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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
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imeanforever
wormcan
"Good. I'll go see about getting a harmonic flattener in a state to levitate for weeks."
wormcan
"If this works, we'll have been more effective than any other heroes ever were."
He leaves to assemble the machine.
He leaves to assemble the machine.
imeanforever
Excellent. Promise likes being effective.
She studies her notes on the location of the black hole into which she hopes to drop an Endbringer, and then goes home to sleep, and then comes back and updates her photo blog.
She studies her notes on the location of the black hole into which she hopes to drop an Endbringer, and then goes home to sleep, and then comes back and updates her photo blog.
wormcan
Shortly after she returns, Aegis stops by. He's a cape in a rust-colored costume with a predictable shield emblem, his face obscured by the matching helmet. Like most of the local Wards, he has met Promise before back while she was trapped in their building.
"Hi, Promise. I heard you had a way to kill an Endbringer."
"Hi, Promise. I heard you had a way to kill an Endbringer."
imeanforever
"That might be optimistic. I will have to do seven things very quickly, presumably while an Endbringer tries to reduce me to an unconscious smear on the nearest hard surface, and it's also possible that Endbringers are sufficiently immortal not to actually die if placed near a black hole. ...It's also possible on reflection that it won't work on the Simurgh at all even if everything goes according to plan, since she can fly and could just stay in her gate box indefinitely instead of going through any of the gates. But as plans to neutralize Endbringers go it seems fairly easy to try."
wormcan
"A way to kill one is the story that's going around. They react when we fight them, and if this works it's way beyond almost anything anyone can hit them with. It's just a chance, but it's a chance that might actually work."
wormcan
"Yes. And I'm hardly going to say no, not for this." He's holding a harmonic flattener, mounted on what is presumably the flying machine. "You ready to go?"
imeanforever
"Yes. Do you want to fly directly up for several miles or wait for a new gate to settle?"
wormcan
"If you had a place in mind other than up, I don't exactly have Fairyland geography preferences."
imeanforever
"I want to put it over the uninhabited ocean of liquid salt, as opposed to anywhere that would be especially inconvenient to have an Endbringer drop on. One of the gatepairs is already over that ocean."
To the nearest gatepair.
To the nearest gatepair.
wormcan
And through however many pairs it takes to get to the ocean of salt. And then up.
imeanforever
Indeed up.
"Once I can't fly any higher we'll want to go about a mile up from there - some fairies can probably manage thinner air than I can."
"Once I can't fly any higher we'll want to go about a mile up from there - some fairies can probably manage thinner air than I can."
wormcan
Aegis nods. "Just say when. I might not be able to talk soon, once the air thins out too much to breathe."
imeanforever
"Me either. I'll write with fairylights in the air if necessary."
Up up up up up.
Up up up up up.
wormcan
Eventually he'll have to start carrying her, and will continue doing that until she signals that they're high enough to avoid risk of other fairies stumbling across it.
As a side effect, "high enough" also means the single best view any human being has ever experienced. Aegis manages to snap a photo.
As a side effect, "high enough" also means the single best view any human being has ever experienced. Aegis manages to snap a photo.
imeanforever
She goes high enough to have noticeable trouble breathing. This shouldn't take long enough for the trouble to add up to a fainting spell.
I have a blog for fairyland photos, Promise writes in the air.
Flattener: hover. Flatten.
Gate:
... gate?
Gate, dammit.
I don't seem to be able to make a gate to the spot above the black hole. I'm not sure why.
I have a blog for fairyland photos, Promise writes in the air.
Flattener: hover. Flatten.
Gate:
... gate?
Gate, dammit.
I don't seem to be able to make a gate to the spot above the black hole. I'm not sure why.
wormcan
Aegis has around one lungful of air left over from when he breathed, and this doesn't seem especially worth spending it on.
He takes out his phone again and types one-handed until it says "higher above?"
He takes out his phone again and types one-handed until it says "higher above?"
imeanforever
I'll try that, but if it doesn't work I want to go consult with Armsmaster again.
Gaaaaaaaate?
Gaaaaaaaate?
wormcan
Well, it doesn't fail in any immediately detectable way. Doesn't settle right away either, though.
imeanforever
So that's the floor gate. It occurs to Promise that she can use larger, fewer gates, in a sort of pyramid shape - she makes the other three.
That worked, or if it didn't it's at least less obviously failing. We can go back to check on them again later to be sure.
That worked, or if it didn't it's at least less obviously failing. We can go back to check on them again later to be sure.
wormcan
Aegis nods, and starts descending. But not before leaving the flattener to hover right below the floor gate.