I checked the coms again. It was online and functional, but no one was on the other side at the moment. Chaotic noise hummed in the distance. We were too far from the rest of the city. I considered where to go next and Mark in my arms was a clear start. I teleported out of the crater and out of New York City.
People busied themselves on the street with work, life, and their reactions to events occurring over a hundred miles away. I didn’t have time to check on what happened and didn’t want to know. The news was turned to it anyway when I entered the hospital with Mark. He got out of my hold, and I brought him forward. My status as a hero pushed him through quickly. Even so, I listened to the news as they checked him in.
The hospital was a flurry of activity, with nurses and doctors rushing to attend to the influx of patients. The sound of beeping machines and murmured conversations filled the air, a stark contrast to the silence of the crater.
“Emergency services are on their way. The explosion occurred at approximately 3:15 pm PST. Information is currently limited, and some electricity services are down. Internet, however, is still functional in the area though it may be disrupted. Initial reports suggest that a super villain has detonated a bomb of some kind in the area. We are getting a camera crew to the area. Understand that the following images may be disturbing to viewers. Discretion is advised.”
The view on the tv switched from the newsroom to the edge of the crater. Fires were being put out and the surviving buildings had their windows blown out. The crater looked even larger from its edge. The once vibrant streets were now a desolate landscape of rubble and shattered glass.
“Naomi, Naomi are you there?”
I tapped my visor. “I’m here. Well, Canada. Shit. How is it at HQ? What can I expect?”
“Our estimates are at almost a half a million dead. We’ve gone DEFCON 1. The president and his staff are now in their secure bunker. Other military and government staff are following suit. It will take at least a week to scrub through footage and figure out exactly what went wrong. This shouldn’t have happened. I’m going to need you out in the field. We are organizing Tremors to lead the rescue efforts. Your abilities to teleport them to safety and care is greatly appreciated.”
“I guess my break will be cut short. Let me know when he is on the scene. I need to wrap up here. Mark’s father is probably worried about him.”
“I need you back on the scene ASAP.”
“I’ll get there when I get there.” I looked back over to Mark. He was distracted by the nurse who was bringing him through to radiology. I teleported away.
Mark’s father was screaming, his new car parked on the street. His face was contorted in worry, and his eyes were red from crying. The car, once a symbol of pride, now seemed irrelevant in the face of his son's safety.
“What are you…” He stumbled over his words as he realized that a superhuman had reappeared in the middle of his yard.
“Are you Mark’s father,” I confirmed.
“Yes?” he said calming himself. Mark's father's eyes were red from crying, his face etched with worry. “Thank you,” he whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. “I was so scared for him.”
“Your son is fine and is being checked up on at the hospital.”
“What about my wife?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I take you to your son. Firmly take my hands.”
This process was going to be a little more difficult for someone I couldn’t carry. He at least followed my instructions. A minute later we were in the lobby of the hospital. I directed him to radiology. Before he left my few, I had another call.
“What is it?” I asked over the coms.
“Tremors is at the scene. They are waiting for you.”
“Found people already?”
“Yes. The blast seems to have centered the force of the blast and lessened as things went outward.”
“Where was the blast centered at?”
“The blast was actually a combination of three simultaneous explosions we have confirmed via satellite imagery. Each was equidistant from each other in a triangle. The center of that triangle was an Italian restaurant.”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
An Italian restaurant. The senselessness of it made me want to scream. Instead, I took a deep breath. “I’ll head back over now.”
I reappeared in the crater and teleported around the edges until I found the team. Tremors were walking back and forth in search of survivors while others with superstrength or telekinesis picked up the rubble. He was a tall man with broad shoulders. His feet were bare to feel the ground and wore a loose green shirt. He was a no-nonsense man with full focus on his job.
“You’re late,” he said turning toward me before returning to searching below the surface level.
I bit back a sharp retort, knowing it wouldn't help. I ignored him and checked on the movers. They were almost done removing the first people. Barricades had been set up around the scene. Police tape hung loosely around poles. People looked over from afar but didn't dare get closer and couldn't.
Boulders were thrown to the side and a pile had formed next to the crater. It wasn’t much longer before I had to step in and take someone. Steel beams had protected them as the building collapsed around them. I hurried to take them to the hospital and then grabbed the next person. The hospital had been warned about the influx of patients and new staff members entered the hospital with me.
The process started to repeat. Tremors would identify pockets of people. Some alive some dead. Then the recovery team stepped in to move the civilians out. The process was methodical yet urgent, with Tremors' focused expression a testament to his dedication. Each identified pocket was a race against time, with the recovery team working tirelessly to uncover survivors. Finally, it was my turn, and I teleported the injured to the hospital. At the hospital, they had expected my return. They set out a stretcher for me to place the person on and often a nurse was waiting for me to reappear in the lobby. Things were chaotic at their end, but they were professional.
When I returned to the crater I heard a rumble. Outside the crater, the windows of most of the buildings had been blown out. Some had been hit with shrapnel. Creaking followed the rumble and one of the buildings fell and collapsed into its next-door neighbor. The others weren’t surprised.
“All of the buildings in a 2-mile radius around the crater have been evacuated,” said another hero. “Everything for about five miles will need to be reevaluated for structural integrity and anything else that might pop up because of this mess.”
"The lack of a villain claiming responsibility was unsettling. It was as if the act was meant to be a statement, but to whom and why, I couldn't fathom.”
I nodded in understanding. It was just one of those standard procedures as the day went on, a few more heroes called in from other locations around the country and joined in the clean-up efforts. It made things go by faster and easier after the continuous work. The sun was starting to set, and the city looked bleak in the evening.
Tremors paused, his eyes scanning the rubble with a mix of determination and sorrow. “We'll find everyone we can,” he said, his voice firm but his eyes betraying a hint of despair while trying to reassure everyone.
Simple stand-up lights were set up around the crater in contrast to the empty buildings around us. The city was quiet. The traffic had been diverted around the crater as people’s lives went on. They were surely panic-buying and holding to whatever they could for safety, and I couldn’t blame them. I wished I could leave this place as well.
As more people were recovered, I moved them to other hospitals with more staff ready to take them during this state of emergency. Favors were being called in and superhuman healers were joining in on the most critical cases. The whole crater was scanned with the help of Tremors. Eventually, we couldn’t pull out living people anymore.
By the time we were done a few more buildings had collapsed or were on the verge of collapse. They titled and swayed. Further barricades had been put up to prevent people from reentering the exterior crater zone. The piles of rubble had grown around the exterior of the crater. They were spaced out and some of them were in the process of being removed. Heavy machinery was brought in to cart away the remains of the disaster so that they could build anew.
They were slow and inefficient. I expected they would be working for most of the month.
I felt tired as the time approached midnight. There was less progress made, and the other heroes were feeling it too as time marched on, the likelihood of finding anyone else alive dwindled.
My suit was dirty and dusty. The stripes of red were more splotches than stripes. I hoped that enough people at the hospitals would survive. No one spoke on the coms from HQ. The only update they had given was when a few more heroes had stopped by to help for a time. I knew that they were dealing with their own issues with crisis management and answering to the corporate bureaucracy of the government.
Finally, my coms went live, and headquarters spoke. “Good work so far. You are relieved of duty for now. Check-in tomorrow morning for new updates and mission assignments.”
I looked around the crater one last time before leaving. Some had left like I was going to do. Other cities and other parts of the world needed our help. A part of me was saddened to see the destruction. It was also a reminder of the power that I and others like me held. It could also be meaningless.
An explosion centered around an Italian restaurant, with tens of thousands hit by the blast directly and at least a million affected directly. Lives were lost, streets redirected, buildings rebuilt, and there was no point to it all. The weight of that power felt heavy, a constant reminder of the responsibility that came with it. The senselessness of the destruction, centered around an Italian restaurant, was a stark contrast to the ideals of heroism.
No villain had yet claimed responsibility for the acts. No one to blame. There was just a responsibility to deal with the aftermath. How heroic.
I teleported away. The mask came off first letting my hair flow out. Then I dumped the rest. It along with my mask would sit in a chemical bath cleaning, sanitizing, and drying it in preparation for the next day of work. I didn’t want to look at the TV. News helicopters had flown over the scene a few times throughout the evening. Everyone got to enjoy that sight for their nightly news.
I fell asleep quickly dreaming of cherry blossoms.