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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
wormcan
"Panacea cures all. Keeping someone awake should be strictly easier. She can't do brains, so you'd still have to rest occasionally. Based on the treatment you managed here, yes, you could do much more in a hospital than she typically manages."
This is one of those people who gets more powerful. At least she has to earn it in some sense.
This is one of those people who gets more powerful. At least she has to earn it in some sense.
ertia
"Okay. How far away is she and is there anything to do between here and there?"
wormcan
"About a thousand miles east. There's transport available, but not much call for using powers while on one."
ertia
"Anybody want to accompany me so I'm not just carrying myself, and maybe point out useful stops?"
wormcan
"I'll ask my team."
Some of them accept. They introduce themselves as Velocity and Triumph.
Some of them accept. They introduce themselves as Velocity and Triumph.
ertia
And without further ado Kithabel scoops them both up in sorcery and whisks them east. On the way, she replaces a misplaced Great Lake, refills a mine, calms an overexcited thunderstorm, decontaminates a location identified for her as having a lot of radiation in it, and shamelessly defaces a boring-looking mountain until it's much prettier and has nice veins of crystal running through it.
She (doesn't quite) land in Brockton Bay where her passengers direct. And fixes a pothole. "Can one of you introduce me to Panacea?"
She (doesn't quite) land in Brockton Bay where her passengers direct. And fixes a pothole. "Can one of you introduce me to Panacea?"
wormcan
Triumph has already called Panacea, toward the end of the five-hour flight. (Velocity did most of the asking about how this weird power works, along with less relevant regular conversation that he probably isn't reporting back to Armsmaster on.)
The first thing Panacea notices is the lack of mask. "No secret identity? Hi, I'm Amy."
The first thing Panacea notices is the lack of mask. "No secret identity? Hi, I'm Amy."
ertia
"No secret identity. I'm always working." (Kithabel was not without attention to the way Velocity asked questions.) "I'm Kithabel. Speaking of me always working, rumor has it you might be able to help me not sleep. I cannot overstate how valuable that would be."
wormcan
"You're always working, and you want to be always working more?
I can help a bit, I can keep you going indefinitely physically, but you'd still get less attentive and alert at the usual rate.
If that'd help, Triumph mentioned clearing out hospital rooms in exchange?"
I can help a bit, I can keep you going indefinitely physically, but you'd still get less attentive and alert at the usual rate.
If that'd help, Triumph mentioned clearing out hospital rooms in exchange?"
ertia
"You understand," nods Kithabel. "And yeah, I can heal. After a while I need to be doing other things, but I can still go through a lot of people and it's strictly better than sleep."
wormcan
"Must be nice, having a lot depend on doing other things. All right, deal. I could do it now if you want."
She extends a hand.
She extends a hand.
wormcan
And she feels pretty much the same, actually. Muscles less fatigued, but most of the work she has been doing wasn't with her muscles. Eyes no longer tired. And so on.
And, whispered, "You're not a parahuman at all?"
And, whispered, "You're not a parahuman at all?"
ertia
"I don't know whether to expect to be able to keep it or who'll care - show me some people I can heal while we talk?"
wormcan
"This way." She leads Kithabel in a direction that she's extremely used to going. (Of course, she's traveling at foot speed.)
"It's like, when you're a cape information matters. Who you're up against, that kind of thing. Lots of capes hide exactly what they can do.
Not being a parahuman at all is obviously a big change from the norm, and I'd expect something that size to be kept secret. No idea who'd end up using it if they knew or how."
"It's like, when you're a cape information matters. Who you're up against, that kind of thing. Lots of capes hide exactly what they can do.
Not being a parahuman at all is obviously a big change from the norm, and I'd expect something that size to be kept secret. No idea who'd end up using it if they knew or how."
ertia
"I don't know either. I'm not practiced at keeping secrets and I don't know how long to hold onto that one, but I suppose I'd rather everyone not know."
Heal heal heal healhealheal.
Heal heal heal healhealheal.
wormcan
"I'm sure someone could use it against you somehow. I can keep it quiet, of course. Confidentiality."
Panacea is oddly a bit conflicted about the mass healing going on, and not because she's being supplanted as the world's foremost healer, but she doesn't volunteer what she's thinking.
Panacea is oddly a bit conflicted about the mass healing going on, and not because she's being supplanted as the world's foremost healer, but she doesn't volunteer what she's thinking.
wormcan
"No one knows. Some people can get powers and others can't. If you can, it happens when you're under the most stress you've ever been in. More or less. For most people who can, it never comes up. If you just came from an Endbringer fight, everyone there had some kind of trauma they didn't mention.
Once they trigger, they end up with some kind of specific power. Mine is healing, Triumph controls sound waves, Velocity speeds himself up. Some are more specific than others, but flight and healing would be really broad. If you were a parahuman."
Once they trigger, they end up with some kind of specific power. Mine is healing, Triumph controls sound waves, Velocity speeds himself up. Some are more specific than others, but flight and healing would be really broad. If you were a parahuman."
ertia
"I can do other things. I have to; if all I did was fly and heal soon enough that would be all I could do anymore. Why can't you do brains? I could see if I could fix that."
wormcan
"I'd rather you didn't. Brains are complicated, there's no clear line between what's fixed and what's just changing who someone is. That, and everyone tends to be even more scared of capes who can affect people's minds than they should be. I'd rather not walk into that.
And if you can change other people's powers, that's another completely unrelated power. What all can you do?"
And if you can change other people's powers, that's another completely unrelated power. What all can you do?"
ertia
"There's not, like, a list... I can just do stuff, unless it's too big for me to do yet."
wormcan
"And you can do even more stuff if you keep doing different things...wow. So you're the best healer in the world and also equally good at everything else. I think I'll just stop at 'wow.'"