Gods Aren't Perfect - OFFICIAL

Chapter Nine: A Natural Disaster (referring to the gods, of course)

Meanwhile, in the Ruins of Techno City, the other six deities weren't faring so well. In fact, they were under attack by a bunch of morons who were probably on Team Chaos and thought being edgy was a personality trait.

Rosa ducked under a shuriken speeding over her head, retaliating with a flaming bolt of lightning. Koumei used his enhanced jumps to escape from a second attacker, dodging knives and other blades - and trying not to cringe from the crash of electricity all around him. Eventually, he gave up and hid behind a signpost. While the Wind God stayed in relative safety, his twelve-year-old Ice friend covered him with several ice bursts, sometimes spinning about to create vision-obscuring snowfall. Long story short, it wasn't very effective.

Fed up with everything, Calandra summoned her magical bullets and directed them to trap the attackers, then lifted them up and yeeted them far, far away. They weren't done, though. The Fire Goddess soon warned the others of their predicament - her lightning felt stronger, and June echoed the same. The freak storm would be hitting soon, and they weren't any closer to finding a way out.

"I don't know," Inferno replied when they asked him. "I really have no idea. The other group got out, and you're stuck inside. And nobody who lives in the ruins lets any information sneak out. At all. Believe me, I've tried everything."

After a long fight, Tronso gave up and dropped to one knee. Everything seemed tiring to him these times. Perhaps it was the wound on his arm coupled with all the stress and ice magic he had been firing? Nah it was probably the irritating dance music in the background- wait what.

"Is that pop I hear?" June asked. Eleanor nodded from behind Rosa.

Sure enough, a nearby building contained what appeared to be a sick dance party, except there were about ten people there and most of them were in horrible shape. And by horrible shape I mean some of them were wearing shirts advocating for a campaign about how cats were superior to dogs. In other words, the horror was far too much. Anyway, in the midst of the ruins of the mad city, there was a single mad dance party.

Koumei walked over, fan in hand and wind birds disappearing. He watched the dancing for several long seconds, then shook his head and walked over to the snacks table. A few sad bits of dried instant noodle sat there, and literally nothing more, so he got the heck away from the probably way-past-its-expiry-date food before he caught a disease or something. (As a matter of fact, the food had been expired for about 20 weeks at this point.)

"This is the first and saddest dance I've ever been to," Calandra stated. "They don't even have any good music. Seriously, who picked 'Friday'? It's not even Friday!"

Tronso shrugged, staying away from the food as well. His cut left him in a not-so-good position, so he kept to himself for now. After having run from the evil expired snacks, Koumei had disappeared again, probably hiding in the ceiling somehow or something. June stood nearby, his silver chopstick at the ready in case a scuffle broke out. Unlike the others, however, Rosa walked up to the strangers with both her daggers out.

"Who are you?" the first stranger asked. They, of course, were in the edgiest getup possible, with black leather jackets, spikes everywhere, fishnets on every limb (with fish attached too) and tattoos of poems about how much they loved their mothers. When they weren't looking, Eleanor stole several entire fish, enough to last another day with three meals.

"Who are you?" the Fire Goddess hissed at the group.

"It doesn't matter. You heard of the freak storm?" a second asked. "After it comes, we're all gonna die."

There was a long silence before Calandra spoke up. "Well that's depressing."

"Yeah, no," a second person chimed in. "It comes every year and we're still not dead yet."