Fallout

Hey. Sorry, it's been a while, hasn't it? There's been quite a lot of cleaning up to do in the aftermath of HG. Everyone's ok. I've got everyone new phones, Hana saved mine but HG took everyone else's and had them destroyed. Ragnarok got me to upgrade his with a bunch of stuff, just like his old one, so it connects to the SOLAR base etc, so I expect he'll be in touch soon.

We limped away from the ruins, flames leaping high behind us. My left leg was dragging, and I was glad to discover I could summon my staff from quantum storage to lean on.as I hobbled along. Healthbar was completely drained from the fight, and the dark sky offered no solar power for her to recharge. There was a hopeful pink glow off to our left, but for now, everyone was staying injured.

The adrenaline we'd all been running on had faded, and everyone was close to collapsing. Except Cecil, his RCR was working hard to repair him. He tugged at Healthbar's shirt. Hey, Healthbar, you can convert dark darker powers into the sunny healing ones, right?'
'Urgh....sort of. It's more of a trade though...ow...I need to take health before I can dispense it, so it's sort of a dark healing.'
'But the healing bit works the same right, same effects?'
'Basically, yeah...nngh...healing is healing.'
He grabbed her hand. 'Take what you need.'
'Uh..HUH?! No!'
'Oh come on, aren't I immortal? I've got more life left than you lot anyway.'
She didn't have the strength to argue further. Smiling gratefully, her hand glowed with dark light, making Cecil wince. She looked refreshed, and waved her free hand, casting a beam of light over the group. We felt a rush of energy, and several clicks were heard as broken bones reconnected, open wounds scabbed over, and aches and pains faded away. Healthbar screamed and the soothing warmth faded. We all turned to see her staring in horror at Cecil. He had looked about nine, but he'd visibly aged, now seeming to be about 12, with a couple of grey hairs in his fringe. He looked at himself, surprised, and grinned. 'Wow, I've been stuck for years! Oh we are DEFINITELY doing this again!' Then he noticed his fringe. 'Ah. Perhaps not...'

We thanked him for his sacrifice, but Healthbar flatly refused to do it again, and we agreed. We'd last until daybreak. He'd helped us enough. Healthbar's hair was a shade darker, and I didn't trust the Vampire not to try and seize control again.

We struggled on, still limping, but feeling a lot better. We'd gone about half a mile when we heard vehicles screeching to a halt, and found ourselves blinking and wincing in the sudden dazzling brightness of headlights.
'Stay where you are!' A voice yelled, and I could feel the buzz of cameras being turned on. A policeman strode out of the light, gun pointed at us. 'Freeze! Who are you? What happened here?!'
I realized the destruction of HG's base had attracted quite a lot of attention, and police and media were now investigating. I turned to face the others. 'Do you trust me?'
Everyone nodded. Some of the new recruits looked a bit unsure, but nodded with the rest.
'Good. We can't hide anymore. It's not working. We have to tell the world.'
'I said freeze!' The policeman yelled.
'Urgh, fine.' I sighed, turning back to him. I waved at his gun, and it began to freeze, ice coating the barrel. He screamed and dropped it, and a woman next to him turned to mutter to a man holding a camera.
'You may as well come forward, we need to talk to you.'
Gasping, the woman crept forwards, still whispering excitedly into her microphone.
'We are now approaching the group, who have been caught fleeing the scene of the explosion, and just moments ago disarmed a policeman from feet away-'
'Please stop, we can explain everything if you give us a chance.'
'Huh? Oh, uh, ok. And you are?'
'I'm Tempest, and we're a group called VHS. We are evolved humans with superhuman abilities, and we've been saving the world in secret for a few years now.'
She just stared. A crowd was forming behind her, and I could see more cameras.
'What channel are you on?'
'.....I'm BBC, we'll be sending this in for the morning news.'
'So we aren't live?'
'Uh, no.'
'Well we are now, and on every channel. We need everyone to see.'
'Wha-?'
I focused, and managed a small fireball in the palm of my hand. Wincing, I watched the reporter gasp, and the cameraman zoom in.
'See? We have powers, but we can't hide anymore. We want to help, do more, but we can't do that if we have to stay secret. The government tried to lock away people like us, and we were so busy hiding that we couldn't stop HG when he took over the world. Now the planet is in chaos, but we want to fix it. Put everything back as it was.'
I gestured to Healthbar, Lily, Pete, Cleone, and Tingle. We formed a circle, holding hands.
'This world is a mess right now, and I'm so sorry for everything you've all been through. We can't rewind time, we can't rewrite what happened, but we can repair the damage. Cleone and Pete are going to boost our powers, and we're going to try and reach out, to everything, everyone, everywhere. and undo as much damage as we can. I can restore plantlife and software, Healthbar can heal injuries and undo any of the more recent deaths, Tingle can wipe out any traces of HG's power, and Lily can control objects at a molecular level, fixing pretty much everything else. We can't undo what happened, but we can set the world straight again.'
The crowd waited expectantly, curious.
'Give it a sec, Healthbar needs to finish healing us first, and for that we need-'
Dawn finally arrived, the sun emerging from behind some ruins and bathing the scene in glorious sunlight. Healthbar began to glow, and all signs of harm vanished from her face, her hair returning to it's usual colour.
'There we go. Watch closely people, we're about to heal the world.'
Healthbar's glow spread round the circle, and a huge surge of power erupted from us, shooting out in all directions. Nothing but white light, everywhere. I whited out, locked into the circle as the world trembled.