THE MOMENT
"The City is perhaps, the greatest feat of engineering all of civilization has ever known," Mayor Trembles was proud of the City, regardless of his reason for being in the beachside office. He was meeting with a man known to solve problems for a price. "It's capable of supplying and recycling its own resources, able to slowly convert the surroundings into more of itself, the City is an unending urban sprawl," he said.
“I'm guessing you didn't call in all those favors to get here just to brag,” Ozone smiled. “Let me guess, you lost control?”
“We chose not to install a centralized intelligence to hopefully avoid that problem…,” Mayor Trembles nodded.
“Each layer of the process is self-sufficient and narrowly focused. Too focused. It has learned how to use organic material, and our fail-safes are non-responsive. The City 's projected to engulf the Earth within two decades if we can't stop it. The sooner the better.”
“What are you thinking it's gonna take to stop it? Couple of nukes?” Ozone asked. Mayor Trembles shook his head.
“We've already tried that. It was designed to be extraordinarily resilient.”
“So destroying it is on the table?” Ozone grinned. The Mayor nodded.
“As much as I wish it weren't, that seems to be the best course. We've already learned quite a bit from the initial design. And, naturally, we evacuated before the bombing. There's no reason to preserve any part of it. If it's not completely destroyed, it will rebuild.”
“Alright,” Ozone nodded. “We can call this one a favor. I'll arrange a task force to destroy your city, and you'll owe me one.”
“Really?” The Mayor's eyes lit up. Ozone had a certain reputation for being business-focused and not very generous. He had no idea how much destroying the City would cost, but he took the meeting anyway, hoping to appeal to Ozone’s kindness.
Ozone was a multiversal mercenary leader with associates in all levels of governments across likely millions of Earths. Once the City went rogue, a few key friends suggested Ozone could help, but those recommendations alone weren’t enough to land a meeting with the powerful man. He had to call in obligations from every stray acquaintance he’d met in passing just to visit his beachside office. The existence of the multiverse itself wasn’t a secret, and they’d used advanced technologies from other Earths in the City’s construction.
“Well,” Ozone chuckled. “Your Earth’s economy doesn’t have quite enough cash for me to call it a straight service. You literally could not afford it.”
“Oh…,” Mayor Trembles was slightly deflated, but he had no other choice. “Okay. I’ll owe you a favor,” he nodded.
“Great,” Ozone gestured at an empty spot in his office and a tall black portal opened, like the one the Mayor used to get there. A blonde woman in a star-print house dress walked out and smiled at him.
“Go on through there to get back home. I’ll get to work on assembling a task for and get in touch with you when we’re ready to do some damage.”
“Thank you!” The Mayor nodded and rushed through the portal. He was equal parts eager to get home, and in a hurry to let Ozone get to work. The portal closed as soon as he was through it.
“Andie, we got a city-destroying job,” He smirked. “Scout it out and see how many teams we can put on it. We’ll make it a nice and formal bonus Mission.”
“Right away, Mr. Ozone.” Andie smiled and opened a second portal to exit through.