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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
"Don't let the heroes you're from another world. At best they'll think you're a well-meaning Simurgh plot and won't trust you when you say it was just five minutes, at worst someone might kill you. Fake it as best you can. Maybe you grew up in an underground bunker thinking the world had ended, only just found out that was all a lie, and that's why you don't know anything about the planet.
And us, definitely don't tell people you flew anyone out of Madison."
And us, definitely don't tell people you flew anyone out of Madison."
ertia
"I'll... keep that in mind. Have a nice life, don't make me regret helping you."
And she kicks off into the sky and goes to talk to the "good guys" around the fence.
And she kicks off into the sky and goes to talk to the "good guys" around the fence.
wormcan
As she approaches the fence, from the outside this time, she can see that it's surrounded by armed people in uniforms labeled "PRT." They're all walking on two legs, rather than flying like normal people.
Stop, comes a voice through a loudspeaker. Stay away from the quarantine area. At least nobody is pointing anything dangerous at her.
Stop, comes a voice through a loudspeaker. Stay away from the quarantine area. At least nobody is pointing anything dangerous at her.
ertia
She lands near some people in uniforms. Well, almost lands. Hovering is better than standing around like she hasn't got shit to do. "I want to help," she says.
wormcan
One of them removes earplugs. "You're here to help? Find an armband, hurt her any way you can. They'll probably put you in a rotation. Cape base is over that way," she gets a direction, "make sure you stop by there before going in."
ertia
Kithabel is not so sure about the exploding armband thing, but she goes that way.
wormcan
The center of operations for the capes is mostly obvious because of the flight units ferrying capes to and from the Simurgh's current location. She's close enough at the moment that the high-pitched keening is present again, if faint.
A cape in spots her and doesn't bother introducing herself. "New arrival?"
A cape in spots her and doesn't bother introducing herself. "New arrival?"
ertia
"Yeah. I might be more useful hanging out of the worst of the singing. I can heal and fix stuff."
wormcan
"We do need more flight. The units here are the ones that still work, you could go to areas the fight moved on from and fix the ones there. The armband will show you where. Same with the healing, we've got a full hospital but most of the patients aren't critical. Start with the transportation, move to healing when it stops being the bottleneck or you get down to five minutes exposure." She offers an armband.
wormcan
"If it gets down to zero. It takes proximity into account, so when it gets low you fly whichever direction quiets the song. In your case you'll be healing instead of repairing with plenty of margin." Her own armband is hardly ticking down at all; the fight is still far from here.
wormcan
It starts flashing a number. Apparently she's good for forty-two minutes and twelve seconds by the starting estimate. It projects an arrow toward people who need evacuation or emergency healing, and another one toward ruined machines that, when functional, could move them.
"Start with the vehicles if you can repair other people's tinker tech. The fight goes on long it'll be worth it, if not that's even better."
"Start with the vehicles if you can repair other people's tinker tech. The fight goes on long it'll be worth it, if not that's even better."
ertia
"I'll see if it works when I try."
Zoom. She can go fast when she's going to someplace and not just overflying it to see what there is to do.
Tinkertech: be healed?
Zoom. She can go fast when she's going to someplace and not just overflying it to see what there is to do.
Tinkertech: be healed?
wormcan
As she flies, the song gets louder and the timer ticks down.
On arrival, nearby scraps of metal fly to it and slot themselves in where they came from. Pieces that have been destroyed appear from thin air. The small vehicle reactivates and flies off in the same direction that her armband recommends she go if she's trying to rescue a cape.
On arrival, nearby scraps of metal fly to it and slot themselves in where they came from. Pieces that have been destroyed appear from thin air. The small vehicle reactivates and flies off in the same direction that her armband recommends she go if she's trying to rescue a cape.
wormcan
Apparently they started the battle with a good supply of these. There are enough destroyed-but-recognizable ones for it to get repetitive. After several rounds, there even start to be moments when the arrow pointing to the nearest downed cape flickers out.
ertia
Once it's repetitive she goes after a cape instead. On this timescale variety isn't paramount, but still. Habits.
whole_new_can
The recommended direction changes a couple times as the destination cape is either killed or rescued. But there's almost always another one, and they're all in the same general direction. The singing gets louder.
Many of the capes fighting the Simurgh request assistance when their timers run low sooner than expected. Them she can fly out. Others are fighting the humanoid monstrosities the Simurgh got from who knows where; those ones are almost always calling for help because of injury. Once in a great while, the latter group is protecting some remaining civilians, who having missed the evacuation are likely to spend years locked in here but are still worth protecting.
Many of the capes fighting the Simurgh request assistance when their timers run low sooner than expected. Them she can fly out. Others are fighting the humanoid monstrosities the Simurgh got from who knows where; those ones are almost always calling for help because of injury. Once in a great while, the latter group is protecting some remaining civilians, who having missed the evacuation are likely to spend years locked in here but are still worth protecting.
ertia
Kithabel heals. She zooms people out of the danger zone from as far away as she can; she doesn't have to be that near a person to fly them around. She fixes incidental damage to this and that and the other.
She tries again to make the noise stop. No dice.
She tries again to make the noise stop. No dice.
whole_new_can
On the passes that take her closer to the center of the fighting, she sees what's going on. The Simurgh builds a weapon out of whatever's lying around. The Simurgh fires a weapon, and the cape who dodges moves in front of a horrified teammate's blast before it can reach the Simurgh. The Simurgh extends a wing, ripping through two opponents one of whom heals. Feathers fall to the ground as the Simurgh takes a hit, and then she continues exactly as before.
The Simurgh is at all times acting as if she's fully in control of the battlefield. As for whether she actually is, nobody feels like asking.
The Simurgh is at all times acting as if she's fully in control of the battlefield. As for whether she actually is, nobody feels like asking.
wormcan
And her targets can break. They discharge immediately before she breaks them, and pieces fall in ways that distract or injure defending capes.
When she's closer, her timer ticks down faster. The estimate assumed she'd be a certain average distance, and she's currently closer. But there's plenty of time.
The enemy is taking damage. Aside from the falling feathers, there are open wounds dripping something that isn't blood. Most of the harm is being done by a masked cape in a green robe and a golden man in a white suit. Their opponent carries on fighting without paying much attention to the injuries.
When she's closer, her timer ticks down faster. The estimate assumed she'd be a certain average distance, and she's currently closer. But there's plenty of time.
The enemy is taking damage. Aside from the falling feathers, there are open wounds dripping something that isn't blood. Most of the harm is being done by a masked cape in a green robe and a golden man in a white suit. Their opponent carries on fighting without paying much attention to the injuries.
ertia
Kithabel heals people who are not the evil angel and then ranges farther away from the evil angel song. She has a little less margin than her armband thinks.
wormcan
The automated rescue devices are almost keeping up with demand, but there are probably more to fix. And judging by that almost, there's more search and rescue to be done. The field hospital is a third option; she's been told it's mostly non-critical but that doesn't mean small numbers.