The dull thud of a back hitting the ring floor was heard throughout the nearly empty gym.

"Ouch! Ouch!"

A blow that was almost immediately followed by the groan of pain of the person, whose back was now lying on the ground.

"Oh come on! Don't pull so hard!" I replied to the amazing superhero (Pff) who was complaining of pain on the ground, or rather to his true identity, Peter Parker.

I meant it, too. I had all my Brute powers (what they're worth) completely disabled and after the "combat style" disaster I noticed shortly after the start of sparring, I made sure to hold back even more.

"It still hurts, you know?!" He replied.

Honestly, I doubt it, considering who he is. Although, I think he's trying to disguise his super strength a bit, not just for my sake, but for our three witnesses who were with us.

Gwen was looking worriedly at Peter, while giving me a few of her seemingly usual angry glances in between. Harry, who seemed to be having the time of his life, watching his best friend being used as a punching bag (not even a good one). And surprisingly, Maddy was here too, apparently she was interested in these acquaintances of mine and decided to take a look around, skipping classes, by the way.

It's not that she needs them, I've noticed, and I think it's pretty obvious that Maddy only comes to college on a whim. A bit like me in that respect, but in my case it's more because I don't want to and Maddy's more because she doesn't need to.

Right now, Maddy is looking at some documents on her laptop, seemingly not paying much attention, though I could still catch a glance from time to time. I don't blame her for feeling bored, honestly. I am a little bored myself.

"Come on, Parker, get up! Is this how you defend your girlfriend from some thug!?"

Peter huffed before "struggling" himself up into a halfway decent stance I'd improvised during our training "fights."

I myself decided to adopt a defensive stance from Aikido. Aikido is a Japanese martial art and is considered a kind of gentle martial art that does not focus so much on punches and kicks, but rather on impulse control and using the opponent's attacks against them with takedowns. Quite popular among women because it relies more on technique than strength and feels very non-violent compared to other martial arts.

I'm not an Aikido master, but I have the basics down. And against Peter?

I don't need anything else.

It seemed like he would start the fight by lunging forward like he had done the other times, but

"Oh? Looks like you're learning something after all."

Peter smiled proudly that he recognized his new strategy.

Unlike before, this time he had been circling around me as if he was looking for an opening. Not a bad move, but…

"Still, it's not enough."

Peter's smile went from smug to panicked as I slammed hard into the ground and sped up to quickly approach his guard.

Yeah, well, circling an opponent who is superior or equal to you in search of openings isn't a bad idea. When you're not good enough to be able to notice those openings in the first place, it's just a useless move.

In fact, his move actually just ruined what bit of posture he had gotten earlier, so it actually backfired on him.

The footwork required to maintain a correct, balanced stance even while moving is not something that can be achieved in an hour or two of sparring, and I demonstrated this to him by feinting his unprotected flank.

To his credit, he wasted no time in covering his flank from the blow he expected to receive. Credit where credit is due, his reflexes are insane, but, as good as his reflexes are, those reflexes also tend to be very reactive and, when they don't sense something, very easy to fool.

By the time Peter and his crazy reflexes realized that my initial blow was a feint, it was too late. A soft blow finished ruining the mess of a stance he was in before, making him lose his balance, one hand on his wrist, another on his shoulder, two steps forward and…

Bam!

Peter falls face first, straight to the ring floor, as my knee presses into his sternum and his left arm is being held by me.

I give him a gentle blow on the back of the neck with my right hand.

"Dead."

And that's another fight over.

Osborn's laughter echoed throughout the gym as I helped Peter up from the floor.

"Pfft, Oh man, that was pathetic! You didn't even land a hit this time!"

Peter lowered his head, ashamed.

Normally, I would have defended Peter from this, but I didn't feel like it because I honestly agreed with Harry, that was pathetic. What I expected to turn into a fight with some sort of pre-cog combat Thinker ended up being some sort of prank that was less of a sparring session and more like a self-defense 101 class.

I had to tell him to take his thumb out of his fist for the love of God!

Of course, considering how much he holds his punches, I doubt he'll break his thumb unless he's having a fistfight with Hulk or something, but that's the principle of the thing.

Of course, I know I'm not being fair, I'm probably your average teenage nerd, but it's Spider-Man!

"Shut up, Harry! I doubt you can do better against a martial arts champion!"

Huh, I'm sure I didn't mention that at any point.

"Come on, Gwen! We've been watching this sad spectacle for an hour, even the popular lady here seems to have lost interest after the second round."

Mandy just looked at him for a moment before starting to pack her things.

"I'm leaving, are you coming with me, Anne?"

It seems she was more bored than she thought, if she has to pretend that Harry's comment is making her want to leave. Not that Harry is completely wrong, but he sounds a bit like a jerk all the same.

"Yes, wait a moment while I gather my things!"

Before I left, I turned to look at Peter, who looked a bit like a beaten puppy. I weighed the pros and cons of what I was going to say next, but in the end I couldn't fool myself.

"Hey, Peter. I know it may seem like I'm really disappointed, but it was actually kind of my fault for setting expectations that you don't have to meet. I just want you to know that I actually kind of enjoyed today, so if you need some lessons, you can give me a call, and we can have a little training date."

At the beginning of my little speech, Peter seemed a little sad, but now he is much more cheerful.

"Y-yes, of course, Anne, I… I learned a lot today and would like to try it again someday."

"Of course I do, man! Bump that fist!"

Peter was now noticeably as we fist bumped, and I felt like maybe we can truly be friends, even outside the mask.

I started to head towards the door afterward, but just before I left, I turned around.

"By the way, Peter, I recommend hitting some punching bags in your free time before our next practice! I noticed how you were constantly holding back your punches while we were fighting, and while that's not a bad thing, you do it too much. You couldn't even hurt an old lady with that strength."

Peter, who was talking to his friends near the ring, nodded a few times before waving me back.

"Thanks for the advice!"

With that I nodded and finished walking out of the college gym where Maddy was waiting for me.

"Sorry I'm late! Did I keep you waiting?"

"Don't worry, I was the one who rushed our exit in the end, the least I can do is wait for you." Maddy replied as we started walking towards our bedroom.

"Nah it's okay, I didn't really feel like sparring anymore, it got a bit boring after a while."

"Mmn…" Maddy seemed to be thinking about something, and a moment of silence later she opened her mouth again.

"This sparring session… What was it?"

"Mmn? I don't understand the question?"

"I've seen videos of your competitions and all those trophies of yours. I'm sure almost no one in this university is a decent match for you, even without powers, but for some reason you decided to spar with the seemingly completely normal student from your science class. The guy turned out to be stronger than expected, but I doubt that caught your attention that much, so… What is it?"

That was… Surprisingly insightful of her, though I shouldn't be that surprised, how much Maddy seems to know me makes my heart race a little. Leaving that aside though… How do I respond to this?

I took a sip of water to buy some time, while I think about the answer.

She's not wrong. I don't think anyone who isn't some sort of ninja or secret super agent could give me any trouble in a one-on-one fight without powers. Maddy knows this, so me being so eager for this sparring is weird.

But, as I was thinking of something to say, Maddy spoke first.

"Maybe you like it?"

PFFFFFF

Maddy stared at me blankly as she spat out all the water she had just drank. I swore I saw a strange glint in her eyes at that moment, but that had to have been my imagination.

I coughed for a while before I was finally able to respond.

"W-what? No! Of course not! Plus, he has a girlfriend!"

"That hasn't stopped many people before."

"Maddy!"

Maddy gave me a small smug smile before returning to her normal face and in the most monotone voice possible said:

"I'm kidding"

…I'm starting to think Maddy might be a hidden S. Looking at the pout on my face, Maddy decided to continue, this time without joking.

"It seems like you don't want to say it. It's okay, I don't really need you to tell me everything, and I know that not all secrets are yours to tell."

I breathed a sigh of relief at that. I don't like to keep things from Maddy on principle, but in this case it's not really my secret, so I'd feel even worse.

Maddy, seeing my noticeable relief, decided to change the subject.

"So… Do you have plans for today?"

"Well… I wouldn't call it plans, but I'm thinking about doing a little more preparation before I go out again. I have some ideas I want to do, and I don't want to feel like I could have done more if I make a mistake again during an upcoming patrol."

As if remembering yesterday, Maddy's face turned dark for a moment before returning to normal.

"In that case, I think I have good news for you."

Mmn? I tilted my head, urging her to continue.

"I paid a little extra last night to get our orders rushed. They arrived at our dorm 30 minutes ago."

My eyes widened at those words.

"You don't mean to say...?"

Maddy gave me one of her rare full smiles showing her perfect teeth.

"It seems that our tests of power will have a second part, this time with toys."

"Yeah!"

I've been wanting to try out Chevalier so badly! I also want to try out the sacrifice feature of my powers and do some testing with some others.

I can't wait!

"It's good that you're excited, bu- Hey!"

I didn't let Maddy finish her sentence before I picked her up like the princess she is, and we flew straight to our bedroom.

"What are you doing?! It's broad daylight!"

"You need to live life more, Maddy!"

I knew for a fact from Effervescent's emotional detection that there was actually no one within 300 meters, and I wasn't flying very high, so I was sure no one had seen us, but Maddy doesn't have to know that. Although when she realizes it later she'll be upset… Nah what's a little prank between best friends?

" Roooogue !"

" Woah ! Hooh !"

40 minutes later, a car ride, a bunch of apologies, and a best friend who was giving me the coldest silent treatment possible, and Maddy and I found ourselves in the warehouse where we had done our previous tests. This time there was a long plastic table, but it looked to be of good quality. Next to the table were the boxes of toys we had brought ready to be tested.

I turned to Maddy who still didn't find me worthy of looking at her cute pout.

" So … What do we start with?" I said.

"…"

I was hoping she would forgive me by this point, but I guess I underestimated how stubborn she can be. I can be too, but I admit it was my fault.

I only have one thing left to do…

I knelt on the ground, placed my forehead on the ground and put my hands on either side of my head.

Yes, it's the legendary Dogeza.

"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I was a fool as usual! I just wanted to make you laugh because you have a beautiful smile!"

"Oh? A beautiful smile you say? Tell me more."

She talked to me?! Progress!

"Not just beautiful! The most beautiful of smiles!"

"You say that, but your actions didn't bring out any smiles."

"That was my mistake! I was a greedy sinner! I also wanted to enjoy your beautiful body pressed against mine as we flew into the sunset that doesn't compare to your beaut - GAH!"

A piece of leather with a more solid surface hit my forehead, before I could finish my passionate speech.

"Don't overdo it either!"

I rubbed my sore forehead a bit and when I lifted my head, I was met with the gorgeous sight I was expecting. A completely blushing and seemingly not-so-angry Maddy was staring back at me with a pout.

So cute.

Maddy noticed what she looked like, because she quickly turned away before coughing twice into her hand and then looking back at me with her usual expressionless expression. As if the earlier had been an illusion.

"Fine, I'll forgive you, but this will be the last time. Understood?"

I felt a strong heat in my chest and my eyes filled with tears, until I could not bear the emotion any longer.

"Maddy!"

"What did I just say to you?!"

Five more minutes of hugging later, and this time we were ready for action.

This time, instead of wearing workout clothes, I had my entire superhero outfit on except for the mask and I had the hood down. Honestly, I just wanted to take the hood and mask off the whole thing and be a full-time hero, but until I have a reliable source of income other than turning my best friend into a Sugar Mom, I'm not going to be able to afford to lose my head. Mommy, I don't think it's something for the short term.

Speaking of my best friend, this time she was wearing her previous designer sportswear, instead of her usual classic formal-casual clothes. Looking radiant as always.

Before I go off on another tangent, Maddy decided to start testing.

"Okay, Rogue, we have three tests to do today. First, test out the more complicated new powers you've gotten since the last test, second, thoroughly test Chevalier's power and use it to give you gadgets to rely on, and third, make use of the sacrifice system for the chance to get better powers."

I nodded, to let her know I was listening.

"Okay. You asked me earlier what to start with. Since some of the powers to be sacrificed will be powers we intended to test today and Chevalier more or less counts as a power to be tested, I'd say the sacrifice comes first."

It makes sense.

"Okay. How do we decide what power to sacrifice?"

"You are the superhero who uses the powers, your judgment will be the best. Although if you want my advice, start by writing down all the powers you have and cross out those that you would never sacrifice. That way, also give me a little description and I will tell you my opinion, okay?"

That sounds good, it will also give me room to properly reflect on whether I really want to sacrifice any particular power.

With the course of action decided we took a notepad and wrote down all the powers I currently had along with their color and a small description but as I was about to write down the first name my power with perfect timing as always decided that this is the best time to give me another star.

I was thinking of storing it away so I wouldn't have to try even more things, but I doubted that whatever it was, it would be something very difficult or something, and it might give me some excellent power or something else to sacrifice.

Although something was missing…

I looked at Maddy.

"What? What is the new power?"

"What? So you knew?"

"Of course I know, I thought we already established that I always notice when you get a new power."

"Yes, but you always say to me, "Do you have a new power?" as if you wanted to make sure. Why not this time?"

"No need, of course. At this point, it's so obvious to me that you have a new power, that I'm just going to wait for you to tell me what it is."

That was… Arrogant. While it's still true, it kind of bothers me.

"Oh yeah? Next time, I'll make sure you don't know I have a new power."

"I doubt it, but whatever makes you feel better, honey."

"You! …"

Hmph! You'll see! I can be very stealthy and mysterious when I want to be, too.

Ignoring Maddy's smug smile, I decided to check out my new power.

Gray Venarum.

This one is pretty simple, but it seems too useful to sacrifice. A Thinker power, it allows me to assess anyone's medical condition. It might save someone's life sometime, though I feel like it's a bit wasted on me.

I told Maddy about the new power.

"…What a waste."

"Hey! Only I can think that my power is a waste!"

"So you thought about it."

"That's not the point!"

Maddy shook her head as if she was saying something (probably very rude) to herself. Before looking at me with a face that said little and nothing at the same time.

"Just… Make the list already."

With that we went back to the task at hand and the list of all my powers, including the ones I absolutely would not undo crossed out, ended up something like this:

Rogue Powers:

1- Blue Dispatch: Slow time bubble.

2- Bronze Contender: Fighting Coliseum without powers.

3- Blue Gwerrus: Full Counter, only if I am aware of the attack.

4- Gray Golem: Extract limbs from any material.

4- Gray Flashpoint: Turn water into napalm.

5- Moonsong Bronze: Gravity control.

6- Gray Lionwing: Creation and control of swords.

7- Bastard Son Azul: Turn people into zombies with powers.

8- Gray Grue: Generate a lot of darkness.

9- Watch Gris: Dash, blink of omniscience and ghost hands.

10-Topsy Gray: Change the direction of gravity.

11- Carnal Gris: Regeneration. Works best with blood.

12- Gray Skidmark: Steerable repulsion fields.

13- Bronze Spirits: Transformation into anti-power wolf.

14- Gray Miasma: Invisibility and poisonous gas.

15- Sundancer Bronze: Miniature Sun.

16- Blue Knight: Object fusioner.

17- Bambina Bronze: Explosions and rebounds.

18-Teem Azul: Create Minions and flight.

19- Gray Sidepiece: Convert torso organs into ammunition.

20- Effervescent Gray: Feel emotions and cause emotional shocks.

21- Blue Shatterbird: Siliconkinesis.

22- Red Scanner: Mind reader.

23- Gray Dredge: Post-cog with objects and people.

24- Grey Vessel: Merge people to gain knowledge and skills.

25- Gray Lightslinger: Convert light into laser.

26- Syndicate Bronze: Connecting people to share meanings.

27- Venarum Gris: Make an instant medical evaluation.

Maddy looked at my list for a second while nodding constantly and muttering to herself at others. I waited a little nervously for her verdict, I was more or less sure of my choices, but I wanted to know what Maddy thought.

"It all seems reasonable enough, though I didn't expect you to think of disposing of yourself as Dredge. It seems to have quite a bit of potential as a power for police investigations."

"While that's true, the truth is… I don't want to be that kind of superhero. I don't want to go around in the dark hunting down shadowy guys, I want to be a beacon of light that drives away any darkness in the first place. I don't think I need that many investigative powers to do that."

"Mmn… Are you sure it's not related to yesterday's incident?"

I shuddered. I didn't want to think about it, but Maddy might have a point. Dredge absorbs my attention completely when I use it, and I can't help but wonder if the reason Chameleon managed to take me by surprise was because I used it in the first place.

Maddy stared at me, measuring my reaction before letting out a sigh.

"I don't want to tell you what to do with your superhero side, if you don't want to, that's fine with me, I just don't want you to regret it."

No regrets.

That's why I'm doing all this, isn't it?

"Well… You're right. What I said about wanting to be a hero of light is still true, but throwing away all my Thinker powers is just being stupid."

"I see. So, in total, you have to sacrifice… 8 gray powers, 2 bronze, 2 blue. Are you ready?"

I slapped both cheeks with my hands. The sound and the hint of pain drove away all my hesitation.

"List!"

"So let's start with the grays…"

To start, take Watch and Flashpoint. While the ability to hit enemies from the inside sounded pretty good for fighting stronger enemies than me, the reality is that I had other trump cards that were more general and much less violent than Watch. Same with turning water into napalm, getting the water gun was fun, but honestly it's pretty useless.

With that I took the two stars from my galaxy and after making sure they were the two stars, I started the sacrificial process. Both stars began to spin around each other at increasingly higher speeds before colliding and destroying each other, which left my galaxy without either star.

However, the collision of the two stars generated a shock wave that affected the sea of stars surrounding my small galaxy, attracting a solitary gray star towards me.

Gray Braindead.

…That didn't sound right.

And she was right. It allows me to stake out an area roughly the size of a quarter of New York City where I can sense all the people at once. Sounds perfect for superhero work, doesn't it? I thought so too until I realized it doesn't come with built-in multitasking, so instead it turns me into a vegetable.

Yes, using it makes me completely useless for everything else.

I told Mandy about the power and-

Was that a smile I saw? But it disappeared so quickly it might as well have been a mirage.

"Well, this power is… Unfortunate ("no shit" "language"), but if you ever get around to multitasking, it'll actually probably end up being one of your best powers."

Maddy wasn't wrong. It was a gamble, but if she got Skitter or some other multitasking power and basically had limited omniscience in all of New York, stopping crime would be practically a joke…

"I'll keep him. I don't expect much from it, but just the possibility of having it without its biggest handicap is too good not to at least try."

"I understand. Shall we continue?"

The next powers on the list were Lionwing and Sidepiece. Lionwing was one of my most used powers initially due to the flight, but with Teem it has become completely redundant, as well as cumbersome. It still has interesting applications like shields, but I don't think that's enough to make it worth keeping. I don't even have to say why I want to get rid of Sidepiece.

The two-star scene happened just like before, and another gray star joined my new list of powers.

Aroa Vasil

Huh? I think this is the first time I've gotten a normal person's name when I get a power-up. Apparently, it's a Blaster, and it makes the person it hits like pain.

I guess it can be quite distracting, but… I don't like it.

Maddy didn't comment on the power this time, though I think her feelings were similar to mine - it wasn't a bad power per se, mainly because it's fast and hard to dodge, but… It's not the kind of power I want to be associated with, you know?

The next powers up for sacrifice were Skidmark and Vessel. Skidmark is a power that requires time, preparation, and relies heavily on other items to work. It has a good defensive use, but using it offensively requires time that I honestly can't be bothered to waste when I have better options. I don't like Vessel on principle, it's a kind of reverse mecha that allows me to steal the abilities of those who "pilot" me. However, I'm already very proud of my abilities and just thinking about building things by absorbing some scientist gives me the creeps, so I pass.

With that I began another sacrifice. Yet another gray star that turned out to be…

Oliver. Gray

Without a second thought, I grabbed Oliver's star and crashed it as fast as I could with the newly acquired Aroa Vasil to get anything other than Oliver.

Mockshow. Grey

Animate objects like a Disney princess? Where do I sign? She doesn't have much combat potential, but she might have a use or two. At least she's better than Aroa Vasil or Eww Oliver.

"Two sacrifices?"

"What the fuck? Can you know that too?"

"Of course I do. It's not that difficult."

You know, I'd kind of forgotten about that, but I was seriously reconsidering my theory about Maddy and her supposed lack of telepathy.

"I told you, I'm not telepathic. Now stop wasting time and tell me what happened."

How scary!

"Well… After sacrificing Skidmark and Vessel as planned, I ended up getting, well… Oliver."

"Oliver? Sounds like a pretty normal name. Though you seemed to recognize it instantly."

I nodded.

"You're right. I recognized it and immediately sacrificed it along with Aroa. That power is pretty disgusting. It's a shape-shifter. Basically, it makes me look like the most attractive form to anyone near me. The worst thing is that I don't have control, so I would be constantly changing my eyes, face, gender, size, and age to fit the taste of whoever was looking at me at the time."

Maddy sneered at the thought.

"Yes, it is horrible. I am glad you got rid of it."

"Me too."

A star that had nothing to do with our mass star murder started entering my galaxy, but I decided to pretend nothing was happening. Maddy thinks she can always tell when I get a new power, this will teach her.

"So, shall we continue?"

"Of course!"

Heh, she had no idea. I internally reviewed the new star I had been dealt while externally talking to Maddy about Topsy and Venarum's sacrifice.

The new star is…

Kaiser.

I'll keep it.

Look, I know it sounds bad that I had an internal monologue about how bad I felt for having the power of a mass murderer worse than nuclear bombs like Shatterbird, and now I have zero doubts about taking power from the leader of a neo-Nazi criminal gang, but I have a convincing argument…

His power is too cool.

Generate tremendous amounts of metal from iron and steel as I please? That's metal as hell (ha).

In fact, it could even make Golem irrelevant, but I'll stick with it for now, there's more to Golem than just weapon removal after all.

That said, this whole discussion only happened internally, externally, I was arguing with Maddy about the benefits of sacrificing Venarum. After all, it really isn't that useful without healing power and my knowledge of first aid is enough to give me a good idea of how to help in most cases.

The real puzzler was Topsy. At first, it seemed a bit irrelevant considering I have Moonsong, but Topsy has something that none of my powers have so far: Targeted AoE damage.

Not only does it allow me to attack multiple people at once, I can also select what will or won't be attacked, and this was pretty useful during the bank fight. Although honestly taking that selective area away, it's actually kind of useless.

"How about this? You make the Bronze and Blue sacrifices, and if you don't get anything that can replace Topsy as a targetable AoE attack, then you keep it.

It sounded reasonable enough, and I was starting to want to try out the sacrifice with my other powers anyway, so I agreed to the compromise without much trouble.

The bronze powers to sacrifice will be Syndicate and Bambina. Bambina was initially very fond of jumping and bouncing around like a drunken bunny. While I let out crazy explosions, it sounds pretty fun and sounds like a power I wouldn't have minded having at all, however, I can fly.

Flying makes almost any ground movement ability actually kind of irrelevant to me. That includes Bambina and its explosions are small enough to not be a trump card and big enough to be lethal. Basically useless.

Syndicate is a different case, it seems like a nice power and something that someone much smarter than me could get a lot of use out of.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not that person and connecting with others did not seem half as useful as it theoretically sounds.

I'm not a team player after all.

With that said, the time for sacrifice came and the resulting power was…

Crystalclear. Bronze.

This is tricky. Tricky enough that I want to go get another Bronze and sacrifice it just so I don't have to deal with it. The problem is that the Bronzes I have left are all trump cards that I don't think it's wise to get rid of, those and Kaiser. So I guess I'll stick with Crystalclear.

Crystalclear is a Blaster/Thinker. The Blaster part allows me to shoot chunks of crystal that explode on contact. These chunks have to travel through objects to work, but they go through any object and basically chase their target. That alone is pretty cool.

The Thinker aspect is the aspect I don't want to deal with. When I look through one of my crystals, I can see through walls as if they were glass. That's the easy part. The tricky part is that objects and people are interpreted in strange ways through the power. I see things like intentions, tastes, the future, the past, and even thoughts. The problem? I have to figure out how the power gives me all that information myself with trial and error. It's closer to an alien sense than actual vision, so it's not something I can explain either. I can probably figure out future and past vision pretty quickly, everything else is out.

When I explain the power to Maddy, she looks thoughtful, before sighing.

"Another waste."

I didn't even say anything, because I honestly didn't want this power. Future vision sounds nice, but I don't want an alien mess in my head. Still…

"I can't sacrifice it. And not taking advantage of it would be foolish," I said with a bit of disappointment.

"It's good that you know. You said you needed some glass in front of your eyes to make it work, right? How would you do that?"

"According to my instincts, the ideal would be… to pull out crystals through my eyes. My crystals are interpreted as some kind of object, so not only can I not see my own future, but my crystals pass through me without causing me any harm."

"Glasses coming out of your eyes? Gross and not in keeping with your aesthetic."

I nodded. Aesthetics were the most important thing. Personally, I didn't care much about having glass sticking out of my eyes, but it would affect my superhero career.

After thinking for a moment, Maddy raises her head with an idea.

"How about glasses?"

Mmm… It would also go against my aesthetic, but we could make thin lenses to put behind the mask. It would make my eyes look like those white eyes in cartoons, but I think it wouldn't be bad.

"Yes, that might work. We should try it later though, there is still one more sacrifice to make."

Maddy nodded.

"The blues…"

The blues. I was especially excited about this one, all my blues have been absolute powerhouses so far, maybe a bit undesirable, but politeness doesn't take away from bravery as they say.

With that I took Bastard Son and Gwerrus. Sorry, Bastard Son, your zombie army is an absolute powerhouse, but nothing I can use. Gwerrus? I was honestly looking forward to the day I could yell "Full Counter!" while returning a super cool attack, but that seems so potentially lethal now that it honestly just seems like a bad idea.

Gwerrus would probably make me capable of defeating even Thor or Hulk by standing still, but for everyday superhero use it's kind of useless. That said...

Sacrifice!

The stellar explosion occurred as it was becoming a regular occurrence and the result was…

Trophy Wife.

…Somehow I found a name that sounded just as bad as Braindead.

The more I understood my power through my instincts, the more I wanted to vomit from this power. In exchange for carrying parts of dead animals near me, I was able to obtain and give powers to anyone within 15 meters around me.

The power depended on the animal and the part in question. Cat eyes? Night vision. Lizard tail? Regeneration. Human hands? Enhanced motor skills.

Yes, humans count.

As expected from a blue power with enough resources and little shame, I can see how this power can do some pretty crazy things to me.

I would have preferred Gwerrus and the Full Counter.

I sighed and decided to tell Maddy everything I knew about the power.

"What is it with you and the filthy powers?"

Maddy looked at me as if this was somehow my fault.

"Come on, Maddy, you know this is random!"

"I know, I know, but it's like the fourth power that has to do with organs and blood that you get."

"The worst thing is that it is true…"

I feel like I've had a lot of bad luck with powers lately. It's like the good luck from the beginning has wiped out all my luck for my next life.

I sighed out all my sadness before inhaling all the positivity I could and looking at things from the other side.

Sure, I've gotten a bunch of crappy powers, but I've actually gotten rid of most of them! Plus, I can't complain about having crappy powers, there are mutants out there who have it way worse, and I have a bunch of free powers! For free!

No matter how powerful I am, I would have been a superhero anyway, but now I can be sure that I will be a great one. It's just a matter of time.

Good!

I slapped my cheeks suddenly, startling Maddy who looked at me like I was crazy.

"Next tests!"

Maddy looked at me for a second, before shaking her head with a small smile on her face.

Last week, we already tested the 10 powers I got during my debacle with Hammerhead. This time we are going to test all the powers I got yesterday between the patrol, the fight at the bank and today, during these sacrifices.

We start with Shatterbird.

Pretty simple. We tested how much control and force I could apply to each silicon-made material.

The result was that basically anything with silicon could be controlled just as well, even sand. In fact, I think it would probably be better to use this power as Gaara than to use pieces of glass like Shatterbird did.

I can also use it to fly, but it's quite a bit slower than Teem, but in exchange I was able to make a sort of flying raft for Maddy and that was a fun interlude.

I could also make a pseudo Skitter and sense everything around me, but without multitasking to process everything it was useless. It's strange how Shatterbird works with pseudo multitasking that allows me to control millions of pieces of silicon at once, but at the same time I'm not the one individually controlling each piece of silicon, rather I'm just telling them what to do.

Next up was Scanner.

"Are you sure you want me to do this, Maddy?"

Maddy rolls her eyes.

"You're wasting our time here, Rogue. If I didn't want you to do this, I would have just told you."

Actually, for this test we were inside Dispatch so we weren't wasting that much time, but I'm not going to tell her that. Instead, I just decided to rip off the band-aid and activate Scanner.

The activation was completely painless and as long as I looked away nothing was really happening, but as soon as I looked at Maddy.

When I start with that- Oh? I guess she's already activated it, and looking at her face, it seems like she can hear me right now. Hey, Rogue. Do you like my head?

I immediately turned it off again.

"It works, it definitely works."

We did some testing, but there really wasn't much else to test. The only interesting thing is that we found out that in order to use it, I didn't need to "see" with my eyes. It works through mirrors, and we theorized that it would also work through any kind of powered vision, but it doesn't work through cameras. I also didn't need to see much of a person, even a finger would work. Strangely, clothing doesn't cover a person. Even if someone was in a full suit that wouldn't leave a sliver of skin showing, I could still read their mind, however, if they were to drape a sheet over themselves like a poopy Halloween ghost, then it won't work.

Maddy theorized that it has more to do with the shape of a human than the sight of a human.

With that, we move on to Dredge.

Nothing new. Just stuff I already knew, it works on everything within effective range, and it gives trivial information about people, but it gives detailed information about objects' pasts. In exchange, while using it, I'm basically catatonic, so it's of no use in combat.

Venarum.

With Venarum we discovered that it doesn't work on animals, only on people. Plus, it's impossible to use it stealthily. According to Maddy (who needs more vitamin C, by the way), it feels like hundreds of strangers are looking at you naked and at your organs at the same time and some kind of strange instinct is telling her who the cause is.

Maddy described it as very intrusive to say the least.

For the medical evaluation, it only mentions the problems, so it doesn't tell me that Maddy is in good physical shape, it would only tell me that she is in bad shape, how and why.

I'm seriously thinking about sacrificing it to Dredge now. I now have a power that allows me to regenerate people, but again, I don't know if I need Venarum to know if someone needs regeneration.

As if encouraged by my Power, it decided this was a good opportunity to give me another star. I wasn't expecting one so soon when I only received Kaiser an hour ago, but I won't complain either.

The star in question is…

Jed Taylor.

Another name like Oliver or Aroa Vasil.

"A new power," I tell Maddy before we begin the tests for Braindead. Of course, Maddy has already lost her telepathic powers, so I don't need to hide any more powers from her.

She nodded.

And I proceeded to explain to her what my instincts were saying.

Basically, I can sense all living things in a large area of about 200 meters around me. All living things within the area will also have a ghost version of themselves, which can interact with things. That includes plants and microbes, by the way. They are a bit slow, but the strength is similar to their normal versions. Their biggest weakness is that I can only give one order at a time, and they will all obey it.

It's not bad, but its detection power is the best part, another tool to help fight crime just like Effervescent. Effervescent has more range and is useful for finding violent crimes, while Jed allows me to sense more accurately and be able to find more subtle crimes like drug sales, for example.

Not bad at all.

We'll do more tests with it later.

The next power was Braindead.

Testing for this one was quick, we limited the area of effect to just the warehouse in hopes that a smaller area would prevent mental breakdown.

It didn't work.

Instead, it simply gave me more information about the few things inside, namely Maddy. I now know the size of her eyes, ears, mouth, internal organs, the speed of her organs' functioning, her dominant hand, how many motor skills she knows (who knew such a cute girl would know how to use so many weapons), and enough information for a lifetime about her body.

Of course, I also went catatonic for a while.

I panicked a bit at first, but realized that even as a vegetable I was completely capable of handling my galaxy of powers without any problems, so I simply moved Braindead to the background to turn it off completely, and then I was back to normal.

Maddy didn't take it so well.

And today I felt his embrace again as I was surrounded by his 60.4 cm length.

I need a memory whitener soon.

I told Maddy about my experience, and she just looked at me strangely for a moment before simply shrugging as if nothing was wrong.

When I asked her why, she just said.

"If I had to choose someone to know everything about me, I wouldn't have chosen anyone other than you, so even if it's weird it's not a problem for me."

Needless to say, that led to another cuddle session, albeit this time "involuntary" on Maddy's part, and whether I used my newfound knowledge of her anatomy to give her the best hug she's ever experienced is something only I will ever know.

We started testing Mockshow.

Mockshow is a kind of telekinesis that allows me to operate any object in a way that they have a semblance of sentience while they operate. It doesn't make them fly, but if it's physically possible for an object to do something, I can make it do it.

For example, I can drive a car without gas and turned off because a car is made to move that way. I can even make the car move itself in my direction or wherever I want.

In order to connect with an object, I need physical touch first. Once connected to said object, it only needs to be within a range of about 100 meters from me, I can't sense anything through them, but since they are semi-sentient, they understand my intentions and act the way I want, then things like this are possible.

Maddy and I sat back as we watched all the cleaning supplies work in tandem to clean the place like a scene straight out of Disney.

We were in a sort of contemplative silence as we looked at the surreal sight in front of us.

"You know… You've done a lot of crazy things, but for some reason this one seems the weirdest of all."

"I agree."

Shortly after, we decided to continue with the tests.

"Next is Crystalclear"

"Aren't you going to try out that new power you got earlier that you wanted to hide from me for some reason? I can turn around if you don't want me to see anything."

"Y-you knew?"

"What part of I always realize when you get powers don't you understand yet?"

"I-I… Yes."

We started testing Kaiser.

Kaiser allows me to summon immense amounts of steel from basically any surface, still limited by Manton, so I can't summon a chunk of steel inside someone or anything, but stabbing their feet by pulling swords out of nowhere is perfectly possible.

Apparently, removing things from steel is easier if I do it from the steel, plus I have pretty good control. So that's a plus.

Like Golem, I also have a sense of materials, but I don't need to touch anything, instead, it only works with steel. At least it's more efficient at removing weapons.

For testing, I made swords, spears, rods, clubs, shields, walls, columns, steel tombs. Again, pretty crazy and a pretty well-rounded power that looks like it will be with me for a while, mainly because it seems pretty good for containment, if not for building.

Things created with this steel only last a few hours, but that's okay.

Probably my best power today, or at least my favorite.

Now yes, Crystalclear.

The Blaster power is pretty cool, I can only use it if I throw it through other objects and I can vary the power, so it would work well for fighting crime, but I don't think I'd be short on firepower. Being able to attack through walls is pretty cool, though. Mainly when combined with the Thinker power.

Thinker power we tested by putting a crystal in front of my eyes and… Honestly, I didn't understand shit. I could see through walls, which is nice, though kind of useless now that I got Jed Taylor. I can see into the future… Or I could if I understood what the fuck I was looking at right now.

I need some training with that.

Next up is… Trophy Wife.

We didn't have any dead animals to test with, but a little Jared Taylor to sense all living things and a piece of glass controlled by Shatterbird, and I was able to bring back a lizard. Another piece of glass, and with that I cut off the tail. I let the lizard go and, with the tail in hand, we now had another power, regeneration.

Power that we could barely test because I already had a regeneration and could hardly tell the difference with a cut on my hand, but something we knew was that within a range of 15 meters my power was shared with anyone in the range, so I shared the lizard's regeneration with Maddy.

A quick paper cut on the finger and… It healed almost instantly.

"What the fuck?"

It takes a lizard a week to heal its lost tail. I was hoping it would heal quickly, but not this fast.

Maddy came to a quick conclusion.

"It probably adapts to human size for the better."

I looked at her, tilting my head for her to explain better.

"Normally, a lizard heals about 0.3 cm of tail per day. That makes it take about two months for its tail to heal. 0.3 cm of growth per day is pretty small for a human, but if a human had a lizard tail enlarged to human size to heal at the same rate, they would need to heal about 2 cm per day. That means it can heal 2 centimeters of damage per day. It's not much, but when added to normal human regeneration and the fact that it's constant, it can result in decent healing. Though I think it's still worse than normal regeneration, Carnal."

I nodded. That makes sense. That means using cat muscles to have the strength of a cat wouldn't give me the strength of a normal cat, but the strength of a human-sized cat, and if I were to use the strength of something larger than a human, then it would just give me normal strength. That's quite a bit better than I thought before.

We did some more testing. We discovered four more things, first the effects don't stack. I can only have one lizard tail that works, second; it doesn't work on insects, third; the condition of the animal is irrelevant as long as it's the same one and lastly the species doesn't seem to matter to the power, it just goes with the general conviction, so even if there are lizards that regenerate faster or slower than others the tail regeneration will always be the same. We couldn't test much more, but that seems enough for now.

This time we continue with Jed Taylor.

At range, ir could not only sense people, but also even what they were doing. Though again it seemed that it had no real multitasking with the power.

I could sense them all at once without any problems like mosquitoes on my skin, but I could only really focus on one at a time. Still, it's enough to know if someone is approaching me without any problems and that's enough, though on the other hand, it won't be as good as I thought for finding crime.

The "ghosts" or rather the force shields in the form of living beings are not only completely invisible to everything but me, they are also invulnerable to any attack, but they are perfectly capable of affecting the world.

They aren't very strong, but there are a lot of them. Their biggest weakness is that they are slow as hell. A human moves at walking speed, same with everything else. Still, since these ghosts spawn alongside the being they take form from, they are still useful for sustaining normal humans, superhumans ; on the other hand, they are a lost cause.

The two best remain for last, Lightslinger and Chevalier.

Power, ready to contradict me, decides that this is the best time to give me another star. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to get more powers, but we're about four hours into this, we're tired.

Please give me something simple, please give me something simple, please give me something simple…

Seir. Bronze.

I check my instincts... Okay, Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu and Flying Thunder God, but without seals and the clones are literal shadows.

A few quick tests and we've got it pretty much covered. I can create (rather noisily) 12 clones of myself. I can't see through these clones, sense them or anything, they're totally independent of me, but they do what I want them to do with a combination of sensing my thoughts or my intentions.

They can interact with the world perfectly and vice versa. They seem to be especially weak against other powers, but for a normal attack to make them disappear I need the equivalent of something capable of killing a human or something that passes through them completely. They don't have my powers, but they are as good in a fight and strong as me.

For some reason, they are completely immune to tasers or electricity in general. Maybe because they don't transmit electricity. I can re-summon them as many times as I want as long as I don't go over 12, and I can do less than 12 as well. They have no real range, but if they run out of intentions of what to do, they just sit there doing nothing.

Lastly, I can switch places with each clone, so this is technically my first teleportation power.

Not bad.

Any other powers?!

…

Nothing.

Good.

We start with Chevalier. The idea for today wasn't so much to test out Chevalier, but rather to create some gear that I'll be using during my time as a superhero.

For that…

We open the boxes.

"Maddy? What is all this?"

The boxes were filled with a ton of stuff. Swords, shields, helmets, gloves, flashlights, ropes. Clothes, tasers, if there was anything, it was there.

There were five or six of each thing actually, different sizes, capacities, weights.

"The least I could get for today. Come, let's get started."

One of the things we learned with Chevalier is that while I can fuse objects, that ability isn't unlimited – I can't fuse a knife with a water gun and have a knife that shoots water. Apparently, objects have to share a similar "concept." Knives with knives, swords with swords.

One of the first things we tried was fusing my clothes with a piece of concrete, but that didn't work. However, we were able to fuse my Kevlar clothing with other cotton clothing, and now it's super soft and light for me, but it's heavy, hard and rough for everyone else.

To start, we created a camera. For that we took a tiny little spy camera that we attached to my bandana, that camera will be the base. Then we combined it with a medium-sized professional camera for recording quality. And finally we combined it with a huge survival camera with a large battery for endurance and longevity.

The result? A hidden camera the size of my fingernail, capable of recording like the best of the best all day without charging, and capable of supporting the weight of a truck. Honestly, the battery is just a just in case, I can always use Mockshow to use the camera even without a battery.

Following that formula, we started to improve my entire team.

All my clothes? Light as cloth, soft as cotton, tough as Kevlar.

Boots? Soft like slippers, look cool and hit like steel.

Mask? Similar to clothing, but it has a device that only works with Mockshow that allows me to activate Crystalclear's crystal vision.

And finally, a new weapon joined my knife.

A sword that fits in the palm of my hand disguised as a necklace that is capable of growing into a two-meter-tall Claymore made of pure steel and a fairly sharp normal sword, although it is not Adamantium this time.

With the interchangeable properties I can change its size, edge and weight however I want, making it a dangerous, yet cool weapon.

I didn't make any changes to my knife for safety. We discovered that being in Contender makes me unable to change the properties of my Chevalier-crafted weapons. They still work, but their functionality in a bad situation can be very limited, so, out of fear of finding myself in a similar situation, we left the knife completely mundane.

To finally end this day, we continue with Lightslinger.

Apparently, a medium-power light bulb is the minimum required to create a laser beam. To test this, we used a variety of light bulbs, from commercial 1500 lumen LEDs to things with outputs of up to 50,000 lumens.

We also tested many ways to use the power. The laser shot is fast, very fast, and totally silent. Fast enough that we haven't actually been able to test it properly, but we're sure it's not as fast as light, it's closer to a bullet, in any case.

Another thing is that I couldn't just shoot one laser, I could shoot as many as I wanted, but that required concentration, which would make me miss more, and said lasers can only go in one direction.

I can control the power. Even if the minimum to create a laser is about 1500 lumens, I can create lasers with the power of even less than that, but not more. I can also change whether I want it to work in heat mode or as a stun shot, but I can't do sustained fire, so the heat mode is actually not as strong as it may sound, even at very high temperatures.

Concentrating them doesn't increase the power in any way, but I can't get it to spread out too much either. Still, firing a sort of shotgun with lots of small lasers in a wide arc is entirely possible.

I don't want to think too much about how much math Maddy decided was worth doing with this power to figure out the potency, so I won't give too many numbers, but for simplicity's sake...

With the power of a 1500 lumen bulb or a normal commercial bulb, it is the equivalent of a punch from Maddy and the heat is roughly the equivalent of a cigarette lighter.

5000 lumens, that's a kick from me, it can melt wood.

50,000 lumens is bone-crushing, roughly equivalent to being hit by a motorcycle at 30km/h, and can melt aluminum or copper.

100,000 lumens? It's absolutely lethal, the equivalent of being hit by a small car at 50km/h. 4,500 degrees Celsius, capable of piercing steel.

And for our most powerful flashlight, 200,000 lumens. That's the equivalent of being hit by a normal car going about 100 km/h. As heat, it's basically an industrial laser.

A Flashbang with 6 million lumens at the moment of explosion? Basically, a vaporizer with the force of a fucking bomb.

All that about a gray power.

Holy shit.

"Looks like I'll have to have a flashlight as my new weapon now."

"Not quite," Maddy replies.

She then opens one last box where there is the last thing I expected. A pair of gloves with a flashlight in the palm. They looked completely similar to the gloves that I had now, except they were a bit thicker, probably because of the flashlight's built-in systems.

"Honestly, they're kind of a prototype. It's perfectly functional, but it only runs at about 5,000 lumens, and we haven't had a chance to put in a handy power button or a battery, but that won't be a problem now will it?"

No… It definitely wasn't.

I quickly grabbed our giant 200,000 lumen flashlight and our even more powerful, but not quite as powerful 100,000 lumen flashlight. Using Chevalier I merged both with the glove flashlight system. The glove system will be the base, the 200,000 flashlights is the power and battery. The 100,000 flashlights will function as a second power setting for the sake of battery.

For the glove I left the flashlight glove for the base, my current Kevlar gloves for durability and some heavy cotton gloves for comfort.

A little Mockshow to activate the button with telekinesis and… Ready!

I have laser gloves!

I immediately put them on before aiming a canister with a stun ray at me.

"Pew!"

With a quick movement, just like in every test we've done so far, a bolt of lightning shot out at full speed, but coming directly from my hand made it feel different.

"Did you just make a laser sound with your mouth?"

"This is amazing!"

I started flying around the gym while shooting at the different targets we had around.

"Pew! Pew!"

Maddy looked at me with a small smile, feeling a bit like a mother watching her children take their first spins on their new bike. A bit insulting, but I couldn't care less right now.

"I'm better than Iron Man!"

A couple of laps later I was ready to go, Maddy was too, so we gathered all our stuff and with the stars in the sky we were on our way to the college dorm.

I stretched out a bit in the front seat as I reflected on today. Today was fun, but hours and hours of testing can be pretty tiring, even if testing is a superpower.

I looked at Maddy who was focused on the road ahead.

She said she was tired from the tests too, but she honestly didn't look it. To me, she looked as pristine as ever, though she still had a pensive look on her face as if she were still pondering over today's tests.

Honestly, I didn't want to have another one of these anytime soon, but I appreciate the time we spent together.

It seems I stared at her for too long because Maddy stared back at me before speaking.

"Is something wrong? You're a little quiet."

"No, no, I was just reflecting a little on today. I don't like this practice so much after the fun parts are over, but…"

"But?"

"I really enjoy spending time with you. Thank you for being here."

Maddy's ears flushed slightly before she quickly returned her gaze to the road.

"That should be my line, silly Rogue."

With that, a comfortable silence settled in the car.

Yes, these are definitely my favorite moments.

A new star joined the galaxy.

Yeah, yeah, I like you too, Power. Honestly, I didn't want to deal with any more powers today, but I was too curious to leave it at that.

I looked at Maddy who just shrugged. I guess I'll look at the name of the power and if I don't know it, I'll leave the description for tomorrow.

Let's see the new star…

Rune. Gray.

Meh.

I'm not gonna lie, doing this chapter felt like shitting a brick. I wanted to do this whole section in one chapter and I totally regret it. I will never do a chapter that goes over 5000 words again, the most epic thing in the world could be happening and I won't do it.

I hope you like it.