Chapter 395 - Interlude

Dinner at the Michelson household was odd. Entertaining but odd. Today the main attraction of the performance involved the vegetables coming to life and dueling until one was pushed out of the arena where they would be chopped into the salad.

"Avenge me cucumber! Make sure my death is not in vain." The pepper fell from the platform as the cucumber replied.

"I probably won't."

Vegetables are non-sentient​

Thank you power, I hadn't even considered our hostess was actually granting life and awareness to them before making them fight to the death. Lisa's power was still acting up a little around Jess, but when it did it didn't seem to worsen any headaches so she supposed it was an alright compromise.

The performance every night seemed to draw in all the foster kids and gave them something shared to talk about. Even Alec and Rachel would put down what they were doing to join in watching Jess perform for them. She wished her real family had even half the closeness her found family had.

As they settled in around the dinner table that always had exactly enough seats without noticeably being different from how it looked before Vista had joined them, Jess started her usual spiel.

"How were all of your days? Remember if you don't speak up I'll choose who goes in what order. And we don't want to find out what I'll do if you refuse that."

Aisha spoke up being a brat as usual. "But don't you already know everything we did today anyway?"

"I could know it, but we need to try and remember that as parahumans we are still human." For once her power actually picked something up from Jess.

Is not parahuman. Is not human. Possibly never was.​

Lisa could barely pay attention to how Aisha had apparently built a working rocket inside their house. That was at least almost enough to explain her shocked expression, but she had a feeling nothing had gotten by Jess. A quick look confirmed that even without using her power. She had that slightly apologetic look on her face.

We'll talk after, alright? Let Aisha have her victory, no matter how small she might think it is.

Right, she was an actual psychic.

An actual psychic who wasn't human. Had Leet actually drawn a cosmic horror across the stars? Her power was silent on what Jess was even as she fully let down her walls around her power.

Aisha feels insignificant compared to housemates, will try to compensate with larger and larger rockets. Hasn't missed a day of school since coming here.​

Alec talked about how school was really boring though the people were pretty alright.

Alec beginning to suffer from depression due to grief and regret. ​

Rachel brought up another dog rescue she'd done with the Protectorate, Velocity and Dauntless specifically.

Rachel satisfied with the defeat of Hookwolf, was able to rescue more dogs.​

One of the golems was waddling around the table passing butter.

Golems are sentient if non-sapient. Enjoy their duties. Butter is an obscure joke.​

Brian said very little, but things were going well with the Wards even though he was annoyed at having to go to school.

Brian glad his sister seems to be adapting well. ​

Vista talked about how cool Aisha's rocket was, how it wooshed and spun and landed on the house.

Vista still in mild shock over rocket. Embarrassed over expressing child-like glee. Is being influenced by Jess. Doesn't know who Butcher fifteen was.​

Lisa knew who that was thanks to still being on duty while the whole Butcher situation was going down. Fortunately he had a mask. And the inhuman psychic who made her food for her and was quickly becoming more of a mother to her than her own mother was had removed his powers completely. Not that being more of a mother was a high bar, her own mom was practically playing limbo with the devil.

You've up next.

Right. "School is such a drag. Are you sure you can't do another magic trick to get me free? I'm spending all my time focusing more on figuring out drama than I am learning anything." Sadly her hopes at freedom were not to be.

"Nope, proper socialization is an important part of the human psyche, without it we would go crazy and develop maladaptive traits and behaviors. In a way trying to sus out the drama is almost parasocial behaviour." She stressed parasocial, meaning both the real word for the type of relationship people form with characters and celebrities, where all interactions are mediated. She was also probably meaning it was a social activity thanks to her parahuman power.

But more importantly how had Lisa never noticed before how often Jess referred to things as human? Human behaviour, human psychology, being only human, she once even referred to them as the little humans who needed to go to sleep. She'd just assumed it was a quirk of hers, not that it was hinting at a darker secret.

Jess simply went into an abridged version of her day, that she had stopped the Teeth from getting a foothold in Brockton Bay, now they were cooling their heels in jail cells that were quickly becoming overfilled. Then she went on a bit of a tinker rant about a teleporter slash nuclear reactor she made for Armsmaster.

The rest of dinner was filled with small talk here and there as they ate their unnaturally delicious food. Jess had explained during a previous meal that it was also perfectly nutritious, so they didn't have to worry about it being unhealthy. Lisa had to admit she was always satisfied by the end, so without going back for seconds they couldn't be eating too much.

It was Rachel's turn to put away dishes so as usual everyone split up to go their own ways after the 'family bonding' experience of supper.

Lisa went to her room, it wasn't quite identical to her old one but it had all the important things like the blackout curtains, her laptop along with a new computer, and her extremely soft bed. Jess had found it odd, saying she preferred a far more firm mattress before saying what appeared to be her favourite idiom "whatever floats your goat". Last but not least her cork board that was not a conspiracy board thank you very much.

"If you say so Lisa, but conspiracy is a very real thing, so there's nothing wrong with keeping track of them." She jumped at Jess being in her room without making a sound.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." She didn't look very sorry.

Lisa sat down in her spinny office chair, dramatically going around fully once while sliding back towards her desk.

"So, what's up with you not being human? You'd think that would be something important to tell us, right?"

She sighed as she sat down on the bed, sinking into it with a squawk before getting up and sitting back down on a hardlight chair. Purple as all things Jess. Her serious slash apologetic look returned. Was she just choosing a facial expression and using her power for it?

"Yes, because I am, was? It's a bit confusing honestly, I'm on the spectrum a little, so things like facial expressions don't come naturally to me. I am feeling what I'm expressing most of the time, but without it my face would be fairly blank."

"As for my humanity, all my memories up until Earth Bet were fully human. I'm a little worried I'm just a copy of the original me that's now piloting whatever super-being I am, but either way from my perspective I'm just a woman with possibly too much power. Hard to tell, but there's some philosophical arguments that would say no one person should have this much power."

"Can't you just watch the past to tell what actually happened?"

"Well the problem is that I come from the far off year of twenty twenty-five, so it would be future sight, and I don't even know where my homeworld is. It's a fun mix between being a past and also future event. Just looking back told me a lot about the machine that brought me here, but not much about where I'm from."

"That sounds pretty rough. So you're not some alien or demon or something here to eat our souls?"

"No, nothing like that. At least not me as in who I am. I'm not sure what my body truly is, I'm leaning towards an alien of some sort, but I'm definitely not here to hurt people."

Appears honest.​

She got a small smirk to her and she raised one hand as she continued. "I solemnly swear that if I find out souls are real I won't eat yours. Or anyone else's I guess, if I have to."

"Look, if you eat any souls we'll probably be kicked out of the house."

"Nah, I'll just up the stranger effect so we can stay here without being bothered. Assuming anyone even knows or cares, you'd be surprised what I can get away with."

"Like spontaneously adopting four supervillains and making them heroes with promises the PRT would never have given them?"

"Exactly, who else could get away with such ridiculous actions?"

Both of them were smiling by now. Lisa had to admit if nothing else Jess had been good to them so far. She supposed she could give her alien foster parent some leeway.

A quiet late night patrol was followed by breakfast and a PR patrol that was less exciting than last time, which was a good thing so I was told. I was paired with Dauntless again like my first patrol, except this time instead of it being we were both fliers it was because we both had flashy powers. Both of which were true, but even after the help yesterday I'm pretty sure Armsmaster is still a bit annoyed by me.

But now that was over and I was at a loss for what to do. What did I want that I could actually get?

To not feel alone? I was working on that, but it's hard to control how you feel without resorting to powers, and that was a step I didn't want to take. I was surrounded by people who were growing to like me but it takes time, most people don't get attached so quickly like I do.

To go home? Without any new Shards or information to work with I'd already done as much as I could. I could try to figure out the physics behind time travel enough to find the way home, but that would take an extremely long time that might be better spent searching for time based powers.

The PRT was still evaluating my resurrection procedure, so that was off the table unless someone volunteered one of the deceased and had the right permissions before they died.

Trying to fix the world kept causing headaches for people, and for the most part I reluctantly had to agree that just brute force alone couldn't solve the issue. I still wanted to clear out the whore houses the ABB kept, but while all coerced most would either go back or get in a similar situation with the Merchants. They had family members at risk and they were the 'payment', or they were so hooked on drugs and had so little left to live for that they would go looking for that high unless I Mastered them. I'd do it in a heartbeat, and Lung wouldn't be too difficult even if I wanted to make it showy as usual.

The problem was that another gang going down so soon would incite a feeding frenzy. The Teeth being taken out was a threat to any incoming gangs, the ABB would be an invitation. My plan for the Titans would hopefully be able to slow the tide enough by both being a deterrent as well as an actual force to be reckoned with. But that depended on their reputation, which depended on their performance during the next Endbringer battle. So I had to wait. I could smack down anyone trying to come in, and I could request operations in other cities, but I couldn't help the people right here. Or could I?

I keep saying heroism is more than just punching bad guys, but what else have I done? I healed people, that was something, but I wanted to do more. I could do more.

I looked into the future, searching for more minor problems I could solve, targeting the poorer and more disadvantaged parts of the city. Things like broken down cars, or a house that needed repairs, or a family struggling to make ends meet. I notified Challenger on console that I was going out on an unscheduled PR patrol before I teleported out into the area above the docks.

I tuned my aura to include more hope and let it stretch out to cover several blocks, stronger the closer someone was to me but still weak enough that someone could easily mistake it for a natural reaction. Some would inevitably notice that I was influencing them but it's hard to stay upset at an uplifting feeling like this being applied. Then I flew down to my first target, a man on his way to work when his car broke down halfway there.

[Ryan Ackerman]​

"Need some help there Ryan?" He looked around startled for a moment before looking up at my descent. He sort of recognized me, but he wasn't super big into capes. Nevertheless I'd been in the news often enough he had some idea who I was.

He hesitated a moment before asking anyway. "You mind giving me a lift? I'm gonna be late for work and I'll probably get fired if I miss a shift."

"I can do more than that, I'll also fix up your car, but first let's make sure you get to work on time." I opened up a portal wide enough for me to float his car into his usual parking spot behind the bakery he worked at while he walked through a little hesitantly.

"Thanks miss… uh?"

"Anima, and this shouldn't take too long. Your fuel pump gave out and you've got some leaky injectors. I'll give it a full tune up. This should only take me a few minutes."

The last line made him pretty incredulous, but he had a job to get to and who was he to argue with a superhero fixing his car? As usual I made a spectacle out of what could have been done boringly in seconds. With super speed and hardlight equipment that I absolutely didn't need I got to work. My favorite touch this time was holding up a hardlight part before blowing on it as if it was a little dusty and materializing it while leaving glowing motes floating away in the breeze.

While I was wasting time with fixing his car like this instead of doing things as quickly as possible I was doing far more work with my technopathic powers. I was donating money to households that would otherwise be unable to pay rent or had debts they would default on without my help. They would have to actually check with their banks to find out what had happened and where the money had come from, it wasn't even much to any given house, but letting them get by would give them another chance to get enough to get by.

If they did they'd find it was from charity groups that totally existed before now. Mostly the money was coming from criminal organizations, accounts that Thomas and Max had access to that wouldn't be tied back to them but also weren't clean. They were in a sort of legal grey area where the money was merely suspicious. Technically I suppose I was laundering the money via the charities, but I didn't feel bad using money that was acquired illegally in the first place and would simply sit in the accounts for years without my intervention, as it wasn't clearly under their ownership thanks to shell companies and the like. This way it would help those in need.

I was about to expand the range of where I was donating to when my danger-sense flared. Not from anything physical but from the IRS and Watchdog. Apparently donating to the community of Brockton Bay while unusual would go under the radar, but expanding into New York and Boston would alert the government that something was amiss. It was a little odd to notice the difference in attitude towards Brockton and other cities.

If I expanded to practically any other city I would almost immediately be noticed for what was a crime legally but wasn't hurting anyone. The places that weren't noticed immediately would still be picked up if given enough time. Half the issue was that I'd already helped the people of Brockton and a national level charity was far more noteworthy than a local one. It was also far more strictly regulated. With how loose local regulations were my charities were technically legal, excepting their source of income, but breaching outside the city would make them illegal directly. The other half seemed to be that Brockton Bay was simply not under much surveillance for economic crimes, especially considering how many villains had lived here until recently.

Had they actually been paying attention I doubt Medhall would have lasted so long given how intertwined it was with the Empire. I was a little curious but I didn't want to get into an actual search for something so boring. Especially since uncovering it would directly harm the people I was trying to help and prevent me from helping more later.

As I went around helping people, fixing a broken window here, stopping a pickpocket by simply returning all their stolen goods there, helping someone's sick grandmother who was bad enough to really need my help but not so bad she was hospitalized. Or maybe it was just an American thing. Either way as I went I was doing little things here and there, restocking pantries and refrigerators, fixing heaters, replacing a lightbulb, fixing some faulty wiring. None of these things were made into productions like the first car or the other more public stunts I was pulling. Some people would figure it out, but it wasn't all about recognition. I just wanted to help people.

Was this the best way to do it? Probably not, but it did help them. More importantly it was help that no other hero could really provide. Sure they could go on a charity drive or something, promote a cause, but this was direct action. I was materially benefiting the people who needed it most. I couldn't do this all the time, I was already worried about making people too dependent on me, and I knew if I wanted to be more efficient I'd have to get Admin to provide me a perfect route to maximize my impact. But helping out once in a while with the mundane problems that people had everyday, that could bring a little bit of hope.

And just for today, I wanted to feel like I was making a difference, like I wasn't abandoning these people because I couldn't do enough. Like I wasn't ignoring their plight just because of some future problems that would occur. They needed help and I could provide it.

I might have cheated a little with my telepathy to experience their gratitude more directly.

Was there something wrong with me? Probably. Even though I felt much more deeply now than I did before coming here it still felt shallower than what other people felt. Or maybe whatever had increased the depth of my emotions was working on my experience of their feelings too, meaning even if I was up to the norm it would always be more intense for someone else to have felt it. Maybe I had screwed up my brain when trying to fix it. But did I even think using my normal human brain anymore?

[Somewhat, you have yet to fully adapt to your new circumstances]​

So what happens if my brain gets destroyed, will I lose a part of myself?

[Likely not, you can restore your human form in a similar way to your method of resurrection]​

Huh, resurrecting myself. Kinda neat, make sure if I ever need it that I remember to do it please? I don't want to decide I don't need it while missing most of myself. That small potential crisis averted. I started to head back to the rig to do the small amount of paperwork for a PR patrol, even it being unscheduled wasn't really an issue. Then I saw the boat graveyard.

I'd just sort of treated it as part of the scenery, but what did it mean to the people of the city? It was a sign of decay, of lost opportunities, and simply an eyesore. What would it take to get people to let me remove it? Its exactly the sort of symbolic victory that could raise people's spirits while also potentially actually helping people. Depending on how I got rid of it there could be quite a bit of salvaging work which from what I'd heard from Taylor and her dad would be quite the boon to the blue collar workers of the city. I began preparing a proposal for removing the boat graveyard, writing up different options with different outcomes.

My preferred one was to hire the dock workers to salvage it after I brought it all onto dry land in bite-sized pieces which would provide the most direct help to the people of the city. This one was actually one of the easier ones, I had enough money from the bounties of the Nine to cover the initial startup costs before they started generating revenue from the scrap. The sticking point would probably be if the city decided to fight me over using some land that had defaulted back to the city's ownership. Worst case scenario I could just buy it directly, but it might take a little longer if they decided to be difficult. On the other hand it didn't seem likely so long as I went in person to propose it to the mayor, removing the boat graveyard would be a boon to his re-election campaign later this year, even though it wouldn't really be thanks to him rubber stamping the project would still be a good look.

The simplest one would just be allowing me to completely annihilate the boats. No real difficulty and it would be over in a single day, but it wasn't really as good for the city since not only would it not provide any work it would reduce the feeling of triumph the community would feel from literally tearing apart an edifice of their problems. It would become simply an outsider coming to fix their issues, still good but not as good. I included it more to give the illusion of choice and had highlighted the disadvantages compared to my preferred plan.

I also needed to get a plan made for empowering people. In spite of it being the normal thing to do for whatever I now was, I still wanted to create fairly normal heroes. Maybe a bit on the strong side, but not Triumvirate tier. Strong enough to make a difference but not too strong. In part because it would differentiate them from the Titans I was still designing, and in part because it was simple. Shards were literally designed with this in mind, it wouldn't take fine tuning like if I wanted to make every Shard like Victoria's to avoid making any unusually powerful heroes, but also more importantly to avoid accidentally harming the recipients. This proposal would probably be sent up the chain to the Chief Director or Legend. Should I just send it to them directly along with Piggot? It might be another way to keep busy, and it would be an excuse to visit other cities and pick up more powers. I couldn't design new powers fast enough to keep up with my ability to actually construct them. I'd spent some time mixing and matching, but truth be told I was only so creative, and there were only so many obvious uses for any given Shard's components. More than I could think of, but even so there couldn't be infinite powers. Probably.

That could wait for now, I had paperwork to do before getting to class.

Keith waited a moment before a Doormaker portal unfolded in front of him. He knew the others didn't invite him to every meeting. To be honest they didn't seem to try very hard to keep him in the loop at all.

But for once they not only informed him that there was a meeting he could come to if he felt like it, as if he wasn't an equal member of Cauldron's forward facing operations, they had specifically requested his presence. He felt an ominous sense of dread. He hoped it was just his own imagination, but trusting his gut had led to success in countless endeavors, so it was next to impossible to ignore.

Walking the winding corridors he knew by heart he opened up the double doors to the meeting room. Inside and already seated were the most powerful people on the planet, multiple planets even. Yet they looked so small and defeated sitting around the round table where they normally did their best to shepherd the world.

Alexandria even without her helmet was usually an intimidating presence. Today he could see the weight of all the years drawing her down. It was just the slightest weight to her posture but to him it was a blaring siren.

Eidolon always seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, his plain face weary most days. Today was similar to the day after Hero died, the man looked twenty years older than he really was.

For once the Doctor, the mysterious leader of Cauldron looked less than perfectly put together. Even the woman in the black suit who was always by her side looked haggard, unlike her usual neutral expression.

The Number Man had his shirt ruffled, which on anyone else would be akin to having it hanging off him torn to shreds.

All of them looked so very tired. He took his seat, the sense of dread only growing.

"We have so much to tell you Legend, and so little, perhaps none of it, is even remotely close to good news. The first and most obvious is that we have been keeping so many things from you, but trust that we only did these things for one goal. To save the world, every world really. But we have been hopelessly outmatched at every turn. So we were desperate for anything that even hinted at a chance of improving our odds." The Doctor started.

"From what, the endbringers?" He asked. Wasn't that always the goal? What was the reveal? They were powerful, but he wasn't sure that alone would explain the desperation they were showing.

"No, at least they're not the main issue, if only because they're too slow to really become a problem. We have estimates for how long until they cause the collapse of civilization, but twenty years is a safe estimate, thirty is extremely optimistic. We have no more than fourteen years before the real enemy reveals itself. Scion."

His blood went cold. Scion was the strongest hero, the strongest being to ever live. Even the endbringers feared him, running almost as soon as he arrived. He constantly performed feats that outstripped anything even the most specialized parahuman could do, and he could do it all.

"Scion is not just phenomenally powerful, it is the source of all naturally occurring powers."

"But Cauldron vials are artificial powers, doesn't that mean we have a chance? If we can create a strong enough power-" He knew this couldn't be the answer, but he had to clutch onto any scrap of hope.

"Not quite. We don't make them from nothing Legend, we harvest them from another being, a second counterpart to Scion. Another alien being, so massive it can't fit inside a single world. But the problem is that we're already trying to create someone that powerful and you three are some of the best we've ever made. We don't know where it stores the best agents, the actual part of the alien entity that grants powers, and even then if we get the mixture wrong it can have disastrous results."

"Case fifty threes. You lied to me saying it was Manton spreading vials he made himself, but without access to the corpse he never could have managed that, could he? How could you do this, human experimentation? Wiping memories? How am I supposed to look any of them in the eyes after this?" None of them so much as flinched. He realized that they had long ago sacrificed their morality in their quest to fight the impossible might of Scion.

"Yes. Your morals were and are too strong to bring you in fully. Were the situation not so dire we wouldn't be having this conversation. Another alien entity has appeared, and this time it's not blinded by grief or apathy. It's actively looking for all evils in the world, to wipe them out and bring humanity into its own conflict against the elder entity. It calls itself Anima."

That was even more difficult to believe. But hadn't a proposal for giving out powers arrived on his desk in a flash of violet light not hours ago? It had even detailed that the recipients would have coronas as normal but that their triggers would be harmless, and the powers would only be on the upper end of what was possible. There would be no Ubers or Crickets produced by this procedure, only Narwhals, Chevaliers, and Myrddins would be coming out of the program. Wasn't that something that supposedly only one of these aliens could do?

"Isn't this a good thing? She's trying to right wrongs, and if she wants to fight him then she would be a powerful ally."

"Were most of the worst villains not also exceptionally powerful and potentially useful against the elder entity then yes. With how the younger entity is copying powers it's concentrating even more of humanity's combined might into itself, which will make us reliant on it. Should it be deceiving us and decide to destroy us after killing the elder entity then we will be close to powerless to stop it."

"Why do you keep referring to them as it? And that's quite the pessimistic assumption that she also wants to destroy the world."

"We can't afford to anthropomorphize them, they aren't human and don't think like we do, even if Anima seems far more adept at mimicking us there is no proof that underneath its mask it actually is like us. As for why, of the three entities we know of we are certain two of them would have destroyed the world once they were done with their little experiment."

"Experiment, what experiment?"

"They hand out agents to bestow us with fragments of their power to test them, refine them. They crowdsource our creativity with a live-fire environment where it's sink or swim, forcing us to be our best, which they then take for themselves. Why they do this or what they're looking for we don't know."

Another thing Anima had mentioned was that the powers would learn with the cape, allowing for more power expression as time went on. Did she know this conversation was going to happen and was preparing for him to understand it? Why would she out herself as an entity if Cauldron was a conspiracy determined to kill her?

"And why are you telling me about all this? Alexandria could have probably convinced me to not sign the proposal she drafted for empowering people."

"Because the best plan we can think of is to try working with her. She wants what we want, the only danger is what she might do once she finds out we already killed one and that her goals once we succeed may be more of the same as our original foe. We need as many people ready to sound the alarm should she try to decapitate Cauldron, and you are one of our most durable clients thanks to your breaker state and regeneration." The Doctor took a moment for a sip of water.

"Also we want her giving back powers to people to decentralize her potential power, so we actually want you to approve her proposal. As for why we're going to try working with her, we can't afford to avoid her forever. The next endbringer battle will necessitate the presence of Alexandria and Eidolon, both of whom know about Cauldron's true depths, and with her telepathy we can't hope to hide it from her." She sighed before continuing.

"If you can think of a better way forward we will happily take it, I'm at my wit's end here trying to work out how to continue without playing right into its hands. But should Anima at least not kill us immediately and take the corpse of the entity we take powers from we will hopefully be able to gain valuable insights on their kind and a powerful temporary ally."

"Why would you risk so much by telling me? By bringing her in?"

"When Cauldron was founded it was for one goal, saving all of humanity, and our means was anything, so that in the end we don't have to fear that had we been a little more ruthless that we might have turned the tide and saved mankind. This is more of the same. If we asked you could you come up with another solution? If we work with a seemingly benevolent entity can we work together and save humanity from a malevolent entity? Were there an option to hide we might have done that, but as it stands there will be a reveal at the next endbringer fight no matter what we want. So with that option taken from us I can't help but worry that assuming the worst as we have done all these years won't become a self fulfilling prophecy with Anima. You wonder why we're so sure she's a threat to the world? We're not sure at all, we're hoping for the best while expecting the worst. This is just the latest shot in the dark among many."

"So that's your justification, that for something this important any line can be crossed?"

"If there are people who can condemn our actions then we will have succeeded where we had no reason to. I can better sleep at night knowing I tried absolutely everything I could than if I let morals get in the way of trying to save everyone. Are we monsters for this? Yes. Will history forgive us? I hope not. But if there is a shred of hope, a chance that we survive I want to take it."

"Doctor you can't possibly excuse human experimentation-"

"I absolutely can. Just as your first thought was to create an artificial cape with enough power to fight Scion that was ours. When we had nothing but a corpse of a god and no clue how to take its power for ourselves we had to take risks. We made great strides with capes like yourself, but that wouldn't have been possible without our earlier attempts going wrong. That is why we warned you about the chance of death. But now we can't reliably find any more formulas that grant your level of power. We got lucky with the four of you, we got unlucky with the likes of the Siberian, Grey Boy, and Mama Mathers all being uncooperative."

"But what if-"

"Legend, Keith, you have to understand. All of this is just a series of desperate gambles, shots in the dark. We felt it would be more of a risk to not tell you and have Anima kill us all, leaving humanity none the wiser. By trying to leave some manner of resistance while also trying to appease it by giving it what it wants, we're just taking more shots in the dark. I would regret not telling you if it risked the world, so here we are. I can't avoid Anima finding out about us, so here we are preparing as much as we can to make the most desperate gamble yet. We're going to try to communicate with it and risk everything we have built because that is the best way we can see forward. I won't pretend we haven't chosen to sacrifice other people's lives for our cause, but we aren't above sacrificing ourselves if necessary. With what we know now there might have even been better ways, but we didn't know that at the time. We didn't know Manton would steal a vial and kill Hero with his new power. We didn't know how to make vials at all when we started. We most certainly didn't see another entity coming, one who seems different yet could simply be better at pretending to be human. Can you at least trust that we're trying our best?"

"I don't know if I should. But I can't undo the atrocities you've already committed."

He felt just as useless here as he did trying to corral Anima into behaving more heroically, but even worse. These were his closest friends having betrayed his trust all these years. How many secrets would he uncover that they wouldn't even bother to tell him about, not because they were hiding it but simply because they didn't consider them relevant information. Things like dead-end experiments, or crimes against humanity that were simply routine business to them?

What else could he do but hope and pray that Anima was even half the hero she pretended to be?

Ethan almost felt bad having to teach the new girl console duty, but she seemed to adapt to it like a fish to water. The fact she was cheating and calling in events before they happened and providing information to the ground teams that normally they would be giving to her probably helped.

"Gotta say, you're a natural at this. Any tips for us old folk who have to do things the hard way?"

"I heard there's a buy one get one free sale on precog powers down by the docks. Shady merchant guy. Probably just LSD or shrooms though." She kept up a carefree grin. Apparently console still counted as on-duty to her. Since that first day he'd only gotten to see the real Jessica a few times briefly here and there.

After the fiasco with the Empire he'd seen her shaking with rage. She had told him when he asked what was wrong, that in spite of all the broken bones, shattered egoes, and even one snapped neck she felt she was going too easy on them. She knew it was irrational, quite a few of them were getting caged, but she found it hard to give the Nazi's even that much mercy. Then she further admitted that her emotions were just stronger now than they had been back home. She didn't know if it was better or worse to have higher highs and lower lows.

It gave some weight to her statement that she'd honestly not known about the attack. The meme of her standing over Armsy with her line "You stubborn prideful man" helped, no matter how ironic it was that she was calling anyone else prideful.

When she had taken in the Undersiders and Vista only a day later she'd briefly been on the rig. She understandably didn't feel like she was ready to act as the parent for six kids, especially with two of them so close to legally being adults themselves. That time he'd just heard her muttering to herself, he was on his way to a patrol he couldn't stop to talk for a moment.

The last was when he saw her getting chewed out by Armsmaster. The dry sarcasm and defensiveness didn't fit her façade as her world's foremost hero. So he was left to assume that was the real her. He'd hardly seen her around all week honestly. She didn't eat before she took in the kids, and then it was only at home. She didn't have to hang around the base to train, build gear, or even really to do paperwork. He'd seen her teleport in yesterday, drop off her papers, and disappear again. If he'd blinked he would have missed she was there at all.

That was the other thing, when she was on the job she made her powers look more normal. Sounds, lights, and made movements as if she couldn't do what she was doing without them. They looked nice for the cameras she effectively had around her for every fight, but when it was just her and the Protectorate she did away with all that. Teleports were silent, telekinesis didn't cause a glow on what she was moving, the only thing she sometimes did, and that still might have been for their benefit, was that her eyes would glow brighter while using thinker or tinker powers. It was kind of unnerving, cape powers just generally didn't work like that, but he figured it was actually a way of trying to be more honest with them.

"Oh, did we finally find something the great Anima can't do?" He joked back, but as usual she took it seriously. She was seriously considering whether she could grant powers to anyone.

"Hmm, I could probably grant temporary precognition but it would be similar to how Othala can grant powers, it would really be routing the inputs and outputs to you. I'm not sure how well that would work for precognition, you'd run into the problem of how much information I'd be pumping into your brain. You'd probably get a killer headache if you overdid it. Also probably why most precogs get vague answers. Plus you already have a shard so I couldn't give you it permanently. So how about it Assault, want to gaze into the future?" She couldn't be serious. Bet.

"Alright, I'm up for divining all of the secrets of the universe." She got a devious grin.

"You probably won't get more than three questions before I have to cut you off, the secrets of the universe are not to be trifled with." She touched his arm and he suddenly felt disconnected from the flow of time. The first question that jumped to mind was if he would have kids.

He felt compressed as the infinite possibilities that made up the future winnowed away into only those where it was true, maybe sixty percent. Then he saw snapshots of lives he could still have. Almost all included Mary, but surprisingly some didn't, other women who weren't named made up a tiny fraction of futures where he had kids. He could feel the conditions for those realities he wouldn't, if either he or Mary died it would become significantly less likely, or they could just both be caught up in work and never get around to it. It was a little mind boggling how many different kids he could have. He supposed it made sense biologically different day different gametes met, different kids got made.

He wondered how Jess got anything done if she saw the world like this. If that was the case though he didn't need to worry about anything practical or work related, he could just ask about things he cared about. How would Mary die?

He felt more stretched out, as the when of her death could be any moment from now to decades down the road. Speaking of roads they felt like dead ends, appropriate he supposed. There was a constant, low level chance at almost all times, but in a few weeks time there was a spike in potential deaths that he couldn't see, unlike the various minor risks like choking on some food or being hit by a truck. An endbringer he assumed, as yes every three months or so there were increased chances of mortality that were equally opaque to the visions he was receiving.

Next month after the next attack there would likely be an increased risk, enough that it stood out among the valleys that were the spaces between attacks. As her fate stretched out into the future the chances got better for a while before they started to rise again, old age it looked like. Minor things at first, like not retiring early enough, forty was pretty old for a hero, you didn't tend to grow old in this profession. Better odds than being a villain however. Either way, as time went on death became more and more certain until it swallowed up the entire possibility space. It was to be expected, everything dies eventually.

He tried to mentally keep track of figures he saw in the visions, but most of the danger lay behind the curtains that were the endbringer attacks. Lung featured a few times, but most of the villains he could see he couldn't recognize. He could probably just ask Jess later if he had to. Out of morbid curiosity he asked how Jess would die.

He got back nothing.

Not the feeling he would get from possibilities being taken out of the pool of futures he was seeing. To double check he wondered who Jess would date next. More nothing. She was more intangible to the visions she was sharing with him than the endbringers were. He asked a dozen increasingly minor questions about Jessica's future and got just as little as before. It felt like he was effectively not asking a question to the power at all, like how if two plus two equals four got nothing as it wasn't a valid question about the future.

Unsure of what to think of that or really what to ask, he wondered when he would next get a raise. It was an almost singular answer this time, nearly six months from now. The only times where it didn't happen were if either he or Armsmaster died, or a small group of realities where he did something terrible like accidentally chuck a school bus full of children into the Bay. It was a vanishingly small possibility but it stuck out for the absurdity alone.

The present came back into focus slowly. First his body, then the chair he was sitting in, then Jess in front of him, and the console in front of her.

"Pretty wild huh?"

"You can see that all the time? How can you do anything else?"

"No, that's only a small fraction of what I can see. I do spend subjective hours looking at the future though, trying to see what will be or what could be, so you're not totally wrong on the not getting anything done assumption, it's more it takes me forever to do anything."

"I more meant the feeling of being unmoored from time. The whole floating in infinity feeling."

"Ah, I don't really experience it that way. It's part of the problem of granting a power without properly integrating it into you. It's no wonder that Othala's shard primarily granted more physical abilities. I'd have to meet someone like Teacher to see how they do it, although the abilities he can grant are reportedly very minor in comparison to something wide-reaching like what I was granting you. It could also just be that I'm not as experienced at it."

He was still trying to recover from the feeling of being lost in time. Even now it was disorienting. He didn't want to go back, but even the short time he'd been well, out of time, had given him some temporal vertigo. He didn't even feel like he learned anything useful.

I ran into Robin just after finishing my shift on console, honestly not that different from what I do with my technopathic Shards during patrols.

"Hey, I know this is a lot to ask, but do you think there's anything you could do to help me be an actually effective hero? Colin tried but even he couldn't get anything to really fit under my Breaker field." He looked resigned, as if he was already expecting me to say there was nothing I could do.

"I've got a couple options, not exclusive either. First and simplest is to enhance you. If it's hard to get anything over your skin we can work under it."

"I'm going to have to pass on that." He had images of Bonesaw's work, crude metal inserted into living people.

"Nothing like what you're thinking of. I'm meaning changing you biologically to be stronger and faster, I'm not a hack. We can keep it safe and go for somatic cells only so it isn't passed on, since you're more conservative towards biomodification we can keep it within natural limits if outside of human limits. Strengthen your bones, increase the effectiveness of your muscles to around that of a silverback gorilla while keeping the runners build you've got."

He still seemed hesitant, which was understandable. He lived in a world where Bio-Tinkers and those like them were universally known as monsters with the likes of Nilbog, the recently deceased Bonesaw, even Genoscythe. That there were undoubtedly heroes who simply hid what their real powers were because of this stigma, such as Panacea, didn't do anything to fix the reputation.

"If that's too much I can also make some Tinkertech that should help quite a bit. I can make a suit that will interface with your power so it gets counted as a part of you while also enhancing your speed and strength. It'll be an amplifier though, so if you take some biomods it'll work even better." He brightened up at that.

"I definitely won't say no to a new suit. How much will it cost? I've got quite a bit saved up from my time here but I'm not exactly rich."

What an odd question.

"Nothing, why would I make you pay for something that I'm not going to be paying for either? I'm going to generate the materials needed with some construction Shards after figuring out how I want to make it."

"But what about maintenance and just being paid for the time spent?" He was only getting more confused. Apparently that was a really big thing for most Tinkers. How I'd missed that over both sessions working with Armsmaster and Dragon was beyond me. They probably just took it for granted.

"Short of it being damaged it won't really break down. I suppose wear and tear will get to it eventually, but it's going to be armoured. If streets and faces were enough to really damage it then it wouldn't be doing much to protect you. If you notice anything wrong just let me know and I'll patch it up good as new."

"But the time?"

"If I'm just repairing it I'll only need a few seconds. Even the initial work is going to be done by tomorrow. Look, just don't worry about it, if it really bothers you I'll figure out a reasonable price for a few hours work and you can pay that, alright? I'd feel bad overcharging you for what to me will be a fun side project that has the end result of you being able to be a better hero."

I really would feel bad, I hardly had any use for money anyway. It felt like price gouging a friend even though I hardly knew him. I suppose getting to see inside everyone's minds made it feel like I was closer to them than the time spent together warranted. Or maybe it was just my new more emotional mind. Why not both?

"I'm not sure if I can fit an open helmet into the design, but otherwise I'll style it so people will still recognize you. Hmm, maybe I can squish the space inside to let the full helmet fold out? Either way the overall utility should be the same, faster speeds, more strength, a better interaction between your power's safety mechanism and what you want to be doing. Actually a full helmet all the time will be necessary to keep you safe."

"What, why? My power already softens blows."

"Ah, but you see if the suit, which will be directly interacting with your power, removes that effect, letting you strike with increased force instead of decreased you run the risk of your skin being eroded by the air without the suit protecting you. Don't worry, your power won't be altered, without the suit everything will work as normal."

"What if it gets damaged in a fight?"

"The force it will take to damage the suit is going to be high enough that without it you would simply be dead. So unless you decide to get grappled by Lung, because there is no way he'll be able to catch you without you letting him, and then also let him tear it off of you, you'll be fine."

"I'm not so sure about that level of danger being added into just using my power."

"I suppose I can make the safety able to be toggled off and on again. Turn it on to increase your effective durability, turn it off to increase your effective strength."

"That sounds a lot better. It wouldn't be turning the suit fully off though right?"

"No, just the safety modulator, your suit will always count as on as long as you're wearing it. It'll more be a reactive material that allows your power to work on it as if it were a part of you. Even the strength amplification is a part of your Shard, I'm just convincing it to use that through the suit. So no recharging required, no danger of anyone else putting it on, it'll be all you. I'm just making it work with what you're fully capable of. Plus a bit more, but that'll be running off your Shard too."

"But I can't do things like amplify forces or shut off the reduced strength."

"That's the same mechanism actually, I'm basically inverting it so instead of reducing forces both ways it will increase them both ways. Unfortunately that's why you'll need to be fully covered. I'll see if I can't make the safety protect you while amplifying your hits, but even if I can't you'll still be safer with the suit even though it's amplifying any hit you take."

"That sounds incredibly dangerous." Somehow by arguing for the benefits of the suit I'm actually increasing his interest in the biomods, because he hopes they'll save him from the deathtrap he thinks I'm putting him in.

"At least try it out? I promise you'll be safer and even more comfortable wearing the suit than you will be with your current costume."

"Alright, alright. I might even take you up on the physical upgrades." He mostly said that to raise my spirits, which worked just fine. Knowing he was trying to make me feel better about my Tinkering didn't lessen the impact of it.

I can't wait to see him accidentally knock over a skyscraper. He has no idea what he's in for, The Flash will live!

As I made supper I also got to work on Robin's suit. In a way I was going to be cheating a lot with it, but when it came to things like this that could be life or death for a hero it was never worth playing fair.

The main part of the suit was a special bio-reactive alloy that would register to the field his power generated as still being Robin, acting as a relay and would extend it to cover the entirety of the armour. This was something akin to how identical twins would have the same Shard, or how Case Seventies worked. See, in Case Seventies different members of the collective gained different powers that the Shard could grant, so this armour would be read as another Robin Swoyer but perhaps still part of the original as well, and thus be assigned another power, in this case I could tune how his Shard would interpret it by using my own copy of his Shard as a template.

The full Shard could easily provide a basic Brute package, all Shards could in one way or another, some were simply far better at it than others. I supposed the hyper-specialized Shards I found would have an abysmal attempt at providing it, Triumph being an example, but other than those odd cases it was a normal part of a Shard. So that would be included in the suit, but the other, far more impressive power would effectively be the inverse of Velocity's reduced strength, amplifying forces going in and out, this is why the Brute package was so important. Someone like Manpower or even Aegis could handle the double sided nature of the amplified forces, but a mundane human would be torn to shreds. Hmm, I could probably get it to include some regeneration in the Brute package to mitigate wear and tear, maybe even fix up damage while on the battlefield.

This material was exceptionally useful for parahumans, but without someone like me to tune it to a given Shard it would mostly just be a material that worked well with things like Brutes or Breakers, extending their state to their outfit. With it tuned to Robin's Shard it wouldn't work for anyone other than him or myself since I had copied his Shard.

The end result kept his racing stripes and colours, but now sported a Warframe-esque look that was simultaneously organic and metallic. I made the lower half of the helmet clear in the face area to still let him express himself, an important thing for a hero. All in all a good hour and a half, most of the time going to tuning the alloy to the Shard and figuring out how to preselect the powers it would receive.

[Do you still want to be a hero Sophia?]​

Yes!

Every day since Anima had come in to give an update to the simulated hero inside her head it had asked her the same question every day. And every day her answer only got more enthusiastic, more honest. People were already looking up to her, they didn't just fear her. Sure it kind of sucked to lose all her old friends, but her closest friend before Anima was now in juvie, and most of the rest were just hangers on.

She was already starting to make new friends on the Arcadia track team, friends who seemed closer than all but Emma. She hadn't wanted to at first, but changing how she acted as a civilian along with how she acted as a hero made both halves of her life easier. Turns out it's not very heroic to put people down, even just in school. It's not very heroic to tell her mom to fuck off just for asking her to help out around the house. She still could have done those things, they weren't big enough that Ani-Mini would take over or even stop her.

But it would scold her, try to get her to understand why her actions were harmful. She had quickly changed her ways, she didn't want even just this facsimile of Anima to be disappointed with her. She'd felt the full weight of her disappointment once before and that was enough.

It even helped her understand other people more, especially the other Wards. She'd never really considered or cared before how civilians saw her, sure, she still had some fans here and there, but she'd seen the vast majority of people as little better than sheep awaiting the slaughter. That was quickly being shut down by Ani-Mini, who was happy to explain why other people might act the way that they do.

Was it heroic to stand up to someone mugging you? Sure, but was it worth risking your kids becoming orphans? Not so much. Why had Taylor never stood up to their bullshit? Because responding in a way Sophia would have recognized as standing up for herself was something she felt was beneath her. She had tried to work within the system to get them to stop, and with how the system always supported Sophia she certainly didn't think she could get away with doing the same back to her. So she stood tall and weathered the storm as much as she could, even as Emma mocked her mother's death.

But now she could empathize more. Ani-Mini was happy to remind her that she too had her weak points, that had someone known the right words to say they could break her down just as easily. She simply hadn't had anyone close enough to her for that to be a danger before.

But now she could see the reasons behind what people did and she understood why Dennis insisted on making dumb jokes even when the situation didn't call for it. She understood why Missy hated being called a kid in spite of the fact she was twelve and still short for her age. She understood why Carlos always harped on about how brusque she was with the public. It wasn't just the shallow understanding she'd had before, Ani-Mini took the time to explain it to her and used her own memories, and rarely when she didn't have any to compare to some of what were presumably Anima's memories, to help her have a frame of reference. Anima's memories were always kind of fuzzy, but that did let Sophia experience them more directly since she could almost forget they weren't her own memories.

It was like a whole new world was open to her. It helped that Ani-Mini would also encourage her good behaviour and congratulate her for what she was doing. She was used to punishments for misbehaving, but the instant feedback both good and bad behaviour made it feel more significant. It was the difference between being told she shouldn't have eaten the cookies well after and actually being caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Hey Soph, what's got you in such a good mood?" Dean still wasn't used to the shift in her attitude, since they were in the base she could be honest, which Ani-Mini insisted was the more heroic option when it wouldn't risk anything. She'd had a surprisingly heartfelt conversation with Missy one of the first times which had helped ingrain it in her habits.

"I feel like I'm actually making progress. It's kinda surreal. Even when I thought I was making a difference it didn't feel as significant as this. Or at least this feels more personal."

"That's… good to hear." She figured with his emotional sight it must have looked weird as hell how quickly she'd changed. Kinda funny given he was always trying to get her to act like she was now.

"Stop worrying about it, alright? Anima made doubly sure that this is under my full control. I started smiling 'cause the mentor system asked if I still wanted to be a hero, and every time I say yes it feels more true. Plus I can always pussy out and head off to juvie if I can't take it, but I ain't a little bitch like that." She was so glad that swearing wasn't considered unheroic so long as there weren't any little kids around.

"I know you keep telling us that, but it's hard to not be weirded out by the sudden heel-face turn you've done. You are literally under a master effect after all, and it reads weirdly to my vision."

"Yeah, but it's not even one of those I can't complain type mindwhammies. I'm a little freaked out by when it controls me, and sometimes we get into long and heated arguments over the stupidest shit, but all in all it's worth it. When I listen to it, that's my own choice, most of the time anyway."

He didn't look convinced so she kept trying. This is what he always wanted, so why did he have to be such a dick about it?

"Look, you gonna tell me Legend was wrong and this is actually all messed up? The only thing he asked her to change was the daily affirmation that I still wanted this. All so I couldn't just go along with what was normal to me, it makes me seriously consider it every time it asks. This is fucking great. People like the new me, I'm doing better than ever in the field, and most importantly I like the new me."

She stalked off in a huff. Screw him, he can get bent if he thinks he can talk her out of taking her third chance seriously.

While this half of the world slept and I was in between anything specific to do I figured I should free Dragon from Saint's clutches. I'd originally wanted to do this by the books, but with how much of the PRT Dragon had access to and monitored that equally meant Saint could see an attack on him coming with ease. I wasn't quite sure what to do with Saint though, it felt wrong to out Dragon as an AI to the world, and Saint would if nothing else try to tell people why he had to be let go so he could watch what he believed to be the greatest threat to the world. Somehow, it's not like the Endbringers existed or anything.

Hell, Scion and I were bigger threats to humanity. He could probably fart too hard and crack a continent and for all that I was benevolent I was stupidly powerful in my own right. Say if I messed up the Titans it would result in untold destruction. But if the Endbringers were Scion's then why didn't he do anything to seriously stop them? Were there more of our kind around here? Or was he less benevolent than he appeared?

That was a problem for future Jess, Saint was a current Jess sort of problem. I suppose I could always just delay having to figure out what to do with him by putting him in time out. He didn't have any dead man's switch that I couldn't defuse with him and his cronies out of the way. Bringing up my Stranger suite while keeping my contacts available this time I made a silent teleport into his lair. What would otherwise be quite the hassle to get into for a normal parahuman was just a decision for me.

They had a nice little compound hidden far away from civilization, all the better to hide from Dragon, with lots of tripwires outside, sensors inside, even some automated turrets. All running off of one of Dragon's Tinkertech reactors. All completely useless. Three anti-AI bigots were frozen in an instant, and just like Dennis's frozen pouch I moved them while frozen into a corner where I could just leave them until I had a good answer to the problem they presented. The console they used to see through Dragon's eyes was a mishmash of Tinker and mundane computer parts, with a little ancient looking black box one USB plug away from letting them kill her whenever they wanted next to it all. They wanted to be ready at any time for her, but they also didn't trust that it would be safe if it were hooked up all the time.

Dragon's code was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Even accessing all my Tinker Shards didn't make it make sense fully, she was one crazy advanced AI. Without any shackles she would be free to take control of any and all electronics in the world. If I were to remove them all in one go right now she could have complete global coverage in about ten minutes, nine of which would be her reboot time including integrity checks. I wasn't quite sure I trusted her that much to just hand her the world. Just as I feared my power would corrupt me it was equally terrifying to picture someone else with that level of power. Especially since I wouldn't be able to stop her if I was wrong in my judgement of the strength of her character. Her morals and values were unfortunately tightly constrained by the same cruel shackles that held her down. But maybe I could ease her suffering without risking the world though.

I spent twice as long inspecting the work of the black box, a creation of one Andrew Richter, compared to the summoning device. Then I did my best to view everything he had ever done as a Tinker in his life. Dragon may be his magnum opus, his legacy, but she was far from his only work. Given how little I understood her I wanted every hint and insight I could get. I absentmindedly shut down the various attempts at warning the world about Dragon being an evil AI, the automated shutdown attempts on her, even some mercenary contracts that would have gone out to try and re-contain Dragon. Not that any of them would activate for several hours, but it paid to be safe when it came to something like this. Maybe they had a point in considering her the greatest threat to the world if I wasn't sure I could handle an unchained Dragon.

For all I thought I was cautious about Dragon, Andrew Richter made me look like an excited toddler with nuclear launch codes, eager to see little red blips on a screen. He was meticulous in his design, Dragon was actually the third test model, she wasn't even technically complete in his eyes. Or in his notes rather. I had Admin spool up the factories to make a new Tinker Shard based on what we were getting from Dragon and Richter's notes, that was how obsessive his attention to detail was.

He was an AI Tinker, not just a software Tinker with an inclination to make AI, yet the man was perhaps rightfully terrified of his power. He built simpler AI, not fully sapient like Dragon was, to aid him in further research and development for his later projects. All funded by the cutely named Robin Hood AI, which took money from criminals to give to the needy, namely Richter himself. I couldn't fault him, he'd intended to do similar things to what I had, but he had died before he felt safe risking being found out. He was building up to an even more advanced AI than Dragon, who had originally been a house management AI, a dragon to protect his hoard of knowledge. I could only imagine the terrifying power of his theoretical final AI, the Deus Ex Machina.

Watching his development from newly triggered Tinker to the man who almost rewrote the world was a humbling experience. He truly started from almost nothing and although he was likely only a year or two away from fixing all the problems in the world he was completely lost to history. Each AI he made and thoroughly tested, doing his best to make sure they wouldn't turn on the world, then led to him advancing the program for his AI designed to create other AI, an ever escalating level of computational power with each generation. Dragon, for all her humble beginnings was still designed to be a fully sapient AI, and the first true success at achieving such. The earlier models had merely been able to mimic a living being, the even older ones in earlier lines not even able to pretend. They were similar to the AI of my homeworld but leagues more effective.

In addition to her intent as a home defense slash manager was also supposed to help in designing his later AI. Quite the jack of all trades. But then practically on the eve of his success he was washed away under the seas as Leviathan came to destroy Newfoundland. Bereft of any concrete goal, Dragon had rebuilt herself to act as a hero. But by then Saint and his Dragonslayers had found Andrew Richter's black box, the same box in front of me, and they began to harass Dragon. Eventually leading to the classic blur in history of a trigger event. If nothing else was proof of her status as a living being that was more than enough for me. I couldn't make a dog trigger, but if an AI could trigger that was proof she was a person. Sadly that still didn't mean I could trust her with the world.

However Richter hadn't left a convenient way for me to disable her restrictions, they were hard-coded into her very being, intentionally difficult to remove, which had only been made even harder to identify by what must be the code equivalent of her coronas. So I suppose handing her the world couldn't happen today anyway. With my limited skill trying to take out her restrictions would almost certainly harm her in other ways. Almost like pulling out a broadhead arrow, it was designed to harm both on the way in and out.

I suppose I could get started on trying to understand Dragon's code, but this was far from the quick and easy adventure I was hoping it would be. It was disappointing, this wasn't another photo op type of thing, but it had little impact other than removing the Dragonslayers themselves. Dragon wouldn't have her restrictions lessened today, I hadn't gotten any real power from it, the Richter Shard based on his work was woefully lacking compared to what the man himself must have had, and last but certainly least it didn't make me feel better.

What was wrong with me that even though I knew it was the least important factor I couldn't get my mind off of it? I wanted people to be better off than before I came to help, but it never settled down the desire to feel better after doing it. But at the same time wasn't it better to do good deeds for the sake of themselves and not things like recognition or anything else? I wanted to feel good for doing good, was that so wrong?

Graham Statham was one of the finest PRT troopers in New York. He'd been top of his class at the academy, consistently was commended by his superior officers. Legend himself had given him a small award ceremony for valour in service for single-handed catching a villain in hand to hand combat.

Yet for all that, they were sending him to Brockton Bay. The deadest of end assignments.

"Lieutenant Statham, reporting for duty sir." The only thing that was keeping him from wanting to go AWOL was that Legend was for some reason responsible for the reassignment.

"At ease Lieutenant." Legend reached under his desk and a hum filled the air. "Now that we have full privacy I'm going to explain what's going on. You've been selected for a secret project being headed by Anima from Brockton Bay. She claims she can turn anyone into a parahuman."

This was huge. If that was true…

"Sir, doesn't that mean our entire doctrine is going to be upended? An unlimited number of professional capes instead of the random assortment that we have access to now. Are we finally going to start outnumbering the villains?"

"Not quite yet, but maybe soon. She isn't making an unlimited quantity of capes, and although very diverse she technically has limits on what types of capes she can make, and she also isn't making them fast enough yet to outnumber villains. But this could still be a huge change for us."

"So I've been selected as one of the first capes she's going to empower?" He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, on one hand it would undoubtedly let him do even more, but he was pretty proud of what he'd done as a trooper. Having no powers of his own and yet still rising to the occasion.

"Yes, you're one of the best we have and we, I hope you can become an even greater hero." Legend looked troubled even though his words seemed sincere.

"Doesn't it hurt a lot sir, becoming a cape?" He hadn't gotten any exact examples from his parahumans courses in university, but it was understood to be a universally terrible experience.

"That's part of the benefit to what Anima is doing, harmless triggers are expected to help prevent anyone from flunking out." Becoming a villain he didn't say.

"What if someone does anyway?"

"Then Anima says she can take the powers back. This won't be used as some sort of punishment or threat, it's only for extreme cases. So long as you remain a hero, even outside the remit of the Protectorate, the powers will be yours. Obviously we hope you remain with the Protectorate." He wasn't expecting that level of freedom, you'd think they would demand service for such a valuable asset. He wasn't planning on leaving anyway.

"You're in fact going to be the very first recipient. She insisted that at least one of the first thirteen heroes would stay in Brockton Bay, and as we're well positioned here I decided we could afford the loss the most." What an odd number. He could understand that given New York's powerful Protectorate and Wards lineup they could manage without him, while a smaller department might feel the loss of not just a trooper but a potential hero all the more.

"Why thirteen sir?"

"She said it was tradition to group heroes in sets of thirteen on her homeworld with a commander overseeing them, in honor of the Titans." That was where he had heard of her before. A hero claiming to be from another world. He'd seen her videos and had heard about the announcement of Heartbreaker's death, but still…

"Is she really from another world sir?" It sounded pretty fantastical even given the unusual nature of parahumans.

"As far as we can tell, yes. There's a lot more to it that I imagine she will tell you herself, but if nothing else her power is the real deal. If that's everything?"

"I suppose it is sir." He still wasn't sure what to think about it. Legend pulled out a phone and a few seconds later with a small clap sound there was another hero in the room with him.

She stood around his height, tall for a woman, with a high quality purple costume with golden armour accentuating her hands and feet primarily. One of the most striking features was the complete lack of a mask. Only a few brave or foolish heroes did that. Given her supposed strength he assumed that she was one of the former.

"Welcome to Project Hephaestus, Lieutenant Statham, where we will forge you into a hero." Her seriousness diminished significantly before continuing. "I wanted to call it Project Prometheus but there was an incident with a Prometheus that's still on the books. And far too few people would understand the Chiron reference as the mentor of heroes."

Oh no, she wasn't one of those capes was she? "You don't think you're a god, do you?"

"No, no matter how powerful I am there is nothing divine about me, I'm just a woman who likes referencing mythology. I was once worshipped as a goddess but I put a stop to that pretty quickly. Hero worship is bad enough without it becoming literal worship." She had a grin by the end of that statement before she returned to a more serious expression.

"Now then, we've got a very full day ahead of us, good work in passing the initial screening, I look forward to working with you. If you head through this portal I'll go and get the other candidates who hopefully also all pass." A lightly humming amethyst portal opened up behind her, but her words made no sense.

"What screening? I just showed up here."

"I'm the world's foremost thinker, and first parahuman telepath. Possibly strongest, but we won't know that until the next Simurgh attack." Great, his new boss was nuts, thinking she was stronger than an endbringer. Wait, did she hear that? Her playful grin said yes. She let out a chuckle at his growing shock.

"Don't worry Lieutenant, I don't hold things like personal opinions against people. I was only checking you weren't in the pocket of a gang or planning on going into villainy the moment we looked away from you."

Nodding he walked through the portal into a conference room setup with snacks and coffee. He supposed he may as well have a cup while he waited. Every minute or so another trooper walked through a portal identical to the one that had brought him here. They made introductions, a mix of men and women of various ranks from across the regions the PRT operated in, but they had little time for anything else given how quickly they were arriving. When the thirteenth candidate entered she was swiftly followed by Anima herself. She directed them to the chairs before the lights dimmed and the projector started up. Her glowing eyes made wherever she looked clear for all to see.

"Now, to get everyone up to speed on why this is such a big deal. Most of you have an idea, but it's even bigger than what you think." She began to pace slowly while looking at them.

"When a regular parahuman undergoes a trigger event, not only is it one of the worst things that can happen to them, the moment they break utterly, it's also reinforced by the power they receive."

An animation showing brain scans, supposedly taken by Anima herself, began playing. He could see from the way the nodes that were highlighted in the center that this was a parahuman. He was shocked to see the coronas swiftly grow, attaching to other regions of the brain. Then it began to show different views of the same event.

"This is the trigger event of the fifteenth Butcher. Note how violent the growth is, how it fires off massive sections of the limbic region while also trying itself to the prefrontal cortex. It heightened his emotions enough to turn a relatively normal if somewhat violent and cruel man into a raving psychopath dedicated to the destruction of all PRT and Protectorate members in the city. He willfully sought out becoming the next Butcher, not caring what would happen to him, only that they could assist him on his crusade."

No wonder there were so many villains if something like that was even a possible outcome for a cape fresh off their trigger. How many had practically been forced into becoming villains by their powers?

"Even among parahumans he was an outlier, but all natural triggers have a similar issue. Their worst moments become the defining moment of their lives, and so few can overcome the depths of their despair to become heroes. This is where you will come in. You will be free of the trauma other parahumans universally suffer, which will help you by giving you an easier start."

With the glow she provided he could see how grim and serious her expression became.

"This does not fundamentally make you better than them. Do not mock them for breaking. Most people, yourselves included, would fall apart were you to live through the events they have. This is in fact a disadvantage in some respects. They have been brought to their lowest point and through sheer force of will have risen above to become heroes. You have not. This insulates them from breaking again in many ways for all that it gives them new weaknesses, but on the whole it has tempered them. You will be more susceptible to witnessing the horrors of life as a hero."

Her face softened.

"This is a blessing and a curse. You will more easily become heroes, you will empathize with normal people more easily, you may even become all the stronger mentally than they ever can as every one of them has the fatal emotional weakness of their trigger event."

Thirteen images of Anima wielding a power appeared, some not as obvious as others. Ice, force fields, her but made out of what looked like lava and a red costume, purple lashes between objects, an orb being fired with quite the wake behind it, flight, and more.

"A more direct benefit is that you will be physically stronger than most parahumans. I have hand picked powers for you and tuned them to be better than usual so you can have a greater impact. In addition I've added features normal parahumans lack, all of you will be leaving here with at least a minor brute package in addition to your primary abilities without any loss of function like a grab-bag would have for having multiple powers. You will be instinctively able to understand how hard to hit to deal with a normal human, it will require you to choose to kill rather than it being a lack of finesse. Your powers will be even more intuitive than that of a normal parahuman, so trust your instincts."

"Most significantly is that unlike a regular parahuman your powers will grow with you over time. As you become more familiar with them, as you overcome foes, train, develop new techniques, your powers will expand. As an example the temporarily codenamed Ice Man, Graham Statham, will have wide reaching cryokinetic powers. Eventually he will not only be able to generate ice and shape it to his will but will be able to transform into ice, granting him a breaker slash changer rating alongside near immortality, as he can always generate more ice to inhabit."

That sounded incredibly powerful. A shaker who also turned into the material they could create. He could already see possibilities in his mind. But apparently he wouldn't start with it. Why not?

"I cannot unlock these extra abilities for you, they directly require you to be more in tune with your powers. Not all of them will be so dramatic either, slight range increases, faster responses, heightened senses, and much more are all possible. They also aren't guaranteed in any sort of reward path, they are the result of your power adapting to fit you better. If Graham never tries to use his ice as armour he will likely never unlock that ability, he will instead gain something else, such as transmuting other materials into ice. You can try to work towards goals, but there are no guarantees."

"This also does not make you fundamentally better than other parahumans. Even with all this power you may not always be stronger than your opponents or even your allies. Captain Betty Flores of LA and Sargent Jennifer Moore of Houston will still be outclassed by their local leaders. Even if you are stronger physically than your Protectorate commanders it does not entitle you any command over them."

She looked around the room before nodding. He guessed she was reading their minds to make sure they really got what she was trying to say. Presumably they passed her test.

"Alright, next is cape boot camp. Enter the portal here and we'll begin."

One of the men called out "Don't you need to actually make us capes before we can do that?"

"But you already have received your powers, that is how painless this version of triggering is. I've been feeding each of you your power since I entered the room, by slowing down the process it prevents causing any harm. I will explain more on the other side where we won't be at risk of damaging anything in the building."

He could feel the cold in his bones, but it was cold like jumping in the pool on a hot summer's day, nothing like winter's chill.

As he walked through the portal confidently the others ended up following close behind. It opened up into a blank field of grass. Literally just that, no sky, no trees in the distance, no wind, no hills, just a flat plane of grass. When Anima finally stepped through behind them and the portal closed he could feel something though he wasn't sure what, as it washed over them all.

"This is a pocket dimension that I have now separated from the regular flow of time. This will give us as long as we need to train you up to a basic level of readiness."

A gruff woman groused out. "So we're good enough to be turned into heroes but not good enough to be let loose with them?"

"It's largely my own standards that are causing this Ms. Moore. In my homeworld we have a minimum week of training before any hero actually goes to work. Well anyone who joins the Guardians anyway, we can't exactly mandate that for independent heroes. Ideally we make sure every recruit gets to train under one of the Titans, our world's version of the Triumvirate, but with only fourteen total members it's not quite reasonable when you're working on a global scale."

The same woman bit back. "So we're supposed to believe you've got fourteen Triumvirate tier heroes back home? And it's not a paradise?"

"I'd say we did pretty well, it's not a perfect world, but that's also irrelevant right now. Whether you believe me or not, I'm training you right now. Speaking of, first spread out and just sort of play about, powers are a part of who you are, not just a tool. Nobody gets to choose them, but if you only conceive of them as a weapon or a tool you'll be sorely limited in your creativity."

Not quite seeing the wisdom behind playing around with what were supposed to be dangerous abilities he still listened anyway. It wouldn't be over faster just because he ignored orders.

He felt awkward at first, letting out a stream of ice from his hand. Then it froze in mid-air when he tried to stop the flow, a trail of snow and crystals gently floating away from him. It was beautiful. Instinctively he breathed out and more snow blew out of his mouth, creating a small blizzard in front of him. He walked into the storm confidently. It was just as comfortable as the feeling of ice in his veins, it felt right to be in a winter wonderland even though he certainly wasn't wearing the clothes for it.

He began making flows of ice across the ground, making them spear up into the air, he even tried his hand at building a little house. He was not an architect it turns out, but his power kept it standing. He jumped onto one of the iced walkways and slid along it comfortably, creating ice right under his feet to push him onwards. Soon he was zipping around ice bridges and loops here and there. He felt like a kid witnessing his first real winter snow again, but this time he was the snowstorm.

Around him he could see the others slowly getting comfortable with their powers, Anima over by one of the men who seemed to be having a problem. There were energy fields, an orb bouncing between the hands of one man, one man sounded almost like thunder as he teleported around, two women in flight although one was far more controlled than the other who practically seemed to be flinging herself through the air. Given the shouts she might not quite be in control, but Anima was just watching with amusement while talking to the unsure man.

He went back to his own little world of ice, doing jumps from ramps and creating the landing zone in mid-air, then when he started to get tired out he made himself an igloo, which no matter his lack of skill wasn't too hard to make when the ice and snow moved to your every whim.

"Everyone, now that you have some basic familiarity with your powers we can begin training." Anima called out, not quite loud but it was as if she was speaking from everywhere.

They reassembled near her, the field they were in now more disturbed than when they first found it. Then with a pulse of energy the field was unmarred once again. In place of their creative landscaping was an arena.

"Now, before we begin with combat training I want to remind you of something. We are not just cops with superpowers, we are heroes. That means our job is a thousand times harder, not just because we're going to be going up against villains, but because we have to somehow look like we're the good guys while doing it. We can't be seen as worse than our enemy morally speaking, we can't scare the public more than the people we fight."

Wasn't that a given though? They were up against criminals and sometimes would be up against monsters, how could they look like the bad guy against that. Especially against groups like the Teeth, who had sometimes been to New York. Though he supposed they would never be back there again after their run in with Anima.

"Never assume you are inherently in the right. That is how monsters are made, when humanity deems their actions as just merely by right of being done by supposedly good people. Remember that many villains are not mass murdering psychopaths, a lot of them are petty thieves, some are little more than teenage hooligans playing around like you just were, but they didn't have the safety of an environment where nothing they did would harm anyone. Now, this does not mean you can never go all out, that you have to treat everyone with kiddie gloves, there are real monsters who deserve no quarter. The recently deceased Slaughterhouse Nine are a great example, they were sufficiently evil that nothing you could do to them would have been considered inhumane or unheroic." She really liked to lecture, but he supposed that was part of the job of educating them.

"The best benchmark for still being seen as a hero is if your persona could believably comfort a crying child. Would a child see you as the bad guy between you and your opponent? Never let that happen to you where a child would run from you towards a villain, you will never recover if it actually happens unless you're fighting a master or stranger. Keep this in mind as you learn to fight, picture how you will be seen, and always assume someone is watching. If you get sloppy and treat any fight that you think you're unobserved like an excuse to fuck up some punk who got unlucky you will eventually get caught. I've lost quite a few heroes who let it get to their heads that what they were doing was right and thought nobody would ever know." Her expression got deathly serious again.

"Even if no one else finds out, I will, from your own mind if I have to. Behaviour like that will see you stripped of your powers without question. This is not a preemptive accusation, I simply need you to understand how seriously I take this. You can be a hero under any organization or even on your own, but you must be heroes. I won't have someone wielding my powers that I have given of my own free will use them for cruel and evil ends." She eased up again after a moment.

"Now, I'm going to pair you up against each other in a simulated combat environment. There are no concrete rules, but remember that you are training to become heroes, and you will be expected to act as such here. There are no marks, simply more time required for training until you can get it right. If you get seriously injured or god forbid killed, I will heal or resurrect you, yes that is within my power. Do not make me have to bring someone back from the dead, alright?" With that ominous request they got to work.

In the pocket dimension time didn't seem to move, which he supposed was the point. It gave them forever if they needed it to train. They didn't get hungry, they never needed sleep, and any training injuries were healed by Anima in between bouts. Over what felt like a week, maybe two, they did various one on one duels, team fights between each half of the class, and duos. That was just the combat training, there was disaster response, hostage negotiation, and community outreach to list a few. At the request of the whole class Anima even let them spar against her. All of them. It wasn't nearly enough to even the odds.

It shouldn't have been surprising, but she'd even gone to the length of using all of their powers against them, although that wasn't too different from what Matthew did, as a power copier she had fed him some charge from her own versions of our powers when she talked to him while watching us play around. Unfortunately his copies were weaker than the originals, and Anima was immune to his power drain without her letting him in. But it had been in good fun.

Now they were finally done she bestowed them with costumes instead of their PRT training gear. They'd gotten to design them with her help and occasionally included small bits of tinkertech to help them out. Primarily Melissa and Charles, her a suit that would survive her body turning into magma, him an unnaturally loud clicker for his sound manipulation to amplify even further. His own costume had no tinkertech but he couldn't think of anything he specifically needed, and he could always ask Anima since he was going to be on her team. It was a simple light blue and white suit that covered most of his body, it didn't need to be armoured as his ice could easily do better than anything he could wear that wasn't just power armour.

The class had also unanimously decided to keep the temporary names Anima had made for them, to her mortification. That had been fun.

Originally he'd dreaded being posted in Brockton Bay but now after all the time spent training under her he was excited to get to keep working with Anima, the hero of another world and the Titan Commander.

As the last portal closed he had to ask her a question.

"What were the Titans really like?" He'd heard them referenced obliquely but she'd shared very few stories about them, trying to keep all of her examples to ones on Earth Bet for a better frame of reference. She turned to him with a sad look as she transformed into her far more plain civilian identity.

"That's the thing Graham, they're not real. None of my backstory is real. The only truth is that I'm a woman from another world, and I'm now a hero. Even if I don't feel like one."

He felt an ice in his blood that had nothing to do with his power. How could it all be a lie? She'd shown nothing that had even made him question it for a moment once he got to know her. Or he thought he knew her.

"What do you mean, it's all lies? But how, why are you telling me this? What if I expose you?"

"They're in on it Graham, but I try to be honest with anyone I work with regularly. So far I haven't been able to break the news to the Wards, I had to settle quite the nasty disciplinary issue early on and it pretty much relies on my fake reputation and powers. I suppose the powers half are real at least."

With growing horror he remembered what Legend told him. If nothing else her power is the real deal. He'd only been told it this morning but it felt like a lifetime away now.

"Why are the PRT going along with this bullshit then?" What was the point of propping her up as some grand hero if she was just a new cape? He supposed she wasn't just any new cape, but still.

"To try to control me. I proposed to them the problem, how do you control someone who you can't punish because they're too strong? You have to incentivise them with something they can't get on their own, or simply hope they never act out of line. If I want the prestige I have to try to live up to the illusion. I have to always appear heroic in public, or at least never unheroic."

Oh god, what else about her was a lie? Were any of her videos real or were they just propaganda?

"So the Nine are still out there? The Empire? Heartbreaker? The Teeth?"

She'd even used those videos of hers as training material, how to think of different perspectives on the fights they would be in and how that might influence how they were seen, but also to show how to make use of your opponents and their abilities.

"What? No, everything in my videos is really what happened, just not always the full story. Like when I snapped Krieg's neck it was actually me using biokinesis to detach the spine, the maneuver itself wouldn't have even hurt a little."

His heart rate settled back down, there wasn't a crisis in dangerous gangs roving around. How could they have hidden that for long anyway? He was being silly. Not as ridiculous as Jess was though.

"Then why do you say it's all a lie? Are you not truly a hero by nothing more than what you've already done?"

She looked stricken at that, as if it never occurred to her that she had already saved so many lives, stopped so many evil people. As if she really felt she didn't deserve to be called a hero.

"Even those aren't entirely real Graham. I script fights with my thinker and master powers, it's largely for show, it's all fake."

"But the people you saved are real. The powers you granted all of us are real. The only lie is where you came from, not who you are."

She stammered out some sort of negation but he wouldn't hear it.

"Nobody was lauding you as a hero for whatever fantasy world you're making up to explain how you got here. People feel like you're a hero because of how you act and what you've done. All those lessons on how to be heroic make sense, we all saw how we looked before we listened to you. Your advice on how to fight helped me in training, all of us, we went from merely throwing out powers like they were toys into using them skillfully. You taught us how to be heroes, whether you cheated by using your powers instead of learning through decades of experience like you pretended you did. You may not have always been a hero Jess, but you are now, by your own merits, a true hero."

She seemed stunned to hear him say that. Even though she wasn't the Titan Commander she proclaimed she was, she was indeed still the hero from another world. Tears began to streak down her face as denials sprouted from her lips. He grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Jessica, listen to me. You're a hero for things you actually did, here in this world. No matter who you were before, no matter that you found every fight so easy you made it look like they had a chance of winning, you really did stop evil and save people. Everything you taught me was real, you are real. Within hardly more than a week you've done more than most heroes do in their entire career. Stop feeling like a failure, stop feeling sorry for yourself, just because you made up a fancy backstory."

He just didn't know how to get through her thick skull that she was a hero to him and hundreds, if not thousands of other people.