Mission Statement 1.1
Originally from the Worm Ideas thread. Heavy on Thinkering, low on combat.
This will be posted part-by-part every time an arc is done. It's roughly plotted out up to Arc 5 or so, but I've only written up to Arc 2. I do a lot of juggling various projects, so I make no promises as to update speed.
Expect the parts of Arc 2 every two to three days until it's all posted; still need to expand out the later parts of Arc 2. For now, here's Arc 1, Mission Statement.
El-Ahrairah
Mission Statement 1.1
I took a deep breath, even as I kept the corner of my eye on the city's Protectorate building. Another, more metaphorical corner kept watch over a web of lights.
'Protectorate.' I'd spent a lot of time thinking about words lately, on little nuances in meaning, and 'Protectorate' was a word I'd spent some time staring at. The immediate association fit: the Protectorate protected. The superheroes had gathered into an organization, and they protected everyone, the people with powers and without them, from the capes who were less scrupulous about their power. But that wasn't what the word 'protectorate' usually meant--it was the second definition in any dictionary, at the very most, even if the organization had become the top entry in any encyclopedia.
No, a 'protectorate' was someone protected, not someone who protects: the protectorate of the Protectorate was the people. So who was the protector of the Protectorate? Formally, in law, a protectorate was also a state subordinate to a larger one. So their name was a declaration of service to the government?
That was probably a good thing, but a part of me chafed at that... All the more when you considered that if I signed up, I wouldn't be joining the Protectorate. I'd be joining their junior branch, the Wards. Ward: 'a person placed into someone else's care.' I wasn't very eager to join a group called 'The Orphans,' not when I was here to escape a different form of state care.
Labels, definitions, names, words: I'd learned all about the power of little distinctions. People had 'rights,' but within certain bounds 'rights' became 'privileges,' and people were a lot more eager to take those away. That went double for students and children.
And then there was Shadow Stalker--Sophia Hess.
Still, if we were talking about rights, I'd been granted ones no one else had. The events of last month made me valuable now. I couldn't do fieldwork, so there wasn't any reason to put me into the field; that meant that if I really argued my case, I might be able to skip the Wards entirely. No, if I was put into some more central location--
I felt the web of light abruptly gain a new vertex. The bearer hadn't entered from the edge of my range, they'd simply appeared at its halfway point.
Observation: Entity-Restricted Object-Oriented Path
The words that came to mind weren't really words, just my mind's attempt to translate the concept--if I stared at them long enough, if I wasn't quite sure what it meant, I could force the words into synonyms. If I played twenty questions with my powers, trying to narrow down what all of the words had in common and what similar words weren't showing up, then I could generally get something pretty precise... But it took a lot of time, and it gave me an awful headache. Doing that for all of the city's official heroes and Wards (and most of the villains) had taken me ages.
Later, maybe, if there was a later. But not now.
This wasn't a teleportation power--the other Observers I'd seen were a subset of Thinker. Someone else had teleported her in, then?
'Object-Oriented'--goal-directed. 'Path'--multiple steps. A planner. A self-directing precog, then? The restriction was odd, though.
Strong, very strong: this was a high-quality power. No possible situational enhancements, but they probably didn't need it.
They were heading this way.
They'd appeared close enough that I knew they'd teleported, just far enough away for me to get time to look at their power before they arrived, and they'd chosen to appear in a place and time that would let them walk straight towards me without slowing down or stopping.
Whoever it was, they were here for me, and they wanted me to know it.
Right as that thought came to mind, she walked through the door. She actually looked kind of like I hoped I'd look, some day: short black hair somewhere between wavy and curly, slim, attractive even if she was no model. She was wearing a black suit and tie, and her eyes were on me the moment she stepped into view.
"Observer."
"Administrator," she replied, words strangely accented. I'd met Italians, and that accent didn't fit the cast of her features. Had she grown up somewhere else?
The silence stretched on. I was the first to break it.
"I kind of expected you to react to me not reacting to something you couldn't have known."
"The fact I didn't is giving you some idea of my power as a precognitive."
It did. She wasn't categorically bounded in a way I'd missed--coming here and saying that had required her to gain information related to my knowledge, my location, and her best course of action, and it'd done it before she'd been teleported here. A lot of Thinker powers were much narrower or gave much looser answers.
There weren't any mind-readers anywhere near me (I'd checked), and most powers didn't extend very far. In light of her short description, I could safely assume she had limited access to omniscience, then, so long as she asked the right questions and didn't run into any blind spots.
"Can I ask what path lead you here?"
"I am a member of an organization with the ability to grant powers."
So they wanted my ability to assess them?
"To give you an example, Triumph of the Protectorate was one of our clients."
"Battery too, right?" A nod. "Are all of those powers dead?" Her eyebrows rose. If I had to guess, she was asking for clarification. She'd probably know in an instant if she asked her own power... Maybe she had, and she was just being polite. "I see a web of lights; if I focus, each light has a description. They light up more if they're currently using powers, but theirs are dimmer even when they do... I think it might be the energy the power has left to use? Not sure." I shook my head. "I keep thinking they're 'dead,' for some reason, but it's not on the web, so I can't pull twenty questions. 'Inactive'? 'Inert'? I don't know."
I'd spent a lot of hours in the nearest coffee shop to the Protectorate building to figure that one out. My range was about ten blocks, and the Protectorate was just close enough.
"Yes." A beat, a small smile. "Apparently. That does explain a persistent question."
I tilted my head slightly. The woman continued.
"Eidolon is another one of our clients. It seems he's losing the strength in a number of his chosen powers."
Oh. That... was bad. In a lot of ways, really, because if they could give other people powers as strong as the strongest superhero in the world--no. Focus, Taylor.
"If you want me to look at him, I don't mind," I said. "He's, uh... kind of important."
Granted, if she wanted to kidnap me, there wasn't really anything I could do to stop her. If she'd come here on some path to restore his powers, though, I'd be happy to help with that. Learning that the strongest hero, the biggest thing between us and the Endbringers, was getting weaker...
"More than that," she said. An answer to both the spoken and unspoken question? "There will be a reckoning in the indeterminate future. Granting powers is part of a larger attempt to avert an impending apocalyptic event that will occur simultaneously in every dimension of Earth."
Oh. Crap.
And I'd thought the Eidolon thing was scary.
Even with my newfound grasp on the English language, there wasn't much else to say to that. Even knowing about her power, I glanced around us, but... No one reacted, of course. She wouldn't have said it if they'd have heard.
"I'd feel a lot better about this if I had some sort of truth-teller here," I said.
"The only one Cauldron knows and trusts is Eidolon."
There was basically no way to know if she was telling the truth. Even if I brought a truth-telling power here, her power ensured that she could have bribed them a month before we ever met.
But this was pretty much irrelevant, because they had a near-perfect precog and I wasn't one of her blind spots. If they told me to jump, she could Path until I said, 'How high?'
If I focused too much on that, though, life would get really depressing. For now, best to just grin and bear it.
I breathed out. "Um," I said, rallying. "Can I maybe just help with Eidolon first?"
---
The woman lead me into an alleyway. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in a simple area, kind of like a bar, warmly lit but mostly shadowed. Eidolon was waiting for us there--I knew that, even if I didn't recognize his face. That green bodysuit and cape were just too distinct... And he pulled off that cape in a way very few other people could.
Still, I was starting to see why Eidolon usually kept the green glow up inside his hood. If I was being honest, he was kind of ugly--it wasn't anything about his expression and he had a surprising lack of scars for his length of service, he just didn't have good genes.
"Hello," he said, shaking my hand, smiling a little awkwardly. Did he not have a power that could let him grow back his hair? That was a little hard to believe... What was I even thinking? I really hoped he couldn't read minds. I'd heard there were no telepaths, but--
Right, he hadn't finished talking. "It's nice to meet you."
He didn't introduce himself, but he didn't really have to.
"Hi, I'm Taylor Hebert." I paused. Was I supposed to use a cape name? Did I HAVE a cape name? "I guess you can call me The Administrator, if I ever get a costume."
We sat down. There was a moment of silence.
I should have brought a drink or something. My throat was already dry.
"Excuse me for a second, I want to look at your power with mine," I said, and he nodded.
Administration: Selection and Distribution
A strong light, but for all that it wasn't dim, it was still 'dead.'
I repeated the label, opening my eyes, and he nodded. "I can do a quick thesaurus check, see what synonyms I get, narrow down exactly what it means," I said, "but... Um. I want to sidetrack for a moment, real quick." He nodded. "Have you ever tried giving someone else one of your powers?"
His eyebrows rose.
"I mean..." I breathed out, then in. "Okay. Do you know who Clockblocker is?"
He frowned. "A Ward, I believe," he said. "I would assume Brockton Bay?" A ghost of a smile. "There was somewhat of a stir when he announced that name of his."
There really had been.
"Yeah. To my power, he's 'Striker: Host-Invariable Variating Absolute Imposition Earth-Referenced Space-Time Prison, Connection-Variation Inevitability,'" I said. "And that's being economical with the words. So it's touch-based; the length of effect varies, but he can't control it himself; the effect is to lock things into time and space relative to Earth; and his power is stronger when he's in a situation where he's feeling helpless, allowing it to radiate out to objects connected to the thing he's affecting. That's actually pretty short for a power, because the effect is so strong that there's not many limiters on it. Yours is the shortest I've seen, though. And..." I gestured. The woman was still standing to our side.
"Contessa," she said.
"Contessa, thank you, her description is nearly as short: 'Observation: Entity-Restricted Object-Oriented Path.' She's a Thinker, she has blindspots relating to 'entities,' whatever those are, I'm pretty sure 'entity' doesn't mean 'thing' like it usually does because that contradicts 'object'--" Eidolon was frowning. "--and she has objective-based precognition. That's it. I know I haven't tested it often enough to see if there's limitations to my power that I'm still missing, but... Something tells me that if it has a flaw, it's not in the information it provides me."
"Let's operate on that assumption for now." I glanced back at Contessa. "Can I ask how you're described to your own power?"
I really appreciated the way she was keeping the conversation moving in the right direction.
"'Administration: Coordination, Space-Time-Bounded, Shard-Specified, Control-Locked, Range-Variation Confinement,'" I said. "So I can look at shards--that's what my power calls powers, I guess?--and figure out how to use them, but I'm restricted in how far away I can look and I can't actually use the 'control shards' part of my power. Which, uh, is probably for the best? I really don't want a kill order and I can't turn my power off, I've tried." I shook my head. Rambling. "I've seen several powers that have that sort of multiple-domain name and then lock off part of it, so it's probably common... It might have something to do with second triggers, I don't know."
"I notice your power is another fairly short one," Contessa said.
Was she building up my credibility? Should I act more confident--
She nodded, the motion slight enough that Eidolon may not have noticed. Dealing with even bounded omniscience (what did you call that, exactly?) was kind of cool, at least when we were on the same side.
"We should probably start. Eidolon," I said, looking back to him. "Get a power. Pick one that still has energy in it."
He started a little--I guess he wasn't used to being ordered around by random teenagers. Whatever; Contessa wouldn't have let me if I wasn't supposed to. He frowned a little, eyes flicking to Contessa--maybe he was thinking the same thing?--but he did it.
There was a new light sparkling there, sort of weirdly nested inside his light... It made the label inside difficult to focus on.
"Okay, now get one that doesn't," I said.
He was frowning at me, even as his node on the web glowed a little brighter. I could see the new node-inside-a-node sparkle dimly. "I've tried this."
I'd kind of hoped he hadn't. I mean, of course he would, but...
What exactly could I do that Contessa couldn't? Why was I here, just a few months after getting my power? What did I know?
The only thing I could think of was the web. It was possible she just wasn't asking the right questions, and all I had was perspective. I'd use it, then.
"Pull out a third power. Energy or no energy, it doesn't matter."
I focused on the web, pulling out as much detail as I could manage, and there was a sense I was zooming in--
I'd just received the barest glimpse of the way Eidolon's shifted when Contessa suddenly cleared her throat, startling me out of it. Even that glimpse left me dazed.
I took a deep breath, looking to the side. "Thanks," I said. "Really."
"I can't say I know why I did that," the woman said, a slight smile on her lips, "but you're welcome regardless."
Really? Interesting... But I'd think about that later.
I looked back towards Eidolon.
"Okay, so. Your powers." I blinked, doing my best to focus. "You aren't actually connected to them most of the time. It's kind of like..." I frowned. "My second sight lets me view a web with points of light on it--the powers. My range is really large, so I usually see anyone with a power coming from a long way away. The exception is teleporters, like when Contessa showed up." He nodded. "Well, every time you pull out a new power, you get a new light on the web inside your bigger light. I was watching when you pulled it out, and you connected to a space with lots and lots of other lights, more than I'd ever seen. If Contessa hadn't distracted me, it probably would've been... bad."
I shook my head, just a little. Distracted. Rambling.
"Okay, so, the point is," I said, "scratch what I said earlier, you may not be able to do the 'give people powers' thing. From what I can tell, you can pull powers and move them into your own power. That's all you really do, the shards themselves handle it from there. I don't think the other powers are even yours, exactly, it's just that you're the only one who can reach the place where they are. You know about Glaistig Ua--okay, you're Eidolon, of course you do," I said, and he smiled, one hand moving to cover his mouth. "Figure of speech. Anyway. You know how Glaistig Uaine can do more than just claim the dead? She can pull powers out of living capes, too." He nodded slightly. "You can do the same thing--like, I'm 90% sure on that. It's probably actually a lot easier than the other stuff you do, it's just a really direct usage of your real power. One of your Thinker abilities should show you how."
His eyebrows rose.
"Except, uh, I'm pretty sure that's going to kill the target, just like when she does it. So!" I said, voice much more energetic than I felt. "If we just ignore the whole 'murder' thing, then that's probably the easiest way for you to repower yourself--just pull energy out of their power into yours instead of pulling the power itself. If you want to try moving energy from some of your powers into the other powers, then that's probably a lot harder, but I think you can do it. It's just that that'll take familiarity with how it feels to move power like that, and, well. You know. Murder."
Eidolon frowned, brow crinkling. Contessa cleared her throat.
"Capes will die, regardless of what we do." For one horrible moment I thought that was a verbal shrug, but she smiled reassuringly at me. "Even if we restrict experimentation to those dying capes that we can take away discreetly, I think we'll have plenty of test subjects."
The smile was kind of an unsettling contrast with the words, but at least she was trying.
"Contessa," Eidolon said. For a brief, shining moment, I thought he'd say something like, 'Shouldn't we save them instead?'
"Not in front of Taylor."
Well, that was kind of disillusioning. Obvious, considering they had the portals, and if they had the ability to give powers then they surely had some form of healing, but... Still disappointing.
"She is somewhat of a pessimist," Contessa said. "She has already realized we could be doing a great deal more than we currently are, and also that we are perfectly capable of being less moral on this matter. Therefore, she'll respect us a little more for our honesty, even if she dislikes the truth."
True.
I sighed. "I'm just glad I was able to find something," I admitted. "I mean, I pretty much knew I would, since Contessa's Path thought I'd be useful, but--"
"Eidolon is one of my blind spots."
Wait, what?
"I suspected you could," Contessa said, and her smile looked much more genuine than any of the others I'd seen. "But for once, I didn't know much more than you. There are things even I have to take on faith."
My mouth was open. I shut it.
"Oh."
Eidolon laughed softly, and while I blushed, something about it was warm instead of mocking. "I trust your answer. If it's true, then we all have a great deal less to worry about." He looked almost relaxed, now--human, approachable. "It took me considerably longer to do something Contessa couldn't have, even with all of my power. You should be proud, Taylor."
That really did feel pretty good to hear.
Contessa stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder, eyes on Eidolon. "I think this is worthy of a little celebration. Let's go get lunch."
So then I went to grab a meal with what were definitely the two strongest superhumans on the planet, if you ignored the Endbringers.
You know, your normal Saturday.
Incidentally, all-powerful precogs pick great restaurants, and a man with hundreds of powers can make some pretty good disguises. Being a man for a bit was interesting.
This will be posted part-by-part every time an arc is done. It's roughly plotted out up to Arc 5 or so, but I've only written up to Arc 2. I do a lot of juggling various projects, so I make no promises as to update speed.
Expect the parts of Arc 2 every two to three days until it's all posted; still need to expand out the later parts of Arc 2. For now, here's Arc 1, Mission Statement.
El-Ahrairah
Mission Statement 1.1
I took a deep breath, even as I kept the corner of my eye on the city's Protectorate building. Another, more metaphorical corner kept watch over a web of lights.
'Protectorate.' I'd spent a lot of time thinking about words lately, on little nuances in meaning, and 'Protectorate' was a word I'd spent some time staring at. The immediate association fit: the Protectorate protected. The superheroes had gathered into an organization, and they protected everyone, the people with powers and without them, from the capes who were less scrupulous about their power. But that wasn't what the word 'protectorate' usually meant--it was the second definition in any dictionary, at the very most, even if the organization had become the top entry in any encyclopedia.
No, a 'protectorate' was someone protected, not someone who protects: the protectorate of the Protectorate was the people. So who was the protector of the Protectorate? Formally, in law, a protectorate was also a state subordinate to a larger one. So their name was a declaration of service to the government?
That was probably a good thing, but a part of me chafed at that... All the more when you considered that if I signed up, I wouldn't be joining the Protectorate. I'd be joining their junior branch, the Wards. Ward: 'a person placed into someone else's care.' I wasn't very eager to join a group called 'The Orphans,' not when I was here to escape a different form of state care.
Labels, definitions, names, words: I'd learned all about the power of little distinctions. People had 'rights,' but within certain bounds 'rights' became 'privileges,' and people were a lot more eager to take those away. That went double for students and children.
And then there was Shadow Stalker--Sophia Hess.
Still, if we were talking about rights, I'd been granted ones no one else had. The events of last month made me valuable now. I couldn't do fieldwork, so there wasn't any reason to put me into the field; that meant that if I really argued my case, I might be able to skip the Wards entirely. No, if I was put into some more central location--
I felt the web of light abruptly gain a new vertex. The bearer hadn't entered from the edge of my range, they'd simply appeared at its halfway point.
Observation: Entity-Restricted Object-Oriented Path
The words that came to mind weren't really words, just my mind's attempt to translate the concept--if I stared at them long enough, if I wasn't quite sure what it meant, I could force the words into synonyms. If I played twenty questions with my powers, trying to narrow down what all of the words had in common and what similar words weren't showing up, then I could generally get something pretty precise... But it took a lot of time, and it gave me an awful headache. Doing that for all of the city's official heroes and Wards (and most of the villains) had taken me ages.
Later, maybe, if there was a later. But not now.
This wasn't a teleportation power--the other Observers I'd seen were a subset of Thinker. Someone else had teleported her in, then?
'Object-Oriented'--goal-directed. 'Path'--multiple steps. A planner. A self-directing precog, then? The restriction was odd, though.
Strong, very strong: this was a high-quality power. No possible situational enhancements, but they probably didn't need it.
They were heading this way.
They'd appeared close enough that I knew they'd teleported, just far enough away for me to get time to look at their power before they arrived, and they'd chosen to appear in a place and time that would let them walk straight towards me without slowing down or stopping.
Whoever it was, they were here for me, and they wanted me to know it.
Right as that thought came to mind, she walked through the door. She actually looked kind of like I hoped I'd look, some day: short black hair somewhere between wavy and curly, slim, attractive even if she was no model. She was wearing a black suit and tie, and her eyes were on me the moment she stepped into view.
"Observer."
"Administrator," she replied, words strangely accented. I'd met Italians, and that accent didn't fit the cast of her features. Had she grown up somewhere else?
The silence stretched on. I was the first to break it.
"I kind of expected you to react to me not reacting to something you couldn't have known."
"The fact I didn't is giving you some idea of my power as a precognitive."
It did. She wasn't categorically bounded in a way I'd missed--coming here and saying that had required her to gain information related to my knowledge, my location, and her best course of action, and it'd done it before she'd been teleported here. A lot of Thinker powers were much narrower or gave much looser answers.
There weren't any mind-readers anywhere near me (I'd checked), and most powers didn't extend very far. In light of her short description, I could safely assume she had limited access to omniscience, then, so long as she asked the right questions and didn't run into any blind spots.
"Can I ask what path lead you here?"
"I am a member of an organization with the ability to grant powers."
So they wanted my ability to assess them?
"To give you an example, Triumph of the Protectorate was one of our clients."
"Battery too, right?" A nod. "Are all of those powers dead?" Her eyebrows rose. If I had to guess, she was asking for clarification. She'd probably know in an instant if she asked her own power... Maybe she had, and she was just being polite. "I see a web of lights; if I focus, each light has a description. They light up more if they're currently using powers, but theirs are dimmer even when they do... I think it might be the energy the power has left to use? Not sure." I shook my head. "I keep thinking they're 'dead,' for some reason, but it's not on the web, so I can't pull twenty questions. 'Inactive'? 'Inert'? I don't know."
I'd spent a lot of hours in the nearest coffee shop to the Protectorate building to figure that one out. My range was about ten blocks, and the Protectorate was just close enough.
"Yes." A beat, a small smile. "Apparently. That does explain a persistent question."
I tilted my head slightly. The woman continued.
"Eidolon is another one of our clients. It seems he's losing the strength in a number of his chosen powers."
Oh. That... was bad. In a lot of ways, really, because if they could give other people powers as strong as the strongest superhero in the world--no. Focus, Taylor.
"If you want me to look at him, I don't mind," I said. "He's, uh... kind of important."
Granted, if she wanted to kidnap me, there wasn't really anything I could do to stop her. If she'd come here on some path to restore his powers, though, I'd be happy to help with that. Learning that the strongest hero, the biggest thing between us and the Endbringers, was getting weaker...
"More than that," she said. An answer to both the spoken and unspoken question? "There will be a reckoning in the indeterminate future. Granting powers is part of a larger attempt to avert an impending apocalyptic event that will occur simultaneously in every dimension of Earth."
Oh. Crap.
And I'd thought the Eidolon thing was scary.
Even with my newfound grasp on the English language, there wasn't much else to say to that. Even knowing about her power, I glanced around us, but... No one reacted, of course. She wouldn't have said it if they'd have heard.
"I'd feel a lot better about this if I had some sort of truth-teller here," I said.
"The only one Cauldron knows and trusts is Eidolon."
There was basically no way to know if she was telling the truth. Even if I brought a truth-telling power here, her power ensured that she could have bribed them a month before we ever met.
But this was pretty much irrelevant, because they had a near-perfect precog and I wasn't one of her blind spots. If they told me to jump, she could Path until I said, 'How high?'
If I focused too much on that, though, life would get really depressing. For now, best to just grin and bear it.
I breathed out. "Um," I said, rallying. "Can I maybe just help with Eidolon first?"
---
The woman lead me into an alleyway. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in a simple area, kind of like a bar, warmly lit but mostly shadowed. Eidolon was waiting for us there--I knew that, even if I didn't recognize his face. That green bodysuit and cape were just too distinct... And he pulled off that cape in a way very few other people could.
Still, I was starting to see why Eidolon usually kept the green glow up inside his hood. If I was being honest, he was kind of ugly--it wasn't anything about his expression and he had a surprising lack of scars for his length of service, he just didn't have good genes.
"Hello," he said, shaking my hand, smiling a little awkwardly. Did he not have a power that could let him grow back his hair? That was a little hard to believe... What was I even thinking? I really hoped he couldn't read minds. I'd heard there were no telepaths, but--
Right, he hadn't finished talking. "It's nice to meet you."
He didn't introduce himself, but he didn't really have to.
"Hi, I'm Taylor Hebert." I paused. Was I supposed to use a cape name? Did I HAVE a cape name? "I guess you can call me The Administrator, if I ever get a costume."
We sat down. There was a moment of silence.
I should have brought a drink or something. My throat was already dry.
"Excuse me for a second, I want to look at your power with mine," I said, and he nodded.
Administration: Selection and Distribution
A strong light, but for all that it wasn't dim, it was still 'dead.'
I repeated the label, opening my eyes, and he nodded. "I can do a quick thesaurus check, see what synonyms I get, narrow down exactly what it means," I said, "but... Um. I want to sidetrack for a moment, real quick." He nodded. "Have you ever tried giving someone else one of your powers?"
His eyebrows rose.
"I mean..." I breathed out, then in. "Okay. Do you know who Clockblocker is?"
He frowned. "A Ward, I believe," he said. "I would assume Brockton Bay?" A ghost of a smile. "There was somewhat of a stir when he announced that name of his."
There really had been.
"Yeah. To my power, he's 'Striker: Host-Invariable Variating Absolute Imposition Earth-Referenced Space-Time Prison, Connection-Variation Inevitability,'" I said. "And that's being economical with the words. So it's touch-based; the length of effect varies, but he can't control it himself; the effect is to lock things into time and space relative to Earth; and his power is stronger when he's in a situation where he's feeling helpless, allowing it to radiate out to objects connected to the thing he's affecting. That's actually pretty short for a power, because the effect is so strong that there's not many limiters on it. Yours is the shortest I've seen, though. And..." I gestured. The woman was still standing to our side.
"Contessa," she said.
"Contessa, thank you, her description is nearly as short: 'Observation: Entity-Restricted Object-Oriented Path.' She's a Thinker, she has blindspots relating to 'entities,' whatever those are, I'm pretty sure 'entity' doesn't mean 'thing' like it usually does because that contradicts 'object'--" Eidolon was frowning. "--and she has objective-based precognition. That's it. I know I haven't tested it often enough to see if there's limitations to my power that I'm still missing, but... Something tells me that if it has a flaw, it's not in the information it provides me."
"Let's operate on that assumption for now." I glanced back at Contessa. "Can I ask how you're described to your own power?"
I really appreciated the way she was keeping the conversation moving in the right direction.
"'Administration: Coordination, Space-Time-Bounded, Shard-Specified, Control-Locked, Range-Variation Confinement,'" I said. "So I can look at shards--that's what my power calls powers, I guess?--and figure out how to use them, but I'm restricted in how far away I can look and I can't actually use the 'control shards' part of my power. Which, uh, is probably for the best? I really don't want a kill order and I can't turn my power off, I've tried." I shook my head. Rambling. "I've seen several powers that have that sort of multiple-domain name and then lock off part of it, so it's probably common... It might have something to do with second triggers, I don't know."
"I notice your power is another fairly short one," Contessa said.
Was she building up my credibility? Should I act more confident--
She nodded, the motion slight enough that Eidolon may not have noticed. Dealing with even bounded omniscience (what did you call that, exactly?) was kind of cool, at least when we were on the same side.
"We should probably start. Eidolon," I said, looking back to him. "Get a power. Pick one that still has energy in it."
He started a little--I guess he wasn't used to being ordered around by random teenagers. Whatever; Contessa wouldn't have let me if I wasn't supposed to. He frowned a little, eyes flicking to Contessa--maybe he was thinking the same thing?--but he did it.
There was a new light sparkling there, sort of weirdly nested inside his light... It made the label inside difficult to focus on.
"Okay, now get one that doesn't," I said.
He was frowning at me, even as his node on the web glowed a little brighter. I could see the new node-inside-a-node sparkle dimly. "I've tried this."
I'd kind of hoped he hadn't. I mean, of course he would, but...
What exactly could I do that Contessa couldn't? Why was I here, just a few months after getting my power? What did I know?
The only thing I could think of was the web. It was possible she just wasn't asking the right questions, and all I had was perspective. I'd use it, then.
"Pull out a third power. Energy or no energy, it doesn't matter."
I focused on the web, pulling out as much detail as I could manage, and there was a sense I was zooming in--
I'd just received the barest glimpse of the way Eidolon's shifted when Contessa suddenly cleared her throat, startling me out of it. Even that glimpse left me dazed.
I took a deep breath, looking to the side. "Thanks," I said. "Really."
"I can't say I know why I did that," the woman said, a slight smile on her lips, "but you're welcome regardless."
Really? Interesting... But I'd think about that later.
I looked back towards Eidolon.
"Okay, so. Your powers." I blinked, doing my best to focus. "You aren't actually connected to them most of the time. It's kind of like..." I frowned. "My second sight lets me view a web with points of light on it--the powers. My range is really large, so I usually see anyone with a power coming from a long way away. The exception is teleporters, like when Contessa showed up." He nodded. "Well, every time you pull out a new power, you get a new light on the web inside your bigger light. I was watching when you pulled it out, and you connected to a space with lots and lots of other lights, more than I'd ever seen. If Contessa hadn't distracted me, it probably would've been... bad."
I shook my head, just a little. Distracted. Rambling.
"Okay, so, the point is," I said, "scratch what I said earlier, you may not be able to do the 'give people powers' thing. From what I can tell, you can pull powers and move them into your own power. That's all you really do, the shards themselves handle it from there. I don't think the other powers are even yours, exactly, it's just that you're the only one who can reach the place where they are. You know about Glaistig Ua--okay, you're Eidolon, of course you do," I said, and he smiled, one hand moving to cover his mouth. "Figure of speech. Anyway. You know how Glaistig Uaine can do more than just claim the dead? She can pull powers out of living capes, too." He nodded slightly. "You can do the same thing--like, I'm 90% sure on that. It's probably actually a lot easier than the other stuff you do, it's just a really direct usage of your real power. One of your Thinker abilities should show you how."
His eyebrows rose.
"Except, uh, I'm pretty sure that's going to kill the target, just like when she does it. So!" I said, voice much more energetic than I felt. "If we just ignore the whole 'murder' thing, then that's probably the easiest way for you to repower yourself--just pull energy out of their power into yours instead of pulling the power itself. If you want to try moving energy from some of your powers into the other powers, then that's probably a lot harder, but I think you can do it. It's just that that'll take familiarity with how it feels to move power like that, and, well. You know. Murder."
Eidolon frowned, brow crinkling. Contessa cleared her throat.
"Capes will die, regardless of what we do." For one horrible moment I thought that was a verbal shrug, but she smiled reassuringly at me. "Even if we restrict experimentation to those dying capes that we can take away discreetly, I think we'll have plenty of test subjects."
The smile was kind of an unsettling contrast with the words, but at least she was trying.
"Contessa," Eidolon said. For a brief, shining moment, I thought he'd say something like, 'Shouldn't we save them instead?'
"Not in front of Taylor."
Well, that was kind of disillusioning. Obvious, considering they had the portals, and if they had the ability to give powers then they surely had some form of healing, but... Still disappointing.
"She is somewhat of a pessimist," Contessa said. "She has already realized we could be doing a great deal more than we currently are, and also that we are perfectly capable of being less moral on this matter. Therefore, she'll respect us a little more for our honesty, even if she dislikes the truth."
True.
I sighed. "I'm just glad I was able to find something," I admitted. "I mean, I pretty much knew I would, since Contessa's Path thought I'd be useful, but--"
"Eidolon is one of my blind spots."
Wait, what?
"I suspected you could," Contessa said, and her smile looked much more genuine than any of the others I'd seen. "But for once, I didn't know much more than you. There are things even I have to take on faith."
My mouth was open. I shut it.
"Oh."
Eidolon laughed softly, and while I blushed, something about it was warm instead of mocking. "I trust your answer. If it's true, then we all have a great deal less to worry about." He looked almost relaxed, now--human, approachable. "It took me considerably longer to do something Contessa couldn't have, even with all of my power. You should be proud, Taylor."
That really did feel pretty good to hear.
Contessa stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder, eyes on Eidolon. "I think this is worthy of a little celebration. Let's go get lunch."
So then I went to grab a meal with what were definitely the two strongest superhumans on the planet, if you ignored the Endbringers.
You know, your normal Saturday.
Incidentally, all-powerful precogs pick great restaurants, and a man with hundreds of powers can make some pretty good disguises. Being a man for a bit was interesting.
