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jadeender · 5 years

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A Desperate Act

As Warriors scarf hit the blood soaked ground Hyrule knew he had to do something, anything, if he didn’t Warriors would end up exactly like him trapped inside his own body with no way out.

“I’m sorry Warriors.” Hyrule whispered as he summoned what strength he could.

“What are you…..?” Callous began before Hyrule stuck forth with incredible speed casting a single spell, thunder.

A bolt of lightning shot from the sky hitting Conqueror dead on causing the man to fall to his knees before passing out completely.

Callous turned on him rapidly. “What the hell did you do? How did you do that? You shouldn’t have that much freedom.”

Hyrule’s attention was still on trying to watch what was happening with the others but a crimson haze was falling over their vision as Callous’s anger grew. Hyrule glimpsed the other running to Warriors to make sure he was ok before his vision was obscured completely.

“I should have felt it. Should have known you were getting a little control after the last time, but it won’t slip my mind again. Tonight we’re going to have some fun.” Callous promised.

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Wild ran towards Warriors in fear, he hadn’t used Urbosa’s Fury and neither had Noble, who else knew how to use lightning he wondered his mind racing. When they reached Warriors the man was out cold, his clothes signed from the lightning, his breathing was erratic but there.

“We need to get him somewhere safe.” Wild yelled to the others, with Warriors out and Time still unfit to lead them it Wild felt something he didn’t even know he had take over as he started belting out orders.

“Pick him up we need to get out of here fast.” He commanded and Twilight and Legend moved forward to oblige. Looking ahead he could see towns people gathering at the gates their faces horrified at the act they had just seen.

The two hefted Warriors up so Twilight could carry him piggy back style.

“Wait.” Came a single comanding word. A lone woman strode from the gates but her entrance was nothing like that of Veran’s. This woman commanded respect with each footstep and the citizens moved away as she progressed. She was dressed for battle wearing a dress like outfit that showed of pants underneath for mobility and sensible boots.

“Princess Zelda.” Time said before dropping into a bow and the others following suit somewhat awkwardly except for Twilight.

She continued on until she stopped before the group, a rapier strapped at her waist. Zelda eyes Warriors on Twilights back and spoke “Explain.”

Wild stood and as quickly as possible he began “Warriors was being possessed by a dark shadow of himself he wasn’t in control of his actions…”

Zelda cut him off after a moment. “The shadow are back, I’ve fought their kind before. Bring him into the city, straight to the castle, no detours.”

She spun around and began marching towards the castle her braided hair swaying in the wind. They didn’t hesitate to follow her back towards the castle, all of them knowing not to mess with Zelda.

With the question of where to go solved Wild’s mind drifted back to wondering where those leadership instincts had come from but he brushed that aside for now. For now he needed to know who had stuck Warriors.

“Do any of the other darks make lightning?” Wild asked Noble hoping the dark would be cooperative despite his usual disliking of Wild.

“Not that I know of, but we aren’t exactly the feelings and secret sharing types.” Noble replied. Which while it wasnt rather helpful, Noble did actually answer the question which was a welcome change from being ignored or insulted.

Who did that leave that knew big magic out of the links? Wild ran through the list until he stopped at one hero, one who always seemed to rely greatly on magic. Wild stole a glance at Hyrule and found the man walking not ashamedly like the others but holding himself and trying to appear as neutral though he was dramatically failing.

Wild may not have been the most experienced or smartest Link but he had picked up some researcher esque skills from his Zelda. Right now Hyrule was the most likely suspect. As they made their way into the castle Wild kept an eye on the other hero trying not to be very obvious.

Warriors’s Zelda led them to Warriors room in the castle, a rather nice place near her own room. Twilight laid Warriors into his bed and they all waited from Zelda to talk. Once she was inside she deflated slightly and took a breath.

“Is he ok?” Zelda looked at Warriors worridely.

“He’ll be fine.” Time said. “However the um shadow isn’t gone. We need to get him out of here soon, we can’t stay.”

Zelda looked back at Time. “How did this happen? The shades could never do anyting like this before.”

Wild stepped forward slightly. “What exactly did you mean when you said you’d fought shades before?”

Zelda sat down on the end of Warriors bed sighing. “When we were fighting Cia she was able to copies of Link, myself, and even our other allies, they had dark forms and glowing red eyes but they were never able to do anything like this.”

“Shadow clones.” Noble noted.

“What are those?” Wild asked back. Noble huffed but answered.

“Weak imitations created by magic, nothing like us real darks. They’re just mindless servants.” Noble answered scoffing at the idea that he could ever be compared to such weak creatures. Wild thought back to the massacre outside the castle, Conqueror had created several copies of himself, perhaps that's what shadow clones were.

As Wild returned his attention to the conversation Hyrule of all people was explaining the same thing he had just heard to Warrior’s Zelda. Wild filled away another note of suspicion before glancing back at Zelda. Her face remained strong though she did appear somewhat worried.

“Will Link be ok?” Zelda asked.

“With any luck he’ll be back in control and just fine.” Time answered with false hope. “But as soon as he wakes up we need to leave.”

Sky who had been examining Warriors nodded. “We won’t be waking up for hours probably. We should stay the night.”

Time nodded in agreement.

Zelda stood. “I’ll have rooms prepared for you, and you look as though you could use a bath and a good meal.”

Time shook his head. “If it’s allowed we would rather stay here with Warriors.”

If Zelda was confused by the nickname she didn’t show it. “Of course, I don't know how you all know my Link but it’s good that he has you. I’ll have cots and food sent it as soon as I can.”

With that she left and they all relaxed a little shutting the door behind her.

“What now?” Wind asked. “Are we really going to stay the night.”

Time nodded his head, trying to get back into the swing of being leader. “Its better this way, it’s already late and staying here is safer than venturing into an unknown land with a hurt companion and no direction. Try and relax a little while we wait.”

Time took a seat on one of the couches near the balcony and removed his armor the black tunic underneath once again becoming apparent. The others followed suit setting aside their things and sitting around to wait. Four, whom had reformed sometime during the massacre, took up a position sitting near Legend who once again was sitting there examining his mirror, like he had often done since Acidic had….. been lost.

Twilight sat by himself, while Sky was sitting on the end of Warriors bed watching the wounded hero. Sky pulled out his mirror for a moment and Wild caught a glimpse of the back two triforce symbols adorned it. An upside down triforce etched in red rested over top a normal triforce etched in gold. The points almost touching.

Sky checked the mirror before quickly putting away. That confirmed Wild’s suspicion for sure, all of the mirrors had symbols on them. One or two could have been a coincidence but three is a pattern.

Wild watches the others carefully to see if any of them would pull out their mirrors and none did.

Settling into a chair in the corner Wild pulled out their mirror and looked into the glass. After a moment his reflection changed and morphed into that of Noble. Wild raised an eyebrow but did say his surprise out loud, a lifetime of training and stress had suppressed that reaction.

"Do you want to talk?" Noble asked his voice tired.

"You knew you could do this?" Wild questioned thinking back to the dark rather than voicing his thoughts.

"It's what the mirrors do, they allow us to watch our lights. And I suppose in your hands it allows you to watch us." Noble mussed as he messed with his hair, slowly unbraiding and braiding it combing with his fingers for lack of an actual comb.

Wild looked at the others wondering if any of the others knew, resting his eyes on Legend Wild got the idea that he must as Legend continued to stare into his mirror.

A knock at the door surprised all of them less than an hour later as servants came is bearing cots and a more food then they'd seen in months, by the time the servants were done they'd brought in an entire feast.

As they ate Wild watched his companions a practice he did commonly, once again the chat was non existent the weight of what Warriors and Conqueror had done weighed on all of them.

Once they finished eating Time stood. "We may be safe in the castle but after what happened today we are not safe from the people. We will be hunted by angry family members and vengeful spouses after what they did. We leave at first light whether Warriors wakes up on not."

No one bothered to argue because they all knew it was true, after the massacre that took place they'd be lucky to leave the city without a mob on their hands.

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When night feel Callous finally submitted to sleep, an act he didn't do commonly because it made you weak and vulnerable to attack. But tonight was different, tonight he had work to do. When lights were asleep it left a certain opportunity to….. talk.

Callous entered the realm of Hyrule's dreams with ease, practice and training paying off.

As usual Hyrule was dreaming of a maze like ones he spent much of his time in during his quest. Callous watched as his light tried to navigate the maze, without light nor sword. Laughing lightly Callous watched the light run into a wall before turning and continuing on. Hyrule was persistent that's for sure. But all things break with time.

Using his influence Callous caused the dream to shift and suddenly Hyrule found himself strapped into a chair in a dark room.

"Callous?" The light called out questioning.

Without flourish or show Callous appeared from the shadows in front of his light.

"Hello Hyrule. You did something very bad today, and I promised we'd have some fun. Or a least I will." Callous let out a cruel laugh and summoned a knife into his hand. With one had he yanked Hyrules bad quickly so that it slammed into the back of the chair.

Positioning the knife over Hyrules exposed face he said "Let's have some fun."

#linkeduniverse #merged #wild actually is pretty smart #there will be consequences #hyrule is going to have a bad time

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topsolarpanels · 7 years

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The fight against climate change: four cities leading the way in the Trump era

New York City, Houston, Miami and San Francisco have all taken steps to mitigate the risks associated with rising sea levels and global temperatures. Are their successes a blueprint for action at the state and local level?

Wholly unintentionally, Donald Trump may have sparked unprecedented determination within the US to confront the danger of climate change.

Following Trumps decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, the president was assailed by businesses ranging from Facebook to Goldman Sachs for risking Americas economic and environmental standing. The White House was choked by phone calls from irate voters.

Perhaps most significantly, a coalition of lawmakers, companies and universities swung into action in an attempt to reassure the world that the US wasnt completely abandoning the field.

Within this group committing itself to the Paris targets are 17 governors two of them Republicans and 125 cities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, which was cited, somewhat mistakenly, by Trump as somewhere that would benefit from exiting the Paris agreement.

With the federal government casting off the task of emissions reduction, the onus is now on cities and states to make up the shortfall. We look at what four major US cities New York City, Houston, Miami and San Francisco are doing to stave off the threat of climate change.

New York City

Outrage over the presidents move to pull the US out of the Paris accord went far and wide, but Bill de Blasio, New York Citys mayor, seemed to take particular offense that one of the citys own had done such a thing.

This is a dagger aimed straight at the heart of New York City, De Blasio said, raising the specter of rising seas and storms bearing down on Manhattan and Brooklyn. We have to understand that if climate change is not addressed, one of the greatest coastal cities on the earth will be increasingly threatened. Its very painful to reflect the fact that Donald Trump is from New York City. He should know better.

To add to De Blasios distress, the mayor then had to field questions over what sort of example he was setting by being driven almost every day from Gracie Mansion, on the upper east side of Manhattan, to a gym 12 miles away in Brooklyn. De Blasio said his own environmental efforts are focused on recycling and composting, adding he wouldnt be drawn into the cheap symbolism of using public transport.

But no matter how green-tinged the mayors own personal habits are, New York City has positioned itself, along with California, as the main bulwark against Trumps demolition of climate change action at home and abroad. Having already promised to cut emissions 80% by 2050, De Blasio signed an order committing the city to the goals of the Paris agreement, including its most ambitious target a warming limit of 1.5C (2.7F) beyond the pre-industrial era.

New York City has already earmarked billions of dollars to retrofit 1m buildings to make them more energy efficient, electrify its municipal vehicle fleet, plant thousands of trees and coat rooftops in solar panels.

The city is coming off a promising base: half of New York City residents dont own a car and while energy use still results in nearly 50m tons of greenhouse gases, average household electricity consumption is well below the national average. Theres palpable concern about climate change too in surveys, three-quarters of residents say they are worried about climate change, with more than 80% wanting carbon dioxide to be regulated.

New Yorks clout has been touted by Michael Bloomberg, its former mayor, who has helped corral a national coalition of cities and states to fill the void left by the federal governments exit from climate policy and concern. Bloomberg, who recently stumped up millions of dollars for the UN climate secretariat, has said: We are already halfway there and we can accelerate our progress further, even without any support from Washington.

Still, even if California and New York state halve their emissions, the US would not make Barack Obamas Paris goal of reducing emissions by at least 26% by 2025. In this light, New York Citys adoption of the 1.5C goal considered a long shot at the time of the agreement in 2015 and now entering the realm of impossibility appears to be a defiant flourish rather than sober expectation.

1.5C was the stretch target at Paris. Its a very aggressive goal, which is perhaps the most charitable way to put it, said Daniel Zarrilli, senior director of New York Citys climate policy. But we are already at risk and its important to set high targets to head off the worst consequences of climate change. Others need to see what New York City is doing and make the same accelerations. We need to do more and we need to do it faster.

According to Zarrilli, heat exposure is already the biggest killer of New York City residents in terms of natural hazards and then theres the looming issue of rising seas, which are on course to increase around the city by up to 2ft by 2050 and 6ft by 2100.

Without a sharp reversal in emissions, parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn face being consumed by the sea, with the citys two low-lying airports, La Guardia and JFK, expected to have water sloshing around the runways by the end of the century.

More than $20bn has been set aside for defenses to this threat, but some critics argue that as much effort and money should be spent on overhauling the citys existing creaking infrastructure. The subway system is under strain, with delayed signal work causing huge delays and much angst (the New York Times recently compared it unfavorably to the London Underground).

The state is responsible for New York Citys transport system, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, while praised by environmentalists for his own efforts to expand renewable energy, has been accused of favoring flashy new projects rather than fixing the nuts and bolts of public transit.

A massive improvement and expansion of public transport would be one of the best ways to reduce emissions in transport, said Lara Skinner, associated director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Our carbon footprint is a lot smaller than it could be because we move around millions of people on public transport rather than car, but mass transit is often overlooked, said Lara Skinner, associate director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University.

A lot of attention is given to technological fixes rather than what is right in front of us. A massive improvement and expansion of public transport would be one of the best ways to reduce emissions in transport, especially as lack of affordable housing is pushing people further out.

Skinner is the co-author of a new report that advocates New York go much further by retrofitting all public schools, establishing a new rapid bus transit system and install an additional 1GW of solar projects statewide. We have started on a good path but we need to majorly scale it up, she said. We have 1,000 public schools in New York City and just a fraction have solar.

Given the emergency of the climate crisis we should be a lot more ambitious with the targets we are setting. I would say California is quite far ahead of New York at this point in time.

San Francisco

If Donald Trump advocated on behalf of water, San Francisco, the self-styled capital of the resistance, would likely advocate not bathing. The president received just 9% of the vote in a city in which the final elected Republican was vanquished in 2014.

And, surely enough, after the president made his Paris announcement, San Franciscos board of supervisors on 6 June introduced a resolution stating that this city will stay the course. I think its important San Francisco goes on record as a city that it is committed to this agreement, regardless, said city supervisor London Breed, the boards president. Were not going to stop doing what we do best.

Since 2008, each of the citys scores of departments has been required to submit climate action plans; ecological regulations across the citys myriad layers of government have been centralized in the 26 chapters of San Franciscos environment code. Matters addressed by San Francisco on a municipal level range from how to best deal with arsenic-treated wood and construction debris to strict building requirements.

San Franciscos path to a greener tomorrow comes via the 0-50-100-Roots plan, a phrase that rolls off the tongue of Department of the Environment spokesman Guillermo Rodriguez, if no one else. This proposal is composed of reaching zero waste by 2020 (a goal perhaps more aspirational than realistic ); 50 percent of all trips in the city being undertaken on sustainable transportation (the perhaps 45,000 Uber, Lyft, and other app-hailed drivers now clogging city streets count under the citys metric, interestingly); use of 100 percent renewable energy (a goal that syncs overall with the state of Californias wishes by 2045); and a bevy of plans to protect and augment the citys tree canopy.

The citys chosen environmental path has, however, been circuitous. Early versions of San Franciscos plastic bag ban, for which the city received worldwide praise, may actually have harmed the environment more than they helped. The citys much hyped green energy plan, a competitor to Pacific Gas & Electric, suffered through a tortured, decades-long gestation and was burdened by its own overly rosy economic and ecological pledges. The city has taken strides to ensure its municipal vehicles and buses are electric, hybrids or run on biodiesel but for many years some of these ostensibly green vehicles failed transit passengers at an alarming clip.

But San Francisco is nevertheless making progress. In 2015, the city measured its greenhouse gas emissions at 28% below 1990 levels despite the citys population growing nearly 20%, and a robust bump in its gross domestic product of 78%. That mark handily beat the citys stated goal of 25% in 2017 in both reduction totals and timeframe; the plan is now to drop emissions 40% by 2025 and 80% by 2050. San Franciscos reduction goals, says the Business Council on Climate Changes executive director, Michael Parks, are fairly standard among large American cities. But in achieving and surpassing those goals at a rapid clip, the city is a national leader.

Parkss San Francisco-based organization works with many area corporations to promote ecological measures; he matter-of-factly predicts plenty will now, post-Paris pullout, work even harder to be sustainable because businesses are used to working on climate-change plans without help from the federal government. Just as city politicians can do well by doing good in opposing Trump, so can city corporations: Sustainability is a good business decision, Parks says. Companies can save money and earn prestige. Employees feel energized to work for a place that espouses their own values. Among the Bay Area standouts, Salesforce hit its zero carbon emission goals for 2050this year; Google has reached 100% renewable energy in 2017; Whole Foods has moved to install solar panels at 100 stores; and BlackRock has begun wheedling the companies in which it invests to address climate risk.

Joe Eskenazi

Miami

A woman walks through a flooded street in Miami Beach. The flood was caused by the combination of the lunar orbit, which generated seasonal high tides, and what many believe is the rising sea levels due to climate change. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Miami Beach likes to bill itself a poster child for the effects of climate change. Flooding from each successive years King Tides reaches farther inland and affects more homes, businesses and livelihoods, and the waters lap ever higher toward environmentalists dire predictions of a 5ft rise in sea levels in south Florida by 2100. So to Philip Levine, the outspoken mayor of the low-lying coastal city, Trumps unilateral withdrawal from the Paris agreement was nothing short of a colossal mistake.

Its a punch in the gut for all of us who on the ground are experiencing this threat first-hand, said Levine, who has overseen his citys investment of hundreds of millions of dollars to raise roads and sea defences and install modern and powerful pumping equipment.

Its like being on a boat and the next thing you know the entire current has gone against you, but you know you still need to go in the right direction. For all of us who are experiencing climate change and sea level rise, we have no choice but to continue forward.

Levine was a signatory to the defiant open letter to Trump signed by more than 1,200 mayors, governors and education and business leaders pledging to abide by the terms of the Paris accord, and has promised to press ahead with Miami Beachs ambitious works programme.

With partners including four south Florida counties who in 2012 formalised their own regional action plan to combat the effects of climate change on their collective population of 6 million, the citys own efforts pre-date the Trump administration by several years and will long outlast it, Levine insists. Our priorities are the low-lying areas of our city, the western part of the island, he said. Were building up those areas, putting in the pumps, and we have seen significant, incredible success. Now were going to other parts of our city, other places that are also low lying and we need to raise.

Under a resiliency strategy entitled Rising Above, the city barely seven miles wide by one mile across is elevating more than 100 miles of roads, installing 80 new pump stations, upgrading stormwater drainage utilities and raising sea walls in the most vulnerable areas by up to 5ft.

The ongoing works, which began in the fall of 2014, are costly and already at $500m, Levine said, although they are partially offset by grants from the state of Florida and a $7 hike per household in stormwater rates (which the mayor justified by asking residents if they would rather live in Miami Beach or Atlantis).

Other efforts to reduce the citys carbon footprint include the promotion of water taxis and trolley buses, to get cars off the streets, and incentives for green construction. While Levine acknowledges the project might secure only a half-centurys respite, he hopes the investment will buy enough time to find a political solution to the ravages of environmental change, albeit after the current president leaves office. As for Trump himself, Levine wonders what goes through the presidents mind when he looks out from his waterfront Mar-a-Lago mansion just up the coast in Palm Beach and sees how narrow the beach is compared to just 20, 30 years ago.

Maybe he has plans to turn Mar-a-Lago into an incredible water park, Levine said. Richard Luscombe

Houston

An oil and gas hub might seem an unlikely place for officials to affirm their commitment to green energy, but Houston is by far the countrys biggest municipal user of green power. It annually uses almost 1.1bn kWh of solar and wind power, representing 89% of its total electricity use, according to the latest figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

That puts it seventh nationally in the EPAs list of green partners, ahead of Starbucks and Walmart and just behind Cisco Systems and Apple.

Among local governments, another Texas city with a strong oil and gas bent, Dallas, is second. Despite Texass well-earned reputation as a bastion of highly conservative Republican politics, six Texas entities are in the top 30, compared with four from liberal California.

The current mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, has built on the work of his predecessor, Annise Parker also a Democrat by burnishing the citys green credentials while trying to avoid alienating traditional industries that helped grow the city and still drive much of its economy.

Parker co-founded the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, while Turner is one of 246 mayors who have committed to uphold the Paris agreements aims in the wake of Trumps announcement.

This local emphasis comes despite a statewide political approach that stresses limited regulation and is notoriously friendly toward oil and gas companies even as pollution in cities such as Houston remains a serious problem.

Still, almost 100% of the Houston city governments power use now hails from renewable sources: in April, it announced a 50MW solar plant based 600 miles away in the remote west Texas town of Alpine is online and able to provide up to 10.5% of the city of Houstons needs. The plant has 203,840 solar panels spreading over 360 acres and reflects Texass growing interest in solar power. It still lags behind other sun-kissed states in solar, though has long been a leader in wind.

SolaireHolman, the solar plant near Alpine, Texas, that supplies electricity to the city of Houston. Photograph: Courtesy of ENGIE North America

Houston is also cutting its emissions. Lara Cottingham, deputy assistant director in the citys administration and regulatory affairs department, said that since 2007 the city has seen a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations. That has been achieved by measures such as replacing light bulbs, demanding that new buildings be made as energy-efficient as possible, retrofitting fire stations, police stations and libraries, and not only acquiring greener vehicles but also improving logistics so they are used more intelligently.

A corner on the first floor of a city permitting office on the edge of downtown is given over to a green building resource centre, with eclectic exhibits designed to educate visitors on the benefits of going green from recycling to high-efficiency toilets to bioswale that removes pollutants from stormwater run-off. A screen displays usage data from the solar panels on the roof.

The view from outside hints at large structural challenges, however: a barely used Amtrak train station and a tangle of huge freeways that take lone commuters on long journeys. Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, an advocacy group, said that while the city has made notable strides, Houstons also quite sprawling; to really be a leader on climate theyre going to need to get a handle on that and start densifying the city and provide more transportation alternatives to give people an option besides single occupancy vehicle travel all the time. Tom Dart