I am told Pizza and paperwork is a long standing tradition among those who help uphold the heavy title of 'Hero'. Officers of the law. Firefighters. Even Lawyers to some, though some would consider their brain of 'justice' to be lined with brimstone and hellfire.

Apparently that also applied to superheroes.

Luckily for some of them, they had superpowers to help with that. I was pretty sure Aegis didn't get tired at all thanks to his power, and while I might be wrong on that I knew for fact Miss Millita didn't. Her perfect memory was likely also just as helpful as the Late Coil's ability to effectively double the time in the day he had to do such things. A rate easily eclipsed by Velocities ability to move up how fast he experienced time.

Also if Armsmaster didn't make an automatic paperwork program I'd eat my hat.

~You have a hat?~

...Well I didn't have a hat, so I'd have to go buy one, but I'd go do exactly that.

Unfortunately like the rest of such superpowered individuals my power set wasn't quiet as well suited to the war against the endless forces of red tape. My Excellency the only thing I could really leverage to use, and only in it's most direct and bombastic means.

Well that and my built in bullshit detector.

Luckily for me, Yozi magic was only part of the perks of being an Infernal Exalted.

The other part was being that good.

"I thought you weren't good at this stuff," Dauntless asked as I once more pinged 'Factual Determined Analysis' to deduce if either of a set of apparently contradictory sub clauses was actually invalid.

One pinged yes, telling me it'd probably been overruled at a later date and was no longer relevant to my uses.

Right ignoring that.

"It's less that I'm bad at is and more I'm alotbetter at punching people," I said as I checked through half a dozen boxes in as many seconds, as I read through the other clause. Oooh I didn't know we got bounties for turn ins!

My fiscal future was looking a lot better lately!

Not that it was bad after I'd emptied out the betting pots of those fighting rings I'd broken up. Spoils of battle and all that.

Huh still needed to sign in as an associate member to get that though.. as that'd let them rig up a proper 'associate account'. Clever little leash there.

But not so tight I wouldn't mind slipping it on.

"Really?" he asked deadpan.

"In raw technical skill I'm probably the single more skilled unarmed combatant on the planet," I said flat out. Then paused, "Well baring a cape with an even more bullshit kung fu learning power. Either way I could kick Bruce Lee's ass with one hand tied behind my back, even if I wasn't bullshit magic."

"But isn't that a superpower too?" he questioned probingly.

"Eh..." I waggled a hand, "Accelerated learning curve. I won't say I got it fair and square, but it's still just skill," at least until I started boosting it way beyond the human limits of such.

"Guess that's fair. Shit I know I'm one to say this but you're just bullshit aren't you?" he asked.

I grinned.

The Centurian grabbed a slice of pizza and chewed as I ripped through two more forms. Honestly it wasn't that much paperwork really. Even before I'd exalted I could have cut through this in half an hour tops. The associate membership would have taken longer, but not too much.

Dauntless swallowed, "You know. There's been some pressure up top to try and get you to sign on full out."

I paused. And here came the pitch, "Yeah that's not happening any time soon."

"Why not?" He asked me. Quickly raising his non-pizza holding arm up in surrender, "Not judging, just asking."

I grunted, this wasn't exactly an easy question for me to answer. How could I say; 'Sorry but I'm pretty sure if I take the job sooner or later my eldritch masters from another reality will give me a job that works against it, and you do not want to see how they'd get me back on track.'

~Plus you know the whole 'conquer a city in your name' thing would probably be against protocol~

"It's a mix of things really," I said after a moment grabbing a slice for myself. Meat lovers wasn't my first choice, but I wasn't going to argue with it. Also the quality was good. "A lot of it is that I don't like being told when to fight, and when not to."

Now he frowned, "Not sure I can approve of that."

I raised an eyebrow and gestured him to continue as I chewed.

"Power corrupts," he stated as simple fact. "You get that right?"

I nodded in agreement.

"Well if you're the only one making the calls, then how are you going to know when you're going to far?" he asked me. "The Protectorate is a support network for more then just combat. It helps keep us in touch with our peers, keeps things in perspective. Reminds us that we're people and that just because we have powers that doesn't mean we have the right to just do whatever we want with them."

I swallowed, "Yeah I get that, but at the same time, the PRT's also limiting on it's parahumans."

"No cape can get into real office. Not legally," I stated as technical truth. "Even if you somehow manage a miracle and survive long enough to advance through the ranks, you can only get so far. You get capes like Accord, who not only want to do things like end world hunger, but also have the potential to legitimately pull it off going villain because the glass ceiling for legitimate channels is so low."

"Hey," he frowned, "I don't think Accord went villain just because it was the 'only way' to fulfill his heroic goals. I mean do you even know what that guy does to people?"

My turn to mime surrender, "Alright that was me going a bit to far... but the point remains. When you have local director heads able to order around the likes of Alexandria? Who not only has superhuman intellect and recall, but also has been doing this job for who knows how long. That just tells you how limiting the system can be."

"Then why is the superhumanly intelligent and experienced Alexandria still standing around taking orders?" Dauntless asked. "It's more complicated then that."

Yeah it was, namely that while legally she couldn't be, Alexandrawasin office. The top of it in fact. Her civilian identity was Rebecca Costa-Brown, AKA the chief director of the PRT.

That little hypocrisy was one of the main reasons I wanted to deck her in the schnoz.

"A hero has to worry about more then just beating the bad guys," Dauntless continued to champion. "They need to let the public know that they're safe, that they still have a measure of control over their lives. That the system, even as it limits, also protects. And that's what makes it work."

"And the guy who projects an aura of terror, turns into a giant winged, talon baring armored monster with glowing eldritch hieroglyphs is really good for that?" I asked, eyebrow raised.

"Wouldn't be the weirdest or scariest hero I knew," he said flat out meeting my challenge dead set.

I matched his gaze for a moment, then sighed, "You really are a believer aren't you?" I asked turning back to my paperwork. I was almost done now.

"Well someone's got to be. Trust me, the system does work. It might not be the fastest thing, but it's kept society alive this long hasn't it?" He challenged.

Actually most of that would be Cauldron's machinations. Which was the chief reason I hadn't blabbed most of their secrets online once I got my hands on an internet connection.

"I don't know Dauntless... maybe some day, but I'm not up for that mess yet. Thinker powers suck sometimes," I grunted.

That seemed to catch hum off guard, "Thinker powers?"

"Yeah," I responded as I set aside the second last page. "Oh yeah, speaking of that. Can you pass on a message for me?"

He was at once both attentive and wary, "What's the message?"

"Kid Win's Specialty is Modularity," I stated to him, earning a blink in response.

"What?"

"Modularity," I repeated. "I think you guys screwed up when you sat Armsmaster on him to help. Armsmaster's thing is efficiency, he probably cut Kid off every time he tried to add 'superfluous' features that would let him link stuff together."

"And... you got that from a Thinker Power?" he asked me.

I shrugged, glancing over the final form, "Normally I'd be a bit less blunt, but it's really holding him back, and we're all good guys here right?" I grinned as I clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Even if we might not always look like we're working together."

"Hey! What else do you know about stuff?" he asked quickly as I got up and started for the door.

I paused. Kid was nice... and powerful, but also a kid. I might be able to win him over to my 'side'.

But that would burn bridges I didn't want to torch, not just yet. Plus did I really want to break his world just to get another combat asset?

Nah. Not my thing.

"You wouldn't believe half of it even if I told you," I responded. "Just pass the message along okay? I'll tell you other stuff as I figure it out," I waved him off.

I'd fought Hookwolf to a draw, and sent both of the Valkyries running. Lung needed time to ramp up that I wouldn't give him, and Kaiser, for all his skill in controlling the field, was still just as squishy as a normal man.

I could handle this mess on my own.