TriviaFreak
Time of reluctance.
Well, I can't argue with you there!
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
Well, I can't argue with you there!
Don't worry about it, a day is hardly the end of the world (current Brockton's Celestial Forge timeline notwithstanding). You just do what you feel is best in how the story is developing.
Because, you framed your post as "Alexandria came up with the idea".
But, she didn't. Someone else came up with the idea. She just stole it and customised it. She merely plagiarised it.
Just like IBM came up with the idea for a SmartPhone back in 1994, but it wasn't made commercially viable until Apple produced the iPhone in 2007. Apple didn't come up with the SmartPhone, even if they were the first to implement it in a sustainable¹ manner.
Or how the Chinese came up with the idea of the helicopter in around AD320 (building small-scale toys based on the idea, such as the zhuqingting), but it wasn't until 1901 that Hermann Ganswindt was able to build one.
It's a known issue with things like Patent Applications: First to File vs First to Invent.
So, no: the Protectorate and the PRT were not a Cauldron plot. They were a plan by someone else. Subverting the Protectorate and PRT was a Cauldron plot, however. But that's the difference between saying "Harlon Carter and Neal Knox took over the NRA" (true) versus claiming that "Harlon Carter and Neal Knox founded the NRA" (false).
¹From a business perspective, not from an economic or environmental perspective.
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discord announcement when the last chap was posted indicated that the talk with Lily was occurring from her pov and was finished tho whether it would be a preamble or interlude wasn't decided. Honestly tho due to that and the wog we got the delay was unexpected my guess is we'll be getting the Weld part too and lord wanted to polish it or got some really disruptive roll.
- Location
- RS,brasil
That is also a cultural value, Autopsy has been considered an abhorrent thing for 90% of history and punishable by law
Both bows an polies existed for millenia, but the thought of using both combined wasn't had untill 1960
Or how the laptop was invented in the 80s but the guy messed up and said they would have a better product next year, so everyone waited for the next year's product, which today is a no duh but back then they though they would be saving money, now a days releasing a new model every year is standard
View: https://youtu.be/bEyxg_TnJ5A?si=mXKyGju8oJYIkBLx
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Huh, just noticed headdesk guy finally got himself banned from the thread. Oh well, the first time I saw it I smiled a bit, but they went waaaayyyyy to far with the passive aggressive every time.
And to the Author, no worries you always make it worth it when you get delayed.
And to the Author, no worries you always make it worth it when you get delayed.
Does getting banned from the thread allow them to view it but not comment on it? Or does it stop them from viewing it as well?
Pretty sure they can look. Just no comments.
- Location
- Florida
As much as I love this story, and admire the effort put into the great quality that is consistently produced … the author sure knows how to drive me nuts with his absolute inability to post when he says he's going to. I don't mean posting by a regular schedule, with the sheer volume this author produces, schedule of regularly posting every two weeks would be pretty much impossible.
The frustration comes in to play when the author regularly, as in virtually every single chapter, tells us when his next post will be … and at least 90% of the time he doesn't manage to keep to that timeline. I'd honestly much rather have the author post completely randomly and never say a word, then lie to us every time he posts.
The frustration comes in to play when the author regularly, as in virtually every single chapter, tells us when his next post will be … and at least 90% of the time he doesn't manage to keep to that timeline. I'd honestly much rather have the author post completely randomly and never say a word, then lie to us every time he posts.
The way I look at his schedule is that it's for him, not us. Gives him motivation to get the chapter done.
Its clearly a motivational tool for OP, probably because they are self aware enough to know their own headspace with writing and how they need public deadlines to deliver.
If people can't handle schedule updates, just uncheck the info box of the threadmark alerts and chill, and just click when you get a thread mark.
Not hard and saves the thread from pointless negativity.
If people can't handle schedule updates, just uncheck the info box of the threadmark alerts and chill, and just click when you get a thread mark.
Not hard and saves the thread from pointless negativity.
Never really got the posts about chapter timing. You aren't paying for anything so you have no skin in the game regarding when you get it. And even paid services/products have wiggle room within what is considered a 'reasonable' delay. I'd say getting notice is enough wiggle room for a reasonable delay of 'whenever it's ready' on free content...
Welp can't wait for the next chapter
- Location
- Malaysia
Meanwhile me waiting for fics to used to be updated frequently and now it's hasn't been updated for a year now.
I take a consistent even with delay update that doesn't burn the authors like many did.
Lord almost burned out from writing BCF you know.
I take a consistent even with delay update that doesn't burn the authors like many did.
Lord almost burned out from writing BCF you know.
- Location
- RS,brasil
So I just came from discord, there seems to be over 2000 dishes and foods from World of Warcraft, which is kind of insane compared to every other world
it also involves a lot of unique animals and plants, more than usual for the typical fantasy setting
Fortunately, there are multiple ways of filtering this out!
I think the best would be to only take things of common, uncommon and rare rank and ignore the rest, since he can't afford it, you can also set up a price for the items you consider good enough
and again, the same trends apply, mushrooms are massively overrepresented and more interesting, lots of things that I'm pretty sure aren't food, like clothes and bombs
then there are general rules, such as the thing having digestable calories (except for alcohol) and being made of non-poisonous stuff for the native population
here are some of the foods you can buy in wow:
spider person selling you eggs (probably unethical, or at least very suspicious)
foods for constructs, like mechanical chicken wings
gemstones (those are apparently edible for one of the species, Rocks on the Rocks everyone?)
sugary soul shards that make everything purple
almost every type of fish or animal in wow
Different spring waters, which might seem useless at first but these waters reveal a lot about the world
ethically sourced foile gras (truly a fantasy)
other mind-bending drink straight from fallen London, like the infinitea, that "tastes like all the time in the world if only it lasted longer" and the void wine which tastes like "nothing and everything."
it also involves a lot of unique animals and plants, more than usual for the typical fantasy setting
Fortunately, there are multiple ways of filtering this out!
I think the best would be to only take things of common, uncommon and rare rank and ignore the rest, since he can't afford it, you can also set up a price for the items you consider good enough
and again, the same trends apply, mushrooms are massively overrepresented and more interesting, lots of things that I'm pretty sure aren't food, like clothes and bombs
then there are general rules, such as the thing having digestable calories (except for alcohol) and being made of non-poisonous stuff for the native population
here are some of the foods you can buy in wow:
spider person selling you eggs (probably unethical, or at least very suspicious)
foods for constructs, like mechanical chicken wings
gemstones (those are apparently edible for one of the species, Rocks on the Rocks everyone?)
sugary soul shards that make everything purple
almost every type of fish or animal in wow
Different spring waters, which might seem useless at first but these waters reveal a lot about the world
ethically sourced foile gras (truly a fantasy)
other mind-bending drink straight from fallen London, like the infinitea, that "tastes like all the time in the world if only it lasted longer" and the void wine which tastes like "nothing and everything."
Oh wait what if they do overlord anime food they can buff you up
I prefer his current schedule even with the delays since it gives me something to look forward to during the week. Having it be random like other fan fictions authors would make it take longer for me to notice when it was uploaded.
109.1 Interlude Lily
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
109.1 Interlude Lily
Lily looked around at the activity of the Boardwalk. Specifically how that activity somehow completely excluded herself, Weld, and Apeiron.
It wasn't like they were being kept out. There was no force field or area of isolation. People continued to stream past, some nearly brushing against Apeiron as they walked by. They were treating him like he wasn't there. No, it was worse than that. They were clearly aware that something was there, but they were paying no attention to it. Paths would veer slightly, just enough to slip past without any sign of recognition of what they were avoiding.
"What…" Lily began. She swallowed and struggled to find her voice. "What are you… Why aren't they noticing you?" She looked around again. The effect was less noticeable with her and Weld at the railing rather than in the middle of the walkway, but they were being ignored as thoroughly as Apeiron. "Noticing us?" She added.
"It's an obscurement effect." He said. "Actually a combination of effects to keep us from being noticed. I figured whatever reaction I would get to a public appearance would make it difficult to have a quiet conversation."
That was a serious understatement. If Apeiron decided to just show up on the Boardwalk in clear view of all the shoppers and tourists she would give it about a tenth of a second before his arrival was on every social media site in the country. Maybe another tenth of a second after that for the Protectorate to start up their task force and start planning engagement procedures.
"Is this visual or mental?" Weld asked. There was concern in his voice at the later prospect, though it was hardly out of character for Apeiron. Exotic stranger effects were practically his signature, even when they were acting as a literal signature inside your head.
"Primarily visual, with elements extending auditory concealment and the obstruction of electronic and parahuman detection measures." He explained.
A thought occurred to Flechette and her hand went to her earpiece. The connection was still there. Apeiron hadn't cut them off from console, but she doubted that was an oversight on his part. He was giving them a choice. And if they did decide to call things in, it wasn't likely Apeiron would stick around for what would follow.
Weld nodded in recognition. He had picked up on it as well. "But it's not just an illusion effect?" He asked.
Apeiron nodded. "There is a mental portion. Diversion of attention, so that no one stumbles into the effect or wonders about any empty spaces." He didn't sound pleased about the effect, despite how powerful something like that would have to be.
Like a lot of things connected to Apeiron, it was a frighteningly strong power and had the potential for countless horrific applications. Really the only mitigating factor was that there were so many frighteningly strong abilities available to the Celestial Forge that there wasn't really much use in freaking out about any individual one. Apeiron being able to do something like this was bad, but not worse than what Lethe did on a regular basis.
She exchanged another look with Weld. Both of them knew what policy said to do at this point. Well, they knew both local policy and national policy. Neither were open to random heroes engaging Apeiron in conversation. Technically they were either supposed to follow Director Piggot's initial measures and suspend all contact or follow national mandates and report to the National Office for instructions.
Technically the two directives weren't in conflict, or at least they wouldn't be unless the national office gave orders to the contrary, but that kind of policy seemed to be based on the assumption that there would be chances to interact with Apeiron more than once a blue moon.
And that such encounters would occur during normal cape work and not because the man decided to drop by for a chat. The official policy seemed a lot less advisable when it demanded that they snub one of the most significant friendly gestures that had been made by Apeiron.
Weld nodded, following her logic. He reached up and disabled his communicator. "There's no need to check in until the Boardwalk circuit is complete. We have some time to talk."
He had taken the initiative, meaning that if this came under official review most of the blame would fall on him. Though really, when dealing with the humanoid force of nature that was standing before them, worrying about the impact on her disciplinary record seemed remarkably short sighted.
"Right." She said, following his lead. "I'm good to talk." As if this was a friendly conversation and not a meeting with potentially the most powerful cape on the planet.
"Great." Apeiron said casually. Too casually. A man with that kind of presence and power should not be able to convincingly act like he just dropped by for a light chat.
He gestured to one of the tables at the edge of the Boardwalk. Wooden tables, with wooden chairs, both fairly solidly built. At least solid enough for it not to be a serious problem for Weld. Not quite picnic tables, more shared outdoor seating for the various food stands that didn't have their own dedicated patios. A place for people to eat overpriced ice-cream or dressed up street food during breaks in their shopping.
As Apeiron walked whatever effect moved with him, with people parting around him like a rock in a stream. It was odd enough to see, but even stranger to experience it themselves. She realized she had no idea how long the effect had been in place. How long had it been since someone had spoken to them or asked for a picture or autograph?
As the three of them sat at the table, with Weld being suitably careful while resting his weight on his chair, the effect moved with them. The entire table seemed to have completely fallen out of public awareness even as people buzzed around them.
She struggled to deal with the absolute insanity of being able to sit down with Apeiron, the Enigmatic Artificer, and have a conversation right out in the open, surrounded by the people of the Brockton Bay. Though apparently she was the only one who felt that way. Of course, Weld had already dealt with Apeiron before. She didn't know if he was accustomed to displays of insanity or had just come to expect them.
As for Apeiron himself, seeing him in this kind of environment seemed surreal. He sat there in his immaculate pristine costume with every piece seemingly dripping with power or technical prowess. It was the kind of image that belonged on posters or in grand standoffs against dire villains. Not relaxing at a table on the Boardwalk of Brockton Bay as he drank in the local color.
That was probably what stood out the most to her. It was easy to think of Apeiron as a force of nature. Frankly, with the impact of his actions it was hard not to view him like that. Capes didn't get that powerful without giving something up, even if it was just the ability to relate to normal people. Legend was the most approachable member of the Triumvirate and every time she had seen him it was like looking into a different world. Things were even worse for Alexandria and Eidolon, to say nothing of the capes who had truly gone off the deep end. S-class threats who were either consumed by or embodied their power to the point where you could barely call them human.
Right now, despite the unnatural grace and impossible perfection of his costume and equipment, Apeiron looked human. It was little things, like the way his expression shifted slightly when he glanced at the damaged Protectorate Headquarters, or obvious flashes of recognition of parts of the Boardwalk. Sights and sounds that were familiar, even comfortable to him.
He was very much a native of the city. That was clear in a way it hadn't been before. People had theorized, put forth analysis and models projecting likelihood percentages, but no one had been certain. But more than that, no one had really thought about what that meant.
Most people saw Apeiron's behavior as the typical territorial posturing you got from gangs. Staking a claim and showing strength by being able to hold onto it. But from the way he was acting, this wasn't some claim built on pride or ego. This was his home, his city, in a way that went much deeper than territory.
Apeiron cared about Brockton Bay. Someone as powerful as Apeiron really caring about something… It should be comforting. Humanizing. In a lot of cases it would be, but it also raised the question. With as much power as Apeiron had, what would he do for the city he cared about so much?
"Seems we're off to a rough start." Apeiron said as he turned to look at her.
Lily felt herself flush. It had been easy to get caught up in the spectacle. The spectacle of Apeiron walking twenty feet and sitting down at a table. It had been a hell of a demonstration. Even with her interest swinging in a different direction, she could at least recognize the aesthetic elements in play, and that was on top of everything else that had been conveyed so strongly through so few movements.
"My apologies." She said, defaulting to PR training to cover her nervousness. She wondered if Weld was actually at ease with the situation, or if he was leaning on the dulled reactions of his metal body to help manage things. This was one of the few situations where a lack of autonomous reactions was an asset. "This was unexpected, and I've had a lot on my mind."
Apeiron nodded. "Plenty of that going around. Sorry for adding to it, but I wanted a chance to speak with you."
She and Weld nodded, though without much confidence on her part. Weld was a known point of contact for Apeiron, despite that connection being stressed as time went on. She wasn't sure what she was doing here, other than being in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place, depending on how you look at things.
Apeiron turned to Weld, seemingly confirming the theory that she was largely superfluous to the meeting.
"I had a chance to speak with Director Armstrong earlier today." He explained to Weld, and Flechette could see some of the tension leave his body.
"Ah." Weld said with a nod. "I'm guessing it was about the hostages?" Apeiron nodded.
That was a bad situation. Extremely bad, and worse that Flechette had been ready for when she transferred to the city. Even with what had happened to Aegis to provoke her transfer, it had seemed like an outlier. The kind of one-off event that only happened due to impossible alignments of critical factors.
It was an impossible alignment of critical factors. It's just that there were more of those critical factors in alignment than anyone could have guessed. No one knew how precarious the gang situation was, or how pressed the Protectorate had been to just maintain the balance of power. They didn't know how far Bakuda would go when pressed, or how much further March would be able to take things.
Much too far. There were some bad villains in New York. Some really bad villains. It was a much larger city with more capes and a larger criminal element, but even then, she'd never even heard rumors of something as bad as the kind of nightmare Bakuda had launched into.
"Director Armstrong taking over responsibility for the Hostages was a good move. Their situation was not tolerable." Clear irritation colored Apeiron's voice. "Something should have been done sooner, but at least it's being seen to now."
Weld nodded. It probably wasn't even worth the pretext of defending the local PRT's actions either leading up to or in the wake of the Ungodly Hour. Really, the only thing that had kept the wider PRT from coming down on the Brockton Bay branch was the fact that the situation was still ongoing. Without the Teeth or the active hostage situation someone would probably have cleaned house already.
"I'm glad you're willing to speak with someone from the PRT." Weld said earnestly. "Having a line of communication can make a big difference."
Considering he had been that line of communication until it had been burned out by meddling from higher ups, Flechette could understand the regret in his voice.
"Well, it's easier with someone who doesn't have emergency mandates barring any contact with me." Apeiron replied. His tone was at most mildly derisive, possibly a little sad, but not angry. More resigned, which didn't suggest that there was much help for mending relations with the local office.
"I'm sorry about that." Weld said.
"Not your decision. And I suppose I should thank you for breaking ranks on that, both times." He replied.
Weld let out a short laugh. One that was ignored by the people walking past them. It was easy to lose track of the effect hiding them from public view, right until something happened that should draw a response, and you were met with nothing.
Honestly, it was a little eerie, but she pushed the feeling down and turned back to Weld and Apeiron.
"I wasn't really in a position to turn down help the first time." Weld said. "And I still owe you for that."
Apeiron shook his head. "I told you, you're paid up in full. In fact, that came up with Director Armstrong."
Weld stiffened and Flechette could recognize flashes of the guilt he had been struggling with.
"Your treatment?" He asked. "You have something… there's more you can do?"
Apeiron gave him a flat look that was somehow able to be conveyed even through his metal visor. "Weld, that was almost two weeks ago. I think it's safe to say that my technology has improved a little since then."
Three days, what, four times over? And that wasn't even getting into the fact that the first treatment had been a field patch job on the bottom of the ocean.
"Right, right." Weld said, swallowing.
Apeiron tilted his head. "I figured you'd be more excited about this. I mean, not to criticize, but…"
"No." Weld said quickly, cutting him off. "I am. I definitely am. But, I mean…" He shook his head before looking up at Apeiron. "You know there are other Case 53s in the city? That they've been traveling here?"
Apeiron nodded. It wasn't really in doubt. "I'm aware. It's a bit of a complication with everything else that's been happening."
"Yeah." Weld said. "That's on me. The Protectorate wanted to keep things quiet. I couldn't tell people out and out, but I was able to make some calls. Talk to a few Case 53s I knew. I dropped hints and they put things together."
Apeiron nodded. Once again, not really a surprise that he was in the loop on that. Not with the quality of information security in the Brockton Bay PRT
"If I wanted you to keep things quiet I would have asked." Apeiron assured him. "I figured news would get out, though I thought it would be through official channels, not covert hints in video calls." A slight grin flashed across his face. "What was it, anyway? Power demonstrations? Or food references?"
Weld returned the smile. "Bit of everything, actually. Whatever I thought would get the hint across." His smile faltered. "I didn't think I'd be bringing them into a situation like this."
"Yeah, well, nobody really saw this coming, and you can include me in that." Apeiron said, though there was a dark undercurrent to the humor.
Even with how powerful he was, with everything he'd accomplished, that didn't change what had happened. What March had done.
It was an unexpected power synergy, but March seemed to be an expert at arranging those. You just had to look at the cascading effects of Bakuda's bombs once Apeiron stopped working to counter them. Stopped so he could take the fight to Lung and straight into March and Oni Lee's ambush.
Apeiron had almost died. He had been critically injured and reduced to more desperation measures than anyone could understand. And he was joking about it. Or at least trying to. But really, how else were you supposed to handle something like that, especially with the city the way it was? It wasn't like you could just take a few months off to process things.
"Still, I'm sorry if it made things more difficult for you." Weld said.
"Don't worry about it." Apeiron said with a dismissive gesture. "It's a complication, but there are no shortage of complications, and this is definitely a more welcome one than another gang trying to set up in the city." He turned and gave Weld a direct look. "But there's more to this, isn't there?"
Weld nodded. "I know what I said earlier, about everything I was dealing with." He looked down at his hand. "But the fact is I'm pretty much seen as the luckiest Case 53. The public face, the one who could nearly pass for normal."
"Appearances and perception doen't always match up with reality." Apeiron said. "I know you were dealing with a lot more."
Weld nodded again. "Yeah, but no one outside the Protectorate really understood that. Hell, most people in the Protectorate didn't get it."
Lily found herself nodding. She'd known Weld for years, through inter-city training exercise and coordinated missions and even then it took ages before she even had a hint as to what he was actually dealing with on a day-to-day basis.
"Basically, as far as most people are concerned, the luckiest Case 53 just got luckier." Weld explained as he looked down at the table..
"Must have been hard." Apeiron said sincerely.
Weld shook his head. "No one's said anything. Not yet, but I know what they're dealing with. What everyone else is struggling with, and with this…" He sighed. Unnecessary for him, but that was probably the point. "Honestly, I feel like shit. I'm grateful, but it's like someone who's already rich winning the lottery, then landing a bigger jackpot a week later."
Apeiron gave him a serious look. "So I'm guessing you don't want a full treatment right now?" He asked plainly.
Weld stiffened and looked up at Apeiron. "Can you do that? Can you fix, really fix Case 53s?"
"I have options." Apeiron said. "A lot more than I did the last time we met. Really, it depends on how much of a fix you're looking for and how extreme you want to get."
The word 'extreme' jumped out at Lily. Specifically what someone like Apeiron could consider to be 'extreme' given the type of things he threw around casually. The fact that they were still being effectively ignored by the people around them only served to drive that home.
"What kind of options?" Weld asked intently.
"Everything from a patch job to a complete reset from first principles. Honestly, there are some I could issue on the spot that would cover most problems." He said, raising a hand.
Weld looked at it and Flechette could see how tempted he was. He shifted his arm slightly, then clenched his fist and lowered it before taking a breath.
"I know you said I'm paid up for full treatment, but would it be possible to transfer my contract?" Weld asked. Flechette felt her eyebrows raise as she looked at Weld. His brow was furrowed and there was more emotion in his voice that Flechette had ever heard before. "I know it wouldn't be for the same amount, but if you spread it around, for whatever that's worth, to do SOMETHING for the other Case 53s in the city." He looked up at Apeiron. "Please?"
"Sure." Apeiron said, lowering his hand.
Weld blinked. Flechette blinked. It took both of them a moment to catch up with what had just happened.
"Sure?" Weld asked. "So you'll…"
"Apply your contract forward to other Case53s." He said plainly.
Complex emotions played across Weld's face as he sank back into his seat. The seat creaked uncomfortably and he quickly arrested his motion, but the relief remained.
"Thank you." He said. He glanced back towards the PRT headquarters. Towards the direction of Ragamuffin, before the area had become too public for the cape to be able to follow them. "With what some of them are going through, even if you can just help with control or the expression of their powers, it will…" He swallowed. "Thank you."
Apeiron nodded. "Honestly, this was something I was planning to pursue anyway."
"You were?" Weld asked.
Apeiron nodded. "Probably sooner, if the local authorities had been more accommodating." He also looked towards the PRT headquarters. "I understand some of that was based on good intentions and legitimate concerns, but there's only so much that can explain."
Weld nodded. Really, there was no way to legitimately argue that point. Early measures had been slightly extreme, but justifiable given the circumstances and unknown factors around Apeiron. Those had become progressively less justifiable as time went on until you reached the current point where the local authority was basically a farce in the eyes of the rest of the country and was only holding on because attempting to institute regime change during an active crisis would only make things worse.
It was an uncomfortable situation to be in as a Ward. Flechette had always done her best to be professional, to take the Protectorate and PRT seriously and do her best to represent them well, but that had been in New York. Things had gotten hectic in that city and not every decision was perfect, but she'd never seen the kind of runaway insanity that had been unleashed in Brockton Bay. She'd never even conceived that something like that would be possible. Bad decisions built on bad decisions covering for situations that got worse the more you looked at them.
Frankly, Flechette had stopped trying. The high-level politics and policy conflicts were well above her pay grade. It was more than she could make sense of, and it wasn't like she was in a position to influence things.
Hadn't been in a position to influence things. When she was just the department's point of contact for Garment that was one thing, and even that was a bit nebulous since Garment didn't exactly have trouble reaching out to people. This situation was very different.
She looked back at Apeiron, who had just admitted that he would have been willing to extend treatment contracts to more Case 53s if the local office hadn't blacklisted him. Dealing with him was about as far from a neutral position as you could possibly get.
"Well, that's good." Weld said. She could tell he was conflicted. Still grateful to have been able to make the deal he had, but knowing that you traded away that kind of chance for something that was already being considered, that had to hurt. "Um, how were you going to handle things?" He asked. "I mean, if it was an option?"
Meaning if the PRT had decided to engage Apeiron and allow him to offer treatment, rather than laying everything at his feet while they ignored March and allowed the ABB to build up to the level of the Ungodly Hour.
Apeiron shrugged. "Depends on the situation and the individual. If relations were better I would have been willing to work with the Protectorate to arrange for additional treatments. Outside of that, contracts would have been made on a case-by-case basis, taking individual situations into consideration."
Weld nodded. "So, what, severity of condition? Payment resources? Past actions?"
Apeiron nodded. "All worth considering. Particularly the actions and character of the individual in question."
Flechette nodded. It made sense to at least consider whether you were dealing with an unstable villain or someone trying their best. She just hoped the situations of people like Ragamuffin wouldn't be held against them. The situations that Case 53s found themselves in and the things they had to deal with didn't always put them in the best light. Weld had been lucky in more ways than just his power.
Suddenly Apeiron smiled and Flechette saw Weld tense. "For instance," He began, leaning back in his seat. "If someone selflessly offered up their chance for a normal life for the benefit of other Case 53s, that would be the kind of thing taken into consideration when calculating the terms of their contract." His smile widened. "Why, I'd say it would probably be enough to ensure they were paid up in full for any treatment they'd need."
Weld froze in that way only he could, essentially turning into a static metal statue from the shock. Apeiron just seemed to find the situation amusing.
"You can do that?" Lily found herself asking, then immediately felt self-conscious, like she was intruding into something private.
Apeiron nodded and turned towards her. Being the focus of Apeiron's attention was an intense experience. The way he was smiling, well, a lot of girls would probably have quite a bit of trouble with it. Probably the welcome kind of trouble, if she was being honest.
"I'm free to offer contracts on my own terms." He said confidently. "If that encourages certain modes of behavior, so much the better."
"So people can just earn a contract?" Weld asked.
Apeiron smiled at them. "Someone already has."
Flechette felt her eyes widen, then restrained herself. With Apeiron that could mean anything from an agreement for a meeting to the kind of display of power that would shake the foundation of the world. And there was no way to tell, because.
"And the details are confidential." Weld said. Apeiron just inclined his head. Flechette exchanged a look with Weld as each of them tried to figure out what they should do with that kind of information. Apeiron just looked amused by their reaction.
"Being completely honest, the contract thing has taken on a rather excessive amount of gravitas." Apeiron said. The both whipped their heads towards the impossible tinker.
"You mean it's not…" Weld began, but petered out. Given the assumptions around tinker compulsions, specifically mad scientist tinker compulsions, there was really no good way to phrase that question.
Apeiron shook his head. "I just wanted to maintain a reputation for keeping my word. Things kind of spiraled out from there."
As they tended to when dealing with anyone as powerful as Apeiron. The lack of an actual compulsion behind his contracts was a shock. On one hand, it was a relief that there was no factor forcing Apeiron's behavior. He wasn't bound or entrapped in early contracts like some people theorized, and were rather concerned about, considering who those contracts had been made with.
But that also meant there was a lack of certainty. While that kind of compulsion could indicate all kinds of worrying mental processes or power mechanics and could certainly be exploited, it also presented boundaries on Apeiron's actions. Boundaries that, despite what they implied, a lot of people had taken comfort in. Now, with this revelation, suddenly there was nothing restraining Apeiron's actions.
Well, nothing beyond Apeiron's desire to maintain his reputation. If someone on his level was committed to maintaining his agreements, and wanted to keep a reputation for doing so, then those agreements were probably as good as gold. You didn't need some supernatural compulsion to enforce behavior.
It was like her own dedication to the PRT and desire to ensure she kept a perfect record. That wasn't a compulsion, just something she decided for herself. There were no outside factors that had made her that dedicated, no quirk of her power that shifted the way she saw the world, but it wasn't something she would have broken. Not without very good reason.
Weld nodded slowly. Apeiron had just admitted that his earlier contract, the one he had traded away, wasn't nearly as ironclad as people believed. Which also meant the new offer wasn't as significant as it had seemed. But maybe that was better. Maybe it was better that Apeiron was offering to help for his own reasons and in his own judgment and not because the mechanics of his power compelled him to follow through on every agreement.
"So, I'm paid up? Again?" Weld asked.
"Yep." Apeiron said in a manner far too casually for someone in his position. "Though I regret to inform you that this exchange has knocked you down the queue." He grinned. "I'm afraid I have a prior contract of this nature that I'll need to see to before I can attend to your situation."
Weld relaxed slightly. "That's fine." He said. "Honestly, I'd prefer some of the others to get a chance at treatment first."
"So you're holding up alright?" Apeiron asked.
Weld nodded. He lifted a hand and she saw it easily shift between forms. "Just that bit of extra control has made a huge difference. I haven't gotten stuck to anything since then, and food has been great."
"Spicy enough?" Apeiron asked.
"At least once I found the right hot sauce." Weld said with a smile.
Lily felt her throat instinctively close. The memories of Weld's enthusiastic use of that particular sauce… She'd heard the PRT troopers talking about it. Apparently Corporal Breaux had put in a specific request to his grandmother, who had taken it as a personal challenge to make sure the sauce was strong enough for a boy with a literal cast iron stomach.
She didn't know if the stories about that sauce being specifically banned from air travel were true, but every time Weld seasoned his food it was like cracking open a can of tear gas. Looking between Weld and Apeiron, she almost wished he had taken the treatment, if only so that he could realize that not every meal needed to be turned into a chemical weapon.
Her reaction drew the attention of Weld and Apeiron, but she faked a cough and did her best to deflect things.
"Uh, sorry. Something in my throat." She said, "And sorry for intruding. I get this was kind of personal for Weld."
To her surprise, Apeiron just shook his head. "It was nice to get a chance to follow up with Weld, but I mainly wanted to speak with you."
Lily felt her eyes widen. "Me?" She asked in a near stammer.
"Yeah." Apeiron said as he turned fully towards her. She suddenly felt very small and very overwhelmed. The spectacle of Apeiron having a friendly chat with Weld had almost made her forget what she was dealing with.
Why her? What could Apeiron possibly want with her? A flash of concern brought a dark thought to the front of her mind.
March. March had followed her here. Did he blame her for that, or for his own warnings about March not being taken seriously? She had tried to make her case to the department, but with March's history it had been nearly impossible for anyone to take her concerns seriously. Just because March could organize and boost the effectiveness of gangs of teen capes didn't mean she had the capacity to manipulate an entire city.
That had been wrong. Flechette knew it was wrong, but she couldn't convince anyone. Not until it was too late, and at that point people were more interested in finding people to blame than correcting earlier misconceptions.
And that was despite the fact that March had come for her, specifically. Not just generally transferred to the city, but set a specific trap for her. If she hadn't followed Shadow Stalker out of the gallery that first night, if she'd been stuck there, cornered by the hostage the ABB had planted in the guests, lured away with whatever details he had been fed…
She didn't think she would have fallen for that. Didn't want to think she would have, but so many other people were convinced they would never have been manipulated by March, only to fall right into her plans. Apeiron was the only one who seemed to consistently give her trouble. Who required active effort to counter, rather than mass orchestration in advance. If he hadn't interfered that night, hadn't drawn March's attention to his fight with Bakuda, would she have stood a chance? Or would she have ended up with a bomb in her head, along with all those well-connected guests from the gallery and who knows how many of the Wards?
That still haunted her. She had narrowly avoided a fate worse than death. They all had, but it was just glossed over. One minor detail in a night of chaos that no one wanted to address, not when they were already juggling blame for a hundred other mistakes.
Nobody wanted to admit how bad that opening attack could have been. If Bakuda hadn't been held up by Apeiron and ended up wasting an army's worth of munitions and losing most of her forces while narrowly escaping with her life. If March had been able to take the Forsberg Gallery, capturing her and the children of the richest and most powerful families in the city, as well as who knows how many of the Wards. And if Garment hadn't chosen to take action, patrolling the Docks and fostering a place of safety for that part of the city.
That image helped her pull away from the dark thoughts of the near tragedy she had been thrown into when she arrived in the city, but sent her mind spinning off in another direction. Could that be what Apeiron wanted to talk about? Garment?
There was a theory that Garment was associated with the Celestial Forge. It was mostly the usual tinfoil hat stuff you always saw on PHO, but there were some elements that lined up. The timing of her appearance, the way her power seemed to grow, and the fact that she had some tinker abilities, at least enough to receive a classification from the Protectorate.
She had dismissed it as the usual online nonsense, but after the charity event, the way that had all come together, and the sheer scale of what Garment had displayed in her finale, she had to admit that there might be a point. It still seemed outlandish, but there was some weird logic if you looked at it from the right direction.
"This wasn't just about the Case 53s? Or my treatment?" Weld asked.
She was startled from her thoughts by Weld's question. Moments before Flechette had felt like an intruder. Now she was just grateful for his presence. Maybe he had felt the same way about her. Less an intrusion and more grateful for not having to face the uncertainty alone.
Apeiron shook his head at Weld. "Sorry, just wanted to get that out of the way before I got into the heavy stuff." Apeiron said. Lily felt her chest tighten. Heavy stuff. There was only one thing she could imagine falling into that category.
"Is this about March?" She asked, managing to keep her voice steady.
Apeiron tilted his head and seemed intrigued by the question. "A bit." He said. "At least indirectly."
"Indirectly?" That time she didn't manage to keep her voice steady.
Apeiron looked at her and took a breath. That casual demeanor melted away, replaced with the kind of conviction and focus that everyone innately associated with the man. Apeiron was looking at her with a dead serious expression, but still surrounded by the afternoon bustle of the Boardwalk. It should have been ridiculous, but somehow, with just a subtle shift in his demeanor, Aperion was able to completely override the atmosphere and convey exactly how serious he was being.
"That comes later, and isn't the point of this." He assured her. "Now, I assume you've been briefed about me? Or at least on what the Protectorate thinks they know about me? There's no shortage of analysis being conducted, in addition to the transcript."
A casual reference to the inciting incident of so many inciting incidents. The debrief of Panacea and circulation of the record. The launching point for dozens of misguided theories and the justification for measures with horrendous consequences for the city in general and Apeiron in particular. Consequences that were still being addressed.
Lily didn't trust herself to reply. Didn't know what she could say on the subject of one of the most severe missteps in the history of the PRT. Instead she just nodded, as did Weld.
Apeiron returned the nod and continued. "I have a thinker power." He said. "Actually, there are a considerable number of abilities that I possess which would be classified under that particular category, but I assume you know what I mean by my thinker power."
"Your ability to predict the future." Weld said. "Or learn things about people or events. What let you learn things about Panacea's family and predict the ABB's attack."
"But not March." Flechette added. She really didn't like the direction this conversation was taking, but didn't know what she could do other than power through. "You didn't know about her."
"No." He said. "Not until I learned who she was. Because without my first warning, she wouldn't have come to the city."
Flechette furrowed her brow as she considered Apeiron's words, but Weld managed to put things together before she could.
"That foresight, it's imperfect." He said. "Not something that responds to changing conditions. Not just the usual precognitive interference, but your own actions can affect the accuracy of your precognitions. Because it's… what, static? Non-dynamic precognition?"
Apeiron nodded while she gave Weld a surprised look. He shrugged his shoulders. "Hunch, back in Boston." He said, referencing the other Case 53 on the Boston Wards. "His power is already pretty imprecise. He's had to learn a lot about prediction mechanics for thinkers to know what can affect it."
"So wait," She turned back to Apeiron. "Static prediction means only seeing from a specific point. That would mean your thinker power would be completely out of date by now."
"Not completely." He said. "It's broad enough to cover a wider level of details, not just future events. I can still trust it for general impressions." His face darkened as he grew more serious. The entire world seemed to close in around them when he spoke. "And for predictions on events significant enough to not be affected by what I've done so far."
"Wha…" Lily cut herself off. The idea that any prediction of the future made before the past few weeks could still hold. That any event on even a global scale would remain unchanged, it was insane. What could possibly be significant enough to qualify?
"Endbringers?" She asked in a quiet voice. They were completely insulated, both from the people around them and probably from any conceivable detection method, but still, it was harrowing just mentioning the possibility.
"Do you really think that what happened here isn't going to affect the Endbringer's schedule?" Apeiron asked, as if he was casually dismissing concerns about the worst threats to civilization that had ever emerged. "That it will have no influence on them?" He shook his head. "No, I'm afraid this is much bigger than that."
Lily felt the blood drain from her face and a pit open in her stomach. She looked to Weld for support, but he had gone stock still once more, moving no more than a metal statue. She struggled to grapple at what had just been said. From anyone else it would have sounded like delusional rambling, but this was Apeiron. Not Apeiron catching up with Weld and joking about contracts. Apeiron taking matters as seriously as she had ever seen him.
She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to think. How were you supposed to respond to something like that?
"Flechette," He turned to her, pulling her out of her thoughts. "What do you know about your power?"
She swallowed, but at least this was familiar ground. It was a topic she had run through a hundred times in a hundred events and interviews. People were always curious about cape powers, and hers were easy to misunderstand.
Apeiron probably knew more than her. If he was asking her this he definitely knew more than her, but at the same time, this felt like a lifeline. Something mundane she could grab onto in the face of what the man had just implied.
"I can use my power to charge objects." She explained. Her arbalest was slung behind her, tucked under her new cape. Along with the throwing darts she had used before she'd been issued a tinker tech weapon and the cleats on her shoes that she could manipulate for traction that constituted the most common targets of her power. When she was first starting out the darts had been significant enough to become the basis for her cape name. "Change the way they interact with the world. They can phase through other materials or fuse with them, or ignore friction, gravity, or other forces."
Like when she negated friction on her costume to launch into improbable slides when roof running, or rode along her grapple or zip lines between buildings.
Apeiron seemed amused by her description, as if she were describing something quaint. As if she was missing something obvious. She cleared her throat before continuing.
"My power helps me place my shots. I can figure out trajectories easily, which helps when I'm roof running, or I need to dodge blows or shots in a fight." She explained.
She'd actually needed to deal with more gunfire during her short stint in Brockton Bay than her years in New York, but gang wars were like that. The ability to intuitively tell where people were aiming as well as where their shots would land had been vital, considering she was patrolling with Weld and Shadow Stalker, which left her as the only one who actually needed to worry about bullets.
"So you have an accuracy power, as well as a striker power." Apeiron said.
Flechette raised an eyebrow. Not many people remembered that she was technically a striker, on account of her working through ranged weapons. As for the accuracy.
"Accuracy, yes, but a lot of capes have powers that support their other abilities." She said, "Enhanced targeting isn't that unusual."
"Not for blasters." He said. "But that's a product of understanding the effect and nature of a ranged power. Accuracy as a side effect of control and awareness." He looked directly at her. Even with his eyes concealed behind his visor, she could feel the intensity of his gaze. "That's not a feature of striker powers used at range."
She swallowed and shifted nervously in her seat. Weld leaned towards her in what would have been a reassuring gesture if his own chair didn't give off an ominous creak, causing him to freeze before carefully turning back to Apeiron.
"I know you understand powers a lot better than most people." He said, making an understatement of titanic proportions. "You're clearly leading somewhere with this." He turned back to Flechette. "That Flechette had multiple powers?"
Apeiron nodded without a moment of hesitation. "Her striker ability, accuracy," That gaze focused on her again and she remembered what he had said. Multiple abilities that would count as thinker powers. "And timing."
Flechette's head shot up. "Timing?"
"Timing." He said confidently. "It is distinct from your accuracy power." There was no doubt in his tone, just absolute certainty, like he was reading it off a report as he looked at her.
She did not like what this was implying. Frankly, she didn't even want to think about it, but the possibility was obvious, particularly with the predominant theory about Apeiron's own team and the nature of his powers.
A glance at Weld showed he had also put things together, and thankfully pressed forward on the topic that she didn't even want to touch.
"Cluster theory." He said. "You're saying that Flechette is a grab-bag cape." It was something that had been raised before, a possibility that never seemed that relevant. Because it wasn't. It never had the kind of meaning and implications that it did now.
"March knew about my trigger." She said. Apeiron wasn't surprised. "She was going to use it at the gallery to lure me out, but the other Wards figured out what she was doing. If she knew about my trigger, if she was there, and you're saying I'm part of a cluster trigger…"
"You are in the same cluster as March." He said, plainly stating what she had been trying to avoid.
"That's… no, that's insane." She looked at Apeiron. "I'm nowhere near as powerful as March."
And once again, there was that amused expression, like she had missed something obvious. It was the kind of thing that should have come across as condescending, but Apeiron somehow managed to make it an almost endearing gesture.
"Has your striker power ever been blocked?" He asked directly.
"What?" She asked.
"Was there ever a time when you ran into something that your striker power could not handle? Anything that it couldn't punch through?" He asked again.
She bit her lip. The answer was no, but Wards didn't regularly go up against serious threats. They were expected to keep things nonlethal, even more so than Protectorate heroes. Her own kit had been reworked several times to reduce lethality and risk of injury when she took someone down. She hadn't run into anything serious enough to really gauge how strong her power was. Even then…
"There were times." She said, "My shots have been deflected or repelled. There are powers that can affect them."
To her surprise he nodded. "If you let them." He said. She gave him a confused look. "You can change the way objects interact with the world. Exclude forces or ignore effects." He leaned forward, placing his hands on the table. She found herself reminded that, even beyond all the insanity of his power, Apeiron on his own was an exceptionally tall man. "If you chose for your shots to ignore any of those effects that deflected them, would they still be able to interfere?"
She shifted in her seat again. It barely felt like she needed to answer. The truth was, it took time for her power to charge an object. She usually limited the effect to exactly what was needed for any specific shot, with her accuracy power helping her figure out exactly which forces to include or ignore and the timing of the shot.
Though that was apparently another power. A power from a source that felt vile just to be associated with.
The rare times when her shots had been stopped or deflected or forced off course it was because of some power or factor that she hadn't known about. One that was easy to ignore as gravity, friction, or any other force that she didn't want to affect objects charged by her power.
"You're seriously saying that my striker power is as strong as March's?" She asked.
"No." He said. "I'm saying that it's stronger."
She gave him a stunned look as he continued.
"Cluster dynamics are built around primary and secondary powers, with the core expression being more powerful than supporting effects. March's timing power was more powerful than yours, but her striker power was more limited. Longer setup time and considerably less utility."
Somehow, Flechette doubted that March was overly concerned with the lack of noncombat uses for her striker power. And the setup time was barely a disadvantage if you had a timing power as strong as March.
"What about accuracy?" Weld asked.
Apeiron nodded. "There was evidence of a minor accuracy power as well, though on a level where it would be difficult to separate from her timing power. That suggests that there was a third member of the cluster." He gave her a sympathetic look. "I could put forward theories, or have it looked into, but to get any certainty would require intrusion into your civilian identity."
The fact that, despite everything, Apeiron hadn't done that already was one of the few points of comfort that Lily could latch onto. She had thrown herself into the Wards over the last few years, making it as much of her life as she could, but she still had an identity outside of being Flechette. The fact that someone like Apeiron was willing to respect that meant a lot.
"I appreciate that, but this is already overwhelming. I don't know if I can handle digging into… that." Her trigger. Possibly the worst day of her life and something she didn't want to think about. Except it was specifically coming back to haunt her, with other people who had been caught in that disaster, all because…
She shook her head. "Sorry, it's just, you're saying I have a stronger power than March." She swallowed. "A stronger power than…"
"Everything." Apeiron said flatly.
She looked up at Apeiron's completely serious face. It felt like the footing she had only just been able to find had been swept out from under her. "What?"
"It's stronger than everything. The strongest parahuman power." He repeated.
"You're sure?" Weld asked. It was more amazement that someone could make a statement like that than serious questioning of Apeiron on the matter.
Apeiron nodded. "Parahuman powers follow certain mechanisms of use. The effects differ, but there are common points to how the powers are channeled and directed. Your power." He said, looking at Lily. "Is the highest expression possible under that system. It represents a continuous extension of force through every possible permeation of reality that exists in the multiverse. It is literally impossible for a power to be any stronger than that without fundamentally altering the mechanisms by which parahuman abilities operate or changing the underlying mechanics of reality."
Lily didn't know what was more frightening, the fact that Apeiron was completely confident about the strength of her power, or that he was talking about alteration of the function of powers and the mechanics of reality as if they were actual options for him.
"My power, it would be strong enough to hurt you?" She asked. It felt intrusive and in bad taste, but that was what he had been implying. She couldn't leave things without confirming that.
Apeiron made a nebulous gesture. "A week ago it would have been." He said casually. She and Weld just looked at him. Weld managed to recover from the impact of the statement first.
"You said it was the strongest power in the universe. The strongest possible power." He said.
"It is." He said with a nod. "You would not believe the bullshit needed to properly defend against something like that."
It was like he was talking about a particularly difficult aspect of a hobby rather than a completely impossible feat of… she didn't even know. Engineering? Power manipulation? Reality alteration? Fuck, it could be elf magic for all she knew.
"Right, right." She said, trying to center herself. For once, the absolute impossibility of Apeiron had managed to ground the situation, though in possibly the weirdest way possible. Her power was impossibly strong, but Apeiron was impossibly impossible, so it all balanced out. Somehow, that made the situation less overwhelming, rather than more.
It was almost enough to distract her from the reason Apeiron had broached the topic in the first place. A threat that was somehow greater than the Endbringers. And her power was relevant to that. And that meant…
Her jaw dropped open. She looked from Weld to Apeiron and back again, but neither seemed to have picked up on the implication. Or, in Apeiron's case, even realized that it was an implication.
"Can my power kill Endbringers?" She asked in a tone that was significantly louder than she intended. Weld's eyes went wide and he quickly turned towards her, which caused his chair to creak loudly in protest and left him trying to rebalance the forces as Lily looked to Apeiron for a response.
"Well, yeah." He said. "Obviously."
They both gaped at him as he continued. "I mean, for your power in particular the main issue would be dealing substantive damage to a critical location. The scale of most attacks would be superficial, and the mobility of the target would be an issue, not to mention the risk of counterattack. But in terms of damage, yes, it's one of the powers that is strong enough to kill an Endbringer."
He was so confident in his explanation. So calm. Like he had already worked all of it out. Just the idea of defeating an Endbringer in any permanent way was borderline insanity and Apeiron was happily launching into the topic as if it were strictly a mechanical problem.
More than that, he had said 'one of the powers strong enough'. There were more. There were ways to stop the Endbringers and all the destruction and devastation that they inflicted on the world. That kind of announcement should have been the most significant piece of information that could have possibly been shared.
But it wasn't. That wasn't what Apeiron was focused on. That wasn't why he had decided to approach her and Weld in the middle of a patrol. It wasn't why he had decided to share as much information, extremely dangerous information, as he had. Because there was something bigger.
"The event that your thinker power warned you about?" She asked in an unsteady voice. "The one that's bigger than the Endbringers?" Apeiron nodded. "How big is it?"
Apeiron took a breath. "About as big as possible." He said. "Calling it the fate of the world would be badly underselling things. Everything rides on this. It goes full multiversal, as big as these things can get."
He let the weight of his statement settle for a moment. This was not what she had been prepared for when she started the day. When she headed out on patrol. This was not what not something anyone could be prepared for, in any capacity.
"But it's not hopeless, right?" She asked. "There's something that can be done?"
He nodded. "There is. I don't know all the details. I can gauge scale with my power, but specifics are a lot harder. I've got theories from my own research, but not enough to nail things down exactly." He looked up at them. "What I have been able to determine is that there are key pieces. Parahumans with abilities that will be able to counter the threat, but the powers required are incredibly specific. Losing any of them would be devastating."
"And this thing, it's not something you can deal with?" Weld asked hopefully. She shared his optimism on this point, but doubted that Apeiron would have gone to all this trouble if he had a solution of his own.
"I might be able to." He said. "It's possible, but a considerable challenge, even for me. And even so, dealing with it without significant cost…" He let out a breath. "You don't want to know how bad the collateral damage could be from a single misstep on this."
"That bad?" Weld asked.
"The human mind can't accurately conceive numbers that large. I'd have to present it in scientific notation, which would take something away from the impact." Apeiron explained dryly.
Apeiron shook his head before continuing. "Flechette is a key piece because of the strength of her power. There are very few possible replacements, and all of them would be much less effective. Fewer, now that March is gone." He looked at her. "Honestly, having you in Brockton Bay when all this was happening, as a target for March, has been a little stressful."
The tone he placed on his final statement was able to bring a weak smile to her face, if only for a moment. "Sorry for worrying you." She said.
He let out a breath. "Honestly, YOU weren't that bad. Somehow all the key pieces have ended up in or around Brockton Bay."
The very human exasperation was refreshing to see after the inhuman scale of Apeiron's warnings, but she caught the meaning behind his words.
"How many people are necessary for this?" She asked. It was a heady question. How many people did it take to save the world? More than save the world, if what Apeiron was implying was true.
"Three." He said. "Technically four, but the last one…" He made a dismissive gesture. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. If Apeiron was comfortable with three then… well, that was what they had to work with. It wasn't like anyone else was in a position to question him on something like this.
"That's… not too bad?" Weld offered. Lily nodded along as encouragingly as she could.
Apeiron let out a short laugh. "Yeah…" He looked at them. "I get that this is a lot to drop on you. It's a lot for anyone. I've been dealing with it from the start and it's still more than I'm comfortable with. The point is, given what's happened to this city, and how important this is, there is way too much risk."
Lily nodded, then her eyes widened. Dealing with it from the start. Key people, capes with powers that were necessary to prevent some upcoming disaster. Some of Apeiron's early actions were questionable, but if you took this into account, if he had been working for something like this, then what could that imply? And more importantly, who were the other two key parahumans?
"That's why you wanted to warn me?" She asked. "So that I'd know about the risk?"
"Well, partially." He said. "But mostly it was to address that risk."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a glowing yellow sphere about the size of a softball. And something that definitely shouldn't have fit inside his very fitted jacket, but that impossibility was a distant second to the object in his hand, if it could even be called an object.
The ball of light floated slightly above the fingers of his gloves, like it was being gripped by some invisible force that prevented him from making contact. The interior was completely opaque and radiated a soft yellow glow. Apeiron set the sphere in the center of the table where it held position, floating about a half inch above the surface, suspended by whatever invisible force surrounded it.
"This is my healing technology." He explained. "Specifically, an autonomous and enhanced version of the best healing technology I have. It is able to give someone a persistent high level healing factor, even by my standards. One strong enough that her safety will no longer be a concern."
Flechette let out a slow breath. After everything she had been worried about, every concern she had juggled as Apeiron delivered one Earth shattering revelation after the next, this was almost a relief. It was almost mundane compared to what she had been building up in her head.
Medical services. The same healing that he had given to the hostages, or to Weld on the bottom of the bay, only without him needing to administer it. All of her concerns had led to the presentation of the glowing ball that sat in the center of the table. It was pretty, but not the kind of dire display of power she had been worried about. After all the concerns he had leveled, and the massive stakes that he had implied, it was a relief to know that he was only offering his healing technology.
Providing those concerns were legitimate. There was clearly something there. Apeiron was probably right about March and the cluster trigger. It wasn't something she wanted to think about, but it made sense. She could even trust his assessment of her power, crazy as that was. If it was from the same source as March's explosions, then it probably did have that level of power, or close to it.
But predictions of the future were something she was less sure of. They were notoriously inaccurate. Apeiron was an outlier in terms of power, but he had been blindsided by elements of the ABB's attack. The fact that he couldn't get precise details, only rough implications of scale and role, suggested this might not be as serious as it seemed.
She could recognize wishful thinking when she saw it. She didn't want to be a chosen cape with an impossible destiny to use her power to prevent an apocalypse. That wasn't her. That was never something she had been in any way prepared for. Alexandria packages or flying blasters were always the standout capes, the people who acted as beacons of hope. That was a standard set by the Triumvirate, but that didn't change things.
Flechette wasn't that kind of cape. She was a good cape, a model Ward who took her role seriously, but that role had always been limited. She'd had her moments, but always more in a support capacity than as the star of the show. Stardom was for capes who could make a splash. Who arrived on the scene with showy abilities and overwhelmed their enemies with strength or displays of power. Not people who danced along the rooftops lining up the ideal shot.
Except Apeiron was saying she was that strong. As powerful as power could get. Except it wasn't power she had been able to leverage. Not when she had to constantly be careful. After all, she wasn't invincible.
Though maybe that was the point of this. She looked down at the yellow ball. It was possible that Apeiron was off base, that his predictions were faulty, but there were a hundred more dangerous ways a person could have reacted to a predicted apocalypse level event than offer the key players medical technology to make sure they didn't get hurt.
"This… technology?" She asked, gesturing to the glowing sphere. Normally that wouldn't be a question, but this was Apeiron. Nothing was certain.
"Technology enhanced by secondary effects." He explained, which was about as much as she could have hoped for.
"It's the same as what you used to treat Weld? And the ABB hostages?" She asked.
For some reason referencing the hostages caused a slight pause. Probably from the reminder that his first work had been largely undone with the hostages recaptured. Aside for the ones that had been taken into PRT custody under master suspicion.
Really, the entire thing was beyond a mess. Even the investigations trying to figure out what had happened and how things had gotten that bad were an ineffective trainwreck. There was no telling how bad things would look once everything settled.
"It is based on that technology, but it's been substantially refined and supplemented." Apeiron said with considerable emphasis. "This was a major project for me."
Flechette nodded, looking back to the orb as there was a slight tick from Apeiron. "It's safe? No side effects." Not that she expected there would be, but she wanted to check.
Okay, she might have been stalling a little bit, but this was the first part of the conversation where she felt she actually had some ground under her feet.
"None whatsoever." Apeiron said directly. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but he cut her off. "This is nanotech."
She blinked and leaned slightly away from the center of the table, eyeing the object with much greater caution. She saw the shock on Weld's face, probably for reasons that went beyond the Protectorate's position on nanotechnology, at least after the Machine Army.
"Nanotech?" He asked.
"Directed medical nanites." He explained.
"But…" He began. "My power, how could that work on someone like me?"
"They aren't metallic." Apeiron said. He raised a hand and, seemingly from nowhere, projected a hologram over the table. It showed a kind of translucent sphere with cylindrical structures around it. "They're composed of a stabilized quantum void surrounded by regulatory arrays. It allows coordinated atomic level work, independent of most mass and energy requirements."
Flechette looked at the model, or more specifically the impossible scale it seemed to be alluding to. A device capable of working on the atomic level, but still functioning in a coordinated manner.
"You had this technology on this level, two weeks ago?" Weld asked in near disbelief. Neither of them were tinkers, but they could recognize the scale of what they were looking at.
"I had help." He said, lowering his hand and causing the hologram to wink out, as if that explained it. Which it might well have. No one was completely sure of the capabilities of Apeiron's team, or what they had been doing before their first official appearance.
"Okay." Flechette said slowly. The fact that the foundation of Apeiron's technology was impossibly advanced shouldn't really be a surprise, not with what it had been capable of. And working on that scale, questions about scars or healing time seemed a bit unnecessary. "Okay, nanotech." She repeated, looking at the tiny sphere on the table.
Weld glanced over at her, then down at the ball of what was presumably densely packed nanomachines. "So they're just medical robots, right?" He asked. "They aren't the kind of thing that can replicate out of control and cause containment issues?"
"No. These can't do that." Apeiron said. Lily felt herself relax, but something about his phrasing seemed overly specific. Still, the potential that Apeiron had worse nanotechnology than this, or was capable of building worse nanotechnology than this wasn't really surprising at this point.
"Medical nanites." She said to herself. It was the kind of thing that was essentially science fiction, even by the standards of tinker tech, but Apeiron had apparently been using them for most of his career, as compressed as that was. "And it's safe for me to use? It's not going to have breakdowns or incompatibility or maintenance issues?"
"No." Apeiron said firmly. "This was a major project for me. It's not going to have the kind of issues you see from conventional tinker tech. Technologically, it is unbelievably robust."
"Right. It's just, this? The nanotech healing, is this necessary?" She asked, looking up at him. A slight frown formed on his face.
"I know this is a lot to ask." He said, gesturing to the sphere. "It's advanced technology that probably seems fairly invasive, but I can assure you, it is absolutely safe. It will keep you absolutely safe."
"I understand, this is big, bigger than anything I could have imagined, and I know you must have put a lot of work into this." Again, there was a slight shift in his expression. "I'm sure it will help-"
"No." He said. "It will do more than help." He took a breath. "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to drop on you all at once with, and it's not easy to adjust to, but I don't think you understand what I mean when I say this was a MAJOR project for me."
The intensity of his words was almost palpable. She slowly nodded while watching his expression. "I know that nanotech is a lot more advanced than what anyone else had come up with, but…"
"That wasn't what I meant. There's a lot more going on than I've been able to convey." He said, letting out a breath. He shook his head before turning back to her. "You have your patrol notebook?" She nodded, but it wasn't really a question. "Can I borrow a sheet of paper from it? And your pen?"
She felt herself flush slightly, but pulled her notebook out of her belt pouch. She didn't expect Apeiron to have to start writing things out for her. Still, she carefully tore out a page, then handed it to Apeiron along with her pen.
He accepted them with a nod, then carefully set the paper on the table in front of him. Flechette craned her head to get a better look, but instead of writing he folded the page. Then folded it again. Then the pen dashed forward and complex markings appeared on the sheet, more complicated than should have been possible from a ballpoint pen. Then more folds, and more details.
Origami. It was a folded paper sculpture, except more complex than anything she had seen before, and decorated, or maybe accented by marks from the pen.
"What are you making?" She asked as she watched him work.
"A point." He said without looking up. "And also a statement."
She frowned at the implication, then looked closer. It took her longer than it should have for her to realize what was happening, and without her powers she probably never would have been able to see it. Even then, she was only able to 'see' that she wasn't seeing half of what Apeiron was doing.
Between folds his hands blurred, working the paper in ways too fast and too complex for her to follow. The moments between those points weren't part of the process. He was deliberately stopping work to let her see what was happening. The only parts they could see were the parts he was showing off, essentially pausing work to give them a chance of following the development process.
And it was an incredible process. Unbelievably complex folds of paper building intricate structures and mechanisms. Flourishes of the pen highlighting edges, adding elaborate designs and runic scripts, or even using the indentation and effect of the ink soaking into the paper as part of the construction process. A single sheet page from her patrol notebook was being turned into the most complex structure she had ever seen.
And then, suddenly, almost abruptly, it was done. She couldn't follow the final process, the point where everything came together, transforming from an intricate collection of folded paper structures into a perfect whole, but when it was done Apeiron was holding the finished product in his gloved hand.
It was a paper flower. A lily. The choice of flower shocked her. There was no indication that Apeiron knew her name or anything about her identity. In fact, he had been adamant about that, intentionally holding off on pursuing things related to her trigger. Was this a commentary on that, a hint at what he knew beyond a polite fiction of privacy, or had it just been a lucky choice?
Regardless, the work was incredible. Beyond incredible. It was almost impossible to tell that it was actually made out of paper. Delicate petals that shifted from blue edges to a white center. Individual stamen had been modeled, with complex textured folds making them look completely real. The flower sat on a 'stem' of tightly folded paper. It was just white paper and blue ink, but something about the texture of the design made it easy to overlook the materials. It seemed so vibrant and real that she swore she could practically see dew drops gathering on the paper leaves. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her life.
"This…" Apeiron said, holding up the beautiful paper flower. "is garbage."
Her mouth dropped open at his dismissal of the work. She could barely process things as he casually passed the paper flower to her, along with her pen, taking no care or regard for the delicate structures of the design. She took it carefully, reverently, feeling the impossibly fine construction beneath her fingers.
There was a thrum. A feeling of something pulsing within the structure of the paper flower. Flechette's breath caught in her throat.
"Garbage?" Weld asked cautiously.
"As in not worth anything." He said, waving away Weld's question. "Less than a minor project. Representing no expenditure of resources or effort that wasn't utterly trivial."
Flechette looked down at the paper lily. She could feel something there. Something that went far beyond how Apeiron was regarding the work. "This isn't just folded paper, is it?" She asked.
"It is." He assured her. "It's made with nothing but scrap paper and a ballpoint pen. I didn't add anything to it beyond my own skill and the materials you gave me. That's what I meant. That is junk that I can throw together out of nothing but scrap." He gestured back to the glowing orb on the table. "Unlike that."
She felt the strength, the potential from the flower in her hand, then looked to the glowing orb. It seemed simple compared to the complex assembly she had just witnessed. Just a little ball of light. Maybe that was why it was easy to dismiss. To recontextualize things. That it was 'only' the miracle healing technology of Apeiron, not anything to get worked up about.
Clearly, she had to reconsider that opinion.
"Um, I mean, it's a nice flower, but what does that have to do with healing?" Weld asked. He turned and noticed the way Flechette was staring at the flower. "Flechette?"
She took a breath. Almost on instinct, she squeezed down on the stem of the flower, feeling the way the material shifted in her hand. Instead of the rustle of paper there was the sound of scraping steel as the flower practically exploded. The weight didn't seem to change even as the paper expanded in her hand, growing three feet in length within a single heartbeat.
It was a fencing saber. A beautiful saber, made out of paper. Which made it lighter than a foil. The material hadn't changed, it was still paper. White paper and blue ink, but the way they were woven together was incredible. The way the designs and inscriptions danced along the blade, the layering of the paper which carried a pure sheen that only highlighted the unquestionably deadly edge, that slight texture to the grip and the fold of the guard that wrapped around her hand.
It was paper, but there was no question that it was stronger than any material she could imagine comparing it to. The durability and power were unquestionable. It resonated with every movement of the blade.
More than that, it seemed to call out to her power. Cautiously, she extended her power to the blade in her hand. Normally it took time and focus to charge an item with her power. The paper sword just seemed to drink it in. She could empower it in an instant, faster than she had ever been able to before. It would let her empower her strikes on the moment of contact, or change the properties just as quickly. Phasing through matter, ignoring natural forces, or just plowing through everything in her way.
Apeiron smiled at the blade, fully charged with her power. She saw his reaction and felt slightly embarrassed, like she had been playing with something that belonged in an art collection rather than the hands of a street cape. She loosened her grip and felt the blade fold back, retracting into flower form.
Only not a lone stem in her hand. This time the paper flower wrapped around her wrist, sitting at the ready where she knew she could call it again.
And it looked like a corsage. Not something she had ever worn herself, and probably not the implication that Apeiron intended to make, but the design was unquestionably beautiful, if a little bulky.
And then it pulled in further. From a wrist bouquet to a small white bracelet dotted with blue flowers. She felt her breath catch in her throat at how easy it had been, how quickly it had reacted, seemingly to a thought. She looked up at Apeiron.
"That's not the end of it, is it?" She asked.
"Not even close." He said with a slight smile.
Weld looked at the now tiny bracelet on her wrist, then back to Apeiron. "What did you do to that paper?"
"You want the complete list?" He asked jovially, only to be met with blank expressions. Weld was lost and she was overwhelmed. More overwhelmed. The day had been an exploration of new heights of overwhelmingness.
"Right." He said, sitting up slightly. "Setting aside the actual craftsmanship and various superfluous effects, as well as the technical principles behind the design, I effectively used precise manipulation of the structure of the paper to assemble mechanical controls through fold interactions with a modular focus and unique expressions of compounded systems. My supporting abilities allowed the use of otherwise inappropriate materials to serve as the base for a mechanical system, which took advantage of unique interactions of the paper in question to create a variable and compressible weapon configuration, specific to Flechette's modes of operation."
Weld blinked. "Oh." He said. "Is that all?" There was an edge of sarcasm to his voice that Flechette could tell was ill advised.
"Not even close." Apeiron quipped back. "But we don't really have time for a comprehensive breakdown of all supporting effects and imbued abilities. Beyond those impacting quality and durability, there are the aforementioned effects to allow more robust workmanship than would normally be possible with paper, imbued energy patterns guided through ink designs allowing elemental affinity and a personal retrieval function, the construction of a focus structure for the purposes of specific synergy with Flechette's power, and an adaptive function allowing iterative improvements through continued use."
"Sorry, elemental?" Flechette asked, looking down at the tiny band of flowers on her wrist.
"Variant wood element affinity augmented by runic structures and enhanced by secondary effects to provide a paper-based effect, allowing greater control and variability beyond the initially constructed variant forms." He explained.
Weld turned from her to Apeiron, then back again. "Flechette?" He asked.
She swallowed as she tried to make sense of both the item she had been so casually given and the sheer magnitude of what Apeiron had just explained. She took a breath and took in her sense of the now tiny object.
"It responds to my powers." She said, "It was easier to charge the sword or shift the effects of the manifestation, and there's more. It's got a lot of power. Like, I think I can…"
With a slight movement of her wrist the bracelet extended into an eight-foot-long lash that danced around her like a gymnast's ribbon. Weld flinched as the flickering ribbon of paper whipped around them, though Apeiron just looked on with amusement.
She pulled back on the lash and watched as it folded into a disk of petal-like blades. Despite having left her hand, it seemed to follow her every thought as it spun through the air. The disk made a tight circuit around the table before returning to her. As she caught it the paper shifted again and wrapped around her hand, only instead of a bracelet it covered her arm like a gauntlet, with 'plates' of paper covering from her fingers to her elbow. Just like a piece of armor, feeling as strong as… no, far stronger than steel.
She took a careful breath, calming herself after the intensity of that display. The gauntlet on her wrist collapsed back into that tiny bracelet of flowers, but she could feel the energy there, like coiled tension ready to be released with a single thought. Instead of letting that tension fly free, she focused and directed it. The bracelet folded off her wrist and returned to its original form. That beyond perfect lily that was somehow both nearly alive and composed of nothing but paper and ink.
Even without the connection to her power, it was blatantly obvious how powerful it was. Strong and fast and versatile and with features that she was barely able to understand. She placed the flower down on the table next to the glowing sphere, where it balanced impossibly on the tip of its stem, but that wasn't even close to surprising at this point.
Even as she set down the flower, she knew it wasn't relinquished. It was hers on some unquestionable level. Something she could call on with a single thought. All that power, at her disposal. And it had been thrown together in an instant, then casually tossed aside.
She looked down at the sphere with fresh eyes. That wasn't something Apeiron was tossing aside. It was something he considered important. Important enough to be worth time, effort, and what counted as significant resources on his part. What even was a significant resource for Apeiron? What did that little ball of light actually represent?
"The… nanites? The healing technology? How strong is it, really?" She asked.
"Strong." He said in a serious voice. "Strong to the point where it will be very, very difficult for you to die."
"Difficult?" She asked a bit unsteadily.
"Borderline impossible." He clarified. "Including from old age, which I understand might take a bit of adjustment."
Flechette blinked. She tilted her head and tried to process what Apeiron had just said. Weld took a moment to realize what Apeiron had just said. He tried to give her a supportive look, but was clearly as out of his depth with what was happening as she was. Still, she found herself grateful for his presence. At least she didn't have to face this insanity alone. And had a witness to verify that something this crazy had actually happened.
She shifted awkwardly, then looked up at Apeiron. "I'd be immortal." She said.
He nodded, not even contesting that point. "At least as close as I can make someone, which is pretty close."
She let out a breath. "This is big."
Apeiron smiled. "That was kind of what I was trying to convey before."
"Right." She looked down at the paper flower. Apeiron's point, or statement, or both. He'd certainly made it effectively. "And I have to choose."
Apeiron nodded. "It's your choice. Choice is important." He gestured to the sphere. "This isn't the kind of thing I'd force on anyone."
As if that would be a problem when handing out immortality. Well, for some people it would, and that was the point. As much as Apeiron cared about this, as much as he was prioritizing it, and as much as he had invested in it, she somehow knew that if she said no, if she wanted to walk away, she would be able to. He might take other measures, or find one of those less optimal choices, but he would let her. Despite the scale of what he had done so casually, this wasn't something she was actually being pressed into.
If she did this, would she even count as human anymore? Her eyes darted to the other people at the table. Weld and Apeiron. With everything that Apeiron had displayed, did he even count as human anymore?
Of course he was, and so was Weld. She swallowed and felt her conviction start to harden. Extraordinary abilities and circumstances didn't mean someone wasn't a person. If she took the offer, she wouldn't age, but was that such a big deal? Did Weld age?
….did Garment?
That was perhaps not the direction she should be taking in her considerations, but she couldn't help herself. Garment wasn't normal. She didn't have a bound and contained existence the way other people did. She certainly didn't have any biological needs or indications that she had to worry about 'mortal' concerns.
Other concerns, sure, but not the issues of simple human biology. And with all the time in the world, Flechette would be able to learn to understand her. To figure out how she saw the world and connect with her. At least connect as well as that girl from the charity show.
She let out a breath. This was not the kind of thing she should be using to justify her decision. Relationship or not, it was a bad practice for something as serious as this. She would like it if things worked out with Garment, but that wasn't why she should take this deal. It wasn't why she would take this deal, if she actually took this deal.
"You said it doesn't have to be me, for whatever this big thing is." And God how she wished he had more details on that.
"No." He said, and she had the feeling he probably wished the same thing. "There are other capes who could accomplish the same task, but not as well. I could manage something, but I'd prefer to not be the sole linchpin for something this important. But if it comes down to it, there are other high-level annihilators who could accomplish the same task."
That, specifically that, was what stuck in her mind. She looked up into the man's visored eyes. He didn't say it, and she wasn't sure she should ask, but there were two people in the city that fit that particular description. The Damsel of Distress, a ranting cartoonish villain with a massive kill count behind her who had apparently broken down to join the local Nazis, and Scrub, an unstable member of the Merchants who, if rumor was correct, would have become the next Butcher if a member of Apeiron's team hadn't stepped in to prevent it.
Those were the ones that Apeiron was talking about. Or at least he was talking about capes like that. Capes like March. Annihilator powers didn't generally make for friendly or popular capes. She might be an exception, but that was only because she'd had no idea she even counted as one until this conversation.
It didn't have to be her, but it did have to be someone. And it was her decision to make.
She reached out and picked up the glowing orb.
Weld gave her an uncertain look, but she nodded to him. The orb felt warm in her hand, if you could say she felt it at all. It was more like a field of force that was pressing her fingers away from the glowing surface of the sphere, but energy radiated out. What she had thought was just light was actually something deeper, something a lot more significant.
She glanced from the sphere to the flower, still impossibly balanced on the table. With a slight thought the flower shifted across the table to wrap around her wrist again. Despite the seriousness of the situation and despite the intimidating display that had been involved in the creation of the origami impossibility, she couldn't help but smile. It might have been made of scrap and be nothing by Apeiron's standards, but it was still powerful, elegant, beautiful, versatile, and dependable. That was as big a statement as any other part of its creation.
And it was the same type of flower as her name. She wasn't usually one to get sentimental, and she was still concerned about whether that had been intentional, but she had to confess having a bit of a soft spot for that kind of thing.
"Alright," She said, looking down at the orb in her hand. "How do I do this?" It was the size of a small grapefruit and felt like nothing. At the same time it seemed impossibly delicate and like the most significant thing in the world.
"You're sure?" Apeiron asked.
She nodded. "As sure as I'm going to get." She replied. "So, how does this work?"
Apeiron nodded. "Just squeeze through the barrier. The technology will integrate with your body and after that everything is automatic." He explained.
She paused at that. "Like, forever?" She asked. "I know you said close to immortal, but it's not going to need any maintenance or have to be changed out?"
"No." He assured her. "If you change your mind I can remove the base technology, but there would still be residual benefits from the exposure. You wouldn't actively heal, at least not on the same level, but your overall health would be significantly enhanced."
She nodded. Another choice. She didn't need to live forever, just until whatever she had to deal with. Something on the scale that even Apeiron was worried about his ability to deal with it.
She was a person who thought of herself as a hero. It was such a core part of her identity that sometimes she wondered if there was anything else. She'd been lost before her trigger, mostly adrift in the foster system. Not one of the lucky kids who finds a permanent home, but still luckier than…
Not something she wanted to think about. And her trigger had changed that. Maybe because she wanted to get away from it all. All the history and the guilt and anger of what had happened. She embraced the Wards, poured everything she had into them, into being a hero.
But it was New York. The Wards there were what Wards were supposed to be, not a reserve force for the Protectorate. She had done the normal Wards things. Shadowed heroes, walked foot patrols, gave presentations at school assemblies, occasionally engaged approved villain groups, and followed all the PR and licensing instructions she was given.
She was good at it. Part of the system, and primed to take a bigger role. But she wasn't there yet. Hadn't accomplished that yet. But she was ready to step up when she got the chance.
And here was that chance.
Did she want to be a hero? She didn't ask for her trigger, but she had made the most of it. When presented with an opportunity, with a choice for power, with all the complications and obligations that came with it, would she say yes? Was she a hero because it was who she was, or was it just a convenient role for her to fill?
She didn't know. Something like this, such a simple act with so many implications, it was beyond her. It felt like she should wait, talk it over with… with who? That was the thing. Weld's situation with Apeiron was complicated. Probably not enough to seriously affect his judgment, but too much to discount it. The rest of her friends were back in New York, and after what happened with Jenn, she wasn't that eager to reach out.
She looked over at Weld. When presented with the choice, he had made his decision. Asked for healing and opened up a new world for himself and for every Case 53. A world of trouble as well, but this was Apeiron, it seemed to go hand in hand.
"You okay?" Weld asked quietly.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"You don't need to make the decision now, but I imagine things are going to get a bit complicated after this. I don't know when I'll get another chance to make the offer." Apeiron said.
"No, it's fine." She said.
"You're sure?" Weld asked.
"Yeah." She smiled at him, then squeezed down.
Her fingers flowed through the mildly resistive barrier of nothing and vanished into the glowing orb. It felt warm, like she was reaching into a hot bathtub. For an instant she held her hand there, fingers closed within the opaque glowing sphere. And then the sound started.
That sound. That specific sound. The same electric motor sound that everyone recognized. The iconic sound of Apeiron's healing. She watched as the orb began to shrink. Glowing yellow lines spread up her arm in a circuit-like pattern. They grew, extending across her body, clearly visible over the purple material of her suit. She felt the warmth spreading through her. And felt the first wave of effects.
She had been pushing herself hard. Everyone in the city had been. Days had been long, sleep had been short, and meals had been whenever she could manage. It wasn't as bad as the immediate aftermath of the Ungodly Hour, but with one concern flowing into the next she had never gotten a proper chance to stand down. Never had the opportunity to fully recover from the previous day before the next one began.
Suddenly, that wasn't a problem. As the warmth spread through her body all the aches and pains, the stiffness and fatigue, it vanished in a flash. She had literally never felt better. Like she could run a marathon and still have energy for a double shift of active patrols.
"Wow." She said, steadying herself.
"Wow?" Weld asked.
"It's not just healing." She smiled. "Or I guess it's not just dealing with injuries?"
Apeiron nodded. "Anything medical or health related. Hunger, fatigue, even oxygen, they're all covered. Like I said, it's the best I could make it."
"But it's still healing, right?" She looked down at her hand contemplatively.
"Please tell me you aren't thinking about testing that in public." Weld said. Then he looked around at the people who were still fastidiously ignoring them. "I mean… you know what I mean."
"Most of the time injuries will heal faster than they can be inflicted." Flechette looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "You're not going to see wounds visibly closing. If you prick your finger it will have healed by the time the needle is out. Actually, sort of before that, but the mechanics get a bit complicated."
"Right." She said, leaning back. "I'm… immortal." She paused and shook her head. "I mean…"
"No, that was decently close." Apeiron said.
"But you said it wasn't total immortality." Weld said. "Is there something she should look out for or be careful about?"
"Not really." He said flippantly. "The complete destruction of your entire body on a fundamental level across multiple dimensions, inclusive of the surrounding fabric of space-time might do it, but that's not really something you can 'look out' for."
"Ah." Weld said. "Well, that's… good?"
Flechette nodded blankly. She was still invigorated, but emotionally exhausted. It would be really nice to see Garment right about now. Maybe see if she could get some perspective on things.
"This is going to be a nightmare of a report." Weld said. Flechette slumped further at the thought. "I mean, we could try to be discreet, but this kind of thing is going to be noticeable. There would be trouble if we try to cover it up."
"It's fine." Apeiron said. Then a small smile appeared on his face. "Though as I understand it, standing policy has matters involving my actions handled at the upper levels of the PRT, rather than the regional office. Maybe you'd be better off contacting them directly, rather than going through local channels."
Flechette could hear the amusement in his words. "I mean, Director Piggot is busy dealing with the developing gang situation. This would just be an unnecessary distraction. Better to let the higher ups handle things and go from there."
Weld just shook his head, but he was grinning as well.
"Of course, I wouldn't want to disrupt your patrol more than I already have." Apeiron said.
"Well, on request, we could hold off on an official report of events until the completion of our patrol." Meaning until this evening. It was only a few hours of extra time, but still, if it held off the panicked overreactions, and the likely extensive testing she'd need to go through, she was fine with that.
Weld shook his head. "Joking aside, you're really alright with us sharing everything you told us here. I mean, everything?"
"I'm comfortable with you using your discretion." He said. "Given what I was asking, it didn't feel right to add additional mandates."
Right, what he was asking. The tremendous request that we accept his help, and let him try to stop an unfathomable disaster.
"I can't see news of any of this going over well with the PRT." She said, "Not my power, not the Endbingers, not the end of the world, and not the people required to stop it."
"Probably not." Apeiron said. "If they decide to do something stupid, I can deal with it, but I think everyone would prefer it if I didn't have to."
Flechette nearly shivered at the implication. The list of what Apeiron could deal with was considerable, but she didn't want to think about what would happen after he had dealt with things.
"You don't think they're going to try something?" She asked. "With everything that's at stake, they can't possibly be that stupid."
"After the last two weeks, I'm not inclined to underestimate stupidity." He said flatly. "The point is, there's no guarantee that they'll believe me about this situation, but they will believe that I care about it, and for a lot of people that will be seen as nothing but a lever of control."
Considering that she was likely to be that lever, Flechette couldn't say she was that excited about the prospect either.
"We have to report something, and if we try to keep this quiet they'll know we're hiding something." She said.
Weld shook his head. "They'll think we're hiding something even if we provide a complete transcript of every word movement and facial expression. We might as well play into that."
She turned to him. "You have an idea?"
He smiled. "Keep things vague. Work with half-truths, and hide behind a contract for anything else."
She turned from Weld to Apeiron who seemed mildly amused by the concept. "Well, if the PRT and Protectorate are convinced I'm going to honor my agreements beyond all limits, you might as well play into that."
"That… could work. At least for a little while." She said.
"Trust me, that will be enough." He said. "So, contract? Given the importance of your power to future events, I provided medical technology and a proof of concept item in exchange for limited confidentiality regarding our discussion."
"Limited confidentiality?" She asked.
"Tell anyone who presses you for a complete transcript that I will consider it a breach." There was an edge to Apeiron's voice that she hadn't heard before. Given what had happened with the last transcript, she couldn't blame him.
"Right, but this." She lifted her wrist. "As a 'proof of concept'?"
He shrugged. "It's a bit above what Dauntless got, but there's precedent for that kind of thing."
"What, Dauntless?" She asked. Weld didn't seem to have any more of an idea than she did.
"Ran into him yesterday morning, around sunrise. We had a nice talk and I fixed a compatibility issue he was having with his Arclance." He explained. "Like your elemental effect, but lightning instead of paper."
Right, because those were basically the same thing. She felt she was losing her footing again. Really she was just impressed she had made it this far, given all the insanity they had dealt with.
"And Weld?" She asked while she still had a handle on the conversation.
Apeiron shrugged. "Weld already has a contract. Deferred treatment with assured follow-up." Weld nodded, but the movement caused his chair to creak unsteadily again. "Do you need…"
"No, it's fine." He assured Apeiron.
"It's not." Apeiron said, shaking his head. "Here." He reached out and a lattice of white lines formed a grid in the air. "Since you're putting off treatment, I'm adding a bonus to help deal with that kind of thing." The grid rapidly filled in, then with a flash it was replaced with a solid block of gleaming metal that settled onto the table.
"Um…" Weld said.
"One point five cubic feet of Mithril." He said. "On loan, until your treatment is complete. It's enough to replace the ferrous compounds in your body and weighs a fraction as much."
Weld blinked as he looked at the silvery block of metal. "Mithril? Like Lord of the Rings Mithril?"
"Exactly." Upon seeing how much that did to reassure Weld he continued. "Technically, it's a power-altered silver alloy with exceptional hardness, durability, chemical properties, and unique interaction with certain parahuman effects. Which should help with ease of integration and help you avoid accidental fusion with other metals."
"Seriously?" He asked, looking at the metal skeptically.
Apeiron shrugged. "I might have helped some of those along." He turned to Flechette. "Not fair if only one of you gets an upgrade."
Weld blinked, then shook his head. "You're really okay just giving out stuff like this?"
Apeiron gave him a flat look, then turned to the paper band on Flechette's wrist.
"Ah." Weld said. "Right. Garbage." He looked at the metal block. "Even this?"
"Weeks out of date. Basically a rounding error." He assured Weld. Which wasn't that reassuring when you really thought about it.
"Um, thanks?" He said. Carefully he reached out to the block. "Do I just… holy shit." He exclaimed as his hand made contact with the silver metal
The metal flowed like liquid mercury, not a slow absorption, but like it was being soaked up by a sponge. She watched as the texture and composition of his body changed, swirls of various metals and embedded impurities churning beneath a silvery surface. Weld tensed and heavy slabs of dirty iron dropped from his body, hitting the ground with a series of impacts that reverberated across the boardwalk and caused their table to tremble. She looked around, but they remained as unnoticed as ever by the people walking past.
"Um, excuse me?" Weld said as he looked at the half dozen slabs of metal that had collected around him. "Uh…"
"Let me get those for you." He said. With a wave of his hand they vanished into white outlines that faded away.
Weld smiled. "More Manton resistant metal?" He asked.
"Sure. Call it the rental fee if you want." Apeiron replied.
Flechette nodded. Honestly, the idea that some exchange had taken place would probably reassure everyone they spoke to. Even if it would probably seem like she had signed up for future mercenary work in exchange for healing technology and an impossible weapon.
"Right." Weld said. He shifted back and forth, with the chair remaining silent beneath him. He was clearly lighter, but more than that, his movements seemed smoother, more coordinated. As he tested his range of motion his limbs briefly blurred in a display that even seemed to surprise him. "Um, is that everything?"
Apeiron smiled. "I'd say it's enough, considering everything you've dealt with."
"Yeah." He said, turning to Lily. "You good?"
"I am, but…" She paused. It seemed inappropriate to bring this up, but she didn't know when she'd get another chance.
"What?" Apeiron asked.
She took a breath. "You're going to start helping Case 53s soon?"
"I am." He said.
"What about Garment?" She asked.
There was a pause before Apeiron replied. "Garment?"
Lily nodded. "I don't know if she's a Case 53 or not. No one really does, but she's done a lot for the city. You said people can earn contracts, and she… she needs help. She's incredibly capable, but there are things she struggles with. If you're helping people, can you include her?"
Slowly, Apeiron nodded. She watched him, remembering those theories. The implied association and what it could mean if Garment had split from the rest of the Celestial Forge. She held her breath waiting for Apeiron's response.
Then realized that holding her breath didn't really matter, because apparently Apeiron level healing technology meant you didn't need to breathe.
"Garment does deserve help, and if she wants it, then it's hers. But sometimes the things people struggle with are part of how they experience the world. You can help them deal with it, but you can't change that without changing who they are." He explained.
He explained in a way that seemed familiar. Even insightful. With everything that could imply.
"Sorry." She said, "It's just, Garment's been really good to me since I came to the city. I wanted to at least thank her for that, but it's hard to make a connection."
Apeiron nodded. "If you want to connect with someone who sees the world differently, it can help to try to understand their perspective."
Lily blinked. "What… fashion?"
"It couldn't hurt." He said. "I understand she has some excellent videos on the subject."
Lily flushed under her visor. She had been watching Garment's videos, though not specifically for their fashion content. But if it would help… and Apeiron would know, wouldn't he?
Or would he?
"Um, thank you." She said, "For this, and for everything else. It's been a lot to deal with, but I'd rather know. Rather be able to deal with it."
"You're welcome." Apeiron said. "And thank you as well. I know it isn't easy to deal with that kind of thing."
Right, because he'd been dealing with it this whole time. The horrible implications and threats that she was still wrestling with had defined his entire career as a cape. Really, it was no wonder he had been so hard to understand.
"Yeah." Weld said. "Though I guess we should get back to patrol?"
"Sounds like a plan." Apeiron said. "If you need to reach me, PHO contact is open again. I can filter out the thinker speak." Weld dropped his head at that. "Or my website."
"Right." Flechette said. No explanation as to how he'd know it was them, but she was past the point of doubting his capabilities. Looking around at the pedestrians who were still ignoring them. "So, how do we deal with the whole invisibility thing?"
"I've got it." Apeiron said. "And thanks again."
There was a faint pop, and then Apeiron was gone. There was a shift in the texture of the sound around them and suddenly people were noticing them again. But not noticing that they had suddenly appeared.
They got sucked into the crowd, put through the routines of meet and greet before they finally got a moment to themselves.
"Well, that was a thing." Weld said as they leaned over the Boardwalk railing again.
"Was it that bad last time you met him?" She asked. The exhaustion of what she had needed to deal with was catching up with her.
"Different, not bad." He said. "And I wouldn't call this bad. Intense, but not bad." She nodded.
"Did you get what he was implying about Garment?" She asked. "I mean, was he implying that about Garment?"
"I don't know." He said. "I don't think anyone does, and I don't think we should pry."
Flechette let out another breath. Another potential part of Garment's life that she had been oblivious to. Unable to connect to.
"Come on." Weld said. "Let's finish the patrol, then you can stop by for that visit. See if that advice is any good."
She flushed and pushed him, surprised by the fact that he was light enough for her shove to actually shift him. Not a lot, but still, it was a first, and he seemed to enjoy the novelty of the experience.
"Yeah." She said, "At least I'll be able to see Garment again before they put me under medical confinement."
Weld looked down at the silvery metal of his hands. "If it's any consolation, I'll be right there with you."
She smiled at him as they fell back into their patrol. If nothing else, she wouldn't be dealing with the insanity alone.
Lily looked around at the activity of the Boardwalk. Specifically how that activity somehow completely excluded herself, Weld, and Apeiron.
It wasn't like they were being kept out. There was no force field or area of isolation. People continued to stream past, some nearly brushing against Apeiron as they walked by. They were treating him like he wasn't there. No, it was worse than that. They were clearly aware that something was there, but they were paying no attention to it. Paths would veer slightly, just enough to slip past without any sign of recognition of what they were avoiding.
"What…" Lily began. She swallowed and struggled to find her voice. "What are you… Why aren't they noticing you?" She looked around again. The effect was less noticeable with her and Weld at the railing rather than in the middle of the walkway, but they were being ignored as thoroughly as Apeiron. "Noticing us?" She added.
"It's an obscurement effect." He said. "Actually a combination of effects to keep us from being noticed. I figured whatever reaction I would get to a public appearance would make it difficult to have a quiet conversation."
That was a serious understatement. If Apeiron decided to just show up on the Boardwalk in clear view of all the shoppers and tourists she would give it about a tenth of a second before his arrival was on every social media site in the country. Maybe another tenth of a second after that for the Protectorate to start up their task force and start planning engagement procedures.
"Is this visual or mental?" Weld asked. There was concern in his voice at the later prospect, though it was hardly out of character for Apeiron. Exotic stranger effects were practically his signature, even when they were acting as a literal signature inside your head.
"Primarily visual, with elements extending auditory concealment and the obstruction of electronic and parahuman detection measures." He explained.
A thought occurred to Flechette and her hand went to her earpiece. The connection was still there. Apeiron hadn't cut them off from console, but she doubted that was an oversight on his part. He was giving them a choice. And if they did decide to call things in, it wasn't likely Apeiron would stick around for what would follow.
Weld nodded in recognition. He had picked up on it as well. "But it's not just an illusion effect?" He asked.
Apeiron nodded. "There is a mental portion. Diversion of attention, so that no one stumbles into the effect or wonders about any empty spaces." He didn't sound pleased about the effect, despite how powerful something like that would have to be.
Like a lot of things connected to Apeiron, it was a frighteningly strong power and had the potential for countless horrific applications. Really the only mitigating factor was that there were so many frighteningly strong abilities available to the Celestial Forge that there wasn't really much use in freaking out about any individual one. Apeiron being able to do something like this was bad, but not worse than what Lethe did on a regular basis.
She exchanged another look with Weld. Both of them knew what policy said to do at this point. Well, they knew both local policy and national policy. Neither were open to random heroes engaging Apeiron in conversation. Technically they were either supposed to follow Director Piggot's initial measures and suspend all contact or follow national mandates and report to the National Office for instructions.
Technically the two directives weren't in conflict, or at least they wouldn't be unless the national office gave orders to the contrary, but that kind of policy seemed to be based on the assumption that there would be chances to interact with Apeiron more than once a blue moon.
And that such encounters would occur during normal cape work and not because the man decided to drop by for a chat. The official policy seemed a lot less advisable when it demanded that they snub one of the most significant friendly gestures that had been made by Apeiron.
Weld nodded, following her logic. He reached up and disabled his communicator. "There's no need to check in until the Boardwalk circuit is complete. We have some time to talk."
He had taken the initiative, meaning that if this came under official review most of the blame would fall on him. Though really, when dealing with the humanoid force of nature that was standing before them, worrying about the impact on her disciplinary record seemed remarkably short sighted.
"Right." She said, following his lead. "I'm good to talk." As if this was a friendly conversation and not a meeting with potentially the most powerful cape on the planet.
"Great." Apeiron said casually. Too casually. A man with that kind of presence and power should not be able to convincingly act like he just dropped by for a light chat.
He gestured to one of the tables at the edge of the Boardwalk. Wooden tables, with wooden chairs, both fairly solidly built. At least solid enough for it not to be a serious problem for Weld. Not quite picnic tables, more shared outdoor seating for the various food stands that didn't have their own dedicated patios. A place for people to eat overpriced ice-cream or dressed up street food during breaks in their shopping.
As Apeiron walked whatever effect moved with him, with people parting around him like a rock in a stream. It was odd enough to see, but even stranger to experience it themselves. She realized she had no idea how long the effect had been in place. How long had it been since someone had spoken to them or asked for a picture or autograph?
As the three of them sat at the table, with Weld being suitably careful while resting his weight on his chair, the effect moved with them. The entire table seemed to have completely fallen out of public awareness even as people buzzed around them.
She struggled to deal with the absolute insanity of being able to sit down with Apeiron, the Enigmatic Artificer, and have a conversation right out in the open, surrounded by the people of the Brockton Bay. Though apparently she was the only one who felt that way. Of course, Weld had already dealt with Apeiron before. She didn't know if he was accustomed to displays of insanity or had just come to expect them.
As for Apeiron himself, seeing him in this kind of environment seemed surreal. He sat there in his immaculate pristine costume with every piece seemingly dripping with power or technical prowess. It was the kind of image that belonged on posters or in grand standoffs against dire villains. Not relaxing at a table on the Boardwalk of Brockton Bay as he drank in the local color.
That was probably what stood out the most to her. It was easy to think of Apeiron as a force of nature. Frankly, with the impact of his actions it was hard not to view him like that. Capes didn't get that powerful without giving something up, even if it was just the ability to relate to normal people. Legend was the most approachable member of the Triumvirate and every time she had seen him it was like looking into a different world. Things were even worse for Alexandria and Eidolon, to say nothing of the capes who had truly gone off the deep end. S-class threats who were either consumed by or embodied their power to the point where you could barely call them human.
Right now, despite the unnatural grace and impossible perfection of his costume and equipment, Apeiron looked human. It was little things, like the way his expression shifted slightly when he glanced at the damaged Protectorate Headquarters, or obvious flashes of recognition of parts of the Boardwalk. Sights and sounds that were familiar, even comfortable to him.
He was very much a native of the city. That was clear in a way it hadn't been before. People had theorized, put forth analysis and models projecting likelihood percentages, but no one had been certain. But more than that, no one had really thought about what that meant.
Most people saw Apeiron's behavior as the typical territorial posturing you got from gangs. Staking a claim and showing strength by being able to hold onto it. But from the way he was acting, this wasn't some claim built on pride or ego. This was his home, his city, in a way that went much deeper than territory.
Apeiron cared about Brockton Bay. Someone as powerful as Apeiron really caring about something… It should be comforting. Humanizing. In a lot of cases it would be, but it also raised the question. With as much power as Apeiron had, what would he do for the city he cared about so much?
"Seems we're off to a rough start." Apeiron said as he turned to look at her.
Lily felt herself flush. It had been easy to get caught up in the spectacle. The spectacle of Apeiron walking twenty feet and sitting down at a table. It had been a hell of a demonstration. Even with her interest swinging in a different direction, she could at least recognize the aesthetic elements in play, and that was on top of everything else that had been conveyed so strongly through so few movements.
"My apologies." She said, defaulting to PR training to cover her nervousness. She wondered if Weld was actually at ease with the situation, or if he was leaning on the dulled reactions of his metal body to help manage things. This was one of the few situations where a lack of autonomous reactions was an asset. "This was unexpected, and I've had a lot on my mind."
Apeiron nodded. "Plenty of that going around. Sorry for adding to it, but I wanted a chance to speak with you."
She and Weld nodded, though without much confidence on her part. Weld was a known point of contact for Apeiron, despite that connection being stressed as time went on. She wasn't sure what she was doing here, other than being in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place, depending on how you look at things.
Apeiron turned to Weld, seemingly confirming the theory that she was largely superfluous to the meeting.
"I had a chance to speak with Director Armstrong earlier today." He explained to Weld, and Flechette could see some of the tension leave his body.
"Ah." Weld said with a nod. "I'm guessing it was about the hostages?" Apeiron nodded.
That was a bad situation. Extremely bad, and worse that Flechette had been ready for when she transferred to the city. Even with what had happened to Aegis to provoke her transfer, it had seemed like an outlier. The kind of one-off event that only happened due to impossible alignments of critical factors.
It was an impossible alignment of critical factors. It's just that there were more of those critical factors in alignment than anyone could have guessed. No one knew how precarious the gang situation was, or how pressed the Protectorate had been to just maintain the balance of power. They didn't know how far Bakuda would go when pressed, or how much further March would be able to take things.
Much too far. There were some bad villains in New York. Some really bad villains. It was a much larger city with more capes and a larger criminal element, but even then, she'd never even heard rumors of something as bad as the kind of nightmare Bakuda had launched into.
"Director Armstrong taking over responsibility for the Hostages was a good move. Their situation was not tolerable." Clear irritation colored Apeiron's voice. "Something should have been done sooner, but at least it's being seen to now."
Weld nodded. It probably wasn't even worth the pretext of defending the local PRT's actions either leading up to or in the wake of the Ungodly Hour. Really, the only thing that had kept the wider PRT from coming down on the Brockton Bay branch was the fact that the situation was still ongoing. Without the Teeth or the active hostage situation someone would probably have cleaned house already.
"I'm glad you're willing to speak with someone from the PRT." Weld said earnestly. "Having a line of communication can make a big difference."
Considering he had been that line of communication until it had been burned out by meddling from higher ups, Flechette could understand the regret in his voice.
"Well, it's easier with someone who doesn't have emergency mandates barring any contact with me." Apeiron replied. His tone was at most mildly derisive, possibly a little sad, but not angry. More resigned, which didn't suggest that there was much help for mending relations with the local office.
"I'm sorry about that." Weld said.
"Not your decision. And I suppose I should thank you for breaking ranks on that, both times." He replied.
Weld let out a short laugh. One that was ignored by the people walking past them. It was easy to lose track of the effect hiding them from public view, right until something happened that should draw a response, and you were met with nothing.
Honestly, it was a little eerie, but she pushed the feeling down and turned back to Weld and Apeiron.
"I wasn't really in a position to turn down help the first time." Weld said. "And I still owe you for that."
Apeiron shook his head. "I told you, you're paid up in full. In fact, that came up with Director Armstrong."
Weld stiffened and Flechette could recognize flashes of the guilt he had been struggling with.
"Your treatment?" He asked. "You have something… there's more you can do?"
Apeiron gave him a flat look that was somehow able to be conveyed even through his metal visor. "Weld, that was almost two weeks ago. I think it's safe to say that my technology has improved a little since then."
Three days, what, four times over? And that wasn't even getting into the fact that the first treatment had been a field patch job on the bottom of the ocean.
"Right, right." Weld said, swallowing.
Apeiron tilted his head. "I figured you'd be more excited about this. I mean, not to criticize, but…"
"No." Weld said quickly, cutting him off. "I am. I definitely am. But, I mean…" He shook his head before looking up at Apeiron. "You know there are other Case 53s in the city? That they've been traveling here?"
Apeiron nodded. It wasn't really in doubt. "I'm aware. It's a bit of a complication with everything else that's been happening."
"Yeah." Weld said. "That's on me. The Protectorate wanted to keep things quiet. I couldn't tell people out and out, but I was able to make some calls. Talk to a few Case 53s I knew. I dropped hints and they put things together."
Apeiron nodded. Once again, not really a surprise that he was in the loop on that. Not with the quality of information security in the Brockton Bay PRT
"If I wanted you to keep things quiet I would have asked." Apeiron assured him. "I figured news would get out, though I thought it would be through official channels, not covert hints in video calls." A slight grin flashed across his face. "What was it, anyway? Power demonstrations? Or food references?"
Weld returned the smile. "Bit of everything, actually. Whatever I thought would get the hint across." His smile faltered. "I didn't think I'd be bringing them into a situation like this."
"Yeah, well, nobody really saw this coming, and you can include me in that." Apeiron said, though there was a dark undercurrent to the humor.
Even with how powerful he was, with everything he'd accomplished, that didn't change what had happened. What March had done.
It was an unexpected power synergy, but March seemed to be an expert at arranging those. You just had to look at the cascading effects of Bakuda's bombs once Apeiron stopped working to counter them. Stopped so he could take the fight to Lung and straight into March and Oni Lee's ambush.
Apeiron had almost died. He had been critically injured and reduced to more desperation measures than anyone could understand. And he was joking about it. Or at least trying to. But really, how else were you supposed to handle something like that, especially with the city the way it was? It wasn't like you could just take a few months off to process things.
"Still, I'm sorry if it made things more difficult for you." Weld said.
"Don't worry about it." Apeiron said with a dismissive gesture. "It's a complication, but there are no shortage of complications, and this is definitely a more welcome one than another gang trying to set up in the city." He turned and gave Weld a direct look. "But there's more to this, isn't there?"
Weld nodded. "I know what I said earlier, about everything I was dealing with." He looked down at his hand. "But the fact is I'm pretty much seen as the luckiest Case 53. The public face, the one who could nearly pass for normal."
"Appearances and perception doen't always match up with reality." Apeiron said. "I know you were dealing with a lot more."
Weld nodded again. "Yeah, but no one outside the Protectorate really understood that. Hell, most people in the Protectorate didn't get it."
Lily found herself nodding. She'd known Weld for years, through inter-city training exercise and coordinated missions and even then it took ages before she even had a hint as to what he was actually dealing with on a day-to-day basis.
"Basically, as far as most people are concerned, the luckiest Case 53 just got luckier." Weld explained as he looked down at the table..
"Must have been hard." Apeiron said sincerely.
Weld shook his head. "No one's said anything. Not yet, but I know what they're dealing with. What everyone else is struggling with, and with this…" He sighed. Unnecessary for him, but that was probably the point. "Honestly, I feel like shit. I'm grateful, but it's like someone who's already rich winning the lottery, then landing a bigger jackpot a week later."
Apeiron gave him a serious look. "So I'm guessing you don't want a full treatment right now?" He asked plainly.
Weld stiffened and looked up at Apeiron. "Can you do that? Can you fix, really fix Case 53s?"
"I have options." Apeiron said. "A lot more than I did the last time we met. Really, it depends on how much of a fix you're looking for and how extreme you want to get."
The word 'extreme' jumped out at Lily. Specifically what someone like Apeiron could consider to be 'extreme' given the type of things he threw around casually. The fact that they were still being effectively ignored by the people around them only served to drive that home.
"What kind of options?" Weld asked intently.
"Everything from a patch job to a complete reset from first principles. Honestly, there are some I could issue on the spot that would cover most problems." He said, raising a hand.
Weld looked at it and Flechette could see how tempted he was. He shifted his arm slightly, then clenched his fist and lowered it before taking a breath.
"I know you said I'm paid up for full treatment, but would it be possible to transfer my contract?" Weld asked. Flechette felt her eyebrows raise as she looked at Weld. His brow was furrowed and there was more emotion in his voice that Flechette had ever heard before. "I know it wouldn't be for the same amount, but if you spread it around, for whatever that's worth, to do SOMETHING for the other Case 53s in the city." He looked up at Apeiron. "Please?"
"Sure." Apeiron said, lowering his hand.
Weld blinked. Flechette blinked. It took both of them a moment to catch up with what had just happened.
"Sure?" Weld asked. "So you'll…"
"Apply your contract forward to other Case53s." He said plainly.
Complex emotions played across Weld's face as he sank back into his seat. The seat creaked uncomfortably and he quickly arrested his motion, but the relief remained.
"Thank you." He said. He glanced back towards the PRT headquarters. Towards the direction of Ragamuffin, before the area had become too public for the cape to be able to follow them. "With what some of them are going through, even if you can just help with control or the expression of their powers, it will…" He swallowed. "Thank you."
Apeiron nodded. "Honestly, this was something I was planning to pursue anyway."
"You were?" Weld asked.
Apeiron nodded. "Probably sooner, if the local authorities had been more accommodating." He also looked towards the PRT headquarters. "I understand some of that was based on good intentions and legitimate concerns, but there's only so much that can explain."
Weld nodded. Really, there was no way to legitimately argue that point. Early measures had been slightly extreme, but justifiable given the circumstances and unknown factors around Apeiron. Those had become progressively less justifiable as time went on until you reached the current point where the local authority was basically a farce in the eyes of the rest of the country and was only holding on because attempting to institute regime change during an active crisis would only make things worse.
It was an uncomfortable situation to be in as a Ward. Flechette had always done her best to be professional, to take the Protectorate and PRT seriously and do her best to represent them well, but that had been in New York. Things had gotten hectic in that city and not every decision was perfect, but she'd never seen the kind of runaway insanity that had been unleashed in Brockton Bay. She'd never even conceived that something like that would be possible. Bad decisions built on bad decisions covering for situations that got worse the more you looked at them.
Frankly, Flechette had stopped trying. The high-level politics and policy conflicts were well above her pay grade. It was more than she could make sense of, and it wasn't like she was in a position to influence things.
Hadn't been in a position to influence things. When she was just the department's point of contact for Garment that was one thing, and even that was a bit nebulous since Garment didn't exactly have trouble reaching out to people. This situation was very different.
She looked back at Apeiron, who had just admitted that he would have been willing to extend treatment contracts to more Case 53s if the local office hadn't blacklisted him. Dealing with him was about as far from a neutral position as you could possibly get.
"Well, that's good." Weld said. She could tell he was conflicted. Still grateful to have been able to make the deal he had, but knowing that you traded away that kind of chance for something that was already being considered, that had to hurt. "Um, how were you going to handle things?" He asked. "I mean, if it was an option?"
Meaning if the PRT had decided to engage Apeiron and allow him to offer treatment, rather than laying everything at his feet while they ignored March and allowed the ABB to build up to the level of the Ungodly Hour.
Apeiron shrugged. "Depends on the situation and the individual. If relations were better I would have been willing to work with the Protectorate to arrange for additional treatments. Outside of that, contracts would have been made on a case-by-case basis, taking individual situations into consideration."
Weld nodded. "So, what, severity of condition? Payment resources? Past actions?"
Apeiron nodded. "All worth considering. Particularly the actions and character of the individual in question."
Flechette nodded. It made sense to at least consider whether you were dealing with an unstable villain or someone trying their best. She just hoped the situations of people like Ragamuffin wouldn't be held against them. The situations that Case 53s found themselves in and the things they had to deal with didn't always put them in the best light. Weld had been lucky in more ways than just his power.
Suddenly Apeiron smiled and Flechette saw Weld tense. "For instance," He began, leaning back in his seat. "If someone selflessly offered up their chance for a normal life for the benefit of other Case 53s, that would be the kind of thing taken into consideration when calculating the terms of their contract." His smile widened. "Why, I'd say it would probably be enough to ensure they were paid up in full for any treatment they'd need."
Weld froze in that way only he could, essentially turning into a static metal statue from the shock. Apeiron just seemed to find the situation amusing.
"You can do that?" Lily found herself asking, then immediately felt self-conscious, like she was intruding into something private.
Apeiron nodded and turned towards her. Being the focus of Apeiron's attention was an intense experience. The way he was smiling, well, a lot of girls would probably have quite a bit of trouble with it. Probably the welcome kind of trouble, if she was being honest.
"I'm free to offer contracts on my own terms." He said confidently. "If that encourages certain modes of behavior, so much the better."
"So people can just earn a contract?" Weld asked.
Apeiron smiled at them. "Someone already has."
Flechette felt her eyes widen, then restrained herself. With Apeiron that could mean anything from an agreement for a meeting to the kind of display of power that would shake the foundation of the world. And there was no way to tell, because.
"And the details are confidential." Weld said. Apeiron just inclined his head. Flechette exchanged a look with Weld as each of them tried to figure out what they should do with that kind of information. Apeiron just looked amused by their reaction.
"Being completely honest, the contract thing has taken on a rather excessive amount of gravitas." Apeiron said. The both whipped their heads towards the impossible tinker.
"You mean it's not…" Weld began, but petered out. Given the assumptions around tinker compulsions, specifically mad scientist tinker compulsions, there was really no good way to phrase that question.
Apeiron shook his head. "I just wanted to maintain a reputation for keeping my word. Things kind of spiraled out from there."
As they tended to when dealing with anyone as powerful as Apeiron. The lack of an actual compulsion behind his contracts was a shock. On one hand, it was a relief that there was no factor forcing Apeiron's behavior. He wasn't bound or entrapped in early contracts like some people theorized, and were rather concerned about, considering who those contracts had been made with.
But that also meant there was a lack of certainty. While that kind of compulsion could indicate all kinds of worrying mental processes or power mechanics and could certainly be exploited, it also presented boundaries on Apeiron's actions. Boundaries that, despite what they implied, a lot of people had taken comfort in. Now, with this revelation, suddenly there was nothing restraining Apeiron's actions.
Well, nothing beyond Apeiron's desire to maintain his reputation. If someone on his level was committed to maintaining his agreements, and wanted to keep a reputation for doing so, then those agreements were probably as good as gold. You didn't need some supernatural compulsion to enforce behavior.
It was like her own dedication to the PRT and desire to ensure she kept a perfect record. That wasn't a compulsion, just something she decided for herself. There were no outside factors that had made her that dedicated, no quirk of her power that shifted the way she saw the world, but it wasn't something she would have broken. Not without very good reason.
Weld nodded slowly. Apeiron had just admitted that his earlier contract, the one he had traded away, wasn't nearly as ironclad as people believed. Which also meant the new offer wasn't as significant as it had seemed. But maybe that was better. Maybe it was better that Apeiron was offering to help for his own reasons and in his own judgment and not because the mechanics of his power compelled him to follow through on every agreement.
"So, I'm paid up? Again?" Weld asked.
"Yep." Apeiron said in a manner far too casually for someone in his position. "Though I regret to inform you that this exchange has knocked you down the queue." He grinned. "I'm afraid I have a prior contract of this nature that I'll need to see to before I can attend to your situation."
Weld relaxed slightly. "That's fine." He said. "Honestly, I'd prefer some of the others to get a chance at treatment first."
"So you're holding up alright?" Apeiron asked.
Weld nodded. He lifted a hand and she saw it easily shift between forms. "Just that bit of extra control has made a huge difference. I haven't gotten stuck to anything since then, and food has been great."
"Spicy enough?" Apeiron asked.
"At least once I found the right hot sauce." Weld said with a smile.
Lily felt her throat instinctively close. The memories of Weld's enthusiastic use of that particular sauce… She'd heard the PRT troopers talking about it. Apparently Corporal Breaux had put in a specific request to his grandmother, who had taken it as a personal challenge to make sure the sauce was strong enough for a boy with a literal cast iron stomach.
She didn't know if the stories about that sauce being specifically banned from air travel were true, but every time Weld seasoned his food it was like cracking open a can of tear gas. Looking between Weld and Apeiron, she almost wished he had taken the treatment, if only so that he could realize that not every meal needed to be turned into a chemical weapon.
Her reaction drew the attention of Weld and Apeiron, but she faked a cough and did her best to deflect things.
"Uh, sorry. Something in my throat." She said, "And sorry for intruding. I get this was kind of personal for Weld."
To her surprise, Apeiron just shook his head. "It was nice to get a chance to follow up with Weld, but I mainly wanted to speak with you."
Lily felt her eyes widen. "Me?" She asked in a near stammer.
"Yeah." Apeiron said as he turned fully towards her. She suddenly felt very small and very overwhelmed. The spectacle of Apeiron having a friendly chat with Weld had almost made her forget what she was dealing with.
Why her? What could Apeiron possibly want with her? A flash of concern brought a dark thought to the front of her mind.
March. March had followed her here. Did he blame her for that, or for his own warnings about March not being taken seriously? She had tried to make her case to the department, but with March's history it had been nearly impossible for anyone to take her concerns seriously. Just because March could organize and boost the effectiveness of gangs of teen capes didn't mean she had the capacity to manipulate an entire city.
That had been wrong. Flechette knew it was wrong, but she couldn't convince anyone. Not until it was too late, and at that point people were more interested in finding people to blame than correcting earlier misconceptions.
And that was despite the fact that March had come for her, specifically. Not just generally transferred to the city, but set a specific trap for her. If she hadn't followed Shadow Stalker out of the gallery that first night, if she'd been stuck there, cornered by the hostage the ABB had planted in the guests, lured away with whatever details he had been fed…
She didn't think she would have fallen for that. Didn't want to think she would have, but so many other people were convinced they would never have been manipulated by March, only to fall right into her plans. Apeiron was the only one who seemed to consistently give her trouble. Who required active effort to counter, rather than mass orchestration in advance. If he hadn't interfered that night, hadn't drawn March's attention to his fight with Bakuda, would she have stood a chance? Or would she have ended up with a bomb in her head, along with all those well-connected guests from the gallery and who knows how many of the Wards?
That still haunted her. She had narrowly avoided a fate worse than death. They all had, but it was just glossed over. One minor detail in a night of chaos that no one wanted to address, not when they were already juggling blame for a hundred other mistakes.
Nobody wanted to admit how bad that opening attack could have been. If Bakuda hadn't been held up by Apeiron and ended up wasting an army's worth of munitions and losing most of her forces while narrowly escaping with her life. If March had been able to take the Forsberg Gallery, capturing her and the children of the richest and most powerful families in the city, as well as who knows how many of the Wards. And if Garment hadn't chosen to take action, patrolling the Docks and fostering a place of safety for that part of the city.
That image helped her pull away from the dark thoughts of the near tragedy she had been thrown into when she arrived in the city, but sent her mind spinning off in another direction. Could that be what Apeiron wanted to talk about? Garment?
There was a theory that Garment was associated with the Celestial Forge. It was mostly the usual tinfoil hat stuff you always saw on PHO, but there were some elements that lined up. The timing of her appearance, the way her power seemed to grow, and the fact that she had some tinker abilities, at least enough to receive a classification from the Protectorate.
She had dismissed it as the usual online nonsense, but after the charity event, the way that had all come together, and the sheer scale of what Garment had displayed in her finale, she had to admit that there might be a point. It still seemed outlandish, but there was some weird logic if you looked at it from the right direction.
"This wasn't just about the Case 53s? Or my treatment?" Weld asked.
She was startled from her thoughts by Weld's question. Moments before Flechette had felt like an intruder. Now she was just grateful for his presence. Maybe he had felt the same way about her. Less an intrusion and more grateful for not having to face the uncertainty alone.
Apeiron shook his head at Weld. "Sorry, just wanted to get that out of the way before I got into the heavy stuff." Apeiron said. Lily felt her chest tighten. Heavy stuff. There was only one thing she could imagine falling into that category.
"Is this about March?" She asked, managing to keep her voice steady.
Apeiron tilted his head and seemed intrigued by the question. "A bit." He said. "At least indirectly."
"Indirectly?" That time she didn't manage to keep her voice steady.
Apeiron looked at her and took a breath. That casual demeanor melted away, replaced with the kind of conviction and focus that everyone innately associated with the man. Apeiron was looking at her with a dead serious expression, but still surrounded by the afternoon bustle of the Boardwalk. It should have been ridiculous, but somehow, with just a subtle shift in his demeanor, Aperion was able to completely override the atmosphere and convey exactly how serious he was being.
"That comes later, and isn't the point of this." He assured her. "Now, I assume you've been briefed about me? Or at least on what the Protectorate thinks they know about me? There's no shortage of analysis being conducted, in addition to the transcript."
A casual reference to the inciting incident of so many inciting incidents. The debrief of Panacea and circulation of the record. The launching point for dozens of misguided theories and the justification for measures with horrendous consequences for the city in general and Apeiron in particular. Consequences that were still being addressed.
Lily didn't trust herself to reply. Didn't know what she could say on the subject of one of the most severe missteps in the history of the PRT. Instead she just nodded, as did Weld.
Apeiron returned the nod and continued. "I have a thinker power." He said. "Actually, there are a considerable number of abilities that I possess which would be classified under that particular category, but I assume you know what I mean by my thinker power."
"Your ability to predict the future." Weld said. "Or learn things about people or events. What let you learn things about Panacea's family and predict the ABB's attack."
"But not March." Flechette added. She really didn't like the direction this conversation was taking, but didn't know what she could do other than power through. "You didn't know about her."
"No." He said. "Not until I learned who she was. Because without my first warning, she wouldn't have come to the city."
Flechette furrowed her brow as she considered Apeiron's words, but Weld managed to put things together before she could.
"That foresight, it's imperfect." He said. "Not something that responds to changing conditions. Not just the usual precognitive interference, but your own actions can affect the accuracy of your precognitions. Because it's… what, static? Non-dynamic precognition?"
Apeiron nodded while she gave Weld a surprised look. He shrugged his shoulders. "Hunch, back in Boston." He said, referencing the other Case 53 on the Boston Wards. "His power is already pretty imprecise. He's had to learn a lot about prediction mechanics for thinkers to know what can affect it."
"So wait," She turned back to Apeiron. "Static prediction means only seeing from a specific point. That would mean your thinker power would be completely out of date by now."
"Not completely." He said. "It's broad enough to cover a wider level of details, not just future events. I can still trust it for general impressions." His face darkened as he grew more serious. The entire world seemed to close in around them when he spoke. "And for predictions on events significant enough to not be affected by what I've done so far."
"Wha…" Lily cut herself off. The idea that any prediction of the future made before the past few weeks could still hold. That any event on even a global scale would remain unchanged, it was insane. What could possibly be significant enough to qualify?
"Endbringers?" She asked in a quiet voice. They were completely insulated, both from the people around them and probably from any conceivable detection method, but still, it was harrowing just mentioning the possibility.
"Do you really think that what happened here isn't going to affect the Endbringer's schedule?" Apeiron asked, as if he was casually dismissing concerns about the worst threats to civilization that had ever emerged. "That it will have no influence on them?" He shook his head. "No, I'm afraid this is much bigger than that."
Lily felt the blood drain from her face and a pit open in her stomach. She looked to Weld for support, but he had gone stock still once more, moving no more than a metal statue. She struggled to grapple at what had just been said. From anyone else it would have sounded like delusional rambling, but this was Apeiron. Not Apeiron catching up with Weld and joking about contracts. Apeiron taking matters as seriously as she had ever seen him.
She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to think. How were you supposed to respond to something like that?
"Flechette," He turned to her, pulling her out of her thoughts. "What do you know about your power?"
She swallowed, but at least this was familiar ground. It was a topic she had run through a hundred times in a hundred events and interviews. People were always curious about cape powers, and hers were easy to misunderstand.
Apeiron probably knew more than her. If he was asking her this he definitely knew more than her, but at the same time, this felt like a lifeline. Something mundane she could grab onto in the face of what the man had just implied.
"I can use my power to charge objects." She explained. Her arbalest was slung behind her, tucked under her new cape. Along with the throwing darts she had used before she'd been issued a tinker tech weapon and the cleats on her shoes that she could manipulate for traction that constituted the most common targets of her power. When she was first starting out the darts had been significant enough to become the basis for her cape name. "Change the way they interact with the world. They can phase through other materials or fuse with them, or ignore friction, gravity, or other forces."
Like when she negated friction on her costume to launch into improbable slides when roof running, or rode along her grapple or zip lines between buildings.
Apeiron seemed amused by her description, as if she were describing something quaint. As if she was missing something obvious. She cleared her throat before continuing.
"My power helps me place my shots. I can figure out trajectories easily, which helps when I'm roof running, or I need to dodge blows or shots in a fight." She explained.
She'd actually needed to deal with more gunfire during her short stint in Brockton Bay than her years in New York, but gang wars were like that. The ability to intuitively tell where people were aiming as well as where their shots would land had been vital, considering she was patrolling with Weld and Shadow Stalker, which left her as the only one who actually needed to worry about bullets.
"So you have an accuracy power, as well as a striker power." Apeiron said.
Flechette raised an eyebrow. Not many people remembered that she was technically a striker, on account of her working through ranged weapons. As for the accuracy.
"Accuracy, yes, but a lot of capes have powers that support their other abilities." She said, "Enhanced targeting isn't that unusual."
"Not for blasters." He said. "But that's a product of understanding the effect and nature of a ranged power. Accuracy as a side effect of control and awareness." He looked directly at her. Even with his eyes concealed behind his visor, she could feel the intensity of his gaze. "That's not a feature of striker powers used at range."
She swallowed and shifted nervously in her seat. Weld leaned towards her in what would have been a reassuring gesture if his own chair didn't give off an ominous creak, causing him to freeze before carefully turning back to Apeiron.
"I know you understand powers a lot better than most people." He said, making an understatement of titanic proportions. "You're clearly leading somewhere with this." He turned back to Flechette. "That Flechette had multiple powers?"
Apeiron nodded without a moment of hesitation. "Her striker ability, accuracy," That gaze focused on her again and she remembered what he had said. Multiple abilities that would count as thinker powers. "And timing."
Flechette's head shot up. "Timing?"
"Timing." He said confidently. "It is distinct from your accuracy power." There was no doubt in his tone, just absolute certainty, like he was reading it off a report as he looked at her.
She did not like what this was implying. Frankly, she didn't even want to think about it, but the possibility was obvious, particularly with the predominant theory about Apeiron's own team and the nature of his powers.
A glance at Weld showed he had also put things together, and thankfully pressed forward on the topic that she didn't even want to touch.
"Cluster theory." He said. "You're saying that Flechette is a grab-bag cape." It was something that had been raised before, a possibility that never seemed that relevant. Because it wasn't. It never had the kind of meaning and implications that it did now.
"March knew about my trigger." She said. Apeiron wasn't surprised. "She was going to use it at the gallery to lure me out, but the other Wards figured out what she was doing. If she knew about my trigger, if she was there, and you're saying I'm part of a cluster trigger…"
"You are in the same cluster as March." He said, plainly stating what she had been trying to avoid.
"That's… no, that's insane." She looked at Apeiron. "I'm nowhere near as powerful as March."
And once again, there was that amused expression, like she had missed something obvious. It was the kind of thing that should have come across as condescending, but Apeiron somehow managed to make it an almost endearing gesture.
"Has your striker power ever been blocked?" He asked directly.
"What?" She asked.
"Was there ever a time when you ran into something that your striker power could not handle? Anything that it couldn't punch through?" He asked again.
She bit her lip. The answer was no, but Wards didn't regularly go up against serious threats. They were expected to keep things nonlethal, even more so than Protectorate heroes. Her own kit had been reworked several times to reduce lethality and risk of injury when she took someone down. She hadn't run into anything serious enough to really gauge how strong her power was. Even then…
"There were times." She said, "My shots have been deflected or repelled. There are powers that can affect them."
To her surprise he nodded. "If you let them." He said. She gave him a confused look. "You can change the way objects interact with the world. Exclude forces or ignore effects." He leaned forward, placing his hands on the table. She found herself reminded that, even beyond all the insanity of his power, Apeiron on his own was an exceptionally tall man. "If you chose for your shots to ignore any of those effects that deflected them, would they still be able to interfere?"
She shifted in her seat again. It barely felt like she needed to answer. The truth was, it took time for her power to charge an object. She usually limited the effect to exactly what was needed for any specific shot, with her accuracy power helping her figure out exactly which forces to include or ignore and the timing of the shot.
Though that was apparently another power. A power from a source that felt vile just to be associated with.
The rare times when her shots had been stopped or deflected or forced off course it was because of some power or factor that she hadn't known about. One that was easy to ignore as gravity, friction, or any other force that she didn't want to affect objects charged by her power.
"You're seriously saying that my striker power is as strong as March's?" She asked.
"No." He said. "I'm saying that it's stronger."
She gave him a stunned look as he continued.
"Cluster dynamics are built around primary and secondary powers, with the core expression being more powerful than supporting effects. March's timing power was more powerful than yours, but her striker power was more limited. Longer setup time and considerably less utility."
Somehow, Flechette doubted that March was overly concerned with the lack of noncombat uses for her striker power. And the setup time was barely a disadvantage if you had a timing power as strong as March.
"What about accuracy?" Weld asked.
Apeiron nodded. "There was evidence of a minor accuracy power as well, though on a level where it would be difficult to separate from her timing power. That suggests that there was a third member of the cluster." He gave her a sympathetic look. "I could put forward theories, or have it looked into, but to get any certainty would require intrusion into your civilian identity."
The fact that, despite everything, Apeiron hadn't done that already was one of the few points of comfort that Lily could latch onto. She had thrown herself into the Wards over the last few years, making it as much of her life as she could, but she still had an identity outside of being Flechette. The fact that someone like Apeiron was willing to respect that meant a lot.
"I appreciate that, but this is already overwhelming. I don't know if I can handle digging into… that." Her trigger. Possibly the worst day of her life and something she didn't want to think about. Except it was specifically coming back to haunt her, with other people who had been caught in that disaster, all because…
She shook her head. "Sorry, it's just, you're saying I have a stronger power than March." She swallowed. "A stronger power than…"
"Everything." Apeiron said flatly.
She looked up at Apeiron's completely serious face. It felt like the footing she had only just been able to find had been swept out from under her. "What?"
"It's stronger than everything. The strongest parahuman power." He repeated.
"You're sure?" Weld asked. It was more amazement that someone could make a statement like that than serious questioning of Apeiron on the matter.
Apeiron nodded. "Parahuman powers follow certain mechanisms of use. The effects differ, but there are common points to how the powers are channeled and directed. Your power." He said, looking at Lily. "Is the highest expression possible under that system. It represents a continuous extension of force through every possible permeation of reality that exists in the multiverse. It is literally impossible for a power to be any stronger than that without fundamentally altering the mechanisms by which parahuman abilities operate or changing the underlying mechanics of reality."
Lily didn't know what was more frightening, the fact that Apeiron was completely confident about the strength of her power, or that he was talking about alteration of the function of powers and the mechanics of reality as if they were actual options for him.
"My power, it would be strong enough to hurt you?" She asked. It felt intrusive and in bad taste, but that was what he had been implying. She couldn't leave things without confirming that.
Apeiron made a nebulous gesture. "A week ago it would have been." He said casually. She and Weld just looked at him. Weld managed to recover from the impact of the statement first.
"You said it was the strongest power in the universe. The strongest possible power." He said.
"It is." He said with a nod. "You would not believe the bullshit needed to properly defend against something like that."
It was like he was talking about a particularly difficult aspect of a hobby rather than a completely impossible feat of… she didn't even know. Engineering? Power manipulation? Reality alteration? Fuck, it could be elf magic for all she knew.
"Right, right." She said, trying to center herself. For once, the absolute impossibility of Apeiron had managed to ground the situation, though in possibly the weirdest way possible. Her power was impossibly strong, but Apeiron was impossibly impossible, so it all balanced out. Somehow, that made the situation less overwhelming, rather than more.
It was almost enough to distract her from the reason Apeiron had broached the topic in the first place. A threat that was somehow greater than the Endbringers. And her power was relevant to that. And that meant…
Her jaw dropped open. She looked from Weld to Apeiron and back again, but neither seemed to have picked up on the implication. Or, in Apeiron's case, even realized that it was an implication.
"Can my power kill Endbringers?" She asked in a tone that was significantly louder than she intended. Weld's eyes went wide and he quickly turned towards her, which caused his chair to creak loudly in protest and left him trying to rebalance the forces as Lily looked to Apeiron for a response.
"Well, yeah." He said. "Obviously."
They both gaped at him as he continued. "I mean, for your power in particular the main issue would be dealing substantive damage to a critical location. The scale of most attacks would be superficial, and the mobility of the target would be an issue, not to mention the risk of counterattack. But in terms of damage, yes, it's one of the powers that is strong enough to kill an Endbringer."
He was so confident in his explanation. So calm. Like he had already worked all of it out. Just the idea of defeating an Endbringer in any permanent way was borderline insanity and Apeiron was happily launching into the topic as if it were strictly a mechanical problem.
More than that, he had said 'one of the powers strong enough'. There were more. There were ways to stop the Endbringers and all the destruction and devastation that they inflicted on the world. That kind of announcement should have been the most significant piece of information that could have possibly been shared.
But it wasn't. That wasn't what Apeiron was focused on. That wasn't why he had decided to approach her and Weld in the middle of a patrol. It wasn't why he had decided to share as much information, extremely dangerous information, as he had. Because there was something bigger.
"The event that your thinker power warned you about?" She asked in an unsteady voice. "The one that's bigger than the Endbringers?" Apeiron nodded. "How big is it?"
Apeiron took a breath. "About as big as possible." He said. "Calling it the fate of the world would be badly underselling things. Everything rides on this. It goes full multiversal, as big as these things can get."
He let the weight of his statement settle for a moment. This was not what she had been prepared for when she started the day. When she headed out on patrol. This was not what not something anyone could be prepared for, in any capacity.
"But it's not hopeless, right?" She asked. "There's something that can be done?"
He nodded. "There is. I don't know all the details. I can gauge scale with my power, but specifics are a lot harder. I've got theories from my own research, but not enough to nail things down exactly." He looked up at them. "What I have been able to determine is that there are key pieces. Parahumans with abilities that will be able to counter the threat, but the powers required are incredibly specific. Losing any of them would be devastating."
"And this thing, it's not something you can deal with?" Weld asked hopefully. She shared his optimism on this point, but doubted that Apeiron would have gone to all this trouble if he had a solution of his own.
"I might be able to." He said. "It's possible, but a considerable challenge, even for me. And even so, dealing with it without significant cost…" He let out a breath. "You don't want to know how bad the collateral damage could be from a single misstep on this."
"That bad?" Weld asked.
"The human mind can't accurately conceive numbers that large. I'd have to present it in scientific notation, which would take something away from the impact." Apeiron explained dryly.
Apeiron shook his head before continuing. "Flechette is a key piece because of the strength of her power. There are very few possible replacements, and all of them would be much less effective. Fewer, now that March is gone." He looked at her. "Honestly, having you in Brockton Bay when all this was happening, as a target for March, has been a little stressful."
The tone he placed on his final statement was able to bring a weak smile to her face, if only for a moment. "Sorry for worrying you." She said.
He let out a breath. "Honestly, YOU weren't that bad. Somehow all the key pieces have ended up in or around Brockton Bay."
The very human exasperation was refreshing to see after the inhuman scale of Apeiron's warnings, but she caught the meaning behind his words.
"How many people are necessary for this?" She asked. It was a heady question. How many people did it take to save the world? More than save the world, if what Apeiron was implying was true.
"Three." He said. "Technically four, but the last one…" He made a dismissive gesture. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. If Apeiron was comfortable with three then… well, that was what they had to work with. It wasn't like anyone else was in a position to question him on something like this.
"That's… not too bad?" Weld offered. Lily nodded along as encouragingly as she could.
Apeiron let out a short laugh. "Yeah…" He looked at them. "I get that this is a lot to drop on you. It's a lot for anyone. I've been dealing with it from the start and it's still more than I'm comfortable with. The point is, given what's happened to this city, and how important this is, there is way too much risk."
Lily nodded, then her eyes widened. Dealing with it from the start. Key people, capes with powers that were necessary to prevent some upcoming disaster. Some of Apeiron's early actions were questionable, but if you took this into account, if he had been working for something like this, then what could that imply? And more importantly, who were the other two key parahumans?
"That's why you wanted to warn me?" She asked. "So that I'd know about the risk?"
"Well, partially." He said. "But mostly it was to address that risk."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a glowing yellow sphere about the size of a softball. And something that definitely shouldn't have fit inside his very fitted jacket, but that impossibility was a distant second to the object in his hand, if it could even be called an object.
The ball of light floated slightly above the fingers of his gloves, like it was being gripped by some invisible force that prevented him from making contact. The interior was completely opaque and radiated a soft yellow glow. Apeiron set the sphere in the center of the table where it held position, floating about a half inch above the surface, suspended by whatever invisible force surrounded it.
"This is my healing technology." He explained. "Specifically, an autonomous and enhanced version of the best healing technology I have. It is able to give someone a persistent high level healing factor, even by my standards. One strong enough that her safety will no longer be a concern."
Flechette let out a slow breath. After everything she had been worried about, every concern she had juggled as Apeiron delivered one Earth shattering revelation after the next, this was almost a relief. It was almost mundane compared to what she had been building up in her head.
Medical services. The same healing that he had given to the hostages, or to Weld on the bottom of the bay, only without him needing to administer it. All of her concerns had led to the presentation of the glowing ball that sat in the center of the table. It was pretty, but not the kind of dire display of power she had been worried about. After all the concerns he had leveled, and the massive stakes that he had implied, it was a relief to know that he was only offering his healing technology.
Providing those concerns were legitimate. There was clearly something there. Apeiron was probably right about March and the cluster trigger. It wasn't something she wanted to think about, but it made sense. She could even trust his assessment of her power, crazy as that was. If it was from the same source as March's explosions, then it probably did have that level of power, or close to it.
But predictions of the future were something she was less sure of. They were notoriously inaccurate. Apeiron was an outlier in terms of power, but he had been blindsided by elements of the ABB's attack. The fact that he couldn't get precise details, only rough implications of scale and role, suggested this might not be as serious as it seemed.
She could recognize wishful thinking when she saw it. She didn't want to be a chosen cape with an impossible destiny to use her power to prevent an apocalypse. That wasn't her. That was never something she had been in any way prepared for. Alexandria packages or flying blasters were always the standout capes, the people who acted as beacons of hope. That was a standard set by the Triumvirate, but that didn't change things.
Flechette wasn't that kind of cape. She was a good cape, a model Ward who took her role seriously, but that role had always been limited. She'd had her moments, but always more in a support capacity than as the star of the show. Stardom was for capes who could make a splash. Who arrived on the scene with showy abilities and overwhelmed their enemies with strength or displays of power. Not people who danced along the rooftops lining up the ideal shot.
Except Apeiron was saying she was that strong. As powerful as power could get. Except it wasn't power she had been able to leverage. Not when she had to constantly be careful. After all, she wasn't invincible.
Though maybe that was the point of this. She looked down at the yellow ball. It was possible that Apeiron was off base, that his predictions were faulty, but there were a hundred more dangerous ways a person could have reacted to a predicted apocalypse level event than offer the key players medical technology to make sure they didn't get hurt.
"This… technology?" She asked, gesturing to the glowing sphere. Normally that wouldn't be a question, but this was Apeiron. Nothing was certain.
"Technology enhanced by secondary effects." He explained, which was about as much as she could have hoped for.
"It's the same as what you used to treat Weld? And the ABB hostages?" She asked.
For some reason referencing the hostages caused a slight pause. Probably from the reminder that his first work had been largely undone with the hostages recaptured. Aside for the ones that had been taken into PRT custody under master suspicion.
Really, the entire thing was beyond a mess. Even the investigations trying to figure out what had happened and how things had gotten that bad were an ineffective trainwreck. There was no telling how bad things would look once everything settled.
"It is based on that technology, but it's been substantially refined and supplemented." Apeiron said with considerable emphasis. "This was a major project for me."
Flechette nodded, looking back to the orb as there was a slight tick from Apeiron. "It's safe? No side effects." Not that she expected there would be, but she wanted to check.
Okay, she might have been stalling a little bit, but this was the first part of the conversation where she felt she actually had some ground under her feet.
"None whatsoever." Apeiron said directly. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but he cut her off. "This is nanotech."
She blinked and leaned slightly away from the center of the table, eyeing the object with much greater caution. She saw the shock on Weld's face, probably for reasons that went beyond the Protectorate's position on nanotechnology, at least after the Machine Army.
"Nanotech?" He asked.
"Directed medical nanites." He explained.
"But…" He began. "My power, how could that work on someone like me?"
"They aren't metallic." Apeiron said. He raised a hand and, seemingly from nowhere, projected a hologram over the table. It showed a kind of translucent sphere with cylindrical structures around it. "They're composed of a stabilized quantum void surrounded by regulatory arrays. It allows coordinated atomic level work, independent of most mass and energy requirements."
Flechette looked at the model, or more specifically the impossible scale it seemed to be alluding to. A device capable of working on the atomic level, but still functioning in a coordinated manner.
"You had this technology on this level, two weeks ago?" Weld asked in near disbelief. Neither of them were tinkers, but they could recognize the scale of what they were looking at.
"I had help." He said, lowering his hand and causing the hologram to wink out, as if that explained it. Which it might well have. No one was completely sure of the capabilities of Apeiron's team, or what they had been doing before their first official appearance.
"Okay." Flechette said slowly. The fact that the foundation of Apeiron's technology was impossibly advanced shouldn't really be a surprise, not with what it had been capable of. And working on that scale, questions about scars or healing time seemed a bit unnecessary. "Okay, nanotech." She repeated, looking at the tiny sphere on the table.
Weld glanced over at her, then down at the ball of what was presumably densely packed nanomachines. "So they're just medical robots, right?" He asked. "They aren't the kind of thing that can replicate out of control and cause containment issues?"
"No. These can't do that." Apeiron said. Lily felt herself relax, but something about his phrasing seemed overly specific. Still, the potential that Apeiron had worse nanotechnology than this, or was capable of building worse nanotechnology than this wasn't really surprising at this point.
"Medical nanites." She said to herself. It was the kind of thing that was essentially science fiction, even by the standards of tinker tech, but Apeiron had apparently been using them for most of his career, as compressed as that was. "And it's safe for me to use? It's not going to have breakdowns or incompatibility or maintenance issues?"
"No." Apeiron said firmly. "This was a major project for me. It's not going to have the kind of issues you see from conventional tinker tech. Technologically, it is unbelievably robust."
"Right. It's just, this? The nanotech healing, is this necessary?" She asked, looking up at him. A slight frown formed on his face.
"I know this is a lot to ask." He said, gesturing to the sphere. "It's advanced technology that probably seems fairly invasive, but I can assure you, it is absolutely safe. It will keep you absolutely safe."
"I understand, this is big, bigger than anything I could have imagined, and I know you must have put a lot of work into this." Again, there was a slight shift in his expression. "I'm sure it will help-"
"No." He said. "It will do more than help." He took a breath. "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to drop on you all at once with, and it's not easy to adjust to, but I don't think you understand what I mean when I say this was a MAJOR project for me."
The intensity of his words was almost palpable. She slowly nodded while watching his expression. "I know that nanotech is a lot more advanced than what anyone else had come up with, but…"
"That wasn't what I meant. There's a lot more going on than I've been able to convey." He said, letting out a breath. He shook his head before turning back to her. "You have your patrol notebook?" She nodded, but it wasn't really a question. "Can I borrow a sheet of paper from it? And your pen?"
She felt herself flush slightly, but pulled her notebook out of her belt pouch. She didn't expect Apeiron to have to start writing things out for her. Still, she carefully tore out a page, then handed it to Apeiron along with her pen.
He accepted them with a nod, then carefully set the paper on the table in front of him. Flechette craned her head to get a better look, but instead of writing he folded the page. Then folded it again. Then the pen dashed forward and complex markings appeared on the sheet, more complicated than should have been possible from a ballpoint pen. Then more folds, and more details.
Origami. It was a folded paper sculpture, except more complex than anything she had seen before, and decorated, or maybe accented by marks from the pen.
"What are you making?" She asked as she watched him work.
"A point." He said without looking up. "And also a statement."
She frowned at the implication, then looked closer. It took her longer than it should have for her to realize what was happening, and without her powers she probably never would have been able to see it. Even then, she was only able to 'see' that she wasn't seeing half of what Apeiron was doing.
Between folds his hands blurred, working the paper in ways too fast and too complex for her to follow. The moments between those points weren't part of the process. He was deliberately stopping work to let her see what was happening. The only parts they could see were the parts he was showing off, essentially pausing work to give them a chance of following the development process.
And it was an incredible process. Unbelievably complex folds of paper building intricate structures and mechanisms. Flourishes of the pen highlighting edges, adding elaborate designs and runic scripts, or even using the indentation and effect of the ink soaking into the paper as part of the construction process. A single sheet page from her patrol notebook was being turned into the most complex structure she had ever seen.
And then, suddenly, almost abruptly, it was done. She couldn't follow the final process, the point where everything came together, transforming from an intricate collection of folded paper structures into a perfect whole, but when it was done Apeiron was holding the finished product in his gloved hand.
It was a paper flower. A lily. The choice of flower shocked her. There was no indication that Apeiron knew her name or anything about her identity. In fact, he had been adamant about that, intentionally holding off on pursuing things related to her trigger. Was this a commentary on that, a hint at what he knew beyond a polite fiction of privacy, or had it just been a lucky choice?
Regardless, the work was incredible. Beyond incredible. It was almost impossible to tell that it was actually made out of paper. Delicate petals that shifted from blue edges to a white center. Individual stamen had been modeled, with complex textured folds making them look completely real. The flower sat on a 'stem' of tightly folded paper. It was just white paper and blue ink, but something about the texture of the design made it easy to overlook the materials. It seemed so vibrant and real that she swore she could practically see dew drops gathering on the paper leaves. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her life.
"This…" Apeiron said, holding up the beautiful paper flower. "is garbage."
Her mouth dropped open at his dismissal of the work. She could barely process things as he casually passed the paper flower to her, along with her pen, taking no care or regard for the delicate structures of the design. She took it carefully, reverently, feeling the impossibly fine construction beneath her fingers.
There was a thrum. A feeling of something pulsing within the structure of the paper flower. Flechette's breath caught in her throat.
"Garbage?" Weld asked cautiously.
"As in not worth anything." He said, waving away Weld's question. "Less than a minor project. Representing no expenditure of resources or effort that wasn't utterly trivial."
Flechette looked down at the paper lily. She could feel something there. Something that went far beyond how Apeiron was regarding the work. "This isn't just folded paper, is it?" She asked.
"It is." He assured her. "It's made with nothing but scrap paper and a ballpoint pen. I didn't add anything to it beyond my own skill and the materials you gave me. That's what I meant. That is junk that I can throw together out of nothing but scrap." He gestured back to the glowing orb on the table. "Unlike that."
She felt the strength, the potential from the flower in her hand, then looked to the glowing orb. It seemed simple compared to the complex assembly she had just witnessed. Just a little ball of light. Maybe that was why it was easy to dismiss. To recontextualize things. That it was 'only' the miracle healing technology of Apeiron, not anything to get worked up about.
Clearly, she had to reconsider that opinion.
"Um, I mean, it's a nice flower, but what does that have to do with healing?" Weld asked. He turned and noticed the way Flechette was staring at the flower. "Flechette?"
She took a breath. Almost on instinct, she squeezed down on the stem of the flower, feeling the way the material shifted in her hand. Instead of the rustle of paper there was the sound of scraping steel as the flower practically exploded. The weight didn't seem to change even as the paper expanded in her hand, growing three feet in length within a single heartbeat.
It was a fencing saber. A beautiful saber, made out of paper. Which made it lighter than a foil. The material hadn't changed, it was still paper. White paper and blue ink, but the way they were woven together was incredible. The way the designs and inscriptions danced along the blade, the layering of the paper which carried a pure sheen that only highlighted the unquestionably deadly edge, that slight texture to the grip and the fold of the guard that wrapped around her hand.
It was paper, but there was no question that it was stronger than any material she could imagine comparing it to. The durability and power were unquestionable. It resonated with every movement of the blade.
More than that, it seemed to call out to her power. Cautiously, she extended her power to the blade in her hand. Normally it took time and focus to charge an item with her power. The paper sword just seemed to drink it in. She could empower it in an instant, faster than she had ever been able to before. It would let her empower her strikes on the moment of contact, or change the properties just as quickly. Phasing through matter, ignoring natural forces, or just plowing through everything in her way.
Apeiron smiled at the blade, fully charged with her power. She saw his reaction and felt slightly embarrassed, like she had been playing with something that belonged in an art collection rather than the hands of a street cape. She loosened her grip and felt the blade fold back, retracting into flower form.
Only not a lone stem in her hand. This time the paper flower wrapped around her wrist, sitting at the ready where she knew she could call it again.
And it looked like a corsage. Not something she had ever worn herself, and probably not the implication that Apeiron intended to make, but the design was unquestionably beautiful, if a little bulky.
And then it pulled in further. From a wrist bouquet to a small white bracelet dotted with blue flowers. She felt her breath catch in her throat at how easy it had been, how quickly it had reacted, seemingly to a thought. She looked up at Apeiron.
"That's not the end of it, is it?" She asked.
"Not even close." He said with a slight smile.
Weld looked at the now tiny bracelet on her wrist, then back to Apeiron. "What did you do to that paper?"
"You want the complete list?" He asked jovially, only to be met with blank expressions. Weld was lost and she was overwhelmed. More overwhelmed. The day had been an exploration of new heights of overwhelmingness.
"Right." He said, sitting up slightly. "Setting aside the actual craftsmanship and various superfluous effects, as well as the technical principles behind the design, I effectively used precise manipulation of the structure of the paper to assemble mechanical controls through fold interactions with a modular focus and unique expressions of compounded systems. My supporting abilities allowed the use of otherwise inappropriate materials to serve as the base for a mechanical system, which took advantage of unique interactions of the paper in question to create a variable and compressible weapon configuration, specific to Flechette's modes of operation."
Weld blinked. "Oh." He said. "Is that all?" There was an edge of sarcasm to his voice that Flechette could tell was ill advised.
"Not even close." Apeiron quipped back. "But we don't really have time for a comprehensive breakdown of all supporting effects and imbued abilities. Beyond those impacting quality and durability, there are the aforementioned effects to allow more robust workmanship than would normally be possible with paper, imbued energy patterns guided through ink designs allowing elemental affinity and a personal retrieval function, the construction of a focus structure for the purposes of specific synergy with Flechette's power, and an adaptive function allowing iterative improvements through continued use."
"Sorry, elemental?" Flechette asked, looking down at the tiny band of flowers on her wrist.
"Variant wood element affinity augmented by runic structures and enhanced by secondary effects to provide a paper-based effect, allowing greater control and variability beyond the initially constructed variant forms." He explained.
Weld turned from her to Apeiron, then back again. "Flechette?" He asked.
She swallowed as she tried to make sense of both the item she had been so casually given and the sheer magnitude of what Apeiron had just explained. She took a breath and took in her sense of the now tiny object.
"It responds to my powers." She said, "It was easier to charge the sword or shift the effects of the manifestation, and there's more. It's got a lot of power. Like, I think I can…"
With a slight movement of her wrist the bracelet extended into an eight-foot-long lash that danced around her like a gymnast's ribbon. Weld flinched as the flickering ribbon of paper whipped around them, though Apeiron just looked on with amusement.
She pulled back on the lash and watched as it folded into a disk of petal-like blades. Despite having left her hand, it seemed to follow her every thought as it spun through the air. The disk made a tight circuit around the table before returning to her. As she caught it the paper shifted again and wrapped around her hand, only instead of a bracelet it covered her arm like a gauntlet, with 'plates' of paper covering from her fingers to her elbow. Just like a piece of armor, feeling as strong as… no, far stronger than steel.
She took a careful breath, calming herself after the intensity of that display. The gauntlet on her wrist collapsed back into that tiny bracelet of flowers, but she could feel the energy there, like coiled tension ready to be released with a single thought. Instead of letting that tension fly free, she focused and directed it. The bracelet folded off her wrist and returned to its original form. That beyond perfect lily that was somehow both nearly alive and composed of nothing but paper and ink.
Even without the connection to her power, it was blatantly obvious how powerful it was. Strong and fast and versatile and with features that she was barely able to understand. She placed the flower down on the table next to the glowing sphere, where it balanced impossibly on the tip of its stem, but that wasn't even close to surprising at this point.
Even as she set down the flower, she knew it wasn't relinquished. It was hers on some unquestionable level. Something she could call on with a single thought. All that power, at her disposal. And it had been thrown together in an instant, then casually tossed aside.
She looked down at the sphere with fresh eyes. That wasn't something Apeiron was tossing aside. It was something he considered important. Important enough to be worth time, effort, and what counted as significant resources on his part. What even was a significant resource for Apeiron? What did that little ball of light actually represent?
"The… nanites? The healing technology? How strong is it, really?" She asked.
"Strong." He said in a serious voice. "Strong to the point where it will be very, very difficult for you to die."
"Difficult?" She asked a bit unsteadily.
"Borderline impossible." He clarified. "Including from old age, which I understand might take a bit of adjustment."
Flechette blinked. She tilted her head and tried to process what Apeiron had just said. Weld took a moment to realize what Apeiron had just said. He tried to give her a supportive look, but was clearly as out of his depth with what was happening as she was. Still, she found herself grateful for his presence. At least she didn't have to face this insanity alone. And had a witness to verify that something this crazy had actually happened.
She shifted awkwardly, then looked up at Apeiron. "I'd be immortal." She said.
He nodded, not even contesting that point. "At least as close as I can make someone, which is pretty close."
She let out a breath. "This is big."
Apeiron smiled. "That was kind of what I was trying to convey before."
"Right." She looked down at the paper flower. Apeiron's point, or statement, or both. He'd certainly made it effectively. "And I have to choose."
Apeiron nodded. "It's your choice. Choice is important." He gestured to the sphere. "This isn't the kind of thing I'd force on anyone."
As if that would be a problem when handing out immortality. Well, for some people it would, and that was the point. As much as Apeiron cared about this, as much as he was prioritizing it, and as much as he had invested in it, she somehow knew that if she said no, if she wanted to walk away, she would be able to. He might take other measures, or find one of those less optimal choices, but he would let her. Despite the scale of what he had done so casually, this wasn't something she was actually being pressed into.
If she did this, would she even count as human anymore? Her eyes darted to the other people at the table. Weld and Apeiron. With everything that Apeiron had displayed, did he even count as human anymore?
Of course he was, and so was Weld. She swallowed and felt her conviction start to harden. Extraordinary abilities and circumstances didn't mean someone wasn't a person. If she took the offer, she wouldn't age, but was that such a big deal? Did Weld age?
….did Garment?
That was perhaps not the direction she should be taking in her considerations, but she couldn't help herself. Garment wasn't normal. She didn't have a bound and contained existence the way other people did. She certainly didn't have any biological needs or indications that she had to worry about 'mortal' concerns.
Other concerns, sure, but not the issues of simple human biology. And with all the time in the world, Flechette would be able to learn to understand her. To figure out how she saw the world and connect with her. At least connect as well as that girl from the charity show.
She let out a breath. This was not the kind of thing she should be using to justify her decision. Relationship or not, it was a bad practice for something as serious as this. She would like it if things worked out with Garment, but that wasn't why she should take this deal. It wasn't why she would take this deal, if she actually took this deal.
"You said it doesn't have to be me, for whatever this big thing is." And God how she wished he had more details on that.
"No." He said, and she had the feeling he probably wished the same thing. "There are other capes who could accomplish the same task, but not as well. I could manage something, but I'd prefer to not be the sole linchpin for something this important. But if it comes down to it, there are other high-level annihilators who could accomplish the same task."
That, specifically that, was what stuck in her mind. She looked up into the man's visored eyes. He didn't say it, and she wasn't sure she should ask, but there were two people in the city that fit that particular description. The Damsel of Distress, a ranting cartoonish villain with a massive kill count behind her who had apparently broken down to join the local Nazis, and Scrub, an unstable member of the Merchants who, if rumor was correct, would have become the next Butcher if a member of Apeiron's team hadn't stepped in to prevent it.
Those were the ones that Apeiron was talking about. Or at least he was talking about capes like that. Capes like March. Annihilator powers didn't generally make for friendly or popular capes. She might be an exception, but that was only because she'd had no idea she even counted as one until this conversation.
It didn't have to be her, but it did have to be someone. And it was her decision to make.
She reached out and picked up the glowing orb.
Weld gave her an uncertain look, but she nodded to him. The orb felt warm in her hand, if you could say she felt it at all. It was more like a field of force that was pressing her fingers away from the glowing surface of the sphere, but energy radiated out. What she had thought was just light was actually something deeper, something a lot more significant.
She glanced from the sphere to the flower, still impossibly balanced on the table. With a slight thought the flower shifted across the table to wrap around her wrist again. Despite the seriousness of the situation and despite the intimidating display that had been involved in the creation of the origami impossibility, she couldn't help but smile. It might have been made of scrap and be nothing by Apeiron's standards, but it was still powerful, elegant, beautiful, versatile, and dependable. That was as big a statement as any other part of its creation.
And it was the same type of flower as her name. She wasn't usually one to get sentimental, and she was still concerned about whether that had been intentional, but she had to confess having a bit of a soft spot for that kind of thing.
"Alright," She said, looking down at the orb in her hand. "How do I do this?" It was the size of a small grapefruit and felt like nothing. At the same time it seemed impossibly delicate and like the most significant thing in the world.
"You're sure?" Apeiron asked.
She nodded. "As sure as I'm going to get." She replied. "So, how does this work?"
Apeiron nodded. "Just squeeze through the barrier. The technology will integrate with your body and after that everything is automatic." He explained.
She paused at that. "Like, forever?" She asked. "I know you said close to immortal, but it's not going to need any maintenance or have to be changed out?"
"No." He assured her. "If you change your mind I can remove the base technology, but there would still be residual benefits from the exposure. You wouldn't actively heal, at least not on the same level, but your overall health would be significantly enhanced."
She nodded. Another choice. She didn't need to live forever, just until whatever she had to deal with. Something on the scale that even Apeiron was worried about his ability to deal with it.
She was a person who thought of herself as a hero. It was such a core part of her identity that sometimes she wondered if there was anything else. She'd been lost before her trigger, mostly adrift in the foster system. Not one of the lucky kids who finds a permanent home, but still luckier than…
Not something she wanted to think about. And her trigger had changed that. Maybe because she wanted to get away from it all. All the history and the guilt and anger of what had happened. She embraced the Wards, poured everything she had into them, into being a hero.
But it was New York. The Wards there were what Wards were supposed to be, not a reserve force for the Protectorate. She had done the normal Wards things. Shadowed heroes, walked foot patrols, gave presentations at school assemblies, occasionally engaged approved villain groups, and followed all the PR and licensing instructions she was given.
She was good at it. Part of the system, and primed to take a bigger role. But she wasn't there yet. Hadn't accomplished that yet. But she was ready to step up when she got the chance.
And here was that chance.
Did she want to be a hero? She didn't ask for her trigger, but she had made the most of it. When presented with an opportunity, with a choice for power, with all the complications and obligations that came with it, would she say yes? Was she a hero because it was who she was, or was it just a convenient role for her to fill?
She didn't know. Something like this, such a simple act with so many implications, it was beyond her. It felt like she should wait, talk it over with… with who? That was the thing. Weld's situation with Apeiron was complicated. Probably not enough to seriously affect his judgment, but too much to discount it. The rest of her friends were back in New York, and after what happened with Jenn, she wasn't that eager to reach out.
She looked over at Weld. When presented with the choice, he had made his decision. Asked for healing and opened up a new world for himself and for every Case 53. A world of trouble as well, but this was Apeiron, it seemed to go hand in hand.
"You okay?" Weld asked quietly.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"You don't need to make the decision now, but I imagine things are going to get a bit complicated after this. I don't know when I'll get another chance to make the offer." Apeiron said.
"No, it's fine." She said.
"You're sure?" Weld asked.
"Yeah." She smiled at him, then squeezed down.
Her fingers flowed through the mildly resistive barrier of nothing and vanished into the glowing orb. It felt warm, like she was reaching into a hot bathtub. For an instant she held her hand there, fingers closed within the opaque glowing sphere. And then the sound started.
That sound. That specific sound. The same electric motor sound that everyone recognized. The iconic sound of Apeiron's healing. She watched as the orb began to shrink. Glowing yellow lines spread up her arm in a circuit-like pattern. They grew, extending across her body, clearly visible over the purple material of her suit. She felt the warmth spreading through her. And felt the first wave of effects.
She had been pushing herself hard. Everyone in the city had been. Days had been long, sleep had been short, and meals had been whenever she could manage. It wasn't as bad as the immediate aftermath of the Ungodly Hour, but with one concern flowing into the next she had never gotten a proper chance to stand down. Never had the opportunity to fully recover from the previous day before the next one began.
Suddenly, that wasn't a problem. As the warmth spread through her body all the aches and pains, the stiffness and fatigue, it vanished in a flash. She had literally never felt better. Like she could run a marathon and still have energy for a double shift of active patrols.
"Wow." She said, steadying herself.
"Wow?" Weld asked.
"It's not just healing." She smiled. "Or I guess it's not just dealing with injuries?"
Apeiron nodded. "Anything medical or health related. Hunger, fatigue, even oxygen, they're all covered. Like I said, it's the best I could make it."
"But it's still healing, right?" She looked down at her hand contemplatively.
"Please tell me you aren't thinking about testing that in public." Weld said. Then he looked around at the people who were still fastidiously ignoring them. "I mean… you know what I mean."
"Most of the time injuries will heal faster than they can be inflicted." Flechette looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "You're not going to see wounds visibly closing. If you prick your finger it will have healed by the time the needle is out. Actually, sort of before that, but the mechanics get a bit complicated."
"Right." She said, leaning back. "I'm… immortal." She paused and shook her head. "I mean…"
"No, that was decently close." Apeiron said.
"But you said it wasn't total immortality." Weld said. "Is there something she should look out for or be careful about?"
"Not really." He said flippantly. "The complete destruction of your entire body on a fundamental level across multiple dimensions, inclusive of the surrounding fabric of space-time might do it, but that's not really something you can 'look out' for."
"Ah." Weld said. "Well, that's… good?"
Flechette nodded blankly. She was still invigorated, but emotionally exhausted. It would be really nice to see Garment right about now. Maybe see if she could get some perspective on things.
"This is going to be a nightmare of a report." Weld said. Flechette slumped further at the thought. "I mean, we could try to be discreet, but this kind of thing is going to be noticeable. There would be trouble if we try to cover it up."
"It's fine." Apeiron said. Then a small smile appeared on his face. "Though as I understand it, standing policy has matters involving my actions handled at the upper levels of the PRT, rather than the regional office. Maybe you'd be better off contacting them directly, rather than going through local channels."
Flechette could hear the amusement in his words. "I mean, Director Piggot is busy dealing with the developing gang situation. This would just be an unnecessary distraction. Better to let the higher ups handle things and go from there."
Weld just shook his head, but he was grinning as well.
"Of course, I wouldn't want to disrupt your patrol more than I already have." Apeiron said.
"Well, on request, we could hold off on an official report of events until the completion of our patrol." Meaning until this evening. It was only a few hours of extra time, but still, if it held off the panicked overreactions, and the likely extensive testing she'd need to go through, she was fine with that.
Weld shook his head. "Joking aside, you're really alright with us sharing everything you told us here. I mean, everything?"
"I'm comfortable with you using your discretion." He said. "Given what I was asking, it didn't feel right to add additional mandates."
Right, what he was asking. The tremendous request that we accept his help, and let him try to stop an unfathomable disaster.
"I can't see news of any of this going over well with the PRT." She said, "Not my power, not the Endbingers, not the end of the world, and not the people required to stop it."
"Probably not." Apeiron said. "If they decide to do something stupid, I can deal with it, but I think everyone would prefer it if I didn't have to."
Flechette nearly shivered at the implication. The list of what Apeiron could deal with was considerable, but she didn't want to think about what would happen after he had dealt with things.
"You don't think they're going to try something?" She asked. "With everything that's at stake, they can't possibly be that stupid."
"After the last two weeks, I'm not inclined to underestimate stupidity." He said flatly. "The point is, there's no guarantee that they'll believe me about this situation, but they will believe that I care about it, and for a lot of people that will be seen as nothing but a lever of control."
Considering that she was likely to be that lever, Flechette couldn't say she was that excited about the prospect either.
"We have to report something, and if we try to keep this quiet they'll know we're hiding something." She said.
Weld shook his head. "They'll think we're hiding something even if we provide a complete transcript of every word movement and facial expression. We might as well play into that."
She turned to him. "You have an idea?"
He smiled. "Keep things vague. Work with half-truths, and hide behind a contract for anything else."
She turned from Weld to Apeiron who seemed mildly amused by the concept. "Well, if the PRT and Protectorate are convinced I'm going to honor my agreements beyond all limits, you might as well play into that."
"That… could work. At least for a little while." She said.
"Trust me, that will be enough." He said. "So, contract? Given the importance of your power to future events, I provided medical technology and a proof of concept item in exchange for limited confidentiality regarding our discussion."
"Limited confidentiality?" She asked.
"Tell anyone who presses you for a complete transcript that I will consider it a breach." There was an edge to Apeiron's voice that she hadn't heard before. Given what had happened with the last transcript, she couldn't blame him.
"Right, but this." She lifted her wrist. "As a 'proof of concept'?"
He shrugged. "It's a bit above what Dauntless got, but there's precedent for that kind of thing."
"What, Dauntless?" She asked. Weld didn't seem to have any more of an idea than she did.
"Ran into him yesterday morning, around sunrise. We had a nice talk and I fixed a compatibility issue he was having with his Arclance." He explained. "Like your elemental effect, but lightning instead of paper."
Right, because those were basically the same thing. She felt she was losing her footing again. Really she was just impressed she had made it this far, given all the insanity they had dealt with.
"And Weld?" She asked while she still had a handle on the conversation.
Apeiron shrugged. "Weld already has a contract. Deferred treatment with assured follow-up." Weld nodded, but the movement caused his chair to creak unsteadily again. "Do you need…"
"No, it's fine." He assured Apeiron.
"It's not." Apeiron said, shaking his head. "Here." He reached out and a lattice of white lines formed a grid in the air. "Since you're putting off treatment, I'm adding a bonus to help deal with that kind of thing." The grid rapidly filled in, then with a flash it was replaced with a solid block of gleaming metal that settled onto the table.
"Um…" Weld said.
"One point five cubic feet of Mithril." He said. "On loan, until your treatment is complete. It's enough to replace the ferrous compounds in your body and weighs a fraction as much."
Weld blinked as he looked at the silvery block of metal. "Mithril? Like Lord of the Rings Mithril?"
"Exactly." Upon seeing how much that did to reassure Weld he continued. "Technically, it's a power-altered silver alloy with exceptional hardness, durability, chemical properties, and unique interaction with certain parahuman effects. Which should help with ease of integration and help you avoid accidental fusion with other metals."
"Seriously?" He asked, looking at the metal skeptically.
Apeiron shrugged. "I might have helped some of those along." He turned to Flechette. "Not fair if only one of you gets an upgrade."
Weld blinked, then shook his head. "You're really okay just giving out stuff like this?"
Apeiron gave him a flat look, then turned to the paper band on Flechette's wrist.
"Ah." Weld said. "Right. Garbage." He looked at the metal block. "Even this?"
"Weeks out of date. Basically a rounding error." He assured Weld. Which wasn't that reassuring when you really thought about it.
"Um, thanks?" He said. Carefully he reached out to the block. "Do I just… holy shit." He exclaimed as his hand made contact with the silver metal
The metal flowed like liquid mercury, not a slow absorption, but like it was being soaked up by a sponge. She watched as the texture and composition of his body changed, swirls of various metals and embedded impurities churning beneath a silvery surface. Weld tensed and heavy slabs of dirty iron dropped from his body, hitting the ground with a series of impacts that reverberated across the boardwalk and caused their table to tremble. She looked around, but they remained as unnoticed as ever by the people walking past.
"Um, excuse me?" Weld said as he looked at the half dozen slabs of metal that had collected around him. "Uh…"
"Let me get those for you." He said. With a wave of his hand they vanished into white outlines that faded away.
Weld smiled. "More Manton resistant metal?" He asked.
"Sure. Call it the rental fee if you want." Apeiron replied.
Flechette nodded. Honestly, the idea that some exchange had taken place would probably reassure everyone they spoke to. Even if it would probably seem like she had signed up for future mercenary work in exchange for healing technology and an impossible weapon.
"Right." Weld said. He shifted back and forth, with the chair remaining silent beneath him. He was clearly lighter, but more than that, his movements seemed smoother, more coordinated. As he tested his range of motion his limbs briefly blurred in a display that even seemed to surprise him. "Um, is that everything?"
Apeiron smiled. "I'd say it's enough, considering everything you've dealt with."
"Yeah." He said, turning to Lily. "You good?"
"I am, but…" She paused. It seemed inappropriate to bring this up, but she didn't know when she'd get another chance.
"What?" Apeiron asked.
She took a breath. "You're going to start helping Case 53s soon?"
"I am." He said.
"What about Garment?" She asked.
There was a pause before Apeiron replied. "Garment?"
Lily nodded. "I don't know if she's a Case 53 or not. No one really does, but she's done a lot for the city. You said people can earn contracts, and she… she needs help. She's incredibly capable, but there are things she struggles with. If you're helping people, can you include her?"
Slowly, Apeiron nodded. She watched him, remembering those theories. The implied association and what it could mean if Garment had split from the rest of the Celestial Forge. She held her breath waiting for Apeiron's response.
Then realized that holding her breath didn't really matter, because apparently Apeiron level healing technology meant you didn't need to breathe.
"Garment does deserve help, and if she wants it, then it's hers. But sometimes the things people struggle with are part of how they experience the world. You can help them deal with it, but you can't change that without changing who they are." He explained.
He explained in a way that seemed familiar. Even insightful. With everything that could imply.
"Sorry." She said, "It's just, Garment's been really good to me since I came to the city. I wanted to at least thank her for that, but it's hard to make a connection."
Apeiron nodded. "If you want to connect with someone who sees the world differently, it can help to try to understand their perspective."
Lily blinked. "What… fashion?"
"It couldn't hurt." He said. "I understand she has some excellent videos on the subject."
Lily flushed under her visor. She had been watching Garment's videos, though not specifically for their fashion content. But if it would help… and Apeiron would know, wouldn't he?
Or would he?
"Um, thank you." She said, "For this, and for everything else. It's been a lot to deal with, but I'd rather know. Rather be able to deal with it."
"You're welcome." Apeiron said. "And thank you as well. I know it isn't easy to deal with that kind of thing."
Right, because he'd been dealing with it this whole time. The horrible implications and threats that she was still wrestling with had defined his entire career as a cape. Really, it was no wonder he had been so hard to understand.
"Yeah." Weld said. "Though I guess we should get back to patrol?"
"Sounds like a plan." Apeiron said. "If you need to reach me, PHO contact is open again. I can filter out the thinker speak." Weld dropped his head at that. "Or my website."
"Right." Flechette said. No explanation as to how he'd know it was them, but she was past the point of doubting his capabilities. Looking around at the pedestrians who were still ignoring them. "So, how do we deal with the whole invisibility thing?"
"I've got it." Apeiron said. "And thanks again."
There was a faint pop, and then Apeiron was gone. There was a shift in the texture of the sound around them and suddenly people were noticing them again. But not noticing that they had suddenly appeared.
They got sucked into the crowd, put through the routines of meet and greet before they finally got a moment to themselves.
"Well, that was a thing." Weld said as they leaned over the Boardwalk railing again.
"Was it that bad last time you met him?" She asked. The exhaustion of what she had needed to deal with was catching up with her.
"Different, not bad." He said. "And I wouldn't call this bad. Intense, but not bad." She nodded.
"Did you get what he was implying about Garment?" She asked. "I mean, was he implying that about Garment?"
"I don't know." He said. "I don't think anyone does, and I don't think we should pry."
Flechette let out another breath. Another potential part of Garment's life that she had been oblivious to. Unable to connect to.
"Come on." Weld said. "Let's finish the patrol, then you can stop by for that visit. See if that advice is any good."
She flushed and pushed him, surprised by the fact that he was light enough for her shove to actually shift him. Not a lot, but still, it was a first, and he seemed to enjoy the novelty of the experience.
"Yeah." She said, "At least I'll be able to see Garment again before they put me under medical confinement."
Weld looked down at the silvery metal of his hands. "If it's any consolation, I'll be right there with you."
She smiled at him as they fell back into their patrol. If nothing else, she wouldn't be dealing with the insanity alone.
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- Location
- Philippines
Good thing this is Lily getting this much power. Just casually handing out stuff that turns her into a singlehandedly SSS+ Class threat.
Now, Taylor on the other hand...
Now, Taylor on the other hand...
- Location
- SomeWhereElse
Well providing effective immortality is probably a better way to go about it then grabbing her shard and sticking it in a jar for a rainy day.
Though it'll probably mess with poor Lily's head something fierce until the looming apocalypse is cancelled and a lot of vague doomsaying information falls into place.
Though it'll probably mess with poor Lily's head something fierce until the looming apocalypse is cancelled and a lot of vague doomsaying information falls into place.
- Location
- Canada
Hilariously enough, this means Flechette can kill herself even with this super-duper-uber-healing. She just needs to use her power on a comically large anvil and let it squish her.
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