I made smalltalk with the driver. It started with a few subtle probes, mostly to determine if this was the world I feared it was.

It was. I was in the world of 'Worm' or at least something functionally similar enough that it didn't make a difference. Parahumans, more commonly termed 'capes' existed in the form of heroes, villains and those rogue individuals who happened to have powers but didn't really want to do anything violent with them.

There weren't many of that third kind. At least not many that lasted beyond their first year. Capes were to valuable, and those that didn't pick a side right off the bat quickly found themselves pressured to join one or another to an almost always overwhelming extent.

But while on the surface that made it your typical 'superpower' world, underneath there were far more sinister matters in play. Like me, these empowered individuals had something grafted to them that granted them their unnatural abilities. 'Parahumans' were just part of the breeding cycle of creatures simply labelled 'entities' for lack of a more suitable term.

Shards of these vast creatures were scattered off across a vast section of parallel realities to an inhabited world, where they connected to a suitable intelligence, lent it their power, and in turn whispered into their ear to use that power.

Evolving by proxy under the host intelligence's guidance. Finding new ways to utilize its abilities, stretching out it's limits, and helping it create new, variant buds of itself that would eventually give rise to yet more shards.

At the end of this cycle the shards were reclaimed and the host planet in all it's nested incarnations destroyed to fuel travel to a new world in a seemingly endless cycle of parasitism.

In that way it wasn't too dissimilar to my own Exaltation, which would in theory eventually warp me into a new Yozi, or a new extension of the old. Even the exploratory function wasn't that dissimilar as a key ability of Infernal Exalted was to develop new charms which their patrons could then make use of.

But that was where the similarities ended. My Exaltation might come with shackles but it was a symbiotic relationship. The Yozi might use me, but they granted power to me in trade. While there were lethal consequences to me failing to live up to my end of the bargain, it was still a bargain I had entered into.

And most importantly, while the powers given to a parahuman were for the sake of exploration and investigation into the Entities own abilities first and foremost. Mine were designed to let me walk, fight and act as a Titan to the point of eventually becoming one.

If I survived anyway.

In this I had advantage. My powers were numerous, potent, and exponential within their potential; growing constantly as I practiced, explored and refined them. A parahuman outside extremely rare circumstance was limited to what ability or abilities they were initially granted. I wasn't a wolf among sheep, I was the guy who brought an entire arsenal to a knife fight.

This didn't mean I couldn't be stopped. Some parahumans had abilities that would be extremely difficult for me to counter, much less counter effectively. Some defenses while not perfect, were close enough that I'd need a perfect attack, a conceptual way to bypass them. Something I wouldn't be able to gain easily. Likewise my stamina was considerably more limited compared to individuals who's powers made them well suited to battles of attrition. Several of which existed within the city to which I was headed.

And yet I still needed to head there. Brockton Bay wasn't the center of this world, but it might as well be. I knew no location better within this world. No people better then the heroes and villains within it. I could set off waves which would sunder nations by acting there, and change the fate of a world far more easily then conquer a nation somewhere else.

~Might not want to let the bosses hear that...~

Also it was a hellhole such that it was one of the few local cities that would actually benefit from me wading in like a tyrant and taking over, and that was basicly my current job. Or rather the Urge instilled in me by my Yozi masters.

~You know you don't have to say that so bitterly.~

I wasn't that bitter. The Yozi weren't my first choice of commanders, but our perspectives were sufficiently different that I could mostly find a middle ground that satisfied my own morality while accomplishing their eldritch goals.

~See that's more like it.~

Besides, I didn't want to piss them off when I inevitable went Devil Tiger and became a junior peer.

~Don't exactly set low hanging goals now do you?~

Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon. I'd serve my time, but while normally not an overly ambitious man, I wasn't about to just sit back and be a puppet when I could become something so much more.

Provided I survived anyway.

It was funny how often I needed to mention that. Also disquieting.

~But you're not going to let it slow you down are you?~

Of course not. I'd rather be a brave idiot then a wise coward. Though I'd rather be wise and brave if I could manage it.

~That's more like it!~

Of course this would be eaiser if I had more time to think in peace.

~Shutting up!~

Pulling into town, the driver of the truck, the driver, who it turned out was named Jeremiah let me out at the gas station leaving me standing in Brockton Bay debating just what to do first.

Naturally that was when the air raid sirens began to sound.