Thanks to my second beta,
HMS Sophia! And Snowfire of course.
Previous Next
1.5
The rest of the night I experimented with the powers I was aware of so far.
My increased intelligence seemed to be universal, not just related to bureaucracy. Memorizing all my school books and being able to understand their content as fast as I could read them proved that pretty conclusively.
Even if I had been capable of that before, it would have been exhausting. It wasn't. Would that extend to physical activities as well? Something to find out.
My ability to become immaterial did have a limit though. Or rather, it was pretty exhausting to become material again. I could do so pretty often, and had one ability that allowed me to turn from material to immaterial and back again with little effort, for about five seconds or so. I should not have tested that the hard way - getting thrown out of a wall hurt.
An hour before I suspected my father would get up I started preparing breakfast.
It took about as long as before - which I was actually glad about, I enjoyed the process, especially since it was going to be a treat for Dad.
I finished just on time. But dad had apparently overslept - or at least he got as much sleep as he needed, instead of getting up early even on weekends. He probably went to bed earlier than planned yesterday, and I just hoped he hadn't tried to finish the entire stack of papers. Without my aid, that would have taken all night.
I could fix that for him easily. I already had, the blessing I had given him was not a temporary thing. I had felt it while using that power - the duration was nebulous, but it could last an entire lifetime. Maybe even longer, if that made sense. And I could have affected more people too.
But if I didn't withdraw it from Dad, he would notice. Was I ready to out myself to him?
To be honest I had little idea how he would react. If he knew how I had triggered, he would get angry and lash out. Maybe at me, maybe at Emma or her father, maybe at the school. He always did when he felt powerless.
Could I just lie to him, simply not tell how I got my powers? I felt bad just thinking about it, but it might be the best for him. But I still had no idea how he would react to them, since they seemed weirder than most parahuman powers. Even if they weren't, I just had no idea.
"Well, that was the best sleep I had in weeks! Despite dreaming about work - well, it wasn't as bad as it sounds."
Yes, I had just entirely missed my Dad walking into the kitchen. But the dream I had sent him last night had worked!
I served the pancakes I had made. Dad didn't mention last night or any effects of the still-active blessing - maybe he wouldn't notice it? I didn't mention anything about school, as usual. But his mood was lighter than usual, and knowing that I was responsible for that lifted my mood immensely.
Given our good moods, it was tempting to just skip my plans for today and hang out with Dad.
We hadn't done that in ages, and I missed it. But figuring out my powers was just more important for now.
Dad offered to drive me to the library when I announced my plan to spend the day there, but I told him that I was planning to start excercising and wanted to walk there myself. We continued chatting after we finished our food, but eventually I got up and left.
I had beaten the bus to the library. I had probably gotten there quicker than if I had taken up my Dad's offer to drive me there. And I wasn't even winded or sore.
At first I had just jogged along comfortably, but after that came easily enough I began to sprint. I was faster than before, but not by that much - the difference was that I could keep up my peak speed, seemingly without limit.
Yet another benefit Tu Yu had not even hinted at.
After the results of last nights learning session, I wasn't surprised that I could absorb the information from my research near-instantly. Researching Parahumans was the obvious part - even if what Tu Yu had said was true and I wasn't even human anymore, I would still have to interact with them.
After I had memorized the names, powers and history of the parahumans in the Brockton Bay Protectorate, the Wards, the Azn Bad Boys and the Empire Eighty-Eight as well as the local independent capes including New Wave, I researched management practices. Which turned out to be entirely unnecessary - everything I could find was already intimately familiar to me, despite never having learned anything about them. Yet another weird aspect of my powers.
Now what to do with the rest of the day? I needed something to test my powers on, but "Bureaucracy" was a pretty broad subject. I had already seen the benefits of my improved intellect, and the effect my blessing had on my father. I tried filling out some obscure forms I dug up on the Internet. Just like I had know all about running a large corporation, I knew how to apply for importing exotic arachnids for a home bussiness.
None of that told me how my powers would scale. Tu Yu had been pretty clear that my powers weren't about personal competence, or about improving the abilities of individuals.
But if I wanted to test that, I needed something to test it on. I had no idea where to even do that on a Sunday, with offices being closed. There had to be somewhere I could go, somewhere I could help people.
Maybe my powers could provide an answer to that?
I took a deep breath, leaned back in my chair and focussed inwards.
Bureaucracy
Administration
Efficiency
Report
A billion voices flashed through my head. A typo on a birth certificate in Singapore. Endless tax forms. Job applications. Police reports. Form letters.
It should have been overwhelming. Instead, it just filtered through me. Instead of a chaotic cacophony, it formed a melody which I just understood. Most of it was still about areas of the world I had never even heard off, all too far away for me to affect now. But there was one place I could go to help right now.
Brockton Bay Central Hospital.
I had never known how much paperwork nurses and doctors had to fill out. Everyone knew about the forms patients had to fill out, it was both a regular gag in comedies and a common complaint. The medical staff had it worse by several orders of magnitude.
A waste and a necessity at the same time. It was a source of stress in an already-stressful job, but a simple mistake such as overlooking an allergy might kill someone. Never mind medical histories and previous treatments and all the other necessary information.
I had no idea how to explain my wandering around the hospital if asked. But instead of being stopped, I got friendly nods and smiles along my way.
It took me about an hour to understand how the bureaucracy inside the hospital worked, at least in general terms. Yet another thing I just understood, though in this case not immediately. It was still weirding me out how the information seemed to come from nowhere, prolonging the process only made it more notable.
I found an empty room, maybe for patients or relatives to relax. My decision was firm - a lot of time was being wasted here, efficiency would help everyone.
Once again I sat down and closed my eyes. This time, the entire hospital appeared before my inner eye. Glowing orbs flowed along shining canals. Some got clogged up, sometimes they overflowed and a piece was lost. A few just barreled their way through others without regards for the consequences. There were too many of them to represent people. Was I seeing the information moving through the hospital? An inner voice affirmed my guess.
"I, Administrator of the Mandate, decree that nothing shall impede the proper and right filing of forms in this place, Brockton Bay Central Hospital."
My thoughts resonated as if I had spoken aloud, shaking the entire hospital. Or at least it seemed so to my senses, nobody else seemed to notice.
I checked again with my divine senses - a term that still weirded me out. Yes, things seemed to flow much more smoothly. A file in the archives that had been sorted in the wrong year was found without hours of searching. A doctor recalled in what order he had treated patients during his night shift four days ago, allowing him to fill in a form he had been staring at for the last fifteen minutes.
One place seemed unaffected though. Not worse than before at least, but apparently my power had no effect there. An office in the intensive care units.
It was already weird enough that I could walk around due to some form of natural charisma. But why would a teenage girl fill out forms in the ICU?
A doctor was working on a patient on the other side of the room. I moved closer to the girl, pondering whether I should try and talk to her. She was clearly the spot my powers had not affected, I had to know why.
Then I recognized her: Panacea.
The only non-combatant of New Wave, a local independent superhero team without secret identities. Instead, she was a renowned healer. According to my earlier research, she could heal pretty much anything - cancer, exotic diseases, near-fatal injuries. Her time must be immeasurably valuable, and here she was filling out forms all on her own.
"Excuse me, Panacea, uh, Miss Dalon?"
The doctor looked over for a second before getting back to his work. Panacea just replied with a clearly stressed voice. "Is it an emergency? Otherwise you will have to wait."
The latter part of her statement just sounded hurt.
Well, maybe my power had not worked because she was a parahuman? But if so, that could be a severe limitation. Maybe it was just because I had worked on such a broad scale?
"Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you. Good luck and keep up the good work."
I walked out of the room while I was applying my blessing to Panacea. It worked just as easily as it had with my Dad, but the connection felt much more...sticky. As if I had to actively maintain it. Which was most likely again because she was a parahuman.
I had almost reached the stairs when she stopped me with a yelled "wait."
"You, you did something to me, didn't you? I always have to triple-check if I've filled out a form right. Right after you talked to me I just knew it was right. How did you do that? If you're a Master trying to use me, you've made a big mistake, I already used my panic button!"
She thought I was trying to brainwash her? No! That was wrong, I had to fix this!, Otherwise this could end in disaster.
"What? No, look. Please, listen to me." I fed all of my horror into my denial. "I'm just trying to help. I promise my powers don't give me any control over people. Yes, I do have powers, and I did use them on you." I quickly held up a hand, hoping that I could stop this situation spiraling even further out of control.
She still looked as angry as before, but at least she was listening and not screaming for help or running away.
"Look, my powers are incredibly new to me and I have no idea how to explain them simply. If you want I'll stop using them on you right now, but I was just trying to help you with all of that paperwork. How about this - I'll give you my full name and address and leave. Or I'll stick around until your backup shows up. Either way you can tell them what I did to you, and if they notice anything off about me they can hunt me down. Just...well unless anything like that happens I think I can trust you not to out me. I really was just trying to help."
Somehow, I got that across in a reasonable non-panicking voice. And it seemed to convince her.
"Okay, I guess I'll trust you. You can leave after you tell me your name, the cameras will have your picture anyway. And…"
She paused awkwardly and blushed a little. Then she extended her hand, holding a small card.
"If you were really trying to help, thank you. Almost nobody does that. Please, call me Amy."
I nodded, took the card and shook her hand.
"I'm glad I could help you Amy. I'm Taylor Hebert. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Previous Next
