No one is, in fact, around.

If it were dark, the wasteland that is the city would be glowing. As it is, it is merely uncomfortably warm, with ruins of what was once a sprawling metropolis larger than New York and no sign of Nature's normal process of reclaiming the land.

He flies around getting a sense of how far this extends.

It's over five hundred square miles of ruins or just uninhabitable land.

He conjures for people in the area just to make sure it actually is uninhabited.

No people in the area.

Okay.

A mile down should be deep enough.

He teleports out five hundred cubic miles of dirt and radioactive rubble and ruins. He adds the bedrock and dirt right back, up to the level where he'll do foundations of buildings.

And now he has to come up with what to put there. He feels like he can do better than putting back 1993's São Paulo but putting in an Elf city might be a bit obnoxious.

He can hear someone approaching in the distance.

...can he see them?

Yes. They're flying, and their suit is silver and white, with lots of bullets attached to them. The mask covers their jaw with smooth metal while the eyes are left uncovered and there is a helmet on their head.

Okay. He unfurls his wings and flies up to meet them.

"Who are you?" the cape asks in Portuguese. "What did you do here?"

"My name is Epic, and I used my powers to get rid of the radiation." It'll sound like he's speaking Portuguese too.

"And everything else, too," he says, gesturing at the now empty bedrock. "Why did you do it?"

"It seemed sad to have the whole area uninhabitable. I can make things, so I can put the rock and dirt back - and whatever we want on top, I was debating what to do -"

"Where are you from? I never heard of you before."

"Triggered in New York City."

"You're American? Is this an act of war?"

"I'm not American, I just happened to be there when Behemoth showed up. And I'm definitely not the American government, aren't wars between governments? And if you like it irradiated I can put it back."

"—this is way above my pay grade, kid, I was told someone had made a crater here and then I come back and it's not there. What are you gonna do?"

"Put a nice city there so people can live in it."

"...okay. Uh, the president might want to know about this."

"Okay. Should I come talk to him?"

"No one talks directly to him. I should take you to the New Parahumans Center."

"If no one talks to him, how do you know you're doing what he wants instead of whatever the messenger wants?"

"Well some people talk to him, and he makes announcements."