The beach had turned into a strange mix of party and panic.
Music still pumped from a few villas farther down the shore, but most people had already drifted toward the water's edge, phones up, filming the crazy light-show in the sky. Every few seconds a new *BOOM* rolled over them like thunder, and the wind kept kicking up sand hard enough to sting bare legs.
A man in flip-flops and an open beach shirt came sprinting across the sand, waving his arms like a madman.
"Hey! Did you guys hear?!" he shouted, out of breath. "Vigilante Zero is fighting some actual alien up there!"
Half the crowd turned toward him, eyes wide. The other half never looked away from the sky.
One guy near a cooler of beers wiped salt water from his face. "So those shockwaves we've been feeling all night… that's them?"
"Yeah!" the runner panted, bending over, hands on his knees. "It's insane! We need to get out of here before it's too late!"
