Danny Hebert did not sleep well.

The conversation that he had with his daughter last night brought a degree of uncertainty and worry to his life that had never been as present before. While capes generally avoided harming people who were uninvolved with the cape life, he lived in a city with the ABB and the Merchants. The former were known for intimidating the Asian population into joining, while the latter couldn't care less about how the public viewed them. Groups like the PRT, New Wave, and surprisingly the Empire all kept a very strict non-interference policy with regard to the common person.

For the PRT, it was partially about how the public viewed them as defenders of the people. The city's heroes were bound by law to protect people, and were trained in the best practices to do so. There was also an aspect of keeping the city functioning on their end. As an organization, they were reliant on the city for a large portion of their funding and if the city were to stop earning enough revenue to pay them, it would only lead to a downward spiral that worsened the city as a whole.

New Wave, similarly, cared about their optics, but as public capes, they were viewed more as regular people who happened to have powers rather than government agents or superheroes. They tended to avoid injuring civilians regardless, but with their funding independent of the city and Panacea there to heal anyone who got caught in the crossfire, they could afford to be slightly more risky in their actions.

The Empire, unlike the Merchants or the ABB, cared about their reputation. To their supporters, they had to seem like good people, which meant that it was usually the unpowered members of the gang who were doing the dirty work of harassing civilians. Their capes were either patrolling the Empire's territory, running aspects of the Empire's business, or fighting capes of other groups to assert dominance. Though they were neo-Nazis in every sense of the word, they neither possessed the unmatched strength that Lung possessed nor were they willing to lose their reputation like the Merchants.

Before Taylor had gotten her powers, he hadn't been that worried for her safety. The Empire wouldn't attack her because she was white, the ABB wouldn't go out of their way to attack her so long as she didn't enter their territory, and she had pepper spray to deal with the odd Merchant.

Now, however, she was a cape as well, and was no longer protected by those rules. Gangs would try to recruit her or kill her, the government was currently harboring the person who by all accounts tried to kill her, and New Wave would likely force her to reveal her civilian identity before joining them.

As little as he liked it, her idea of strengthening the Dockworkers Union was as good as any. Then, at the very least, there would be people he could trust that would be able to help her.

Downing the rest of his morning coffee, he began walking upstairs to wake Taylor up.

Taylor had been awake for nearly fifteen minutes by the time her father knocked on the door and told her that he would start cooking breakfast soon. Anticipation, excitement, and worry were all running through her head as she went through her morning routine, taking another blindfolded shower and getting dressed for the day.

Betta was there as always, a calming voice in the back of her head reassuring her that everything would work out one way or another. She headed downstairs and ate a quick breakfast with her dad. She took slightly longer, eating more slowly while her dad got on the phone with the school and left a message, telling them that she had just thrown up and was running a fever. It was only a message, none of the employees being in the building at six o'clock in the morning, but it was there.

He also made a few more phone calls to the other four managers of the union, asking them to come into the office early for a meeting. There were a few grumbling complaints, but all of them agreed to be there by 7:00.

After washing the breakfast dishes, the two of them got in the car and drove through the nearly-empty streets to the Docks.

Roland woke up after only a few hours of sleep. As his level increased, he was able to supplement more and more of his sleep with Meditation, which also helped increase his maximum magic capacity and overall level. It was a slow process, increasing his maximum mana at a rate of roughly one every three hours. The returns would diminish over time, an expression of the relationship between the density of the magic in his body and the ambient mana surrounding him.

The magical capacity to reach the next level also increased exponentially, making it harder and harder to progress. In the game, the arduous process of levelling up was made far easier by the game's system. It had only taken him three years in the game to reach level sixteen, and that was with him taking long periods of time to do things like building the floating city which gave him no XP.

There was a reason that the titles for the ranks were as they were. Professionals, those under level five but above level one, were named so because they were far better at some job due to their class. They were common to find in any large city. Elites, who were between level five and level nine, were far rarer to find. In Delpon, the first major city he had visited and the location of his Magic Tower, there had only been four or five Elites in the city at the beginning of the game.

Masters were those between levels ten and fourteen, and they were the rare few that had dedicated their lives to their craft and were talented enough to reach the level. John Senior, the mayor of Delpon and an accomplished general, had just barely reached this threshold before the players arrived in the game. Legends, between levels fifteen and nineteen, were nearly impossible to encounter without actively seeking them out. Without either an enhanced lifespan like the elves, the resources of a kingdom behind you like a few nobles, or sheer talent like Mordenkainen, one would be hard-pressed to become a Legend.

Demigods were almost nonexistent in Falan. Individuals above level twenty always had a unique path that they walked. The most famous was Melf, who first spread the ability to use magic among the human population. Only three were alive in Falan throughout his time in the game.

The pope of the Church of Light, who had collected a portion of the power of faith from billions over his decades-long career in addition to his natural talent.

The World Tree, the creator of elves and orcs, who had lived for over one hundred thousand years.

Andonara, the descendant of a heroic bloodline that gained exponentially more strength from killing evildoers who had the opportunity to endlessly kill chaotic players.

The pope had been struck down by the Goddess of Light after betraying the church, bringing the total down to two. Every demigod individually changed the flow of their era, and though Roland had only experienced a false version of that state when bound to his floating city he knew the boundless power that one possessed in such a state.

In the game, it would only be a matter of time before he reached Demigod, and were it not for the stagnation it would induce he could already condense a Divine Spark and ascend to divinity. In real life, however, it would take far longer than he could live. Sure, he could reach level eight in around eighty hours of meditation, but he had already been close to the threshold for that. Reaching level nine would take over a month of nonstop meditation, and reaching Master would take double that.

In the meantime, there were several far more important things that he could do. First and foremost, he had to make sure that Betta was doing okay. After that, he could spend however much time he needed to reach level eight. What he was really wondering about, however, were some of the more esoteric parts of being a mage. He hadn't contracted a magic pet with his physical body, which would be a good way to shore up some his weaknesses. He could form an equality contract with another parahuman, granting him an aspect of their powers while giving them access to his.

Most importantly, he needed to see if there were any particularly good magic catalysts in this world. If there were, he could recreate his teleportation arrays on a smaller scale and possibly even re-attain the class of Elemental Lord by the time he reached Master.

The future, however, was far away and the present was now. Climbing to the roof once more, Roland plugged the ethernet cable into both his computer and the router setup and pushed his magic into the array. It only took around fifteen minutes this time to get a connection to a satellite, and the first thing he did once he logged onto the computer was look up the positions and orbits of various satellites in relation to him. There were five that reliably covered his area throughout the day, and with some slight tweaking to the array it would now automatically seek out the paths of those satellites across the sky.

Once that was complete, Roland opened up PHO once more and read through the pinned posts for newcomers. They went over all the basics that one might miss when skipping through the terms of service, things like not revealing your identity or those of other users, and also served as an etiquette guide for the forum.

One section in particular was aimed toward capes, giving a description of how to get a verified cape tag on your account. Clicking through that, Roland turned on the computer's built-in webcam and began to record. Performing one of his signature feats, he snapped his fingers once and a halo of massive Hands of Magic appeared behind him, making a full orbit once before he ended the recording. He sent it to the only moderator that appeared as local, a user named Tin_Mother.

Roland: Good morning, I am a new parahuman going by 'Roland'. Attached is a video demonstrating one of my abilities. [Handyman]

After a minute or so searching for Betta's name on the forum, both his real name and alias, Roland received a reply.

Tin_Mother (Head Moderator – North America): That's a horrible pun, and you should feel bad about it. Other than that, your application for a verified cape tag has been accepted and should propagate through the forums in the next minute. I would recommend starting a thread in your regional boards, either as a general thread or an AMA. For the future, however, we do not need to see your real identity to verify you as a cape. Good luck!

After scrolling through a few similar threads to see their format and the types of questions that other parahumans did or did not answer, Roland clicked through the forum and started his own AMA.

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Topic: New Cape, AMA
In: Boards ►Canada ►Northern Canada ►Introductions

Roland (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Jan 4th 2011:
Good morning. My name is Roland, and I am a new cape in the area. AMA

(Showing page 1 of 2)

►Morgan Sinister
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Dude, this has to be the most barebones introduction I've seen for a cape that hasn't already established themself. Even though the mods grouped all of northern Canada as one region, there's still more area here than anywhere but siberia and a lot more people.

►Antigone
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Not to be rude, but Sinister has a point. Where are you based? Can you give us a general description of your powers?

►DeliveryBoy (Verified Cape)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Welcome to the board! It gets kind of lonely up here, but it's pretty peaceful. It's pretty early so I'm the only one up, but the rest of the capes in the area should be here sooner or later. If you're ever in need of anything and have the money to pay for it, let me know!

►Roland (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
My apologies, I'm fairly new to the forum and cape life in general. I'm in the Yukon, in a small town near Whitehorse. I don't know how powers are classified here, but I have a pretty diverse range of abilities. Once I've established myself a little more, I'll flesh my description out a little more but at its heart my abilities relate to the manipulation of energy.

►Dragon (Verified Cape) (Verified Guild Member)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Welcome to PHO! If you're interested in professional work as a hero, feel free to message me or any other Verified Guild Member about joining the Guild.

►Narwhal (Verified Cape) (Verified Guild Member)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Dragon, just because I mentioned that it would be nice if there were more people around doesn't mean you have to give the sales pitch to every new cape in Canada. If Roland wants to join then he can, but it's best not to pressure people who haven't stabilized themselves yet.

►MooseProtector
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
I think you might have been a little too subtle there, Dragon.

Edit: strangered by Narwhal

►Chilldrizzle
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Don't worry, like DeliveryBoy said it's pretty peaceful up here. You get more villains along the US border, but in towns where everyone knows everyone almost nobody turns to villainy.

►Kowalski
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Roland is an interesting choice for a name. Assuming it isn't your given name (because that would be too obvious) it could refer to the historical figure who defended France from the British way back in the 700s, which is interesting and possible given the history of the French and British in North America.

It could be a description of his powers as well - he was a famous defending general, so he might be able to set up or enhance fortifications, or it could be a reference to the unbreakable sword Durendal he was said to wield. There are all kinds of minor figures with the same name, but this seems the most likely to me.

►Saskatchew
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
As always, Kowalski over-analyzing the smallest possible details. Any bets on how wildly off he is?

►Roland (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
...That's not exactly wrong. Given the time, I'm sure I could find a way to strengthen fortifications or a sword (I don't know about unbreakable though), but that's pretty far off from what I've been using my powers to do so far.

Also, my name has no deeper meaning from French history. It's the name I used to use when playing video games with my friends as a child, and it just felt right to keep using it. Entirely wrong on that point.

►Nod
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
0.5/2! A new record for Kowalski! This warrants celebration. Anyone in NT wants to host a party?

►Kowalski
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Come on man, you didn't have to do that. I was working with one name and nothing else, I'm happy I got that much right. I'll host if anyone wants to bring some food with them.

►DeliveryBoy (Verified Cape)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
I know where you live, I'll bring you some poutine, fresh from Quebec. No charge.

►Ice Age (Verified Cape) (Verified Guild Member)
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Welcome to PHO, Roland. Enjoy your stay.

►Winged_One
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:
Ah, my newest friend! Any chance of a meetup? I was planning on a vacation in Australia, but if the snow isn't too bad up there I'd prefer it to the wildlife in the land down under.

End of Page. 1

Seeing the final message, Roland was reminded of the user he had messaged last night and paged over to that tab. He stretched his arms for a moment as

Roland (Verified Cape): If you want to learn magic, you may have to wait. I plan on building a Magic Tower eventually, but there are several other things that I need to accomplish first. If you can wait around two months, everything should be ready.

Roland (Verified Cape): I do have one question for you, however. Do the timelines you see account for hypotheticals? For instance, if I were to spend one month doing something, could you predict the results?

Winged_One: So long as the hypothetical question you are asking is physically possible and does not cause my death, then yes. In every timeline that you received this response your follow-up question was the same, so allow me to pre-empt you. You will receive the response you wish for in the next week by posting in the boards for Brockton Bay, America.

Roland smiled, deleting the question he had been halfway through typing. Although it wasn't certain, it was a lead, and would be a good test of his prospective partner's abilities.

Topic: Nobility Wanted
In: Boards ►America ►Brockton Bay ►Connections

Roland (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Jan 4th 2011:
Betta, if you're out there, let me know. I'll see you as soon as I can. Stay safe.