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Yesterday, this was an ordinary twenty-first century city. Today it's a war zone, tomorrow it'll be walled off and abandoned.
A few collapsed buildings, shattered streets, and assorted craters. The place is mostly empty, with scattered groups of mostly humanoid monsters roaming and trying to escape the guarded fence around the city. The most instantly noticeable change is an ongoing wordless singing in the back of the mind of anyone present. By itself it's just a sound. An unpleasant sound, and almost but not quite predictable as if someone were trying to attack the listener's sanity without saying anything, but possible to ignore. But along with it, any time a listener closes their eyes they get flashes of memories. Not their worst memories, but whatever negative ones can stick with them unforgettably. It builds up associations between the feelings in those images and almost anything else. Sometimes there's a recognizable common thread and other times there isn't.
An angel fights off teams of opponents. She's fifteen feet tall, extremely winged, with more wings than is strictly necessary for an angel. Even some of her wings have wings. All of them are asymmetric and varyingly sized. A spherical halo of weaponry surrounds her, firing at her more distant enemies from across the battlefield. Her opponents cycle in and out: a golden man, a man surrounded by a bubble, a woman in a dark costume, all flying. Others make certain to stay away after taking their turn, on rare occasions spending too long hearing the angel's music. Those ones voluntarily self-destruct.
A small group of ordinary humans takes refuge in a house as far from the battle as they can reach. The song is quieter here, and, they hope, less potent. Some of them run away from and back to the house, occasionally calling for help. They haven't found any.
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whole_new_can
whole_new_can
Eidolon does the same. The flood, not the clothes or the repairs. He's getting rid of it in a wider area but less quickly. He nods.
"Only those of us who are immune go to every Simurgh fight. Who can participate is typically strictly controlled; if all had gone according to plan you might not have been allowed to come to Madison at all. No offense."
"Only those of us who are immune go to every Simurgh fight. Who can participate is typically strictly controlled; if all had gone according to plan you might not have been allowed to come to Madison at all. No offense."
ertia
"No, that makes perfect sense. I can teleport now, so it's probably worth a very brief check to see if I've developed immunity by next time she shows up, but I don't have any need to listen to more of her."
whole_new_can
"With good reason."
He swallows, and then decides he does need to ask. "When we were fighting Leviathan, you made my powers stronger. Do you think you could do that permanently?"
He swallows, and then decides he does need to ask. "When we were fighting Leviathan, you made my powers stronger. Do you think you could do that permanently?"
ertia
"Maybe. I assume you could tell if it was working or not, which is my usual problem with things I can't look at?"
ertia
"Do you have anything more specific in mind than 'make you stronger'? That might help," Kithabel adds. "Also who are you, I'd feel really stupid if you were someone I did not want to make stronger outside of Endbringer fights." She produces her magic internet doohickey.
whole_new_can
He laughs at the belated caution, then remembers he's famous. "I'm Eidolon."
"I can be more specific, but it would involve entrusting you with a secret. One that could demoralize a lot of people."
"I can be more specific, but it would involve entrusting you with a secret. One that could demoralize a lot of people."
ertia
Kithabel looks him up on her doohickey. "I can try it without, but knowing what I'm doing lets me, you know, aim. It's not like I have a lot of social life to absorb secrets from me, though." She looks up at the lingering clouds and banishes them.
whole_new_can
"Whatever improbably deep well we tap into to fuel our powers, I suspect mine is running dry. Abilities taking longer to charge, being less effective when they do, and some of the more powerful ones simply being unavailable. What I need is some way to refill it, before the Endbringers win this war.
I'm less than entirely sure you should do it if you can. You might face the same problem one day, and for all I know refilling my well might accelerate the drain on yours."
I'm less than entirely sure you should do it if you can. You might face the same problem one day, and for all I know refilling my well might accelerate the drain on yours."
ertia
"I don't think that's how I work," she says, skimming his wiki page and repairing some abandoned cars and a busted Dragon suit which picks up confusedly and flies away upon reassembly. "If you don't want me to try I won't, though." What a promising wiki page. Seems to be a stand-up guy.
whole_new_can
It would say that, wouldn't it.
"Oh, I very much want you to. Especially if you're not worried about draining your reserves. How do you know? Most capes never use enough for the difference to be noticeable, and I went for years."
"Oh, I very much want you to. Especially if you're not worried about draining your reserves. How do you know? Most capes never use enough for the difference to be noticeable, and I went for years."
ertia
"I'm accelerating. I couldn't teleport before today; if I don't slow down I can expect to keep it with increasing range. For instance. I've been working for years, I just used to be small-time, building up by rescuing burned cookies and changing the coat of paint on my bedroom."
whole_new_can
"Powers can get more effective, but not like that. That's unlike any I've heard of.
If you think you can refill my supply of whatever it is, or give me permanent access to the reserves I can sometimes almost reach, we'll be able to beat back the next one of these monsters that much sooner."
If you think you can refill my supply of whatever it is, or give me permanent access to the reserves I can sometimes almost reach, we'll be able to beat back the next one of these monsters that much sooner."
ertia
"All right, I'll give it a shot."
She pauses. She looks at Eidolon. Working on people in unpracticed ways is a little tricky; he might not like the mindset she has to adopt if she knew about it. This is her person. He is her accessory to achieve more in the world. Things that belong to her must be as effective as possible. How dare his energy reserves threaten to run out. Don't they know who's in charge here?
She pauses. She looks at Eidolon. Working on people in unpracticed ways is a little tricky; he might not like the mindset she has to adopt if she knew about it. This is her person. He is her accessory to achieve more in the world. Things that belong to her must be as effective as possible. How dare his energy reserves threaten to run out. Don't they know who's in charge here?
whole_new_can
Eidolon is completely unaware of the mindset involved.
He switches out one of his powers for another, looking for something with more sheer potential than he's been able to find lately. A power snaps into place, starts scaling up more quickly than even the smaller-scale ones like what he's using for the flood.
And then nothing. Back to normal.
"Didn't work. Almost did, and then it stopped."
He switches out one of his powers for another, looking for something with more sheer potential than he's been able to find lately. A power snaps into place, starts scaling up more quickly than even the smaller-scale ones like what he's using for the flood.
And then nothing. Back to normal.
"Didn't work. Almost did, and then it stopped."
ertia
"Sorry. I can try again when I have more momentum. Here, have a bead, talking to it talks to me and you can call me in if you need the short-term boost between Endbringers." She gives him a bead. She replaces half the cobblestones in a random alleyway with attractive marble flagstones. She clears the water out of a random grocery store, this time by telekinetically flinging it into a sunbeam and making a rainbow.
ertia
Kithabel doesn't stay in Athens long enough to fix all the flood damage; she wants to do something completely unrelated after working for a couple hours on it. Athens gets an attractive giant tree a ways inland with a variety of fruit she used to like back home. She then zooms back across the Atlantic with a combination of teleportation and flight, pausing several times to affect the weather, turn schools of fish interesting colors, add plants to an empty spur of rock in the middle of nowhere, visit a passing boat and spruce it up, and travel underwater for one hundred miles, resubstantializing herself to try breathing underwater. It works fine, although she doesn't like the way the ocean smells.
She pops up over her usual haunt and consults her task list. Back to work.
She pops up over her usual haunt and consults her task list. Back to work.
wormcan
Her reputation around the Northeast essentially has her as a second Scion—constantly heroing, probably won't intervene with any specific problem but there are very few things she can't do. Her now permanent team of PAs is probably one of the more powerful groups in the country by proxy. The cities she started in do not run out of possible improvements, but do get proportionately less terrible, more functional, and even better-looking the more time she spends in each. She infrequently runs into capes doing cape things, of course, but she's basically Scion in that context too. Villains fall before her like butter around a hot knife. By the next year and a half, Boston and Brockton Bay are barely recognizable. Kithabel is being deployed further afield more and more often, with her increasing momentum making that almost trivial.
Endbringers continue attacking every few months. Not all of the battles are as successful as the defense at Athens. If Kithabel tracks how much effect she has when trying to damage the monsters directly she'll see it slowly increase, but they stay unkillable. She does at least do more than anyone to prevent and cure injuries, and clean up afterward. (With the exception of the original Scion, of course. Kithabel can change the course of a fight, he can end it.)
And she gets steadily more powerful.
Endbringers continue attacking every few months. Not all of the battles are as successful as the defense at Athens. If Kithabel tracks how much effect she has when trying to damage the monsters directly she'll see it slowly increase, but they stay unkillable. She does at least do more than anyone to prevent and cure injuries, and clean up afterward. (With the exception of the original Scion, of course. Kithabel can change the course of a fight, he can end it.)
And she gets steadily more powerful.
ertia
She's considering staying even if she ever does get the hang of interdimensional transit. Which she does not yet have. This place needs her more than home does, parents aside.
She tries boosting Eidolon again at each Endbringer fight. It never sticks. She's not sure why. She can at least sustain an assist whenever they're in the same place at the same time and she doesn't need to break off to do something else, but it takes concentration unlike states along the lines of 'in midair' and 'insubstantial'.
Since her ability to make holes in Endbringers is so persistently underwhelming and her brief visits to Simurgh fights indicate that she is no more immune to the song than she was when she landed she focuses on force-multiplying: she can immunize people against Behemoth's kill aura, she can grant water breathing and decent immunity to blunt force trauma when Leviathan makes waves. More people can dare get close.
And between combats she has her projects. Between teleporting and flying she can now cross her favored continent in under an hour (if she doesn't stop, which she usually does); she'll happily do things in thirty different states in a week. Periodically she notifies her PAs that she can now do X, and her tasks should scale up accordingly, please and thank you.
One day after Leviathan has been chased out of Singapore, Kithabel asks Eidolon what exactly is stopping him from finding a self-boosting power and using that, since it's probably not the same thing that's stopping her.
She tries boosting Eidolon again at each Endbringer fight. It never sticks. She's not sure why. She can at least sustain an assist whenever they're in the same place at the same time and she doesn't need to break off to do something else, but it takes concentration unlike states along the lines of 'in midair' and 'insubstantial'.
Since her ability to make holes in Endbringers is so persistently underwhelming and her brief visits to Simurgh fights indicate that she is no more immune to the song than she was when she landed she focuses on force-multiplying: she can immunize people against Behemoth's kill aura, she can grant water breathing and decent immunity to blunt force trauma when Leviathan makes waves. More people can dare get close.
And between combats she has her projects. Between teleporting and flying she can now cross her favored continent in under an hour (if she doesn't stop, which she usually does); she'll happily do things in thirty different states in a week. Periodically she notifies her PAs that she can now do X, and her tasks should scale up accordingly, please and thank you.
One day after Leviathan has been chased out of Singapore, Kithabel asks Eidolon what exactly is stopping him from finding a self-boosting power and using that, since it's probably not the same thing that's stopping her.
wormcan
Eidolon ums for a bit and says something about how he has only general control over what he gets. Then he goes home and tries it, and after a dozen or so attempts his power eventually cooperates. Draining other parahumans once in a while isn't quite ideal, but there are plenty of capes to be found who could do with being a bit weaker. Feeling stupid about this is worth it.
Kithabel's tasks scale up along with her abilities. Certainly unusual, but if anyone suspects that she's not a parahuman, they're not talking.
Ordinary capes hardly count as combat, but on a visit back to Brockton Bay she notices a cloud of darkness that she didn't give permission to be there. It's rapidly expanding southward in a rough line from the Trainyard, and can't really be anything other than a cape.
Kithabel's tasks scale up along with her abilities. Certainly unusual, but if anyone suspects that she's not a parahuman, they're not talking.
Ordinary capes hardly count as combat, but on a visit back to Brockton Bay she notices a cloud of darkness that she didn't give permission to be there. It's rapidly expanding southward in a rough line from the Trainyard, and can't really be anything other than a cape.
wormcan
There is one. His name is Grue. He and his team are mostly the kind of villains that go out of their way to avoid hurting people, but they're also not-so-secretly trying to take control of the city's criminal world.
ertia
Hm. Maybe worth investigating. Can she just see through the dark? It'd have to be really special dark to keep her out.
wormcan
It is really special dark, but sorcery is also pretty special.
The first thing she sees are the enormous monsters of muscle and bone. Grue is riding one, a smaller person who is presumably a teammate also hanging on to a bone spur jutting out from its spine, and a third human is riding the other. The next most obvious thing is the repeated explosions appearing around the monsters. It's not them doing it; there's a fourth cape in pursuit. Her costume includes everything from blades to skulls. Grue is ineffectually trying to fight her off while also leaving enough gaps in the clouds for the monsters to see. Both teammates are injured and getting worse.
The first thing she sees are the enormous monsters of muscle and bone. Grue is riding one, a smaller person who is presumably a teammate also hanging on to a bone spur jutting out from its spine, and a third human is riding the other. The next most obvious thing is the repeated explosions appearing around the monsters. It's not them doing it; there's a fourth cape in pursuit. Her costume includes everything from blades to skulls. Grue is ineffectually trying to fight her off while also leaving enough gaps in the clouds for the monsters to see. Both teammates are injured and getting worse.