By: redneck@txdirect.net (Redneck Gaijin)
(Note: This is based on the information in 'Night Music' and plays upon that. It does not imply any knowledge of canon on such material in future volumes of the Revelations cycle.)
Enchanted Rock glows in the dark.
Huge sinkholes cover the landscape of the Hill Country.
The barely completed freeway loop around Austin lies in dozens of heaps of collapsed concrete.
San Antonio is a large, mildly radioactive inland lake.
But Austin lives on.
When Mitrah detonated her bomb, hoping the small nuclear explosion would be missed in the rain of fire around the world, she didn't know that hers would be the fourteenth of thirteen nuclear devices to actually find their targets. She'd also overlooked the fact that, although the earthquake would indeed collapse most of the caves beneath the Hill Country and flood out the rest, it would also trigger a larger earthquake just north of San Antonio, destroying what few buildings remained in the nuked Alamo City, and eventually swallowing up the ninth largest city in America into an immense sinkhole.
Mitrah is gone, and so is Frex. J. R. has vanished, as has Hippie Hollow. Something dreadful -did- happen to Mackie, although he took Hugo down with him when he fell. Druiel simply tore himself apart in his insanity, committing Celestial suicide. And the Treaty Oak is dead, and with it the Old Guy, defeated not by demons but by the blight of nuclear war.
And still, Austin's Celestial sentiment may be summed up by the carving in the dried husk of the old, old tree.
THE OLD GUY ----------- MAY YOUR SPIRIT REST EASY YOU WERE THE NICEST ENEMY A DEMON COULD HAVE THANKS FOR THE BEER
The truce between Heaven and Hell helped to save Austin. Most of the Celestials stationed in the town went to ground rather than fight, and the remainder took their battle outside the city limits. After Armageddeon, the surviving Celestials on both sides sat and waited, watching to see how the imperfect evil victory would sort itself out.
Days passed, and the humans remaining in the city scrambled to rebuild. Telephones and electricity were slowly restored to Houston and Dallas, which had survived the nuclear war and were struggling to rebuild themselves. The handful of satellites remaining above North America relayed the collapse of America, Europe, Asia, Africa, all the old nations. Texas, in general, had gotten off lightly.
Then came the day power was restored to the UT tower. To celebrate, the survivors in Austin had literally covered the tower with light bulbs, and when the power came on, the tower, the tallest standing building in the city, lit up like a white sword sticking up from the ground, proving to all around that Texas had not given up hope.
The humans thought it was just a sentimental moment. The Celestials knew different - for when the power went on, a new Tether came into existence - a tether to an Archangel nobody had expected.
Austin, Texas is now the home of the only Angelic tether remaining in Creation; a tether to Lucifer. It's a walled city, now, like Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, each depending on the others to maintain the shadow of peace and prosperity they knew before Armageddeon. Texas in general is one of the most prosperous remaining nations on Earth - the Internet still works, a semblance of government remains in effect, and the Rangers patrol the countryside in light armor, seeking out bandit gangs and the demon-spawned horrors which stalk the vast Texas countryside.
Austin itself is walled off not only in a physical sense, but in a Celestial sense. The vast majority of Austin's Celestials sided with the Preservers; those who would not quietly said their farewells and descended to Hell for instructions. Tomas is still there, and so is Wrenchial, now a Calabite of Nybbas; together, the two are turning Austin into a post-Apocalypse Nashville and Hollywood in one. Zara is also there, serving Lucifer under Novalis, helping the Red Cross deal with the refugees from rural Texas and other points. Lauren is alive and well, helping distract humans and Celestials alike from their problems. Nicole is one of the Tether guards. Old Reaux is gone, though, as are Darius, Marius, and Bartholemel; Karadel has Fallen along with his Superior, and strangely enough Billy Bob has Redeemed - he's now the Seneschal of Lucifer's Tether, a powerful Cherub fiercely protective not just of his Tether, but the entire city around it.
Austin is possibly the only safe place for Angels and 'neo-Angels' in the Corporeal Realm, and there are plenty of Malakim and Calabim hanging around to make sure it stays that way. Doc Jo and Nurse Run have a shaky command over them- they're not combatants, but they are almost -the- last Servitors of Michael left, and there is some light talk of making Doc Jo a new Archangel... as soon as they can figure out what Word she would have.
As for Hell's forces, they are constantly probing the defenses, but no organized assault is planned soon. Saminga simply can't conceive, or doesn't care, that a place on Earth can resist his forces, and all the other demons know that with the Tether dead in the center of the city, Lucifer can appear quite literally in the blink of an eye...
Kris Overstreet, will write for food... | Do not taunt Happy Fun Belial. http://www.txdirect.net/users/redneck | * * * c/o White Lightning Productions | "I love the sweet smell of http://www.jurai.net/~redneck/wlp/ | humiliation in the morning!" Webmaster for Antarctic Press | --- Kobal reaffirms himself http://www.antarctic-press.com/ | ***QUESTION EVERYTHING***
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