Lung lunges at me, moving faster than anything his size should be able to. I quickly dial up my speed of thought, and his speed slows to a crawl relative to my perception.

God, what a guy. No attempts to negotiate, no stuttering questions about who I am, just the immediate application of violence. Even with all my stacking auras and social powers, he had barely even hesitated.

'Alright, show me what you can do, motherfucker.'

I fly towards him at, what to me feels like a sedate pace, but that I realize is objectively several times faster than the speed of sound. My fist taps the side of his already bestial face, and he rockets off to the side, maintaining forward momentum as he tears up the concrete floor.

He erupts in flames once more, surging in size again, this time reaching up to nearly twenty feet, his head now brushing against the rafters of the roof of the building, with his wings nearly fully formed. A quick use of Psychokinesis prevents the flames from catching on anything.

'Okay, this has very quickly reached the point of it getting out of hand soon.'

I can't just let Lung go anti-Endbringer mode in the middle of the city. That was not the intent of this particular excursion. Well I guess technically I could, and then Kaleidoscope away the damage, but it would be bad for my rep without mind-wiping a whole bunch of people.

'Alright big guy. Let's see you use those wings of yours.'

I blur towards him again and catch him with an uppercut to his body, and he surges upwards, slamming through the roof of the warehouse and into the sky above. I follow him up and land a follow up punch that takes him even higher. And then I do it again, and then again and again until Brockton Bay is little more than an indistinct mass of gray and brown below us. I circle up and around rapidly and slam a fist into him from the side, sending him out over the open water of the bay.

Since landing the first blow sending him upwards, Lung has only continued growing. He is now at least at a similar level to the strength he had in Kyushu, his power apparently massively accelerating his escalation of power in response to me. He is now more than thirty feet tall, has his full compliment of four arms, two legs, a tail, and four wings, and nearly his entire body is completely covered in metallic scales. Psychokinesis informs me that the vast majority of his internals are currently paste, and Power Manipulation likewise tells me that his regeneration is working desperately to pull him back together.

Also, he is completely wreathed with fire, and has been since I started taking him into the sky. Apparently, his master plan to deal with me is to produce enough fire that he erases me and all the breathable oxygen around him from existence. I roll my eyes in exasperation.

I follow after him, rising above him and turning to land a downwards kick to his back, feeling the rigid bone structure that has replaced what was his spine give, and he plummets downwards at a speed that honestly makes me slightly fearful for his life.

I fly straight down, rolling around him as I pass and hover a foot over the water of the Bay, waiting for him to complete his descent. He does so with a thunderous crash and the hiss of water being flash evaporated in an immense quantity. I wave a hand dismissively and it returns to a liquid state, raining back down into the Bay in a downpour that lasts for just a few seconds. A second wave of my hand dispels the energy carrying a sizable tidal wave to the shore in the wake of a six-ton dragon man suddenly striking the water at a speed faster than his own terminal velocity.

I don't bother waiting for Lung to resurface, having sensed his thoughts go blank as he struck the water. The combination of a liquified set of internal organs, the head trauma from my first strike, the broken back, and the impact into the water seems to have done enough damage to take him out even through his regeneration.

I guess the wings don't actually let him fly. How unfortunate for him. I reach out with Psychokinesis and begin fishing him out of the water, even as I heal his injuries. As his unconscious body emerges, I reach out with Power Manipulation, targeting the power I can sense within him.

'Enhanced physiology, enhanced regeneration, enhanced senses, pyrokinesis. Limitation: Power begins at suppressed levels and escalates as threat to self does.'

Exactly as in canon, Lung is an absolute monster where power in concerned. That "limitation" was only a limit in theory, instead giving Lung access to a level of strength very uncommon to parahumans so long as he had a sufficiently powerful opponent. Were I to speculate, I imagine that without that "limitation," Lung's strength would be much lower than his maximum with it. He was essentially trading initial power for a near infinite maximum potential.

Add in the regeneration that keeps him in the fight, and it was a recipe for a snowball of power escalation, since he would just keep getting stronger and stronger until he was put down, or until he had sufficient strength to win.

With little to no hesitation, I rip the power from him, leaving him a mundane human once more. His unconscious form doesn't stir as I do so. I feel it take root in my own mind, and without much thought, deactivate it completely. I don't even kind of need Lung's power for myself but having it on hand may be useful.

Power Manipulation only requires charges to create powers but copying them is completely free. In addition, copied powers can be given away without even losing them. If I use a charge or two to do some enhancement to it, and sever it from its shard, thus removing its negative mental influences, it could be a very potent indeed, and I already have a good idea for who I want to give it to.

I quickly apply a charge to it experimentally, bringing my current count down to six. In one pass, I remove its connection to the shard that was powering it, connecting it instead to the infinite well of power within me. However, as I do so, I can also feel a change in the power. At once I can tell that it's no longer operating on the "chargeless" rules for powers, and that should I give it away, it will be gone for as long as I loan it out.

'Damn. Seems like I can't just jailbreak powers if I want to spam them out to people.'

With the remaining energy from the charge, I begin pushing up the potency of the power, and remove the transformation aspect, instead making it a raw stat increase. Now, rather than a basic human beginning as around a Brute 4 and scaling up, the possessor of the power would start closer to the upper end of Brute 6, with all the accompanying abilities like regeneration and pyrokinesis matching that increase. I hope that applying it to someone already stronger than a baseline human will see that increase magnified even further.

Lastly, I make a slight tweak that doesn't even require a charge. I'm not altering the potency of the power this time, but rather the expression of it. With a mental nudge, I coax the raging flames within the power into tumultuous lightning, changing the Pyrokinesis into Electrokinesis.

I glance back to Lung, now hanging suspended in the air by Psychokinesis, completely naked and maskless, still steaming from the heat he had been putting off. I had already healed his injuries, giving myself the time to take his power and consider his fate.

I was more than aware of Lung's crimes. He's extremely evil individual, needlessly cruel and at somewhat sadistic. A brief delve into his mind reveals murder, rape, and torture as some of his lesser crimes, with the worst likely being the forced prostitution of women in ABB owned establishments. I grit my teeth in anger at the thought.

There's absolutely no reason to leave this man alive. He's a respectable warrior, but not a respectable human. I delve further into his mind, flooding it with my own awareness, mapping out his entire self.

Feral. That's the best word I know to describe how his mind feels. A beast chained in human skin. I'm not sure how much of that is his shard's work influencing the development of his mind, but I find myself somewhat impressed with his raw savagery and disgusted with his inhumanity.

He takes pleasure from crushing his enemies. It gives him a high like no other, driving him to combat with others, but discouraging him from fighting what he considers impossible fights—such as battles against the Endbringers. It's such a core part of his personality that everything else his personality consists of is at least partially built around it. Driving him also to crushing those weaker than him and lording his strength over those that can't fight back. A sadistic need to constantly experience victory.

I quickly commit the psychic structure that forms his mind to my memory, recording all of his memories. Those will come in handy dealing with the remnants of the ABB that remain after Lung is gone.

"Sorry Lung, you had a good run," I say, summoning psychic power, "But unfortunately, monsters like you have no place in my world. Thanks for the power, and the memories. I'll be sure to put it all to good use. Be proud. In death, you're doing more for my plans than most people ever will."

I slam a mass of psychic energy into him, ripping him from existence just like Crawler. No traces of a corpse remain, merely the psychic echoes within me to remind that he existed.

I look up to the sun that hasn't even made it to the center of the sky yet.

"Damn. All that and it's not even time for lunch."

--

I return to my Laboratory complex, both to check on the Genesis Chamber's results, and to make some lunch. First, the chamber.

I move to the room containing the active chamber and am immediately informed by my various senses that not only has the process not completed, but it has just started. I've returned a mere day or so after I left, and the process has not even begun to make significant progress.

Not a problem. I snap my fingers, and mentally grab hold of Kaleidoscope andtwist. I feel rather than see time suddenly accelerate massively in this dimension. Dialing my perception down to make the passage of it go by faster, I wait a mere few minutes, which Kaleidoscope helpfully informs me translates to nearly a month of real-time.

I dial myself back up, and then dismiss the time acceleration. Within the chamber, Psychokinesis grants me perfect awareness of the body that lies within, the creation process now complete.

Exactly six feet six inches tall, the male body within is an absolute monster. Muscles denser than Adamantium, skin harder than Auramite, and a currently inactive brain that has more processing power than a supercomputer.

His internals are completely removed from human biology, with extremely compact organs and close to fifty of them, all with various functions, many redundant. A serum included in his creation has bestowed a potent healing factor, and boosted his reflexes far past even what the Custodes were able to boast, landing firmly in the realm of precognitive. A special chemical compound introduced during the fetal stage of creation hand boosted his already incredible strength even further, and greatly enhanced his senses.

I whistle. Judging from my memories of how strong Custodes are supposed to be, I'd put this guy at least a rank or two above them. Based purely on his strength and durability, I'd imagine this guy with very little difficulty would be more than capable of handling one or two dozen Custodes with proper training.

Incredible potential. Near to a Primarch.

Well, isn't that glowing praise. Considering I was going to be turning this guy into my Captain General, hearing such a thing was encouraging.

"He'll need a weapon. And armor. He'll be the first of the Legion."

The first of the Ten Thousand.

I laugh, "Ten Thousand? Why stop there?"

I turn my attention towards the wellspring of knowledge that is Inspired Inventor, and attempt to draw out more charges. To my surprise, they come quickly, as if there is a great pressure built up within the spring. I continue drawing from it and boggle at how many come.

Nearly three hundred charges. That's… not how Inspired Inventor is supposed to work. It was very clear. Five charges every day, which I boosted to ten by taking the Shattered Limiter perk. Why did I suddenly have so many available?

It dawns on me. I accelerated time around myself to quickly make a month pass. Ten charges a day for around thirty days roughly comes out to the two-hundred ninety charges of potential tinker specializations I now find myself with. Inspired Inventor counts the time I artificially accelerate as time for granting charges.

I turn my attention then to Power Manipulation, and attempt to do the same. The result is identical, a sudden rush of power seeping from the wellspring and coalescing into nearly three hundred charges of power.

"Holy fucking shit, predecessor, I think we just became omnipotent if we weren't already," I say, jaw dropped, my mind flashing with images of legions of super-soldiers, each with personally designed super-powers.

Time is a powerful ally.

"More like Kaleidoscope is fucking busted. This makes things much,mucheasier than I thought they'd be, and the bar was already low. This is basically free reign to give out powers to anyone we want, as fast as we want."

Agreement.

"You ready to build?"

Agreement. Anticipation.

"We'll need more knowledge first. Give me just a few moments. We're going to want a few more tinker specialties first." I start pulling Inspired Inventor charges together in clumps and start applying them to new fields of super-science.

'Armor. Defensive Technology. Material Sciences.Melee Weapons. Ranged Weapons. Guns. Power Manipulation. Miniaturization and Efficiency. Mass Production. Psychology. Neurology. Programming. Simulation. Mechanical Engineering. Mathematics. Physics. Time Manipulation. Space Manipulation.'

Very quickly, around fifty charges disappear, three to each specialization as I rattle them off, with a veritable tsunami of new information flooding into my mind, coalescing quickly into designs and merging with my former knowledge. I feel my hands shake and have to force myself to stop using Psychokinesis as I regain full control of my body. After a few seconds, it passes, and I mentally bring up the template for the original Custodes armor and begin seeing what jumps out at me.

'Hmm. Inefficient use of materials around the larger sections of the torso. Reinforcing with Adamantium would be better, but with Psychokinesis I can probably produce an even better material if I manually string out the molecular chains and double back in alternating ribbons. The overall servo structure is a bit lacking, but can be modified fairly easily. The neural link is mostly fine, though I can probably do some fine tuning to reduce lag to zero. The helmet is severely lacking. Full redesign is most efficient option. Entirely new HUD with an on-board intelligence system. Combat simulation software for training, doubling as a predictive software in combat. Spatial warping to stow the helmet when necessary.

I pause for a moment, tearing through some of the 40k templates until I find what I'm searching for. Psychoreactive materials. I begin revising.

'Combination of nanomachines and a psychoreactive version of specially constructed proto-adamantium to create main sections of armor, each machine built with individual temporal stasis generators. Activated with extreme precision based on predictive software to become inviolate for the exact instant of an impact. Programmed to respond to psychic energy, reconfiguring armor according to wearer's will, and can be commanded to repair itself using surrounding materials. Secondary micro-shield generators to form a complex network of displacement barriers, causing attacks to slide off. Tertiary micro-shield generators to form interlocking network of dispersion barriers, dispersing an attack across the entire surface of the barrier netwo—'

Awe.

I jolt, suddenly aware of how quickly my train of thought had run away. Holy shit, what did I just build?

Artifact. Impenetrable Armor.

I pause for a moment.

"No, not impenetrable. There are still esoteric things that could get through it. Weird effects like matter erasure, dimensional attacks, or even just plain mental assaults. Potentially Scion's Stilling. I'm not sure about the last one though."

Immune to conventional attacks.

I hesitate, "Maybe? There's probably something out there that could get through it, but I'm not entirely sure what that would be."

Superior to Dark Age technology. Designed in seconds.

My eyes widen. Really? It just came so naturally. So many overlapping ideas, fitting neatly together. Dark Age technology in 40k was supposed to be ridiculously powerful, and was a large part of the Imperium's desperate search for STC's that contained data about humanity's ancient tech.

"Well, it's not done yet. I still need to program the stuff for the helmets, and the software for the nanomachines. It'll also require special psychic treatment to make it psychoreactive. I'd also be interested it see if I can tie the simulation software to the nanomachines to make the armor reactive based on the simulation. That would be a very nice feature for allowing at-will training. That should at the very least take a few hours," I say awkwardly, somewhat embarrassed by the praise. Considering that I didn't have any of the knowledge I had just applied five minutes ago, I was feeling a bit sheepish for receiving it.

Awe. Pride.

"T-thanks. Seriously. That means a lot," I curse myself for stuttering, but quickly try and move on, "Anyway. The weapon should be a fair bit easier. Same metal used for the armor, a psychoreactive proto-adamantium, which is just what I'm calling the adamantium I'm going to enhance by manually building it with Psychokinesis. Monomolecular edge, obviously, but even if the edge gives—which it shouldn't—the wielder should be able to resharpen it with psychic energy. On-board gun is basically mandatory, but bolters aren't going to cut it. I'm thinking something more akin to a railgun, but utilizing an internal device that can convert psychic power into the pulse necessary to fire the weapon. I'm not one hundred percent on that just yet. Maybe I'll leave the gun out of the first iteration."

Custodians with psychic power?

"Oh yeah, there's no way we're not giving them access to that powerful of a tool. There's no warp here remember, so there's literally no threat to doing so. It'll let them interface more easily with their armor and weapons. Honestly, now that I'm saying it out loud, I can probably just scrap the neural link all together since the entire suit of armor will be responding to the user's psychic presence anyway. I'll probably leave it in just as a backup, but it's possible it'll a be redundant measure."

I rub my jaw. I stand and begin moving to a different lab where I can find a digital terminal and I dial my perception way up, beginning the arduous process of creating a programming language from scratch. After that, the extremely complex programs necessary to fulfill my visions will require an immense amount of work.

I'm pleasantly surprised with the challenge, my predecessor chiming in every so often with observations and suggestions. Of all the things I've done so far, it by far is the most difficult.

It takes almost two full hours to finish.

--

I stretch, committing the finished programs to memory and stand. That was, well, not fun, but certainly engaging.

"All right! Now for the fun bit. We're gonna need to build our friend a personality and a mind. We can either do it from scratch, or I suppose I can base it off of someone else, but either way, it's a big decision. How do we need him to act?"

Absolute loyalty. Love for humanity.

I nod, "Those are good. Cornerstones, at the very least. Let's get to work building it."

As I say this, I pull a large quantity of psychic energy together, and begin shaping it into a facsimile of a sentient mind, largely completely blank. After it's solidified, I begin applying the suggested characteristics. We go back and forth for quite some time, applying changes, smoothing out conflictions, making corrections and edits. As it begins to take form, a clearer picture of this new person also takes shape. Serious, but capable of levity and even banter. A dry sense of humor. An undercurrent of ferocity, tightly controlled. Absolutely loyal to me and only me, and fully devoted to enforcing my will upon the universe(s). A love for his fellow humans, as pure and uncontrollable as his hatred for those that would hurt them.

"There's something else. We need to give him some pre-programmed training. He's not going to be very useful if he's shitty at fighting out of the gate. I have an idea on how to get around that though."

Curiosity.

I reach for Kaleidoscope mentally. To be completely honest, the universe of Warhammer 40,00 completely fucking terrifies me. I am absolutely loathe to bring anything from there to my current world. The warp corruption of that universe is nearly ubiquitous, and if somehow, someway, something malicious from that universe manages to worm its way into this one, it could be disastrous.

I would never admit it out loud, but my greatest fear is to end up like my predecessor did in his universe. Defeated due to my own choices, and left to rot as a living corpse, unable even to die to be rid of the suffering. Slaving everyday to just barely hold together the bastardized remnants of my own life's work. It was a fate far worse than death, and it was all set into motions by the warp entities that touch every individual in that universe.

As such, even interacting with that horrifying universe makes me hesitate, but all I'm taking are skills. Nothing more.

The man I specify is one of the greatest to ever live in the 40k universe. An unparalleled warrior on the level of the Primarchs, the most capable general in the universe short of my predecessor himself. The first of the Ten Thousand. The first Captain General of the Legio Custodes, Constanin Valdor.

Approval.

Kaleidoscope provides me access to him instantly. I can feel him. A single pull, and he could be standing in front of me, completely loyal to my goals, but even that is something I'm wary of. Even with his indomitable will, the chances of somethingelsecoming with him if I bring him here is non-zero, which is too much of a risk.

Instead, I carefully select what I want, using my psychic powers through the lens of kaleidoscope to carefully isolate all of his skill. His combat ability and experience, his skill at leading forces, his diplomatic ability, and hundreds of other skills that made him such a legendary figure. Once I have all that I desire, I begin fitting them all into the mind we've constructed.

After nearly an hour, it's complete. A fully formed mind built from scratch. I commit it to memory, in case I ever need to reuse it, and then go back to the Genesis Chamber.

"This is it. The birth of the first of many. He needs a name, as does the Legion," I say.

Agreement. Your decision.

"No suggestions?"

No. You must name them.

I grin. I'm glad I had given it a bit of advanced thought.

Before waking him, I summon the mental blueprint of the armor I designed earlier and use Psychokinesis to begin constructing it on my body. As it forms, the nanomachines making it up latch onto my psychic presence and begin shaping the armor according to my will, heavily decorating it with filagree and ornamentation. Lastly, I add a red cape that drapes behind me. I want my first servant's first impression of me to be good, after all.

"Well, let's wake him up then." I say, producing the constructed mind once more. I carefully extend it out into the chamber where I can sense my Captain General's dormant brain. Ipushand as the mind takes root, I flood it with psychic energy and all of my knowledge on how to utilize it. I feel the man within the chamber jolt awake.

I mentally activate the finalization procedure, and immediately feel the fluid within begin to drain, as well as the life support machines retracting from the interior chamber. I can feel the man within feeling around, testing his surroundings. As the few liters of fluid finish draining, the front of the Genesis Chamber slides out with a hiss, and then slides up, revealing my creation.

Tall, with bronze skin and dark hair. Striking silver eyes. A chiseled, handsome face. Completely naked and glistening with biofluid.

I reach out with Psychokinesis and dry him with a thought, and then begin constructing a similar set of armor on his own body. He looks down as it begins constructing itself in wonder, his eyes darting between it and me. As it finishes, his helmet appearing as a futuristic Corinthian helm with a long red plume, he kneels before me.

"My Emperor. What are your orders for me? I live to serve you and all of humanity." I smile and call upon my necessary charisma powers once more. I speak as I spoke to Alexandria.

"You are to serve as my right hand. You shall lead my forces when I am unable, will carry out my will, and shall command your yet-to-be born brethren. You are the first of many, but you are specially made."

With a mental nudge, I push the massively altered version of Lung's power into him. With another three charges of Power Manipulation, I craft a second power for him.

An esoteric effect applied to a weapon. The unfolding of a weapon through every dimension, completely bypassing all defenses. The weapon of the entities.

Sting.

The two powers flow into him and he gasps, lurching forwards. Golden lighting erupts around him, crackling violently in the silence of the room.

"This is your gift. The strength to overcome any foe, and the weapon to kill any opponent. You will be my greatest warrior. My greatest general. My greatest Companion."

As I say this, an enormous great-spear begins forming in front of him, nearly eight feet long with a three-foot blade. He looks at it and at me.

"Rise and take up your weapon Hephaestion Valdor, Captain General of the Legio Hetairoi."