Just as Dean’s head went underwater the microwave started to spark and catch fire. The cloud of gas caught fire with a powerful whoomph. The door to the bathroom door was blown off it hinges as every window was blown out by the gas explosion.

Dean felt an explosion hit before he heard the explosion. Even underwater it was loud enough to make Dean’s ears ring like he had tinnitus. The water rocked violently in the tub slamming Dean and Aggie around as the water sloshed out of the tub.

Aggie forced his way free of Dean as spluttered and coughed from suddenly having Dean hold him under in cat form. His fur was wet and bedraggled as the broken shower head poured water over them. Dean came out of the water opening and closing his mouth trying to get his ears to pop and stop the ringing. A bestial scream coming from the elevator. The crackling of fire creating a staccato rhythm accompanying the scream.

“WHAT DID YOU DO,” Aggie screamed at Dean to heard over the death wails.

Dean stared at what was left of the door frame ignoring Aggie’s question. Surprised at how much damage the gas explosion caused he felt lucky that he wasn’t caught up in it. Slowly climbing out of the tub he checked over his body for any injuries. Looking down at Aggie he couldn’t even laugh at the appearance of a drowned cat from the amount of panic he was going through.

Aggie looked up at Dean seeing his eyes wide open and round. His pupils dilated and breathing quickly Aggie realized that Dean would be no help without taking his mind off of the explosion.

“Dean, I need you to take a deep breath and focus on your meditative training on controlling your emotions,” Aggie said calmly. “Sit down and focus on your training.”

Dean leaned against the wall sliding into a sitting position as he closed his eyes. Like a man in a trance, he followed Aggie’s directions as he had done before countless times. The nails in his pocket lit up in his mind eye with a calming light. His erratic heartbeat slowing down as he started taking slow even breaths. Gaining the ability to think again Dean felt himself shivering uncontrollably. The aftereffect of his system being drained of magic, adrenaline, and coming so close to death.

Dean slowly opened his eyes to look back at Aggie and said, “Thanks for that.”

Aggie sat there staring at Dean wanting to tell him how impressed he was with how quickly he pulled himself together. Dean barely had any training and skill with focusing his powers inward but somehow had managed to do it. He managed to force his will upon his body, not letting his biologic responses control him. In Aggie’s opinion, this was a major step in becoming a fully fledged wizard.

But instead, he said, “I will be expecting a nice tuna steak dinner as repayment.”

Dean couldn’t help but laugh a little at Aggie's predictable statement replying with, “Got it.”

The smoke began to build creating a haze in the air. Dean slowly began to stand back up after gathering himself when hidden sprinklers went off. The fire diminished Dean popped his head out of the bathroom to see if they had any more surprises.

The lower half of the Spirit's charred remains hung out of the destroyed elevator. Having survived the blast it must have severely injured and attempted to crawl back through the portal. Dark greasy smears trailing from behind it. Once halfway through, the portal must have stopped working, cleanly bisecting the spirit. Dean stared at the remains of the first thing he ever killed. His panic rising he began his breathing exercises again as he turned to Aggie.

“What happened to the portal?” Dean asked a little unsure of why it was gone.

“The water from sprinkler washed away magic,” Aggie began, “as it put out the fire. But the fire possibly weakened it. Either way, the water and fire should obfuscate any traces of your magic and me.”

“Why do you say that?” Dean asked a little worried.

“You probably pissed off all of the Northwest Fays by lighting a Spirit of the Forest on fire,” Aggie stated. “It probably doesn’t help you destroyed a very expensive magical construct also,” he continued as he looked around at the damage.

“What are we going to do about this?” Dean whined to Aggie.

“What you did is your problem, not mine,” Aggie stated matter of fact. “As for mitigating this situation, we need to find out whatever happened to Nameless and hopefully use that to help with peace talks.”

“What about what Dorios wants,” Dean asked thinking about who asked them to investigate this.

“We find out who to Nameless and give them to him,” Aggie said. “Now get the hand from the tub we need to figure a way out of here before anybody else shows up.”

Looking into the tub Dean went to retrieve the hand. Seeing it jammed unceremoniously into the drain he gagged a little thinking of the bit of water he swallowed when he jumped into the tub. Pulling it out he held it daintily by its thumb unsure of how to store it.

“Quit being a sissy and wrap it in your coat,” Aggie admonished Dean.

Following Aggie’s orders as he followed him out of the bathroom. Getting a better view of the aftereffects of Dean’s plan proved the efficiency of his plan. The fire was out in the kitchen the natural gas thankfully off from fail safes. The stove was blown clear through the room smashing into the wall close to the elevator. Slivers of light coming through from the smashed wall.

Aggie saw it first and ran to it with Dean following closely from behind. Dean began breaking chunks of the wall free giving Aggie enough room to squeeze through.

"There is a fire escape not far from here," Aggie called from the other side of the wall.

Dean proceeded with smashing a hole into the wall large enough for him to crawl through. Dean climbed through the hole covered in drywall dust that was slowly turning into a paste.

Aggie was already to the fire door watching as Dean jogged to it leaving a clear trail to how they escaped.

"We need to burn your clothes as soon as we get home," Aggie said. "And you need to shower too."

"OK, but why," Dean asked.

"The Fay have powerful divination spells and their ability to track," Aggie told him.

"What about our car," Dean asked.

"We need to get rid of it," Aggie said as Dean pushed open the heavy metal door.

Running down the stairs Dean realized his phone was still in his pocket. Pulling it out he checked to see if it still worked. The screen flashed for the briefest of seconds before going black.

As they continued down the fire escape they started hearing other floors starting to use the exit. The sound of people excitedly talking about what was happening echoed loudly.

Aggie bumped his body into Dean's leg and murmured, "try to blend in," as the crowd of escapees surrounded them.