We had just finished another run against machines gun wielding mercenaries wielding when Aria joined us at the simulation controls.

The victory conditions of the latest run was around the number of non-lethal takedowns we could achieve in the given time. We had only missed the target by one. The non-lethal scenarios were more challenging and mentally tiring, but I preferred them as Taylor had decided everything as close to reality as possible and they tended to be less graphic. Taylor had reverted my gore settings back to realistic. She had made a convincing argument backed up by the Master Sergeant.

I was rather pleased to see Aria. It was a welcome change from the overly intense combat instructor that Taylor had found amongst the profiles. I had no idea where or when I had seen him in the real world.

"Hello Taylor, Robert. It's now after five in the morning and if you want to be able to return to your homes with enough time for a short nap before you are expected to wake you will need to start packing up the mining equipment now."

I had also noted that Aria's was speaking a lot more naturally now and there was something different about her avatar as well though I wasn't too sure exactly what it was. It was quite likely that it was many little things and since it would have been rude to ask and wasn't harmful, I just let it be.

"Thanks Aria. End simulation." Taylor gave the instruction and we both returned to the real world.

Taylor's leg had finished healing many hours ago. She had spent most of the night in the simulation chamber pausing only to reapply the THA or to take the rare Aria mandated nap. I had split my time roughly evenly between resting, building advanced drones, participating in Taylor's training scenarios and assembling sticky-foam grenades. These grenades were the key to our success, whilst Taylor was an excellent shot with the pistol I was not. We did have about equal success with the grenades. Taylor had the edge of situational awareness with the bugs adding that extra level over just the HUD, however my stranger SEP bracelet allowed me an extra element of surprise that made up for it.

My stick foam wasn't anywhere near as flexible as Dragon's Containment Foam nor as safe to use but they still made non-lethal take downs possible. Taylor has been impressed when I created the first even if the recipe was only tweaked by me. I still felt good about being able to contribute in such an important way.

"You can head home if you want Taylor. I can pack away the miner." I stated as I climbed off the simulation couch.

I wasn't surprised when Taylor shook her head, "No. I'll help."

I knew there was no point in arguing. Thankfully I also knew that Aria would distribute the tasks associated with packing it up appropriately.

I regretted not having the time to add in full power assist into the rest of Taylor's suit. The legs had been easy. To add power assists to her arms suitable for lifting heavy loads was going to be a lot more complicated and would also require adding in torso power assists to support and distribute the load. By the time I had done all that I might as well just spend the extra time to upgrade the suit to fully powered. It was on my To Do list.

I removed the core components of the miner and smelter whilst Taylor powered down the generator and packed up the cables.

Whilst carrying the heavy loads I also initiated communication checks on the last set of drones that had just completed their charge cycle. I noted when running the diagnostics that there was an active high bandwidth communication channel open between Taylor and Aria. I didn't pay much attention until towards the end of the clean up when I was checking the results of the tests and saw that it was still open and active.

As we jogged back towards our homes, I tested out in my mind a few of the possible things I could ask to find out what they were talking about. All of them seemed too invasive and I certainly wasn't going to ask Aria to let me listen in on the channel. It took me an effort to focus on other things and I found myself frequently switching between music tracks as we travelled.

Two of the new drones had been tasked to monitor our homes and the local neighborhood and we currently had good coverage over the docks, so we didn't even pause as Aria outlined two diverging paths.

Taylor split off towards the south, "Goodnight Q. Thanks again for coming to my rescue." Taylor's voice came over the comm system as she raised a hand in farewell.

"Anytime Lycaeni. Goodnight." I replied, my focus now on making sure I didn't face plant as I increased my pace to a sprint.

I used Kim's old house to access my base to remove my armor and have a quick shower before I returned home.

As I entered my bedroom, I decided to do a quick status check on Taylor and then the drones before I went to sleep. I would need some rest before starting my new job.

'Hi Aria, is Taylor okay?'

'It will still be some time before she comes terms with what happened last night. I have been helping her as much as I can, but I am not well suited to the role.' Aria explained.

I froze. I was only asking to confirm that Taylor had got home okay and wasn't prepared for the answer I got. I wondered if there was something that I could do to help and then realized I could just ask.

'Is there anything I can do to help Aria?'

'Just keep being a friend and supporting her and be ready to let her speak about it. If an opportunity to offer her additional assistance arises, I will let her know.'

I considered that, 'Like my chats with Doctor Russell?'

There was a short pause before Aria answered, 'Yes. Just like those.'

I nodded; it was good to have someone to chat to occasionally about how things were going. Mental health was important and my whole family would meet with him once a month. It used to be more frequent.

With Aria having that well in hand I moved on to the biggest concern we both had. Finding Dinah.

I had been asking for regular updates throughout the night and Aria had instructions to let me know if she discovered anything new, but I couldn't help checking frequently as well.

'Any luck confirming Coil's location?'

'Nothing new Robert. Though I have confirmed at least three more possible networks that could contain relevant information.'

Finished with putting on my pajamas, I climbed into bed. 'Excellent. Put them on the list to access tomorrow… I mean tonight.'

I had discussed with both Taylor and Aria how invasive of computer networks we should be. On one hand legally we shouldn't be breaking into any networks. On the other hand, we were rogue parahumans looking to rescue a twelve-year-old kidnapped victim so screw the law that hadn't been able to find her. That Aria had given a ninety eight percent probability that law enforcements efforts to investigate her were being sabotaged just made that call even easier.

We had also decided that because the police and PRT networks were likely subverted by Coil or an ally of his we needed to be more cautious. We had elected not to send any of the new drones out or to have Aria access any new networks until we were ready to act in force. The decision had been made that after my gig that we would travel downtown and be in the vicinity of the two most likely locations for Coil ready to act before Aria cracked open all the networks. Then the two of us and the new sticky-foam armed drones would rescue Dinah.

'I have added those networks to the list. Do you want to review the list of logged events from the drones now?' Aria asked preempting my next request.

'Yes please. Line them up.'

I spent the next few hours alternative between resting and checking the footage from the old drones for any suspicious activity.

Unfortunately, there was very little useful activity logged. The fact that Coil's forces had been suspiciously quiet since the kidnapping was more evidence that it had been him. It was also rather frustrating as I had expected him to have his mercenaries continue their activities as per normal. If he'd behaved as expected, we might have been able to act last night.

I was already up and dressed when my alarm went off. I had dressed up in some of my better clothing, the clothing mum had brought me to wear for studio sessions.

I wasn't surprised when mum knocked on my door shortly after, "Are you awake Robert."

"Yep. I'm up mum."

"Can I come in?"

That was unusual, "Sure."

Mum opened the door and came in. I noted the quick glance around the room and was thankful that my base was closed.

"I'm afraid your job left a message on our system last night and the shop is going to be closed for a few weeks. They promised to call once they have things sorted things out. I know you were doing this to earn the money for your drums and I don't want you to worry. Your dad and I have decided we'll put forward some money towards a replacement drum kit for you." She gave me a reassuring smile.

I returned the smile. This was perfect. I didn't really want the job anymore and was only doing it because changing my mind wouldn't have been in character.

"Thanks mum. I'm not even going to need much now with the stuff that dad has ordered for me."

I gave her a hug.

"Good. I was worried you might be upset. Breakfast?"

I nodded, "Yes please."

After enjoying pancakes for breakfast, I realized I had my morning free. I briefly considered calling Lucas to arrange an earlier pickup but decided as much as I wanted to, I couldn't justify that to myself. I was already going to be attending practice and playing a gig that night. That would be right before we went after Coil.

After thanking both mum and dad for breakfast and for helping me sort out my drums I retreated to my room.

I first researched how I could use the additional funds to get my drums back up to speed. That went very quick with Aria's help. I printed out a list of things I wanted dad to buy using the same setup as I used before. Everything I needed should be delivered before the end of the week. It was going to be brilliant.

As I reached towards the printer, I felt another set of rooms and a power ready for me. The urgency wasn't as strong, and I could feel that that my efforts to slow the cavalcade of powers had had some effect.

Of course, since I was sitting in my bedroom all alone with no pressure, I had the choice to delay again.

'Power incoming Aria.' I stated as I let the visions progress.

'The first room is a high-tech lab. I am seeing electron microscopes and even more advanced imaging systems. Nanotechnology diagrams and systems on boards and posters.' I said trying to cover as much as I could before it left. This was Taylor's idea to help me record the rooms in case it helped me find a pattern in the randomness.

I kept describing the room and continued as the second appeared, this room was similar also being a high-tech lab but instead of being about nanotech its focus was on security. Being able to create locks keyed to things from DNA, palm prints, and even patterns at the sub molecular level. I was sad to see that one leave.

The room that represented my new power was a massive marketplace that looked like it had anything and everything on sale. Its dimensions stretched off to the horizon and yet it was still a room. This power was unusual in that the room was the actual power, and it came with full instructions. I was unsure if this was particular to this power, or I had reached a level of understanding where I would have this understanding going forward. I hoped it was the later.

I now had the ability to call this market to my mind and near anything I wanted I could buy if I had the money to spend. Whilst at first it seemed like this was a way to almost unlimited power as I glanced at a few prices I realized that the prices were rather inflated. But there was no issue of availability, and it didn't just include items that were available on Earth Bet, but also those that I knew of through my other powers.

I had no idea how this even made sense. I could justify to myself pulling information and even items from other dimensions with a power. But having them come with a price tag was a lot harder to make sense of. The power would happily transfer money to and from my hand, pocket or wallet in either dollars or solid silver and gold coins. The logic behind how that could possible work was well beyond me. That went into the too hard to think about basket.

After finishing describing the power to Aria, I wondered just how much I would need to buy a sniper rifle that I could upgrade and an image and specifications for an M-29 Incisor appeared in my mind along with a rather large price tag.

A quick bit of mental math along with a check on prices indicated I had a couple of choices if I really wanted it. Either sell the processed metals from five or so full nights of mining and smelting, or have Aria purchase actual bullion with the money she was earning through online programming and get that shipped to me anonymously.

Whilst both were interesting ideas since neither would get me a sniper rifle by that night, I dismissed it.

I was concerned about what kind of armor Coil's soldiers had and the reports that the soldiers carried weapons capable of firing lasers. I had no way to simulate those until I saw one and no idea if the armor I had created for Taylor, or my modified Hyper Guardian armor would be able to resist those weapons.

Whilst our preferred plan didn't involve us getting in a gun fight with Coil or his mercenaries, I'd still like to be sure that both Taylor and I were armored enough not to be in danger if things went bad.

I spent a little while looking for anything that I could buy that could boost defense but nothing that I could think was either useful or affordable in the short term, so I made a note to revisit it once the current priorities were sorted out and I put the new power out of my mind.

I went back to practicing my enchantment abilities. Taylor had been right in that I could improve my enchantments with practice so I focused on enchanting armor and clothing for longer protection and wondered what new enchantments would be revealed.