Chapter 2

Alaris and I continued to work together until the route to the ER was cleared.

"How long have you been at Empire State?" I asked, curious as I did not remember seeing him on campus.

"Only since the beginning of the Fall," he replied. "I and another were chosen by the Royal Family as part of a larger effort to normalize relations between New Attilan and the US."

"Who's the other?" I was curious if it was someone from the show. I did not think Alaris had been anything but a background extra if that.

"Her name is Tibora. She is an assistant researcher on the Genetic Council. Some have said I am here to be her bodyguard. Others have said she is here to ensure I do not fail academically." He turned to me and smiled broadly. "I think it simply that we represent the two most important aspects of the New Attilan government." I did not recognize the name.

"What are you studying?" I offered one of the most common conversation openers between students.

"Mostly political science, modern history, and international affairs. My task is to gain a better understanding of Earth government and culture. Tibora is taking a general survey of current science topics to see how our two people might share knowledge."

"I may have seen her then. I've taken some science classes there," I admitted as I moved the last vehicle, opening the path to the ER and the ambulances waiting there.

Alaris turned to me and asked quietly, "Are you only recently emerged?" He looked embarrassed. "It is just that I have not heard of you either in the media or among the new inhumans."

"I don't really know. But I didn't have powers yesterday."

He pulled a card from his pocket. "This is my contact information. Another reason we are in New York is to help new inhumans through the uncertainty that may follow Terrigenesis. Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems or just want someone to talk to. If not me, I can put you in touch with some of the other emerged, with whom you may be able to identify more easily."

I took the card and nodded. Before I could say anything else he leapt back into the street to begin clearing another path. I went back to flying ambulances.

Just before midnight I felt my connection to Ikaris' power waning. Checking I found the Eternal was moving rapidly to the north. I was able to land before he was completely out of my range. Luckily, I landed on one of the streets Alaris had already cleared.

"I think that is it for me for the night," I told the driver.

"Why? What's wrong?" asked Jamie.

"I'm out of power," I replied bluntly. In the hours we had been working together during the crisis, the young medic and I had built a tenuous bond. I felt I could be honest with her. "If I can help more later, I'll come to the hospital."

"Ok. Thanks, Bob. You saved some lives today," she offered. "Good work."

I waved as they drove off, lights and sirens on for the first time since the Snap. I could sense that Alaris was only a few blocks away and that I could easily copy his power to one of my two normal slots. When I did so, not only did I get access to his knowledge and skills, but his powers were twice as strong as in the special slots. I suddenly knew a lot more about Attilan and what it was like living on the Moon, as well as the sort of training members of the Royal Guard went through.

I considered rejoining him in clearing the streets. But I was exhausted. Not physically, having access to his enhanced stamina, but mentally and emotionally. All I really wanted to do was go home and sleep, hoping that in the morning this would all have been a nightmare.

I cycled Daredevil's enhanced senses into my second normal slot and scanned the area. I could smell smoke. There were fires burning everywhere throughout the city, including some close by. The clamor of hundreds of thousands of people crying and screaming almost deafened me, until I used Murdock's skills to carefully sift through the sounds.

"Oh God, please save us. Don't let us die. Please save my babies. Dear Jesus. Please …"

Someone was buried in one of the collapsed buildings. A woman. I could barely hear her. God help me, I almost turned my back and went home, but after taking two steps, I could still hear her.

"Fuck!" I yelled as I used Alaris' full strength to jump to the second floor of a nearby apartment. I bounced, aiming for the building further down the street, ping-ponging between structures until I was on the roof of yet another building. From there I could see smoke rising three blocks away.

A truck had crashed into a corner grocer, somehow collapsing the three-story building. People had been digging for survivors but were ready to give up. They had moved all the bricks and broken masonry that they could. What was left was too big, too heavy to move without machinery. I leapt from the roof of a nearby building, landing in the mandated three-point stance that silently announced I was a super.

"I think there are some people still trapped in there," I said to the man with the fire and rescue icons.

"Probably, but we need backhoes to move the debris." He barely looked at me, his eyes roving over the rubble.

"I can dig," I replied.

He looked at me then shrugged. "You have any idea where more people might be?"

I moved closer to the ruined structure, listening until I was able to pinpoint the woman's location. I heard two other heartbeats near hers, but no other voices. "I think there are three people – an adult woman and two kids – about …" I placed my palm on the stonework and tapped my finger. "I'd say just over five feet down."

"Alright, let's do this," he said and several people who had been resting, seated on the ground or lying on parked cars, stood and moved forward. I built a mental model of the rubble and started moving the debris.

It was almost noon the next day before I made it back to 'my' apartment. This world's Cal Rankin had a small studio on the edge of the Empire State campus. He lived alone, which was helpful. I was not ready to deal with anyone that knew 'me'. I crawled into bed, filthy scrubs and all, and immediately fell asleep.

Pounding on my door jerked me out of the exhausted nightmare I had been having reliving the last thirty hours. Visions of explosions, car crashes, and crushed bodies kept running through my head. Stirring in bed I realized my sheets were torn and everything smelled of acrid smoke and burned rubber.

"Cal! Are you in there? Wake up! You're on TV." The insistent voice of Jackie Baskin, my body's neighbor and best friend, forced me from my bed. The clock on my nightstand said it was 6:13 a.m. I must have slept eighteen hours.

"I'm coming!" I yelled. I wrapped my robe over my stained scrubs and opened the door. Jackie slammed into me, wrapping me in a tight hug. She was tall enough that her bushy brown hair surrounded my face. I always had to take care not to inhale her long, wispy locks when we hugged. When we pulled back, she was looking at me with concern in her puffy red eyes. She had obviously been crying.

"What's wro ..." I stopped mid-word. A more idiotic and unnecessary question had never been asked. "Sorry. I'm glad to see you."

I realized I was speaking the truth. I not only knew who she was, I knew all about her. And with those memories came waves of affection. There was no Jackie in my world, at least not one I had ever met growing up and going to school in Michigan, but this woman was suddenly important to me.

"You too." She took a shuddering breath. "Leena ... she's gone. She got caught in whatever happened. Just disappeared in a poof of dust while we were having lunch at the Hub."

"I'm so sorry," I offered, squeezing her carefully. Jackie and Leena had been a couple for almost a year.

I was tempted to let her know that the Indian student would be back in five years. But that was based on movie knowledge. There was no way I could prove it, and it might not even be true. I had read about the Butterfly Effect and realized that my mere presence in this world might somehow change things so that the Blip might never happen, or it might happen sooner or later. With almost nothing shown about the time between the end of Infinity War and Endgame in the any of the Marvel media I had seen, I had no path to follow to try and ensure the Snap was undone. The thought made me nauseous, so I pushed it away.

"What's this about my being on TV?" I eventually asked.

She grabbed my remote and switched my monitor to CNN. As they did with any crisis they were showing many of the same clips over and over. As I had known, the disaster was worldwide. In Washington both the President and the Speaker of the House had vanished, along with roughly half of the Cabinet, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The VP and several congressional leaders were reported killed in the aftermath. There was no definitive word as to who had survived and was running the country, though Thunderbolt Ross, as Secretary of State seemed to be speaking for the government.

When footage of New York came on, Jackie paused the screen. "That's you!"

I could not deny it. I was still wearing the same scrubs. The surgical mask I had so cleverly covered my face with was useless for hiding my identity from anyone who was familiar with me, as I well knew from the Pandemic at home. "Yeah," I muttered as I collapsed on my couch. "I got powers and decided to try and help."

"How did that happen?" she demanded.

"I'm not sure. I might be one of those new inhumans," I suggested.

"I want to see you fly. Come on, right here."

"I can't."

"Why not?" She looked like I had taken away her birthday cake.

"My powers change sometimes. I can't fly anymore, but I can do this." I stood and lifted the couch, with her still on it, using only one hand and held it at chest level. It was much lighter than the cars and trucks we had been moving that night.

"Whoa! So, what does this mean? What are you going to do? Go be a superhero?"

"I don't know?" I replied.

"Well, here's your chance," she said, pointing to the screen. CNN was running a crawl saying the Avengers were calling for all enhanced individuals who are willing to help with the current crisis to gather at the Avengers Tower for a response coordination meeting at 9am EST. I had an hour to get there if I was going.

She looked at me and muttered, "You need a better suit."

I looked down at the ruined scrubs and they, along with the sheets I had destroyed in my agitated sleep, would need to be tossed, maybe burned. "Yeah. Where's Edna Mode when you need her?"

"No Capes!"

I laughed. There were very few capes in the MCU, if you ignored the Asgardians. Vision and Dr. Strange wore them, but the latter's was a semi-sentient artifact that let him fly, so that hardly counted.

In the end I just wore some jeans and a dark t-shirt covered with a grey hoodie. I laughed because it was a yellow-lined Luke Cage hoodie. I guess MCU Cal was also a fan of the hero of Harlem. I kept the surgical mask because I had nothing better to cover my face and still wanted to hide my identity as much as I could.

Quickly checking to see if Robb Stark of the Spaceways had returned, I found no trace of him in range. It looked like I was on foot. I briefly considered taking my bike but given the condition of the streets, thought roof leaping was probably going to be faster. Alaris lacked superspeed, but as long as you had decent traction and leverage, super strength offered many of the same movement advantages.

It took almost an hour to navigate the ruined buildings, burned out wrecks, and crowds of frightened people blocking the streets.

As I reached a roof across from the Avengers Tower I looked up as Glitter cut through the air trailing a streak of light. She shot towards the building carrying another young woman in her arms. They landed inside the fenced off area in front of the main entrance at around the same time we arrived. Several uniformed men were guarding the entrance and keeping the press of people surrounding the building out.

I vaguely remembered that Stark had sold the building before the Snap, but whoever the new owner was had kept the Avengers name and branding. I assumed that the new owner had allowed the team to use it as a known rally point for the crisis.

A hint of motion out of the corner of my eye drew my attention to Alaris and a young woman standing on a nearby roof. She was shorter than her companion, with olive skin and dark wavy red hair swept behind her ears, each of which ended in subtle points. Her grey eyes were too large for her face and seemed to be constantly scanning her environment. I waved and Alaris motioned me over.

As I approached, I found the woman had the secondary golden cluster of symbols which, given my sample of two, I hypothesized might indicate the powers of inhumans. Her skills centered mostly around tracking, stealth, and combat. Copying them, along with her super senses and enhanced physical abilities was almost automatic. Her senses were not as keen as Daredevil's, but she was somewhat stronger and faster. Like Alaris' enhancements, the stranger's abilities fit into one of my five special slots with the same reduction in power.

When I added her powers, I could feel my eyes and ears changing shape. Reaching up I found my ears had morphed to match her pointed shape. I quickly unslotted her abilities. I had not realized that adding powers would add their physical manifestations as well. I would need to consider that if I wanted to keep my abilities and identity secret. Alaris had not changed me physically, which meant his powers were probably expressed with internal changes. The tall inhuman had not reacted to my strange actions, but the woman was watching me warily.

"Greetings Bob. I am pleased to see you here." The big inhuman was dressed in an odd costume that looked to be a mixture of traditional Asian and Russian peon – a maroon collarless tunic belted over loose black pants that tucked into maroon knee-high boots all covered with an open mid-length gold Nehru jacket with intricate black embroidery along the edges. I assumed it was some sort of Attilan formal wear or uniform. The woman wore a similar jacket, though hers was grey, v-necked, longer, and closed. Her tunic had a pleated white collar, and her pants and boots were black. I vaguely remembered the Genetic Council wearing grey in the show, so I assumed the color represented her affiliation.

"This is Tibora, of whom I spoke earlier," he added. "Tibora, this is the emerged whom I worked with during the crisis. His current alias is Bob, though I cannot imagine that lasting." He shot me a quick smile at the last comment.

I groaned. I had considered what I wanted to be called. I would rather my name not directly reveal my ability, like Copycat or Mimic. I had thought of names that referenced the hodgepodge nature of my powers that changed depending on who I copied and how long they were in range. Legacy, Patchwork, Chimera, and Jumble all sounded wrong. Eventually I decided on Powerhouse, both because I literally housed the powers of others and because I planned on trying to keep as many strength and energy blast abilities as I could. While it may not be original, the flying strongman with a little something extra was a popular archetype in comics and movies for a reason.

I offered Tibora my hand. She nodded instead of taking it. "I think I'm going to go by Powerhouse," I told Alaris.

"Very well," he replied with a thoughtful look. "I wonder if we should adopt code names. It does seem to be popular in your world. Our King has even had his name Anglicized to Black Bolt by some of the humans with whom we interact."

"Something to consider," I agreed. "But it is getting close to nine. Should we make our way down?"

Without looking at his companion Alaris nodded. We leapt to the ground then bounced over the crowd and the fence, Tibora easily keeping up.

A woman in a matching uniform approached us with a tablet. "Are you here for the coordination meeting?" she asked. At our nods she continued, "We just need to check you in." She pointed the back of the tablet at each of us in turn, scanning with some sort of projected beam.

I wondered if it was a genetic scanner or if it was just matching us to media archives from the past few days – or maybe the Index, if she was SHIELD. I had never seen a good timeline that integrated the Agents of SHIELD and movie events, so I was not certain of the status of SHIELD and their relations with the Avengers at this point.

Once she was done scanning the three of us, she asked our names. My face must have glowed red when I said Powerhouse. She just noted it and took the other's names. Less than a minute later she offered us badges out of a printer. "Keep these on you. They will lead you to the main conference room and let you know if you are approaching a restricted area."

Looking at my badge, I saw it had a holographic image of me with a QR code under it. It was on a lanyard, which I quickly put around my neck. Alaris and Tibora followed my lead.

"Any questions?" she asked.

"No, thank you," I replied. The others shook their heads. Once inside, we followed the signs to the appropriate meeting place.

The conference room was large, looking more like a small auditorium. There were about two dozen people in it, many of whom I recognized from movies or shows. Seeing Daredevil standing with Luke Cage confirmed that the Netflix shows were part of this universe. Wong was sitting against the back wall. I was intrigued to find I could not copy his mystical abilities, though I did get his knowledge base.

But it was the Avengers, or what was left of them, that caught my attention – Captain America, the Black Widow, Bruce Banner, War Machine, and Thor. They looked just like they did in the movies.

I had a nerdgasm as I examined the symbols crowded around each of them. Of particular interest was that Thor had three clusters, like Ikaris had. Also, like Ikaris, I was only able to copy a fraction of his power. I wondered if the third cluster indicated something beyond mere superpowers, something tied to the cosmic powers of the universe. Banner only offered a limited form of regeneration beyond his immense intellect. Black Widow had tremendous skills and physical traits enhanced just a bit beyond peak human. It was Captain America that was the gold mine for me. I felt better in every way when I copied him. He was not as strong or tough as Thor, but he was such a perfect mix of knowledge, skills, and enhanced abilities that he was like a work of art.

An exhausted, depressed work of art. The Avengers all looked bad. But so did everyone in the room. It had not been a good week.

I started wandering the room looking at the other people and quickly cycling my connections to each person, both powered and not. For a power copier this was likely the biggest buffet I would ever be offered. And given the situation, even the normals were all likely to be important or have useful skills. I recognized Darcy, Pepper Potts, and Happy Hogan. There were also a few who I assumed to be government officials from their skill clouds - FEMA, SHIELD, and the Mayor's office most likely. A few were in NYPD and NYFD uniforms.

Glitter was there, no longer glowing, seated next to the girl she had been carrying. The companion appeared to be a normal human, but the internet model had a gold cluster, which I quickly copied into a special slot. I suddenly knew I could fly again. Others in the room included Misty Knight with her bionic arm showing, Colleen Wing and her Iron Fist, and several unrecognizable people, including four other inhumans.

Rexel Toiven was a weedy young mixed-race tattoo artist with a third arm growing out of his back. Frank McGee was a middle-aged New York police officer who could generate bright, soothing light from his shining yellow eyes. Alice Taylor-Kedzierski was a stay-at-home mom who possessed the power to transfer mass between objects. I did not add any of their powers to my special slots. I only had five and wanted to choose carefully.

The last inhuman was a very large man – taller than Thor by several inches – with slicked-back black hair and a badge reading Marko. He had strength and durability comparable to, if not exceeding, that of Alaris or Luke Cage. I was worried he might be this world's version of the Juggernaut. His skills certainly made him look like a criminal, likely a gang leader of some sort. That did not stop me from using my a special slot to copy his powers. As the special slots only stored a fraction of the full power, I wanted to double or triple up on the brute sets.

At 9 a.m. sharp Captain America called the meeting to order.