Aperio held out her arm as a mortal with a bag that was very much not his own tried to run past Caethya and her. Just as expected, the very much stoppable mortal bent around her unmovable arm, letting out a scream as his body broke only to be fixed by the All-Mother just as fast. He let go of his stolen goods in the same motion, Aperio easily catching it with her free hand.
"That is not yours, now is it?" she asked, shaking her arm slightly so the mortal would fall to the ground. "Just because you are faster than someone else does not mean you can get away with it."
"Where did you take us?" Caethya asked in the language of their people as she looked at the groaning man on the floor. "Doesn't look like Riverburg."
"Near a city further south," the All-Mother replied, carefully placing a foot on the burglar's back so he could not get back up. "It is called Santa Maria, I believe."
"Did you pick it because of the name?"
"Perhaps."
Her love let out a laugh, trying to stop as soon as another mortal came running towards them, looking very relieved when he saw the man pinned to the ground.
The All-Mother tilted her head to the side as the mortal hesitated for a brief moment before swallowing and approaching the two of them.
"I believe this is yours," Aperio said and held out the bag. "No need to be scared, stopping this one was quite easy. Verification that you own this is also unnecessary — I witnessed him take it from you, after all."
"Thank you," the man more stammered than said as he took his bag back. He looked at Aperio for a moment longer before his eyes darted to the other man on the floor. "What are you going to do with him?"
"Either send him to the wilderness, so he can try living off what the land provides, or to the police," the All-Mother replied. "I have not made up my mind quite yet."
"I vote the dungeon," Caethya said. "Fighting his way through there is a good character building exercise."
"That is also an option."
"Dungeon?" the other mortal asked. "Do you mean a prison?"
"No, we are talking about the dungeon that appeared on Earth." Aperio pointed a wing in the direction of Point Nemo before she froze for the briefest of moments. Forgot to hide them…
"People who awakened earlier were offered to go there a few weeks ago," Caethya continued, giving Aperio a warm smile and patting her arm. "It's a pretty great place to get some levels."
"Sure, alright." The man let out a laugh. "Perhaps I should go there too."
"I can take you there if you like," Aperio offered, holding out her hand. "It will only take a moment."
"I'm good," the man replied as he took a step back. "No need to teleport me anywhere."
"As you wish." The All-Mother pulled her hand away and turned to look at the approaching police car. Judging by the amount of people they had in the back, it seemed that it had been a busy day for them. Guess they can take this one too, then.
Aperio waved at the car — she had observed the motion being used countless times by now as a method to stop cars — before she pointed at the still-groaning man beneath her foot.
The mortal had no reason to complain about anything. When she had healed the damage he had sustained from running into her arm, Aperio had also taken the time to fix some other things she found. Like his many broken teeth. Parts of them had been replaced by some weird, greyish material that she found most unsightly and unsuitable. How could a mortal willingly have part of themselves be replaced with something so weak?
"It would seem our choice has been made for us," Aperio said as the police car came to a stop next to them. "I doubt they can effectively contain all the people they catch, though."
"I'm sure they'll figure out a way," Caethya replied, offering the two officers a smile as they left their car. "We have a thief for you. A runny thief."
"And why is he on the floor?"
"He ran into my arm," Aperio replied, smiling slightly at the small wince that ran through both of the newly-arrived mortals. "He found himself to be incapable of moving it." The All-Mother pointed at the other mortal, this time using her hand and not a wing. "This one can tell you more, it was he who was robbed, after all."
One of the officers walked up to Aperio, and in response she removed her foot from the downed mortal. The ruffian did try to run off as fast as he could, but the All-Mother was a blink faster than his reflexes.
She let out a sigh, holding the perpetrator by the neck, and simply motioned for the policemen to open the door to the car so she could put the robber inside. "Will you be able to stop him if he tries to run again, or should I just teleport him into a cell at your precinct?"
"Just put him inside," the man replied, stepping aside to let Aperio pass. "We'll figure something out to get him to stay. Petty theft won't get him much, anyway." He regarded the All-Mother for a moment, his eyes lingering on her ears before he shook his head. "Thank you for not being one of them."
"Them?"
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"The ones that think they can use the powers they got to do what they want," his colleague replied, seemingly done with the bag-owning mortal. "It's been utter chaos since this floaty window said that 'all mortals have awakened'. It seems as though something was somehow stopping people from doing dumb shit before."
"I'm pretty sure people still did plenty of 'dumb shit' then too," Caethya said with a shrug. "But a small percentage is not really noticeable when you compare it to everyone on Earth."
"Probably," the first officer said, closing the door of the car. "Do you mind if I ask you two a question?"
"Ask what you please," Aperio replied. "But know that not everything will be graced with an answer."
"What's with the ears?" he asked. "And the wings, for you? Did you get them as part of this whole mess?"
"If you are asking if whatever brought the System here also turned me into a winged Elf, then the answer is yes." Aperio offered a wide smile while Caethya only shrugged. "I am quite fond of the change."
She stood just a bit taller than usual and flared her wings a little to prove her point. Aperio wished more people would give having wings a try, as they were quite wonderful as body parts went. Even if she had forgotten to...put her feathered appendages away in the first place, she found herself quite glad that she no longer needed to hide them.
"I'm sure you are," the man said, nodding to his colleague. "If you catch more criminals, please do give us a call. I'm not sure it would go over well with anyone if you actually teleported people into cells."
His words were followed by a quiet mumbling — one he probably thought she didn't hear — calling her claims into doubt. Aperio narrowed her eyes slightly at the man, but Caethya's hand gently resting against her stomach stopped the All-Mother from teleporting the man a few steps to the side.
"We shall see," she eventually replied. "Good day, gentleman."
With those words, Caethya and Aperio simply vanished, leaving behind a few feathers as she had come to do when mortals were around. Nobody would doubt her abilities in front of her. Not anymore.
Sure, they would struggle like all mortals did to understand the true extent of what she could do, and that was fine, but she wouldn't stand for someone claiming that she couldn't teleport people. Or throw one of their cars. Such trivialities would be proven at her earliest convenience.
"Can we just stand around in the air here?" Caethya asked, squinting into the distance towards a few of the planes the Humans liked to use. "They might think we want to mess with those."
"They know that we are here," Aperio replied. "But they also do not seem to care overly much. They have not sent anyone after us yet, quite unlike the groups of mortals flying around the skyscrapers in a few cities." She looked at her love, an eager smile on her face. "Maybe we should join them? It has been too long since I have flown for the fun of it."
"Sure," her love replied. "But I also want to help a bit with the chaos we have wrought. Seems wrong to just let them struggle when we can quite easily prevent some of the worst things from coming to pass."
"I do not mind helping a little, but you do have to ask yourself when to draw the line." Aperio offered a small shrug. "It is not beyond my power to solve all the issues they have, but what would be left for them, then? Without knowing struggle, I only did what I fancied; no matter how it might affect anyone else." She looked at the city beneath her, more than a few of the mortals already engaging in less than savoury acts. "But then, they already do not seem to care all that much. A few of them, at least. Mortals are so paradoxical."
"So," Caethya began, "you are worried that if you take solve their problems, more of them will think that they are entitled to everything and will start to take whatever they wish. Because that is what you did before you lived as a mortal."
"In essence, yes," Aperio replied. "My past self being like that is not the only reason, however. Most of the gods that were in power after I disappeared acted exactly like this, and so do the mortals that claim even the tiniest fraction of power here on Earth.
"I fear that without any form of struggle or greater purpose, if you will," the All-Mother continued, "mortals will simply seek a fight with anyone they perceive as weaker to take what they desire. Stopping the few that are doing that now is a noble act, yes, but it will lead mortals to believe that they are either always protected, or that they can do as they please once they have gotten strong enough." Aperio let out a small sigh and moved Caethya and herself further up into the sky to avoid some of the drones the Humans seemed so fond of. "You could say I am conflicted about this whole thing. I am not quite sure what I should think." Or do, for that matter.
"I noticed," Caethya replied, her words a bit more curt than they would usually be. "I say we go and help a few people, and then you can judge how it goes. Nobody is expecting you to just hand-wave everyone's problems away and provide for them. All we are going to do is offer them a bit of safety in these times of change."
"I guess." Aperio looked at her love, trying to figure out why her words had seemingly upset her. "Is my view of things wrong?" she eventually asked.
"Maybe, maybe not," her love replied with a shrug. "If I am honest, it doesn't really make sense to me what you are trying to say. The only thing I could gather from it is that you don't wish to just give the mortals everything they want."
"Yes. They should struggle and grow stronger. Transcend the limits they are born with."
Caethya gave a small giggle. "And offer you a good fight?"
"If some of them can manage to do that, I would be most delighted."
"I think we should have a bout soon," the Demigoddess said as she squared herself up next to Aperio as best she could. "I doubt there are many people who could give you a challenge, but I might be one of them."
Aperio knew full well that Caethya would pose no challenge whatsoever, but she still liked the idea of having a friendly fight with her love. There was something unexpectedly appealing in that concept, but it would have to wait until after they'd had their little Earth adventure.
She also had yet to meet all the races that called this world home, and it was something Aperio wanted to experience before devoting more of herself to stabilising the chaos that was the multiple realities of her creation. Perhaps she would learn something new about herself and the reality she had made. Maybe she would even find a whole new world, one filled with both mortals and deities, that had somehow hidden from all the Gods and Goddesses that had heretofore existed.
"Where do you want to start our hero act?" Aperio asked, gesturing towards the world below them with a wing.
"How about a continent we haven't been to," her love replied and pointed to what looked like a large island on the southern hemisphere of the planet. "Like that one."
"As you wish," the All-Mother said, a small flex of her mental muscles twisting reality apart to bring them inside the most populated city she could find on the continent. "Australia it is."