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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
It's also very decorated, at least parts of it. There are lights around a large fraction of houses, trees with baubles attached, and a fairly consistent color scheme. Either this world somewhere in the vicinity of a holiday or a noticeable minority spontaneously decided to coordinate and did a bad job of it.
The list lasts long enough for this world's sun to start rising over the bay. Kithabel, naturally, has a higher vantage point for it.
The list lasts long enough for this world's sun to start rising over the bay. Kithabel, naturally, has a higher vantage point for it.
ertia
...Piggot probably sleeps at night as opposed to at some other time. Kithabel will give her a bit past sunrise before she calls for more tasks. She flies low, fixing minor infrastructure damage in her wake and looking at the decorations and changing her outfit for a new one and being delighted with the stimulant.
After the sun has definitely risen past tense, Piggot's bead says, "Anything else for me to do?"
After the sun has definitely risen past tense, Piggot's bead says, "Anything else for me to do?"
wormcan
The Director is, apparently, already awake.
"Absolutely. Had to check with everyone from the Mayor's office to the Dockworkers' Union, but did you see the Boat Graveyard? You can clear it out."
She explains. Apparently it doesn't matter what happens to the dozens of abandoned ships, they could be repaired or removed or recycled or deleted in any combination, but it would get rid of a decade-old blockade on a large part of the coastline. Getting that harbor back and rejuvenating the nearby ferry would apparently be a boon to the city and help it recover to where it was twenty years ago.
"Absolutely. Had to check with everyone from the Mayor's office to the Dockworkers' Union, but did you see the Boat Graveyard? You can clear it out."
She explains. Apparently it doesn't matter what happens to the dozens of abandoned ships, they could be repaired or removed or recycled or deleted in any combination, but it would get rid of a decade-old blockade on a large part of the coastline. Getting that harbor back and rejuvenating the nearby ferry would apparently be a boon to the city and help it recover to where it was twenty years ago.
wormcan
"That might take time. But yes, a few things to add." Can this bead send text files? No? Verbal it is then. It's more of approximately the same distribution of tasks as before.
ertia
"Cool, thanks."
Kithabel zooms out to the boat graveyard. She fixes some of the boats - the most broken ones, specifically - and obliterates some of the others and processes one of them into neatly stacked scrap metal on the shore.
She then swings by the hospital to see if Panacea's there.
Kithabel zooms out to the boat graveyard. She fixes some of the boats - the most broken ones, specifically - and obliterates some of the others and processes one of them into neatly stacked scrap metal on the shore.
She then swings by the hospital to see if Panacea's there.
wormcan
There are, or were, a lot of boats. Some were the size of the city's largest buildings.
By the time she's done, Panacea would normally be at Brockton Bay General if not for the fact that all the patients who were there as of yesterday have been miraculously cured. There haven't been that many people who appeared for emergency care.
Panacea's at a different hospital; they can give her the location.
By the time she's done, Panacea would normally be at Brockton Bay General if not for the fact that all the patients who were there as of yesterday have been miraculously cured. There haven't been that many people who appeared for emergency care.
Panacea's at a different hospital; they can give her the location.
ertia
That's nice of them! Kithabel heals the contents of this emergency room and then goes to the other hospital. She humidifies the weather a little as she goes; it is very dry and wintery. Maybe later she'll make it snow.
wormcan
The hospitals, strangely, do not object to being rendered redundant.
"Hi, Kithabel." Amy smiles. "You know, if you keep turning up they might stop sending me around for this."
"Hi, Kithabel." Amy smiles. "You know, if you keep turning up they might stop sending me around for this."
ertia
"I'll probably run out of things to do in this city eventually. Can I get another boost? And do you know off the top of your head if there's anything I need to be on the lookout for taking more of these things?" She holds up one of the stimulant pills.
wormcan
"Nothing at all physically; as long as I'm keeping you de-fatigued anyway I can take care of any side effects for you." She does. "Not that there were any on that time scale, apparently. Can't speak to mentally, especially without knowing what those even are; you'd have to ask the tinker."
ertia
"May do." Kithabel pops another pill and drifts forward into the hospital. "There's a lot of decorations up."
wormcan
"It's almost Christmas," Amy says, surprised as if Kithabel had asked about the most obvious thing in this world.
wormcan
"I guess you did just get here from Wisconsin. Where are you from before that?" There's probably somewhere where Christmas is unheard-of, right?
wormcan
"It'll start affecting your cognitive functions eventually, I'd be shocked if it took more than a couple days, since I'm pretty sure Armsmaster sleeps. He wouldn't have designed those for the assumption that I'm on hand."
ertia
"Maybe he can design different ones for that assumption at some point. Still. Lots better." Healing healing healing.
wormcan
"Why is it so important that you stay awake? Lots of capes have weird things affect their powers, but the ones that prioritize that over everything else usually aren't very stable."
ertia
"Not doing things costs me momentum. If I'm awake and not doing anything I can find something to do, I can float if nothing else, I can make cloud art, I can screw around with plants and make them bear glass fruit, that sort of thing, but if I'm asleep I'm doing absolutely nothing."
wormcan
"And then you end up less powerful than you possibly could be. Most people are less powerful than they possibly could be, including most capes. Using your power non-stop is worth it?"