The Universe's Mixer

Bill had been cooped up in his apartment writing comics. The work was steady and he was surprised to discover how well The City paid, desperate for new strips. Bill produced two for The City, which was more work than he initially realized. The first was a super heroine comic who very closely resembled Promethea who usually fought robots or nazis, and flirted with a handsome FBI agent between action sequences. The second was a continuation of Rex Morgan, MD. Bill was careful to keep with the style of ever sentence ending in either an exclamation mark, ellipses or question. He also introduced new characters based on the friendly City Hospital medical staff.

The City was otherwise quiet. Bill kept a police scanner handy on his desk in case he heard of anything needing his intervention. Promethea had not made an appearance since her change but that didn't stop both mild mannered comic artist and science heroine from feeling cooped up. So it wasn't a mistake at nearly midnight when working on the latest Sofia: Science Heroine! strip that Bill imagined himself in a happier place and transformed.

Flying from her apartment, Promethea spied on The City below. Landing softly in The City Commons, she decided to take a walk. From each step, beautiful flowers blossomed from the trees and ground, figments from the realm of imagination which slowly faded, creating a trail of botanical wonder in her wake.

Her mind was like no other. There was a chorus of voices, both avatars of the past, present and future wound together into a song that made up Promethea's existence as a living story. Her thoughts had the intangibility of a goddess with the tangibility of a song, making it pretty to hear but nearly impossible to discern.

It was good to be out. Promethea stretched out her arms, reaching for the sky. Pleased.

Promethea flew over The City, watching over its residents. The caduceus lit up like hot blue fire leaving a noticeable trail in the sky. In the days and weeks following the disappearance and reappearance of The City Promethea had broken up several fights, stopped the looting of four stores and taken exactly thirteen citizens to the hospital, one of them a young boy.

It was not the most glamorous work but science heroes made excellent custodians in the aftermath of great disasters and tragedies.

Things slowly appeared to be returning to normal. The City still shifted like changing sands, but that was a feature that most people became accustomed to after their first week here. It made flying an interesting challenge in the downtown amongst the tall sky scrappers.

Today Promethea had not needed to intervene at all. Bill would soon be able to return home, if his landlord hadn't already assumed the long absence meant he was dead and given the apartment to someone else.

Bill and Promethea sighed.