Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Tour of Gotham (Part 5)
[Clock - 17:37 | 05:37 PM]
[Calendar - 01/04/2003]
[Location - Gotham City, New Jersey]
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POV Change
Bruce Way - Batman
Fire. Blood. Death. Chaos. As far as they eyes could see, that was what
For- not exactly the first time - the... who knows? It has happened so many times that Batman has stopped counting how many times these four of the most common activities in Gotham were all happening all at once. Pillars of smoke rose above from the horizon, buildings toppled onto one another, and he was seeing this only now- When the earthquake happened, the first thing that he saw was the ceiling collapsing on his face as Wayne Manor came toppling down. It was an old, old building, so it wasn't a surprise to him that such a thing happened... What was a surprise, however, was how the recently added pillars to provide support to the Batcave collapsed so easily under the weight of Wayne Manor. They were built about five years ago, when he first started his work as Batman. But he stored that thought for later— He had completely lost most means of communication, most means of contacting the outside world, and that was his objective.
For that, he needed to go to Wayne's Tower, in Old Gotham. Since good part of his better communicators at Batcave were completely destroyed. As he helped Alfred and Dick get out of the rubbles, he frowned and as a wave of dread and shock went through his eyes as he witnessed the sheer change and destruction of Gotham. The Wayne Manor was, sadly, in Bristol County outside of Gotham island and thus the Robert Kane Memorial Bridge— named after Robert Kane, one of Gotham's most famous architects that died saving the lives of thousands in the 1980's —had completely collapsed. With no way to get into the island, no vehicles, and no means of communication readily available, Batman had to make some choices.
It took some time, but when they managed to get into contact with the world, but when they did they received terrible, terrible news. The president of the United States had declared Gotham a No Man's Land. It was no longer within US government interest to keep Gotham as part of itself, so the president simply abandoned Gotham... It was a shock to Batman. The people he has been fighting for were being abandoned by the very government that he has been protecting, he has literally saved the president's life once! It was a crazy plan from the Joker, a plan involving a tiny pea sized bomb being swallowed by the president- it was a whole thing.
And now? Now Gotham has been abandoned.
...he doesn't know how he should be feeling about this situation, but he is not feeling very well at the moment. He needs to think for a while- In fact, he knows exactly how to help. It's time for Bruce Wayne to step into the light and act. And if Bruce Wayne can't convince others to help, then Batman will have to save Gotham alone.
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Time Skip - 1 Week
POV Change
3rd Person
[Location: Gotham Proper (Lower), Gotham City, New Jersey]
[Clock - 13:08 | 01:08 PM]
[Calendar: 08/04/2003]
Welcome to Gotham.
If you look to your right, you might be able to catch a glimpse or even see the corpses of people long dead and rotting for a week. On your left, you might see broken buildings that collapsed upon the street- Oh, is that a severed arm on the street? Also to your right, you might be able to hear the cries of a people! Trapped within a collapsed building, a mother holds her children and cries as they also cry. It's been a week and they haven't been rescued from this nightmare. Their father was right before them, crushed by the portion of the wall he had been holding for three days without faltering, until his body gave up under the weight and the weight was stronger than his will to protect his wife and children.
To your left, you might just see the glimpse of the street that once was taken to reach Old Gotham from Lower Gotham Proper. Perhaps you'd see the fallen sign of Luigi's Pizzaria where many have gone to celebrate their birthdays, or maybe you'd see the fallen broke glass of the once well known 8-Bit Bar, where many have gone to in the middle of the night... Or perhaps you'd see the broken legs of a poor man as he dragged his broken body across the hot asphal of the afternoon sun, getting little sharp rocks on his thighs, broken arm, and hands as he does his best to escape the shadow that approaches from behind. If you look behind you, you'd see the- Ignore the sounds of murder, please! Nobody is screaming "Help me! For the love of god- Please! Somebody!" as they drag their body across the street and someone else slowly walks up to them to finish what they started! That's so silly! Let me show you the beauty of Gotham city in its natural state! Ignore the-
ＢＯＯＭ
-oh, for fuck's sake.
"Ahahahhaha!" A shrill laughter echoed as ornage flames lashed out towards the broken buildings. Flying in with flames on his back was a man. He had bright blond hair and truly, really crazy eyes- He looked at the flames that were being born from his own hands, the power that he acquired was a beauty to be seen by all, and he will show the world how his beautiful his Aphoridite truly is. "YES! BURN! OH WITNESS THE BEAUTY AND SPLENDOR OF THE FLAMES!" Meet Ted Carson, also known as Firefly, and the newly appointed Avatar of The Orange. If you do not remember¹, The Orange is the metaphysical plane of flames from the DC Universe. A place where Fire related deities and elementals tend to live and dominate. Unlike The Green, The Red, and The Black, The Orange had never had an Avatar or Champion before, so they reached out to the person with the most love for flames and fire that they could find. The passion of seeing a flame burn, of seeing combustion work, of causing flames. And, well, they certainly found him...
As the newly crowned Avatar of The Orange used his powers to cause explosions and flames, the person that was first killing a homeless man with their bare hands froze. The flames and explosion seemed to trigger a memory within its mind... Of a floating man, pointing his finger down, and fire exploding right on his face. Solomon Grundy, the Avatar of The Black was enraged by the flames of Ted Carson, which made him completely forget his victim and focus on the little bug at hand. He grasped a large piece of a fallen building, and threw it at the flame winged freak— it shot out like a bullet, and before he knew it, he had hit the annoying bug off of the sky.
...let's leave these two to resolve their problems-
"Huh, I didn't expect to see two Avatars of the Colors of Nature fighting like this." A rather soft voice spoke from above, not really being completely noticed by the two Avatars that started their own petty fighting. The person that floated above it all was not alone, and in fact, there was someone beside him. A darker and taller shadow stood behind him, his own draconian appearance no longer resembled the crocodiles he was first affiliated with. "You see this shit? What were the Parliament of Flames thinking? Firefly? As an Avatar for the force of flames? This universe is playing jokes." Atlas rolled his eyes from above as he witnessed the fight alongside Waylon- Although it might seem liike they were doing nothing, Atlas was having a litte bit of a harder time doing three different things at the same time, and thus couldn't really protect himself from anything right now.
And when Waylon learned of that, he refused to leave Atlas' side whenever he was doing something like this-
"Well, Love, the universe loves to play little jokes." Shaking his head, the dragon humanoid- seriously, it was wrong to call him a crocodile by now -known as King Beastialis, Waylon Jones, chuckled as he watched the Avatar of the Black punch a few balls of flame thrown by the Avatar of the Orange, a frown appearing on his face soon after as he could hear the cries of the innocent all around that were hiding away: "And, well, sometimes those little jokes are more disturbing than we'd hope..." He wanted to go and help the people, but he would never forgive himself if he left Atlas side while he was focusing on a rather complex and powerful spell that he was using. Right below them, a small group of humanoids ran around, lifting rocks and picking up people and corpses. Whenever they found an injured person, their little hands would glow and the damage would be slightly mitigated and they'd join the other survivors that were being rescued. These little creatures were called- by Atlas - Shadow Healers. They are, apparently, shadow created humanoids that were temporarily granted the ability to heal by Atlas himself. He had casted [Summon Shadowspawn] and focused on bringing as many of them as he could... And then he casted another spell, a spell called [Infuse Magic]. This was Atlas' first ever casted 10th Level spell, and it allowed him to share some of his magical prowess with others! This granted those he wishes the energy to cast a spells equivalent to level 5 spells in D&D terms.
Atlas had to keep his mind focused on keeping control over the summoned shadowspawn creatures, he had to focus and keep the control over their movements like a puppeteer, and he had to keep concentration on the [Infuse Magic] spell, that was way harder to maintain than he previously thought, and thus consumed more energy and mental focus from him than he thought, and that made him essentially a small little sitting frog, because if he moved, his concentration would break! And that's why Waylon was beside him, to protect him and keep him safe from everything that might try to attack him as he focused on rescuing as many people as he possibly could with the shadowy humanoids. "That's true." Atlas sighed as a Shadow Healer quickly grabbed a homeless person who had his legs broken and healed them for a moment, quickly dragging that homeless person away and behind the building both Atlas and Waylon were above, where a small group of people were helping the rescued people. They were the Healers of Khepri, a newly formed group of magical healers that were blessed by Khepri to carry his magical ability to heal.
This, in turn, drove more people to worship the gods, creating a feedback loop where the gods used their divine energy to bless their most devoted worshipper and make them able to do something other than normal humans, which in turn drove more worship. Nora Fries was one of said Healers of Khepri, in fact, she was the most devoted worshipper of Khepri who dedicated her work to him at every moment she practiced it, which generated more divine energy for the god and- Well, you get it by now. As Firefly and Solomon Grundy fought against one another, Atlas focused on rescuing the many survivors that did not immediately die at the hands of the disaster that was orchestrated by Klarion the Bitch Boy.
"I believe these are the last people..." With a wave of pure energy, no spell necessary, Atlas stretched out the awareness his mind had over a 500 meters area surrounding him, feeling no more living beings within that area besides the ones that were already saved and Firefly, he could also feel the nauseating necrotic energy from Solomon Grundy too. "Let's return to the kingdom, love?"
Waylon simply nodded, eyeing the two Avatars that were so focused on fighting each other that they didn't even notice them, before saying: "Yes, love, let's return."
With a smile, Atlas' magical energy moved solidified into thin threads and began to dance, weaving this enormous and intricate circle right beneath the entire building they were on. There was a soft pause as the circle connected all lines to themselves and a rush of energy faded away, leaving behind an empty building devoid of people or any sign that there were people once there.
[Teleportation Circle] is a rather powerful spell.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone