The heavy scent of smoke hung over the city.

Despite the relatively lack of damage from the Endbringer, there had been no respite for Brockton Bay not with the Slaughterhouse nine dropping by and doing actual damage to the city as they recruited new members before simply leaving.

There had been the usual cape fights.

But on a whole, Brockton Bay was surviving.

And she was going to make sure that it would do more than just survive. She would make sure it thrived. Even if she was a former villain, the aftermath of Maya had done things.

New lines drawn, new alliances made.

Shared suffering tended to bring people together. And when said suffering is having portions of your mind, your memories, your very existence being taken away... rendered as if it never was. That made it different.

People changed.

Some for the worse.

Others for the better.

Which was she was here. At the sight of Faultline, she smiled and waved.

"Tattletale," The blonde blinked at Faultline.

"Ah... you weren't here for Maya, were you?" She spoke up in response. "M... my cape name was one of the things that was lost that day. Objectively, I know I had one and all that."

She shook her head. "In any event, I do apologize for making you come back here. More important, I have to appologize for my past behavior with you. I was a complete bitch and I'm sorry."

"Damn... I can't even stay angry with you," Faultline could only shake her head.

She shrugged. "Sorry, I don't go by that... word you called me. Nowadays, I go by Lisa. Stands for Logical Intelligent Sexy Analysis."

"... you're using your name as your cape name. Seriously?" The question got a smile from Lisa.

"Maybe?" She shook her head. "In any event, I've invited you back here with an offer of lots of money for a simple reason. I intend to fix Brockton Bay. It's kind of grown on me... and to do that, I need to borrow Labyrinth to combine her power with Scrub here..."

Lisa smiled. "If you want, you can come in on the ground floor of what we're going to set up here. It'll be something new. Something big. Something that will change the world."

"That's it, feel for a world where there's no people," Lisa nodded at Labyrinth as the two stood in front of the shifting image encased within the gate. Gold and marble formed rough boulders stacked in a horseshoe entrance.

Eventually, the picture flickered and stopped. A landscape view of a city. It was Brockton Bay before things changed. Before the Endbringer, before parahumanity, before Scion. Intact and undamaged.

Here and there could be seen empty cars.

"It. I, there's nothing here," Labyrinth's voice was soft. The way that she emphasized nothing got a blink from Lisa. "Nothing sees me."

"Could you look el..." The blonde paused and swallowed as Labyrinth continued on.

"Nothing hears me. Nothing is speaking to me."

"Cou... could you change it to another world quickly, Labyrinth?" Lisa's voice didn't hold the panic of fear she felt.

"Nothing is curious," A figure. A girl that Lisa remembered from her nightmares. Slender and tall, with long flowing hair, crimson framed glasses. Bits and pieces of her could only be made out by the blonde as she found herself unable to focus on the totality.

An image of a girl wearing a blinding white sundress cast upon the wall, sauntered into view.

There was a tilt of a head that expressed surprise and curiosity. A smile and a shake of head, and the landscape shifted and mutated wildly, before letters drifted and formed into words, ever so briefly.

~All other worlds
are yours except
for this.
Attempt no
gates here.~

An instant or an eternity, those worlds hung on the gate before another landscape formed once more. A landscape filled with trees, mountains could be seen in the distance. The land sloped downwards, filled with trees before becoming a plain. One filled with immense creatures that wandered upon massive limbs, their armored backs covered with plant life, while avians drifted about them on wings.

In the sky could be seen the moon broken, and drifting around it rubble. Perhaps an asteroid that would have struck earth eons ago had been at the wrong angle, and just slow enough to be caught by the moon to strike it.

"Well. I guess now. Now we know where Maya went after hitting us. A place to rest and recover, kind of like the others. And it has watched old Earth Aleph movies."

.

Maya | Gateways into nowhere

Worm AU