Chapter Text
A Spark of Something Greater.
Patience and Time.
Delicate golden rays cast down upon the city’s dilapidated superstructures as the sun begins to peek over the horizon. Massive shadows cover much of the swamp-like surface of what used to be the bustling streets of a roaring metropolis. But that age has long since passed.
In a half-flooded alleyway, squeezed between two crumbling towers, a relatively intact trash bin rattles slightly before a small mechanical figure emerges from the refuse. Slowly floating out of the bin, with its glowing eye facing slightly downward. Disappointed, it pauses for a moment before steadily propelling itself through the alley and into a window of one of the many buildings somehow still standing in this enormous swamp.
The little light moves carefully around each of the dark rooms of the abandoned office, diligently searching for something. The machine shines its light through the black corridors, searching floor by floor, occasionally stopping to observe the heavily decayed remains of the building's former inhabitants.
Rays of sunlight begin to shine through the windows of even the highest floors of the skyscraper, allowing the floating surveyor to rest its lamp and comb the building under natural light.
Near a large gap in the outer wall of the office building, the machine stops in its tracks and lets out a stifled yet audible gasp as it spots yet another long-deceased corpse, reduced to little more than bones and tattered clothing.
The bones appear no different than the others scattered about the building, but something about them stops the machine's search.
“Could it really be…” the machine utters in a soft, almost motherly, voice of near disbelief. “But how will we…” she contemplates before quickly moving to the breach.
Looking down below, the machine can see what appears to be the final resting place of a large helicopter, marked with the words ’DISASTER RESPONSE’. Most of the blades have been snapped in two, or are completely missing. The body of the aircraft is in a state beyond repair, whether from a crash or due to its exposure to the elements over the many years it has sat dormant in the swamp of Old Chicago.
Her surrounding shell spins around in excitement as she moves back to the old bones. This shell opens up into individual segments orbiting the metal orb that houses her bright eye as a powerful glow of blue swirling energy blooms from within it.
As she stares intently at the skeleton, the same brilliant energy begins to envelop each bone in a blue aura. Miraculously, in almost an instant, the flesh returns to the long-forgotten bones and is filled with life. The dead man jolts up to his knees and gasps in his first breath as he is bathed in sunlight.