I hadn't stuck around Boston after I took Blasto into my court. I'd made a mess of things and was far from subtle with my actions. Several buildings were burning when I was done, and I knew I needed to avoid any authorities coming around to ask questions, so I'd returned to Brockton Bay. More specifically, I went back to the Undersiders' old base. They weren't using it anymore, and it had everything I needed.

The first thing I did upon returning to this cesspit of a city was use Tattletale's computer and her spirit to find Purity's house – it took all of three minutes. Kayden Anders went to certain lengths to maintain her privacy, but there wasn't much the former wife of Medhall's CEO could do in that regard. Rather, the former wife of Medhall's former CEO. There was still no official statement about Max Anders stepping down, just that he was currently 'away'. That excuse wouldn't work for much longer.

Speaking of inevitability, my days as an unknown, anonymous nobody were rapidly coming to a close. There were cameras in Canary's cell. I hadn't been subtle about tearing Boston apart looking for Blasto. Thinkers; Tinkers; and other elements, namely a certain organization with two capes that could find me out in a moment were they dedicated enough to try, were all around me in this world. How long would it be before someone reviewed the footage of Canary's escape and found something out of place?

It was time to stop sneaking around. I wasn't going to announce myself from the rooftops, but I had limited time left before my face was plastered on every billboard, newspaper and web page in existence. The only time I had ever bothered with a mask was when 'Stringent' escaped with Canary. The whole secret identity thing felt tedious. If I wanted to hide, I could collect new spirits and use them to craft a disguise that would let me blend in. I'd rather my true face was known. It was proper for the masses to look upon the face of their monarch and know awe.

…Monarch? Where did that come from?

It wasn't important. I had limited time to grab people before everyone knew who I was, and I needed to make the most of that time. Tattletale could help me locate any parahumans I wanted, but, as shown when Kayden wasn't in her hotel room, her power could create false positives. I needed a way to track people in real time, to follow their movements and scour an entire area to find whoever I was looking for. One power fit the bill perfectly, and I knew exactly where to find it. Unfortunately, it was currently in a very public place. I would need to kill some time to wait for it to be isolated.

What to do in the meantime? I could hunt other parahumans in the city? That wasn't very attractive to me though. I needed to grab the other one first so I could track everyone. Besides, I didn't really need or want anyone else in Brockton. I would take my tracker, then Purity, then Panacea, then Miss Militia. After that? There wasn't anyone else I was overly interested in. Maybe Armsmaster and Lung, but I didn't really need Lung. His power was too slow to be useful when I needed to be able to rapidly swap between my spirits in the middle of a fight. Armsmaster's tech would be good to have, but it wasn't immediately useful.

Vista! How had I forgotten? She had an incredibly attractive power, and she wasn't the only incredibly powerful Shaker in the city, was she?

I smiled as Tattletale appeared at my side. The two of us got to work researching where we could find the girl in question. Unlike the others, I wouldn't need to track her down. Her power made it hard for her to think, so wherever she spent most of her time was where she would be right now. It didn't take too long to figure out where she would be. Tattletale was great at pulling information out of nowhere.

Othala granted me invulnerability and flight just in case, and I left the hideout, heading towards the address I'd found with Tattletale.I dodged people as well as I could. I got some weird looks walking down the sidewalk from people wondering why I wasn't at school, but no one followed me or stopped me like the ABB guys from before. It seemed people were more absorbed in their own business during the middle of the day.

By the time I arrived at my destination, the sun was starting to descend in the sky. I would need to hurry. I had other places to be today.

I'd pulled some blueprints when I found this place with Tattletale, and I knew there were two main entrances, but I wasn't planning on using either of them. I wanted to make this fast, that meant getting in, getting my target, and getting out.

It was most likely the girl I was looking for was in one of the upper rooms. I checked the alley behind the building and saw no one around, nor any cameras on the building. Othala appeared next to me and refreshed my flight and invulnerability before fading away. I rose into the air, being sure to stay close to the wall of the building so I was as hard to spot as possible. I reached a window on the top floor and went to open it. It wasn't locked.

I maneuvered in through the window and looked around, freezing when I saw someone standing in the room waiting for me.

"I felt you coming." a blonde girl said to me, her head tilted to the side, eyes strangely vacant. She looked to be in her early-to-mid teens. "Why did you come?" Her tone of voice was almost as vacant as her stare. She seemed lost in her own world.

I didn't bother speaking. I needed to leave quickly. I walked forward, hand extended. The girl vanished.

I stopped in my tracks, looking around frantically, but didn't find her. From what I knew of her power, she shouldn't have been able to do that.

"Are you here to be my friend?"

I whipped around. The girl was standing behind me as if she'd been there the whole time.

"I really want a friend."

I held my hand out to her, not approaching as I looked into her eyes. I didn't want to risk her disappearing again. I needed to leave. "Take my hand, and you'll have many friends."

The girl's expression was blank as she looked at my hand. "Will they leave? My last friend left."

I shook my head. "They will never leave. You'll be with them forever."

The girl blinked, vacantly walking forward, hand outstretched. "Okay." She took my hand.

The door to the room opened behind me. A dark-haired woman with a tray in her hands walked into the room, a bowl of soup and a glass of water atop the tray. "Elle? I brought you… Elle!" she screamed, dropping the tray, its contents splattering across the ground.

I let go of Labyrinth's hand, her body falling to the ground as her spirit appeared at my side.

Friends…

I ignored the voice, commanding its owner to use her power to block the door. A black-hued stone appeared in the doorway, blocking the panicking woman's path as she tried to run.

I laid a hand against her back…but there was nothing to take. She wasn't a parahuman. I couldn't kill her with a touch.

Othala appeared over my shoulder and granted me super strength. I floated up to grab the woman's neck. She was screaming for help, thrashing ineffectually against the stone barring her path. I used my strength to snap her neck.

"Andrea! Andrea, hold on!" a voice from the other side of the boulder called.

I needed to leave. It was the middle of the day, so the Palanquin bar wasn't filled with the night crowd yet, but there were still far too many witnesses for me to get away with anything here. Strider appeared next to me, his power swelling to encompass myself and the two bodies. He transported us back to the Undersiders' old hideout before whoever was on the other side of the boulder could get through.

That had not gone according to plan. It was supposed to be quick and easy. Now I'd alerted another faction to my existence.

Canary appeared at my side and sang soothing tunes.

I held my head high. It was inevitable. Now at least, they would be aware of their rightful monarch.

Monarch… What… Oh shit!

I checked the time. The clock in the wall told me I was running very late.

"Shit." I hissed, banishing Canary and summoning Othala. Othala refreshed my powers before vanishing, Strider taking her place. I didn't want to teleport there – it was too obvious a method of travel, but I had no choice now. Strider's power carried me to a modest neighborhood in front of a small house with a broken front porch step. I needed to beat her–

The world disappeared, lost in a sea of chitin and droning wings as every bug in a block's radius descended upon me. Evidently I hadn't beat her home. I walked in the direction I remembered her house to be, brushing through the insects as they ineffectually tried to sting and bite my invulnerable flesh.

A bug crawled up my nose. Then another. Then a host clambered for my nose and ears, crawling over and around each other to burrow inside me.

Strider reappeared and immediately teleported me back to the Undersiders' old hideout. I was free of the bugs.

I collapsed, hacking and snorting, trying to cough up the bugs that had wormed their way into my lungs. I could still feel them wriggling about inside me. She'd tried to do what she did to Alexandria in canon and drown me on dry land.

As expected of a monarch.

I couldn't get the bugs out. They were still inside me, wriggling and thrashing about. I growled in anger as Othala appeared at my side once more. She refreshed my invulnerability and granted me pyrokinesis. I took a deep breath as I placed my hands over my mouth and ears, then flooded my nostrils and ears with fire. I could feel the fire inside me, flowing down my airway, but it didn't cause any damage. I felt several pops inside me as the bugs exploded and vaporized inside me under the force of the heat. It was not a pleasant sensation.

As I stood back up, I was glaring at nothing. I'd had no issues taking anyone's spirit before, and now bugs were what caused me trouble? No. I would not be bested by Taylor Hebert. She had proven she deserved to face me while I was actually trying.

X

Today had gone surprisingly well for Talyor Hebert. Emma was sick, so she wasn't at school. Without her to instigate any of the more ruthless pranks, Madison and Sophia only called her a couple names today, leaving her mostly alone. Her dad had a meeting with the Dockworkers so he wouldn't be home until very late. Taylor had the entire night to work on her costume and plan about her hero debut. Then the little boy appeared in front of her house.

She was surprised when he appeared. Why would a hero come to her house? She was still a nobody who hadn't even gone out. Then her bugs noticed something off. The senses of bugs weren't the greatest, but Taylor could feel through them, smell through them and could occasionally catch glimpses of what they saw through their strange eyes. There was a shadowy figure standing just behind the boy that slowly faded away. That was when Taylor realized what the boy was doing. He wasn't there to meet a new hero. He wasn't a hero at all. He'd come to kill her. She immediately set her swarm on him, fleeing the house with the cordless landline phone the moment he was gone.

"Young lady, submitting prank calls to this line is–"

"Will you shut up and listen to me!" Taylor screeched into the phone as she ran away from her home, her half-finished mask over her head, her bugs orbiting protectively around her, scanning a radius of nine city blocks for any sign of the man who had teleported to her house. Her range had never been so large before. "There was a man that teleported to my house! He was after me! He had shadowy people with him that could use powers! You need to… He's here." Taylor said, cold terror gripping her as the same man from before reappeared in front of her house the same way he had last time. The only difference was, he had more than one shadow with him this time. There were six shadowy figures surrounding him.

"Please help me." Taylor begged the operator on the other end of the line. "He looks like the Faerie Queen."

The Faerie Queen. There wasn't a person in North America who didn't know the name. The Faerie Queen, or Glaistig Uaine as she called herself, was a mass murderer confined to the Birdcage. She was the only resident of the cage who hadn't been captured. An entire army of parahumans had attempted to stop her. She'd killed them all, taking their powers for herself. For some reason, she just decided to walk into the Birdcage one day, but her name was still feared. Everyone had seen the images online of her 'faeries' flying through the air around her as a blonde-haired little girl stood dispassionately between them. The shadowy shapes around the boy that teleported to her house looked exactly like those of the Faerie Queen.

"Miss, I–grssh–to–" The phone was too far away from the base. It wasn't working properly.

"Do whatever you can! Just get here!" Taylor screeched into the phone as her bugs descended on the boy in front of her house. She took off running in the opposite direction, through a break between two houses on the opposite side of the street as fast as her legs could carry her. Never before this moment had she been more thankful she'd taken up running. She needed to get as far away from him as possible.

The phone in her hand began beeping as the call disconnected. She was too far away from the landline. She forced herself to breathe as she ran. Her bugs made the boy flee before, they could do that again. She just needed to… Her bugs couldn't get into his nose. He had a fire power that was burning them all away before they could get close enough.

Taylor began, sprinting away even faster than before as somehow, inexplicably, the boy turned around. She felt with her swarm as his head turned to look right where she was running.

Taylor pivoted, dashing away from the houses and tearing across the street as fast as she could, gathering every single bug in her twelve block radius and commanding it to either assault the boy or to fly protectively around her. Her range had never been this large before. The air over the street became dominated by a swirling mass of wings and chittering bugs. Her swarm rose around her, enveloping everything, cutting off all sight as she desperately tried to flee the boy.

Her blood ran cold. She felt with her swarm as the boy flew into the air, flying in a straight path right towards her. How did he know where she was? He was blinded by bugs! It should have been impossible!

Taylor skidded to a stop, running back towards her house, feeling a spike of fear as the boy flew over her head. Taylor's hands were trembling as she punched the PRT emergency line back into the phone in her hands. She offloaded her fear and anxiety off into her swarm to let her focus. She was back at her house, and the boy was still flying around looking for her. She made the call.

"PRT ENE, how can–"

"I need help right now!" Taylor demanded as she commanded her bugs to coat the boy in the air. She couldn't hurt him, but she could use them to keep tabs on him so she knew where he was at all times.

"Is… Is this the woman who just called?"

"Yes! He's… He's coming back." The boy had stopped searching the surrounding houses and alleys and was now flying right back towards her. How did he keep finding her?

"Ma'am… Those bugs near the–"

"Yes! Send help now!" Taylor screamed.

"This is Armsmaster of the Protectorate ENE. I need you to describe your attacker." a new voice said, much deeper and far more assertive than the man she was speaking to before.

Taylor ran around her house, trying to get as much distance between herself and the boy as possible. One of his powers let him find her, but it wasn't perfect. She had to keep moving. As she ran, she sent even more bugs to attack the man. They didn't seem to do anything. None of their stings or bites could pierce his skin and every bug that tried to crawl up his nose or down his ears were burned to nothing before they even got close. She sent some dragonflies to try to burrow through his closed lips, but they wouldn't budge. They were as impervious as the rest of his body.

"He's a kid with shadows following him that can use powers! He's following me! I need help!" The lawn in front of Taylor was sundered as ten-foot long blades of metal speared out of the ground. Taylor nearly lost her balance as she rapidly slowed, turning to run to the side. She froze in place. Her limbs would have started trembling if she didn't offload the fear onto her swarm. There was a towering, feminine shadow standing directly in front of her. Taylor had seen pictures of every cape in the city – she'd studied them in World Affairs. She recognized the shadow of Fenja standing in front of her. The boy really was here for her power.

"Listen closely, you need to–" The call cut out as the phone in Taylor's hand shattered into a dozen pieces when a marble-sized stone impacted it. Taylor instinctively snapped her band back, turning to face the boy she felt approaching her through her swarm.

He had the shadow of a young girl in a cloak next to him – Rune. Menja stood on her other side with Kaiser walking next to the boy as he landed. Every time her bugs assaulted him, they were all ignored or burned away as they tried to burrow into him.

"My power isn't good enough. It's the weakest power in the city. I control bugs. You don't want me." Taylor pleaded, slowly walking backward away from the boy.

"That is where you're wrong, Queen Administrator." the boy spoke, his voice echoing with a dozen other voices. "Yours is one of the most powerful there is. In its lesser form, it was the first to resist me in any noticeable capacity. You were the one who forced me to reveal myself to the world. Take pride in that."

"Plea–" A spear of metal sprung from the ground behind Taylor, piercing into her skull from behind.

X

I stared at the spirit to my left. My anonymity was ruined not by the Empire. Not by the Undersiders. Not even by my theft of Canary. No, Taylor Hebert was the one to reveal me to the world. I supposed it was poetic in a certain light. This was once her story. It made sense she would be the one to reveal the new protagonist to the world. Queen Administrator had been dethroned. I had felled another monarch. All that was left now was to collect the last powers I wanted from Brockton Bay before everyone locked everything down. They were likely already in the process of that. Priority targets first then.

Strider appeared at my side and pulled me away with his teleportation. I had done extensive research with Tattletale before I took Canary in preparation for an event just like this – where I was revealed to the world and needed to take as many powers as possible before they were able to effectively organize a defense against me.

I knew where all but one of my targets would be, and I could make reasonable guesses about where Purity would go.

Men and women garbed in medical attire screamed as I appeared in the lobby of the hospital Panacea was scheduled to heal at this evening. Skitter appeared at my side as her bugs rose up to scour every inch of the hospital, searching for a small girl in a white robe.

I smiled. Found you.

Strider pulled me up several floors in an instant.

"–to go! Mom said… Amy, run!" a girl in a white costume and a tiara said as she flew through the air towards me. I smirked as her fist impacted against impervious my face to no effect, the rest of her body slumping against me before falling to the floor. It was unwise to punch a Striker that could kill with a touch.

"V-Vicky?" Panacea stuttered, trembling as she stared at the body at my feet. Her eyes rose to mine as her hands balled into fists. "I am going to kill you." She ran towards me. She didn't get two steps before three of Kaiser's blades emerged from the ground behind her to impale her. Panacea's power was incredibly potent, but it wasn't very useful in combat. She'd only survived this long because no one wanted to kill one of the world's greatest healers. I had no such compunctions. I was revealed already. If capes attacked me to get revenge for Panacea, they would only increase my power when I killed them and took their spirits.

Two new spirits had joined my court. I needed to gather more.

Strider carried me away from the hospital towards my next target.

"–expect me to believe that? You're trying to trap us! The Faerie Queen…is…" the masked man trailed off as he finally saw what everyone else in the room was looking at – me.

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked, an amused, upward curve to my lips. My spirits spread out behind me, vacantly staring forward.

"Piggot, he's here. Medhall Building. Top floor." a blonde woman said clinically into the office phone all five people were huddled around, her eyes never straying from me. There were three men and two women in the room with me. This wasn't everyone, but it would be enough.

"Stall him! I have–" A blade speared up from beneath the table to destroy the phone.

"Apologies, but I would prefer this gathering went uninterrupted." The echo in my voice turned to amusement as several of my spirits began to laugh.

A beam of golden energy lanced towards me. Regent appeared in front of the energy to take the hit, simultaneously altering Stormtiger's aim with his wind blade to knock into Cricket, sending her sprawling to the ground.

Crusader threw his arms wide and a host of spectral spirits surrounded him while Krieg took a defensive posture in front of him, launching the table towards me with his power. The table broke against my invulnerable body.

Kaiser's blades exploded out of the ground, but the battle-hardened parahumans in the room were able to dodge. Glory Girl clashed with Cricket, blasting her through a nearby wall and pinning her to the ground as Canary appeared over my shoulder and began to sing.

The final end is nigh

Take pride in your roles

You conquered peaks so high

But the ending bell now tolls

Lay down your lives

Why must you fight so fiercely

Ye oh so weary five?

My embrace shall help you slumber soundly

The effect was immediate. The will to fight bled out of the limbs of the Empire capes around me. Their struggles grew sluggish and weak. They tried to fight through the song, but Canary's master power was near-absolute when used with intention. The capes were too slow to dodge as Kaiser's spears and needles controlled by Rune claimed each and every one of them. Canary would be my trump card against large forces. She was perfectly suited for breaking the morale of armies.

Five new spirits had joined my court. It was nearly time to be free of this godforsaken city. There were only two more powers I desired.

Othala renewed my flight, invulnerability and strength allowing me to break my way through the walls around me until I was outside. I could teleport directly to my targets, but it was safe to assume they were preparing for me. I would rather take a look at the locations from the air before entrenching myself in a situation I could not escape. I broke through the final wall, freeing myself from the building as I slowly rose into the air.

A crackling bolt of energy slammed into my shoulder, dissipating without effect as my invulnerability protected me. I turned in the direction the shot came from and saw a man in bronze armor flying towards me, a spear-like rod coated in energy in his hands. He was brave to assault me alone.

Regent and Rune appeared at my side. Regent took control of the man's head, holding it in place as Rune sent a pair of needles through his eyes. He tried to dodge, but Regent did not let him. The man went limp and fell from the sky. Another spirit joined my court.

There were two more powers I wanted from Brockton before I could leave. While I could come back later, it would help spread fear of my reputation if I claimed over half the capes in a single city before I moved on. Now that I was known, I needed everyone to know of me. That kind of recognition would open doors for me.

Strider appeared at my side and swept me up with his power. We appeared over Brockton Bay's PRT building. Skitter joined us and began scouring the building for my target. I saw PRT troopers milling about beneath me, but elected to ignore them for now. There was very little they could do to legitimately threaten me, and I was focused on retrieving Vista.

I frowned as Skitter's bugs mapped out the entire building. Vista wasn't here. None of the Wards were. Were they transported to the Rig?

"Stringent, I presume?"

I whirled around, looking up at the voice. I hadn't expected another flier to arrive. I'd taken Glory Girl and Dauntless and Aegis was not in the area. It had to be someone else, someone who could have arrived fast enough for Skitter's bugs not to notice them. And…they'd called me Stringent.

Othala, Glory Girl, Purity, Kaiser and the twins orbited me. Kaiser and the twins flew under Othala's power, having empowered them as they appeared. With them empowered, Othala faded, Crusader taking her place.

Ready to fight, I finally took in my opponent. I felt my stomach fall out as I recognized the woman slowly descending towards me. She wore a black costume with a tower on her chest. She was alone, but where she went in costume, it was safe to assume the other two were nearby. Eidolon could have turned himself, Legend and an entire kill squad invisible. Eidolon could have also transported all of them here without me noticing. I needed to leave.

"Excuse me." I said curtly as Strider appeared at my side. The blue energy of Strider's power enveloped me, but nothing happened. The teleportation was negated somehow. I forced myself to remain calm. "That confirms the presence of Eidolon. Where is the weakened High Priest?" I called up to Alexandria as I slowly rose up through the air to be level with her.

"You will have to forgive me for not disclosing that information." Alexandria said simply. "Would you rather I address you as Stringent or Robert?"

She'd done her homework then. It was inevitable I suppose. I was just glad I was able to take Purity before this confrontation. If nothing else, her fast flight would allow her to drag me out of here. She may not be able to outpace Alexandria, but she was fast enough to get out of range of whatever anti-teleport effect Eidolon was using before Alexandria could kill me. The clandestine leader of the PRT would not risk touching me, so I'd have an opportunity to flee. Her greatest combat threat was her strength, but she couldn't touch me without potentially dying herself.

I doubted I would be able to take any of their spirits with Eidolon countering some of my abilities. I needed to make an opening and get away. I could come back to Brockton for certain specific capes later. For now, I needed to introduce myself to the world.

"Neither of those masks are my name. You may refer to me as Oberon."