"Alice Ward, on the scenes of Daffodil!"
Violet had required she wear summer clothes, since it was on a small little island where the sun was constantly shining down. Daffodil on the other hand required her to wear a jacket due to the chill that was ever present.
Today, Alice found herself standing somewhere in the middle of the city, posing for her camera. She wore a simple white dress with a red jacket thrown over it and had a hand on her hip as she pointed forward.
"Keep it steady, June..."
"I'm trying." The cameraman grunted. "This stuff is heavy, though, and I haven't rested since the flight of stairs we had to climb up just to get to this spot..."
Alice turned and opened her arms, gesturing out to the surroundings around her. "Welcome to Daffodil! Also known as one of the strangest cities on Earth!"
Daffodil was entirely indoors. The city itself was made up of hundreds of different towers that all branched off of one another, forming into a single massive structure that was all packed together tightly. Everything in the city was inside of these buildings. It served more or less as a bunker to keep the people inside safe from the constant disasters or rampaging monsters that were always around. Daffodil itself was on the edge of where several monsters would always pop up, hence why the city had been built the way it was since that was cheaper than moving every single person to a different part of the world.
Because of this everything inside of Daffodil sort of looked as if it was underground. There was a massive roof above them that had various lights since there was no sun to be found, and it was made up of vast networks of bridges and tunnels that led to some of the other buildings. Large sections of it would form bigger rooms for the people, but for the most part, Daffodil was tight and compressed in on itself. It was sort of like the place you'd see in a post-apocalypse novel.
Everyone in Daffodil had a job to do. Its people were trained at a young age to pick up various skills, and everyone always worked together like a colony of ants to maintain the structure that they lived in. The city itself was also protected by a team known as Sun Eaters, led by the newest member of the Enforcers, Wyvern.
"As you can see, Daffodil is pretty different from Oleander." Alice walked down the many hallways. They were all made out of a silverish metal, and no matter where she went, there was always a tunnel leading somewhere, with a set of stairs going up or down. Various doors were all along the walls, some leading to the common rooms where people had their personal bunkers, others leading to the massive mess halls that offered food. Patrolling the halls of Daffodil were various Hero Branch guards, all dressed in full riot gear, maintaining the peace. "It's quite a stressful place to live in, I think."
"I wouldn't want to be here." June, the cameraman,n nodded and moved the camera up and down. "Imagine being indoors always. Why's a place like this even exist?"
"That's a good question." Alice turned and winked at the camera. "Daffodil was built here to more or less serve as a doomsday bunker. Many of the rich and powerful had it built around the time the Emperor first declared war on the world. Should the planet fall, they all thought they could live out here. When the Emperor finally fell, though, it was too late to get rid of this place since so much of the budget had already gone into it. Not to mention, they needed a place to store several of the refugees who all lost their homes. So, Daffodil was repurposed from a bunker into this weird indoors city. It's not normal, and in some ways, I'd say it could even be a little cruel to live here."
They passed by a section of the hallway that had a window on it, showing off another room. It seemed to be some sort of sports area, and several kids were playing, some riding bikes, others throwing a ball back and forth. Even in a weird place like this, life was still thriving.
"You might be wondering how a place like this functions?"
"I am a bit," June admitted.
Alice watched several of the kids play before she shot a look at some of the guards that walked the halls. "Nightshade exists as a prison for Supers and monsters. It is the ultimate hell hole bad guys end up at. In a way Daffodil could possibly be considered the same for us humans. Back in the day, when it was decided that this would be turned into a makeshift city, the Hero Branch threw all the people they didn't want to deal with into this place. They likely expected them to collapse, yet humans somehow survived and expanded. They weren't given much land, just a small bit of it, and they were forced to share it with many monsters and other things the Branch didn't like, but despite all of that, Daffodil still managed to stay standing. Its people expanded it the best they could, and it eventually got recognized as part of the Hero Branch and became an official city. Often times whenever a person in society asks up, they are sent here, and Daffodil is more or less used to straighten them out."
"What do you mean?" June asked.
"Daffodil requires its people to work with the city so it can stay standing. After all, it's entirely indoors, and due to the constant attacks from climates or monsters, it needs maintenance. Because of that, Daffodil doesn't deal with people who refuse to work. When you arrive here in Daffodil you either pick up a trade and get to work, or you get turned into an outcast and are kicked out of the city."
"What happens if you get kicked out?"
"Well, chances are you won't make it to any of the other cities since you're out in the middle of nowhere. Guess you'll have to survive out in the Wastelands the rest of the world has been reduced to and hope for the best." Alice giggled. "So in a way Daffodil serves more or less as a way to scare people into behaving. Most people don't want to end up here since they'll be put to harsh work, so the other cities people behave to prevent the Branch from sending them to such a place. As for Daffodil's people, they're so busy working and keeping the city functional that they don't have time to care about how they're being used. Many actually go on to live great lives, believe it or not."
"Really?"
"Yes. Since you're always working, you either get good or become a faceless member in the crowd. Imagine constantly maintaining this place. You'd have to be one good mechanic. So oftentimes, when a person gets good enough, they're allowed to leave Daffodil as the Hero Branch will recognize their skills and send them to one of the other great cities. That's another purpose of this place. To help benefit and expand the rest of the world."
"So Daffodil is more or less a prison and a school?" June questioned. "You're sent here when you're bad, but once you gain something society views as worthy, they let you out? That doesn't sound very fair."
"What's unfair are the people who never reach that level and stay here. They live their lives and have kids." Alice turned away from the children who were playing and began to stalk the halls once more. Many of the walls were covered in various posters, all looking or requesting for different special skills or asking for its people to sign up for the Hero Branch. "Imagine being a child and growing up in such a place."
"You seem to know a lot about this place, Mrs. Ward..."
Alice turned back to the camera and pointed up to the roof above. "Sadly, I wasn't able to get a word in with any of the people of this place, but I did manage to bag an interview with one of its heroes! Follow me!"
June struggled to keep up with the older woman as Alice began to dart through the many different hallways, going up and down several stairs. Alice led them to one of the many mess halls and entered it. The room was large, about the size of a small park, and had dozens of different tables lined up on the walls. Several people sat at them digging into their food, this section of the city on a small break. One member stood out from the crowd though. A man who wore a long brown cloak and kept his hood up. A hero of Daffodil. He was eating some sort of gray slope and barely flinched as Alice took a seat in front of him.
"You're Earth Worm, right!" Alice declared, pointing at the Super.
Earth Worm still didn't bother to lift his head and just sighed. From his cloak, a small pinkish tendril poked out. It had a mouth on it and began to slurp up the slope. "And you are?"
"I'm Alice Ward! A member of Oleander's news crew!"
"You're far from Oleander."
"I'm actually going to city, to city, and interviewing its people," Alice explained. "Putting together a document to show off how different cities are and what it's like."
"I see." Earth Worm nodded, and the tendril pulled its way back into his cloak. "So why are you bothering me?"
June leaned down next to Alice and whispered. "I thought you said you got permission? He's acting like he doesn't know us?"
Alice ignored her friend and folded her arms as she stared at the hero. "What can you tell me about Daffodil? You're a part of Team Sun Eaters, right? So you must have some inside information."
Earth Worm grumbled a few things under his breath. "Yes. I'm part of Sun Eaters. I'm the right hand of Wyvern. Look, this place sucks, but we make due okay. We save the day when a monster attacks, and we make sure the people are well-fed. I don't like it, and I wish the Branch would do something about it. Maybe put that in whatever dumbass blog you're doing this for."
"Oh it's not for a blog it's for-"
"Don't care." Earth Worm stood up and then flinched as a loud alarm went off. Red lights buzzed through the room, and the building suddenly began to shake. "Great."
June let out a soft groan and shook his head. "Why does stuff like this keep happening to us? We seriously got shit luck!"
Earth Work looked at the camera man and shrugged. "Well, might as well make you useful. Wanna see us save Daffodil?"
***
"Open your mouth."
Wyvern sighed and then opened her mouth as wide as she could. The doctor brought his flashlight up and peered into her maw. He used a strange metal rod, which he poked past her lips and placed on the top of her tongue. He pulled it back and looked down at the rod, watching as it sizzled and bubbled up.
"Looks like your fire glands are working just fine." The doctor hummed.
Wyvern let out a small snort, and a flicker of flames came out of her nose. "I told you I was fine, Doctor. Even if I wasn't, though, there's not much you could do about it."
The doctor gave a small nod. "Yes, you're right. If you were actually injured, I'd likely have to call in Paragon to heal you. Sadly, I'm just a mere mortal. Your body is much too hot to operate on with normal tools. And no, that wasn't a joke about you being attractive." The doctor moved away from her and began to take off his gloves, throwing them away.
Wyvern let out a soft giggle and began to put her clothes back on. Once she was dressed, she allowed her eyes to roam around the room she was in. It looked like your standard doctor's room, if a little smaller. Daffodil was quite the strange city, so it was always nice to see normal things like this. The total opposite of herself...
Wyvern allowed her eyes to drift to where a large mirror hung up on the wall. She quietly stared at her reflection, taking her appearance in. A young woman with long red hair and bright orange eyes stared back at her. A small, tiny pair of horns stabbed out of the top of her head, and across her skin were small red scales that had been jutted into the flesh. A long and thick red tail came directly out of her backside, which wagged around softly. She always hated how she looked. How inhuman she truly was.
Wyvern shook her head and stood up slowly. She had come to Daffodil's Hero Branch doctor to get a routine checkup. Something she was required to do since she was a monster. Like all monsters, her body risked changing and evolving further than her powers could keep up with, so she always had to come down here every few days to make sure she was still mostly human.
"How'd you guys deal with injured Supers before Paragon?" Wyvern asked, letting out a soft hum. "I mean, she's really amazing, able to heal with just a touch. It's hard to think of a time before her."
The doctor nodded and finished jotting down some of his notes. "Yes, Paragon is quite amazing. She's hardworking as well, constantly being flown out to every different city and asked to heal the people us normal doctors can't. In the past, though, we had healers that were just as good as her."
"You did?"
"Yeah." The doctor gave a faint grin. "Most doctors know the story of Doctor Alma and Doctor Blue. The two of them worked for the Branch and were some of the greatest healers in the world. Made all the more impressive by the fact that Doctor Alma was just a normal human. Despite that, he was always quick to take risks when it was required, and luck always seemed to be on his side. He and Doctor Blue made quite the team. Like Paragon, Doctor Blue was a Super blessed with powers that allowed him to heal. His was different, though. He would always create medicine and other miracle drugs that could do the impossible, such as regrow limbs."
"I think I heard a bit about Doctor Blue." Wyvern hummed softly. "He died fifteen years ago, didn't he?"
"Well, him and Alma. Though their bodies were never found." The doctor sighed. "It's a shame, really, since Doctor Blue was close to making a breakthrough on his soul theory."
Wyvern froze for a moment and narrowed her eyes. The Emperor had also been researching souls. That's what had driven the man insane. After losing his family, the Emperor had sworn he'd bring them back and tried to use his powers to replicate and prove the existence of souls. It was a dangerous slope trying to prove the existence of something you couldn't physically see or interact with. Perhaps it was a good thing Doctor Blue's research remained unfinished.
Wyvern was about to say something else to the doctor, but a small beep echoed from her pockets. "Looks like I'm being paged." The hero sighed.
The Doctor chuckled. "As usual, something is going wrong in Daffodil. Alright then, lass, be on your way. I'll give you a clean bill of health."
"Thanks." Wyvern smiled and made her way over to the window. She didn't bother going out the front door. This way was much faster. She opened the window and then jumped out, falling. "Let's see what the issue is this time!"
As she fell, she allowed her eyes to roam over her city. Daffodil was likely one of the strangest cities in the world. It was also one of the biggest cities in the world, but it was also the narrowest. Whereas other cities expanded outwards, Daffodil went straight up. It was placed onto a thin circular platform that was only about three miles wide, yet it had to fit an entire massive city upon it. Because of this, the entirety of Daffodil was made up of a series of massive skyscrapers that just kept climbing up, higher and higher. Everyone pretty much stayed indoors inside of Daffodil, and you had to use a series of elevators or bridges to get to different sections of the city. Buildings constantly jutted off one another, and the only reason such a place like this was able to exist was because of Avalon and Boy Genius.
Gravity was distorted and twisted around the entirety of the city, most of it being held up by various gravity pads that the two greatest Mental-based Supers in the world had created. The city itself was so tall, and there were so many vast buildings that branched out that it sort of looked like a stone tree that reached all the way up into space.
Because of this, Wyvern began to fall for miles, dropping past the clouds. The heat of her fall barely bothered her, and she spun herself around, allowing herself to look up to the sky. It was daytime, but she could still see the moon, her eyes tracing over dozens of cracks that had littered it. Flashes of the Emperor went through her mind for a moment.
She had been there back then. A young child. Unlike most monsters, which used to be humans, she had been born as one. A cursed child of the villain Fairy Queen. In other words, she was actually a sibling to Polaron, though she had never met the metal-based villain.
Wyvern closed her eyes, feeling gravity pull her down to the ground. At the last moment, right before she'd hit the ground, her eyes snapped open, and large red wings jutted out of her back. They looked like something that would belong to a dragon within legends, and they fanned out, ripping through the air. She twirled around and flew, her pager beeping louder and louder as she approached the area that needed her help.
"Sister!" A voice cried out. "Down here!"
All the way at the very bottom of Daffodil, on the metal platform that the city had been built on, a group of people were waving her over. The platform itself floated above the ground by a couple of meters, and past it was a massive hole that had been dug underneath the platform, which had even more buildings, these ones being built from the bottom of the platform and going down into the ground like stalactites.
Wyvern landed down next to the group of people who had been waiting for her. "What's the issue?" She asked in a cool tone as her wings folded their way back into her back.
There were three people who were part of her personal team. The one who had yelled for her was a young boy only about sixteen or seventeen. He was her younger brother and looked very similar to her, having red hair, orange eyes, and wearing a bright red costume. His name was Drake.
"There's a fire on the bottom level," Drake explained, pointing down the side of the platform they were on. "Some Cleanup Squad workers were expanding the buildings downward so we could make more room and hit a lava pocket that spread. The Daffodil Sub Enforcers were stationed down there and managed to get everyone out, but the lava and fire are spreading."
"I see." Wyvern nodded her head. "I'll go down there and handle it."
"I'll come with you." A second member of her team stated. He was an older man with snow-white hair and blue eyes. Like her, he had a few scales that were scattered across his body and a white tail that slapped at the ground. His name was Draco, and instead of a fire dragon-like she was, he was a dragon of ice. "I can put out the fire."
"I want to come as well." Drake nodded.
Wyvern shook her head and flicked her brother on the forehead. "You're too young and not nearly as fire-resistant as I am."
"Sorry, little buddy, we need you here in case something goes wrong," Draco said, slapping Drake on the back, who just huffed.
The final member of her team stepped forward. "I can get you both down there, but I'll have to stay up here since I'd be cooked alive." Earth Worm was the oldest and second in charge of team Sun Eater. He was a dark-skinned man who wore a thick, heavy brown cloak. Unlike the rest of the team, he wasn't a monster, though his power did allow him to control mindless monsters. Earth Worm brought his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle. "Fluffy will get you down to the bottom fast." He explained.
Past the platform, going down into the massive hole alongside the wall of the pit, something massive began to pull itself out. It was a large brown worm the size of several buses lined up. It let out a loud cry, and Wyvern and Draco wasted no time. They jumped off the platform and landed on the worm's back. Earth Worm stayed behind and kept a hand on Drake's shoulder.
"Keep my little brother safe!" Wyvern called out.
"I will." Earth Worm nodded.
"You ready?" Wyvern shot a look at Draco, who just nodded.
The worm they stood on let out another cry and fully stabbed itself out of the ground and began to rapidly descend down the pit.
Just like up top, several of the buildings jutted out in all directions, going downwards and forming what looked almost like an upside-down stone street with wild branches. Daffodil was one of the few cities that had a mix of humans and monsters that lived together mostly in harmony. The Hero Branch had given them the small little platform and said they had to keep the city within that limit, which was why it was built the way it was, going both up and down. They weren't allowed to expand out, so instead, they would just take up all the space they had been given, making a tightly packed together city.
Sometimes, however, this would cause issues, such as now. As they were falling, thick black smoke began to rapidly rise up, and the heat began to grow. At the very bottom, she spotted a massive lake of lava, which bubbled up, seemingly angry. A destroyed section of a bottom building went down into it, and the metal had turned into a nasty red-hot color, with fire crawling up along it.
Clinging to the side of the Daffodil building, she spotted the Daffodil Sub Enforcer leader. Long Legs looked like a normal man save for his arms and legs. At his elbow and his kneecaps, the limbs split off and grew, giving him four arms and four legs on each side, for a total of eight arms and eight legs. Currently, he was dressed in heavy firefighter gear, carrying several extinguishers, and he walked alongside one of the downward skyscrapers, doing his best to put out some of the fire.
Fluffy, the worm, stopped falling and clung to the side of the pit wall, directly across from Long Legs. "LL, what's going on?" Wyvern called out. She knew the gist, but she thought it'd be best to double-check with the Sub Enforcers captain since he had been in the thick of it when it started.
"Some of the guys were expanding the tower and hit a pocket of the ground that exploded." Long Legs called back. "Magma started squirting out everywhere, and the damn thing became superheated. My team managed to get most of the people out, and we're doing our best to slow the magma, but it keeps rising."
"It's likely something created by Alien." Draco sighed. "He's the biggest monster ever recorded on Earth and usually stays at the bottom of the ocean. Sometimes he turns over, though, and shifts things around there so badly that it causes mass distortions and affects the core of the planet."
"Well, whatever is causing it doesn't matter." Long Legs yelled out. "Can you guys stop the lava and fire?"
Wyvern nodded. "Leave it to us. Fluffy, you stay here." The worm rumbled, and both she and Draco grew their wings out and dropped down further into the pit.
Near the bottom, she saw two more members of the Daffodil Sub Enforcers. Stone Fist was a tall and buff older teen, soon to be an adult, who was also dressed in heavy fire-repellent clothes. He had the ability to grow strong rocks out of his flesh, and he did that, constantly chucking massive boulders down at the fire in an attempt to put it out. Next to him was his boyfriend, Cube, who wore a stone-looking box outfit and had the ability to create energy cubes that could be used to form walls. Currently, Cube was using this power to block off several cracks and dents alongside the upside-down towers to stop any of the fire or heat from getting in.
"We'll take it from here, you two!" Wyvern called out as she flew past them. "You guys, head back up!"
"You got it, boss lady!" Stone Fist called out. He had clung to the side of one of the towers with a large stone arm he had created, but he used it to pull himself up and wrapped his other arm around Cube, dragging his boyfriend with him.
Draco nodded at them and turned back to Wyvern as they neared the bottom. "Ready?"
Wyvern smirked and twisted her body. She opened her mouth as wide as she could and inhaled. Instantly, all the fire that was around them twitched and began to rise up, going directly into her mouth. Even the lava started to do this. She was the leader of Sun Eater for a reason, after all. While she did this, Draco huffed out and blasted a wave of clear mist, which smashed into the bottom of the pit. Ice spread out rapidly, covering the walls and flooring, and started to cool off the lava. Once she had eaten all the fire, Wyvern closed her eyes and focused her power, forcing it to shift and invert. Her red scales changed to blue, and she spat up, suddenly blasting out a torrent of water. It flooded the area, falling over Draco's ice, and rapidly began to freeze back into place, filling up cracks and putting out the rest of the flames and hardening the lava.
It only took them a few moments to clear up the area. Wyvern wiped her mouth, and her scales shifted back to red. She dropped down and landed on the ice, feeling the temperature begin to even out. "That wasn't too bad."
"Good." Draco smiled and landed next to her. "Glad we fixed it so fast. We'll need to get some guys to fix the damage to the building, though. In the meantime, it looks like we blocked this hole off. Guess we won't be building down any time soon." Draco tapped his foot on his ice. "Luckily, my ice won't melt even when exposed to your flames, so it shouldn't be going away any time soon."
Wyvern nodded and looked back up at her city in silence. It was such a wacky and strangely built place. Despite that, though, it was still her city, and she was proud to be its protector. Before she could say anything else, a soft beep came from her pocket, and she pulled out her pager, looking down at it.
"More trouble?" Draco asked.
Wyvern shook her head. "Nope. I'm being asked to go to Rose."
"Rose? Wait, are you being called for a meeting?"
"Yep." Wyvern hummed. "It's been a while since we've all come together. I wonder how my other fellow Enforcers are doing."
Meanwhile, up top, poking out of one of the many windows, Alice hung her body out, holding June's camera since he was too scared to get any of the shots himself. June stayed behind her and kept his arms around her waist, struggling to hold her and make sure she didn't fall off.
"Yep," Alice muttered quietly. "This place is still just as shit as I remember. Still... I guess I'm a little happy to see that the people here are still living their lives."