Black Nadir 6.5
I could hear sirens, horns, and heavy machinery, along with the Endbringer alarm, mingling with the sounds from the ruined concert behind me. Until the portal closed, inaudible over the racket.
"Lucky we keep showing up next to the big groups," Sundancer remarked, raising her voice to be heard over the noise from the stadium.
"Luck, or something else. We're ditching the phone after this."
It only made sense - the phones the PRT and Protectorate used probably had untold heaps of classified information on them. Everything from heroes' real names and those of their families, to the evacuation plans in case of Endbringers. I was certain that someone with less scruples than average would try to rob a shelter.
Either it was bugged, or was set to record conversations that didn't enter a password or match the owner's voice. Maybe both. And that raised a more pertinent question: How was Portal listening in? Was he a Protectorate cape? Or was he a Tinker, using some super-technology to create portals, and neatly explaining his ability to infiltrate the PRT's networks.
But no matter the reason, I was going to get rid of it, at least once the Simurgh had been driven off.
"If we can hit at least three more cities, in close succession and location, that should be enough," I mused out loud. If I had sent at least a thousand people - probably more, but a minimum of a thousand - fleeing, they had probably called people. Called the police, their families, friends, everyone they knew in order to talk to them. They had been where they shouldn't have been, had I not shown up. A butterfly effect, on a massive scale, sending a portion of the city out of the Simurgh's prediction, and then expanding as they interfered with more people.
"So Las Vegas, Seattle, and then? If I understand correctly, your precog blocking should already be working on New York City. Maybe Los Angeles? It's an easy fifteen million," Sundancer suggested.
"Fifteen? Maybe back in the nineties," I said, confusion lacing my gravelly words.
"What? It's still huge, even after that - Oh, right. Much smaller, I forgot," she interrupted herself, voice dropping down from a shout to a barely audible murmur. How did you forget that living in cities was the most likely way to meet an Endbringer. I didn't say as such, but filed it away for future reference. She could have memory problems.
"Anyway, still a large city. Toronto's a good choice, as it's close. And Chicago is further away, but still close," I plotted, almost counting off on my fingers. I didn't though, remembering that I would have dropped Sundancer if I had.
She didn't notice her near preliminary disembarkment, and nodded her acceptance. I spread my folded wings, and jumped, catching the cool sea air beneath them. I could see the phone in her hand, lit more from my green light then any of the artificial ones, and replied in my rough voice, "Be careful with that. I don't want to have to fly back to New York."
"Yeah, yeah. I -" her reply was cut off as I banked, and she gripped my hand to steady herself. Her folded legs were in the cup formed by my hands, but the rest of her frame was out, leaving her unable to rest comfortably.
Below me, the row of bars or restaurants turned into a parking lot the size of my school. Emergency vehicles - fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances were parked in clumps in the emptying lot. Lines of cars were exiting the lot, heading in all directions, and more importantly, I could see people walking away, presumably heading to shelters. Already, people were pointing at my green glow, which had been easily visible despite the line of buildings blocking their sight.
I cocked my head back, keeping my mouth away from Sundancer, and let loose a jet of flame. It reached a further thirty feet above me, a fountain of fire that, despite the bright light I had brought along with me, was eye-searingly bright in itself.
People panicked and screamed, dropping to the ground or fleeing as we passed overhead. It was a swarming hive of humanity, disrupted from their orderly evacuation into an all out mindless mob. I could only imagine what I looked like, green, stone, and flying over them while causing as much chaos and confusion as possible. And I could only imagine what sort of press I had just bought with my interesting actions tonight.
"I think it worked," Sundancer yelled, as deadpan as possible.
I didn't dignify her with a response, because I had noticed something flying towards us, pushing off the ground into a leap. That was on course to reach us, flying several hundred feet off the ground.
"Hold on!" I shouted, louder than a slab of stone hitting the ground.
I pulled her closer to my chest, pinning her there, and then rolled. Wings tucked, I spun two times, before opening them again, a good hundred feet away from where I had been. The woman, dressed in a lurid pink outfit, futilely tried to reach me by waving her arms. She would have failed, had she not briefly glowed red and shot forward at incredible speed.
I dropped to the ground, falling, before catching myself out of the air with a nearly shoulder breaking stop. I was learning how to fly, and fly well, but the learning curve was a bit much. Squished up against me, Sundancer's left hand made the gesture representing a cell phone.
"Out of sight," I whispered, roughly equivalent to a car backfiring. She nodded, as best as she was able to, and I landed, ducking down to fit into one of the stadiums exits. The long narrow concourse was empty but for scattered trash, but I would have that cape coming after me soon regardless. I set Sundancer down, and she shook out her leg.
"Fell asleep," she explained, before dialing our temporary lifeline. "Los Angeles."
The portal unfolded like a softly glowing 2D flower, obstructing the front of a concession stand proclaiming, - ngs, Only $5. Faintly, I could hear the sound of waves, even as the two Endbringer alarms almost synchronized, just far enough apart to be supremely irritating. To someone without my nightvision, the ocean would have been a black mass, sucking in light from the city behind it. I could see it perfectly. A line of poles interspaced themselves in between myself and the ocean.
The portal went underneath a pier? Odd, but on second thought, I doubted anyone would be near one, right now. Sundancer jogged through, and I followed, ducking my head to stop it from scraping the pier itself. I picked her up again, silent, and lumbered out from below the pier. And the beach was empty, naturally. The streets lining the beach were empty of all but parked vehicles, and I couldn't hear any of the sounds I associated with a city. Where could I go to interact with the most people?
And why had Las Vegas not been evacuated? My bet was on money - why disrupt everything if it's not coming there? Or some other reason I couldn't fathom, but apparently made perfect sense to someone else in charge. It didn't matter now, but it was something to keep in mind to ask the next Protectorate hero I got a chance to talk to.
I tried to jump into the air, gaining initial altitude, but only sunk into the sand after a quick hop. I stepped out gingerly, trying not to get stuck. A concrete parking lot, up next to the road paralleling the beach would be a hard enough surface. I gently walked off the beach, cursing my weight, and its impact on my timing. And then I cursed Portal for putting me here.
"I don't think anyone will be out, anymore," Sundancer pointed out, as my footsteps turned from sounding like a hundred snakes hissing with each step due to all the sand shifting, to a series of crunches as the concrete broke.
"We have to try. If we can distract or disorient the Simurgh, anything is worth it," I said, reasonably.
"Yeah. My feelings exactly," she quietly agreed, before pointing deeper into the city, "Just a fly-over, to let anyone who can see the light, and then move on?"
I didn't agree verbally, but my actions certainly did. I jumped, this time successfully, my wings catching the cool sea air as it met the heat of the city. I swirled up, taking long lazy circles to reach a higher altitude, only disrupted by a flock of seagulls who had strayed in front of me. The equivalent of flying into a stone wall wasn't good for them, and I had earned a score of red and white marks across my body. Sundancer had been shielded from my impromptu attempted stowaways, but still had to brush bloody feathers off of herself.
By the time I was high enough that the cars started looking like toys, I could see the vast majority of the city, and was informed that it was nearly fully evacuated. Entire sections went dark, lights turning off, for what I assumed to be prevention of downed power lines injuring people.
I began my descent, not so much disappointed as irrationally irritated. The shelters and evacuations would help protect people, if on the small chance the Simurgh came here. But if I could just keep her off-balance, we could potentially kill her. But they only had themselves to worry about, so I couldn't blame them.
I landed along a railroad track, gravel spraying away as I skidded to a stop. Warehouses, and further on the track, houses surrounded us. I stomped through a chain link fence, pushing it aside with my hips as I broke it, and walked between rows of forklifts, heading deeper into the yard.
"I don't think that worked as planned," Sundancer remarked as I set her down, before asking as she dialed the phone, "Where to then? If LA is already evacuated, I bet cities closer will be the same by now too."
She was right, despite my misgivings. I couldn't do anymore, here, or in any other city. Well, all but one.
"Montreal."
Her eyebrows rose, before she gave me a small smile, and repeated into the phone, "Montreal."
The storage yard gained a floating square, hovering above a trailer, which tessellated into a doorway, showing me the interior of a car dealership. Rows of new cars, and too-large windows were all to evident. Sundancer followed me through, and I watched the portal close behind us. Out front in the street I could see a bus, turned on its side.
"Here we go," I said, and walked through the glass, making a hole for Sundancer.
A/N: And ugh, tired. I think soup is some sort of miracle.
