Fortification 1.03

I was in for a shock when I turned the television on that day. On every local channel was a Press conference from the PRT, with Director Piggot speaking.

"Several weeks ago, you began seeing reports of a Parahuman that we, the PRT, codenamed "Lilith." Lilith's first action as a Parahuman was to rampage through Winslow high school, inflicting a great deal of property damage and inflicting injuries on one of the students. Later that day, when cornered by agents of the PRT, she escaped by destroying PRT issue containment foam. In the following weeks, as many of you are probably aware, Lilith was spotted fighting members of the Merchants, the Azn Bad Boys, and Empire 88. Some of you might believe that doing battle with members of the gangs that plague this city to be a Heroic act, but believe me, in this case it is not."

"A few days ago, the PRT made a move against a Merchant controlled drug house. However, the operation was compromised by Lilith's presence. When our agents arrived, they found most of the merchants working in the drug house to have already been dispatched, and Lilith in battle with Mush. Our agents report that Mush fled when they arrived, and that Lilith grabbed a case of unknown contents and attempted to flee. When our agents attempted to apprehend her, she commented that they "ruined everything" and severely injured two agents in her escape."

"Lilith is dangerous and we believe her to be unstable. She is a threat to anyone and everyone around her. because of the threat of Lilith, on top of the many criminals already present, we are calling in PRT Agents and Protectorate heroes from other cities. If you see Lilith, flee the scene and report her presence to the PRT immediately."

All throughout the report there'd been pictures of Taylor on the screen-blurry photos taken by bystanders or frames from security cameras. And then there was the police sketch. That damn sketch made my little girl look like some kind of monster. I took a couple of deep breaths. Losing my temper now won't help anyone. I went into work.

*break*

I was going to kill them! I was going to fucking kill every last one of those bastards! How could they say such things about my Taylor? My attempt to finish my experimental Gauss rifle was interrupted by some of the boys barging into my office and wrestling it from my hands. Maybe I shouldn't have mumbled my plans out loud? I wasn't in any condition to talk with the boys after that. We kind of came to blows, and the next thing I knew I was being wrestled to the ground while Kurt was saying something about how I needed to cool off. I think I hit my head or something, because I felt myself losing consciousness…

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I was sitting at a table in the middle of what looked like a cross between a cantina and the inside of a spaceship from one of those sci-fi movies. Well, there were a few things out of place. I'm pretty sure the holographic stripper in the corner was an elf, and there was a very old looking jukebox playing a cover of "Sweet Home Alabama." I looked around, and there was another man here. He looked almost middle aged, with messy black hair and a short beard to match. I walked over to him.

"Um, hello. Where… Where are we?"

"We're in a mockup of the Cantina aboard my Hyperion."

"Hyperion?"

"My ship. I'm Jim Raynor. Sit down, we've got a lot to talk about and not a lot of time to get through it."

I sat down, and the man handed me a shot of some kind of whiskey. I drank it, and it was decent.

"You said this was a mockup?"

"Yeah. You're dreaming right now, but I'm real. I might not be the next time, but I'm real now."

I was confused.

"What?"

"Let me start from the beginning. I'm not from your earth. I'm not even from your universe. Where I'm from, there were a couple of wars between Terrans-uh, that's what we call humans where I'm from, and a pair of alien races. The last war ended with an alliance against a common enemy, and we're still kind of in an uneasy alliance now. Then my Darlin' found out about something big messing around a couple universes down. We decided to deal with it before it got around to us. You following?"

I was, and nodded yes.

"Okay, so it would've been difficult for us to just go in and kick it's asses, so we did some Recon. Found out about the "Parahumans" here, how they have powers, and where the powers come from-Not telling you yet, you don't need to know. So we messed with what causes the powers, so one of the powers would be full of stuff from us-Including copies of some of us. My Darlin was supposed to be the only real one and broadcast these conversations back to the originals, but well… Sarah's done some things that make it hard for some people to trust her, so she did some stuff and I'm here sometimes… I'm getting off topic."

I nodded.

"So, one of the powers was altered? Are you saying I've got your powers?"

"No. Your power wasn't the one altered."

"Then how-"

"Let me finish."

He took a drink.

"The way your powers work, as far as we can tell, is that they attach to someone, and they wait. When somebody with an attached power experiences some kind of stressful incident, the power activates and manifests in a way that fits the person and the incident. The power we took was one that, supposedly, interacted with other powers in some kind of administrative way."

"A Trump Power?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but that's not important. The point is that we took it, and we tampered with it, and we changed it. It's supposed to do two things-one is to reach out and alter other powers so that they'd have properties from us, so that people here would have a chance to take out the threat I mentioned. You, you're the first person to have your power altered by the "vector power." All the advanced technology of the Terran's is in your hands now."

That was…

"So, are you saying I already had a power?"

"It's possible, or maybe you had one attached to you but it wasn't active. Anyway, the second purpose of the Vector was to alter its host, so they'd be a combination of the Terrans, and the Protoss, and the Zerg. How exactly this worked would be based on how the power activated and who got it."

"So, who has the vector?"

I thought of possible heroes or villains who might have powers that fit what this Jim Raynor said, but none came to mind.

"Your daughter."

And then I punched him. After he got up off the floor and held up his hand, he started talking again.

"I really should have seen that coming. Look, what happened with her, that wasn't part of the plan. My Darlin's been talking to her in her dreams, she's been doing pretty well all things considered. Growing into her powers, so please calm down. We've still got more to talk about."

I took a deep breath, and he kept talking.

"Now, if you really want to help your little girl out? She's getting herself ready to make those PRT folks leave her alone and set up a place where she can be safe. She's also getting ready to take on that threat I mentioned in a few years. She's gonna need help for both of those-so if you want to help her, you can build her an army, or you can build up power. Resources, soldiers, goodwill, and use it to make people listen to you about her. Or both."

I thought about it.

"A hero. I'll become a hero. Independent. I'll clean up the streets, get the people on my side. Between that and my work with the city, and…"

I trailed off.

"Sounds like a plan. You should be able to do it all, too."

"Is there anything else that I need to know?"

"Well, right now, the only thing else you need to know is that you might be psychic."

"That's impossible."

"Not where I'm from, and pretty soon not from where you're from. You should be waking up soon."

He was right, I could feel myself slipping back to consciousness, soon I was alone in the cantina, and soon after the cantina faded away, and..

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"Danny, you okay?"

That sounded like Kurt. I blinked awake.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? You've been out for a while."

I felt fine.

"I'm fine, Kurt."

I got up the floor, just in time for my office phone to ring. I answered it.

"Hello? This is him… Yeah, I have it...Yeah... I can be down later tonight."

I turned back to Kurt and answered his unasked question.

"That was the mayor's office. He wants me to bring in my evidence for how Taylor was screwed over. Apparently, The Mayor wants her situation investigated, and he's having his people do it."

Kurt smiled, in a half hearted way.

"That's good, right? If the Mayor's investigating, then the truth will come out and Taylor will be safe at home before you know it."

I wasn't so sure about that.

"Maybe. So, Kurt. How'd you like to be the sidekick of superhero?"