Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)

[Skiman456]

The moment Crawler hears Apeiron could possibly kill him, the others will hear a vehicle starting, and Crawler shouting that he's going to the store for steamed hams as he drives off.

Click to shrink...

Ok, but the funny thing is that he could absolutely kill him too, cause shards taper off past the moons orbit. So that would be fun.

 

[Mojave Courier]

Don't forget the Tinkers. Ignoring Bonesaw fangirling over Tetra and the carnage Joe wreaked with her, Mannequin will disappear the moment FTL is mentioned in any capacity. The major roadblock would largely be the Celestial Forge spoofing Jack and Broadcast, downplaying Jack's interest.

Click to shrink...

Everyone but Jack on the road to Apeiron.

 

[LordRoustabout]

Preamble Gully

Gully sent a pulse of power through the ground, feeling a faint rippling sensation spread out from the point of contact. There was a roar as a shelf of asphalt burst up from the street, sheltering the truck from the flying debris that had been pelting it. To her left and just outside of the protection of her barrier Manpower weathered the barrage, picking his way towards the enemy cape. Every impact caused the field around his body to spark brightly, creating a strobe effect that made the battle seem even more chaotic than a desperate ambush in a dark and ruined city should be.

Well, maybe it wasn't exactly an ambush, but she wasn't exactly concerned about precise terminology for anyone who attacked recovery crews. A part of her once again marveled at the insanity of a city where you couldn't even finish clearing debris to recover injured civilians before the next wave of gang conflicts.

Things had been going so well. Or at least as well as you could hope for in a situation involving desperate recovery attempts in the midst of a mysterious blackout. Or really a blackout that had started as mysterious and had progressively become a practical obstacle, and then an annoying one. When the section of city had first gone dark Gully had been stunned. Given the level of disbelief that had built up over the course of the attack and her general resistance to surprise that came from a life as a Case 53 Ward that really said something.

Apeiron was more powerful than she had thought. More powerful than anyone had thought. Most importantly he was more powerful than the ABB had thought. Unlike a lot of the other people in the city, she hadn't been able to watch the broadcast live. Instead she caught recordings and highlights courtesy of Facetime. That had really been really thanks to Manpower. The cape had been incredibly confident and coordinated, liaising with the local response forces and leading them from one crisis to the next. They had been so busy that they didn't get more than frantic and scattered reports about what was happening on the larger scale. About what Apeiron was doing.

It was probably for the best that she hadn't been watching things live. From their street level battles they had only really seen the scale of the conflict when the ABB leader Lung had taken to the skies, and when Apeiron had followed him. The aerial battle over the bay. The cross-city laser and missile strike that the tinker had deployed. The debut of what had to be an S-class battle suit, and Dragon's joining of the fight.

She hadn't had a clear picture of what was happening, but she knew it was serious. More importantly, she knew Apeiron had succeeded. He had deployed the kind of weapons that would probably require declaring a national level policy specific to him, but he had done it. He had saved the city.

That was something she hadn't fully realized, not until she saw the scale of Manpower's relief. Yes, Lung had grown to an impressive size, but there were plenty of capes who could grow to ridiculous heights. When she was researching the Brockton cape community she remembered there were two villains in the E88 who could reach over thirty feet tall.

Growth for the ABB leader apparently meant more than the greater bulk or breaker effect that most capes saw. It corresponded to an increase in power, a dramatic one. When she asked about it he explained the real severity situation. That Lung had fought Leviathan to a standstill. A protracted battle, possibly the reason for the sinking of Kyushu and subsequent devastation of Japan, but he had done the impossible. He was capable of reaching a level that an Endbringer couldn't stop. It wasn't a detail most people knew, at least outside of capes who had to counter him, but that was what they had been dealing with in their city.

And that was what they had seen destroyed in the darkened sky over the city. Between every other impossibility of the night, and the various ones she had seen in the broadcast, it wasn't getting that much focus, but the message was clear. If Apeiron could deploy weapons that could stop what an Endbringer couldn't, then what could he do to an Endbringer?

That was the question that had given her hope. There weren't many things that could get the Protectorate to forgive dangerous technology on the level seen from Apeiron, but the hope of being able to deter an Endbringer, to any degree, that would do it. She had heard that if even someone as crazy as String Theory had played ball at Endbringer attacks the Protectorate would probably have found some way of working around her insanity. That might have been an exaggeration, but probably not much of one.

But after that world-shaking display Apeiron had vanished. She'd seen the footage of the new suit that recovered him, flickering briefly into existence above the waves and then vanishing along with him. Theories were flying as to whether it was a form of stealth technology or some kind of teleportation. In the end it was just another mystery piled on top of all the others the tinker had supplied.

Outside the city they were concerned with those mysteries, with understanding the technology at work, coming up with policies for interaction, and figuring out the implications of what he had displayed. Gully had to admit she wished she could immerse herself in those discussions, particularly concerning his supposed 'biological technology'. The red fibers could possibly be some kind of autonomous medical system, but the transformation he had displayed was something else. She knew what it could mean, but she couldn't afford to devote time to that kind of consideration, not in the aftermath of the fight.

Gully had done some disaster recovery before, but never this close to the event or with this many obstacles. By best guesses a fifth of the city was either directly affected or cut off by whatever had caused the blackout. According to what Facetime had shared it was some kind of effect released when Lung had damaged the robot, but that just led to more concerns. Nobody knew how to deal with it, how long it might last, or any other effects it might have. So far it had only reacted with technology and electrical based capes. She could see that firsthand as every strike against Manpower's forcefield cast off electrical arcs that seemed to follow rigid lines rather than the type of discharge you would expect from an electrical source.

The only idea anyone could come up with was evacuation. Get people out of the affected area and hope there were no additional effects from the field. It seemed obvious and should have been a straightforward ordeal, except for one problem. The blacked-out area had seen the worst of the fighting during the ABB attack.

Part of the issue was lingering effects from that conflict. Apeiron's elemental trails, residual bomb effects, and certain cells of gang forces that were still holding out. The first two problems had been at least somewhat addressed. Apeiron had begun sharing tactical information again, updating his website with details that were vital to the recovery effort. It was absent of any explanations on what caused the effects attributed to his technology, but at least provided the information necessary to safely navigate the area, and to bring in recovery crews to save people trapped in the aftermath.

No, the problem they were currently dealing with was unrelated to that. Instead it seemed rooted in raw opportunism. Just before they left she heard about his latest release, where he publicly posted full details of the gang's activities. All of them. He had pulled back the curtain and revealed the full scope of the rot he had been able to excise from the city.

It sounded wonderful. Heroic, even. That's what it would have been in any sane city, but she was beginning to realize Brockton Bay was a long way from being able to qualify for that category. Instead of doing something sensible like… well, anything but this, it seemed that set of information had been taken as an invitation for the rival gangs to go to war. Before the dust had even settled. Literally.

It was probably because of the stalemate that had gripped the city. Other cities had their established gangs, but not like Brockton Bay. Not with this level of territory control. In other cities the gangs had a presence, but here it was like sections of the city had been ceded to them. The relationship was less like a clash of criminals and more like warring states. It was clear the Merchants had rushed to take advantage of things, and she'd be surprised if the Empire wasn't doing the same.

That was the real core of the problem. A huge swath of ABB territory had been ringed by Bakuda's explosives as the attacks pushed out. The tinker had targeted roadways, meaning access was limited, and the elemental spread from Apeiron had done at least as much damage in terms of response. Then, on top of everything, the blackout had hit, meaning the bulk of the territory was dark and unable to communicate with everything.

Into that mess had come Apeiron's announcement of every ABB operation, business, and front. She wondered if he was deliberately baiting the other gangs. It would be a spectacularly effective way to ensure the ABB was broken for good with no hope of even a splinter group surviving. It could also be a political action, showing the extent of the rot before anyone had a chance to downplay it.

Or maybe it was just as it appeared on the surface. Information being provided that, in a city with competent response forces that hadn't been hamstrung and stretched beyond the breaking point, would have allowed coordinated action to be taken to bring the gang's forces to justice.

If that were the case then Apeiron had badly overestimated them. The strike force of Merchants had arrived at the ABB drug house within an hour of the information dropping. If Gully had to guess she'd say they assumed her and Manpower were part of some counter operation, trying to stop them or capture the house or it's contents before it could be spirited off. That hadn't remotely been the case, but she doubted the situation would be resolved by dialogue.

Fortunately, the odds weren't that bad. They'd been riding ahead to clear the roads for the larger vehicles, so at least there weren't civilians caught in the crossfire. Their driver had been more than happy to follow orders and keep his head down, which was enough to keep them safe from the odd potshots unpowered members were taking against them.

Things had gotten a little concerning when the telekinetic maelstrom had started up. Luckily, while the woman at the heart of the storm was impressive in terms of power and range, the same couldn't be said for versatility of her power. While it could launch objects at impressive velocity it was limited to fairly small pieces of debris, a mercy considering what some of the larger chunks lying around could have done to them. Additionally it only seemed to function in a single direction, counter clockwise around the cape in question.

Like with every cape encounter, the worst part was the moment of frantic evaluation where they were left trying to figure out what they were up against. Manpower wasn't familiar with her, so probably a recent trigger, understandable given the recent chaos.

Once it became clear they weren't going to be dismantled with telekinetic energy the countermeasures became much simpler to coordinate. Manpower was able to endure the worst the gang cape could dish out with the only real danger being the possibility of him being bowled down by the sheer volume of material flying through the air.

It was also refreshing to work with someone who didn't just assume she had the brute rating to tank that kind of damage. Yes, her skin was tough, but it was still skin, not armor. Manpower had taken a protective position immediately when the conflict started without even an expectant look to her. Honestly it reminded her of her patrols with Everett. The Chicago Ward was one of the few people outside of her own team who knew her well enough to have any kind of synergy in the field.

But now wasn't the time to be thinking about Tecton, or what might be possible with the aid of some miracle from Apeiron. She had other concerns, a point that was driven home when a spherical section of her barrier disappeared in a flash of light. Debris from the telekinetic cape started streaming through and Gully caught sight of the trembling form of a teenage cape with glowing white hair and eyes. The luminous smoke pouring off him was impossible to miss, being nearly as bright as the discharges from Manpower's force field.

Everything about the boy screamed fresh trigger, but both Gully and Manpower knew that didn't make him any less dangerous. The fact that he was still in tattered civilian clothes rather than any semblance of a costume, the seeming disorientation, the uncertainty in his actions, it made it clear he was extremely new to this. That might have been the case, but he was also clearly extremely dangerous. They had arrived to find him essentially deleting sections of the house to open access for other gang members.

Blasts of light flowed off him carving chunks out of whatever they hit with no regard for the density or composition of the material being obliterated. She worked to close her barrier, marveling at how cleanly the missing section had been removed. If that wasn't bad enough, missing sections of the house's weed choked yard suggested the power wasn't concerned with Manton limitations. Somehow, they had stumbled onto a fresh blaster working on the level of matter annihilation.

Once again, she found herself marveling at the insanity of this city. Not only had Brockton either produced or attracted a cape like Apeiron, but it had gangs led by people who went one-on-one with Endbringers, boasted fresh triggers on the level of veteran capes, and had potential annihilator powers in two of the three gangs in the city. It was a miracle that the local Nazis didn't have that kind of firepower behind them. Not that they needed it, based on the stories she'd heard.

With the truck sheltered again she raised a hand to shield her face and dove into the whirling storm of small objects. Each impact stung sharply, but with her eyes protected she was able to endure. With each step she sent out pulses of her power through the street, causing it to warp and buckle.

Despite the chaos and pain, she smiled. This was what she lived for. These moments, connected to her power, feeling the earth react to her will, it let her forget the limitations and constraints she was forced to live with. Her shovel struck the ground and fissures opened, snaking towards the fresh cape. It was unnecessary showmanship, but that was part of being a hero.

Seeing the glowing teenager's reaction as the clang of metal was followed by the cracking of pavement as dark chasms clawed their way towards him, she was reminded it wasn't totally unnecessary showmanship. Presence, image, and intimidation made more difference than anyone wanted to admit. She had enough intimidation from her size and warped appearance, but that extra little flourish, the strike of metal on stone before the ground shifted to her will, that added something special.

She was pushing herself hard, reaching out fully with her power. Anything less would have been suicidally foolish in the face of power like that. As a consequence, the entire street was turning to her command. In her pocket that small sample of dust pulled from the canyon that had cut through the city danced in tune with her power. She still didn't understand what it was, but it felt remarkable. Like powdered potential. Something about it resonated with her power, promising limitless applications in a way only the work of Apeiron could achieve.

The tiny shifting of dust had nothing on the impact she was commanding on the street. Chunks of earth were rising in scattered barriers, catching the frantic blasts from the new cape like ablative armor. Cracks and fissures were snaking through the ground, really serving more as intimidation than actual obstacles. The ground tilted and warped, further throwing off the cape's erratic blasts.

Chunks of the ground disappeared in a rapidly advancing line. It was like someone had sent a handful of water droplets flying that instantly dissolved whatever they touched. From behind her shielding arm she realized her mistake and the trail of annihilation shot dangerously close to Manpower.

Thankfully the older cape hadn't lost track of the position of combatants. Probably the benefits of being able to function normally in the storm of material and what was apparently two decades of hero experience. He pivoted on one foot and launched himself away from the blaster effect.

Far away from the blaster effect. His shield was sparking continuously, not just where it was being struck by debris. She flashed back to Facetime's question about power interactions with the blackout field. Manpower had downplayed any effect, but seeing him wreathed in electricity as he launched into a jump that seemed more like a railgun shot than the bound of a typical brute it was clear there was something else going on.

Manpower recovered quickly, honestly too quickly. He barely seemed to touch the ground as he rolled to his feet and started circling towards the telekinetic cape. The woman's decision to act in a stationary shaker role was evidence of her inexperience, and nearly cost her dearly as a hemisphere of pavement disappeared barely a foot from where she was standing.

"Fuck!" The woman screamed, stumbling backwards. There was a disorienting lurch as all the suspended material shifted back with her, perfectly maintaining the position of its orbit even as the cape repositioned herself. "Damn it Scrub, watch the fuck out with that shit!"

"Sorry." The boy called back in a shaky voice as he tried to find his feet. "Sorry Whirlygig, didn't mean to… FUCK!" The glowing haired cape fell to the ground and started frantically pushing back across the yard of the drug house.

"What the shit?" Whirlygig turned to follow his gaze, then froze. The shock must have affected her concentration because the debris she was controlling abruptly locked in position, hanging in midair.

Gully used the brief respite to lower her shielding arm and immediately saw the reason for their shock. Looking up above the street to the roof of the house a silhouette was clearly visible against the atmospheric lightshow caused by the residual effects of Apeiron's strike. It was a pitch-black form against the dance of colors in the sky, but that didn't make it any less recognizable. Even with all the displays of power the world had seen from Brockton Bay, nobody would forget the first and arguable most dramatic example.

The thin, feminine form stood defiantly on the roof of the house. A dark shape wreathed in insects. A mane of raven hair writhed like a living thing and from within the darkened face two gleaming yellow eyes shone down on them.

In the dark of the night, Lady Khepri had made her appearance.

Gully froze for reasons that had nothing to do with the sudden arrival of another combatant. This was it. This was the closest she had come to a contact, a way of reaching Apeiron. She desperately wanted to call out, say something, but the words wouldn't come. What was she supposed to do here? What was she supposed to say?

She knew the good she had done, both during the conflict and in the aftermath, but that was a tainted act. She wasn't here because she really cared about people. As much as she wanted that to be the case, as happy as she was about everyone she had saved, everyone they had helped, every bit of difference she had made, it was coming from a place of dishonesty.

She was here because she was desperately hoping for an opportunity like this. She joined the fight because Apeiron was active in it. She had headed back into the blackout zone because someone was there, providing data for Apeiron's site. She had been happy that she had been able to help the rescue effort, but if she got word that Apeiron was on the other side of the city would she still be here, helping people and making a difference, or would she have left them to fend for themselves as she chased her only real hope?

Luckily she hadn't needed to make that decision. She had been able to help people, help the rescue effort, help Manpower, while still chasing her only lead. Now she had finally found what she was after and she stood frozen before it, like a deer in the headlights of Lady Khepri's glowing eyes.

As if there was any possible doubt to her identity a low buzzing built from beyond the house. Like a wave of death, a swarm of immeasurable size rose behind the insect master. Roiling with menace, the living mass loomed over the battlefield, ready to crash down on them like the wrath of an Egyptian god.

It was a clear, decisive message. A show of force beyond what came solely from her connections and reputation. Gully could see the mathematics of it in a flash. Neither of the Merchant capes had any advantage in durability. She was tough, but there was tough and there was fighting ten times your weight in precisely controlled insects. Manpower might have been able to endure, but that was only if you ignored the weaponry forged by Apeiron.

The message was clear. The fight was over. Any cape with a modicum of sense could see that. Unfortunately they were dealing with intensely green capes who were most likely under the influence of any number of substances, and one of whom was a fresh trigger.

That proved to be the weak link. The glowing cape, Scrub, assuming that was his name and not an insult, though it could be both, was the one who broke. Lady Khepri's swarm kept building over the course of their standoff, drawing from a seemingly inexhaustible supply of insects that flowed from the darkness. The novice cape had been so stunned by the sudden appearance of the cape that he had missed part of the mass crawling around the sides of the house until it was nearly on top of him.

The cape screamed and flailed to cover his face, casting sparks in a wide spread. A section of ground vanished, as did part of the front of the house. The third blast shot upward, taking out a section of roof, and Lady Khepri's entire left side along with it.

Gully stared blankly at the bisected cape. Rather than react in pain or distress the silhouette merely stood there, shining eyes blinking as she seemed to slowly become aware of the massive portion of her body that had been obliterated. Scrub peeked out from behind his shielding hands and froze in horror at the sight. Slowly he stared at his trembling hands in a mixture of disgust and terror.

Gully couldn't think. This was beyond the stunned speechlessness she had been struck with at Khepri's appearance. This was a nightmare. She looked to her future and saw desperately hoped for possibilities evaporate into nothing. This went beyond her own needs and hopes, and the hopes of every Case 53. This was Lady Khepri. Nobody knew the exact details of her connection with Apeiron, but nobody doubted them either. The consequences to something like this were unimaginable.

Far too slowly Gully realized that in her terrified numbness she had missed something very wrong about the situation. Lady Khepri wasn't reacting to the injury. She wasn't bleeding or showing any pain. She shouldn't even be able to stand, but she held the same position, perched on the roof with a comically large section removed from her body.

Then the chittering sound of insects began to grow. The ground bound heroes and villains watched as the form on the roof began to dissolve, separating into a swarm of insects that joined the larger mass. The tiny glowing lights of her eyes flowed like fireflies and vanished under the tide of chitin that loomed over them. Then, in an act that chilled Gully to her core, the buzzing paused for a split second before resuming in a brief, synchronized roar. The combined mass of insects let out a rumbling cry that sounded like the voice of hell.

"NO!"

Then the dam broke and the flood of insects crashed down upon them. It wasn't like Lady Khepri had joined the fight. There would need to be some possibility of a fight for that to be the case. This was more like a force of nature, a storm that they could only hope to weather.

Gully squeezed her eyes shut as buzzing filled her ears. She felt the detached sensation through her thick skin, the phantom feeling of thousands of bugs crawling over her. Over the din of the swarm she could just make out the screams of the Merchant capes. The tornado of debris picked up again, for all the good it would do against this many targets, and she heard the popping sound of Scrub's power discharging rapidly.

She picked her way towards where she remembered Manpower's last position to be, fighting through the living sea around her. She felt a shift in the direction of Whirlygig's controlled objects, followed by a drop in frequency of impacts. The cape was retreating, and based on the sounds of Scrubs power he was doing his best to chase after her.

She heard the sound of crackling electricity and angled her path towards it. The discharges of Manpower's forcefield were visible as red flashes through her closed eyes and she could smell the charred odor of burnt insects. She focused on that and tried to regroup.

Then the swarm was gone. Cracking her eyes open she revised that thought. The swarm had withdrawn from them, but the pulsing black mass was still clearly visible in the night. Slowly the insects thinned and pulled back further, causing the shape of Lady Khepri to manifest from within the swarm. In the scattered light sources of the battle ground Gully could make out more detail, the workmanship of the costume, the flow of her hair, and the yellow gleam of her eyes.

The cape lifted a hand and the swarm fell silent. A series of slicing sounds echoed through the night from the direction of the house, then a sliver shape spun through the air into her upraised hand. The blade returned to her grip just as the drug house collapsed from a dozen cuts to vital positions. Khepri didn't flinch in the slightest as the building fell to pieces behind her.

"We're done here." Lady Khepri's voice was cold as she surveyed the battlefield. With a flick of her blade the swarm flowed over her, then dispersed, leaving no sign of her passing.

Gully did her best to take in the aftermath. The darkness made details difficult to discern, but she could hear the retreating footsteps of the Merchant forces, both capes and unpowered members. The ABB staff had scattered long ago, leaving nothing but the now destroyed building.

Manpower stood nearby, surrounded by charred insects. He seemed nearly as stunned as she was, but had the professionalism to keep his reactions restrained. That said, while he was taking in the aftermath of the fight like a veteran cape his eyes kept being dragged back to the smoldering insect husks around him.

"So, that was Khepri?" Gully asked in the most level tone she could manage.

Manpower let out a breath before nodding. "Yeah, on her third engagement, if I've got that right." He shook his head in borderline disbelief.

"Uh…" Gully wavered before pushing on. "Was that a changer thing? Can Khepri do that?" The image of the nearly bisected form jumped to the front of her mind, along with the way the cape had seemed to meld into and out of her swarm.

"I don't know. Based on last week I'd say there was no way she'd had that kind of power, but…" He trailed off, and Gully finished the thought for him.

"Apeiron."

The man let out a huff, then looked up at the aftereffects plastered in the sky. "Right. Apeiron. If there's anyone who can manage something like that, it's him. Any other situation I'd say it was a trick, or mind game. You get those a lot." Gully nodded. "But with a tinker like that backing her up, who can say."

Gully nodded robotically as the implications settled over her. Who could say what he could do? Well, Weld could, for one. Apeiron had already done the impossible and made more of a difference than she could have previously imagined. Last she heard, Weld had been leading half the Wards, managing crises and relief efforts of his own. So despite fighting in the same disaster, she hadn't had a chance to speak with her old friend, not since he had tipped her off to the miracle worker in play.

"That's why you're here, right?" Manpower's question caught her off guard. Robotically she turned to face him, fear gripping her like a vice. Instead of the look of betrayal and derision she expected Manpower looked up at her with a compassionate expression. Under that gaze any denials seemed unfathomable. She gave a slight nod, which he returned in understanding.

"There's… there's a chance he can help. Not just me, everyone. Case 53s, or just people whose powers went out of control. I don't know, I mean it might not be possible, or maybe I'll never be able to afford it, but I have to. I mean, I have to try?"

The bulky cape gave a slow nod. "I know. A lot of people feel that way. They want hope." He let out a breath. "Apeiron, he's hit this city like a bomb. I know that's not the best analogy right now, but there's no other way to describe it. A lot of people got hurt or thrown off by his actions, and there's resentment because of that." He looked over the destroyed building, then up at the sky. "Nobody knows what things are going to look like when they settle."

Gully knew what he meant by that. What Khepri had done, it might be seen as a display of strength, but it could just as easily be her staking a claim. Whether it was for her, the Undersiders, or Apeiron himself, it was going to change everything. She was dictating behavior within a territory. The meaning of that was clear.

Well, at least if Apeiron held territory it would probably be easier to reach him.

"We should get back to the main convoy." Manpower looked around the shattered street. "Um, if you can manage to get this road worthy first?"

Gully smiled weakly. "No problem." She flourished her shovel and pushed out pulses of her power, slowly merging the shattered asphalt and obliterated portions of the road. "Your powers seemed different back there." She said as neutrally as she could. "There something to what Facetime asked about?"

The cape lifted a hand and a lattice of sparks appeared around his fingers. It was bright and stable enough to cast the entire area into a harsh, bluish light. "I don't know." He saw her skeptical look and quickly clarified. "I mean, yes, something happened. I'm just not sure what." He waved his hand for emphasis, causing occasional sparks to peel off and hold position in the air. "Whatever this stuff is, the stuff the field is made of, I think it's sticking to my forcefield." He shook his head. "I've never seen an interaction like this before. Honestly it's kind of concerning."

"Is it safe?" She asked. "Like, any pain or discomfort?"

"No, just feels bulky, or maybe sticky." He let out a breath. "Power've basically been the same for twenty-five years, then this."

Gully felt a smile reach her face. "Apeiron?"

The man was stunned for a second, then let out a laugh. "Right, Apeiron. Who else?" He shook his head. "I've got a handle on it, at least. I'll find some way to deal with it later." He looked over the restored road. "Let's get back to the truck. Anything else, it can wait until we get help to the people who need it."

Gully nodded and fell behind him as they made their way back to the truck and driver. That was the right sentiment. She had her chance, it had slipped, but it would come again. She was sure of that. She could chance that dream later; the impossible hopes, the thoughts of maybe something with Everett, that could come later. There was the real possibility of that. But she was still a Ward, a hero. She would see the night through, and make the difference she could.

43 Ripples - Aisha

Aisha moved through the halls, feeling the power of her armor in every movement she made. It didn't even feel like machinery, more like an extension of her body with the strength of a god and the grace of an angel. The power was something she was still getting used to, but not because there was anything awkward or unnatural about it. That seemed to just not be possible when it came to Joe's work.

No, it was the suddenness of it. Abruptly shifting from a normal thirteen-year old girl to someone who could stand on the level of the most powerful capes on the planet, and it had happened out of nowhere.

There was a tiny part within her that was thrilled with this kind of thing. The part that had played cape games during recess, with people calling out their favorite heroes while they ran around making power sounds. The sheer chaos of those days, where a game was as likely to include Alexandria and Miss Militia as it was to include Tamara and Fallon, complete with arguments about what counted as a superhero and whether they should be included.

Nobody knew about trigger events or the hell that came with them. Nobody knew what the cape world was really like. Hell, nobody knew what the world in general was really like. She had lived for those recesses. Never able to sit still in class, but on the playground being a ball of unfocused energy was perfectly fine. Back then the idea that you would get Triumvirate level powers as a present one afternoon and be out saving the city that evening seemed perfectly normal.

All of that, the fantasy, the flights of imagination, it was part of the childish outlook that she had buried years ago. Even before things had gone from bad to worse with Celia. Before the parade of her mother's boyfriends that had ranged from barely alright to monstrous, and leaned much more heavily towards the worse end as time went on. Before she had to text her brother for help, before she moved in with a father who didn't have the slightest idea what to do with her…

She pulled back from those thoughts. Thoughts like that were like touching a hot stove. Memories that could make you flinch and bring back waves of pain that you had convinced yourself you could forget about. They were dark thoughts from bad days and she had gotten very good at avoiding them.

It was probably the environment that was bringing her back to those lines of thinking. The glorious chaos of Joe's actual fight with Lung and the ABB had given way to a mess of the likes of which she could barely comprehend. It really put things in perspective. Joe's warnings about the stuff in his workshop, how things could go wrong. Well, they'd gone wrong. Apparently it took an attack that would have shredded an Endbringer, but that had shown what an Aperion-level disaster actually looked like. And that was the mess she was wandering through.

At least she had a better idea of what was happening than the rest of the city. From everyone else's perspective the North Docks were blacked out from some kind of giant robot reactor exhaust and Apeiron had spread some kind of mysterious elemental effect through the city when March's ambush had hit him. That was basically what had happened, but at least she knew the type of reactor exhaust and the cause of the elemental effects.

She also knew that unless they were able to clean things up that area was going to be dark for nearly a month. She knew there was more to that field than just robot damage, something connected with online reaction that had Joe's duplicates regularly freaking out. She knew they were concerned and uncertain about the way the 'Dust' had spread through the city, and what it could mean.

She also knew they weren't going to do anything about it, not when Joe was laid up and barely alive.

Well, that was probably overly pessimistic. Joe wasn't… He wasn't dead. He was just hurt. Hurt worse than she'd ever seen him. Worse that she really believed he could be hurt. Thinking about it was becoming another of those 'hot stove' memories, something she needed to distract herself from so she wouldn't dwell on what was happening, or what could have happened.

The "could have" part was the worst. What had happened, what was happening, that was something she could manage. She was used to chaos, to things falling apart. Maybe a bit too used to it, maybe because she was the cause of said chaos in more than her share of those cases. The city being a madhouse and everyone on Joe's team scrambling to manage it? She could cope with that.

The prospect of what would have happened without Joe? That was harder.

It wasn't just the idea of actually losing someone as powerful as him, someone who could change the world in an afternoon, someone who had apparently been playing shadow tag with the Simurgh from day one to avoid tipping her off. The idea of all of that potential, that promise, the constantly escalating powers that could save the world, the idea of it just vanishing was horrifying, but that wasn't what really got to her.

It was the fact, implied or otherwise, that if something happened to Joe it would all be left to her. To say she wasn't ready for something like that was an understatement of such magnitude that she couldn't even put it into words. Maybe if she paid attention to those vocabulary quizzes her last English teacher had been so fond of she could come up with some term for how horrifying an idea that was. But no, she didn't have the right word to describe the dread that comes from having the future of the planet laid out at your feet.

All she could wonder was how she ended up in this situation. People weren't supposed to trust her, not like this, not with something important. She'd been fine when Joe had just been another gym bro, slightly geeky and green, kind of adorably earnest in a way that was fun to mess with. She'd been fine when she figured he was working with her brother, some new tinker because he totally seemed the type, and had probably been asked to keep an eye on her for Brian's sake. That would basically be an invitation to mess with him even more.

She remembered finding it hilarious that he didn't actually know Grue was her brother. Like the best joke she'd ever heard, an early Christmas present that she couldn't wait to reveal at the best possible time. That became a lot less funny as time went on to the point where it was becoming another one of those hot-stove thoughts. Something to avoid thinking about and that caused flinches whenever her mind wandered in that direction.

After Bakuda's attacks she figured there was something more going on. Obviously there was. More power, deeper connections, some kind of entanglement. She had her powers then. It seemed the perfect time to check things out, find out what the deal was before she opened up to Brian. She knew he would probably rope her into the Undersiders, that was just his way of coping. He was like Dad in that way, singularly focused and stubborn when he found a way of doing things.

That was when everything had gone off the rails. Funny, you'd think the moment she got her powers would be the turning point, but no, it was when she had followed the scraggly college boy home from the gym.

Since then, it has been pure insanity. It was like some kind of ironic punishment. She was so sure she had a read on him, that she knew exactly what to expect. She had dealt with so many people coming into her life with slight variations of the same attitude.

The parade of Celia's boyfriends all with their own ideas of how things should be run. After that her father and brother, basically two shades of the same approach, then the combo platter that was the gym. Everyone with their own idea of what her situation was and what needed to be done, but broadly the same approach.

She was good at reading people. It was a skill, a necessary skill. From the outside it probably seemed like she didn't care, that she would go off on anyone, push to the breaking point, but there was an art to it. To know how far you could go. To read the warning signs. To knowing when to talk back and when to make yourself scarce. It was probably the only useful skill she had picked up when living with her mother, and it paid off long after she moved out.

She was confident she had a read on Jozef. Where he was coming from, how he would take things, generally what she could expect. She wasn't exactly wrong, not about the stuff specific to him. It was just everything else that turned out to be a giant flaming technicolor mess.

Jozef wasn't just another cape. He was so far from being another cape that he barely belonged in the same category. Given how his power worked and the ideas seemed to be floating around after his fight with Lung she wasn't sure he even counted as a cape at all. The man was more like a force of nature, an incalculable disruption, a glitter bomb shoved down the throats of everyone who thought they knew how this parahuman thing was supposed to go.

Apeiron wasn't like anything else in existence. He was going to leave the world changed forever in drastic, permanent, and incredible ways.

And he nearly died. That was bad enough. The image of him after that attack would be staying with her for a long time, right up there with the moment when Brian had been caught by Bakuda, only at least she hadn't been watching that live. But Jozef had pulled through, or was going to pull through. The duplicates were certain about that, even if she was a little worried about some of the things they weren't discussing in front of her. And it was good that he was pulling through, because everyone else, Garment, Fleet, Survey, even the new A.I. that didn't talk much, all seemed to accept that if something happened to Joe, then everything would go to her.

When she picked up on that detail it might have broken her a little. She wasn't the kind of person you trusted with that kind of thing. She was Aisha Laborn. She was the problem student, the bratty little sister, the annoying girl at the gym. She wasn't the person you handed the responsibility for the future of humanity.

Okay, Garment would deal with it, somewhat. So would Fleet, and Survey, and there was probably more stuff there that she didn't know about, but a lot of it would come down to her. She, well she had liked how Joe had taken her seriously. He held her accountable, but didn't go off on her. It was about what she did, not working out his own frustrations. He held up promises he made and he was straight with her when she asked him something.

She knew he trusted her, at least to keep his secrets and use his technology. That last one should have been a hint about what she was dealing with. The Watch should have been a clue. Rem should really have been a clue. The armor, that should have been the most obvious clue in the history of the world. 'Here's a suit of power armor that can stand up to Endbringers'. Clearly the kind of incidental thing you hand off to hired help or your friend's little sister.

She swallowed and focused back on the task at hand. Recovery and assistance. She had volunteered for this. It wasn't pleasant work, but it was important. Even if she suspected it was mostly to get her out of the workshop while the duplicates dealt with the squishier aspects of helping Joe, this would make a difference, both for Joe and for the people caught up in the aftermath.

She shifted her focus back to the task at hand. Even with all the importance of what she was doing she still had trouble keeping her mind from wandering. Not as much lately. She did wonder if Joe had fixed something, some part of what was wrong with her, when he healed her in the ABB headquarters. She quickly directed her mind away from that subject. It was another of those topics to avoid, something that she didn't need to get caught up in now.

Reminiscing on that stupid plan and how it went wrong wouldn't help. The way it went spectacularly wrong, that blast of razor-sharp spikes, watching the man next to her die quickly while she felt herself dying slowly. The feeling, the certainty that something vital had been hit, that she was fading by painful inches. Watching gang members mumble to each other in languages she couldn't understand while waiting, hoping for some chance, some way to get help, wondering if it would ever come…

"Turn left at the next junction. There are three more on this floor." Survey's voice managed to pull her out of that mess. She smiled under the cover of her helmet as she picked her way through the crowded hallways.

She was grateful for another element of the armor as she navigated the crowded hospital. It was sealed and built in such a perfect way that she might as well be standing on the boardwalk on a cool spring day, not wrapped in metal while navigating a desperate press of scared and injured people. In a way she felt bad about how much she enjoyed the separation. She didn't need to get caught up in the aftermath of the attacks. Her power worked to put her out of the minds of everyone around her and her beautiful armor did the rest.

Besides, she was here on a mission of mercy. It wasn't important for her to empathize with everyone in the building. In fact, after the third hospital it was probably important that she didn't.

She wondered if this was what Panacea went through when she did her rounds.

"So tell me again," She asked Survey. "Exactly how illegal is this?"

"There are various statutes and rulings covering the use of parahuman abilities and tinker technology to treat critically injured patients without first obtaining consent from the patient, a next of kin, or person qualified to make medical decisions on their behalf." Survey replied in what Aisha had begun to refer to as her 'Lawyer Voice'. Basically her normal speech patterns but with an authoritative tone and a hint of an accent. "A strong case could be made for taking action without consultation, particularly given the prognosis of patients. However, when intent and surrounding actions are taken into account, conducting this type of treatment for the purposes of collecting medical data brings violations of specific human rights agreements, medical ethics standards, and war crime charges into play."

Aisha took another turn at the prompting of her heads-up display and entered the room of her latest objective. "So, healing this woman makes me a war criminal, huh?"

"That is a highly debatable topic." Survey replied briskly. "The exact nature of any charges would depend heavily on the intentions of the prosecution and would likely be strongly influenced by public perception of the act. Also, while official agencies would be able to bring action based on their individual fields of operation, criminal charges would not be possible without a desire from the patient to pursue legal action. Given the clear alternative such outcome would only be likely to occur in the event of unforeseen and detrimental side effects."

Aisha had begun reaching for the side compartment of her armor, but paused at the A.I.'s words. "Uh, we're sure that's not going to be happening, right?" She looked down at the middle-aged woman breathing through a ventilator. Her body was wrapped in bandages and a nest of sensors and machines were connected to her by trailing wires. Aisha could barely see the woman's face through the breathing machine and bandages. "Please tell me I haven't been running around doing stuff that will end up giving people magic Parkinson's or space AIDS in five years."

"All data provided for the treatments administered have been assured by Apeiron through the generated duplicates. While the source of his assurance on such matters is not clear and the mechanisms of several effects are still under extensive investigation, there have been no variances between expected and demonstrated behavior. It is reasonable to assume that the treatments will succeed in the expected manner with no unexpected side effects. However, additional information on the microcellular aspects of these treatments is not available by default. As such, experimental observations are required to properly apply them to Apeiron's current condition."

It might have been Aisha's imagination, but she swore she could hear a note of concern in the A.I.'s voice towards the end of her explanation. If so, it was something she could completely understand. After what Joe had managed with her, with Brian, with the Undersiders, and apparently even with Weld it would seem there was nothing on Earth beyond his healing powers.

Nothing on Earth. Cute turn of phrase that, especially when she got the full explanation of what was happening.

Aliens.

Fucking aliens. Apparently it wasn't even one of those things that Joe was cagy or evasive about, like all the magic stuff, the Transformers, or being a demigod. He was one hundred percent on board with the idea that he had gotten an alien lifeform from his power. A lifeform that apparently could pull Puppet Masters shit, and possibly eat the world.

Could. It could, but probably wouldn't. Because Joe had decided he needed to look after the S-class alien monster that was currently devouring his body, because Joe was just like that. Now, Aisha was reasonable concerned when she learned what the fuck was going on. When she understandably asked Survey about it she got a long rant about 'Tetra'. Specifically about Tetra's views on something called technological emulative meta-materials and how obstinate the ALIEN PARASITE could be regarding clear and demonstrative evidence contrary to her biases.

Yeah, so Joe had looked after his power granted super weapon to the point where even when the stuff was eating him alive the main concern Survey had was that 'she' didn't listen properly to scientific arguments. Aisha figured she was coming at this from an outside perspective, but it was still fundamentally unsettling to hear recently created duplicates talk about how terrible Tetra felt about the situation and how hard she was trying to avoid making things worse.

That was the problem, the thing they were trying to work around. The reason they needed to dive deeper into the medical shit than ever before. They could get Joe up and running in no time flat, all they would need to do was completely destroy Tetra. If it was up to Aisha she probably would have made that call, but Joe wouldn't want that. Just from that Aisha could tell she was missing something. It was hard to see a mass of burning red fibers as a person, but she was important to Joe, to Garment, to everyone. She could be important to Aisha as well.

If that was the case then some medical treatments that would also save people who were definitely not going to survive the night was something she could live with. Honestly, after the previous three hospitals she kind of wished they weren't limiting themselves to the critical care patients.

She knew Joe was holding back, not just on the super weapons, but on shit like this. Stuff that could heal anyone as easy as breathing, bring people back from the brink, and seriously change lives. He was being more careful than she would have been, but then again he knew stuff. Stuff about the Simurgh, the Slaughterhouse Nine, and any number of other monsters out there waiting to pounce. So no, no mass release of healing miracles. Probably not even any medical contracts or that kind of shit.

Not yet.

She tried not to think about that, but she had picked up on things. On how the duplicates talked about the Simurgh like she was a temporary problem, something they were going to work past. She didn't even like thinking about it, especially not outside of whatever protected Joe's workshop, but he had something up his sleeve. If not now then maybe ten or twenty powers down the line. For that, for the chance to really change the world, she could wait for that.

Aisha reached into the side panel of the armor while queuing up Survey's list on the helmet's display. "So what is it this time, potion or trinket?"

"This exercise will be focused on the use of talisman 408-b." There was a pause before Survey clarified things. "The snake."

Aisha nodded and fished out the carved figure. A big reason the copies of Joe needed so much data was the way his powers had changed. Knowing how they worked it was incredible to watch the broadcast. Power after power surfacing to counter Lung. She couldn't help feel a little special at that. Everyone else was wondering when Apeiron developed some technology or ability while she could see them emerge in real time.

It wasn't like she was totally immune to surprise. That primordial werewolf transformation had still come as a shock, but at least seeing the shift in behavior, the way he was reacting to the new power she knew something big was coming. Something impressive. She hadn't been disappointed.

There had been a gap in new powers when Joe had been fully out of it. The duplicates explained what was happening, but it was kind of obvious when they shifted from needing to be woken up after Joe was dosed with his copying potion to jumping up, ready for work. Jozef, at least after they got him set up in that scary new crystal throne/bed, was conscious. Just not able to move, speak, access his brain implant, or communicate with the throne's neural interface. If he wasn't popping out clones able to vouch for his condition she would have had serious doubts about that claim.

Even though he couldn't move, talk, or interact with anything apparently his other senses were working. Also it seemed he had a fuck ton of 'other senses'. Thermal vision was one of the most basic of them, but he could also sense the presence of technology through some demigod power. There was also this kind of life energy sense that could pick up emotions to a degree that made Aisha a little nervous. Combined they gave him enough of a sense of the world that he was starting to get powers again, however that worked.

None of that explanation was as dramatic as actually seeing the effect of a new ability when both of the copies suddenly grew ears and a tail. She couldn't tell exactly what the hell kind of animal they belonged to, but they were so fluffy, and the copies had been willing to indulge her and Garment in a way that she was sure would have completely mortified the original Joe.

That was probably the weirdest dynamic out of all of this. Sure, there were computer people, alternate lifetimes popping into Joe's head, whatever exactly Garment was, and apparently actual aliens, but nothing was exactly as strange as seeing less restrained copies of Joe running around the workshop actually enjoying themselves.

For most people having a lifespan of barely an hour would have freaked them out beyond belief, but the copies took it completely in stride. More than that, they were like seeing a version of Joe that had dropped a weight you barely noticed he was carrying, not until you saw what he could be like without it. It was endearing, but also more than a little sad.

She remembered the horrible call, her front row seat to a family event that felt intrusive and embarrassing for everyone involved. It also showed her so much. More than she thought was there, more than she ever wanted to see. She felt doubly embarrassed, both for seeing it and for her earlier idea that she had Joe completely figured out.

The duplicates, they were like seeing Joe if he didn't have to deal with that baggage. She kind of hoped to see more of that. If he was planning to save the world, go against Endbringers, and fix basically everything then he didn't need to be dealing with that crap as well.

A cynical part of her doubted that would happen. She knew her own family dynamic, and while things seemed like they might be getting better with her father, she knew the problems went deep. Joe might not have exactly the same kind of issues, but he was clearly dealing with his own shit, and probably would be for a while.

She put those thoughts aside and held the immaculately carved snake figure in her armored fingers. This was the result of one of Joe's other new powers. Less dramatic than the animal ear magic thing, or that red fire that had completely changed the feel of his entire workshop, but still significant.

Joe had apparently gotten some new power that was about making single use magic items. The duplicates called them talismans, some kind of vessel for directed spiritual energy or something like that. Some of them were little paper tags with writing or designs on them while others were carved figures. The kind of thing that would take an immense amount of care and workmanship, unless you were Apeiron in which case you churned them out in batches of five for any kind of magic you wanted.

Well, probably not any kind, but at least a dozen types of healing magic. She lifted the figure over the injured woman. "You have the activation thing ready?" She asked.

"One moment, accessing technosorceric recordings." The crazy magic talismans weren't something just anyone could use, but once again Joe was able to work around the limitations of his own power the moment they were presented to him. Namely he, or at least the clones, had been able to send the activation spell phrase thing through broadcasts and recordings. She just needed Survey to play it and boom, magic.

"In the name of the sacred watcher of stillness…. Snake, heal!" The recording of one of Joe's copies speaking the words only played inside her helmet, but that was enough. Honestly, with her power, especially the advantage of Ren, she doubted anyone would notice even if she was blaring it for the whole hospital to hear.

As words finished the tiny figure in her hand glowed slightly, then turned translucent. The snake sprang to life diving down towards the woman and coiling around her until her entire body was covered in the spiritual form. Aisha wondered what was supposed to happen with this one. Unlike the potions all the figures had been wildly different. With some of them she wondered if they were even supposed to be healing powers, or if the duplicates were messing around with other effects.

She watched as the spiritual coating sank into the woman's body. For a moment nothing happened, then there was a stirring on the bandages. They crinkled then started to bunch and slough off. Shed. Like a snake. The entire mass of gauze and padding crumpled and fell away, taking any injuries with it.

Aisha didn't know enough to say if it made a difference, but the woman looked healthier on the surface. "Uh, Survey? You got that? Is she going to be alright?"

"Onboard Analysis scanners recorded full effect, magic and structural. All critical injuries have been addressed. Full recovery expected with discharge likely within twelve hours."

Aisha smiled and nodded. "Right." She took one last look before moving unnoticed and unremarked into the hallway. "Let's get the rest of them."

The final two patients were less dramatic cases both in terms of injury and treatment. One of Joe's other recent powers was some kind of massive improvement in Alchemy skill. Whatever it meant it had turned the lab where they had made the Lethe water into a four story monstrosity and had the duplicates buzzing about some new kind of metal. It had also taken all of Joe's other healing potions to a new level, which meant testing.

The red healing potion was the strongest and fastest acting, even before it had been turned up to eleven. That was the one that got called out for the serious patients and any injured in the field that weren't safe to move. The duplicates had called in some of the debt owed by her brother's team and had them hunting through the blackout area looking for injured civilians.

Anyone not completely critical got flagged for pickup on the website. The serious cases got a visit from one of Fleet's new stealth drones, arriving to dig them out and administer healing potion like a Star Trek version of a Saint Bernard rescue dog. She wondered if all the tiny cars and ships had been some kind of intentional development program Joe set up for the A.I. or if it was just some kind of lucky coincidence. Honestly she couldn't really tell the difference when it came to him.

Of course they couldn't send the drones into hospitals, even with the stealth tech. That's where she came in with her memory wiped tour of the most overwhelmed of Brockton's emergency centers.

This was being played off as solely an exercise to help Joe but she knew the duplicates relished the chance to help people without restriction. It was kind of refreshing to see clones that went out of control and used the opportunity to be super nice and helpful. If they didn't have to manage Joe's condition so closely she wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to justify cleaning up the blackout particles and mopping up the rest of the gangs while they were at it.

Two unceremonious splashes of potion and she was done, at least with the critical cases in this hospital. Their little 'medical experimentation' had probably cratered what would have been a horrible fatality rate in the aftermath of the bombings. Of course, it wouldn't do anything for the people caught directly in the blasts. And the ones who were 'merely' maimed were out of luck. Plus anyone outside the hospital system, anyone in regions they weren't scanning, or anyone who had been misdiagnosed and not caught by Survey's double checks of anyone she walked past.

But it made a difference. She made a difference. There were dozens of people who would have a chance at life thanks to her. Really thanks to Joe, but she had helped make it happen.

She followed Survey's instructions and made her way up to the roof of the hospital. The enhancements to her armor that interfaced with her powers were incredible. She could feel her power reaching out to every security camera she passed, damping sensors she never noticed, and even brushing against active cell phones around her. Getting through the alarmed door on the roof was child's play for her power and Survey's overrides, and then she was out in the open air.

Some kind of crazy aurora danced over the ocean to the east. The aftereffect of the attack Fleet was so proud of. She still couldn't believe exactly what had been used to bring down Lung. Really she couldn't believe Joe had actually built something like that into his bike.

"Taking off." She called out, bending her knees slightly.

"Acknowledged. Coordinating with workshop systems and documenting additional points of interest for potential action." Survey replied.

"Repulsors are hot. Remember thrust out of line with your center of mass will result in turning force. Gyroscopes and mass effect core will compensate somewhat, but I'll be managing stabilization thrustors unless you're comfortable managing the subsystems yourself." She heard Fleet's voice as she prepared for takeoff.

"Uh, yeah. Can you manage that for now?" She remembered her first attempt. She was better than when she basically needed to point at something and let Fleet manage everything, but she was a long way from being fully comfortable in the air.

"That's no problem." He replied. "I'll generate a negative mass field from the E-zero core once we get above the headwinds. The lower mass will let you dial down the thrust and reduce the amount of inertia you'll need to deal with. It should help you get used to directing the primary systems independently of assistance."

Aisha smiled and nodded. She had to be occasionally reminded that Fleet wasn't a driving program, he was a driving assistant. Apparently Jozef had created Fleet to help him learn how to handle the vehicles he could build. Then he got a bunch of crazy powers that meant he was an instant expert in any kind of vehicle imaginable. So Fleet was left to simulate how to drive and pilot vehicles, but never really had a chance to instruct.

Not until he'd been installed in her suit. At the A.I.'s prompting she engaged the jets in her boots, feeling the stabilizing force from the technology built into what would otherwise be completely-ridiculous-even-for-strippers heels. She launched off the roof in a jet of invisible thrust, the force of her flight carrying her hundreds of feet up in a mere instant.

She felt the wind buffet the outside of the armor as she remained completely insulated from the night air. As the wind dropped off Fleet alerted her and triggered that mass shifting technology built into the suit. Instantly the amount of thrust needed to keep aloft dropped dramatically. She carefully angled forward, practically floating across the starlit clouds as the city spread out below her.

Her heart soared even higher than the armor had taken her. She was flying! Really flying, like capes were supposed to. For a second she was back in those playground games, the ones where no matter the power you came up with the flight part of the Alexandria package always got stapled on. Nobody wanted to be a non-flying cape at that age. Actually, it was something you never really grew out of, you just accepted it wouldn't happen.

Except when it did. Then, in the privacy of your own mind you could totally indulge yourself and skip across moonlit cloud banks in your suit of beautiful flying power armor.

It wasn't all fun and games, even if she felt more than a little justified in briefly indulging following completing her hospital tour. Survey was feeding her data from the city as she looked over the twinkling lights that could almost let someone ignore the unmistakable damage centered on the northern half.

Drips of reports came in from the blackout area, her brother and his teammates hunting for survivors. Well, Khepri, Bitch, and Regent hunting while Brian coordinated things in the field and Tattletale managed from their base.

She felt a little weird having inside information on her what her brother had been essentially ordered to do. It was like she outranked him in whatever cape hierarchy they had set up. That seemed like the kind of thing she should enjoy more than she actually was. Probably because it served as a reminder of the reckoning that was looming in her future. A week ago she would have played it off as a joke and not cared, but suddenly she was worried about how she would come across when this got out. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and not one she particularly enjoyed.

Through the blackout the Dust trails stood out like glowing threads, leading to the site of March's attack. That had been the first place Fleet had been sent once the new drones were complete, and what he found there hadn't been encouraging. The technicalities of it were beyond her, but it sounded like something crazy had happened with Joe's robot that warped the entire region. There was no sign of March's body or what happened to Triumph, but Survey was digging into PRT reports to see what she could find.

That was the thing. Fleet wasn't the only one who had been let loose following the disaster that hit the city. From what she understood, Survey's resources had been shifted from 'publicly available data' to 'whatever you can get without bringing Dragon down on us'. For the A.I. that was a significant amount. Aisha had to trust that to the duplicates to sort out, because there was no way she was following that much technical mayhem.

An alert came into her visor. Well, really more of a request, but given the nature of it she wasn't missing this. Honestly she was surprised they would ask her to do it, but she could see why they'd want a human for this kind of thing.

With Fleet's guidance she angled slowly, feeling the wind catch her suit before shifting into a shallow dive. Gradually Fleet dialed up her mass, taking her flight from a light floating affair to a swooping rocket assisted dive. As she shed altitude the city shifted from a matt of twinkling lights to the blocky concrete jungle she remembered it to be, only somehow completely different from this angle.

Flying was just really the best thing ever.

A nudge to Fleet saw him drop her mass again, something she would get the hang of eventually. The shift let her glide freely over the outer edge of the blackout zone rather than careen past the rooftops on full thrust.

"What exactly am I looking for here?" She asked Survey, doing another circle of the neighborhood.

"Both duplicates have confirmed this area for the location of the items that were produced. A precise location isn't possible without deploying one of them to the field, but they believe their sense suggests one of the rooftops is the most likely placement." Survey explained. "One of the items granted is an elven concealment cloak, miniaturized into a scarf. In non-combat situations it provides a stealth effect based on intent. Approaching without aggressive aims should negate its effects."

Aisha frowned as she scanned the rooftops. Would it be hypocritical for her to say she hated stranger effects? She wondered as she made her third pass of the area, what exactly counted as aggressive intent for this kind of thing? It was getting into the nebulous aspects of Joe's work, the stuff she wasn't even sure he fully understood. It was probably why he was overly cautious about this kind of thing, and why it could only have been one of the clones who created this situation.

It was her fourth pass when she finally saw him. Perched on the edge of a building overlooking a street corner, the man was dressed in a gold jacket and jet black pants, A pure white scarf was wrapped around the lower half of his face and seemed to be billowing perfectly in a way that couldn't just be due to the wind. Somehow the scarf, what should have been the most eye-catching part of an already spectacular outfit, had the opposite effect, drawing the eye away from the man without even causing the level of attention a flickering piece of fabric would normally attract.

With a little help from Fleet she pulled up and gently set down on the roof. The man was ignoring her, just like everyone did. With the help of Ren she could feel the effect of her power as it flowed over him. By focusing on it she could almost control the flow, sense the way it pulsed and moved, even the specific memories it was targeting.
It was the complete opposite of how her power had behaved before she got the miracle of an item. Back then, after her trigger, it was a nightmare. Even getting a few seconds of recognition was an exercise in frustration. It was like her power was toying with her, pushing against whatever she wanted it to do. The harder she tried the more it fought her. The only way to get anything out of it was to give up, surrender to it and hope it might flow in a way that helped her.

It didn't work like that anymore. Or it might, but she was no longer caught in the flow. She didn't have complete control, but she was getting better, learning more, getting stronger. The hairclip Joe had thrown together while Garment was burying her under a new wardrobe should have been impressive for its workmanship, or for the minimum half million in diamonds worked into it, or the fact that he had built it in a couple of hours at most. But that wasn't what was special about it.

She wouldn't part with Ren for anything. Nothing she could imagine would ever mean as much as Ren. Well, maybe her armor, but that was the same principle. All the money in the world couldn't solve the problems that came with being a cape. That fact had hit her hard after her trigger. She'd been desperate, but everywhere she looked, every search, every book, it all pointed in the same direction. Work around the limitations of your powers, don't fight them.

But that didn't apply to Apeiron. Not with powers or anything else. Ren had transformed her life, even more than her trigger did. It was like she was a different person, living a different life. One act had taken her powers from a razor hidden in a promised apple to the kind of thing you dream about as a kid. It was like the fundamental way the world worked shifted.

And she bet she wasn't the only one who felt that way. Chen. She remembered that portion of Bakuda's broadcast. The beaten and battered form tied to a chair, waiting in the heart of a trap, a hostage that only worked if you were dealing with someone who cared about the rules. Looking at him now it was like seeing a different person. More than just what healing and a change of clothes would account for. According to the reports this was more than that. Power based on Tetra, and possibly power based on Joe's aura ability as well.

It was why they needed her here. Needed her to reach out, make contact before something happened or he left the city or anything else. She took a breath and focused. Normally her power just worked on or off, but Ren didn't care about normally. She focused and tapered the flow, directing it around the man on the edge of the roof.

She didn't need to do this. A few minutes with her power completely off wouldn't have any serious consequences. Maybe some confusion from Brian and Dad. Maybe the duplicates would note that she was talking with Chen. A secret part of her wondered if in an apartment across town Celia, her mother, would think of her. Remember her, and maybe make a better choice because of it?

Probably not, and best not to risk a distraction. If she could handle this, if she could manage to have a conversation while directing her power then who knew what possibilities it could open up? Probably some highly entertaining ones, to be honest, but serious ones as well. It was that responsibility, the pressure, the faith that was implicitly placed in her. It made her want to live up to it, to push further, to get better. So she tried, she focused, and the flow of her power parted around Chen.

Despite the fact that nothing changed, no sound, no vibration, no shift in light the man's head immediately perked up. A gold blur leapt to his hand and he spun in place bringing an intricate spear with a black handle and golden head to face her. There was a flickering distortion around the blade of the spear, like light was being shifted as it got close.

The man froze when he saw her, then slowly lowered the weapon. "You're Apeiron's new robot? Suit?"

"Suit." She answered. "Someone in here." She tapped the chest of her armor.

The man nodded. Whatever the alien fiber clothing was doing to him, it had made a world of difference in his build. The man had to be over forty but looked ready to head a series of Kung Fu films. "I was wondering if someone would show up." His eyes shifted down. "Is he doing alright? The original?"

She nodded, with Survey noting confirmation of the details that had been provided by the last duplicate from the battle with Lung. "He's managing. Recovering. The rest of us are handling things out here."

She saw the relief in Chen's eyes as tension left his body. "That's good news." He gave her an uneasy look. "Are you here for a collection?"

She eyed the equipment he was wearing. Massively impressive stuff if you didn't know it had probably taken three minutes total to throw together. "Hey, I'm not in the repo business." She countered. "They just wanted to check in before anything crazy happened." She looked over the city, glancing up at the atmospheric lightshow. "Or anything else crazy."

The man's eyes crinkled at that. "I'd like that." He replied. "Let's talk."

Addendum Joe

Being trapped in my own body was an exercise in tedium that I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy. All I could do was desperately try to follow the actions of my duplicates, monitor the workshop, and do my best to keep Tetra calm.

That was really the only moderately positive thing about this situation. It was the longest period I had spent with Tetra where we had something of a discourse between us. It was a horrible situation to be in, but there was a general sense of trying not to make it worse for the other person. That led to trying to support the other person, which led to something of an actual discourse.

At least as much as could be done through an empathic link with a physics defying alien embedded in your body.

Really my only other course of action was going over my new abilities. Everything was theoretical, but I hoped some of it might be useful when new copies were generated. It was completely counter to the way we had grown to handle the balance between copy and original, with each batch needing to catch up on all previous work of the duplicates without any support from me.

At least the improvement in alchemy had boosted the duration past the hour mark, edging into an hour and twenty minutes. I think. I didn't have the best sense of time right now. Still, that meant more time to work on solving this mess.

And more time for me to lie here and contemplate my life, hoping to get some power that would make a difference. I had gotten another power, and a fairly significant one. It was one of the rare powers from the Magic constellation, a cluster of two motes of moderate to small size.

Talisman Trained and Talisman Adept. Two powers built on the same purpose. The ability to form small objects, talismans in this case, and infuse them with patterns of spiritual energy. Of the 'energy sources' I had access to that was the more obscure one. It was used in Elven Enchantment, with the higher levels needing non-trivial amounts. Belmont Alchemy also specialized in using spiritual energy to empower weapons and items.

Talismans were slightly different. The vessel for the energy had to be prepared carefully, then charged upon creation. It was like capturing a spell in physical form. That was a significant advantage. In addition to being able to stockpile magic it opened an entire new casting system and nearly complete mastery of it. Talismans for healing, protection, warding, barriers and any number of attacks were all possible.

Even better, since I was dealing with physical objects all my other crafting powers came into play. The necessary spiritual energy that fueled the effect was reduced by resource conservation powers, quality was boosted by my various abilities, and even Workaholic came into play, either copying the talisman five times or boosting it to titanic size and power.

It was massive, versatile, powerful and, most importantly, was complete. Everything was provided by the powers, meaning there was no mountain of research to plough through before I had some usable effects.

Despite the power of this ability nothing jumped out at me as an instant solution to the problem I was facing with Tetra. Still, it was one more tool that could potentially prove to be a tipping point. Maybe. Perhaps.

It was possible I was just desperate for any optimism. Since getting that power I'd had nothing to do but lie still and contemplate my situation as more and more motes passed me by. First the Size constellation, then the Vehicles passed by, and finally Magitech. I was beginning to lose hope of getting anything even moderately helpful.

It was so bad I had actually overlooked the scale of my reach. I didn't even notice it had grown to the greatest size it had ever achieved. The same size as when I secured Master Craftsman. It didn't really hit me until I felt the Time constellation pass by and saw a titanic mote dragged out of its orbit.

The fiery nova dislodged and descended towards me. Completely unprepared and blindside I could only lie helpless as the immense power washed over me.

Build Rome.

That was the power. Two simple words connected to the same source as Exotic Compatibility. The source that gave me one of my mobile suits had provided a monolithic mote from the time constellation. And just like that, crafting time was something that happened to other people.

Rome wasn't built in a day? No, that was the limit of people who couldn't see the potential, the connection between time and form. The understanding that machinery, crafting flowed continuously. You just needed the right force at the right time and what other people saw as limits suddenly fell away.

It seemed impossible. Maybe it was. Maybe it should be. Maybe no man was meant to be able to construct twenty mobile suits in a week while working on his own. Or twice that. Or three times. The logistics, the impossibilities didn't matter. I could do this. I could apply it to anything, double, triple speed, with products that would last for decades or centuries. That was reality now. Nothing else could get in the way of that. I could build at a rate beyond the reach of sense, practicality, or sanity.

What's more, I could build Mobile Suits. Suits beyond the technology of Anaheim Degree, operating on completely different principles. My mind was filled with new technologies, alloy mixes, weapons, even support systems. Hyper Jammer technology. Planet Defensor disk drones. Even an insane possibility of a zoning and emotional range omitted system, a brain interface the likes of which I had never conceived of before.

And it was all mine, producible in an instant. With just this power it would have been impossibly fast. With the rest of my abilities, well, as I said, crafting time was something that happened to other people.

I felt a stirring in my surroundings. My duplicates were moving. Moving me. I didn't know if this was connected to my latest power, or if it was just time, if something had come together or been completed, but whatever it was it was happening now. With my thermal and divine senses, I reached out and froze even more than my immobilized state would suggest.

I didn't know what they had planned, or where this was going, but I needed to trust they knew what they were doing, for all our sakes.

Because I was being taken to the volcano.

Jumpchain abilities this chapter:

Talisman Trained (Inukami) 100:
You are very skilled at using talismans. What that means is you can make them have different properties (like light or sound) and with enough time and training you can make with enough time and training you can make truly devastating effects.

Talisman Adept (Inukami) 200:
You are much better at using talismans and can give them properties of what shape they are in. Shaped like a frog? These talismans can bounce towards their intended target.

Build Rome (Gundam: After Colony) 600:
You have a thing about building things- you're damn fast, and you're damn good. They say you can't build 10 Mobile Suits in a week? Hah! You'll build twice that much and you'll build them to last! You simply have utter talent in the way of making things quickly enough to double production, maybe even triple production if you work at it enough, and they'll come out with no loss of quality. In addition, these constructions will last- barring sudden disaster and similar, they'll easily last several decades of constant abuse, and if they're upkept and repaired they could even last centuries with no troubles

 

[Zakara]

Everyone but Jack on the road to Apeiron.

Click to shrink...

That has got to be the greatest representation of an incoming S9 Arc I've ever seen.

Edit: It has dropped!

 

[Stelarwand030]

Woot Woot!! It is here!! I am so excited!

 

[I.F. Ister]

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!! OUR BOY! HE'S OKAY!

 

[Robotninja]

Build Rome (Gundam: After Colony) 600:
You have a thing about building things- you're damn fast, and you're damn good. They say you can't build 10 Mobile Suits in a week? Hah! You'll build twice that much and you'll build them to last! You simply have utter talent in the way of making things quickly enough to double production, maybe even triple production if you work at it enough, and they'll come out with no loss of quality. In addition, these constructions will last- barring sudden disaster and similar, they'll easily last several decades of constant abuse, and if they're upkept and repaired they could even last centuries with no troubles

Click to shrink...

How long until Joe is capable of matching the national GDP in terms of production?

 

[Mojave Courier]

Because I was being taken to the volcano.

Click to shrink...

I like where this is going.

Wonder what he's going to look like after this?

Will he be like Golden Frieza or Wonder Woman?

 

[Robotninja]

I mean, I will say just to let everyone know, at this point, we may not even get a 9 arc. Just because Aperion went from "hey, new guy made the news, pretty powerful we could probably fuck with him" directly to "oh shit, he may actually kill crawler, and we've clearly seen that overwhelming him with too many problems doesn't work, hostages don't work, and he already knows a stupid amount about bio tinkering, so the prion swarm may not even slow him down all that much."

If we do have a 9 arc, it may be joe teaming with dragon to go after them.

Click to shrink...

S9 might go after him, but they will be very cautious about it. They will treat it like going after Eidolon or similar. It won't be enough, of course.

 

[Mojave Courier]

How long until Joe is capable of matching the national GDP in terms of production?

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure he already can. Everything he makes is priceless and built to last, and he can make them in only a day's work.

 

[Skiman456]

I'm pretty sure he already can. Everything he makes is priceless and built to last, and he can make them in only a day's work.

Click to shrink...

Incorrect, as we've just learned, he, at the least, can output the equivalent value of at least maldova on any given day.

 

[SiegfriedisOP]

It didn't even feel like machinery, more like an extension of her body with the strength of a god and the grace of an angle

Click to shrink...

With Aisha arriving to help Joe at his most critical moment, it's like she's his Gaurdian Angle.

 

[sage of fanfics]

Could he become a core of the devil gundam? If he syncs with it correctly he should become a fusion of machine and human. Would work very well for evolving biologically while updating by machine plus power speeding it up.

 

[Gato El Mudo]

At this point, Joe probably has a cult secretly worshipping him.

 

[Razorfloss]

Loved ashia in this chap and shows she's growing as a person. It only took everything going to shit for her and meeting essentially tinker god but progress is progress. I want aperion to do a web ask me on pho to explain what the hell is going on. I mean he won't because issues but damn do I want to see everyone's reaction to it.

 

[adoltin]

I wonder how long it will take before people realize that even with their theory about him being a Mad Tinker or whatever, he never actually loses any coherency and gets better in every conceivable way exponentially? After a certain point they've got to realize common sense for Tinkers even Mad ones simply don't apply to Apeiron right?

 

[Callidus]

A short synopsis for the thread of ongoing plot points (this is pretty general and I'm not listing any overarching plot points from previous chapters, just stuff mentioned in this one at least tangentially):

Jozef is being treated by clones and is being taken to his giant Volcano for Dramatic Healing/Metamorphosis.

Gully and Manpower meet Whirlygig and Scrub. Chen and Aisha are going to have a chat and are essentially forming the beginnings of what looks like a Josef sponsored hero team!

Or we, they'll at least be coordinating responses with eachother to the disaster. Aisha is also experiencing the existential dread of understanding the serious weights that could fall on her shoulders if Jozef dies.

Taylor (Lady Khepri lol) gets into the whole Parahuman Feudalism thing a bit earlier than before. Perhaps she'll be seen as doing it in the name of Apeiron.

Apeiron has unlocked the ability to mass produce EVEN MORE STUFF AAAAAAA MOBILE SUITS EVERYWHERE OH GOD!!!
No seriously, with all the production upgrades he has the only limit really is space. And with the sheer amount of technological upgrades and knowhow he has available.... the factories of Earth, Luna, and the Sides might not be able to stop him if he really gets going.

He also now has access to more healing magic in the form of talismans, which are man-portable and can be produced en-masse for quick healing. Essentially Jozef can clear out large hospitals in the space of a night or less at t hi s point if he prepares enough talismans.

The implications of Apeiron continue to grow.

The Undersiders are also basically working form him because of their debt owed.

So...if you wanna look at it through squinted eyes you could say Apeiron has his own gang/section of power in the city on an official level. Interesting indeed.

 

[Skiman456]

As a side note... if crafting time is a thing of the past then well... how much shit could a bored Pair of creation gods get up to in 20min. As in the clones. The clones that had enough time before to build a movie theater and a ice hockey rink.

 

[Andorxor]

They plan to forge a tetra\joe alloy

 

[SyfyMovieFan]

They might reforge Joe, granting him a new, stronger body.

They might also build Tetra her own humanoid body as well.

 

[Sterlyn]

For those wondering what Joe being taken to the volcano is implying...
Lord's response to a comment on Ao3

It also just occurred to me that 'Reforged by a demigod in a divine volcano' is about the most classic mythological origin possible for an archetypal 'hero of legend', and Joe could basically make his own version of Achilles of Siegfried, only without the manufacturer's defects because Joe has standards.

Click to shrink...

Oh boi, next chapter gonna be spicy

 

[Kaine198]

If the clones melt Joe in the volcano to remove Tetra and then reforge him, is Mater Craftsman going to apply and Joe gonna get some sweet glowing Fae Line tattoos?

 

[Massgamer]

Mobile Suit army for next EB fight!

 

[The Shallow]

Joe can't be melted in the volcano. It's like a jacuzzi at worst. However, it's fiat ability of adding a property of something to something else might be useful, add all the biotech and they have an interesting direction to go with things...
Also considering all the tech, I think Joe will be fine at this point. Just imagine Chen and Aisha start getting into the meat of things, only for Joe to swoop in, being like "Sorry for making you do this, Lethe. You can move on if you want."
Chen is just like "okay then."
Seriously though, better for Aisha to handle this stuff, she's better socially. Also really hope Chen is gonna be brought into the fold TBH.
ALSO ALL THE NEW TECH IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES
THINK ABOUT THE CRAZY FUCKING VACUUM CLEANERS THAT WILL JUST SHOW UP AND SAVE THE DAY, ABSORBING ALL THE DUST & MINOVSKY PARTICLES
I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED I CANNOT DESCRIBE
THIS WILL BE SO FUCKING GOOD

 

[SpyroFan]

I for one welcome our future mad tinker king, I'm sure we all have hoverboards by 2012.