And so, the call went out. Across the city, across the country, across the world, the call went out.
In the neighbourhood of Eastside, Red Heart was engaged in a police operation to catch the main drug-running gang in the neighbourhood. Suddenly, his mobile went off. He heard what his daughter had to say, made his apologies to the police, and immediately began scouring the city.
In the city of Hyderabad, Siddha Narayana was checking water samples from a local Crey Corporation processing plant for mutagens. His phone rang. He answered, made some notes, and was off for Paragon City as soon as possible.
In the suburbs of the city of Shoreton, South Carolina, Peitr Braun came home for his lunch-break, helping out at the shelter, and received a message on his answering machine. When he heard what his grandson had to tell him, he immediately drove down to the bus station, and caught the bus to Paragon City.
At Pearl Harbour, a delegation of Japanese government officials was engaged in a Shinto ceremony, to honour the dead. When it was over, a clerk hurried into the hall, and handed a fax to Samurai Zero, Japan's national super-soldier. When he read it, he showed it to his superior, the Minister for Defence. When he nodded, Samurai Zero flew east.
In the neighbourhood known as Faultline, the detective known as Shrodinger was going over the evidence in a kidnapping case. A sergeant handed her a copy of a dispatch. She read it, and immediately left.
On a government-owned farm near Volgograd, the Heroic Defenders of the Motherland were engaged in a publicity-garnering photo shoot, harvesting wheat. Suddenly, Kukuruznik received a message from Moscow on his suit-radio, which he explained to the leader; with a nod from her, Kukuruznik, and his friend, Alexei, went to the jet, and flew to Paragon City.
In the secret underground kingdom of Saurium, King Firescale received a message from the human embassy. When he read it, he smiled, remembering happier times, and then he began making arrangements to go to the surface world.
Le Fantome ran across the roofs of the strange city, the wind in his face and the world at his feet. He had missed this. From the day his parents had been killed, and he'd been forced to fend for himself, he had come to know Paris better than most any man alive. His time working with others, defending his country from invasion, was over. Now he was free again, free to take from others richer than him, and give to those less powerful. During the shelling of Paris, he had saved people from collapsing buildings. That had been the start of it. From there, he had seen and done more than he would've thought possible, facing mythic giants, the fairies of his Breton mother's ancestors, and mechanical abominations. Through it all, he had longed to return to his sweetheart, Paris. Now he was told that Paris had changed beyond recognition. He would grieve for her, but in the meantime, a new city beckoned, one that had never had to deal with a cat burglar of his skill.
As he raced across the roofs in the sunlight, he was aware of a man chasing him. Doubtless one of those batards from the strange hospital. He proceeded to use every trick he knew to evade capture: doubling back, using flagpoles as trapezes, running through building sites, even jumping onto the roof of a train. It was no use; the strange man knew the city better than he did. Time to see if he fought as well.
He stopped on a rooftop, and faced the man, just a few steps behind him. The man was clearly out of breath, like himself. He was dressed in a red leotard, with a heart in darker red on his left breast.
"I must admit, m'sieur, that you dance most prettily," ha told the man, "but leave us see if you dance as well when your life depends upon it." With that, he lunged, with his sword drawn. The man took a pair of batons from his belt, and a fight began. They moved back and forth across the roof. The man didn't have the offensive abilities of Fantome, but he was far better at defending himself. When he caught a cut to the chest, he used the attack to return with a blow to the face, just hard enough to stun him.
When Fantome stumbled back from this, his opponent came after him. He caught the sword in one hand, and sat on his legs. "You know," he said, further out of breath, "I just wanted a word with you."