive rate, walking forward as he tried to find the source of the fire from before.

"You know what I did and both of you should know that if we didn't arrive all three of you would have died far more painful and quicker deaths than if we had not arrived." Dustin said trying to ignore them as he walked forward, facing away from them and walking forward. He could feel the heat in the tunnel rising, someone was trying to keep him out.

Running forward Dustin looked and saw that the two soldiers were gone, running forward the tunnel started to burn. The temperature was increasing and increasing quicker and quicker. Dustin found himself sweating as he ran forward, someone was trying to keep him out and you know what Dustin wasn't going to take no for an answer, he kept pushing himself forward.

Even as it seemed that the entire tunnel was engulfing in flame, running forward everything seemed to be so mirage filled, and even as he ran forward; Dustin found himself pushed to keep going. And as he saw something in the distance Dustin knew he was nearly at the end and he was close, running ahead Dustin reached out trying to grab at anything and then his legs gave out.

Dustin landed on the hot and steamy metallic ground, his body taking a tumble as he landed with no idea on what was around him. He fell to the ground and seemingly did a tumble. Light shined all over the sewer and Dustin landed cheek down on the ground as he found himself stuck against the ground. Dustin took slow breaths as he tried to push himself forward.

The ground burned and Dustin reached forward trying to get to his relief but he found himself unable to do so. Clasping at the ground he found his skin steaming just as he touched the metal. And then seemingly again the fog of war appeared again and he was stuck unknown where he was and unknown on who he was and why he was doing anything.

"Look at you stuck on the ground, putting yourself into continuous danger day after day after day and think about how easy it would be for you to just give up right now and go home. You could turn back right now and no one would turn a second eye because no one knows who you are and you'd be free of this life and could do what you want."

Dustin grabbed at the land ahead and climbed forward as he tried to defy the voice in his head. Grabbing a just a tiny divot in the pipe he pulled himself forward and felt his arm burning. But looking at his arm, he found it wasn't set aflame or brunt it was normal and that continued to push Dustin forward. He scratched at the ground as he tried to pull himself forward and away from the voice.

"Give up your perception filter and return home, sell your apartment and return to your home, you know where I live and if you know that why haven't you returned home to your father?"

Dustin tried to ignore the voice, seeing the body of the just a blue shark in the corner, Dustin pushed himself forward. He found himself trying to put everything into avoiding the shark behind him. The shark behind him was a bigger asshole than Ronan currently was and was a bigger bully. Dustin wrote his own protection, he didn't need his father to protect him he could do it on his own.

As his fingers wiggled on the metallic ground, he felt something ahead. His body seemingly felt something, he could feel it in his hands maybe a hundred yards ahead it was something flowing. He could feel it wash over his body and he could feel it summoning him. He needed to get to it and he needed to find what it was.

"I'll show you old man I can do this on my own, I don't need your help to do anything, I have to be self-reliant." Dustin said as he wiggled his fingers, feeling the liquid seemingly bow to his touch and splash with his fingers movement. The shark smiled knowing that he might have worked through the worse of the heat.

Dustin knew it had to be water, but it seemed to have holes in it and grabbing at it, Dustin pulled it up raising his hand. The water splashed as he grabbed it and pulled it towards him. It splashed on the ground and instantly turned to steam but that wouldn't be a problem for long. Squeezing his hand Dustin condescend it onto the ground and pulled it towards him pushing against the forces of nature that told it to boil away at itself.

Dustin pulled the water towards him and looking at it pulled just a little, reaching out he pulled it into his mouth and swallowed. He felt invigorated by the water entering his mouth, he felt like he could anything he wanted. Dustin grabbed against the ground and shifted his body against the ground. The shark pushed himself up onto the ground and stood up, his body able to resist the heat and push forward.

"You can't keep me behind and you will be impressed with how far I've come on my own and how much I don't need you!" Dustin said as he wobbled forward, he needed to do this he needed to make it and survive. He looked down at his watch, he had a few messages, maybe from Elias or Colin but they were counting on him to do this, he needed to do this on his own.

Walking forward, he extended his hand and summoned the water, pulling it up into the air and splashing it onto the sewer ground as he slowly trudged forward through the heat. The water hit him, turning to steam around him but still cooling him off and letting him continue forward. He looked forward and summoned more water for himself.

Looking forward as the steam cleared he saw a waterway, and as he got closer slowly approaching it he saw water in it, water mixed with oil but still somewhat water. Grabbing it he splashed it on his body and looked across the way. It was a Neuroseeker base. Dustin splashed himself on more time before raising his hands.

Holding the water in the air, he condensed into ice forming an arched bridge as he walked across it. He could feel his grip failing as he walked across the bridge ready to give out under his grip. But he walked forward and as he walked into the Neuroseeker's base, the heat let up. Dustin took a breath, his skin closer to purple than blue and just took a breath.

Leaning against the cool brick wall, he took a breath as he realized that he had made it out of the worse part of it. He found a place where there was no heat and looking over to the other side of the bridge; he saw a shark standing there his father. And like that the fog cleared and so did his father. The shark giving a mini-salute as he seemingly blew away on the wind.

Dustin looked at his father and wondered if everything he saw was due to the fog or someone or if he imagined the people. Looking forward as he turned towards the base, he wondered how far uptown he was now. He wondered for a moment before the sound of a car hitting a manhole dragged his attention; he looked over and saw the exit route.

"Note to self-examine all manholes and make a map of sewers; might be useful in the future." Dustin said into his watch as he walked forward, looking at the base around him. And he was blown away. It was massive, a seemingly massive mini city under the city, large buildings seemingly like rock columns connecting the ground and ceiling.

It was a massive base; seemingly maybe it could hold a thousand people he could see from one end to the other end and for him, and for Dustin looked amazed at what he saw. Sanding up and looking around and looking at what surely had to be a feat of engineering. Somehow the Neuroseekers had removed the dirt that previously laid in this location and managed to support the massive football field like area.

"All of this without alerting us, how did they manage that?" Dustin said in disbelief, the brick against the wall was new. It seemed very knew and as the shark walked forward he realized that he was in the largest construction project in the city. It was all built, surely it had some sort of subway access and Dustin looked around as he examined the city.

Walking forward Dustin walked away from the massive brick arch and instead into the city. With the tiny brick buildings they seemed to be completely empty, no one inside them. Looking around Dustin wondered why the Neuroseekers would put all this effort into a building and not occupy it. Dustin looked around, there had to be some sort of life inside.

Walking forward, Dustin tried to exam the buildings. In the past the buildings were made out of some sort of adobe like material, which would work in the cool dry air of the sewer. Looking around Dustin put his hand on the building and it seemed to be completely made out of brick.

And then looking down the main street of the city Dustin saw something, it was a massive extension out of the way. It seemed to be a massive metal pipe, was that the source? Was that where all the oil came from? Dustin walked forward into some sort of main square, an empty fountain standing dry in the empty sewer.

"How the hell could they do this without us knowing?" Dustin asked himself as he walked through the city. Taking a turn he looked around, most of the windows in the buildings were opened, no reason to worry about rain in this place. Walking forward, Dustin tried to see what he could find.

Looking into the houses, he found bedrooms and living rooms, closer to a frat dorm than a family house; this had to be some sort of large scale lodging for the soldiers. There was no other way; this had to be a Neuroseeker project, only Ronan could manage all the resources that were required.

And then suddenly the Outsider heard the sound of a window being pulled open, that was funny it was like someone had a closed window, wait a second... Looking up towards the sound Dustin realized that he was being watched, a drag figure standing in the open window and trying to stealthy watch Dustin without being noticed, he was failing.

Quickly he realized that with this being the place the fire came from, it was most likely he was closest to the man who used the oil powers. Dustin looked up and waved at the man trying to get his attention. He heard the sound of a giggling from the window and knew he got the man's eyes on him.

"Come out, we can talk. We don't need to fight, our powers our similar. Maybe we could have a little talk and then spar against each other, no need to hold the city on threats when it is obvious you want to fight against me." Dustin said as he walked forward putting his arms forward and grabbing just a little bit of water from behind him, just a bit of back up.

And then suddenly, Dustin heard the sound of a pipe twisting. And then a liquid rushing, it wasn't water coming for him. Backing up, he found himself back in the city center. And looking back it confirmed to Dustin that whoever saw him must have been the one with oil controlling powers as the massive pipe in the back of the base opened up. Dustin knew that was, no it had to be the source of oil for the sewers. As it seemed =Dustin was in the room where it happens.

"Shit, quick escape!" Dustin yelled as turned and made a dash for the ladder in the front. Grabbing some water from the sewer and dragged it up to his body. It covered his body and his own shark body glowed as it turned into pure white ice. Dustin quickly ran for the ladder, jumping up with his lighter body and grabbing on close to the top bar. As he did, his body hanging off one end, Dustin pushed his other hand up and grabbed it. Getting a grip Dustin started to climb up into the streets.

As oil flooded by him on the floor, it quickly drained into the sewer way and Dustin thought he might be safe. He shouldn't have hesitated, quickly the oil started to rise at a breakneck pace and Dustin realized he was in the pits of the black lagoon. Dustin started to climb and as he looked back to the building, he saw the flame of a match burning.

"Shit!" Dustin yelled as he jumped up into the pothole cover and the lid off. Cars braked as he appeared, Dustin dodging them as he quickly grabbed the cover and threw it onto the sewer hole. Within a second a massive wall of fire erupted from the sewers and suddenly Dustin found his city engulfed in fire.

Above him the cars of the George Washington Bridge told him where he needed to be, this was going to be something that might destroy the bridge. Backing off Dustin backed off from the fire and screamed. Still the roar of the fire burned louder than his voice. Dustin walked backwards as in the orange glow engulfed a sense of panic among the citizens.

Cars drove out of the way and Dustin watched as cars crashed. The temperature was rising and the shark knew this wasn't something that a firefighter could put out with one truck. Looking towards the cover, seemingly fire started to spread, trees catching on fire and buildings standing in the middle as embers twisted towards them.

"Everyone away someone is coming!" Dustin yelled as he tried to get as many people out of the way. He needed a large source of water from somewhere quickly; looking around Dustin couldn't see anything as seemingly a layer of mirage was placed over the city.

What the shark felt in the tunnels was now simply out ranked by the heat of the city, Dustin covered his eyes as the massive plumes of fire engulfed the sky and seemingly burned as bright as the sky. Backing up Dustin wondered how long it would be until the other Outsiders joined him.

Looking as fire seemingly engulfed the city, Dustin backed up as his entire vision was obscured by a massive wall of fire. Backing up Dustin put his hand forward and formed a shield of ice. He wasn't worried so much about the fire but more for the people trapped.

Behind him, he saw an empty alley and tried to signal to people but found that the fire had engulfed them and now he was trapped and engulfed by fire. Dustin looked around as he rose up his shield, ice against fire, well unmeltable ice vs an unthinkable fire. Dustin looked around as he tried to see who was causing the fire.

"Come out, show yourself don't hide because I will find you!" Dustin yelled as suddenly the fire started to burn blue. A massive plume of blue fire rose out of the multiple sewers and looking around a shadow flew out. Dustin suddenly found himself knocked back, someone striked him with amazing speed.

Landing against the sidewalk, Dustin feel on his ass against the fence of a concrete step and looked forward. Dustin tried to stand up but he felt his body weaken, parts of his ice started to melt and he found his body in oblivion. Looking forward and he wished to see at least who was attacking.

"You're a fool aren't you, but you did figure out the Neuroseekers were doing this, so congratulations on figuring that out. But for you might wish otherwise, Ronan has grown tired of your games and now wishes you to be gone." The shadow in the flame said as he walked forward, grabbing his cape. Raising his fingers, swirls of fires flew above his body; seemingly he was controlling the burning rate of oil as well.

Dustin backed up as he tried to defend himself but he found himself out of places to go. He stood as the shadowed man smiled and smacked down his fist, a massive burst of flames flying towards Dustin's body.