Then I suppose it may, sure.
A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]
- Thread starter sun tzu
- Start date
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I'd like to point out that the stunt for finding more civvy applications is designed to severely limit the actual amount to time devoted to the action. Given that it took the Avatar mere moments to produce grand quantities of omnimetal, the most time intensive part of the action ought to be shaping it all into sample-size and getting the PRT to ship it off to the relevant parties.
So more like dividing our attention...eh, 3.25 ways? I think I'm being overly generous in how much time it'll take, particularly since we'll be using some of our other actions to interact with the PRT as well and can thus be efficient with the use of our time.
That will be taken into account.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Oh god I've doomed us all. Doooooooomed!That will be taken into account.
I've never committed all of it to writing, but you can find a few bits and pieces here. If you want more, you can PM me your e-mail address and I can send you what I did write down.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You guys think the intangibility trick might want on Behemoth's senses as well?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is precognition truly a total OCP for the Avatar? No encounters with anything like it at all? Or is it more something about the Simurgh's methods/capabilities he learned about?
There was this one time a superhero on his world started getting flashes of the future at random intervals. This one time.
Anything that messes with time itself, generally speaking - and that includes precognition - requires the "fuck you universe, I'll make my own physics" levels bullshit power that usually only Madman is capable of. Even gods at full power don't know the future.
So, yeah. It's one hell of an OCP for him.
Worm precog is more along the lines of a "Just as Planned." Meme though. Extremely good forecasting based off of brute force computing and an understanding of the individuals involved. Maybe something someone like your Checkmate character could pull off with ample resources?
Some of them are a literal space magic lookahead, some are modeling based.
Remember that they're operating on multiversal rules, where every change forks, so the space magic lookahead is ridiculously energy intensive.
Well, except for Contessa's.
It's still ridiculously energy intensive, but more than Contessa's lifetime anyway.
They do? I thought the number of (Entity-accessible) realities in their multiverse is finite?
And from what I remember, precog is a combination of creating computational models and sending info back in time to varying degrees, which is apparently pretty energy-intensive, as they wouldn't need to do the whole 'Seeding the world with Shards' thing otherwise.
They do, the number of parahuman accessible realities is finite, but the rate at which shards grow and reproduce exceeds the rate at which multiverses fork, at least, into energy efficient crossing points.
There's a bunch of insights from unrestricted precogs(Eden-vision, Simurgh-vision, Zion-vision) that indicates that they can indeed see ahead in time, at high energy costs, with the costs spiking as they need to see even more futures the further they go to keep up with the forking possibilities.
We know also that time manipulation is a thing they can do, AND that Zion-Eden Entity true precog-tech is not very developed(given how happy Eden was about getting Abaddon's PtV, and how much Contessa spams hers when Zion finds it too expensive to use for short term projections, even for him).
It's possible that one of the goals of the forced evolution is to innovate a species of precog powerful enough to find a solution to outbreeding the multiverse without costing enough energy to kill them.(the answer is to breed less but nothing that performs decision making via breeding and evolving is going to come to that conclusion as it's actively against the selection condition)
Welcome to the Protectorate
Man... Another chapter that suffered from serious bloat. I think I should avoid giving you the option to do too much per chapter. XD
WELCOME TO THE PROTECTORATE
You might be tempted to say that the first order of business is getting Skitter into the Protectorate, but obviously that's not true.
The first order of business is reading the literature. The PRT provides new recruits with a guidebook that explains rules, procedures, everything from salary grids to Master-Stranger protocols. Thankfully, granting yourself some mental super-speed allows you to turn a page every second without missing a single word, and your eidetic memory won't forget any of it.
That leaves you some time to familiarize yourself, still using mental super-speed, with US law, Canadian law, and this world's UN charter. The fact that your new room has a computer with Web access facilitates things. You have also been provided with a PRT-issued phone, seeing as your communication powers aren't always on.
With that done, the next step is a little meet-and-greet with the local Protectorate and Wards rosters. Part of you always feels loath to spend precious time on social occasions, even with good friends whose presence you enjoy - after all, every moment you spend chatting in the safety of a friendly location is time spent not rescuing anyone from deadly danger, and there are always people in deadly danger. A more reasonable part of you, though, knows that some socialization helps build effective teams. It's thus a matter of finding the optimal balance between those needs.
Armsmaster, as you quickly learn, is not so far from your workaholism. From your talks, both with him and Assault, it sounds like he spends every bit of time he can patrolling, training, building new devices, or maintaining current ones (from the sound of it, "tinkertech" requires an impractical degree of maintenance). Then again… the man strikes you as having little in the way of social skills. Is that part of the reason he's so focused on heroing? Is it, perhaps, the other way around?
You can also perceive some resentment toward Dauntless. Bad blood between them? If so, it seems one-sided. At least he doesn't seem resentful toward you, which is a start.
"You don't need to sleep? Handy. I know I could use having six extra hours in the day."
"It's an advantage," you concede, "but even if I had 240 hours each day, I could still only accomplish a tiny fraction of what needs to be done. It's why I do my best to encourage others to join the good fight, and why I try to coordinate with other teams." He nods at that.
Miss Militia is a Middle-Eastern woman - Kurdish is your best guess - who apparently shares your permanent wakefulness. She seems friendlier than her leader, and the general vibe you get from her is a positive one - she reminds you of some of the better heroes you've known. Which is why you choose to broach a sensitive subject with her:
"I'll admit this sounds odd. There are no heroes and villains below 18 in your world?"
"Well, obviously it's a lot more complicated than that. Mutation-based powers manifest weakly during puberty, then take several years to reach full strength. Still, social services will usually prevent minors from going out and fighting crime - that's not supposed to be their job. Young villains exist, sadly, but they remain few and far between." You pause. "There was one team of superheroic children in recent years, called the Young Champions, but the only reason they stayed in operation for as long as they did was because they were fighting in a different plane of reality."
"You mean, another dimension?"
"Not exac- well, I suppose I wouldn't know. I haven't familiarized myself with your terminology yet."
"There's that," she grins, though her expression quickly grows more serious. "But for what it's worth, I received my powers at a young age, and used it immediately in self-defense; violence often finds capes whether or not they're looking for it. And we often do look for it - having powers but not using them is almost unthinkable for most parahumans, and we seem geared toward conflict." Her expression then changes into a reassuring smile under that scarf. "If it helps, though, the Ward program tries to keep them away from real fights unless an Endbringer is in town. Wards actually going on patrols like they do in Brockton Bay is a bit of an exception, due to how understaffed we are compared to the villains. Having no Thinker support hurts us, to be honest…"
Battery seems level-headed and professional, and displays interest in how law enforcement and metahumans intersect on your world.
"Wait, you personally built some of the Birdcage equivalents?"
"Some of the early ones. When metahumans first appeared, it was almost impossible to contain supervillains without killing them, and I didn't want execution to become the default solution, especially for supervillains who had never actually committed murder. I helped build some of those early prisons to provide an alternative. Nowadays, though, technology is sufficiently advanced that my assistance is no longer required. With that said, we never had one singular, global prison - at last count, there were over twenty metahuman detention centers in the US alone."
"I see. Are escapees an issue?"
"Usually, no more so than unpowered felons. There have been rare exceptions - one prison was apparently run for years by a criminal conspiracy that was getting the prisoners out, giving them new identities, and hiring them as supposed 'superheroes' for a large team it was building." She gives you an odd look at that.
Assault, from the looks of it, is the Protectorate member least concerned about propriety and boundaries, which also makes him more informative and prone to gossip than the others. You can tell he has some relationship with Battery beyond just being teammates, but you're not certain of its exact nature.
"So, yeah. Welcome to the Nazi capital of America," he says. "Say… You've been around since the 1920s, right? Does that mean you fought Hitler?"
"I fought against the Third Reich during the war," you confirm. "I wish I had been able to do more. I did more or less destroy the KKK prior."
"No shit," he says with a big smile. "How'd you do that?"
"About two months after my debut, I had a lot of credibility built. I crashed a Klan lynching, and I brought with me multiple witnesses. After that, I repeated it again multiple times over the next few years, while also encouraging some friends and acquaintances I'd made to attack the organization socially through satire and ridicule. No less important was convincing several individual klansmen of the error of their ways - with their knowledge of the organization, they were able to speak up and demystify it. Throw in the fact that one in ten American metahumans was black, and the Federal government understood the implications… and, well, by the mid-30s the organization was a shadow of its former power."
"So you're not going to be making Kaiser's life any easier," he chuckles.
Dauntless, perhaps more than anyone here, seems relieved to have you around. His power is a rarity in that it grows over time (which, frankly, surprises you). As such, he's expected to one day be in the Triumvirate's league and make a sizable difference against S-class threats.
"...and it's just good to have someone around who can actually fight those things. I've watched the videos, and even for Eidolon it's always an uphill battle. You know what I mean?"
"I believe I do." You get the impression Dauntless doesn't care much for how many hopes and expectations are placed upon his shoulders.
Velocity. Laid-back fellow. The way his powers work seems weird to you even in comparison to Dauntless. Super-speed that reduces his ability to interact with physical objects? That sounds… like an artificial limitation, to be honest.
"Yyyyeah, the faster I move, the less my punches hurt. Them's the breaks, man."
"Then why not rely on weapons that don't require much strength? Tranquilizer needles, stun guns, pepper spray, tying their shoelaces together…"
"Whoa, dude."
Triumph is a recent graduate of the Wards. Surprisingly, he seems more thankful for your arrest of Coil than for stopping Leviathan.
"...and what he did to Dinah Alcott was… fuck. No-one who treats children like that should be anywhere outside the Birdcage."
"I agree on principle, but his powers could make a difference against S-class threats. If the PRT makes a deal with him, it might be for the best."
He sighs. "Goddamn politics."
Tsunami isn't a Protectorate member yet, but the PRT is working on it, and they intend to assign her to this city for symbolic reasons (and because if there's a city that won't be creeped out by a hydrokinetic, it's the one where Leviathan died without causing major damage); she's as much part of this meet-and-greet as you are. She's rough around the edges, and you get the feeling she doesn't feel all that sorry for some of the worse things she's done, but she seems sincere about this career change.
" ...Really? You're doing the hero thing 24/7? No time to relax? To catch a movie? To fucking fuck?"
"My circumstances are somewhat unusual," you say. "If anyone else was displaying this sort of single-mindedness, I would strongly recommend that they take a vacation. People need time to wind down and maintain their sanity."
"But you don't."
"I don't. Different rules, different needs." You smile jokingly. "So, no, I'm not asking you to always be on duty. Just to do as well as you can."
Overall, the Protectorate folks seem all right. As for the Wards… Well, they seem a bit more awestruck than their adult counterparts.
Aegis, the team leader, is struggling to be professional. Makes sense, as he'll be graduating to the Protectorate in mere months.
"It feels good to have another victory under our belt, even if only one of us had a meaningful contribution," he says, glancing in Vista's direction. "I try to keep the team optimistic, but the truth is, the good guys lose far more often than not in Brockton Bay."
"Retaining hope when you're winning is the easy part," you point out. "It takes something greater to keep hope alive when things look bleak. As long as you haven't given up, the possibility for victory exists." You pause. "I have immense respect for the courage you and the others have demonstrated, but do remember - the Wards exist to prepare you for the Protectorate. Getting minors into the line of fire is the result of unfortunate circumstances, not the actual goal."
"I suppose," he says with a chuckle, "but we couldn't stand back while Bakuda was turning the city into rubble, could we?"
"Of course not. You helped stop her. You were heroes. You did well. I'm not criticizing your actions. I just want to change the world so that such actions will become unnecessary."
"Fair enough."
Clockblocker, if anything, is even more irreverent and clownish than Assault. But then again, that might just be in part his age showing.
"So, basically, you're glowy, look like you were sculpted by someone they named a ninja turtle after, spend 24 hours a day on the job, and have enough bullshit powers to kick an Endbringer's ass. So, yeah, everyone's guessing you're Scion's little brother or something."
"I doubt we're related, but I'll admit this Scion character makes me curious. I ought to have words with him at some point."
"...You can just say that like it's no big deal. Just how easy would it be for you to track him down?"
"Honestly, it would be easier to send him a message and ask him to meet me, though I have no idea whether he would accept."
Gallant, much like Techno-Paladin, seems to be going for the futuristic knight look (though he's eschewing the cape, and unlike your teammate, his armor includes a helmet). He seems like the most charismatic of the bunch. Probably a future leader, whether he intends to be or not - hopefully, he can make good decisions under fire.
"So you've really never had an equivalent to the Endbringers?" he says with what sounds like awe.
"Well, that's not to say we've never had the equivalent of class-S threats," you point out. "Professor Cryo, Nollius, Shadow, Global Might, Garzor… heck, Zero could probably be considered a cut-rate Endbringer. Thankfully he was destroyed before he could hit town."
"I see," he gets pensive. "Excuse me, but… you were told how my powers work, right?"
"Blasts that both push the target and inflict emotions, combined with some empathic ability to know how other people feel?" His armor is Armsmaster's creation.
"Yeah. About that last part… I've been looking at you for a while, and your emotions register… differently from other people. I'm not entirely sure how to put it into words. It's like some parts are incredibly intense, but don't actually make you lose control like they would in a normal person, and other parts…" he pauses, clearly uncertain.
You smile and shrug. "My mental structure is different from most people's. That has always been the case. I wouldn't worry about it."
Browbeat is apparently the newest member of the team. A bit detached. The sort of fellow who's always analyzing everything.
"...everyone is focusing on the direct damage Endbringers cause and how you might stop them, but they have implications beyond that. Endbringers also force people to work together against them. It's why the Israelis and Palestinians got their act together once the Simurgh's MO was figured out, but it's also why we have to go easy on supervillains: The PRT wants them on the streets, since they can't fight Behemoth in the Birdcage. Mind you, I'm not actually expecting this to end that easily. Everyone assumes that there are only three Endbringers, despite the fact that each of their first appearances were years apart. Seems more logical to me that we're due for a fourth any year now…"
You listen and throw in some comments. Engaging him on an intellectual level will probably mean more to him than other approaches. "I appreciate the insight. This whole world is still very new to me."
Shadow Stalker. You have been informed - after signing a nondisclosure agreement - that like you, her position here is probationary. Unlike you, that's because she came uncomfortably close to killing criminals as a vigilante, and was offered this position as an alternative to prison. You're not entirely sold on the idea - oh, you're all for turning villains into heroes, but you're not sure taking a violent vigilante and putting her right back into violent situations is the best approach. For that matter, this approach seems to ignore the need to give justice for her victims. But on the other hand… the PRT seems desperate for manpower. That it would make this sort of compromise is regrettable, but entirely understandable given the situation. You imagine that if supervillains outnumbered heroes three to one in your world, you'd be willing to make more compromises to some on your side as well.
"...I'm just saying, you killed an Endbringer. Eidolon's supposed to be hot shit, but even he never pulled it off. Scion manages to drive them away, but he doesn't have your killer instinct. Power and the will to use it makes you pretty much the apex predator of the cape scene."
"I'm uncertain the term really applies. I've never felt any temptation to eat capes."
She chuckles at the lame joke. "You know what I mean."
"I think I've got an inkling, but I'd still rather hear it from your mouth."
She pauses to consider for a moment. "OK. It's… like this. Everything in life - animals or people - divides into two types: Victims and survivors. You've got those who take abuse, and those that don't. In nature, that means predators and prey. In society, that means those who fight back, and those who don't. But even among predators, you've got a whole hierarchy." And since you've killed an Endbringer, you're at the top?
"Hm. It's one way of seeing things, but it's a bit too pat," you say, rubbing your chin. "In my experience, whether someone fights back often depends less on who they are than on the circumstances. I've seen many people meekly take all sorts of abuse, then fight back like berserkers when that same abuse happened to someone they cared about. I've seen brave, self-reliant survivors fall apart and allow themselves to be meekly victimized in specific situations. If there are, as you say, two types… then everyone out there belongs to both." That seems to actually put her off-balance, which is what you were going for - her beliefs sound far too much like an excuse for victimization.
Kid Win is a Tinker like Armsmaster, but shares none of his confidence. He seems to be the one most tongue-tied around you at first. You manage to get him to open up by discussing technology - you may not be an expert yourself, but you've seen amazing devices at work.
"...the alternator cannon is the one really brilliant thing I built. Kinda wish I could have gotten a shot at Leviathan, but if even Legend couldn't really hurt him I imagine it couldn't have either."
"You're young. You'll build many other brilliant things."
He seems uncertain. "I hope you're right. I have… difficulties, I guess? But I've also got some new ideas," he says with renewed enthusiasm. "I think I can use the antigravity from my hoverboard to make some combat drones that can fly and escort me during fights, and…"
Vista is both the youngest Ward, and the team veteran, which is honestly kind of horrifying. You avoid bringing the subject up, though - you don't want her to feel like you're diminishing her heroism. You also notice that she has an unsubtle crush on Gallant - which, being an empath, he can't be ignorant of. You don't detect any awkwardness between them, though, which suggests some level of emotional maturity on both sides.
"...and when Eidolon was holding Leviathan up, and I was letting Armsmaster hit him with the nanothorn - it was awesome! You know, I always thought when I first participated in an Endbringer battle, I'd be 18, and it'd be terrible and lots of good people would die. So… thank you."
"Thank you. If you and Armsmaster hadn't destroyed the ablative armor, I might not have been able to destroy the core quickly enough to win. If you hadn't protected people from that giant water blast, good people would have died." She blushes at the praise.
The meet-and-greet took several hours - hours that weren't spent working directly on protecting people. That doesn't make it a bad decision, but it still leaves you itching to get to work.
Thankfully, you are permitted to go on a night patrol with fellow non-sleeper Miss Militia. After it's been made very, very clear that you are to strictly follow her lead in everything.
"You have to understand, they're still trying to figure out how to handle your presence," says the heroine as she rides a nearly-silent electric motorbike, with you flying beside her. "Heck, you haven't even met the PR expert yet. I heard Glenn Chambers was coming tomorrow - he's the PRT's top man for…" she stops talking, distracted. "...I'm sorry, but are you going to keep flying in a standing position?"
"Why not?" you shrug, cape billowing in the wind behind you. "At this speed, air resistance doesn't bother me anyway."
The conversation moves on to the subject of Tsunami's actual and Skitter's eventual recruitment.
"It's not like the PRT's never hired villains before," says Miss Militia, "but when that happens, they usually have to go through an identity change for the sake of plausible deniability. Nobody likes the idea that, just because you have powers, you can shirk punishment for past crimes. Tsunami might be an exception - with the special circumstances under which she declared her intentions, the higher-ups think that making it obvious and blatant she switched sides might convince others to do the same.
"With Skitter, though… I doubt it'd be that simple."
"No, it probably won't. Which is why I was hoping you could be there for tomorrow's meeting."
"Me? I'm not in charge of the Protectorate or the Wards."
"No, but you are someone whom Armsmaster and Skitter both respect. I don't think they're very fond of each other, and you might well make for a better peacemaker than me. It's also why I want Gallant there, in addition to Aegis… Wait, slow down…"
You've given yourself enhanced senses for this patrol. The ability to detect certain chemicals in a range of two blocks… and you've just detected a large amount of benzoylmethylecgonine. Someone is selling cocaine down the street. You've also detected a few small doses of marijuana on the way, but chose to ignore it - if this America is anything like yours, the prisons are probably overflowing already.
After the Merchant (since that, apparently, is his gang affiliation) is delivered to the police, your conversation with Miss Militia veers into the subject of powers and their nature.
"Mutations were a great mystery when they first appeared," you explain, "but in the end, it's just advanced biology. It would be an overstatement to claim that we fully understand them, but they fall under normal physics, with human DNA being modified so as to develop powers."
"But it's artificial," she says.
"Oh, yes. Absolutely. Someone has been playing at genetic engineering on human fetuses since the early 20th century. We've even noticed that whoever it is, they're getting better at it with time - on average, first-generation mutants born today are more powerful than the original generation of mutants and their descendants. Mind you, we still have no clue who the genetic engineer is."
"But you also say not all your supers are 'mutants'?"
"Not even the majority. Magic plays a large role, whether it's people rediscovering ancient artifacts or learning spellcraft from scratch. Technology advances even faster. And not all heroes have powers."
That gives her pause. "...What do you mean by that?"
"Hm? Well, some of the people who put on costumes and become superheroes - or supervillains - do so by dint of natural skill and training." People like Over-Achiever, Bravado, Retaliation Man… heck, Reaper started like that before he got his hands on a scythe with a monoatomic edge. "Isn't that the case here?"
"Not really. I mean, some people tried, but… they tend to die messily."
Odd. Especially since so many parahumans seem relatively weak compared to the metahumans of your world, and liable to die to any guy with a gun. Could it… Could it be that the human race of this dimension somehow evolved a lesser tendency toward extreme outliers in terms of capabilities? Less supergeniuses, less super-martial artists, and so on? Every time you get a Nikola Tesla, a Clifford Lewis, a Dexter Darien and a Michael Hart, they only get a Tesla? ...Or maybe you're reading too deeply into it.
"I'll admit that some aspects of superpowers remain a mystery back home," you admit, "but what about here? How do parahuman abilities work? What I've seen so far makes no sense to me. Blueprints beamed into people's heads? The ability to imbue objects with power? And much weirder things. I'll admit it mostly confuses me."
"Parahuman studies are still a young science," she admits. "We don't know much. We know parahumans have a part of their brain that seems to handle the powers, but we don't really know how they work."
"How do they start?"
She grows slightly uneasy at that. "That's a bit of a touchy subject. Most capes don't like to talk about it much. What happens is trigger events."
You raise an eyebrow. "You don't have to tell me if you're uncomfortable."
"No, it's all right. You'll need to know at some point." She takes a deep breath. "According to estimates, only one in five humans have the potential to become capes. When someone with that potential undergoes a sufficiently traumatic event - it can be near-death, the loss of a loved one, torture, crushed dreams - they develop powers. It tends to be accompanied by a short loss of consciousness."
You blink. "Hold it. Powers are the result of emotional trauma?!" That… would go some way toward explaining why villains outnumber heroes here. But… no, you don't think that's enough. Traumatized people can be just as good as anyone else; there's gotta be more to it.
"In most cases," she says, "but that's first-generation capes. Second-generation ones - people who have spent years around capes - can trigger with much smaller moments of emotional turmoil."
"And no-one knows what's causing it?"
At this, she goes silent. You can once again sense her discomfort. "I apologize, I'm pushing too hard into what is clearly a delicate subjec-"
"I remember my trigger event," she interrupts you. "I've yet to meet any other cape who does. They remember the trauma, they remember the power, but they don't remember the moment between when they lost consciousness. I didn't. I remember every bit." She pauses. "I remember seeing a creature the size of a planet, moving. Parts of it flaking off, each one the size of a mountain. One of those flakes was moving toward me. Next thing I knew, I had this," she points at her weapon.
You consider. A creature that gigantic… the closest you can think of is Nihil. And if Nihil was here, everyone would be dead. Some kind of alien god? Some kind of alien non-god? No, that's just not enough information for you to make educated guesses.
"Thank you for telling me. Actually… I wonder if I might be able to get some information on powers by scanning someone while they were using them. Would you mind...?"
Thankfully, she does not mind. And so Miss Militia has her weapon switch forms multiple times, even turning into a slingshot that "recharges" each time it shoots a pebble. And through it all, your secondary power pool cycles through an array of sensory powers, trying to make sense of it.
Well. It's definitely not magical or divine in nature. You're not sensing any wavelength of electromagnetic radiations. No gravitons. No nanomachines in her body. No…
Planar movement.
You blink. "Your power. It's inter-planar."
"Inter-planar?"
"It's… whatever's causing your weapon and ammunition to appear is acting from a different plane of reality."
"You mean, another parallel world?"
"Not… exactly. It's… It's like this," you say. "There's the universe. We call it a dimension. There are others, like the one I come from, or the one where Earth-Aleph is. But each dimension contains multiple planes. There's the material plane, which is where you, I, and most things exist. But there are other, smaller planes existing in parallel, each with their own rules. You have Limbo, where distances become huge, and leaving is almost impossible. You've got other planes where entering is very easy, but staying for longer than a nanosecond is hard. You've got your psychic planes, and many more. Most planes are just empty space, some are… more interesting. To the best of my knowledge, each dimension has this set of planes. Thing is, moving between planes is something wizards on my world have known how to do for ages. Moving between dimensions is much harder, and was only ever accomplished by using Madman's tech. That one of your Tinkers was able to reach Earth-Aleph still boggles my mind to be honest."
She pauses. "So… does that mean you could go into… the plane powers originate from?"
"Do it? Probably. Do it trivially? No, it's a bit harder than flying to the grocery store," you say with a grin. "But it's definitely food for thought."
Your patrol catches another drug dealer (this one selling LSD and various types of amphetamines), though he wasn't wearing gang colors. You also detect large amounts of gunpowder in a building, which other senses reveal to be a weapons cache. For this one, Miss Militia prefers to tip the police and leave the decision process up to them.
It's still the middle of the night when you get back to the base. You have some messages about meeting Glenn Chambers tomorrow afternoon, as well as about the PRT wanting to know more about the special materials you can create. You give quick replies, then try to find some literature about parahuman science. Mental acceleration allows you, once more, to absorb the knowledge much faster than humanly possible.
Even so… you know frustratingly little by the end. You find yourself wishing that Causality or Techno-Paladin were here - their scientific genius would be extremely handy for figuring this puzzle out.
Still, two things are clear to you. The first one is that parahuman abilities have highly arbitrary limitations. The Manton effect, people who can only turn into monsters when they're not being watched, and so many more examples… It seems obvious that whatever hands out powers is deliberately limiting them in some ways. The second thing… There are multiple reported cases of parahumans becoming psychologically unstable after triggering. Some of it is no doubt due to the trauma of the trigger event, but some goes beyond that. Some even sounds closer to brain damage.
Hm. Perhaps some mind-reading on a parahuman would reveal more, but it seems a bit early to ask that.
The night ends. You've had time to read a few books's worth of scientific literature and law (and not just North America), as well as familiarize yourself some more with History. Earth-Bet, as it calls itself, was very similar to your world in many respects, yet different in many others. ...Also, the Internet has started referring to your own world as "Earth-Gimmel".
This being the morning, with the director's blessing, you drop by an out-of-State PRT lab - one designed to study tinkertech. Among the people awaiting are multiple scientists, but also several parahumans (including Dragon) and, as you are told, some industrialists.
You are welcomed by a man who presents himself as director Li, who runs this part of PRT operations. "You understand," he explains, "it's very rare that tinkertech, or anything born of parahumans, can actually be used on a massive scale. There's containment foam, and reverse-engineering has allowed some interesting breakthroughs in electronics, but overall the civilian sector has not really benefitted very often from the existence of powers.
"So obviously, we're excited about this." Before you, stands the massive carbosteel wall you used to block Leviathan's tidal wave. "Around sixty kilotons of the stuff, and you've created it in an instant. It's lighter than water, and immeasurably stronger than steel. Carbon buckytubes. The industrial applications are staggering. And I am told… well, your e-mail specified there were two materials you thought would be worthy of our interest?"
"Carbosteel," you say, pointing at the wall, "and omni-metal. Both of those are created en masse by the industries of Earth-Gimmel and used in civilian life. Carbosteel is the darling of the aerospace industry, and omni-metal is phasing out steel." You make an omni-metal rod appear in your hands, and hand it over to director Li. "Its density is comparable to regular steel, but its strength is comparable to carbosteel itself."
He examines the metal closely. "That's amazing, but… if it's as solid as carbosteel, but heavier, why bother with omni-metal at all?"
"Several reasons," you explain. "The first is that carbosteel is much, much more expensive. If you tried to build a skyscraper from the stuff, you'd likely bankrupt yourself. Obviously, that's not an issue if I'm making it, though.
"The second reason is that, while omni-metal requires extremely high temperatures to melt, once it does, it can be reforged to any shape you want, like any other metal. With carbosteel, if you reach those extreme temperatures, it doesn't melt so much as burn. The shape is final; you could carve the objects you need out of a block of the stuff, but not forge it into them.
"The third reason: The chemists of my world have discovered that certain alloys, which include mostly iron, some other non-rare metals like nickel and cobalt, and 1% omni-metal, are several times stronger than the strongest steel. Such an alloy is cheap enough to be used widely in construction nowadays. We generally refer to that alloy as omni-metal, to distinguish from what we call pure omni-metal."
Your explanation satisfies them. To their regret, you're not actually familiar with the processes by which carbosteel and omni-metal are created, but you tell them you believe it can be reverse-engineered - after all, Omnicorp originally reverse-engineered omni-metal from the wreckage of Garzor's ship.
You end up providing them with large amounts of carbosteel in hopefully-useful shapes, and over a million tons of pure omni-metal. Hopefully they can do something useful with it. Time to head back to Brockton Bay.
Back at the Protectorate ENE base, you obtain permission to see the deformed woman from Coil's base. Your research showed the existence of "case 53s" - monstrous-looking parahumans with amnesia and a distinctive tattoo. Presumably she's one of them, and you'd like to know more - physical deformations caused by powers are as rare in your world as on Earth-Bet (though the Zenith Watch's Nightbane, Eagle Owl and Emerald Agent all come to mind).
The woman you see is restless, but that may be due in part to the containment foam that's being used as a temporary solution, seeing as the cells themselves aren't strong enough to hold her. Her mood doesn't improve one bit when she sees her visitor.
"You," she hisses.
"Myself. But I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You didn't really give the PRT a name…"
"I'm not interested in chit-chat."
"A pity. I've been where you are." She raises her eyebrows at that, and you go on: "Imprisoned, unable to move. Also, incidentally, in constant, excruciating pain. I remained stuck like that for years. Quite frankly, I would not have minded having someone to talk to."
She blinks rapidly. "...You can blast an Endbringer dead. What sort of prison could possibly hold you?"
"You'd be surprised. My world has powerful heroes, but it has powerful villains as well." She pauses at that, and you decide to press on. "Forgive the question, but why did you attack me? Does a man like Coil really warrant strong loyalty?"
She scoffs. "It wasn't about loyalty. He was my best hope of getting my life back."
"Now you've got me curious. What could he do for you that the Protectorate couldn't?"
She hesitates. "My power… It's broken. It's twisting my body, my mind, more and more each day. Coil was looking into ways to help me."
"And the Protectorate couldn't do that?"
"Coil had resources."
She's not lying, per se, but she's still hiding something big. Giving partial answers. You're completely confident of that - you have millennia of experience watching people being honest or dishonest. You doubt pushing further would be productive, though, so you try a different tack: "I could try to help, you know. Grant myself some weak form of biokinesis, and try to mend your body."
That gets her attention. "You can do that?"
"I can try."
She agrees with little hesitation. Unfortunately… sculpting living things is hardly an easy task. Furthermore, you can feel her own power fighting back against you even as you go. After two hours of work, your progress is limited… but it's there, and it's visible. By your estimations, she has lost about 10% of the monstrous mass of flesh that comprises her lower body now. She's far from human-looking, but she's a few steps closer to it.
"I'm afraid I have to stop there for now," you say. "Prior engagements. But if you want me to, I can come back, either later today or tomorrow, and see how much further I can push this."
"I… think I'd like that," she says.
"That leaves the matter of what your power is doing to your mind. I could try to fix that," you say, "but I'd need to scan your thoughts fairly thoroughly for it. I'll understand if you value your privacy too much for that."
She seems torn. "I… thank you, but, no thanks."
"Understood. I hope to see you soon, then." You turn to leave.
"Noelle."
You turn around. "Is that your name?"
"Yeah. You can call me Noelle."
"A pleasure, Noelle," you smile. "I'll be seeing you."
You will. Not just because you want to help her. Not just because you want to remove the threat she would otherwise pose. But also because working on her like this is highly informative. You've been scanning her in every possible way. Like Miss Militia (and other parahumans, it would seem), her powers come from another plane. It's slowly twisting her biology… but also her brain. You haven't performed a telepathic scan, but you were able to see molecules and energy being moved around artificially in her head. It wasn't subtle - if anything, it looked downright primal. And you have to wonder - does the source of parahuman abilities mess up the brains of these people deliberately, on a general basis? Is that why things are such a mess on Earth-Bet?
Also, Noelle didn't have any trace of tattoos. And from bits and pieces she let slip during those two hours, you don't think she has amnesia, either.
At the table are seated Armsmaster, Miss Militia, deputy director Resnick, Aegis, Gallant, Skitter and yourself. You thought it would be best if you sat right next to Skitter. It makes her less nervous.
"You claim you want to join the Wards," says the Protectorate leader, "but you have a long list of crimes to your name. In a little over a month, you've caused significant trouble as a member of the Undersiders."
"I've mostly fought other villains," she says defensively. "I helped stop the ABB, I fought against the Empire…"
"You defended yourselves against the Empire," Armsmaster corrects. "When social services took Purity's daughter, the Undersiders attacked them and took the child."
"Because that's the reason Purity was on a rampage!" Skitter angrily protests. "It was the best way of stopping her from tearing the docks apart!"
"That same excuse does not apply to your attack on the Brockton Bay Central Bank, much less on the fundraiser."
"I told you all, I was undercover! And it worked! It's thanks to me that… It's because of my undercover work that the Avatar knew about Coil and Dinah Alcott." Mask or no mask, you can tell she's glaring at him. "You have that lie detector in your helmet. You know I'm telling the truth."
"I'm sure you are," you say - if you just let these two continue, they'll escalate and get too angry for any sort of agreement. "No-one here is claiming that all of Skitter's decisions were good and right. However, even on the wrong side of the law, she has always tried to avoid any loss of life. It seems clear to me that she was always a hero at heart… just misguided, due to circumstances." You pause. "Even if there needs to be some accounting for misdeeds, it seems to me that contributing to those circumstances - locking Skitter out of the opportunity to do good - is doing both her and the world a grave injustice. Redemption needs to be a possibility that heroes encourage - or else, who will ever take a chance on it?"
"There are precedents," Miss Militia says, more to Armsmaster and Resnick. "The Protectorate has hired people who have done worse. And many of us who haven't done worse would have, in slightly different circumstances."
"One becoming a hero or a villain can depend on disturbingly little," you confirm, before turning toward the bug-controller. "Skitter, the questions I would like to ask are… do you feel regret? For the bank? For the fundraiser? Do you wish you could have done better by the people of the city? Do you want to help people now, as part of the Wards or otherwise?" She flinches a little, and begins answering, but you gesture and she stops. Instead, you turn to another person at the table. "Gallant?"
The empath straightens up. "Oh. Um. Yeah." He turns toward Armsmaster. "I believe she's really sincere about this, sir."
Aegis joins in: "Honestly… Yeah, she's creepy as hell, but so's Shadow Stalker, and I think I'd rather have Skitter on the team."
"Oh, I doubt that is on the table," says Resnick. "Skitter… assuming you did join the Wards, what would happen if you had to fight against the Undersiders?"
She flinches. "I… assume I'd be benched in that sort of situation."
"Probably, yes," he says with some amusement. "But let's say you're not. Let's say they're attacking the base. Would you fight against your former comrades? Would you stand aside? Would you turn on us, and help them?" He sees her remaining silent for a few seconds. "Gallant?"
The young man looks more uncomfortable this time. "...I would be conflicted in her situation," he points out. "Anyone would be. I don't think it's fair to hold that against her."
"Perhaps not on an abstract ethical level," says the deputy-director. "But it does have pragmatic implications. Let's make something entirely clear here: 'Skitter' will never be part of the Brockton Bay Wards. However, if we decide to give you a chance, you will be given a new name, a new costume, and a transfer - probably to the Boston Wards, assuming it can be arranged with your legal guardians."
Hm. You should have seen this coming, in hindsight. Placing a reformed villain in a different city than their villainous former teammates makes some degree of sense… and while you don't like the dishonesty of such a maneuver, you understand why the PRT doesn't want it to look like parahuman criminals can get away with just a slap on the wrist as long as they're willing to change sides.
But is that acceptable from the girl's perspective? You turn toward her, allowing the concern to show in your voice. "Skitter? Would that be a problem?"
"I…" she stops to think. "...I'd need to talk to my dad about it. I'm not sure if we can move or not. But I'm not attached to the name 'Skitter', and… I wouldn't mind a fresh start." she pauses. "The costume is spidersilk, though."
Resnick chuckles at that. "I'm sure they'll figure out something. With that said, there do need to be consequences for your crimes. Time in juvenile detention is the more extreme option, but there's also community service, required deployment during S-class events-"
"Out of the question," you interrupt him. "If Skitter is ever going to be required to attend an S-class event, it will not be one day earlier than her 18th birthday. Heroism knows no age, and hers is unquestionable, but it is the duty of adults to protect the young, not the other way around." You pause, then look at Skitter. "That said, how do you feel about community service?"
The meeting lasts another hour. You act as a bit of an armchair lawyer for Skitter. You (and to a lesser extent, Miss Militia) manage to soothe egos enough that the PRT commits to bringing her into the Wards program - though you'll be having a second meeting tomorrow to finalize things, this time with Skitter's father present. That prospect clearly has her very nervous, to the point that you offer to be there and provide moral support when she reveals her parahuman nature to him. She thanks you, but ultimately declines. She does, however, gladly accept the number of your PRT phone.
Well. It's a busy time, but that should be expected. Next up, you are supposed to be meeting with Glenn Chambers. But after that…
[ ] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.
[ ] Check up on the Undersiders. Villains or not, they're Skitter's friends, and you wonder what they're up to now that their boss is out of the equation.
[ ] Assist the Protectorate in patrols. Gearing your secondary powers toward super-senses, you can clean up the city with exceptional efficiency.
[ ] Look deeper into S-class threats. The sooner those are handled, the better for Earth-Bet.
[ ] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
WELCOME TO THE PROTECTORATE
You might be tempted to say that the first order of business is getting Skitter into the Protectorate, but obviously that's not true.
The first order of business is reading the literature. The PRT provides new recruits with a guidebook that explains rules, procedures, everything from salary grids to Master-Stranger protocols. Thankfully, granting yourself some mental super-speed allows you to turn a page every second without missing a single word, and your eidetic memory won't forget any of it.
That leaves you some time to familiarize yourself, still using mental super-speed, with US law, Canadian law, and this world's UN charter. The fact that your new room has a computer with Web access facilitates things. You have also been provided with a PRT-issued phone, seeing as your communication powers aren't always on.
With that done, the next step is a little meet-and-greet with the local Protectorate and Wards rosters. Part of you always feels loath to spend precious time on social occasions, even with good friends whose presence you enjoy - after all, every moment you spend chatting in the safety of a friendly location is time spent not rescuing anyone from deadly danger, and there are always people in deadly danger. A more reasonable part of you, though, knows that some socialization helps build effective teams. It's thus a matter of finding the optimal balance between those needs.
Armsmaster, as you quickly learn, is not so far from your workaholism. From your talks, both with him and Assault, it sounds like he spends every bit of time he can patrolling, training, building new devices, or maintaining current ones (from the sound of it, "tinkertech" requires an impractical degree of maintenance). Then again… the man strikes you as having little in the way of social skills. Is that part of the reason he's so focused on heroing? Is it, perhaps, the other way around?
You can also perceive some resentment toward Dauntless. Bad blood between them? If so, it seems one-sided. At least he doesn't seem resentful toward you, which is a start.
"You don't need to sleep? Handy. I know I could use having six extra hours in the day."
"It's an advantage," you concede, "but even if I had 240 hours each day, I could still only accomplish a tiny fraction of what needs to be done. It's why I do my best to encourage others to join the good fight, and why I try to coordinate with other teams." He nods at that.
Miss Militia is a Middle-Eastern woman - Kurdish is your best guess - who apparently shares your permanent wakefulness. She seems friendlier than her leader, and the general vibe you get from her is a positive one - she reminds you of some of the better heroes you've known. Which is why you choose to broach a sensitive subject with her:
"I'll admit this sounds odd. There are no heroes and villains below 18 in your world?"
"Well, obviously it's a lot more complicated than that. Mutation-based powers manifest weakly during puberty, then take several years to reach full strength. Still, social services will usually prevent minors from going out and fighting crime - that's not supposed to be their job. Young villains exist, sadly, but they remain few and far between." You pause. "There was one team of superheroic children in recent years, called the Young Champions, but the only reason they stayed in operation for as long as they did was because they were fighting in a different plane of reality."
"You mean, another dimension?"
"Not exac- well, I suppose I wouldn't know. I haven't familiarized myself with your terminology yet."
"There's that," she grins, though her expression quickly grows more serious. "But for what it's worth, I received my powers at a young age, and used it immediately in self-defense; violence often finds capes whether or not they're looking for it. And we often do look for it - having powers but not using them is almost unthinkable for most parahumans, and we seem geared toward conflict." Her expression then changes into a reassuring smile under that scarf. "If it helps, though, the Ward program tries to keep them away from real fights unless an Endbringer is in town. Wards actually going on patrols like they do in Brockton Bay is a bit of an exception, due to how understaffed we are compared to the villains. Having no Thinker support hurts us, to be honest…"
Battery seems level-headed and professional, and displays interest in how law enforcement and metahumans intersect on your world.
"Wait, you personally built some of the Birdcage equivalents?"
"Some of the early ones. When metahumans first appeared, it was almost impossible to contain supervillains without killing them, and I didn't want execution to become the default solution, especially for supervillains who had never actually committed murder. I helped build some of those early prisons to provide an alternative. Nowadays, though, technology is sufficiently advanced that my assistance is no longer required. With that said, we never had one singular, global prison - at last count, there were over twenty metahuman detention centers in the US alone."
"I see. Are escapees an issue?"
"Usually, no more so than unpowered felons. There have been rare exceptions - one prison was apparently run for years by a criminal conspiracy that was getting the prisoners out, giving them new identities, and hiring them as supposed 'superheroes' for a large team it was building." She gives you an odd look at that.
Assault, from the looks of it, is the Protectorate member least concerned about propriety and boundaries, which also makes him more informative and prone to gossip than the others. You can tell he has some relationship with Battery beyond just being teammates, but you're not certain of its exact nature.
"So, yeah. Welcome to the Nazi capital of America," he says. "Say… You've been around since the 1920s, right? Does that mean you fought Hitler?"
"I fought against the Third Reich during the war," you confirm. "I wish I had been able to do more. I did more or less destroy the KKK prior."
"No shit," he says with a big smile. "How'd you do that?"
"About two months after my debut, I had a lot of credibility built. I crashed a Klan lynching, and I brought with me multiple witnesses. After that, I repeated it again multiple times over the next few years, while also encouraging some friends and acquaintances I'd made to attack the organization socially through satire and ridicule. No less important was convincing several individual klansmen of the error of their ways - with their knowledge of the organization, they were able to speak up and demystify it. Throw in the fact that one in ten American metahumans was black, and the Federal government understood the implications… and, well, by the mid-30s the organization was a shadow of its former power."
"So you're not going to be making Kaiser's life any easier," he chuckles.
Dauntless, perhaps more than anyone here, seems relieved to have you around. His power is a rarity in that it grows over time (which, frankly, surprises you). As such, he's expected to one day be in the Triumvirate's league and make a sizable difference against S-class threats.
"...and it's just good to have someone around who can actually fight those things. I've watched the videos, and even for Eidolon it's always an uphill battle. You know what I mean?"
"I believe I do." You get the impression Dauntless doesn't care much for how many hopes and expectations are placed upon his shoulders.
Velocity. Laid-back fellow. The way his powers work seems weird to you even in comparison to Dauntless. Super-speed that reduces his ability to interact with physical objects? That sounds… like an artificial limitation, to be honest.
"Yyyyeah, the faster I move, the less my punches hurt. Them's the breaks, man."
"Then why not rely on weapons that don't require much strength? Tranquilizer needles, stun guns, pepper spray, tying their shoelaces together…"
"Whoa, dude."
Triumph is a recent graduate of the Wards. Surprisingly, he seems more thankful for your arrest of Coil than for stopping Leviathan.
"...and what he did to Dinah Alcott was… fuck. No-one who treats children like that should be anywhere outside the Birdcage."
"I agree on principle, but his powers could make a difference against S-class threats. If the PRT makes a deal with him, it might be for the best."
He sighs. "Goddamn politics."
Tsunami isn't a Protectorate member yet, but the PRT is working on it, and they intend to assign her to this city for symbolic reasons (and because if there's a city that won't be creeped out by a hydrokinetic, it's the one where Leviathan died without causing major damage); she's as much part of this meet-and-greet as you are. She's rough around the edges, and you get the feeling she doesn't feel all that sorry for some of the worse things she's done, but she seems sincere about this career change.
" ...Really? You're doing the hero thing 24/7? No time to relax? To catch a movie? To fucking fuck?"
"My circumstances are somewhat unusual," you say. "If anyone else was displaying this sort of single-mindedness, I would strongly recommend that they take a vacation. People need time to wind down and maintain their sanity."
"But you don't."
"I don't. Different rules, different needs." You smile jokingly. "So, no, I'm not asking you to always be on duty. Just to do as well as you can."
Overall, the Protectorate folks seem all right. As for the Wards… Well, they seem a bit more awestruck than their adult counterparts.
Aegis, the team leader, is struggling to be professional. Makes sense, as he'll be graduating to the Protectorate in mere months.
"It feels good to have another victory under our belt, even if only one of us had a meaningful contribution," he says, glancing in Vista's direction. "I try to keep the team optimistic, but the truth is, the good guys lose far more often than not in Brockton Bay."
"Retaining hope when you're winning is the easy part," you point out. "It takes something greater to keep hope alive when things look bleak. As long as you haven't given up, the possibility for victory exists." You pause. "I have immense respect for the courage you and the others have demonstrated, but do remember - the Wards exist to prepare you for the Protectorate. Getting minors into the line of fire is the result of unfortunate circumstances, not the actual goal."
"I suppose," he says with a chuckle, "but we couldn't stand back while Bakuda was turning the city into rubble, could we?"
"Of course not. You helped stop her. You were heroes. You did well. I'm not criticizing your actions. I just want to change the world so that such actions will become unnecessary."
"Fair enough."
Clockblocker, if anything, is even more irreverent and clownish than Assault. But then again, that might just be in part his age showing.
"So, basically, you're glowy, look like you were sculpted by someone they named a ninja turtle after, spend 24 hours a day on the job, and have enough bullshit powers to kick an Endbringer's ass. So, yeah, everyone's guessing you're Scion's little brother or something."
"I doubt we're related, but I'll admit this Scion character makes me curious. I ought to have words with him at some point."
"...You can just say that like it's no big deal. Just how easy would it be for you to track him down?"
"Honestly, it would be easier to send him a message and ask him to meet me, though I have no idea whether he would accept."
Gallant, much like Techno-Paladin, seems to be going for the futuristic knight look (though he's eschewing the cape, and unlike your teammate, his armor includes a helmet). He seems like the most charismatic of the bunch. Probably a future leader, whether he intends to be or not - hopefully, he can make good decisions under fire.
"So you've really never had an equivalent to the Endbringers?" he says with what sounds like awe.
"Well, that's not to say we've never had the equivalent of class-S threats," you point out. "Professor Cryo, Nollius, Shadow, Global Might, Garzor… heck, Zero could probably be considered a cut-rate Endbringer. Thankfully he was destroyed before he could hit town."
"I see," he gets pensive. "Excuse me, but… you were told how my powers work, right?"
"Blasts that both push the target and inflict emotions, combined with some empathic ability to know how other people feel?" His armor is Armsmaster's creation.
"Yeah. About that last part… I've been looking at you for a while, and your emotions register… differently from other people. I'm not entirely sure how to put it into words. It's like some parts are incredibly intense, but don't actually make you lose control like they would in a normal person, and other parts…" he pauses, clearly uncertain.
You smile and shrug. "My mental structure is different from most people's. That has always been the case. I wouldn't worry about it."
Browbeat is apparently the newest member of the team. A bit detached. The sort of fellow who's always analyzing everything.
"...everyone is focusing on the direct damage Endbringers cause and how you might stop them, but they have implications beyond that. Endbringers also force people to work together against them. It's why the Israelis and Palestinians got their act together once the Simurgh's MO was figured out, but it's also why we have to go easy on supervillains: The PRT wants them on the streets, since they can't fight Behemoth in the Birdcage. Mind you, I'm not actually expecting this to end that easily. Everyone assumes that there are only three Endbringers, despite the fact that each of their first appearances were years apart. Seems more logical to me that we're due for a fourth any year now…"
You listen and throw in some comments. Engaging him on an intellectual level will probably mean more to him than other approaches. "I appreciate the insight. This whole world is still very new to me."
Shadow Stalker. You have been informed - after signing a nondisclosure agreement - that like you, her position here is probationary. Unlike you, that's because she came uncomfortably close to killing criminals as a vigilante, and was offered this position as an alternative to prison. You're not entirely sold on the idea - oh, you're all for turning villains into heroes, but you're not sure taking a violent vigilante and putting her right back into violent situations is the best approach. For that matter, this approach seems to ignore the need to give justice for her victims. But on the other hand… the PRT seems desperate for manpower. That it would make this sort of compromise is regrettable, but entirely understandable given the situation. You imagine that if supervillains outnumbered heroes three to one in your world, you'd be willing to make more compromises to some on your side as well.
"...I'm just saying, you killed an Endbringer. Eidolon's supposed to be hot shit, but even he never pulled it off. Scion manages to drive them away, but he doesn't have your killer instinct. Power and the will to use it makes you pretty much the apex predator of the cape scene."
"I'm uncertain the term really applies. I've never felt any temptation to eat capes."
She chuckles at the lame joke. "You know what I mean."
"I think I've got an inkling, but I'd still rather hear it from your mouth."
She pauses to consider for a moment. "OK. It's… like this. Everything in life - animals or people - divides into two types: Victims and survivors. You've got those who take abuse, and those that don't. In nature, that means predators and prey. In society, that means those who fight back, and those who don't. But even among predators, you've got a whole hierarchy." And since you've killed an Endbringer, you're at the top?
"Hm. It's one way of seeing things, but it's a bit too pat," you say, rubbing your chin. "In my experience, whether someone fights back often depends less on who they are than on the circumstances. I've seen many people meekly take all sorts of abuse, then fight back like berserkers when that same abuse happened to someone they cared about. I've seen brave, self-reliant survivors fall apart and allow themselves to be meekly victimized in specific situations. If there are, as you say, two types… then everyone out there belongs to both." That seems to actually put her off-balance, which is what you were going for - her beliefs sound far too much like an excuse for victimization.
Kid Win is a Tinker like Armsmaster, but shares none of his confidence. He seems to be the one most tongue-tied around you at first. You manage to get him to open up by discussing technology - you may not be an expert yourself, but you've seen amazing devices at work.
"...the alternator cannon is the one really brilliant thing I built. Kinda wish I could have gotten a shot at Leviathan, but if even Legend couldn't really hurt him I imagine it couldn't have either."
"You're young. You'll build many other brilliant things."
He seems uncertain. "I hope you're right. I have… difficulties, I guess? But I've also got some new ideas," he says with renewed enthusiasm. "I think I can use the antigravity from my hoverboard to make some combat drones that can fly and escort me during fights, and…"
Vista is both the youngest Ward, and the team veteran, which is honestly kind of horrifying. You avoid bringing the subject up, though - you don't want her to feel like you're diminishing her heroism. You also notice that she has an unsubtle crush on Gallant - which, being an empath, he can't be ignorant of. You don't detect any awkwardness between them, though, which suggests some level of emotional maturity on both sides.
"...and when Eidolon was holding Leviathan up, and I was letting Armsmaster hit him with the nanothorn - it was awesome! You know, I always thought when I first participated in an Endbringer battle, I'd be 18, and it'd be terrible and lots of good people would die. So… thank you."
"Thank you. If you and Armsmaster hadn't destroyed the ablative armor, I might not have been able to destroy the core quickly enough to win. If you hadn't protected people from that giant water blast, good people would have died." She blushes at the praise.
The meet-and-greet took several hours - hours that weren't spent working directly on protecting people. That doesn't make it a bad decision, but it still leaves you itching to get to work.
Thankfully, you are permitted to go on a night patrol with fellow non-sleeper Miss Militia. After it's been made very, very clear that you are to strictly follow her lead in everything.
"You have to understand, they're still trying to figure out how to handle your presence," says the heroine as she rides a nearly-silent electric motorbike, with you flying beside her. "Heck, you haven't even met the PR expert yet. I heard Glenn Chambers was coming tomorrow - he's the PRT's top man for…" she stops talking, distracted. "...I'm sorry, but are you going to keep flying in a standing position?"
"Why not?" you shrug, cape billowing in the wind behind you. "At this speed, air resistance doesn't bother me anyway."
The conversation moves on to the subject of Tsunami's actual and Skitter's eventual recruitment.
"It's not like the PRT's never hired villains before," says Miss Militia, "but when that happens, they usually have to go through an identity change for the sake of plausible deniability. Nobody likes the idea that, just because you have powers, you can shirk punishment for past crimes. Tsunami might be an exception - with the special circumstances under which she declared her intentions, the higher-ups think that making it obvious and blatant she switched sides might convince others to do the same.
"With Skitter, though… I doubt it'd be that simple."
"No, it probably won't. Which is why I was hoping you could be there for tomorrow's meeting."
"Me? I'm not in charge of the Protectorate or the Wards."
"No, but you are someone whom Armsmaster and Skitter both respect. I don't think they're very fond of each other, and you might well make for a better peacemaker than me. It's also why I want Gallant there, in addition to Aegis… Wait, slow down…"
You've given yourself enhanced senses for this patrol. The ability to detect certain chemicals in a range of two blocks… and you've just detected a large amount of benzoylmethylecgonine. Someone is selling cocaine down the street. You've also detected a few small doses of marijuana on the way, but chose to ignore it - if this America is anything like yours, the prisons are probably overflowing already.
After the Merchant (since that, apparently, is his gang affiliation) is delivered to the police, your conversation with Miss Militia veers into the subject of powers and their nature.
"Mutations were a great mystery when they first appeared," you explain, "but in the end, it's just advanced biology. It would be an overstatement to claim that we fully understand them, but they fall under normal physics, with human DNA being modified so as to develop powers."
"But it's artificial," she says.
"Oh, yes. Absolutely. Someone has been playing at genetic engineering on human fetuses since the early 20th century. We've even noticed that whoever it is, they're getting better at it with time - on average, first-generation mutants born today are more powerful than the original generation of mutants and their descendants. Mind you, we still have no clue who the genetic engineer is."
"But you also say not all your supers are 'mutants'?"
"Not even the majority. Magic plays a large role, whether it's people rediscovering ancient artifacts or learning spellcraft from scratch. Technology advances even faster. And not all heroes have powers."
That gives her pause. "...What do you mean by that?"
"Hm? Well, some of the people who put on costumes and become superheroes - or supervillains - do so by dint of natural skill and training." People like Over-Achiever, Bravado, Retaliation Man… heck, Reaper started like that before he got his hands on a scythe with a monoatomic edge. "Isn't that the case here?"
"Not really. I mean, some people tried, but… they tend to die messily."
Odd. Especially since so many parahumans seem relatively weak compared to the metahumans of your world, and liable to die to any guy with a gun. Could it… Could it be that the human race of this dimension somehow evolved a lesser tendency toward extreme outliers in terms of capabilities? Less supergeniuses, less super-martial artists, and so on? Every time you get a Nikola Tesla, a Clifford Lewis, a Dexter Darien and a Michael Hart, they only get a Tesla? ...Or maybe you're reading too deeply into it.
"I'll admit that some aspects of superpowers remain a mystery back home," you admit, "but what about here? How do parahuman abilities work? What I've seen so far makes no sense to me. Blueprints beamed into people's heads? The ability to imbue objects with power? And much weirder things. I'll admit it mostly confuses me."
"Parahuman studies are still a young science," she admits. "We don't know much. We know parahumans have a part of their brain that seems to handle the powers, but we don't really know how they work."
"How do they start?"
She grows slightly uneasy at that. "That's a bit of a touchy subject. Most capes don't like to talk about it much. What happens is trigger events."
You raise an eyebrow. "You don't have to tell me if you're uncomfortable."
"No, it's all right. You'll need to know at some point." She takes a deep breath. "According to estimates, only one in five humans have the potential to become capes. When someone with that potential undergoes a sufficiently traumatic event - it can be near-death, the loss of a loved one, torture, crushed dreams - they develop powers. It tends to be accompanied by a short loss of consciousness."
You blink. "Hold it. Powers are the result of emotional trauma?!" That… would go some way toward explaining why villains outnumber heroes here. But… no, you don't think that's enough. Traumatized people can be just as good as anyone else; there's gotta be more to it.
"In most cases," she says, "but that's first-generation capes. Second-generation ones - people who have spent years around capes - can trigger with much smaller moments of emotional turmoil."
"And no-one knows what's causing it?"
At this, she goes silent. You can once again sense her discomfort. "I apologize, I'm pushing too hard into what is clearly a delicate subjec-"
"I remember my trigger event," she interrupts you. "I've yet to meet any other cape who does. They remember the trauma, they remember the power, but they don't remember the moment between when they lost consciousness. I didn't. I remember every bit." She pauses. "I remember seeing a creature the size of a planet, moving. Parts of it flaking off, each one the size of a mountain. One of those flakes was moving toward me. Next thing I knew, I had this," she points at her weapon.
You consider. A creature that gigantic… the closest you can think of is Nihil. And if Nihil was here, everyone would be dead. Some kind of alien god? Some kind of alien non-god? No, that's just not enough information for you to make educated guesses.
"Thank you for telling me. Actually… I wonder if I might be able to get some information on powers by scanning someone while they were using them. Would you mind...?"
Thankfully, she does not mind. And so Miss Militia has her weapon switch forms multiple times, even turning into a slingshot that "recharges" each time it shoots a pebble. And through it all, your secondary power pool cycles through an array of sensory powers, trying to make sense of it.
Well. It's definitely not magical or divine in nature. You're not sensing any wavelength of electromagnetic radiations. No gravitons. No nanomachines in her body. No…
Planar movement.
You blink. "Your power. It's inter-planar."
"Inter-planar?"
"It's… whatever's causing your weapon and ammunition to appear is acting from a different plane of reality."
"You mean, another parallel world?"
"Not… exactly. It's… It's like this," you say. "There's the universe. We call it a dimension. There are others, like the one I come from, or the one where Earth-Aleph is. But each dimension contains multiple planes. There's the material plane, which is where you, I, and most things exist. But there are other, smaller planes existing in parallel, each with their own rules. You have Limbo, where distances become huge, and leaving is almost impossible. You've got other planes where entering is very easy, but staying for longer than a nanosecond is hard. You've got your psychic planes, and many more. Most planes are just empty space, some are… more interesting. To the best of my knowledge, each dimension has this set of planes. Thing is, moving between planes is something wizards on my world have known how to do for ages. Moving between dimensions is much harder, and was only ever accomplished by using Madman's tech. That one of your Tinkers was able to reach Earth-Aleph still boggles my mind to be honest."
She pauses. "So… does that mean you could go into… the plane powers originate from?"
"Do it? Probably. Do it trivially? No, it's a bit harder than flying to the grocery store," you say with a grin. "But it's definitely food for thought."
Your patrol catches another drug dealer (this one selling LSD and various types of amphetamines), though he wasn't wearing gang colors. You also detect large amounts of gunpowder in a building, which other senses reveal to be a weapons cache. For this one, Miss Militia prefers to tip the police and leave the decision process up to them.
It's still the middle of the night when you get back to the base. You have some messages about meeting Glenn Chambers tomorrow afternoon, as well as about the PRT wanting to know more about the special materials you can create. You give quick replies, then try to find some literature about parahuman science. Mental acceleration allows you, once more, to absorb the knowledge much faster than humanly possible.
Even so… you know frustratingly little by the end. You find yourself wishing that Causality or Techno-Paladin were here - their scientific genius would be extremely handy for figuring this puzzle out.
Still, two things are clear to you. The first one is that parahuman abilities have highly arbitrary limitations. The Manton effect, people who can only turn into monsters when they're not being watched, and so many more examples… It seems obvious that whatever hands out powers is deliberately limiting them in some ways. The second thing… There are multiple reported cases of parahumans becoming psychologically unstable after triggering. Some of it is no doubt due to the trauma of the trigger event, but some goes beyond that. Some even sounds closer to brain damage.
Hm. Perhaps some mind-reading on a parahuman would reveal more, but it seems a bit early to ask that.
The night ends. You've had time to read a few books's worth of scientific literature and law (and not just North America), as well as familiarize yourself some more with History. Earth-Bet, as it calls itself, was very similar to your world in many respects, yet different in many others. ...Also, the Internet has started referring to your own world as "Earth-Gimmel".
This being the morning, with the director's blessing, you drop by an out-of-State PRT lab - one designed to study tinkertech. Among the people awaiting are multiple scientists, but also several parahumans (including Dragon) and, as you are told, some industrialists.
You are welcomed by a man who presents himself as director Li, who runs this part of PRT operations. "You understand," he explains, "it's very rare that tinkertech, or anything born of parahumans, can actually be used on a massive scale. There's containment foam, and reverse-engineering has allowed some interesting breakthroughs in electronics, but overall the civilian sector has not really benefitted very often from the existence of powers.
"So obviously, we're excited about this." Before you, stands the massive carbosteel wall you used to block Leviathan's tidal wave. "Around sixty kilotons of the stuff, and you've created it in an instant. It's lighter than water, and immeasurably stronger than steel. Carbon buckytubes. The industrial applications are staggering. And I am told… well, your e-mail specified there were two materials you thought would be worthy of our interest?"
"Carbosteel," you say, pointing at the wall, "and omni-metal. Both of those are created en masse by the industries of Earth-Gimmel and used in civilian life. Carbosteel is the darling of the aerospace industry, and omni-metal is phasing out steel." You make an omni-metal rod appear in your hands, and hand it over to director Li. "Its density is comparable to regular steel, but its strength is comparable to carbosteel itself."
He examines the metal closely. "That's amazing, but… if it's as solid as carbosteel, but heavier, why bother with omni-metal at all?"
"Several reasons," you explain. "The first is that carbosteel is much, much more expensive. If you tried to build a skyscraper from the stuff, you'd likely bankrupt yourself. Obviously, that's not an issue if I'm making it, though.
"The second reason is that, while omni-metal requires extremely high temperatures to melt, once it does, it can be reforged to any shape you want, like any other metal. With carbosteel, if you reach those extreme temperatures, it doesn't melt so much as burn. The shape is final; you could carve the objects you need out of a block of the stuff, but not forge it into them.
"The third reason: The chemists of my world have discovered that certain alloys, which include mostly iron, some other non-rare metals like nickel and cobalt, and 1% omni-metal, are several times stronger than the strongest steel. Such an alloy is cheap enough to be used widely in construction nowadays. We generally refer to that alloy as omni-metal, to distinguish from what we call pure omni-metal."
Your explanation satisfies them. To their regret, you're not actually familiar with the processes by which carbosteel and omni-metal are created, but you tell them you believe it can be reverse-engineered - after all, Omnicorp originally reverse-engineered omni-metal from the wreckage of Garzor's ship.
You end up providing them with large amounts of carbosteel in hopefully-useful shapes, and over a million tons of pure omni-metal. Hopefully they can do something useful with it. Time to head back to Brockton Bay.
Back at the Protectorate ENE base, you obtain permission to see the deformed woman from Coil's base. Your research showed the existence of "case 53s" - monstrous-looking parahumans with amnesia and a distinctive tattoo. Presumably she's one of them, and you'd like to know more - physical deformations caused by powers are as rare in your world as on Earth-Bet (though the Zenith Watch's Nightbane, Eagle Owl and Emerald Agent all come to mind).
The woman you see is restless, but that may be due in part to the containment foam that's being used as a temporary solution, seeing as the cells themselves aren't strong enough to hold her. Her mood doesn't improve one bit when she sees her visitor.
"You," she hisses.
"Myself. But I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You didn't really give the PRT a name…"
"I'm not interested in chit-chat."
"A pity. I've been where you are." She raises her eyebrows at that, and you go on: "Imprisoned, unable to move. Also, incidentally, in constant, excruciating pain. I remained stuck like that for years. Quite frankly, I would not have minded having someone to talk to."
She blinks rapidly. "...You can blast an Endbringer dead. What sort of prison could possibly hold you?"
"You'd be surprised. My world has powerful heroes, but it has powerful villains as well." She pauses at that, and you decide to press on. "Forgive the question, but why did you attack me? Does a man like Coil really warrant strong loyalty?"
She scoffs. "It wasn't about loyalty. He was my best hope of getting my life back."
"Now you've got me curious. What could he do for you that the Protectorate couldn't?"
She hesitates. "My power… It's broken. It's twisting my body, my mind, more and more each day. Coil was looking into ways to help me."
"And the Protectorate couldn't do that?"
"Coil had resources."
She's not lying, per se, but she's still hiding something big. Giving partial answers. You're completely confident of that - you have millennia of experience watching people being honest or dishonest. You doubt pushing further would be productive, though, so you try a different tack: "I could try to help, you know. Grant myself some weak form of biokinesis, and try to mend your body."
That gets her attention. "You can do that?"
"I can try."
She agrees with little hesitation. Unfortunately… sculpting living things is hardly an easy task. Furthermore, you can feel her own power fighting back against you even as you go. After two hours of work, your progress is limited… but it's there, and it's visible. By your estimations, she has lost about 10% of the monstrous mass of flesh that comprises her lower body now. She's far from human-looking, but she's a few steps closer to it.
"I'm afraid I have to stop there for now," you say. "Prior engagements. But if you want me to, I can come back, either later today or tomorrow, and see how much further I can push this."
"I… think I'd like that," she says.
"That leaves the matter of what your power is doing to your mind. I could try to fix that," you say, "but I'd need to scan your thoughts fairly thoroughly for it. I'll understand if you value your privacy too much for that."
She seems torn. "I… thank you, but, no thanks."
"Understood. I hope to see you soon, then." You turn to leave.
"Noelle."
You turn around. "Is that your name?"
"Yeah. You can call me Noelle."
"A pleasure, Noelle," you smile. "I'll be seeing you."
You will. Not just because you want to help her. Not just because you want to remove the threat she would otherwise pose. But also because working on her like this is highly informative. You've been scanning her in every possible way. Like Miss Militia (and other parahumans, it would seem), her powers come from another plane. It's slowly twisting her biology… but also her brain. You haven't performed a telepathic scan, but you were able to see molecules and energy being moved around artificially in her head. It wasn't subtle - if anything, it looked downright primal. And you have to wonder - does the source of parahuman abilities mess up the brains of these people deliberately, on a general basis? Is that why things are such a mess on Earth-Bet?
Also, Noelle didn't have any trace of tattoos. And from bits and pieces she let slip during those two hours, you don't think she has amnesia, either.
At the table are seated Armsmaster, Miss Militia, deputy director Resnick, Aegis, Gallant, Skitter and yourself. You thought it would be best if you sat right next to Skitter. It makes her less nervous.
"You claim you want to join the Wards," says the Protectorate leader, "but you have a long list of crimes to your name. In a little over a month, you've caused significant trouble as a member of the Undersiders."
"I've mostly fought other villains," she says defensively. "I helped stop the ABB, I fought against the Empire…"
"You defended yourselves against the Empire," Armsmaster corrects. "When social services took Purity's daughter, the Undersiders attacked them and took the child."
"Because that's the reason Purity was on a rampage!" Skitter angrily protests. "It was the best way of stopping her from tearing the docks apart!"
"That same excuse does not apply to your attack on the Brockton Bay Central Bank, much less on the fundraiser."
"I told you all, I was undercover! And it worked! It's thanks to me that… It's because of my undercover work that the Avatar knew about Coil and Dinah Alcott." Mask or no mask, you can tell she's glaring at him. "You have that lie detector in your helmet. You know I'm telling the truth."
"I'm sure you are," you say - if you just let these two continue, they'll escalate and get too angry for any sort of agreement. "No-one here is claiming that all of Skitter's decisions were good and right. However, even on the wrong side of the law, she has always tried to avoid any loss of life. It seems clear to me that she was always a hero at heart… just misguided, due to circumstances." You pause. "Even if there needs to be some accounting for misdeeds, it seems to me that contributing to those circumstances - locking Skitter out of the opportunity to do good - is doing both her and the world a grave injustice. Redemption needs to be a possibility that heroes encourage - or else, who will ever take a chance on it?"
"There are precedents," Miss Militia says, more to Armsmaster and Resnick. "The Protectorate has hired people who have done worse. And many of us who haven't done worse would have, in slightly different circumstances."
"One becoming a hero or a villain can depend on disturbingly little," you confirm, before turning toward the bug-controller. "Skitter, the questions I would like to ask are… do you feel regret? For the bank? For the fundraiser? Do you wish you could have done better by the people of the city? Do you want to help people now, as part of the Wards or otherwise?" She flinches a little, and begins answering, but you gesture and she stops. Instead, you turn to another person at the table. "Gallant?"
The empath straightens up. "Oh. Um. Yeah." He turns toward Armsmaster. "I believe she's really sincere about this, sir."
Aegis joins in: "Honestly… Yeah, she's creepy as hell, but so's Shadow Stalker, and I think I'd rather have Skitter on the team."
"Oh, I doubt that is on the table," says Resnick. "Skitter… assuming you did join the Wards, what would happen if you had to fight against the Undersiders?"
She flinches. "I… assume I'd be benched in that sort of situation."
"Probably, yes," he says with some amusement. "But let's say you're not. Let's say they're attacking the base. Would you fight against your former comrades? Would you stand aside? Would you turn on us, and help them?" He sees her remaining silent for a few seconds. "Gallant?"
The young man looks more uncomfortable this time. "...I would be conflicted in her situation," he points out. "Anyone would be. I don't think it's fair to hold that against her."
"Perhaps not on an abstract ethical level," says the deputy-director. "But it does have pragmatic implications. Let's make something entirely clear here: 'Skitter' will never be part of the Brockton Bay Wards. However, if we decide to give you a chance, you will be given a new name, a new costume, and a transfer - probably to the Boston Wards, assuming it can be arranged with your legal guardians."
Hm. You should have seen this coming, in hindsight. Placing a reformed villain in a different city than their villainous former teammates makes some degree of sense… and while you don't like the dishonesty of such a maneuver, you understand why the PRT doesn't want it to look like parahuman criminals can get away with just a slap on the wrist as long as they're willing to change sides.
But is that acceptable from the girl's perspective? You turn toward her, allowing the concern to show in your voice. "Skitter? Would that be a problem?"
"I…" she stops to think. "...I'd need to talk to my dad about it. I'm not sure if we can move or not. But I'm not attached to the name 'Skitter', and… I wouldn't mind a fresh start." she pauses. "The costume is spidersilk, though."
Resnick chuckles at that. "I'm sure they'll figure out something. With that said, there do need to be consequences for your crimes. Time in juvenile detention is the more extreme option, but there's also community service, required deployment during S-class events-"
"Out of the question," you interrupt him. "If Skitter is ever going to be required to attend an S-class event, it will not be one day earlier than her 18th birthday. Heroism knows no age, and hers is unquestionable, but it is the duty of adults to protect the young, not the other way around." You pause, then look at Skitter. "That said, how do you feel about community service?"
The meeting lasts another hour. You act as a bit of an armchair lawyer for Skitter. You (and to a lesser extent, Miss Militia) manage to soothe egos enough that the PRT commits to bringing her into the Wards program - though you'll be having a second meeting tomorrow to finalize things, this time with Skitter's father present. That prospect clearly has her very nervous, to the point that you offer to be there and provide moral support when she reveals her parahuman nature to him. She thanks you, but ultimately declines. She does, however, gladly accept the number of your PRT phone.
Well. It's a busy time, but that should be expected. Next up, you are supposed to be meeting with Glenn Chambers. But after that…
[ ] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.
[ ] Check up on the Undersiders. Villains or not, they're Skitter's friends, and you wonder what they're up to now that their boss is out of the equation.
[ ] Assist the Protectorate in patrols. Gearing your secondary powers toward super-senses, you can clean up the city with exceptional efficiency.
[ ] Look deeper into S-class threats. The sooner those are handled, the better for Earth-Bet.
[ ] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Look deeper into S-class threats. The sooner those are handled, the better for Earth-Bet.
[X] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.
Hachichiyyin
Team Tron
- Location
- Earth
[X] Look deeper into S-class threats. The sooner those are handled, the better for Earth-Bet.
AZATHOTHoth
༼ つ ☀️_☀️ ༽つ
[X] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.
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- Location
- England
[X] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.