The Innkeeper

Lex waited, but Mary did not respond. It did not matter. Soon, many questions would be answered. He realized that one of the things holding him back was his mistrust of the system. He did not trust something that basically controlled or affected his entire life! There was no way that was going to have a positive outcome. Fortunately, he had thought of a way to deal with this issue.

He put the thought out of his mind and began to stroll through the Inn one last time before it was all destroyed. He didn't know why the destruction of it was necessary, but as long as nobody was hurt he could overcome it.

In the air, several meteors struck the flying ship, but as a property of the Inn, the ship too was under protection, and so it suffered no harm. It probably had a killer view though. It was unfortunate that he could not teleport to it at the moment, but that was fine.

A dove flew to Lex and sat on its shoulder, and firmly pressed itself against the side of his face, tucking itself under his ear. It was trembling, and even though there was no threat to it, he could not explain that to the bird, so all he could do was let it sit as he walked around.

In the distance, Lex saw the idiot Fenrir riding the shockwaves through the air as if it was surfing, and Little Blue was frantically trying to catch up. At least someone was having fun.

He could see, in the distance, near the Midnight manor, dozens of guests had gathered in a small crowd and were huddled together. They looked frightened and panicked. Chances were they would leave the Inn and never come back after this was over, but Lex firmly believed that they would come around. After all, this was just the beginning.

What was most interesting was that, due to the security provided, the Mountain-man was sleeping through this disaster, as if he really were nothing more than just a mountain.

The Sky Lanterns, though unharmed, fell to the ground making the Inn feel very incomplete without them.

Main street was a complete mess. The buildings remained untouched and yet there was fire everywhere, filling the air with black, corrosive smoke.

A particularly big meteor fell, and this time instead of a bright, golden flame, the fire was green. It fell on the other side of the Midnight mountain, so he could only hear the devastation, and feel some of the tremors. He missed the big impact.

Lex wondered if he could possibly take a sample of the fire. He had done the same with the flame during his test in the temple, and then given it to Luthor since he could absorb different flames. He didn't know if Luthor had successfully absorbed it, or if he even liked it. But collecting different kinds of flames would be useful.

There was also an Inn worker who could control lightning. He'd heard from Velma that Z had a big crush on her. He wondered if she could absorb lightning too. Lex decided to gather some just in case.

When one could easily ignore the effects of destruction, and time did not seem to rush by in a desperate bid for survival, they would realize how slow the devastation actually was. It was taking forever for the fire to spread across the Inn. But then again, maybe that was because practically everything burnable in the Inn was protected by an isolation barrier.

Lex noticed that one meteor was heading towards him. Instead of moving out of the way, he just watched it descend. It did not crash directly onto him, but it was close enough where he was affected by the shockwave.

It did not hit him like a hammer, or even make him uncomfortable in the slightest. It did, however, launch his body through the air as Lex had made no preparations to resist its force. Like a shooting star, baby Lex was launched through the sky over an ever expanding sea of golden flames.

The warm wind on his face actually felt pleasant. He had to give it to Fenrir, this wasn't such a bad idea.

Just as Lex was enjoying the ride, he saw a figure rushing towards him in a hurry through the air.

It was an elf, and she looked absolutely horrified as she reached out and grabbed Lex's flying body.

"Oh my goodness, who lost their baby?" she exclaimed in horror as she hugged him tightly, looking around for a similarly flying parent somewhere.

"Actually, I'm on my own," Lex quickly clarified. "I was just enjoying being slung across the air by the meteor impacts. It's… it's actually quite fun."

The elf was startled by the baby suddenly speaking, and then she looked at him with pity.

"Did the scary situation give you brain damage? Poor child. It's going to be okay, I'll take care of you till we find your parents."

Lex facepalmed. How was he going to explain to this woman what he was doing?

Just as he was considering a decent explanation, he suddenly had a stupid idea.

"Okay, just follow me. I'll show you," said Lex as they finally descended on a nearby hill. There was a group of guests huddled together on a hill right beside, who were all staring at them. Lex waved at them, before grabbing the elf's hand and pulling her along towards another falling meteor. The benefits of being stronger than he looked allowed him to succeed before she could resist.

"Just relax," Lex said to the horrified elf. The meteor, much larger than the previous one, crashed. The impact was greater, and the shockwave fiercer, which meant that they were launched even faster and farther than the previous time.

Lex could not help but laugh. This was actually quite fun, and it gave him an incredible view. The elf initially screamed, but was actually startled when she realized that she was completely unharmed! Then she looked around and was mesmerized. It was like she was witnessing a painting unfolding in real life. Never before had such utter destruction looked so beautiful. Lex's laughter was infectious, and soon the elf began laughing as well. The relief of surviving, and the euphoria of such an unexpected yet wonderful ride flooded her.

The sounds of their laughter echoed in the surrounding lands, reaching the crowd of guests who had huddled on the nearby hill. At first they were horrified. But then, they were intrigued. When their initial fear was reduced, ever so slightly, they remembered the words of the Innkeeper. They were absolutely safe. Some of their trust in the Midnight Inn was beginning to return. A particularly daring group broke off from the crowd, and made their way to a falling meteor. It was difficult to control the direction they flew in, and harder to stay together unless they were holding hands.

As a result, soon, a number of guests could be seen flying through the air, filled with excitement as they tried to yell out to their friends.

From up above, a hatch in the massive spaceship opened, and a number of guests and Inn workers began to glide through the air, astride flying peacocks.

The mood was infectious. Even without communicating, the idea of flying through the air spread, and soon the number of flying guests increased.

What was most interesting to see was that some guests, who were deep in meditation, had a sound insulating barrier around them as well. So when their abodes were struck by meteors, they too were launched through the air, still in their meditation pose, completely unaware of what was happening.

The spirits, who could not join in the fun, began to fly through the air anyway. They were being hit by severe FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

In just half an hour, the feelings of horror and fear were completely gone, and instead a game of extreme air tag had begun between all the guests as they tried to control the direction they were launched in, and tried to reunite with their friends.

At some point, Lex finally came across Fenrir, and decided to sit upon its back. The pup was absolutely filled with joy as its entire home had turned into a massive playground. But its excited expression paused for just a moment as it had a strange thought as it looked at the sea of flames beneath it.

"If the heat given off by a meteor of 50 feet in diameter is uniform, and it is around 10,000 degrees celsius at the moment of impact, one could cook 1,129,200 marshmallows per meteor."

The thought was strange and intrusive, and it did not know why it had that thought, especially since all the meteors were off different sizes, and the heat distribution could never be uniform. Perhaps it was just hungry.

It pushed away those thoughts and focused on enjoying itself. Then immediately it turned its head in a certain direction and looked into the distance. Someone really was roasting marshmallows over there!