Amelia, Ch 273- Taylor
It took another four minutes before Shaman finally spoke again. "That's it," he gasped. "I've let go of everything I had in there. If it's still alive, it's not my fault. If it's dead, I demand top billing." FearHopeAnticipationUncertainty.
"Give in another minute," Lisa instructed. "You okay in there, Atropos?"
"Considering if this doesn't work I'm going to be turned into Endbringer parts?" she replied. "Yeah, I'm just peachy."
"Don't think it can," Minerva replied. "Either it only has five stages, or the damage we did forced it straight to the sixth."
"So it's dead?" Alexandria asked. It was the question everyone wanted to know.
"Can't say," Lisa admitted. "The way its body works, there's no way to know. If we're being honest, I doubt it's dead." DismayFailure. Amelia held me tighter. I should be bothered that we're being this emotional in full view of so many heroes, I realized, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Meanwhile, Lisa kept speaking. "It lost this battle, one way or the other. Now we know how to stop it before it evolves into its top stages. Whether it's dead or not, we won. This Endbringer won't be able to destroy much more than a city block the next time we fight it, and it'll be a long time before it's recovered enough to fight again."
"That's... some consolation, at least," Alexandria agreed.
"Dude, that's so fucking unfair," Shaman spoke over the com.
"Look at it this way," Atropos piped up. "Kill an Endbringer once, you're the big damn hero once. Kick the shit out of an Endbringer and it gets away, you're a big damn hero once a year."
"Oh. Oh fuck." Minerva muttered.
"What is it?" Alexandria asked.
"Nothing I'm ready to talk about right now," Minerva replied. Alexandria met her gaze, and the two women regarded each other silently for what felt like far too long. "You'll have to forgive me, but I can't say it right now. I don't even know if I'm right."
"I suppose we'll have to remain in suspense, then," Alexandria replied, not sounding particularly happy.
"Hold on," Chevalier interrupted. "This isn't going to be an issue, is it? I don't like allies keeping secrets, not about something like the Endbringers."
"It's not about the Endbringers," Minerva responded. "Or at least nothing of immediate use or value. We'd be here for the next six months if I told you every little hunch I have about them that will probably go nowhere. They are resistant to Thinker powers, after all."
Chevalier didn't seem particularly happy with that answer, but he let it rest nonetheless. I, meanwhile, wondered what Lisa figured out.
"We need to start taking inventory of the losses," I managed to speak up. PainFear. Right. I turned off the com for a second. "Don't worry, Victoria's alive. Don't know about 'well', but as fast as she regenerates, she'll be alright soon and complaining that she doesn't even get a cool looking scar for her troubles." HopeReliefGratitude.
"Brockton Bay is a total loss," Emma replied, sounding tired. "Over eighty percent of the city was destroyed completely, and what's still standing is in worse shape than it was after the S9's attack."
GuiltPainLoss. How much of that is her feelings, how much of it mine? In all honesty, most of it was probably her. I wasn't all that fond of Brockton Bay. Its corruption and bullshit ran straight up to the top. Sure, when we needed to, we exploited the fuck out of it, but that wasn't something that made me like it any better. If anything, that just made me hate it that much more. Dad's going to be ruined, though.
"But... we can restore it, right?" Amelia asked.
"With what?" Emma replied. "Maybe the stuff around the edges could be salvaged for raw material. But the central portion of the city is now a shallow saltwater lake. It'd be cheaper and easier just to build an entirely new city nearby than it would to restore this one."
"I could use the Yggdrasil to replace the mass," Amelia offered, I could tell from her voice that she'd been crying, even if the link hadn't made it painfully clear. "Spread it, kill it, let it decompose into a new layer of soil. Everything we're doing on Avalon."
"Dragon," Emma turned toward the older, more respected, Trump-Tinker. "If I'm wrong, please tell me."
"You're not," Dragon admitted. "I'm sorry. The Yggdrasil could support, at most, a population of fifty thousand using the space available in Brockton Bay. And that's if dedicated solely to living space, not including utilities, or places of employment. At best, we might be able to demolish the buildings beyond and use them for raw materials, but that would require months to achieve anything notable. Decades before the city will be recognizable as such again. We saved as many people as we possibly could, but the city itself is lost." FailureGuiltDespair.
"We can do other things to help," Crystal offered, the same soft voice that she used to comfort me when I was dealing with the combined weight of my guilt and Amelia's. She'll make an amazing mother, some day. "We already accept refugees. Maybe we can alter the policy some. Offer, like, temporary citizenship or whatever. A few square miles might not be much, but we can set aside a thousand miles of space on Avalon without so much as blinking an eye. Restore the portal, rebuild our Embassy space, at least. Trying to rebuild the city overnight is impossible. But as long as we keep our portal here, people will have reason to return." ReliefGratitudeHope.
I smiled at Crystal. "Thanks," I mouthed silently. "Amelia, we're going to need your help a bit," I stroked my partner's shoulder.
"Okay," she sighed, allowing me to lead her to where Atropos, Shaman and Rosary were.
"Is he going to be okay?" Rosary asked as Amelia knelt down to touch both of them.
"Yeah," she responded. "Exhaustion is the biggest risk, a bit of dehydration and hyperthermia. He's going to feel like hell for the next couple days, but if he stays hydrated he'll be fine."
"I'll be sure to let someone know," she sighed.
"Aww, you really do care," Shaman spoke. I could hear the smirk in his voice.
"Yeah, I care," she replied. "Your power's the one thing between Wendigo and another destroyed city. I'd be a moron to not care."
"Speaking of, thanks for the fucking buzzkill. Thought we killed that bitch for real."
"Maybe, maybe not," Minerva responded. "It's a decentralized being. If any part of it was outside of the forcefields when we started killing it, then it will be back. Don't know how long it'll take to recover from that much damage, though. It will likely be two or three years before it attacks again, maybe a full decade."
"So, good as dead, then," Alexandria replied.
"Probably," Lisa answered.
"Fuck, I'll take it," Shaman replied. "Now I'm gonna go home and celebrate by getting shitfaced. If I'm gonna have a headache anyway, might as well earn it."
"No alcohol," Amelia instructed. "That'll just dehydrate you more."
"That's it, next Endbringer, I'm staying in bed."
"Then we'll report it as destroyed," Chevalier responded. "After Chongqing and Bucharest and now this, we need to be able to claim a victory. A destroyed Endbringer is a victory, even with the price being this high." GuiltShameFailure.
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A/N- My spellcheck didn't know hyperthermia was a word.
