Golden Morning + 5 days.
Earth Bet was a ruin.
I knew that, of course, before coming. I'd been there on the front lines in the desperate fight against Scion, I'd seen the destruction he'd wrought against teammates and friends, his casual disregard for collateral damage, but it was another thing entirely to see it without the constant threat of death hanging over your head, to really take it in. I was past the point of shock - how could I not be, considering everything I'd been party to, the blood on my hands as a result of my ignorance and blind trust - but comprehension, understanding... that was still a way off yet.
After all, looking out over the world that for the majority of my life was the only world I knew, awful as it might have been, and seeing it so broken... As far as I could see, where the omnipresent pall of smoke and beating rain didn't occlude my otherwise perfect vision, the earth was torn and blackened, marred by fire and... other effects. Here and there I could pick out a familiar landmark, but those were few and far between. Scion's rampage had blasted more than just the landmasses of humanity's cradle, it had redrawn the map entirely. Entire coastlines had shifted and changed, new seas were forming and old ones were draining. Forests burned, the roads burned, the buildings... everything burned.
At my sides, my fists clenched, and I turned away from the horizon and willed myself to descend. I allowed myself time; there was no rush, and I could be anywhere in the blink of an eye if I wanted - needed - to be. The ruins of New York stretched out beneath me, the devastation here all the more apparent for the twisted wreckage of civilisation. The east coast had all but been destroyed, prompting my earlier thoughts about new seas forming, but parts of New York had somehow survived. There wasn't much, but it was enough to be familiar. Scion's blasts had torn steel and concrete asunder like so much paper, and I tried not to look too hard at the exposed interiors of buildings or the burnt out husks of cars on the roads, nor at the points where the waves lapped at third story windows. I knew what I would see there, and the wound of losing Arthur was too deep still, his memory fresh in my mind. I couldn't help but fear seeing his face on one of the hundreds of thousands of bodies left without proper burial, even though I knew there was little chance of recognising the victims.
New York had been left until late in the fight, the point where he'd been past experimenting. He'd been angry, then; Khepri's ceaseless assault played on some fundamental weakness we'd never suspected the Golden Man of, one that perhaps even he had no idea of, and he took his anger out on us. On the innocents I'd sworn to protect with these powers of mine.
On Arthur and Keith.
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut lest tears slip past against my will. My descent halted for a moment as I took steadying breaths, tilting my head back so that when I opened my eyes again I could for a moment pretend this was just another day. The fires below still burnt and guttered here and there, but the smoke wasn't as thick above the city. Scion had done more than tear our home apart, he'd rendered it completely uninhabitable for the next hundred years, or even longer. The climate was reeling, the weather a tumultuous reflection of the damage done, and rain had been falling heavily for at least the last week. It beat against my costume, plastering my hair against my face, but I didn't reach up to brush it out of my eyes.
It felt appropriate, somehow, that it would be raining. As if the planet was mourning its loss in its own way.
Why did I come back? I'd seen it before. I knew what I'd find here. Earth Bet was the site of my disgrace, a world I'd failed in more ways than I could count. A people I'd promised to defend, but fallen woefully short. I knew Cauldron didn't tell me the full extent of their actions for a reason; Contessa alone would know that the knowing would have broken me, driven a wedge between the Triumvirate at a time when unity was needed above all else. I understood, but I couldn't find it in my hearts to forgive them. It'd be even longer before I could forgive myself.
A stray thought crossed my mind, and although it made me flinch I couldn't begrudge myself for thinking it. It was poetic justice of the worst kind, that I would survive to live with my guilt whilst the other two died. David had fought for his legacy, to be remembered, and died a death made all the more ignoble for knowing how easily he was defeated. Alexandria... her death was more complete than that, almost a destruction in its own right, and even after her passing she wasn't allowed her undeserved peace, body recycled by another capes powers to keep her strength and durability on the field. Contessa survived, of that I was certain. In the aftermath of Golden Morning it'd been chaotic, a mess of elation and realisation that we'd won at great cost, and despite my asking no one had seen her. That made her survival all the more certain in my eyes - if there was anyone who could avoid detection, it would have been her, and though the surviving Irregulars claimed to have killed her... it rung hollow.
A shame. She out of all of us deserved death the most. It was her who set us on this path, her who kept Cauldron working towards its noble end goal even as she took it down roads that led to dark places. Doctor Mother acted as the figurehead, and for a long time I'd believed it, but after the revelation of Contessa's powers... I knew it had to be her.
I couldn't even bring myself to hate her, now. Everything she'd done, she'd done for the right reasons, but she'd been asking the wrong questions. In the end, all of Cauldron's preparations fell flat, their - our - actions all for naught. We filled our ledger with blood until the world swam with it, and it meant nothing.
My feet brushed the ground, startling me. I hadn't realised I'd been drifting. Beneath my feet the earth cracked and shattered, a thick layer of ash hiding the true extent of the damage Scion had done to my city. I let out a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding, and looked around. Here and there I could see signs of habitation, the odd survivor obviously attempting to eek out a living in this godforsaken place for reasons I couldn't fathom. Or maybe I could - there was a part of me that wished to see New York rebuilt, as we had done after Behemoth, but I knew it for the pipe dream it was.
My hands were shaking.
I held them out in front of me, the blue and white frosted costume doing little to hide the crimson I could all too easily picture dripping between my fingers. The rain still fell, the sound filling the otherwise silent streets but leaving an empty void I couldn't begin to fathom ever being lessened.
Humanity had won, but we?
We had lost.
A peal of thunder had me look up instinctively, light blossoming around my hands, but it was only the storm. My lips quirked, a ghost of a smile there and gone in an instant. I looked at my hands again. The red was still there.
I couldn't atone for my sins, not for the magnitude of what I had been part of, unknowingly or otherwise. There was one thing that I was good at, though. One thing that might allow me to redeem myself to the dead. The thing I'd set out to do and failed in.
I might not be a hero, but I could still try. There were always lives to save, capes that needed to be reminded that the law - or what passed for it now - included them, people who now more than ever needed something this earth had lost a long time ago.
Hope.
Because after all, that strange secondary application of my power meant I would have all the time in the world to make my amends. Khonsu had proven that where before I'd only suspected. I would outlive them all, save for some of the other capes in similar situations. Humanity would rise again from the ashes, and I would have the pleasure of watching it falter and fail once more.
The only thing I could do was to make sure that when it did so, it was by choice.
I lifted a finger to my ear, the tinkertech earbud squealing for a moment as it burnt through the lingering effects of one of Scion's more considered attacks before punching through to another world.
"Valkyrie?"
A portal opened in front of me, and I straightened my shoulders and stepped through into another New York. It wasn't the same, but I could pretend. The memories of the original - and damn what anyone else said - would live on in me.
There was work to be done.
- - Legends Never Die - -
Golden Morning + 1 Month, Earth Gimel.
My eyes picked out the disturbance long before anyone could see me, and I allowed my breaker state to shift flesh and blood to solid light as I descended, playing up the image of a meteoric reckoning. The camps outside New York G were still in their infancy, even after all the work that had gone in to make sure there was some kind of structure for the dispossessed and homeless to rely on, and despite the best efforts of the fledgling Wardens - of which I was now the temporary second in command, regardless of Chevalier's desire for me to make the position more permanent - lawlessness was still a big issue. The unity and common suffering of Golden Morning was already beginning to pale in comparison to the seemingly endless struggle of survival, of dealing with the aftermath.
In this instance, it was a hold up. Two men, brandishing knives, holding another man and his two children hostage whilst they gesticulated, most likely demanding... something. Money had gone out of fashion in a big way, but a barter economy was forming in its place; perhaps the father had some skill or owned something the other two wanted.
No matter.
Two pencil thin lasers peeled off from my outstretched palm even as I closed in, the aggressors turning at the look of hope on the faces of their victims only to be thrown to the floor under a concussive impact that belied the beam's width. One tried to get up again, but I was already landing, stepping forward with grace borne of flight to heft him by the back of his jacket and fling him to the floor again. It was unlike me to get up close and personal, but there was nothing they could do to harm me.
A sharp stinging sensation in my leg had me look down, a flicker running through my body as I instinctively shifted states. The one on the floor had tried to stab me.
"You're obviously as bright as you look," I quipped, more for the sake of the children than any desire for flippancy.
He spat, cursing, but a third laser rendered him senseless. His companion, seeing the futility of trying to fight, scrambled to his feet and sprinted away through the tented streets. I tilted my head, looked at the father and his children as they thanked me, and winked.
"Watch this."
In an instant I was in front of the fleeing culprit, arm raised. He ran into it, and crashed to the floor. I could hear the children laughing, see the relief on their father's face, and for a moment I felt good. This was why I took that formula all those years ago, the prevention of crimes that in the bigger picture meant little but to those involved meant everything. Somewhere along the way I'd lost sight of that.
Way to ruin your good mood, I scolded myself, and tugged a zip tie from the special compartment at the small of my back hidden within the detailing of my costume. With both men secured, I lifted a finger straight upwards and fired another laser that exploded in bright green light that lit up the dusk. A team would be here soon to deal with them. In the meantime, I let myself drift down the road, nodding at those who'd poked their heads out - and done nothing - of their tents to see what was happening.
As I drew nearer, the father started talking. "T-Thank you, Legend." He tried to keep it from his face and voice, but I knew the signs of awe well. "They were threatening..." He paused, shot a look at his children, and I nodded.
"I understand. I'm just glad I was able to do something in time to stop that happening."
The two kids, a boy and a girl, chose that moment to get over their own stunned silence and rushed towards me. I dropped into a crouch, and smiled.
"Well hello, you two. Feeling okay?"
The girl nodded furiously, her brother doing the talking. "Yes! That was so cool! I mean, not the bit with the nasty men but the bit afterwards!"
I chuckled. "I'm glad you approved, but I'm sure you'd have stopped him if I'd been only a second later, right?"
He blushed, and the girl made a noise that seemed halfway between a snort and a giggle. I shot her a sidelong look and waggled my eyebrows, making small arcs of light jump between them as I did so, and the sound became true laughter. Reaching out, I ruffled both of their hair before straightening up, holding out a hand for the man to shake.
"I wish I could stay longer," I said, truly meaning it, "but crime waits for no man, not even me." The children looked sombre again, their father nodding in agreement, so I added: "But it's alright, because I can fly fast enough that it doesn't matter if the criminals wait or not!"
With that, I shifted states once more for effect, saluted the kids, nodded to the man, and leapt into the sky.
My ledger still oozed blood, but the little things like this? It made it possible to live with myself. In another time, if that had gone any differently or I hadn't been there to intervene, the kids could have triggered. If not, maybe they'd have been targeted for a vial. The thought made my good mood evaporate once again, and I levelled out just below cloud level and scanned the city below me.
Maybe keeping busy was my way of dealing with the loss of everything I knew. Maybe it was my way of avoiding the thoughts that plagued my sleep - when I even bothered to sleep these days - as nightmares I couldn't outrun or blast apart. I couldn't believe I was doing it because I was a good person. Maybe I had been, once, a long time ago, but years of active service had taken that innocence from me. Funny, that I should pick such an auspicious name, so undeserved.
At least it wasn't as silly as Hero.
And there I go again, bringing up memories I could do without. Maybe he'd be handling this better than I am, his devices giving him some way of markedly improving our situation. His ever present optimism would come in handy especially - mine, for all that I meant it, was forced. A sigh escaped me, and I turned my attention back to the surface below. A city block away from my last intervention I could see a fight breaking out over food supplies.
Time to distract myself again, playing hero.
If I live that lie for long enough, maybe I can believe it again.
- - Legends Never Die - -
Golden Morning + 2 months, Earth Gimel.
"You need to take a break, Jonathan."
I looked up from the steaming mug of coffee - more a holdover of a time before my powers took the need for sustenance away from me - to see the concerned features of Hannah looking down at me. Much as I had done, she'd forgone the flag that used to make up her mask, though for different reasons. I did it because I didn't deserve the freedom another life away from cape business afforded, she because she was off duty.
I sighed, setting the mug down. "I don't need sleep, nor food or drink." Her eyes dropped to the mug for a moment, one eyebrow lifting imperceptibly, and I snorted. "I like the taste, okay? It's not because I'm running out of steam."
"You've not slept in weeks, and I asked around," she said, taking a seat opposite me. "No one's seen you rest in the same time. I'd even say you've not stopped since Golden Morning, but I don't think you're that foolish."
There was no bite to her words, and I shook my head. "No, I am that foolish. There's so much to be done, Hannah, so many people out there who're suffering even though we won. I can't sit by idle whilst they're out there. I can't fail them."
The again went unspoken, but I could tell she'd picked up on it. She pursed her lips, eyes crinkling in concern and puckering the scar she now bore for all the world to see. We were all marked like that in one way or another, though my wounds were internal. I could coast on my undeserved reputation, to an extent - everyone saw me leading by example and assumed I must be fine.
Hannah knew me better, despite the fact that it'd been decades since she was my Ward.
"This burden isn't yours to carry alone, Jon. The Wardens are here, we are here. Your team. Your friends."
"I know," I replied, feeling the fight go out of me. I sank back into my chair, for the first time letting my weariness show. "But it's not me trying to be Atlas. The burden I carry is mine alone, and I couldn't forgive myself if I let others carry that weight. So much of this," I made a sweeping gesture, encompassing the view out of the window and the world with it, "was our fault. If I'd known, if I'd bothered to find out, maybe things would have been different."
She shook her head, a flash of anger colouring her dark skin. "That's stupid and you know it. What Cauldron did... I can't defend it, but I understand why they did it."
"Why we did it, Hannah. I'm no less guilty for my ignorance."
"Did you know some people have started calling you the second coming of Scion, before his fall?"
That stunned me. I sat, wordless. What could I say to that? It was in bad taste, certainly, but some people just couldn't believe that the golden man had been responsible for the Golden Morning. Before Scion broke and started destroying us, he was our greatest hero, ceaseless in his efforts to prevent death and violence. No one else could hurt the Endbringers like he had, no one else could stop erupting volcanoes with a mere wave of a hand. I... I didn't deserve that comparison. Not by a long shot.
Though, maybe... maybe I did. Scion broke us all in the end, and my crimes, whilst not on the same scale, affected countless innocent lives. I was an icon people looked up to, and that faith was misplaced.
Hannah poked me, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Jon, I know you. I can tell you're already rationalising that explanation away in your head, telling yourself that you don't deserve it whilst at the same time accepting the darker connotations of that comparison. You're not him, Legend. You've done more than anyone since the Golden Morning to keep people safe, to protect those who need it. You're a hero. Even heroes have dark pasts, but they don't let them define who they are. They rise above it."
"That's what I'm trying to do," I fired back, feeling the threat of tears again. Unbidden, Arthur's face flashed before my mind's eye, and I took a deep, halting breath. "It's just that I've got a hell of a lot more rising to do before I can even feel like I've made progress."
"Jon..."
I sighed, and stood. "I'm sorry, Hannah. Thank you for trying to help me, for taking the time to ask, but... my past isn't something I can just pretend never happened."
I was already halfway to the door when I heard her reply.
"That's why you're a better person than most of us, even if you can't see it yet."
I bit my lip so hard that my power automatically activated, whisking away the blood before it'd had time to well, but didn't turn back. Every second I wasted was another life I could have saved, another life I didn't save before. Hannah and the others couldn't see that, not even Michael, and he knew me best. He was a far better leader than I ever was.
It wasn't until I was safely away from everyone, high above the city, that my carefully constructed defences were overwhelmed and the sobs wracked my body, shaking me until I curled up into a ball and just hung there. This world, these people... they knew me. They remembered the Legend who Cauldron wanted them to see, the man I hadn't been for years. I didn't deserve that respect, hadn't earned it. Not yet. Maybe I could go to another world, a place where the first thing they knew about capes was Scion knocking down their front door and raining death upon them from above. Cauldron knew that a dimension exposed to capes soon began to develop a native cape population of their own as shards budded or jumped hosts, and with that came the increasing risk of conflict and monstrous triggers.
Until such a time, however, this world had needs and I would answer. Not an instant later, I was moving, arrowing downwards to intervene in another incident.
- - Legends Never Die - -
Golden Morning + 4 months, Earth Gimel.
"I've put a lot of thought into it, Michael, and I'm certain."
Even though he was in full armour, cannonblade at his side, I could see his shoulders slump. "Goddamnit, Jon. I... I know why you're asking this, but I can't afford to lose you. Not now, not yet, maybe not ever. The Wardens need something that ties us in to the original purpose of the Protectorate, something or someone who reminds them of the times before the world went to shit. We're barely staying afloat as it is!"
I'd expected this argument, and had a counter prepared. "I know that, and you wouldn't be losing me. The Wardens don't have full coverage of all the dimensions yet, not even close, and I could take a big step in bringing that protection to a world that truly needs it. I'm not leaving, just... taking a step back from things. I," My voice broke, but I persevered. "I don't think I can keep this up, Michael. That very same reputation you value so highly weighs on my shoulders like a thousand tonnes of stone. I'm not the infallible unstoppable heroic machine everyone thinks I am."
"You don't need to feel like that," he replied, reaching out to clasp my shoulder. "You of all people shouldn't be beating yourself up over what Cauldron did behind your back."
"I should have known, or bothered to find out," I retorted, the reply almost automatic. It was a conversation I'd had many times with many people since Hannah had spoken to me in the cafeteria all those weeks ago, and Michael had even asked Jessica Yamada to come and speak to me. It was churlish of me, perhaps, but the idea that someone could come and talk to me, try to make me feel better about myself, didn't sit right. "I need this, more than I can say. An escape from the expectations people have of me, the respect I don't deserve. On a new world, I can build that trust afresh, and actually earn it this time."
His grip tightened, and I could hear the distress in his voice despite the helmet. "You earned it the last time you stupid bastard!"
"So everyone keeps telling me," I laughed, but it was a hollow sound. "Michael, please. I can do good like this, real good. I've been trying here, trying so hard to make up for what I've done, but I can't escape the assumption everyone has about me being a great hero. Already people are forgetting everything Cauldron did, the role I played in that. It hurts."
"And running away to another world where they know even less about what you supposedly did is going to solve that?"
I shook my head with a sigh, and he released my arm. "No, it won't, but I'll feel like it's real."
Can't refute the fact that it'd be running away.
Chevalier shifted his cannonblade at his side, a sure sign that he was frustrated and trying not to show it. "You're set on this, aren't you?"
"I am."
"Which world, then? And goddamnit, Jon, if you don't call every week I'll send an entire fucking extraction team to bring you back in kicking and screaming if I have to. You're not running off to some backend world to mope where we can't clip you around the metaphorical ear and tell you how stupid you're being."
That got a laugh that almost sounded genuine. "I won't be moping. I'll be saving lives."
"You're a stubborn bastard, has anyone ever told you that?"
"Once or twice, I think. Can't think why."
He shook his head, and then looked around. After a moment, he reached up and pulled his helmet off, leveling a gaze that pierced me to my bone. "Jon, you're a good friend, and an even better person. If - and that's an if - I let you do this, you have to promise me that you won't lose yourself in those dark thoughts of yours."
"I... can't promise that, Michael. Ask anything else of me, and I'll swear to it in a heartbeat, but not that."
"God fucking damn you, Jon. Alright," he turned away slightly and started speaking into his mic. "This is Chevalier; Legend and I are cutting this patrol short. Get Amberclad and one of the other Movers prepped and ready to take over for us, and clear a conference room and some laptops."
Michael turned back to me, and I smiled.
"Thank you. This means more than you could fathom, I think."
"Call every damn week, you understand?"
A nod. "That I can promise."
We made the trip back in silence, diverting twice to intervene in a crime or incident I spotted from my overwatch position as Michael maintained a steady pace back to headquarters. By the time we arrived in the departure room, Amberclad and another cape I vaguely recognised - Sureshot? - were gearing up. We nodded to them, made polite conversation for a few minutes before they departed, and then headed deeper into the building. Along the way, another figure joined us.
"Valkyrie."
She smiled. "Kn- Legend. Well met."
Michael eyed her warily - he didn't trust easily, and Glastig Uaine had more reason than most to not trust her - but didn't comment.
"I hear you're leaving."
"I'd ask how, but I can probably guess," Michael commented, looking suddenly harried.
Ciara smiled that enigmatic smile again, and turned to me, easily navigating the busy corridors with barely a glance to where she was walking. "I would ask to accompany you, but I suspect my minders would find the idea of me off in a world with minimal Warden presence alarming."
"Damn right they would," Michael muttered.
I frowned slightly. "I... appreciate the offer, but I think you have the right of it."
"It wasn't an offer for your sake, Legend. I too have my demons. More so than you."
I opened my mouth to reply, but slowly closed it again. Ciara was probably right - her demons were the product of her deliberate action, not ignorance. A few minutes later, we reached our destination and stepped inside. The room wasn't large, big enough for a round table with eight chairs to fit comfortably in the middle, but as soon as we entered Ciara's ghosts flickered into existence and claimed chairs for themselves. Michael turned to her.
"I don't mean to be rude, but this is a private matter."
"No," I interrupted, "She can stay. Aside from her powers, I'm sure she'll have something useful to add."
The girl - woman, she was taller now and more developed than I last remembered - bowed slightly. We sat, and her ghosts set to work with telekinesis and other powers, drawing papers to the table and painting images in the air of other worlds. With Doormaker in her melange of acquired capes, she was well prepared to deal with the questions I might ask. Over the next half an hour, we narrowed it down to a list of three worlds that I might take up residence in and expand the Wardens presence to.
"So," Michael finally said, when the list was drawn up, "We've got Earths Fal, Nu and Wei. As you indicated, all were relatively untouched by Scion's rampage in the grand scheme of things but suffered extensive damage to infrastructure and the like, and two have recently started seeing parahumans emerging."
Ciara interjected then. "All have, the news from Wei has simply yet to reach us."
"That's... okay, that's good information to have. How long ago was the first instance on Wei?"
"That I do not know, but I can find out."
I raised a hand. "No, it's fine. I'll go to Wei. Maybe... Maybe things there aren't too unstable yet. My influence might be able to sway more to our side than go villainous, though I don't hold out much hope of that."
Michael nodded slowly, tapping keys to bring up the documents we had on Wei. It was a relatively recent contact, the portal only being opened officially a month ago, and it had been one of the worlds Scion only passed through to get to other places. The damage... was still immense. He'd strafed the Eurasian continent as he passed, and on another journey through Wei to somewhere else had hit America and Australia too. Estimates put the death toll at half a billion, more than Fal but less than Nu. Having had no contact with parahumans before, Golden Morning had come as a rude awakening to them and the governments of the world were still reeling.
I could do good there, save lives, make a difference where it was needed most.
"Wei it is."
- - Legends Never Die - -
Golden Morning + 6 months, Earth Wei.
It'd taken time to organise for my departure, time that I'd spent doing the only thing I knew how to do any more. Whilst others reeled from the news of my impending going away, I was out there flying from crisis to crisis. It almost reminded me of the days before the end of the world, those frantic moments hunting Jack Slash and his band of maniacs. In the end, Ciara had been the one to open the door to Wei for me, the last - not quite friendly, but familiar face I'd see in a while. I had my comm gear, I had my costume, and that was it.
The air in Wei lacked the pall of smoke that marred the skies on so many Earths, and I breathed in deeply. I'd entered high in the atmosphere, above the eastern seaboard of America, and as I looked around my new home I could see the scars left by Scion, still healing. New York W glistened below me like a jewel, but I could see the parts that were still without power, darkness no impediment to me. Refugee camps were as present here as they were elsewhere.
I let myself drift lower, searching out locations of import from memory and, where memory failed, by sight. A part of me wanted to announce myself properly to this world, tell them that I was here to help, but another part of me, the part I'd been feeding these last months to get away from my own thoughts, wanted action. A credible action that would set me in good stead with these people, prove to them that I was here to help.
The decision was taken out of my hands.
Beneath me, on one of the widest streets, a car was racing along pursued by blue and red flashing lights. I ran my eyes back over the route I'd seen them take, and found the smashed in frontage of a tall building. There were bodies on the street, and they weren't moving.
My eyes were drawn back to the car chase when the driver leant out of their window and gestured at the pursuing cops, a wave of force rippling from their hand and smashing the lead vehicle sideways where it flipped spectacularly, plowing into a building. The other cop cars veered off, pulling back, and the criminals drew ahead. I could see they would make good their escape.
Would have made good their escape, until I dropped from the sky in a blaze of light and shredded their tyres. As the car span out, another application of force halted its momentum in an instant, snapping the occupants about like rag dolls. I floated, a few feet above the ground, and waited whilst those inside pulled their way free. I didn't have to wait long.
One of the doors was torn from its hinges and flung across the road to embed itself in a concrete facing, people who had until then been staring at me with looks akin to awe rudely reminded that this was a dangerous place to be. I could tell that capes were new here from the lack of an instinctive, ingrained flight response, but other than tilting my head and ensuring everyone had left the area, I didn't move.
A woman struggled free, spitting blood, only to freeze as she saw me.
"Fuck," she oh so eloquently managed before snapping her arm out in my direction. The wave of force caught me, but a transition to my other state drained it of most of its kinetic force and I drifted back only a metre.
"Fuck," the woman repeated, flopping back onto the surface of the road. Behind her, the cop cars screeched to a halt, officers jumping out of doors and drawing pistols. I noted with some amusement that more than half of them were pointed at me.
I moved forward, dropping down so that my feet touched the ground once more. The cape tried to back up, but I blurred forwards so that I stood directly above her, and folded my arms.
"Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
She stared at me like I'd grown a second head, but answered. "I'm Sa- no, Blast. Call me Blast."
I nodded, for the moment ignoring the police as they edged closer. "Blast. I assume you can create waves of kinetic force with your gestures?"
"How... how did you know? Who are you?"
One of the cops, the pips on his shoulders denoting some position of authority, chose that moment to speak up. "I hate to agree with the perp here but I find myself wondering the same thing. Who the hell are you?"
An idle thought generated a laser that lifted Blast to her feet, and I quickly secured her with a zip tie. At the demonstration of power, all of the cops flinched. I couldn't help but frown a little - obviously the experience of parahumans on this world had been... less than stellar.
"I went by the moniker Legend, once, a name and title I've proven to be unworthy of. As for your question, Blast, I know because on the world I came from, people like you weren't a new phenomenon. I... I've come here to make amends for what I've done in the past, to serve this world as I once tried to serve my own."
I took a moment, examining their reactions as I deliberated on a new name. It'd been a spur of the moment decision, to leave Legend behind and become something new, something better, but one that I felt had been coming for a long time. Blast shifted, eyes wide, as she looked at me, but the zip tie held.
Taking a deep breath, I forged on. "I'm here to help, wherever my help might be needed. I know that parahumans - people with powers - are a new occurrence on this world, and I know that you are ill equipped to handle them." The officer bristled, but I raised a hand. "I mean no offence. Powers... make things difficult for normal people."
"You can say that again," Chief Policeman growled, glaring at Blast, who for her part cowered. She didn't fit the role of criminal I'd expected, but maybe that was just my long experience of Earth Bet's villain population colouring my perceptions.
Above us, the dawn was starting to colour the sky in shades of purple, and I took a long moment to admire it through eyes that saw more than anyone on this world had seen before. It was refreshing. This world had potential to change, to avoid the mistakes we'd made in ours.
"As for my name," I continued without looking down, "You may call me Shepherd. A little presumptuous, perhaps, but I've lived through more than thirty years of what your world has only recently been exposed to. I've seen the mistakes mankind can make, and I only hope that here those mistakes can be prevented from claiming lives that deserve a chance to live."
Chief Policeman glowered at me. "So you're a nutter as well, then. Great. Not got enough of them running around after that golden man blasted through."
I couldn't help it. I laughed. It felt good.
"Yes, Officer," I finally managed. "I suppose I am. But I'm on your side."
Blast looked at me, then at the officer, then back to me. "Uhm," she spoke tentatively, "I... I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I was desperate - I know that's no excuse - and I couldn't see any other way to get food. The refugee camps are flooded, and there's not enough to go round as it is. I... I didn't want to do this. For people to get hurt."
I smiled. "Your apology goes a long way, Blast, but it's not me you should be apologising to. I know that getting powers impairs judgement; how long have you had yours?"
She shrank in on herself even further. "... A few hours."
"Officer," I turned, addressing him directly, "You'll have to take this on good faith, but I know it to be true. Getting powers is an incredibly traumatic event, and afterwards leaves the person with impaired judgement for a while. It's all too easy for someone to go down a route that they find themselves unable to turn away from. If she truly did get her powers so recently, she wasn't thinking straight. I don't mean to say she deserves to walk free, but please take this into consideration. On my earth, too many good people ended up painted as villains because in their moment of need, they found themselves alone."
I looked at Blast.
"I don't want that to happen here. People deserve hope, don't they?"
The officer stared at me for a long time, his men shifting nervously behind him.
"Alright, Shepherd. I'll take that on good faith this time, but I want both of you to come to the station with me. I think this is well above my paygrade."
Grinning, I nodded. "I'll fly above, and carry Blast. I want to have a chat with her, if that's alright?"
"Just so long as you're both at the station when I get there, I don't give a damn. That woman has given us enough trouble for one night."
I drifted an inch or so off the ground and opened my arms to Blast, who after a hesitant glance around her stepped forward. I smiled even wider, feeling for the first time a ray of hope. This world had a future, and I could even see myself having a future here too. It felt good.
For the first time in a long time, when I looked at my hands clasped around Blast's midriff, I couldn't see red.