In an alternate reality, a shard prepared.

It's target was finally ready for synchronization, the trigger event was in progress, it was time.

However, before the synchronization could complete, something landed on it, destroying it utterly.

In another reality, a group of heroes, and a couple of villains, thwarted the efforts of a madman to control and combine their entire section of the multiverse. During this confrontation, the artifact he was attempting to control split into 4 pieces and drifted aimlessly through reality. Eventually, one of these fragments arrived in the same reality that the shard was residing.

The result was that, instead of Taylor Hebert connecting to a Queen Shard and gaining control over insects, she tapped into a section of the Foundation of the Lego Universe.

And hers would never be the same.

(Taylor POV)

2 weeks.

2 goddamn weeks in the hospital after what they did to me. Plus an additional week of the medical version of house arrest.

I lay back in bed and huffed, half out of boredom and half out of frustration. Actually on second thought, the ratio was 1:3, maybe 4. Apparently grabbing a ton of used tampons from the trash and letting them rot for a few days is a recipe for infection, I was lucky none of the girls who 'donated' them had an STD. Combine that with being trapped in a locker overnight, clawing at the door until my fingers bled trying to escape, I'm actually surprised they didn't need to call in Panacea.

Again I considered telling Dad what had happened, what had been happening. Again, I dismissed it. Emma, my former best friend, and her two cronies had been tormenting me for years now, I could handle it a bit longer. Besides, it wasn't like anything would change. Winslow was less a school and more a recruitment office for the city's various gangs, I gave up on telling a teacher after a week.

The frustration wasn't anything I could do about, but I wasn't staying in bed for another minute. I might still be feeling a bit weak, but a stray memory of something from my childhood made me grin. Pulling myself out of bed, I slowly made my way to the basement.

Most of the basement was filled with her mother's old things, exiled here after she died. I pointedly avoided them as best I could as I pulled out a large plastic bin. No way in hell was I getting this thing up the stairs, even if I wasn't feeling like crap. Luckily there was an old table and chair down here I could use. I dragged the bin over to it, removed the lid...

And looked over my, impressive if I do say so myself, collection of Legos.

Fond memories surged through my mind as I picked up a handful of bricks and let them trickle through my fingers. Giggling just a little, I grabbed a handful and dumped them on the table and started to put them together. I eventually managed to put together a little yellow ATV, most of the pieces were from construction vehicle sets. The funny thing was, I always had trouble putting things together without instructions, but here I made something that could have belonged in an official kit without so much as glancing at them. However, the last time I had really played with these things was when I was 9, and it was a pretty simple build so... not too strange I guess.

A moment of hesitation later, I was rolling the little ATV across the table, making 'vroom' noises. So sue me, it was relaxing, and I needed to relax. After the shit that I had gone through the past year and a half, hell, the last couple of weeks, this made me feel 10,000 times better. After a minute I let go of it.

And it kept on moving.

My jaw hit the table as the little collection of plastic pieces moved under its own power, right towards the edge of the table. Without thinking, I willed it to turn before it went over, and turn it did. Before long I had built it a little stunt course, and had it going over jumps, through loop-de-loops, and all matters of other tricks. As it hit the big ramp, I wondered what it would be like to ride it.

And as it cleared the jump it grew to the size of an actual ATV and collided with the wall.

I was so shocked that I didn't notice my dad entering the basement until the crowbar he was holding hit the concrete floor with a clatter. Even then, we could only stare at each other, competing to see who had the bigger mouth, until he finally broke the silence.

"So... you're a cape."

"Looks like it."

(3rd POV)

Contessa was a villain. She had done so many terrible things that a mere fraction of them would have earned her the death penalty. The fact that her end goal was the destruction of a being that threatened the entire planet was inconsequential.

She herself was one of the most important members of her group, due to her power. She could see the path that led to victory, every single step laid out in order. Since awakening her power she has spent every waking moment and then some as a slave to the Path, every missed step lengthening the path in a worst case scenario.

15 minutes ago, the Path had, for a lack of a better word, hiccuped. Instead of a long list of tasks, there now stood only one.

Standby 3 months, then examine situation Broxton Bay

It stayed the same, just like the last thousand or so times she had checked it. The current record of free time that the Path had allowed her was 18 hours. For it to suddenly have a 3 month gap meant only 1 thing, a new trigger. Not just a new trigger but one so powerful that they had become integral to the path. There hadn't been any news of a debut in Broxton Bay that she had heard of, which meant they were either laying low and something would expose them in 3 months, or they were getting some practice and/or prep work in before their debut.

Making a decision, she sent off a few emails before packing a few bags. This was her first vacation period since encountering Eden all those years ago, and she was going to spend it in Hawaii.