Sidapa – 9

A dread set into my mind as I searched around for Scarlet’s body. At the street that was torn a third of the way as it was transported along with the rest of the city was a car that was all the clue that I could see. The car was crumpled as if a body had crashed onto it. There was nobody and I couldn’t see any blood that was present.

At a loss for what to do, I wrack my brain for any clues to what had happened. “Think! What can help you track her down? Maybe try looking at it from-“

My thoughts were cut short at the realization. I sit myself down, my back to a different car that was parked on the street, and switch over to the dragon’s body. Fortunately, it was still atop the same building that Sightseeing and I were posted at. It wasn’t far, and as I looked over towards where my body and the wrecked car was, I could feel its enhanced senses strongly as I search about.

The enhanced senses were exhilarating. I could now fully appreciate the heightened senses and relished in the advantage that it provided me. I could see better, see farther, and see clearer. I could smell surprisingly stronger scents and I could somehow tell where it was coming from. My hearing was much better as well. It was to the point that I could hear individual conversations happening nearby. I turn my attention back to finding out clues to Scarlet’s whereabouts.

I wasn’t sure which of the many scents that I could detect were Scarlet. A few faint trailed towards the broken car, while the rest wandered in every which direction. My mind wasn’t exactly equipped to deal with all that information, so I instead scan the area around where she was last seen. There wasn’t anything that immediately caught my eye. Feeling a little defeated, I sighed out a little. A tickle in the back of my throat reminded me that this body could breathe fire.

With an idle thought and a little guidance from the muscle memory of the body itself, I was able to breathe a release of fire in front of me.

“I can breathe fire!” I tried to set that aside as an idea formed in my mind. I switch back to my own body, then reached out with my powers. I could feel some animal corpses, a bird or two, multiple rats, and even a cat. I feel a body with my power-related senses. It was on the very same rooftop that my dragon was in. “That was probably the angel that died up there.”

Another was the very edge of my powers, towards the tall grass. It felt like a vaguely person-sized corpse. Tentatively I poke my powers towards it, and a feeling of connection surges from me towards the body.

I hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not I should try and control the corpse. On the one hand, I can retrieve it and walk it back towards me, on the other I could just leave it alone but under my control, so I can find it myself. Opting for the former, I brace myself as I reach out my consciousness towards the body.

My vision was blurry as I opened my eyes in this body. I could feel something broken on my arm here. There wasn’t any pain, but the feel of bones protruding through the skin was still something unusual to experience. I look to inspect the damage. Before me were a pair of arms with alabaster skin, one broken and one not. I inspect the form of the angel that I was controlling.

The right arm was broken, and so was the right shin. I feel around for other wounds that would debilitate this form and find that the wings were broken. My hopes were dashed somewhat, but the knowledge that I could use the corpses of the fallen angels was a boon. I switch back to my own body for a moment, then I reach for the angel that was right by my dragon and feel the connection take hold.

It was dark, or rather, the face was so badly burned that the fallen angel’s eyes gave no vision. I could smell the burnt flesh, but no other indication of anything else wrong. I relinquish my hold on the corpse and switch back to the dragon trying to think of ways to search for Scarlet. Before I could come up with a search plan, I feel a gentle tug on my actual body. Sightseeing was tapping on my shoulder as I turned my head.

“H-hey. The group wants to form a plan on what to do next.” She paused, looking about before turning her attention back to me, offering her hand to help me up. “Seeing as you were Scarlet’s second-in-command and how you handled the situation well, everyone thought that we should listen to what you think we should do.”

A worry creased my brow at the thought. I was never one for leadership roles, but it’s not like I wanted to simply abandon these capes. I accept her hand up and begin walking back towards where the rest of the group was waiting. Everyone was shaken by the events of what happened, with Red standing and scanning the skies. Cheshire was staring blankly at the ground and jumped up as Sightseeing and I approached. Houndtooth was a little more awake but seemed still groggy. Two bears were now present, with Sidepocket helping up the injured Reinforce.

Ambulances sounded off in the distance, drawing everyone’s attention. I turn towards the sound, a plan formulating in my head. “Let’s all go back to the city hall. If we have any chance of organizing ourselves, it’s with working with the local government.”

I regard the local capes and hope that they would keep working with us. Houndtooth was a little standoffish before the group mobilized, but hopefully, the events would have calmed him down. He seemed to be a little out of it as I continued.

“First we have to work with the LGUs and discuss what steps we could take to get everyone here some medical attention. The rest of us that can still do our work should then get people to a safe and secure location. Their houses or apartments might not be safe enough if those asshats decide to attack in greater number.”

Everyone turned their eyes westward, towards the floating island with a castle. “So, everyone understands what we are going to do?”

“Establish… with local… government,” That was Reinforce, her voice quivering a little as she seemed to be in pain. “Get medical… treatment… organize civilians… to a safe… location”

I nod and look to the rest of their group. They nod in agreement before we set onwards. I mentally command the dragon to keep to the rooftop and watch for potential attacks from the castle. The dragon seemed to understand as it sat up and kept its eyes on the castle.

The city was unharmed in all the frenzy of activity. The ambulance that we heard had died out and we couldn’t tell specifically where it was. People generally were on the sidewalk staring at the suns or staring at their phones. I fish my phone out and found that I still had no reception. I figured everyone else’s were in the same boat.

The city hall was alight with activity compared to when we were there earlier. Tons of people were at the entrance and the security personnel had to close off the front doors to them. When the crowd saw us approaching they all seemed to rush towards us in a panic.

“Please help us!” One woman said.

“My family! What happened to my family?”

“This is your fault! Capes always bring trouble wherever they are!”

Red was ahead of us and created a path for us as he brandished his flaming sword. Whispers and hushed tones told me that they were afraid of him.

“They’ve got a devil!” Someone from the crowd whispered loudly. Before Red could turn to the source of the whisper, however, Cheshire ushered him forward. The guards recognized us and let us through. They paused at the sight of the two rather mountainous grizzlies but waved it through after getting a stone-faced stare from Houndtooth.

The mayor rushed down the steps as we were all entering the reception area. “Thank goodness you’re back. People need answers. We need answers.”

“What makes you think we have answers?” I asked as I stepped forward. Reinforce nudged the bear that she was riding on forward and was standing with me after a fashion. The mayor looked to the bear, then to Reinforce before looking back to me. He seemed a little sweaty. “Look. We don’t know what happened ourselves. But we should keep it together and form a plan of action.”

“I agree. Don’t you, Mayor Smith?” Reinforce said. I spare her a moment’s glance and she seemed to be putting on a brave face and not showing she was badly hurt.

“R-right.” That was all he could say before turning back to me. “What do we need to do?”

“We stick to the plan. We establish who’s here, and how many people are affected by this. How far this goes, what services we have at our disposal. Then we can figure out other things from there.” I pause and turn to Reinforce who seemed to understand that I was asking for her opinion. When she only nodded, I turned to Mayor Smith to go on. “Seems this event spreads out at least a mile in every direction, possibly a mile-and-a-half. Are there any hospitals or evacuation shelters in that span?”

“There’s a hospital a couple of blocks from here.” Reinforce offered before Mayor Smith could answer. “I’m not sure about evacuation shelters though.”

“There’s a space two blocks from here that we can use. The civic center. Why?” The Mayor asked.

“Well, we’ll have to set up the headcount in an efficient manner. The best way is to have someone be running around with a bullhorn and tell people to gather at the shelter.”

“That’s a great idea. We could work in pairs for that.” Red offered from behind us.

“Yeah. We could do that.” Sidepocket offered as she rummaged around in her back tactical vest pocket. She produced not one, not two, but four bullhorns from inside. Everyone was looking at her with a curious expression as she began handing them out. “What? I keep them for rallies…”

“Okay. That’s covered. Have you made contact with the police?” I asked the Mayor. He nodded but his expression told me there was bad news there.

“Well, they had most officers out on patrol, with only half a dozen in the building when this happened. They haven’t been able to radio anyone ever since.” He looked sullen to be giving the news, but there was no time for that.

“We’ll have to work with that. Can you tell them the same, Mayor Smith? That we need to try and gather everyone that was affected by this and have a headcount. If the hospital is indeed transported with the rest of the city, we need to take two of ours to get looked at.”

“I’m fine.” A grouchy voice echoed behind us. It was Houndtooth, who was sitting atop his bear. He looked far better than he had a few minutes ago, but you could still plainly see that he wasn’t at one-hundred percent. “Ain’t going to no stinkin’ doctor.”

“Hound…” Reinforce started. She had a stern but motherly look to her as she regarded the Viking-themed cape. “You and I will go, and we’ll get reports from the team on the progress. Will that work?”

I nodded in affirmation of her question. He relented in the end. “Fine. Fine.”

“Alright. Now that that’s settled, let’s get to it then.” We didn’t waste time and began filing out of the city hall. I turn to Reinforce who was leading her group. “Do you think you can get yourself and Houndtooth to the hospital?”

“Yeah. My ankle isn’t that bad. I can hop a bit and these will help.” She indicated crutches that were hanging on the saddle of the bear she rode.

“Okay. I’ll take the rest of your team and we’ll get things in order and hopefully figure out a plan forward.” She nodded once and pulled her and Houndtooth’s bear northwards. Sightseeing, Sidepocket, Red, and Cheshire all watched the two depart for a moment before turning to me.

“Alright. Now what?” Sidepocket said quietly.

“Well, as I said earlier in there, I think our best chance is to get a good assessment of how many people are part of this. We’ll have to know who has access to their homes, how many homes are actually usable, supplies…” She trailed off as she rattled off the things that they might need in the short term. Water was the most important one in her mind. “Do either of you know if there’s a water treatment facility nearby?”

Sidepocket shook her head, but Sightseeing was nodding. “Yeah. It’s south of here… I think it takes the water from the river, but I’m not entirely sure.”

“We’ll check that out later after we’ve made sure to account for everyone that’s affected by this. So, that’s the plan. Find people, get them going towards the civic center. Once that’s done we’ll see what the water situation is.” They all nodded as I laid out the barest hint of a plan to deal with all this.

“I’ve got my bike up here. I can ride around and use the bullhorn to let those affected know.” Sightseeing said as she slung the bullhorn around her torso.

“I can do that too. I can fly around with it and let people know.” Cheshire added.

“Good. I think the best way to deal with this is going from the outside in. Start from the farthest affected.” I turn to Red and Sidepocket. “We’ll need someone that organizes the people that they manage to convince to come. Can I count on you two to keep an eye on the civilians?”

They both nodded. I try to wrack my brain further. “Maybe it was better to have the populace stay inside their homes if they are already in their homes? Have those that don’t have homes to gather instead?”

“Actually,” I began. “Instead of having everyone come to the civic center, we’ll have those that can go home to do so, and those that can’t gather here.” They slowly nodded their head, not offering up any objections. It was a little frustrating to be the only one putting ideas forward if I was being honest with myself. But they weren’t willing to take the helm so I had to deal with it for now.

“I think that’s a better idea.” That was Cheshire, offering a smile and a nod. That was a little reassuring. “What’ll you be doing though?”

“I’ll be helping you and Sightseeing in getting people that don’t have access to their homes, but I’ll also be keeping an eye on the sky. We don’t want to get surprised by those angel fucks.” They all seemed to look a bit grimmer at the mention of the angels. “Okay, we know what we need to do, for now, so let’s get to it.