33: Morning is Coming

Fanfic

Sometimes, a good policy can have bad repercussions. Sometimes, something is done in good intent, but the end is bad. One such example is the work of Cauldron.

Cauldron was a coalition of heroes, capes, and scientists grouped together with the singular purpose of driving away or killing Scion, the bringer of the end of the world. Many of their policies were barbaric, including dubious human experimentation, wide-scale memory removal, torture, assassination, deals with villains, and a dedicated effort to make the situation of the world worse in the hopes of causing more trigger events, the process whereby a normal person becomes connected to a Shard of Scions, turning them into a cape. This was just the beginning, however, as other, nastier, methods were used in a desperate hope that they could bring about salvation for the world.

Their plan didn't work, really.

While Scion, or, as it was later found out to be, Zion, died, humanity was left at the mercies of the Shard Network of his powers, random and ineffective powers triggering at any given time with little to no warning. Many Shards took over their hosts, and a battle began amongst them, each one trying to take command of the vast repository of powers and become the next Entity. In truth, the world would battle against this for years, decades, and even centuries to come.

But that was just in one dimension.

In another, one tiny change led to a rather different outcome. One man, raised from a boy on stories of both heroes and villains and their glories, a loyal PRT trooper of just nineteen years of age, lay dying in an alleyway of Brockton Bay as his power tried to connect to him.

In the moment between life and death, he seized control of the Shard that was trying to connect to him. In the midst of his struggling to survive, his subconscious, filled with nightmares of gods and demons, rewired his power to match his visions. In that moment, he cast aside his lawfulness in order to pursue justice. After all, it was the acts of the law that left him to die like a dog in the road!

When he awoke in his apartment the next day, he was shocked to discover the changes that had occurred to him. He now stood at 6'5", as opposed to his previous 5'7". He could shapeshift far enough to look like a prepubescent, or a half-giant. He could conjure blasts of light, or control shadows, and even use them to heal, bless, and curse others, and could travel through the shadows. He had WINGS!

He had gained the power Nephilim, turning him from a mortal, to a god-slayer. More than that, however, he also recognized that he wasn't at full power. Sitting in his mind were dozens of empty slots, each one with a different symbol to them, and dominating all the others were seventy-two major ones on one side, and twelve massive ones on the other. Somehow, he could sense that each one had a need, a requirement to unlock them, and that, behind each one, lay more powers still.

Confused, he changed to his old appearance and went to work. While there, however, he was disgusted by what he felt. His new powers let him sense the emotions of others, feel their motivations, and even make them describe their deepest desires. Almost no-one in the building was honest or well-meaning.

So angry was he by this, that he went for a walk at night. In Brockton Bay, this is… not a good idea. Still, he hoped that nothing would happen. Or maybe, that something would? He took care to change his face, but he was too upset to care much either way, as long as he could cool down. Sadly, he came across a BIG issue.

Lung, the rage dragon, was trying to kill a young, female bug-controller. In a moment of philanthropy, he decided to help. Together, he and the other cape beat back Lung, knocking him out.

Afterword, he tried to help her up. The second he did, a power from one of the large divots slotted into place in his head, a glow suffused the girl, and the name 'Beelzebub' was in both of their minds. When they both came too, the boy found he could feel every bug in an area and give them verbal commands (as well as sense through them and multitask more efficiently), and the girl found she could summon giant insect projections, control FAR more insects, and turn herself insectile.

It wouldn't be until a purple-clad unwilling villainess made contact with him a little later that night that all three would learn what happened when she took the name Raum. All the major slots in his head were named after good and bad beings in Christian-related mythos (NOT Christian beings!), each one providing them with another member to what would later be known as the Brotherhood of the Shining Stars, granting him and his targets both powers and a non-aggression pact.

The question is, would they, in the end, be enough to crush the Golden Fool? Tine would only tell.