"Hey, watch the hoodie, snippy!" The giant claw shut with a *CLACK* as it passed just inches from my face.

The thing floated some ten feet off the ground and had more lobster claws than I had fingers, stingers pointing out from every surface. A massive shell near the top held the thing's body, I figured, since there were little stalk eyes poking out at me.

It was at least the third weirdest thing in the casino at the moment, right after the fifteen foot tall neon John Henry at the iridescent hammer game you usually see at fairgrounds, and the giant, anthropomorphic George Washington over by the bar. Seriously, I can respect the whole 'American History' theme they had going here, but enough is enough.

I palmed a bottle containing some sort of substance that was almost certainly illegal for me to drink and threw it at the beady little eyes that poked out from under the shell. The glass shattered and green gunk gurgled angrily from what I thought was a wound, at least until a jet of the gunk spurted out and nearly starched me to the shaggy carpet at my feet.

I dodged down a row of slot machines, hurdling overturned food trays and chairs. The thing followed in floaty pursuit, clicking and burbling like a seasick chicken as another stream of vomit-syrup shot over my head. "Hey," I huffed. "You're in the wrong place! The Beauty Pageant is next door!"

The thing burbled a sarcastic reply and I had to duck behind the neon John Henry as more gunk shot my way. "Fine, two can play at that game," I called out, sending a lance of water from the bathroom. The creature rolled in the air as the water smashed into its side, and I could see the thing's antenna look back and forth, as though it was considering its options. The clicking stopped as the beast came to some sort of crabby conclusion and charged me. The lumberjack exploded in a flurry of sparks and gas and a live wire flicked just past my ear as I dodged back. I could have practically licked the thing with how close it got to my face, and I barely held back a gag as I dodged backwards. The muscles visible between the joints of the shell strained as it prepared to gunk me from inches away.

I had it right where I wanted it.

Strength flowed through my veins, and the hammer from the high striker game slammed into the shell just above the thing's face and drove it a full three inches into the floor. The electric sign at the top of the striker went off in a dazzle of sparks and then abruptly went dark. The crab thing didn't move again. I let go of the hammer and dusted my hands off.

"Dude, that was awesome!"

My glance quirked over to see a lone guy wearing dreads and a plaid shirt emerge from behind a slot machine, phone held high. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Weren't people smart enough to get away from these fights? I smiled my most cheesy smile and gave him a huge thumbs up. "Hey man, glad you enjoyed the show. You could've died, sure, but overall: solid priorities."

The guy grinned sheepishly. "Hey, Riptide, I just want to say, I'm a huge fan, and..."

The only warning I got was the slightest movement near the doorway. I hit the floor as some kind of missile slammed into the slot machine behind me with enough force to shatter the screen. "I'm getting sick and tired of this matrix BS." I muttered, as I took cover behind a slot machine. The guy with the dreads bolted, and neither I, nor the new arrivals seemed to care much. I caught a glimpse from between two of the machines of the man who'd shot at me. He was on the tall side, with bulky armor and a square mask. Overall, he looked tough for a normal guy, but nothing particularly scary. He was flanked by two others, and I took a moment to size them up.

One in black had a red sun emblazoned on her chest, another had a black suit, top hat and a red mask over the face. Somewhere beyond my range of vision I could hear a fourth member doing his best to move stealthily. Great.

"Easy there, Ballistic. We don't want to kill the guy." That was Top Hat, who had stopped walking forward.

"Hey," I called out. "Crab thing wasn't a person, right? Because honestly I've been having trouble with that, and was trying not to overdo things but it's kind of hard to know how much hammer is just enough hammer."

"I was just using a stress ball, and it was just a warning shot." The armored one grumbled. "If I had wanted to kill him, he'd be dead."

"He's Riptide." the lady in black murmured. "You remember him, right?"

"Of course! The famous independent!"Red mask laughed. "A fine coincidence! Riptide, what brings you to Boston?"

"Eh, you know, got a little bored with the scenery in Brockton. New universe, all new sights." I crawled to the side of a slot machine and bit my lip. The three of them were standing still, but somewhere their fourth member was still moving. There were a few water pipes in the floor beneath me, and more in the bathroom, but I was pretty much completely exposed here.

"So, anyway, this job is more or less accomplished." Top Hat stated. "We were just supposed to come in and smash things up. You're an independent, right? You're trying to stop a robbery here, and I can respect that, so good job, you stopped us. You want to get a beer?"

I blinked. Were they... trying to recruit me? "You realize I'm a minor, right?" I stood, hoping I'd have enough warning to duck and cover if their long-range guy tried to hit me again. I needed to get eyes on the fourth guy, wherever he was. I had a nasty feeling they were just trying to set me up for him.

There was silence for a moment, and then the armored guy laughed. "Alright, how young are you really, 'cause if you're not even interested in alcohol, you're either a ridiculous square or like, a freaking kid."

"Turned 17 a few months ago. Anyway, thanks but no thanks. I've had plenty of opportunities for recruitment, but I'm in this as a hero."

"Ah, well. I think we'll manage to contain our disappointment..." I caught sight of their fourth member, who was, uh, nowhere near me.

I'd been all ready for him to leap from the ceiling at me like an old black-and-white vampire, but the fourth member was clear on the other side of the building, in the food court.

Er, that is, he was standing the wide open area of rubble that had been the food court before Crabcakes the Horror Lobster and I had trashed the place.

He had black armor with flames along the arm and legs, and a white domino mask. The look reminded me of Nico's, only he was too bulky to make it work and the expression behind the mask was less: 'tough kid' and more 'lunch didn't sit too well with me.' He threw a deft punch into empty air like he was fighting his shadow, and then just turned to look at me.

"Well, it's been fun leading you on, but the Travelers aren't recruiting." Top hat stated, and I felt something pull. Suddenly I was falling onto the rubble, and staring across the room at the hot topic fanboy, who was standing where I had moments ago. He pressed his hand to his chest, and he appeared right next to me, halfway through the punch-throwing movement.

I dodged. It was an ok punch, I guess, but Hot Topic here wasn't exactly Ares. I rolled over his fist and planted an elbow in his face, throwing him to the floor.

Pain exploded from the side of my head, and I dropped to the ground next to Hot Topic like a load of potatoes. The guy with the stress balls, I noted dimly. Who in Hades were these people?

I'd done my best to read up on all the local capes before this little trip to Boston. These 'Travelers' had the powers and coordination of a professional team, but I'd never even heard of them. I suppose they really must be travelers.

Hot Topic was on his feet again, throwing the same punch I had just dodged. I rolled to the side and rushed at Stressballs, Top Hat, and the one I hadn't come up with an insulting nickname for yet . Hot Topic could turn back time, or something, which meant that once I got away from him, there wasn't much he could do and I was back to a three person fight. I ripped water from a pipe below the carpet and caught top hat in the face with a jet of water. Two person fight.

Stressballs touched the carpet at my feet and it shot out from under me. By the time I had rolled into a crouch on the floor, the man was standing at the ready with another set of projectiles.

Styx.

I leaped to the right to dodge the assault. A dozen ball bearings ripped into the carpet beneath me and fire lanced through my shoulder. Pain overloaded every sense in my body and spots danced across my vision as I gathered my feet from under me. I stumbled, and looked to Stressballs.

The man had another dozen ball bearings in his hand. "Idiot," the armored man stated. "You're outnumbered and outgunned. Give it up."

I smiled. "You know, you're a fair bit less impressive than the last guy to tell me to stand down."

"Whatever, this is just a smash and grab. I could've killed you just now, easily, but I didn't. Count yourself lucky I'm not a murderer, and call it a day." I saw Top Hat stand up on wobbly feet, recovering from the blow I'd dealt him with the water.

Hot Topic jogged up next to his friend. "Round two, huh?"

"No, I'm just covering this guy until we're clear. Go help Trickster."

I could have kept fighting, of course. Unless Armor Guy had better reflexes than Armsmaster, he wouldn't get his shot off before I hit him with water, and Hot Topic just couldn't keep up with me in a melee. Red Mask's power was harder for me to deal with, and I still had no idea what the lady did, but if I stopped worrying about property damage I could floor everyone pretty quickly. At the end of the day, they were just mortals, and while I was already recovering from the ball bearings, Top Hat, or Trickster I guess his name was, would have those bruises for a week.

I held up my hands in surrender, and Armored guy and Hot Topic let out a collective breath and started backing away to help Trickster.

My ears roared with sound as a thin pillar of white light struck the ground amidst of the three men. A shining lady in white descended next to me, palm outstretched. She said something, I think, but with the blast still ringing in my ears it was hard to tell.

"Purity!" I called out, my voice barely audible even as I shouted, "Welcome to Boston!"

She rolled her eyes and said something, but it was still hard to tell exactly what.

I blinked. "What?" I slapped myself on the side of the head. "I'm sorry, what?"

She nodded at the lady. "We take her down, arrest them and leave them all for the police?"

Black and red stepped between us and her friends, who were all still moaning on the floor. "Hold on just a second here. I have to warn you, my power, it kills a whole lot better than it hurts. You try to take my friends in, and I-I will do what I have to, but you can still walk away." Her legs were shaking, but she held her hand out, firm and strong. A mote of fire the size of a marble blossomed from her palm and rolled towards us, billowing in size with every inch it grew closer. I got the feeling she was deliberately slowing it down and trying to keep it from growing so as not to hurt us. Hot Topic reversed his injuries and appeared upright again, looming behind his friend with a hateful expression on his face.

The ball of fire was intensely, impossibly bright, and I took a step back as I felt it burn my skin from a dozen feet away, even as a cool sensation flowed from my stomach to counteract it. I reached for the water below her feet and began to pull, but I never got the chance. Purity grabbed my arm with both hands and took to the skies with a cry of pain.

We were well above the casino within seconds, and when I looked up at Purity it was like looking directly into the sun. Pure, unadulterated yellow-white light blinded me, and felt the heat of it on my skin as she flew. I closed my eyes and looked down, blinking furiously to try to get the spots from my eyes.

"Hey, thanks for meeting like this!" I called out. "How am I doing on that whole, low-profile meeting you had in mind?" I'd managed to get a hold of her through PHO, and she'd politely explained that if I wanted to meet face-to-face I would need to travel to Boston.

"Ergh." She replied. "You come to Boston for a single day, and you still manage to find a cape fight?"

"Hey, last time I showed up in a new place, it took me all of thirty seconds to kill a man. I'm getting better!"

She didn't reply for the duration of the flight. We touched down on the roof of an abandoned skyscraper about three blocks from the casino. I could hear the sirens wailing in the distance. "So, uh, you no likey the sun thing?"

Purity's glow faded enough that I could make out her expression. She looked tired and cranky, but I suppose I was to blame for half of that. "I mean," I continued. "You really booked it out of there. I think we could have taken them."

"You are correct, more or less." She sighed. "That... sun thing, you called it. It overloaded my power. I felt... well, if I hadn't left then, I think I quite possibly might have exploded. If I had hit them I could have just as easily killed them."

"Sorry." I hesitated. "Uh, are we going to have this whole conversation here? Seems like we have a lot to talk about, and, well." It was kind of cold and windy on the rooftop, Okay?

She grimaced. "The entire reason I asked you to come to Boston to meet me was because I thought I could meet you here in my civilian identity without it being compromised," she puffed a stray hair away from her face. "Unfortunately, everyone in the city will know your face before the night is over. So yes, rooftop it is. Hopefully, the local Protectorate doesn't figure out we're out here having this chat."

"Oh, well, if that's all," I made my way to the stairwell. "I can cover for us."

"Excuse me?"

I snapped my fingers, calling on the mist. I'm not an expert with the mist by any means, but honestly it just isn't that hard to use. Purity looked over her shoulder, startled, and then turned away completely, confused.

"Forgot why you came here?" I stated. She gave a little jump as she turned back to me, blinking rapidly.

"W-What did you do to me?"

I coughed. "Nothing permanent. It's a, uh... I guess you'd say, it's a stranger ability? I can misdirect most people like that. Distract them, make them forget little things. Make them see something weird as something ordinary. I can't do anything too fancy with it; haven't practiced. But it'll cover a conversation easy enough." I shrugged. I was sort of surprised it still worked here, honestly. The Mist was Hecate's invention, and there was no Hecate here. Of course, there had been no Hecate in Alaska, either, and the mist had been doing just fine there. I suppose that the Mist was something Hecate had woven into the being of gods and demigods, and not a physical thing that Hecate made. If anything, mist manipulation was easier here. Granted, unless I specifically controlled it, it didn't do anything for me, but as far as I knew that could just have been because a teenager throwing around water just wasn't quite so strange here.

Purity was silent for a moment. "You have a stranger power. A stranger power like that, and it doesn't seem worthwhile to you to practice with?"

"It's not exactly a rare power where I come from. And most, uh, capes, know how to resist it. But I've been using it a lot lately. Helps me stay off the PRT's radar."

She raised an eyebrow. "Where you come from... Canberra?"

"Nah, I'm from New York. Although my New York is, you know, less destroyed." Something told me I'd be telling this story a lot in the weeks to come. "Look, let's get inside, and then talk, yeah?"

What I'd expected from a Neo-Nazi turned superhero, I don't know, but Purity wasn't it. We holed up in a chain coffee shop that wasn't called Starbucks, but clearly could have been, and introduced ourselves properly. Kayden Anders stood five-foot-something with curly brown hair and a tiny nose. I placed her in her late twenties, but she wore enough makeup that it was hard to be sure. She reminded me of my mom back when we were still with Gabe. Going through a lot but still putting a brave face on things. She listened patiently to my wild story and kept her poise throughout, which I appreciated. Overall, Kayden was probably the friendliest Nazi that I'd met all week.

I gave her the cliffnotes description. Hi, my name's Percy Jackson. Yes, I am from another universe. No, I didn't run into the Simurgh. Yes, there are capes back home. No, there aren't endbringers, but we have other things threatening to destroy the world. Yes, I do want to go home. No, I don't have a clue how I am going to do that.

"It's really not all that different." I stated, sipping my mocha. "Which is really surprising, actually. The biggest difference is that all the hero stuff back home was mostly kept on the down-low."

She nodded slowly. "We have contact with other universes, actually, and we, that is, scientists here on Earth Bet have theorized that they might have capes... I imagine there are parties who would be very interested in speaking with you at a greater length."

"Not you though."

"Not on that topic, no. I'm no scientist, and I'm no saint." Purity stated evenly. "I'm just a mother who is trying to make a better world for her daughter and is... rather frustrated in that goal." She paused. "I've made mistakes. I know that. I have gifts. I have potential to really change things, and I want to be sure, when everything is said and done, that I've changed the world more for better than for the worse."

A small cough escaped my lips. "Yeah. Nazi, right? I'm no Nazi fan. I really hate Brockton Bay Nazis."

"I'm not with them anymore." Purity bristled. "I was raised in the Empire, and thanks to Kaiser being a manipulative sociopath I saw the errors of their way."

"So, when you say, not with them anymore, you mean that you're still calling in favors from their healers and avoiding hitting up their operations. I've read info on you. I can see how your appearances for the last few months have been sort of heroic, but there's a reason no one knows you've left the empire. You're wearing the same costume and hitting the same kinds of targets you used to, only with less support."

Purity looked down and away, breathing in sharply. "I grew up with them, Percy. Surely you realize what that means. But, even more than that... They have leverage over me."

I leaned back in my chair and studied the ceiling. Yeah... yeah, I could see that. Styx. If Nico, or Annabeth, or Grover, or Tyson had turned out bad, could I bring them to justice? Even if I knew it was the right thing? It wasn't even that impossible. Tyson technically was a monster, and as much as I loved the guy... not all my half siblings had turned out so cuddly. Annabeth sometimes joked that if I didn't keep distracting her, she would be tyrant of her own country by now. Nico had probably been closer to the bad path than either of them with his 'king of the ghosts' shtick. What would I do, in Purity's shoes?

"Yeah, alright." I stated. "I understand that. But if we team up here, we need to make it clear that we're not working for the Empire. We've got enough trouble without the Empire's enemies thinking we're members." She hadn't said she wanted to team up with me, but she wasn't the least surprised that I had brought it up. She wasn't stupid, and there really wasn't any other reason to meet up like this. "I'm going to be hitting the Empire as hard as anyone, and if you don't want to come along for that... fine. Hopefully people figure it out."

She took a deep breath. "I don't want to have to hurt any of my friends. My powers are... fairly lethal. Also, they know my identity, so I need to be careful about reprisals on my daughter. But I won't stop you. We could also recruit someone... someone of color."

I laughed. "Which color is that? Blue? Green?"

"T-to make a statement, I mean. Diversity." She blushed. "Not that we should recruit someone just for that reason, t-they'd have to meet the same standards as anyone." She swallowed. "Uh, If the opportunity comes up, you should definitely be the one to handle recruitment."

Ironic, I thought, considering that I'm the one who's not human. "Sure. Also, you need a new cape name and costume."

Her eyebrow raised in question. "My powers are distinctive. I don't think that would fool anyone."

"Like you said, it's about making a statement. Purity is a name that just screams 'screw the brown people,' and that's like, the opposite of what we want people to think. You're trying to turn over a new leaf? Tell people that." I didn't really know where that insight had come from, except that I knew the importance of putting on a good show. It had saved my butt all the time against various monsters.

Purity grimaced. "Purity is an ideal that..." She sighed. "Very well. I am not overly concerned with public opinion, but neither do I wish to be seen as a villain." She looked up and caught my eyes. "Your stranger power. Could you use it to make people ignore my civilian life? Keeping my daughter out of this is my first priority."

"Eh... Unless I was living there and reapplying the magic every couple hours, no, I don't think so. I get wanting to keep your kid out of this though. Back home it was my mom I had to worry about. She got kidnapped when I was twelve by a guy who hated my dad."

"I'm not as worried for my child as I could be. Fortunately, capes operate on a, well, I suppose you'd call it a code of honor. There are those who break it of course, but a cape without honor soon finds himself with few friends. For this reason, the PRT at least won't be going after my child."

"The Empire must be pretty dang honorable, then, if you're okay with associating with a known enemy of them."

"They have to be. Honorable, I mean. Kaiser is well aware that his rhetoric doesn't engender much love, so he compensates by being one-hundred percent trustworthy. That said, if I move directly against him... He may try to take away my daughter through legal means. He's… her father, and with his resources I couldn't put up much of a fight, legally."

Ok, so her kid was Kaiser's as well. Those were the 'reprisals' she was worried about. More and more complications. I powered through and ignored that fact for the moment."So, you're putting a fair amount of stock in my honor then." I sipped my drink. "I've seen your face."

She paused and took a deep drink. The lady looked like she was sitting on a pile of eggshells. "I need you." She blurted. "I just had to hope you would respond in kind to a show of trust. I can't keep up my crusade alone. At best I'll knock over a few drug dens; harry the ABB a little... at worst? I'll die in some gutter with no one to take care of my Aster except for her father." She shuddered. "Being a mother has its joys, but also its terrors."

I nodded. "Powers just make everything more complicated, yeah?" My mom had lived with an abusive asshole for years, just to protect me and even that only worked for a small time. Having kids of my own was incredibly terrifying to even think about, given what they'd probably have to go through someday. "So you have a lot of reasons to stay out of the cape scene, as I see it. Why are you so set on joining up with us?"

She paused and looked out the window. "Are you a man of faith, Percy?"

"Depends what you mean by Faith." I snorted. I was religious, sure. I made prayers and offerings, but that was less an act of worship and more an act of covering-my-bases. I suppose I was about as religious as the ancient Greeks. Faith didn't really factor into it. "I have faith in my friends. I have faith in powerful people to screw things up."

She sighed. "I believe I was given these powers for a reason, Percy. I think it is my duty to use them for right. If I make mistakes, that's fine. No one is perfect, but that is no reason not to try. I fight for a better tomorrow."

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Kayden had her baggage. Her time with the Empire had taught her to be a bigot, and I doubt she'd unlearn that lesson quickly. Kaiser must have been a decade older than her. The fact that they had a kid together spoke volumes about how messed up in the head she'd been, and how messed up she still was. If it came down to me versus her kid, she'd pick her kid every time. Kayden was desperate to be a hero, desperate to overcome the twisted knot of pain that was at her core. Playing hero wasn't what she needed, though. Kayden needed healthy relationships, a psychiatrist or three and a month at a spa. What she got was a teenage boy as a partner who was nearly as screwed up as she was.

And what I got was her. She was one of my few good options for recruitment, if I was serious about this independent hero team. Her powers were legit; as far as raw firepower went no one in Brockton Bay even came close.

Plus, I'd already talked it over with my other partner.

I extended a hand. "Welcome to the team."

She shook my hand and quirked an eyebrow. "Do two people constitute a team?"

I smiled. "It's a school day, so only I could come. I'll handle introductions when we get back."