Brockton's Celestial Forge

by Lord Roustabout

The Celestial Forge is the greatest combination of crafting powers in Jumpchain, meaning it is the greatest combination of crafting abilities in all of fiction. In Brockton Bay a forgotten side character's trigger event ends with him linked to the Celestial Forge rather than his intended shard. His expanding collection of tinker abilities drag him into the city's cape conflicts.

33. 27 Intrusion - Addendum Hannah

Despite the girl standing right in front of me it took a moment to figure out what was happening. When I considered the events separately, Garment's actions when I entered the Workshop followed by the current situation of Aisha being held by Garment, it suggested that Aisha had been here and Garment had seen and restrained her. For some reason my brain just didn't want to make the connection between the two events. Aisha's sudden presence was being regarded as just that, a sudden appearance in the workshop.

Taking a step back I could see that it was plainly a parahuman power affecting my mental state. Even trying to remember what I had previously thought about Aisha was difficult. As odd as it might sound, there was a legitimate challenge to remembering that you forgot.

This was a stranger power, and a serious one. It even covered the awareness of its presence once it was disabled. It was subtle and elegant memory alteration to the point where most people wouldn't even realize what was happening.

I was not most people.

My mind has already been significantly altered by my own power. From the introduction of a completely new non-human perspective to having years of military experience suddenly ingrained into me, the spontaneous change of my memories was nothing new. I had even received a purpose built memory structure in the form of that armor database. Most significantly, I actually had an understanding of how memories worked, both in the mechanical function and in the more nebulous sense of how the mind processes and interacts with them.

The sum of all that knowledge was just enough for me to recognize that my mind had been altered. Whatever this power was doing was leagues above what I had heard the typical stranger power was like.

There was a gut and visceral reaction at having my workshop violated by an intruder. A significant portion of that was probably displaced anger at myself for not setting up the safeguards that could have prevented this. Of course I previously figured that my combination of discretion, secrecy, and what I had to admit was really just a heavy door stop, was enough to keep me safe. Clearly it wasn't.

Part of this was the insane variety of parahuman powers. There was no way I could prepare for everything. With every combination of mover and stranger power out there someone would be able to slip by, which is why I'd relied on secrecy. Secrecy that was now blown wide open.

If it were anyone else I would probably have gone full lethal right there. Just grab my emergency reagents and put them down. Perimeter was breached and a full crisis response would be called for. Take out every intruder, suit up, seal workshop, and immediately relocate. Counter-offensives could be planned once the hostiles had been evaded or eliminated.

But this wasn't anyone else. This was Aisha Laborn. Even with that, even with the knowledge of her background, my interactions with her father, and my passenger's reactions to her, I could still see myself taking action against her. If she had responded to the situation with anger, hostility, or even fear I might have come down hard on her. But she wasn't showing any of those things.

"Uh, hi Jozef?"

The forced casualness of her tone was completely at odds with her expression. As she stood there with Garment holding her ear she looked embarrassed, even ashamed. This wasn't the reaction of someone whose criminal plot had been exposed. This was someone rapidly realizing they made a terrible decision and seeing the weight of what they'd gotten into bearing down on them. Someone who got their hand caught in the cookie jar rather than someone who had their evil scheme exposed.

This was a thirteen year old girl. Unfortunately it was also a thirteen year old parahuman. That complicated things immensely. Child parahumans were exactly as dangerous as adults, often more so due to lack of control or more profound impact of their trigger events. That wasn't something I could ignore, no matter how obviously guilty she was about the whole situation.

Seeing there wasn't malice would make it easier to deal with. No, actually that was completely untrue. Malice was easy to deal with. You dealt with it directly and often violently. This was worse than malice. This was stupidity. A series of idiotic decisions, more than a few of which were my fault, had led to the current situation of Ashia Laborn being in my workshop.

Aisha Laborn was in my workshop.

Considering that statement past the point of immediate reactionary panic it brought on a whole new wave of dread. Even beyond the multitude of concerns over security and secrecy I now had someone inside my workshop with every dangerous and unstable item stored within.

I glanced past Garment and wondered if it was too late to just huck Aisha out into the apartment and deal with things there. Unfortunately as good as that might feel it wouldn't solve anything. She knew about the workshop, Garment, my access to it, and had seen all the equipment stored in the entryway. With the wide hallway/driveway leading to the Garage it was clear this wasn't just a hidden room in my apartment, if that could even have been a possibility. Additionally I doubted hashing things out with a thirteen year old parahuman in a tiny apartment with thin walls would have anything like a good result.

Looking at Aisha I knew I had to do something, anything. Letting the current situation drag out would only make things worse. If she slipped away from Garment then with her memory power she could either vanish into the city or deeper into the workshop. The number of horrible things she could stumble across at that point didn't bear thinking about.

I needed help, or the closest thing to help that I could manage. I took a breath, unclenched my jaw, and spoke.

"Just, just one minute."

I turned towards my costume, making sure to keep Aisha in my field of vision. I had no idea if it would help if her stranger power activated, but I wasn't taking chances. I pulled the left micromanipulator from my cape gear and slipped it on. I instantly felt the interface improved the precision of my motor control and quickly activated the integrated omni-tool's display.

I looked down at the display and started scrolling through it with my haptic interface, tiny movements of the micromanipulator greatly speeding up the progress. Pulling up the data from the networked systems of the workshop I was able to check on some of the active projects. Not the Laboratorium, but those were still too advanced to properly connect with even the cyberpunk upgrades and I had concerns about linking them to the neural throne given the strength of their reactions.

My to-do list was still monolith, and unfortunately I had no more excuses to avoid looking at the data Survey had pulled concerning public reactions. I knew the fastest way to deal with that would be the neural interface, but I wasn't ready to have that kind of stuff loaded straight into my brain. I would use one of the terminals or take the time to knock out a screen and interface with my super science housewares power.

Looking up I noticed I'd left the entryway unbarred. I also needed to improve security on that, though something that would ensure Garment could have access without any trouble. She was standing in front of the door with a strange gesture and seemed to be trying to get my attention. With a frustrated movement she shifted her right glove and…

"Fuck, I'm sorry. Jesus, I didn't mean to."

Aisha Laborn was in my workshop.

She was still being held awkwardly in Garment's grip, but her expression had shifted from embarrassment at being caught doing something wrong to embarrassment at a personal failure. Whatever just happened, I could seriously believe she didn't mean to do it.

That didn't change the fact that I had to go through every step of that mental deconstruction once again to clarify to myself that yes, my memory had been altered and I hadn't just overlooked a sudden major incursion into my workshop, and then overlooked it all over again. A single activation of her power and I was right back to square one. Whatever this stranger power was it functioned at an incredible level and took everything I had to just be aware of it.

I took a breath and focused on my previous task. This was a hell of a lot more serious than I thought. I didn't just have a parahuman with strong stranger powers in my workshop. I had a parahuman with strong stranger powers that apparently she could barely control in my workshop. How recently would she have to have triggered for her powers to still be this raw?

I could not handle the effort of discerning my altered and original memories right now. I needed help, I needed a way to stop this from turning into a bigger disaster. Fortunately I had spent an immense amount of effort developing just that. A quick signal summoned Fleet to pilot the motoroid. Following that I activated my fabrication system and began forming another flight of drones.

With a straight shot from the Garage to my entryway the motoroid was peeling down the drive in motorcycle form just as the glowing spheres of Survey's piloted drones formed around me. Aisha watched wide eyed as the beach ball sized drones formed out of my omni-gel reserves, suspended themselves on mass fields and began taking formation around me. Without prompting one hovered over above the stunned and embarrassed girl with Survey beginning a full set of scans and documentation.

"Aisha…" I stopped talking. Honestly I didn't even know where to start. I wanted to open up on her about how stupid this course of action was. It was both a personal offense, a complete violation of what had until now been a bastion of security and privacy, and an incredibly reckless and stupid decision. I knew just enough about Aisha's behavior to confidently say that, had Garment not caught her, she would have gotten herself killed or seriously injured within five minutes of running around the workshop. And that wasn't even getting into the fact that she had followed a tinker into their lab with nothing but confidence in a probably freshly triggered stranger power to protect her.

That was another thing that hit me harder than I would have liked. I wanted to be angry at her, but if she was this raw and uncertain about her power then that meant she had triggered recently. The memories of my own trigger event were still fresh and painful. Something horrible had happened to Aisha in the last few days. Something bad enough to create a sense of complete hopelessness, a situation so desperate that the help of a passenger was the only way out.

It added a level of complexity to this situation that I really didn't want to deal with. I hadn't been acting logically right after my trigger event, expecting a thirteen year old to handle things better was completely unreasonable. A stranger trigger was completely different from a tinker trigger, but it was still a traumatic experience. It didn't excuse this, but it was another point against just laying into her.

God, I didn't know how to handle this. Even with my passenger's affection for the girl he had a level of uncertainty around her behavior. Whatever it was about it that he found amusing in a public setting, even he had some concerns about how she would act around sensitive equipment or dangerous items. The basic opinion seemed to be that Aisha might be entertaining in most situations, but leaving her unattended around anything critical was a bad idea.

The sensation was actually a bit jarring. It was like my passenger regarded her as something like an amusing diversion rather than an actual person, some kind of force of chaos that was fun to watch but trying to deal with in person. It was disturbingly reminiscent of my first meeting where my passenger seemed to be happily ignoring every tragic element of Aisha's past in order to enjoy her antics, regardless of those antics being the direct result of said tragedy.

Aisha was still watching me process the situation. It seemed neither of us knew what to say to resolve it, or even how to start making progress on the front. I would guess Aisha had an entire library of flippant dismissals, creative insults, or derogatory comments she would normally have used to weasel out of a bad spot, but she was intelligent enough to realize that I was not in the mood for any more crap. On my side I had the problem of expressing just how serious this was, then trying to figure out how to deal with it, the second part being the real challenge.

God, how did I manage that? Oh, I had a laundry list of solutions I could use to make a problem go away. If this was any other cape I would already be well into whichever one of them seemed easiest or most useful. But I wasn't going to do any of that here. I wasn't going to resort to violence, imprisonment, or destructive measures against a thirteen year old who clearly realized how badly she had fucked up. And with drastic options like mental alteration completely off the table that didn't leave a lot of appealing options.

I let out a breath as my motoroid pulled up and Fleet transitioned it back into robot mode. Aisha shifted her attention from me to watch the transformation with wide eyes. Fleet stepped forward, waiting for commands, focusing on Garment for some reason. Survey had spread the fabricated drones over the area, including one blocking the entrance to the Laboratorium. I would need to get in there to update the tinker tech scans and start reviewing the analysis.

I couldn't put that off long, but I needed to prioritize other things. With what Weld had said along with the way Director Armstrong behaved there was clearly some serious stuff happening in the news cycle and social media space, and that would have to take priority. I was about to pull up Survey's report on my omni-tool when I felt the Celestial Forge move again.

It connected to a smallish mote from the Knowledge constellation. The power was called Xenospecialist and, along with providing some incidental equipment, made it easier for me to understand alien languages and technology. Not instant knowledge like some of the other perks, but greatly improved comprehension.

'Alien Technology' was one of those things that it seemed would be of limited usefulness, but for some reason every piece of tinker tech I had examined or even just heard of fell into that category. I had no idea why, but every one of Bakuda's bombs registered as alien tech. From what I understood of Armsmaster's gear it counted as well, as did the items I'd picked up from Uber and Leet, the Rig's force field and suspension systems, and every other tinker item in the world.

Was my power trying to tell me something about passengers? I knew they were 'alien' in the sense of unnatural and disconnected from reality, but with this it seemed they were 'alien' in the extraterrestrial sense as well. That had serious implications, as did how this power affected my own technical skills.

The power made it easier to understand alien technology. It should be no surprise that this would have an impact on the entire technical base of the civilization of alien robots I was carrying around. My already impressive understanding of that type of technology had improved in a subtle but significant way. The surprising thing was the seemingly arbitrary way it applied to the other technology powers I possessed.

There was no improvement in Grease Monkey's cyberpunk understanding. Likewise the numerous powers that improved mechanical or manufacturing skills were untouched. For some reason Aerospace Engineering Makes Things Go Fast and They're Like Legoes, Right? Both saw a benefit from this power despite nothing they provided or enhanced being more advanced than space age technology. Nothing magical or alchemical saw an increase, nor did my nanite understanding. The technology from Class: Engineer saw an oddly piecemeal increase in understanding, most parts counting but some were excluded, like it covered a mash of human and alien technology.

The oddest increase in comprehension was to my Simple Scientific Solution power. Despite that power's mundane application it was shockingly advanced and, according to my latest power, very alien. Given what that power was already capable of it wasn't that much of an increase. Certainly no closer to cracking the black box on that tech, but there were a few applications I could see myself pushing a bit further than I would have been able to manage otherwise. I looked towards the door and considered what I should…

"Sorry, sorry. I swear I'm not doing that on purpose."

I looked at an increasingly frustrated Garment. At the Survey controlled drone floating above her. At the confused stance of my motoroid. And at the girl being held at the center of their attention.

Aisha Laborn was in my workshop.

I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Once again, I had to take the time to pick apart my memories and capture the effect Aisha's power was having on them. It was easier now that I was on my third attempt, but that just added an edge of frustration and tedium to the process. I could not keep doing this. Aisha's intrusion was a matter of dire seriousness, but every time I started trying to figure out how to resolve it I would be right back at square one.

If I thought for one second she was doing this on purpose I probably would have lost it, but she had the expression and behavior of someone who accidently just spilled a drink over themselves and was having to bear the scrutiny of everyone around them. Neither I nor my passenger thought she was a good enough actor to convey this kind of thing, and he seemed to confirm my theories about her having control problems.

This time, when I analyzed the effect of the power on my memories I took a hard look at things. It was incredibly difficult, the power did an excellent job at concealing the effects of its use. A person could have every memory of Aisha wiped away and never notice anything was missing, or that anything had returned when the power was disabled.

That. That was the key. The power was autonomous. It targeted memories of Aisha and suppressed them in a way that made her absence in your thoughts completely mundane and unnoticed. I could only imagine how a girl who seemed to enjoy attention so much was dealing with a persistent power that made people ignore her. For most people that would be it. A passing understanding of what had been done to them with them powerless to do anything about it.

I was not most people.

I clenched and unclenched my hands again. This would effectively pull off the Band-Aid as far as minimizing exposure went, but it would also get me to a point where I could actually process what was happening in front of me.

"I believe you." Aisha sank in relief. Actually looking at her without the haze of rage and indignation I could see the signs of stress that recent events must have taken on her. I took a breath and pressed on. "But I can't deal with this if I'm trying to remember what's happening every couple of minutes." She nodded cautiously. "So, follow me. We're going to deal with this."

I properly barred the main entrance, then I braced myself, opened the workshop door and stepped through. I focused on confident strides as I heard Aisha gasp as Garment guided her after me. "God fucking damn."

"Up here." I gestured and started climbing the steps towards my neural interface. Aisha made it half way up before stopping in her tracks despite Garment ushering her forward, though at least not by the ear this time.

"The hell is that?"

I sighed. Design decisions made in isolation that seemed fine at the time definitely started showing cracks under the inspection of another person. I avoided looking back to hide my discomfort. "It's the interface for my computer system."

"But that's diamond? Solid fucking diamond? And gold, right?"

"It's an optical computer. Diamond is the best medium, and gold is an excellent conductor for the relays."

"Right…" She trailed off, then muttered. "So that's why it looks like something Lady Kale would seize in a plot to take over Avalon?"

I sighed. "The design is…" I stopped and turned back to face her. "Was that a Princess Gwenevere reference?"

She looked up at me in confusion. "Yeah? Wait, you know that show."

I took a breath. "I have two sisters. I couldn't avoid it when I was growing up. But seriously, why would I design stuff based on a cartoon?"

Aisha glanced at my motoroid, then looked back and gave me an innocent shrug.

I shook my head, then paused. "Didn't that show come out like the year you were born, or something?"

A genuine smile crossed her face. "Reruns." She grinned a bit wider. "They always showed it after school, or early mornings if my mom was…" She suddenly turned away and coughed. "Anyway, that show was the shit, especially Fallon."

I stared down at her. How the hell did we get to discussing childhood cartoon preferences? Well, I had hideously over designed a computer interface and she brought up that crystal princess show I always had to sit through with my sisters. And she had specifically mentioned Fallon, the tough, independent, borderline reckless character from that show. She was also a dark skinned girl with purple highlights.

Looking down at the girl with the streak of purple in her hair, Aisha clearly realized I saw the association and felt absolutely no shame over it. I nodded "Yeah, Fallon was great." By which I meant she was one of the more tolerable aspects of that show when you were forced to watch it.

Aisha beamed at the comment, then sighed. "Too bad they fucked it up in the sequel."

"Avalon, Web of Magic? The one with the Japanese guy that came over after Kyushu?" I had actually watched some of that show of my own free will. I mean, the story lines were still convoluted, the magic system was overly complicated, and there was that whole thing with the female King Arthur, but at least the fights were good.

Aisha nodded and her face darkened. "Kinoko Nasu did my girl dirty. Like Fallon would ever lose to some Irish spear boy."

I frowned. "Didn't she come back later on?"

"That wasn't her." Aisha spat. "That was her heroic spirit summoned into a perfect illusion of her, and that's not even getting into the counter guardian shit. Seriously they thought they could just replace her with Adriane and everyone would be okay with it."

I blinked in surprise. Out of every possible course following an intrusion into my workshop a discussion of television animation plots where I was both out geeked and out lored by Aisha Laborn wasn't even on my radar. I guess everyone has something they're passionate about. I hadn't thought about those shows in years. Both of my sisters were hugely into the first one, and with them older and outnumbering me that meant I had no hope of avoiding it.

That was a pretty common story in my house, to be honest. I would get outvoted on almost everything, and whenever things went my way there was always this sense of imposition from it, like I was making everyone's life worse because of it.

I pushed the thoughts away. This wasn't something I wanted to get into. I had spent enough time picking through that stuff with Dr. Campbell. It was in the past. Yeah, it still affected me, but dwelling on it wouldn't help at this point. Moving on was hard, but that's what all that mindfulness crap was about.

I looked over at my command throne. It really was tempting to just go in and deal with these problems directly. It would be easy, and that was the problem. There were no easy solutions for this kind of thing. Glancing down at Garment, Fleet, and one of Survey's drones I considered what I should do next…

"Sorry, I got distracted." Aisha was clenching her teeth and focusing on me with serious intensity. I blinked as I once again processed the mental alterations.

Aisha Laborn was in my workshop.

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Aisha, I am going to sit in the interface. After I do I want you to cycle your power. Can you handle that?" I let more frustration leak into my voice than I intended. Aisha was looking more ashamed than concerned over the tone I was using. She kept her focus, but gave a slight nod.

I sank into the interface and felt the comforting sensation of my mind expanding through the system, my way of thinking shifting to better accommodate the series of optical logic gates built into the atomic structure of the diamond itself. Through accelerated perception Aisha was looking for confirmation before she disabled her power. I gave a signal with my human body, then ramped up the cognitive acceleration to levels that would be dangerous to sustain.

By thinking at the speed of light I could observe the process as it happened. My understanding of not just memory technology but the very nature of memory itself let me comprehend the effect in play on a fundamental level. It was a multilayered process. It emanated from Aisha nearly instantaneously, but at my level of cognitive acceleration I could follow the power's work step by step.

There was a signature, an incredibly complicated one, attached to memories of a certain topic. In this case the topic of Aisha Laborn was being targeted. The effect sought out the engrams related to that subject and both actively suppressed them from being accessed and blocked the formation of any new information being stored.

The truly impressive part was the use of the mind's own natural mechanisms to avoid exposure. Humans were great at rationalizing away things they didn't want to think about and avoiding problems. I was practically a living testament to that principle. This power engaged that process in an incredibly elegant manner. Unless a person was absolutely forced to confront the reality of the missing information they would completely ignore it and come up with their own reasons for doing so.

I could see this in my own experience. With the help of the interface I recognized how I'd come up with a paper thin reasoning for my aversion to the gym in the absence of Aisha and never gave serious thought to if the idea made sense. I'd dismissed what was a ridiculous circumstance around Aisha's father the night of the bombings and seen that Doug had clearly done the same.

With the benefit of an uncompromised perspective I could tell that was probably where Aisha had triggered. A street assault severe enough to put down Mr. Laborn would have to be particularly brutal. That man wasn't a soft target, so I could only imagine what kind of situation would lead to him being hospitalized and Aisha triggering. It must have been horrific.

Aisha cycled her power off and I felt the effects recede. Memories that were blocked off were suddenly accessible again and my human brain could form new memories of the girl standing before the throne with a look of intensity on her face. With this full set of information I could get to work.

As suspected, electronic perception and storage wasn't affected by Aisha's power. On a very close examination there was some disruption of the stored data, but it was orders of magnitude less efficient than the alteration of living brains. Eventually records of her existence would degrade, but not on any meaningful timeframe.

Garment was also immune, but that was likely because she was a spirit of fashion with no physical brain to be targeted. Whatever the exact mechanism of this power was it wasn't able to handle that kind of challenge.

With my mind in a digital state and a comprehensive understanding of the effects at play I could put my plan into action. There was a very specific mechanism used to target and block engrams. The power dug through stored memory and impeded access to memories relating to its host. And if I understood that mechanism I could disrupt it.

What I was doing here was full on, undeniable alteration of my own mind. I still had fears that this would be the first step on a slippery slope that would send me careening into everything I dreaded about my original trigger, but they were outweighed by concerns over the constant cycled changes to my memory. It was enough for me to push past my discomfort and finally attempt memory alteration.

The process was simple. No, that was wrong on every level. The process was so intensely complicated I would need to rewrite entire concepts of neural science just to explain it. What I meant was by comparison to what my knowledge of memory science was capable of, it was on the less complicated side, but that said more about me than the procedure. It could at least be simply explained.

If Aisha's power targeted memories of her then all I had to do was alter my memories so they couldn't be targeted. Imagine a search engine that only looks for memories tagged 'Aisha', but all of your memories have been altered to be tagged 'AiSha'. The mental change isn't significant enough to alter the content of the memories, but it breaks the association that lets the power target them.

Then take that explanation, throw out everything except the words 'power targeted' and replace it with an insanely complex arrangement of gray matter constructs, cerebral artifacts, neurochemical interactions, neuron structure alignments, and several complicated explanations of multidimensional interaction mechanisms. Then you might start to appreciate what I was actually doing to my own brain.

Aisha cycled her power again and I felt the wave of energy search through my mind and find nothing to attach to. I still couldn't create new memories of her, but none of my previous experiences were affected. I dropped the acceleration and stood up from the throne.

Looking around I saw Garment, my motoroid, and a drone floating above a point on the stairs.

"Aisha?" The drone moved slightly. I remembered informing Survey to keep it aligned with the girl's head. "I can't see you, but I'm assuming you're still there."

Garment made a gesture of confirmation and gently pushed at something in front of her. Suddenly Aisha was stumbling forward, careful not to trip on the steps. She glared back at Garment who made a dismissive gesture, then up at me in shock.

"You remembered me? Even when my power was on?" I nodded at her. I didn't think I'd ever see a parahuman so happy to have their power thoroughly subverted. And it was subverted. For the first time since she appeared I didn't have to tear apart my own thought processes to figure out what was happening. It totally was worth exposing more of my workshop.

Actually that though made my guts wrench. I had dealt with the immediate concern, but now had to figure out how to deal with the larger problem that Aisha Laborn was in my workshop.

"How did you do that?"

With the problem of repeated memory loss addressed my previous frustrations were bubbling to the surface. I badly wanted to tell her she was in no position to ask questions and start laying into her for her stupid and reckless behavior. But there was just something so genuine and hopeful about her question that made it hard to dive into that anger.

"Your power specifically targets memories associated with you. I altered mine just enough that they can't be targeted automatically, but not enough to change their contents."

Her eyes were wide as she took in my explanation. "Can you do that for anyone else? I mean, let them remember me?"

And there were my guts wrenching for an entirely different reason. The implications of her situation were really hitting me now. Yes, she had a crazy strong stranger power, but that came with a cost. Her parents, her brother, everyone she knew had forgotten about her existence at all times beyond the brief windows where she was able to suspend her powers. She had suddenly seen a possible ray of hope, a solution to that situation, and I had to squash it.

"No." I shook my head. "That type of work is incredibly precise. I could barely handle it on my own mind. I wouldn't want to risk it on anyone else. One mistake and they could end up with a warped recollection of you, or even forget you permanently."

From the look on her face it was like I had just told her Santa wasn't real. God damn, what was it that had capes putting all their hopes in me for salvation? I just went through this with Weld, now Aisha. Crap, when word got out of what happened with Weld I'd probably see every Case 53 in the country show up. How many times was I going to have to say 'Sorry, I can't help you'?

I was standing looking over my workshop with Garment, my motoroid and drone. I couldn't remember seeing Aisha since I left the interface, but considering the length of time and the position of the drone that I had following her I was guessing she had let her control of her power slip. Probably not an intentional activation, but still inconvenient.

"Aisha, I'm assuming you're still there. If this isn't the first time I've said this, I can't hold on to new memories of you. I only have what I protected while connected to the interface. Could you please deactivate your power?"

Suddenly Aisha was there and I remembered the previous exchange. If she needed her focus to hold the effect back then that news must have broken it. This wasn't going to be easy to deal with. I wanted to help her, but I also wanted to throttle her for the stupidity of her action and the violation it represented.

I took a breath. Going off the handle wouldn't help. As I was calming myself down the Time constellation passed by without a connection and Aisha seemed to notice, just like she had last time. I had made another connection earlier while I was managing the memory effect. A small mote from the Crafting constellation called Customized Weapons. It covered more than just weapons, improving efficiency of design and manufacture while ensuring that equipment was ergonomic, streamlined, and efficient.

It was a minor if useful power, but the real advantage was that I was connected to a high resolution neural scan at the time it was granted. For the first time I had an actual record of how these powers affected my mind. Not that this was one with major implications, but any information on how the information was integrated could prove useful for managing more extreme effects.

Might be. It was a project with uncertain benefits that was sitting well behind a lot of more pressing concerns, such as the one standing before me. For now I let out the breath I'd been holding, unclenched my teeth, and turned to Aisha.

"Before anything else, I want to say you coming in here was an incredibly stupid move." There were hints of defiance as I spoke, particularly around the word 'stupid'. I think if I had opened up screaming like I'd wanted to she wouldn't have been able to restrain herself and things would have devolved into a shout off. Instead she stood there, avoiding eye contact but still listening to my measured tone.

"Capes are dangerous, pretty much universally." I remembered her assessment of my threat level the last time we spoke. "I don't care how harmless you think I am. There are a million other ways this could have gone wrong. You are damn lucky I hadn't put in automatic defenses yet." Guess what I'll be adding next? "Plus as a tinker there are hundreds of things here that will kill you if you mess with them." I sighed. "Plus there's the possibility of running into other capes. Parahuman powers are too varied to rely on any defense to protect you against everything."

Aisha was clearly someone who did not enjoy being lectured. Between the focus that it apparently took to hold off her power and her natural reaction to this kind of thing the amount of effort she was putting into enduring the reprimand was legitimately impressive. After I finished she nodded slowly. "I get what you mean about other capes."

Garment loomed behind her in her immaculate gown and crossed the pure white opera gloves serving as her arms with an air of menace. Even with no visible face she seemed to be glaring down at the girl. It was the most aggressive that I'd ever seen her. On one hand it was gratifying to know she took security seriously, but on the other it was a little scary seeing this much intensity.

I let out a breath. This would have been so much easier if I could have just thrown her into a stasis field. Still, I couldn't do that to her, her brother, or her father. Also, once I started that route I would quickly run out of stasis fields. I only had a few big enough to hold humans and a rapidly expanding list of headaches that was probably only going to grow larger as time went on.

"I want you to tell me what happened."

Aisha looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean what happened? From when?"

"From whenever you want to start. Preferably far back enough that you can explain how you reached the decision to barge into my workshop."

"I didn't know it was your workshop, or whatever." She glanced around the cavernous space and up at the diamond throne. "I just saw you at the gym and decided to follow you here." She seemed to realize too late that that didn't sound much better.

I was looking at the drone I set to mark Aisha's position. I checked the time stamp and noted the duration since I'd used the interface to block off my earlier memories. Garment was standing behind the drone, looking agitated but not overly concerned.

"Aisha, I'm assuming we're in the middle of a conversation and you lost control." Garment made a gesture of assent. Good. "It's okay. Take the time you need to…"

She was standing under the drone looking up at me. I remembered where we left the conversation and gestured for her to continue. She took a breath, clearly upset at the lapse, but pressed on.

"Well, you showed up in a baggy jacket with something up with your eyes. I just wanted to see what was happening."

I blinked, then pulled up the display for my omni-tool's scanner. I checked the close up of my eye. Whatever after effect there were from the water breathing potion had faded to the point of near invisibility. There was absolutely no sign of the earlier glow and only a slight distortion in the color of the iris. Either it had been much more noticeable back at the gym or Aisha secretly had the observational skills of a detective and the color sense of a professional artist.

Once again I thanked God for the consistent indifference of that place. There was something refreshing about a location where people literally did not care if you were in organized crime, a villain henchman, tied up with side hustles, or concealing horrible personal secrets. As long as you showed up, paid your dues, and didn't cause trouble they couldn't care less.

"So you were at the gym? You followed me from there?"

"Uh, yeah. That's all that happened."

Garment's hand moved like lightning and whipped a white speck from Aisha's top. She held the blob of familiar material up on the end of one gloved finger. Aisha looked at the blintz filling with a guilty expression.

"Hey, you were sharing them. And I didn't eat any more than Casey did." She crossed her arms and huffed. Honestly, the situation was more amusing than annoying. There were a million things that could have been done with effective invisibility that were much, much worse than taking a larger than warranted share of freely offered pastries.

"Right. So you followed me here?"

She avoided my gaze and shrugged. "Yeah? Figured I'd get some confirmation about that stuff from the other night, maybe talk to you later, once I got a better handle on things. I just wasn't expecting the whole portal to Narnia thing in the closet."

Right. New cape, messing around with their powers, and in a position where they couldn't shift back to a normal life if they wanted to. It was understandable, but understanding something doesn't make it right. She had been in my apartment. Been floating around as I sorted my kitchen and bathroom, as I put quarters in the jar, as I messaged Dr. Campbell.

I understood where she was coming from. I understood why she thought she could get away with it. I understood her mindset, the impact of her trigger, the isolation of her powers. I understood all that stuff, and I was still pissed off.

Luckily I was quite good at pretending things didn't bother me. Call it an unhealthy expression of emotions all you want, being able to bury irritation at a situation and push forward is a useful skill and one I had plenty of practice at. I took a breath and drew on the same skills that let me make it through an amicable debrief with the Undersiders after Taylor had vivisected Aegis on live television with my knife.

"Your trigger?" From the way she reacted she clearly recognized the term. "It was when your dad was attacked? You were there?"

She nodded slowly. "There were..."

"You don't have to get into it." I stated. "Not unless you want to." She paused, then nodded again.

Right, so I had an extremely powerful stranger who triggered barely 24 hours ago sitting in the middle of my warehouse. Said stranger was also one of the most impulsive and irresponsible girls I had ever encountered.

"So…" I started, then suddenly wasn't sure where to go with that statement. Sort of like this whole situation. "What have you been doing for the last day?"

It was a little weak as interrogations went, but it was probably as good a starting point as any.

Aisha took a little time before she responded. Garment's increasingly aggressive stance didn't seem to help the girl's mood. Finally she seemed to find the words and pushed forward.

"After the… attack I was able to get my dad to the hospital. Still didn't know what was happening back then, just scared the hell out of the guys that attacked us, then got him into a cab and managed to keep things together long enough to make the trip. Had to stay in the front the whole time, pushing down my power whenever he forgot about me."

Even sharing that much seemed to weigh on her. I wanted for her to continue.

"After that I started to put things together, how this worked, that kind of thing." I nodded. "I got a hold of my brother, but it was hard. If I can't hold back my power for the entire phone call then people just hang up." Her voice was bitter and I could understand why. It also confirmed details about the significant range and scale of her power.

I nodded to her. "This close to your trigger your corona pollentia still stabilizing. Control should get easier once you get more experience and get more in sync with your passenger."

She gave me a blank look and Garment made an exasperated gesture towards her. I remembered that stuff was high level and theoretical even amongst cape researchers.

"Right, the corona pollentia is the chunk of your brain that lets you become a parahuman. When you trigger it develops all the structures you need to control your powers. Big changes first, then significantly slower. Practice more with your powers and you build more connections, and generally get better control or more understanding of your powers."

She nodded along. "Right, but what the hell is a passenger?"

I sighed. "That's a lot more complicated." She clearly wasn't going to leave it at that. I decided to keep things vague and in line with the accurate parts of current theories. "There's this direction behind powers, around who gets them and how they manifest. There are a number of names for that, mostly passengers or agents. The idea is the closer you are to your passenger the better you're in control of your powers."

She gave me a confused look. "How does that work?"

I shrugged. "Generally people screw around with their powers until they find something that works for them, then they keep doing it. You get a lot of false positives, which generally means people do stupid or destructive things compulsively because they think it will help with their powers." Or because the meat computer connected to their brain is edging them on, but that's not the kind of thing you lay out for a young teen who just had powers dumped on her.

She seemed to accept that, and at my prompting continued her story.

"Right, so after that I tried to figure out what I could do, if there was anyone who could see me. I saw the broadcast from last night." She looked straight at me. "That was you."

There was no question or request for confirmation. I didn't doubt that she was certain of things even before she had seen my costume in the entryway. Aisha was an annoyingly observant girl in a way that made her a pain to deal with.

It also meant she had seen everything I'd done last night and still decided to barge into my apartment and workshop. That crossed the line between confident and stupid in a rather profound way.

She continued without waiting for a reaction. "I had been wandering around, checking on things. Got to the gym when Doug was trying to reach you. Figured I'd hang out and wait for you to show up." The Toolkits constellation passed by as I gave her a questioning look. She just shrugged. "They had a nice thing going. Plenty of food no one would miss, and everyone was going on about the cape visit tomorrow." She looked over her shoulder at the clearly irritated Garment. "From the way that talked about her I figured she'd be nicer. Also didn't know you were together."

I was a bit confused by Garment's behavior. I could understand her being upset over having someone sneak in to the Workshop, but this seemed more personal somehow. Whatever had her on edge was clearly a serious matter.

"Garment?" She stood up straight, looming over Aisha and made a series of motions explaining herself, including several angry gestures towards the girl. As I watched, things finally fell into place. "Ah, I see."

"See what?" Aisha asked, looking between us in concern.

I just shook my head. "Sorry, there's nothing that can be done for it now." I looked up at Garment. "So do you need to start now?"

She made an enthusiastic gesture and started leading Aisha away by the arm.

"Start what? What's going on?"

"Trust me, it's best if you don't try to fight it."

"What?"

"Look, you brought this on yourself when you snuck in here. I couldn't stop her if I wanted to?"

"Stop her?" She looked up at Garment as she was led down the stairs and into the workshop. "I mean, stop her! Whatever she's doing, stop her!"

I sighed. "Don't worry, it will be over soon." I turned back to the throne as Garment half dragged Aisha deeper into the workshop.

The various obscenities that Aisha was yelling eventually transitioned to flickers of her power, which was still as annoying as ever. I sank back into the interface and used the mechanical nature of my expanded consciousness to shield myself from the effect as well as update the targeting protection to my memories of the conversation.

My gut instinct and passenger's reaction suggested she was being earnest in her accounting of the events leading up to invading my workshop. In support of that, I had a full sensor analysis available from the drone that Survey had hovering over her the entire time. It wasn't exactly a perfect polygraph, but the scans and records were detailed enough to suggest that she was telling the truth. Or suggest as well as was possible when monitoring a stressed out teenager without a proper set of baseline readings to compare things to.

That suggested I was just dealing with extreme levels of foolhardiness and impulsive behavior. Frankly, when I considered what Aisha could have gotten up to using that power this wasn't the worst possibility. Of all the parahumans she could have decided to intrude on, well I wasn't the safest, not with what I had lying around here, but I was the least likely to come down hard on her. God, even poking in on the Undersiders would probably have ended with a version of the welcome Bitch gave me, only with less favorable results.

For some reason that thought amused my passenger. Come to think about it the Undersiders had even worse security than I did. I may have slacked off on door security and automated defenses, but at least I had people in my workshop to support me. Without electronic sensors or someone conveniently immune to her stranger power Aisha could have waltzed into their base and done whatever she wanted.

Were the kind of precautions the Undersiders carried typical of villains? Well, not every team had a tinker to install defenses. Professional security systems either had to be installed by your own men or needed industry connection that could be trusted. Powers that could no-sell a stranger were even rarer than tinkers who could provide security. The typical defensive system was probably in line with what I'd been using, mundane locks combined with secrecy.

I took some time to plan out the construction of new security measures for my main entrance. Between the knowledge sets I'd already acquired and Simple Scientific Solution extending into home security there were a lot of possibilities. I would be able to easily avoid a repeat of this intrusion. Linking an EM particle field from my Skills: Physics to the central computer could allow selective permeability to specific objects or people as long as I had properly calibrated emitters and a source of energetic plasma to power them. It would be almost like what they did with force fields on Star Trek.

Actually, with that thought, if I could specialize the EM emitters enough and couple them with some kind of photon matrix I could create solid holograms. Maybe. It was just physics concepts rather than any hint to the application, so that was something of a challenge, but I could definitely create the impression of a normal closet behind my entrance door instead of giving people a view of the Workshop's central access room. Master Builder had some holographic principles as well, and with the boost from Xenospecialist I could probably pull them off without needing cybertonium.

Class: Engineer was a lot less subtle, but I was in favor of building a heavy mass barrier at the entryway to just provide a solid obstruction if everything else failed. It wouldn't be subtle in any sense of the word, but having a giant glowing force wall come down should be a hell of a deterrent.

Last line of defense would be a security system from Simple Scientific Solution. That power was more than a little eccentric in its application, but it was basically magic by every standard except the technical one. I probably didn't even need the other options, but on the off chance that someone was able to bypass whatever system was put in place with that Clarketech power I needed to have a fallback of some kind.

As useful as all those applications were there was a sense that I was closing the barn door after the horses had already escaped. Aisha was here, Aisha knew about my workshop, and I had to deal with that problem. It would have been so much easier if I was the kind of bastard who could live with indefinitely imprisoning a thirteen year old girl. Even easier if I was willing to mess with memories, but that was a serious dark path that I didn't even want to touch. Not if there was any other option.

So what were my options here? If mindwipe and imprisonment weren't choices then I would have to deal with the fact that Aisha was going back into the world knowing about what she had seen here. I was understandably uncomfortable with that situation. Every instinct I'd gotten from my military training was screaming at me about operational security.

The only way I could leave this with a true sense of safety would be to abandon my non-cape identity. Go dark, cut all ties to my civilian life, and live on the run. I could probably hack in a new set of ID without too much trouble and relocate to somewhere else in the city for the duration of the current crisis, then to somewhere else in the country after that. My family might be at risk, but with only Aisha's word for people to go by they would probably be safe in the long run.

That thought horrified me more than I expected. I didn't have the best situation in my civilian life, but I had put a huge amount of effort into pulling myself back together over the last two years. Walking away made it feel like all that progress, all that effort, was for nothing. I didn't want to burn the identity I'd grown up with and start fresh, no matter how good an idea it would be.

But what were my other options? Rely on the discretion of Aisha Laborn for my future survival? There was another spike of anger at the chaos this violation of my privacy had brought down on me. That wasn't a point in her favor. I would effectively be hoping that her good nature and wise decision making would protect me, when she hadn't displayed much of either.

Okay, that wasn't exactly fair. She had pegged me as a parahuman days ago. Given that I wasn't swimming in PRT agents or gang capes she had kept that to herself. Aisha could at least keep a secret, but for how long and to what extent? And we were talking about parahumans here. For some people, some powers, it didn't matter how much you wanted to keep things secret.

That was the real source of dread. The major, impassable threats that I had worked so hard to dance around, the ones I had warned Weld about, they were just waiting for something like this. I had specific defenses of debatable effectiveness designed to hold off precognition. Aisha didn't. Her power might be able to buy her some leeway, but all it would take is a single point of failure. Garment had demonstrated that quite effectively.

Endbringers were notoriously resistant to parahuman abilities. I didn't expect that the Simurgh would be fooled by Aisha's memory power. Even if she couldn't see me there was a good chance that whatever impulsive thing Aisha was going to do would start pinging on whatever future sense the winged bitch used.

That was the real problem here. I had been dancing around the impact of more dangerous elements of the world. With Aisha barging into my workshop she upset whatever tenuous balance I had. There was the possibility that any action I took would still bite me in the ass. Everything was going to ping on precogs. Using memory tech on someone with memory powers could have all kinds of unexpected results. Confinement in a stasis field wouldn't affect her passenger, and that could be serious trouble.

Aisha had a normal passenger, one of the giant conflict driven meat computers that plugged itself into her brain. It probably had some level of contribution to her reckless actions, but I doubted Aisha needed much help in that department. The real problem was the fact that there was a passenger linked to her brain, a brain that was inside my workshop.

I was incredibly lucky that my passenger, despite all of his quirks, operated outside of the cluster of either entity. Passengers weren't exactly a network, and it wasn't like they completely understood everything that was going on around the parahumans they were connected to, but a lot of powers and effects relied on interactions between passengers. There were exchanges, links, connections, and even occasional data transfers that I had no way of regulating or blocking.

Maybe if I had a better understanding of magitech I would be able to influence passenger connection, block information transfer, or even understand what was happening in order to quantify the risk. Right now the only inroad I had made in that area was my call beads, but using them to investigate passengers would be like hooking up a telescope to a fire hydrant. A situation where neither technology was designed for what you were trying to accomplish.

It was a dismal situation. Even with all the power and technology at my disposal I didn't have what I needed to magically fix a problem of this magnitude.

Except I did.

I fucking did! Of all the immense libraries of technology, the production speed increases, the immaculate crafting abilities, the legitimate magic, none of them could help with this problem. Instead it was a single borderline novelty houseware power that would save the day.

Need a magical fix? I had Clarketech appliances at my disposal, and recently improved proficiency with them. Literally anything was possible as long as it addressed a household issue. And you know what counted as a household issue?

Privacy.

My mind was spinning at high levels of cognitive acceleration as I worked out the design for the solution to my problems, ignoring a missed connection to the Knowledge constellation as I powered through. This was high level even for a power that granted magical feats of technology. It was also simple when you thought about it. Nobody liked nosey neighbors. So preventing being spied upon was obviously a household problem. The kind of household problem that Simple Scientific Solution was designed to address.

It was telling how far I was pushing this by the amount of effort the design was taking. This wasn't self-heating plumbing, force field windows, a car upgrade, or even a butler robot. This was privacy against every possible thing in existence. Assurance that no power on earth would be able to peek into my workshop. Absolute proof against detection.

I was building an N-dimensional privacy curtain. The concept was high level even for me, and the application was totally beyond my own understanding. Essentially it was a curtain that would surround my workshop while extending in every possible dimension in order to block spying methods. It even extended 4-dimensionally both forward and backward in time, effectively blocking both pre and post cognition.

There was also a certain feeling to it that suggested it was a scaled up version of something intended to prevent peeping toms from peering into bathrooms. I got that sense from a lot of the technology provided by Simple Scientific Solution. It was staggeringly powerful within its own field, but didn't seem to take itself too seriously.

That became more apparent as I disconnected from the interface and set about installing the system. The assembly method didn't involve the construction of any large apparatus or the installation of jamming systems, or any other kind of multi-dimensional technology I would expect to have to use. Instead I was treating sheets of fabric and then stringing them up in such a way that as I hauled on the curtain pull they were dragged out of sync with our universe. I didn't even need to move around the workshop while installing it. I could just haul everything into place from a single point and let the dimensional geometry of the curtain take care of things.

And just like that I had just created a contained area that was proof against every form of detection, even other passengers, and accomplished it using junk and spare sheets. I didn't know whether to be insulted at the simplicity of it, or cackle madly at the scale of the accomplishment. This wouldn't protect me or any of my works when they were outside, but everything within my workshop was safe from observation. That winged bitch couldn't spy on it. Other parahumans couldn't spy on us. Even tinker tech surveillance couldn't breach the privacy curtain.

I had to take a moment to just bask in the significance. I had done it. It wasn't perfect, but I had one place where I would be safe, where the Simurgh couldn't see me. Anything that went out that door was fair game, but in here I could plan, I could build, I could experiment. I could do anything and as long as I kept it contained it would be safe. I could practically feel the crushing weight that burden had placed on me evaporate from my shoulders. For the first time since I'd learned the scale of my powers I could really relax.

More than relax, I could plan. With the nebulous threat of the Simurgh there were things I didn't even want to think about. Now I could actually devote time to working on counter strategies or tracking down the reason it would be so dangerous to kill an Endbringer. Hell, I could even plan to use this technology. It wasn't something that could be moved and needed stable structures to be anchored to, but with the speed I could set it up conceivably I could break it out the next time the winged bitch attacked a city, creating pockets of blind spots to her predictions. It was a risky idea, but at least now I could actually consider it without tipping her off.

Even my passenger was happy for me. Thanks to the different nature of my connections I was still in contact with my passenger, but the data links of other passengers would be disrupted. Not enough to impact the powers of their hosts, but enough that data gathered would be useless, like it was being taken through a high blur filter. While it didn't solve the problem of what Aisha would do when she left, it took care of a much bigger concern than just an unguarded entrance.

Speaking of which, I started work on proper security for the main entrance. I decided to go with a stable EM barrier using call beads to provide the power source. My initial design was a bit clunky, but considering I was doing all the engineering from first principles I was happy with the end product. The result was a transparent field across the entryway that would scale to different sizes of door. I didn't have selective access programs yet, but as far as blocking the door went it was a big step up from a chunk of steel.

I also installed a fallback security system from Simple Scientific Solution. Like all the tech from that power it was insanely advanced while also being somehow irreverent in its application. I chose the option that would teleport any intruder that bypassed the force field into the nearest large body of water. I elected to leave out the feature that would also stamp the word 'idiot' onto their forehead during transit.

I was headed back to my throne to review the system controls when I heard the sound of feet stamping my way from the direction of the textile area. First there was the sight of one of Survey's drones floating up the stairs. Then I saw the form of Aisha follow underneath it with a furious expression on her face. I was pretty sure of the reason for that, which was confirmed when I saw her new outfit.

Instead of her strapless top, shorts, and fishnets Aisha was wearing a fitted purple A-line dress with green highlights that extended to mid-shin length. As she strode forward I could see her sneakers had been switched out for a pair of ankle boots that matched the rest of her outfit. Her collection of piercings and jewelry somehow paired well with the new style, providing a contrasting and highlighting effect rather than its previous jumbled mess.

"So, I see things went well with Garment."

"She's a fucking madwoman." Aisha glared back at the form of Garment who was cresting the stairs while carrying Aisha's old outfit in a small bag. She was holding it away from her like a garbage bag that could contaminate her as she moved in to fuss slightly with the way Aisha's dress was sitting.

"I told you, it's fine. Let up already." She shifted her glare towards me. "She just doesn't stop."

I just smiled at her. "You know, that is a really nice dress."

Aisha's face darkened as she scowled at me. Her hands balled into fists and when she spoke it was with a voice of pure vitriol.

"It is beautiful and I love it."

At the sound of Aisha's pained statement Garment made an expression of pure joy and started once again fussing over the girl, reluctantly ceasing when Aisha batted her away. I could not hold back a chuckle at the display.

"It's not funny." Aisha insisted, in defiance of all physical evidence. "She kept making dresses. I literally couldn't stop her." Garment beamed with pride at the girl's accusation.

"Ah," I replied. "I thought it was taking a bit long for one outfit."

"This is serious." Aisha insisted. "Some of those dresses have corsets. And not the fun kind, the kind you have to wear under the dress."

Aisha's apparent fear and distaste for historic under layers was completely lost on Garment who just proudly confirmed the accusation. I just shrugged.

"Don't look at me. There are two tuxedos and a three piece suit she's still trying to get me to wear."

Aisha blinked. "Seriously?" She looked to Garment for confirmation, who raised a finger of one glove, handed off the bag with Aisha's old clothes, and hurried off to her workspace, her gown streaming around her as she moved.

Aisha looked into the bag with a conflicted expression, then sighed and set it on the ground. "Hey, is she always like this?"

"Pretty much." I admitted.

She looked pensive. "I mean, it's not bad. It's just intense. She has a lot of energy, and it's hard to deal with that much attention."

I nodded. "That about sums it up."

Suddenly she turned to me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I guess she can get you to wear whatever she wants, huh?"

It took me a moment to figure out what she was talking about. Then it hit me. Garment had taken her to the textile area.

"You saw the mural." My voice was flat as I replied.

"I saw the mural." Her voice was considerably more amused.

I let out a sigh and silently cursed the duplicate who thought that was a good idea. Which meant I was cursing myself, really. That felt oddly appropriate given the circumstances.

"Uh, hey." I shifted my attention back to Aisha, who was looking embarrassed again. She shifted nervously. "Okay, before anything else I wanted to say…" She fumbled for a moment then pushed forward.

"Look, I just wanted to say, I didn't mean for any of this to happen." She wilted slightly under the flat look I gave her and seemed to realize that wouldn't be enough. She swallowed and tried again.

"I saw you at the gym and figured, you know, you were probably Apeiron. It would be cool to see where you lived." Saying it out loud she seemed to understand how it came across. Aisha averted her eyes and tried again. "Uh, I figured, you know, I might see some gadget lying around, or something about your cape stuff." She cringed slightly as she admitted to spying and invasion of privacy. Still, she didn't back out.

"I didn't expect all this." She looked around at the workspace around us. "Fuck, I was just messing around. I know I've put my foot in it here, so I just wanted to say…" She swallowed, steeled herself, and looked directly at me.

"I'm sorry."

I stared blankly down at Aisha as she watched my reaction. Apologizing, or at least meaning it when you apologize, was clearly new ground for the girl. It wouldn't surprise me if this was the first time she had said those words without sarcasm or derision behind them.

I got that this was significant for her, and I didn't want to dismiss it, but it wasn't enough to make up for the cluster fuck she had caused. I didn't want to discourage her, but at the same time this wasn't the end of it.

"Thank you."

I kept the reply as neutral as I could and didn't elaborate on it. She watched me for a moment longer, then nodded.

"Uh, right. I mean, I saw the stuff from last night, so I knew it was going to be big, but I mean…" She gestured at the space around us, the walkways, multiple levels, complicated machinery, conduits, and the stairway leading to the diamond throne. She was clearly anxious about it, but was holding herself back.

I sighed. "You want to ask about it?"

She nodded meekly, which was a seriously uncharacteristic behavior for her. "Yeah? I mean, fuck, look at this place." She raised her voice at the end of her statement and it echoed slightly around the workshop. "The way everyone was talking about the other night I figured you had something crazy up your sleeve, but this is just insane."

I didn't respond to that, just noting a missed connection to the Alchemy constellation. Instead I waited for her to continue.

"I'm serious, about being sorry? I really didn't think this would…" She puttered out. "I guess I didn't think."

I nodded slowly. That was a serious admission. As I considered it something occurred to me.

"You haven't activated your power." She blinked at that. "Not recently, not by accident."

She considered things. "I think… It's like, knowing that you aren't going to wander off if I slip up is making it easier to not slip up?" She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know if powers normally work this way, but it's like the more I try to control it the more it does its own thing. Like I just have this thing in my life and I have to deal with it and don't know what it's going to do and can only sort of direct it and hope for the best."

I stood there stone faced as Aisha went on, clearly blind to the parallel she was describing to the current situation. This was one of those things that would have been funny if I wasn't the one dealing with it.

Aisha dropped her head and continued. "When, when you said my name while my power was active I swear I nearly had a heart attack." Her expression was complicated. "Since I got my power I haven't been able to get anyone to notice me for more than a couple of minutes. I don't know, maybe I thought you'd be able to help me, like how you did with Grue… and the Undersiders."

She sighed, and I was once again seeing Weld standing at the bottom of the ocean marveling at the petty improvement I'd been able to accomplish. And that shitty realization that the only people consistently aware of her existence were inside this Workshop.

I would say she should have just asked for help, but with her personal experience and the difficulty in bringing up that topic I couldn't blame her for wanting to be sure of things before she tried. I could blame her for a lot of other stuff, but not for letting anxiety stop her from taking the obvious solution.

Maybe I wasn't quite as angry with her as I had been. We weren't on good terms yet, but this was better than it had been. If her situation was as serious as she said there was at least a chance she'd keep things confidential as long as I could help her with her powers.

My contemplation was broken by the arrival of Garment hauling all three suits, which from a glance I could tell had been altered to match my new build. Aisha glanced at my arms and shoulders, then at the clothes Garment was holding. I could tell that was another thing she wanted to ask about but was restraining herself. As it stood she was clearly grateful to be distracted from the previous topic.

"Yes Garment, they're really nice work." Garment gestured towards my Alchemist Lab. "Uh, no. That's not the best idea right now." I did not need duplicate stress on top of Aisha stress.

Garment seemed to accept my answer, but presented the white tuxedo with enthusiasm, and much to Aisha's amusement. "Now's not really the best time for that."

The way she held the tux suggested we had different ideas about how to match clothing to events. A bit more harping back and forth was enough to get her to relent, though Aisha treated the entire exchange as free theater. After Garment backed down I turned to Aisha's smiling face.

"Alright," I sighed. "I'm prepared to upgrade you from intruder to unwelcome guest." She smiled at that. "Come on, let's figure out what we're doing next."

The only place that was set up for a conversation that didn't also have dangerous technology or chemicals lying around was my office. That meant I had to take her through a good portion of the workshop. Generally it wasn't worse than what she had already seen, and her passenger wasn't getting direct information anymore. It might be able to piece things together from her perceptions, but that was unlikely and would be unreliable.

The only thing I was concerned about was the need to walk through the cybernetics lab and clinic. I really didn't want to answer questions about that kind of medical facility. Surprisingly she passed through without comment. Instead it was an unexpected item that drew her attention severely enough to cause her to lose her grip on her power.

That's how I found myself standing in the cybernetics clinic staring at a bobbing drone that I knew symbolized Aisha's location. Having done this dance before I waited for her to get things back under control.

Almost immediately Aisha was in the clinic, frantically pointing to the side wall and shouting in excitement.

"Is that a fucking rocket hammer?"

I grinned at that. "Yep. Rocket hammer."

"Holy shit." She looked between it and me frantically. "How does it work? Can I use it? Does it like, fly, or just hit things good."

I held up a hand and she struggled to calm herself down. "It's untested, but no, you can't use it. I could barely manage the balance on that. You would kill yourself." And just like that, Christmas was canceled. God damn, was I too much of a soft touch? Yes. Yes I was. "But if things go well I'll show you how it works later."

Aisha beamed, and even Garment seemed pleased with the idea. I mean, as long as she didn't design a rocket hammer fashion line to go along with it that was fine with me.

With more promises made and obligations taken on I moved into my office with Garment and Aisha following. Garment settled demurely at the table with Aisha following her with a bit less grace. She had natural agility, but was clearly unused to wearing longer dresses.

"Would you like something to drink?"

Aisha leaned back and looked at the wetbar. "You have any liquor?"

I sighed even though it was clearly said as a joke. "First, no I don't. Second, you are thirteen. There is no way you are consuming any alcohol in my presence. I'm barely comfortable being alone in a room with someone your age." Garment made an offended gesture. "Sorry, being the only other human in a room with someone your age." Garment switched to an accepting gesture.

Aisha gave Garment a questioning look, then turned back to me. "Uh, soda, juice, whatever?"

I nodded and looked over what I had on hand, shortly realizing that I had barely anything in stock. Before this craziness I was sticking to a discount fitness diet that didn't exactly have room for high fructose corn syrup. Even when my food budget improved there wasn't exactly a rush to fill my beverage cabinet. I'm not exactly big on entertaining and Garment is an easy houseguest.

The result was that I had a drinks cabinet containing a set of beautiful bar crystal, some bottles of sparkling water, a couple of limes, assorted condiments, some chocolate protein shakes, and instant coffee crystals.

I looked over the contents, then back at Aisha. "Would tea be alright?"

She didn't look that excited about the idea, but shrugged along. "Sure, that's fine."

"Right. Just give me a minute."

I retreated from the office to the kitchen in my apartment and hunted through the cabinets. I was more of a coffee person than tea, but tea was cheap, easy to stock, and better when I only wanted a cupful of caffeine. I had been bigger on it when I was at university, mostly out of convenience, but had held onto the habit since then.

Still, my current skill with tea was an entirely different beast from when I would brew it in the common room of my dorm. Even beyond all the other forms of skill increase, tea was just close enough to a potion to benefit from my Alchemy knowledge. Natural Alchemy in particular had an affinity for tea, and with it I was able to coax a level of quality out of the powdery mess that had sat in a tea bag for months that would normally only be found in the finest custom grown and perfectly prepared leaves.

Aisha's eyebrows rose when I returned with a tray holding a freshly transmuted teapot and set of cups. I think she might have been preparing some flippant comment, but whatever it was died when she saw the tea set and smelled the beverage.

I poured each of us a cup, including Garment, and Aisha tentatively sipped hers, then her eyes widened.

"This is really good tea."

I smiled a bit awkwardly. "Uh, thanks." It turns out there's a big gulf between knowing how to properly prepare tea and how to serve it with any level of class. I'm sure I was breaking any number of protocols around the beverage, but my lack of formality seemed to help Aisha relax.

Plus it really was good tea. The natural energy wasn't doing anything more than improving the ingredients, but when combined with my crafting skills was enough to take the beverage to a significant level of quality.

I sighed into my cup and watched Garment not drink hers, but admire the design of the cup and teapot. Considering my recent powers this was probably the last time I'd have to make do with what I could scrounge up. If I didn't get a domestic food synthesizer one of my duplicates would build it, probably programed with whatever foods they would expect to get the biggest reaction from me.

Aisha took a long sip from her cup, savoring the beverage, then set it on the table and turned to me. "So, what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know," she gestured around. "Break out the veiled threats, show off scary technology, and explain how bad it will be for me if I betray your secrets."

I noticed she didn't even float the possibility that I would carry through on any of those threats or use the scary technology. I mean, I wouldn't, but it was still a bit upsetting to be called out on that by a thirteen year old.

"How about we just skip to the third one?"

"Great." She grinned slightly and lifted her cup. The tea and atmosphere seemed to have returned some of her usual 'charm'. "So what's the worst consequence if I run off and expose your secrets?"

"The Simurgh shows up, mind puppets me, and leads humanity into a new age of terror and darkness which will make the deeds of the Slaughterhouse Nine look like a childish tantrum."

Whatever retort she had prepared died in her throat. Whatever she was going to say was forgotten and her cup dropped from her hand to hit the table, spilling a few drops of tea.

"You're fucking serious?"

I nodded grimly. "You've seen it out there. Stuff I can do makes Sphere's stuff look like child's play. I've been dodging her radar, but someone fucks that up and we will have an Endbringer attack, and probably from her."

"Holy fuck." She stared at me blankly. "You really mean it. And it could…" She swallowed. "It could actually happen, right? This is what they go for. They could be coming right now, and we can't stop them. What will happen when…"

"Aisha?" Her mouth shut with a click. "Drink your tea."

She absently picked up the cup and took another sip. Despite her obvious agitation the hot beverage seemed to calm her slightly.

"Sorry to drop that on you, but that's the scale we're playing at." She nodded along. "I'm not going to make threats, or deals, or try to keep you under control. What I will do is say plainly, if this stuff gets exposed a lot of people will die. Odds are some of them will be people you care about." She looked at me. "That's not a threat, just a fact of the situation. So I'm going to trust you to make the right decision here, because I don't see any other way of this working out."

I sank back in my seat and let Aisha process things. As I took another sip of my tea I felt the Celestial Forge make a new connection to the Size constellation. The power was called Gadget Master and covered the process of creating spy gadgets. Both the miniaturization of technology and the ability to build it in forms that would normally be impossible. Also a lot of creative assassination options, and lasers. So many lasers, lasers in everything.

The interesting part was how the knowledge was conveyed. This wasn't just dumped into my head or presented as a database or granted as instinctive understanding. This was a trained skill. Years of personal instruction by a master of spy technology. It was disorienting, but not as bad as Master Builder or Class: Engineer had been. But beyond that it provided a level of context and understanding I hadn't gotten from most of my other powers.

It was more than just how to build technology or apply what seemed to be impossible principles. This was a real understanding of how to function in a development lab, coordinate teams, develop experimental technology, adequately test it, and ensure delivery of an item that would function exactly as it was supposed to.

Also, everyone in the memories had an English accent. Not sure what that was about, maybe it's just the standard for spy stuff.

I looked up from my musings at the empty chair with Survey's drone floating above it. Before I could start processing how I got here I found Aisha in the seat, watching me with an empty cup. I smiled and picked up the teapot to refill her cup.

"Sorry about that. And I understand." She took a sip. "Fuck, I don't like it, but I understand. You've seriously been dealing with that this whole time?"

I nodded. "I have ways to deal with it, but they're sensitive."

"And I nearly fucked them up?"

I didn't refute it.

"Fuck. Okay, got it. Secrets, important, stop everyone from dying." She sank under the weight of her statement. "Hey, I know you're not keen to share stuff, but that thing you just did?" I flinched in response. "It's a power thing, right?"

I sighed. "It happens when I figure something out, new tinker stuff." It was accurate and vague at the same time, and Aisha seemed to buy it.

"And it just happens whenever, and you can't stop it?"

I shrugged. She had put enough together herself, I didn't want to feed her any more information.

She snorted slightly. "People are going to be disappointed when they find out." I raised an eyebrow. "They've been saying it's some kind of strategy trance, or that you're switching around your powers."

I blinked. "Sorry, what?"

"Oh, right. It's not on the news reports, just forums and social media stuff."

I felt a pit form in my stomach. I looked at the girl and it felt like I was confessing a sin. "I haven't looked at that stuff yet."

"You really should. I mean, you get a better sense of the public on twitter than from the news."

"No." I took a breath. "I haven't seen any of the reactions."

Aisha's mouth dropped open. "Seriously?" She actually looked to Garment for confirmation, which she gave with an affirmative gesture. "Fuck. Uh, you should really get on that."

I swallowed. "I have a summary I'm going to review…"

"No, like now. I mean, how do you ignore that kind of thing? What have you been doing?"

"You know that workshop you snuck into tonight?" My sarcastic tone didn't land, and Garment seemed to be taking Aisha's side on this. I looked between them, but didn't see any way out.

"Now?"

"Probably for the best." Garment seemed to agree with Aisha. "Look, I've seen most of it." The way she said that set of warning bells about how big 'all of it' would be. "I can kind of help walk you through it?"

And fuck. Apparently my avoidance of this subject was so plainly visible that a thirteen year old girl was taking pity on me over it. Well, that meant there was no way to back out with any dignity, so it was time to bite the bullet.

I pulled up my omni-tool interface and accessed Survey's report. The office had a large wall mounted screen that I didn't remember from before, so probably the result of some duplicate's 20% time. Still convenient and wirelessly accessible, so I called up the video of the broadcast.

I had thought the screen was a bit mundane for a 20% project, and I was right. The real project had been the installation of hidden Dolby quality surround sound speakers in the office that took everyone off guard. Still, once I got the volume to a level that was safe for human hearing it added a serious depth to the broadcast.

Though that kind of depth wasn't always a good thing. There were elements of the video I'd feel bad about exposing Aisha to if she hadn't already clearly watched it. She actually narrated over some of the parts, pointing things out as the video went along.

"That thing with Regent hasn't been broadcast on the news. They showed everyone else get captured, and all the stuff after, but not that."

I could understand that, as watching the events unfold was hideous in the extreme. Regent's reaction afterwards was making a lot more sense. I had an idea from the state I found him in, but seeing it play out was a whole other level of horror.

"Okay, this part pissed a lot of people off." She gestured at a compilation of Taylor, Grue, and Tattletale playing cat and mouse with the ABB in the lockers. "They said the knives threw off the betting odds more than was accounted for."

"People gambled on this?"

"Oh yeah, massively. Pretty much every long bet lost since nobody guessed on you showing up."

The video progressed to Grue's capture and the effect of Bakuda's bomb. It was something I was already seriously familiar with, and Aisha seemed to have some trouble watching it.

"Uh, because of the darkness people were saying Grue's a Case 53." It seemed like she was trying to distract herself from the image on the screen.

"I can't comment on that one way or the other."

"What," She scoffed. "You have a Doctor/Patient thing going?"

"Confidentiality is generally a good idea in this business." Aisha shut her mouth and nodded at that.

"Right," She indicated to Tattletale's desperate call. "People have picked over this trying to figure out the deal she was calling in." And there wasn't much to go on there. I watched as Tattletale assured me she'd thrown off her pursuers, apparently oblivious to the recording, only to be caught by an explosion and trapped by Bakuda. What followed was my own exchange with an uncomfortable series of insults directed towards Bakuda culminating in seeing the effect of her phasing bomb first hand.

It wasn't any more pleasant to watch than it had been to correct.

After that the broadcast transitioned to Bakuda's speech in the courtyard, Aisha started getting more excited as it went on, occasionally cutting to fixed camera glimpses of Taylor as she evaded bombs and lobbed grenades. Finally her enthusiasm reached its peak just as Bakuda built to the crescendo of her speech.

"And after this day no one will dare oppose us!"

She paused slightly, either for applause or to drink in the reactions, but was only met with the thunder of an exploding wall and the peel of my motoroid tearing through the courtyard with dust and cement fragments trailing from me.

"Absolute fucking poetry! Nobody knows how you managed to time it like that."

Neither did I. Apparently my entrance had come off as an orchestrated piece of drama rather than the desperate mad rush that I'd actually been attempting. I nodded to Aisha while sighing internally. This kind of crap was the reason I should have reviewed this sooner. There was a big difference between a cape who rushed to help and one who tries to make an entrance. For good or ill apparently people thought I fell into the latter category, and given how this video played out I couldn't really argue with them.

Following that was my exchange with Bakuda, though my side of the conversation wasn't initially audible, not until I transformed my motoroid and started using the speakers. At Aisha's request I paused the video.

"So why did you do that anyway?"

I looked at her, then at the screen. "Needed to show off my tech. Also the speakers are more intimidating."

She shook her head. "No, not that. Roll it back a bit." I did and the transformation played again. "That. The Transformers thing."

"What Transformers thing?"

She gave me a blank look. "Uh, the sound it played?"

"It didn't play anything. That was a servo discharge."

"Whatever. The reason it made the Transformers sound."

"What sound? I've seen those movies. Transformers sound nothing like that."

"What?" She glanced at the screen. "Look, do you have youtube on this thing?"

She clearly wasn't letting this go. I sighed and got the remote keyboard from the desk and launched a web browser on the main screen. Aisha went to Youtube and searched for 'Apeiron Transformers'.

To my surprise there was a huge list of results, including a very long video titled 'Tripredacus Guardian Analysis, Part 1'.

Aisha played a short video called 'Apeiron Transformer Comparison'. It started with the clip of my motoroid transforming, then showed an excerpt from the old 80s cartoon, then side by side with a visual breakdown of the sound profile for both the sound effect and the servo capacitor discharge.

They were almost identical.

The video went on, repeating the process for other Transformers shows and movies. Some were closer, some were less similar, but there was a definite connection.

"Wow." I didn't know what to say. "That's a weird coincidence."

Aisha looked between me and Garment, her face twisted in confusion. "What? Seriously, that's your explanation?"

"Yes?" I tried. "Look, it is a normal discharge of sound as a component of the machinery cycles through its functions. I didn't even know about this stuff."

"But…" Aisha just started scrolling through videos. The long list of videos or many people presenting different theories, including some with footage from my first fight with Uber and Leet. I didn't know what to say. I guess this was one of those things where people ran with random details of a cape to try to make sense of things. I mean, some of the theories about Eidolon that get thrown around…

When Aisha realized there were no answers to be found she shifted back to the video. Whatever disappointment she had was forgotten as the next portion played. I watched my exchange with Bakuda, the insulting offer to take the rest of the Undersiders and my refusal of it. Aisha was watching my face the whole time the video played. After my final refusal Ashia gestured for me to pause the video.

"Well…" She drew out the word expectantly.

"Well what?" I gave her a blank look. "She made a bad offer and I turned her down." Aisha's mouth dropped open. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the…" Her expression shifted from surprise to concern as the Time constellation moved past without a connection. "Look, can I control that with this?" She held up the keyboard and I quickly linked it to the video controls.

Aisha rolled back the broadcast and replayed part of the conversation. At my blank expression she played it again, this time emphasizing certain phrases.

"Okay, what am I looking for here?"

"Subtext!" Over the course of the repeated viewings Aisha had shifted from excited to frustrated and was now bordering on concerned. I considered the exchange again and pondered what it could mean.

A horrible thought occurred to me.

"Wait." I cringed to even ask this. "Do people think I was interested in Khepri?" Aisha's face was all the answer I needed.

"What?" I actually felt nauseous. "Who the hell could think that? It doesn't really come across like that does it?" I looked to Garment for confirmation, and she indicated a small amount with the thumb and forefinger of one glove. Under Aisha's critical gaze she shifted to indicating a small distance with both gloves, then gradually increased it to the length of her natural reach.

"But, why…" I trailed off, not even knowing how to form the question.

"Why do people think you turned down Bakuda for Khepri?" Aisha offered.

"Yes." I paused. "Wait, what?"

"Bakapon is pretty minor compared to Khepeiron, but there are still some serious supporters, especially with how the fight ended."

I was really having a difficult time processing this, and the fact that the word Khepeiron jumped out at me didn't help. That fucking hashtag.

"How big is this? How many people think that…" I really didn't want to say it. God fucking damn it, the implications of this. Had Taylor had to deal with this along with recovery from her injury?

Aisha seemed like she'd been looking forward to showing this off and was clearly having a hard time with my reaction. "Well, a lot of people on social media. Plus PHO has covered it a lot, and it was mentioned in a few news reports, but they use words like 'reported' and 'suspected'.

Fuck. And something else jumped out at me. Director Armstrong specifically mentioning Taylor separate from the other Undersiders. This wasn't just a mad theory being thrown around by idiots online, the PRT was operating under the idea that it might be true. Official policy from a government department was based on the idea that I was romantically pursuing a fifteen year old.

I shakily pulled up the summary document from Survey's analysis. All my previous apprehension about dealing with this was coming back a hundred times stronger. The only thing that kept me going was the fear of how much worse it could get if I kept ignoring it.

And there it was, neatly categorized data on the subject of a suspected relationship between me and Taylor. There were clips of what were considered the key moments from the broadcast, categorized by Survey based on how much they had been shared in relation to the topic and hashtag. My 'proclamation' to Bakuda concerning Taylor. Various defensive actions during the first fight with Uber and Leet. The creation of the insects with Sting. Oh, apparently my statements to Bakuda upon finding Brian were being considered evidence, with some people assuming I had called her 'damaged goods' compared to Taylor. Then various points from the final confrontation, culminating in my defense of her from the last resort bombs and pulling her from the crater.

My stomach felt like lead. This was horrible on so many levels. I didn't even know how to deal with it. I couldn't ignore it, it had too much momentum behind it, but I didn't know how to handle something like this. God fucking damn it.

"Uh, are you okay?" I looked up to see concern from both Aisha and Garment. God, I wanted to blow them off. Explaining this wouldn't make it easier to deal with, but fuck if I knew another way.

"I…" I swallowed and tried again. "The last relationship I had I badly misread romantic signals. Like, disaster level." Aisha nodded. I let out a breath and continued. "I've tried to stay away from that stuff since then, just avoid making the same mistakes." I looked up at the display. "Fuck, I guess I can even screw up that."

Garment got up from the table and moved over to my side, resting a glove on my shoulder. Aisha looked between us before speaking.

"So, I'm guessing Khepri actually is underage?"

I stiffened slightly. "I'm not going to share details about the Undersiders." Aisha seemed to have reached the right assumption, a bit ironic coming from a girl two years Taylor's junior and considering her previous behavior. I scanned through the summary on those topics. Well, some people were calling me out on it. Some assumed we were both teenagers. Some assumed Taylor was a lot older, with her being tall for her age. A disturbing minority were blatant about how they didn't care, which was the kind of thing that made me want to reconsider my goal of saving the world from the Endbringers.

"Okay, it's not actually that bad." I gave Aisha a seriously critical look. "Eww, like not that. Some people think you're a couple." I hated even hearing it said out loud. "But they're just louder. The only thing people are actually sure about is that you care about her."

There was an unspoken question hanging in the air. Well, with how deep Aisha was I might as well try to clear this up. It wouldn't be more dangerous than anything else she discovered.

"I have a thinker power." I explained. "Sometimes it lets me predict stuff. Khepri is important. Something big is going to happen and she'll make a big difference."

"So you're protecting her." I nodded and watched the girl ponder things. "Wait, was that what happened when we met?" I must have done a bad job of concealing my reaction. "Seriously? Did you know I was going to become a cape?"

"No, it's not that clear." She gave me a questioning look. "It was just recognition. I've gotten the same thing from other capes. You were the first it happened to before you triggered."

She seemed to be mildly concerned by that, but eventually nodded and moved on. "So what are you going to do?"

The question hit me like a brick. "Talk to her, probably." I swallowed. "I have a meeting coming up with the Undersiders in a day or two. I'll see if I can reach her before that. If not I can explain things there." Wouldn't that be a treat? If the city wasn't under threat I would be seriously considering departing for another hemisphere.

I took another breath. This was affecting me too much. Well, given everything, I understood where the severity of the impact came from. But the fact was that none of this had any impact on the current crisis. It was a horrible distraction. I would say I didn't have time for it, but this was the kind of thing that would eat away at me if I didn't do something. I didn't know if I could change public perception, and didn't want to try until I could talk with Taylor. The concern that I would fuck things up worse was too much of a deterrent.

"That meeting?" Aisha asked. "Is it about going after the ABB?"

I blinked. "Oh, fuck no." That seemed to take her by surprise. "The Undersiders aren't going anywhere near the ABB." She gave me a questioning glance. "They owe me a huge amount of money for that healing. More than they can pay. The meeting is about how they'll work it off, mostly by not causing any more headaches." Not that that was as much of a possibility as it had been before the 'Khepeiron' mess.

"Wait, the Undersiders owe you money?" there was a glint in her eye. "Grue owes you money?"

I nodded. "A small mountain of it. Enough that they'd need to trade vital organs or family members to pay it off."

For some reason that caused Aisha to crack a smile, then dissolve into a fit of giggles that lasted longer than it seemed like any joke should have warranted. Still, it was a nice distraction from the dismal tasks ahead of me. Great, I had gone from wanting to avoid the reaction to my cape debut to wanting to avoid the consequences of the reaction to my cape debut.

After she got over whatever was so funny about my last statement Aisha wiped tears away from her eyes and turned towards me again.

"You're going against the ABB?"

I sighed and nodded. "Yeah. This is bad stuff. Their thinker is dangerous, Bakuda's a nightmare even when injured, Uber and Leet and becoming a serious threat, and Oni Lee is a crazy force multiplier."

"And Lung?"

"Yeah, he's there too." She gave me a critical look.

"Seriously?"

I shrugged. "I'm more worried about what Bakuda or Leet can throw at me than someone whose powers are 'big' and 'fire'."

"You're really not worried about Lung?"

"He can get to the point where he would tear me apart, but if anyone fights Lung for that long it's their own fault. Every cape in the city knows that dance. You fight until you run. Or he runs, which happens a lot more of the time than anyone talks about." I shook my head. "If I can take out Bakuda, Oni Lee, or the thinker then that's it. Might not bring down the gang, but this power bloc they have going will fall apart."

Aisha nodded and turned back to the screen. "Uh, most of the other stuff is about healing technology, or weird power theories. Nothing like the stuff with Khepri."

Well thank God for that, though reviewing the healing discussion wasn't much better. Petitions from the critically ill to the local PRT to reconsider classifications were hard. The discussions about whether it would be worth getting Bakuda to put a bomb in your head if it meant free healing were worse.

I hadn't really discriminated about what got fixed post-surgery. People had a lot of injuries and exotic effects from all the bombs at that facility. I wasn't going to guess which conditions were due to them and which were pre-existing. So in the course of my work I had cured multiple cases of diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, several ulcers, cases of glaucoma, heart disease, liver damage, various chronic conditions and infections, and one peanut allergy. The assumption was that I had taken the disabled bombs as payment, which I sort of had. That led to the dangerous idea that I traded healing for tinker tech, even booby-trapped and embedded tinker tech.

I really hoped nobody acted on the nonsense that was being thrown around in those comments, but I hadn't exactly been impressed by the intelligence of the average internet user today.

Of the rest of the reactions only one theory had any kind of momentum behind it.

"Alexandria and Hero?"

"Hey, people shipped them anyway. It's really just an excuse to pick that up again."

I shook my head. I remembered when Hero died. It was a tragedy, especially Alexandria's reaction to it. I didn't know if this kind of nonsense was a tribute to that, or a disgrace to his memory. I just hoped it would die down before anything came of it.

With the last of the summary reviewed I sank back in my chair and downed the last of my now cold but still excellent tea. The process was just as emotionally draining as I'd been afraid of, and had the added bonus of dragging out some of my worst memories. I… I seriously needed to speak with Taylor. I could check in with Tattletale tomorrow. I probably should let her know about Weld. Maybe figure out what to do from there.

I looked over at Aisha who was currently finishing Garment's cup of tea with significant relish, then checking the pot for any remaining drops. I smiled faintly at the scene. She hadn't accidently dropped her focus since we first sat down. I didn't know if there was an emotional component or if she was just getting a better handle on things.

I still didn't know if I could completely trust her out there, but I'd done everything I was willing to do to mitigate the risk. From my expression she seemed to pick up my meaning.

"So is this it? Am I free to go?"

"I would say against my better judgement, yes." I sighed. "Remember what we talked about?"

She frowned. "No, I had forgotten about how the wrong word could bring down Endbringers on me. Thanks for reminding me."

"So you'll take this seriously?"

"Fuck, yes. I don't actually want the city to be destroyed, if you can believe that."

I nodded. I still didn't feel great about this, but it was the best move I had. "Alright, let's go."

"So, rocket hammer time?"

It took me a moment to remember what she was talking about. Well, the review of online reactions had turned into a tour of my personal issues instead of the love story and parade of impressed forum members she'd been hoping for. This was the least I could do to finish on a positive note.

Considering how furious I was with her earlier this evening I would never have thought I'd be making anything up to her. To be fair I kind of wanted a chance to try it out myself.

It took a while to get things set up, including another visit to the neural interface after Aisha's excitement made managing her power more difficult. The Celestial Forge also made another connection to a larger mote from the Crafting constellation. It was called Dwarven Craft and was the third smithing power I'd gotten and easily the most powerful. The mote was as large as any I'd gotten so far, and the reason for that was clear.

The basic application of the power took my metalworking abilities to an even higher level than I had imagined. This was a major boost to every form of metal work and personal equipment crafting. Items I made would hold up for hundreds of years even without considering the benefits of my other powers. Even my rune work improved through this power.

A secondary effect of Dwarven Craft let me run a large forge single handedly. That would have been an achievement anyway, but this wasn't referring to normal forges. It was talking about giant fantasy dwarf forges, the kinds that put my entire workshop to shame. I could run one of those entirely by myself. The big impact of this was that suddenly I could manage production of metal on almost any level, no matter how complicated the alloy being manufactured or how large the project.

It also gave me the understanding of how to smelt, forge, and work mystical metals. In addition to giving additional and improved understanding of the metals from my Unnatural Skill power it also opened up new metals including Mithril. I would still need to transmute it using alchemy, but even that would be easier to accomplish.

But for the moment the main aspect of the power being used was the beyond-master level tool handling ability. Normally forging hammers didn't have rocket boosters, but this power was strong enough to be adaptable.

The demonstration of the rocket hammer did raise one major question.

Why did I wait so long to try this?

Seriously, the visceral thrill of precisely guiding a rocket propelled spike through targets while holding on for dear life is something I could not recommend strongly enough. With the smooth flow of T'ai Chi Chuan combined with the strength benefits of my recent training I was practically flying around the training area we had set up. Actually, with some of the more creative swings I think I did technically count as flying.

Compared to weapons like the wind blade or water cutlass the rocket hammer was basically a novelty. It was also incredibly fun to use and pretty much instantly raised my spirits. Aisha cheered from the sidelines as I shredded every random or surplus item or chunk of machinery that Fleet had been able to scrounge up.

I ran the hammer until I killed the fuel reserve, then was willing to call it despite Aisha's requests to the contrary. After that I had to face the reality of her leaving the workshop, and any consequences of that decision. To be honest it still seriously concerned me. And despite building a definite rapport with her I hadn't totally moved past my initial offense at her intrusion.

That was the thing. I could stay logical. I could explain every aspect of the situation. I could completely recognize the right decision to make. None of that addressed the emotions in play. I was still angry at Aisha for pulling this on me, and I probably would be for a while. But that didn't change the facts of the situation.

I had as much of an assurance as I could get. I was trusting her. Oh God, I was trusting Aisha Laborn. This was the kind of situation that people looked back on in after action reports with phases like 'inciting incident'.

Yeah, I wasn't totally confident about this decision, but considering the alternatives were violations of every principle I had committed to I was going to have to roll the dice.

Aisha was currently standing by the main entrance poking the forcefield and pulling her hand back each time it sparked.

"Did you seriously build a force field door while Garment was making my dresses?"

I shrugged. "Most of the work was done. I just had to install it." That was kind of true when you considered how much of the design and assembly process had been carried by my power. Also, it was clear this system would prevent a repeat of her previous stunt.

"Are you going to be alright out there?" I knew how strong her power was, but releasing a thirteen year old onto the streets on Brockton Bay didn't feel right.

Aisha eyed my motoroid. "If I say no do I get a ride on your superbike?"

"No." I countered. "But I will get my car from the gym and drop you off."

She scrunched her nose. "Thanks, but I'll pass."

Garment approached with three dresses with hangers and garment bags. Basically what I had talked her down to after realizing the scope of the wardrobe she had made for Aisha. The girl seemed to have it even worse as a model than I did, and that was saying something.

Aisha took the offered clothing with good grace and looked out towards the apartment. "You'll be okay with this?"

I nodded. "I'll hit my interface after this. Just flicker your power once and I'll be able to update my memories. You going to be okay?"

She returned the nod. "My brother's place isn't too far. I think I can hold things long enough to check in with him properly. Uh, thanks for helping with that." I nodded, though I wasn't sure how much difference I made. "And about the other stuff, I promise I'll be careful."

I sighed. "It's probably best if you don't even mention it out there."

That got a grim nod. "I won't." She grinned slightly. "Goodbye Jozef." As over pronounced as ever. After she gave a final wave to Garment I dropped the field and escorted her through.

I lost track of things on the way back to my workshop, but checked with Garment.

"She gone?" Garment made an affirmative gesture. I let out a breath, activated the shield, and headed for my interface. There was a bit of a delay before her power cycled and I could remember saying goodbye. This might be a stopgap, but I needed an actual way to counter this kind of stranger effect.

I stretched as I got off my throne. Well, it was done. I had let someone with full knowledge of my workshop and better understanding of my capacity out into the world. All because I was too moral to break out the experimental mindwipes. Villains must have things so much easier.

Hey, if I focused on the concern over my security risk, I could almost forget the horrible quagmire that was the reaction to my cape debut. God that was a mess.

Seriously how the fuck do I deal with that kind of thing? I can barely manage a one on one conversation. I can't steer public perception, at least not with any finesse. What were my options? Ask Tattletale for help?

Yeah, letting her manage things definitely won't end in a worse disaster than this mess with Aisha.

It was getting late, both my passenger and Garment were making movements suggesting bed would be a good idea. I waved Garment off with an assurance I would turn in soon. There was just one thing I needed to check first.

Xenospecialist, like Tinkerer before it, had come with a small set of equipment. Most of it was fairly basic, remarkable only by the fact that it had fiat backing if lost or destroyed. Some body armor, boots, ID tags, a case of pistols and reload system, and a passably advanced personal digital assistant.

There was one unique item that I wanted to investigate. A potential power source provided from a small pump added to my workshop. It could theoretically be easily processed into an ideal source of clean energy. The flow rate was a pittance, but I had powers that could multiply materials, so it was potentially all the energy I'd ever need.

Still, something about it didn't sit right. Maybe it was the insight from my Advance Materials power, or just the scope of understanding I had thanks to my volume of accumulated knowledge. Whatever it was it had me show up at the pump with every scanner and analysis tool at my disposal.

Two minutes later I was very grateful I did.

Two minutes after that I was sealing off the area and coordinating the most aggressive decontamination program I could assemble. The pump hadn't activated, so the chance that anything had gotten out was negligible, but that wasn't a risk I was entertaining. If anything it served as a potent reminder of just how badly things could have gone if Aisha had been able to run loose in my workshop. I was just grateful she had never gone anywhere near this place.

After a blitz of emergency construction, installation of fail safes, and transmutation to completely seal the area I was finally satisfied that the Imulsion pump was properly contained.

My power was just mystifying sometimes.

With that done I slumped off to my workshop apartment. I was dreading this. Well, I was dreading a lot of things after today, but sleep was the worst. Nothing quite like lying awake with nothing but your anxieties to keep you company. It was basically a greatest hits compilation of every mistake from the previous day. Actually, you were lucky if it was just the previous day.

When my head hit the pillow I was braced for a long period of restlessness before I could get anything close to sleep. Instead I was pleasantly surprised by my power. It was a side benefit that nearly made up for the fact that it had dumped a bio-weapon fuel pump into my workshop.

One Thing At A Time triggered whenever I was only doing one thing. Well, trying to fall asleep? That counts as one thing. Meaning not only did I fall asleep twice as fast I did it twice as well. Twice as well meant without an hour of anxious tossing and dwelling on things I couldn't do anything about.

I may not be able to manage my public image. I might not be able to control what theories were circulated about my cape identity. I might not even control my workshop. But I could fall asleep properly. At this point I was willing to take that as a win, however minor.

---

Addendum Hannah

Hannah trudged through the hallways of the PRT Headquarters. Her workload since the attack on the Rig had become borderline insane. She wasn't one to complain, but people assumed that since she didn't sleep, that she must have an endless amount of free time to absorb whatever task needed to be done. Unfortunately, after nearly two decades in the Wards and Protectorate with everyone constantly making that assumption any buffer granted by her status as a Noctis cape had long since vanished.

It was worse with Colin being incapacitated. He regularly took on the work of a dozen people in addition to his leadership duties. Hannah would have struggled to handle his duties during one of the rare times of peace, much less a region wide disaster centered on Brockton Bay.

Her heart went out to the man, but she could recognize the irony of his own invention being what resulted in the confinement of the one cape who could have gotten him back into the field. Still, she didn't have time to consider that kind of thing, not with the city in its current state.

She was turning to the ready room preparing for her third patrol shift when she nearly ran into an armored figure with a glowing white helmet.

"Oh, Shawn." She stuttered. Dauntless pulled off his helmet and she could see the exhaustion plastered across his face. She ran through the duty roster in her head. Had Shawn stood down since the ABB attack? He'd been active during her second shift, but if he was trying to keep up with her by sneaking naps during his breaks he was set for a burnout. The taller cape wilted under the glare of her accusation.

"Before you say anything, I know." He let out a heavy breath. "Director's sent me home. Need to rest and clean up for the pitch tomorrow."

Hannah blinked. It had nearly slipped her mind. She remembered agreeing to it when the suggestion came in, it made sense as active leader and the most senior female member of the team. It was just that there seemed to have been a dozen fires to put out since this afternoon. In fact, the previous two days had felt like months.

"Right." She tried to remember her schedule after her evening shift. "We should meet before we head over, review things. Have you had a chance to watch the videos yet?"

It was the wrong question to ask and she could tell as soon as she posed it. She cut in before he could make some excuse or worse, apologize for not having time to check social media reactions while running continuous patrols.

"We'll go over them in the morning. Really just the introduction and combat video." She thought back to the report. "There's been some more posts, but it's all craft projects or clothing making."

Shawn blinked slowly. "Isn't that what she does?"

Hannah resisted the urge to agree with him. Garment was practically built to be a Rogue. It was only her decision to help during the ABB bombings and blackout that was bringing this on. She desperately hoped the offer wouldn't be met badly, but there was no way to tell.

There was also the fact that she was a potential Case 53. That had its own challenges and special requirements. The whole affair seemed like an attempt to score cheap points with the public.

The thought of Case 53's reminded her of the primary cause of tonight's stress.

"I should tell you, Weld has been recovered."

The news punched through Shawn's exhaustion and caused his face to lit up. "That's great news." He saw her expression. "Isn't it?"

She sighed. "Recovered by Apeiron."

Dauntless's face dropped as the weight of the news hit him. "Oh."

Right, 'Oh'. That about covered it. Hannah didn't know what to add, and apparently Shawn was trying to figure out what part of the mess he should inquire about first.

"What did he have to say about it?"

Hannah grit her teeth. "Weld didn't know about the events last night. Apeiron gave him the cliff notes, then they had a nice chat before he hauled Weld up to the surface. What he's saying doesn't match the behavior models, but the analysts aren't sure it's not a double bluff from Apeiron." Hannah took a moment. Not sure not bluff. Yes, that was right. Sometimes she wished she could claim sleep deprivation. It was easier to explain than mental exhaustion.

"How's the Director?"

"I think she's still on the line with Boston."

"This late? Wait, Director Armstong is Weld's guardian right? Is she…"

"She didn't call, he did. Weld called Boston rather than headquarters after he was retrieved." Which was a breach of policy, but that seemed to be the least of concerns for both the department and the Ward. "He got Apeiron on the line, so at least we have some data to analyse." For all the good it would do. Really just a confirmation of how bad the split was between the director and the new cape.

"Hannah, look, do you think it's worth it to focus this much time on a single rookie cape." He made a placating gesture. "I get how scary those weapons were, and the technology implications, but if we don't focus on the ABB there's no telling how bad things could get." He swallowed. "You saw what happened when those implanted bombs went up. Shouldn't we be focused on that?"

Hannah flinched under the earnestness of it. Shawn hadn't been a cape long enough to see the compromises that had to be made in the job. Everyone asked why the Protectorate didn't just mount up and stomp out the Merchants or the Empire. It was a sad fact of this business that a holding action against every front was better than letting any side run rampant.

Apeiron may be a new cape, but his debut was handled masterfully. Some of the analysts were talking about using it as a textbook case. A period of building rumors and disruptive appearance followed by a dramatic and powerful display against a third party while securing massive coverage on both social and conventional media. One of the prevailing theories was that his 'relationship' with Khepri was completely fabricated to resonate with the public.

The mere fact that Lung had escaped and was at large, but being overshadowed in his own city, was proof of how precisely these incidents had been managed.

"You need to remember, heroes aren't the only ones who manage their image." She shook her head. "I agree with the Director, there's something else going on here. Too many things are lining up at once."

"What about the new ABB thinker, that March girl? She has a timing power, right?"

Hannah frowned. "I talked with Flechette about her. She doesn't work on this scale. Small groups or team coordination. Not city-wide plots. She obviously works well with Leet and Bakuda, but she's not the main threat." He looked uncertain, so she continued. "I've seen the Think Tank reports. They don't have anything on her."

He didn't look convinced, but exhaustion was clearly catching up with him. His response was drowned out by a yawn.

"Look, go get some sleep and we can review this in the morning." Before the meeting with Garment but after her night shift. Sometimes she wished she could sleep just to be able to jump forward past several hours of tedium, stress, and busywork.

She could afford to avoid dropping the rest of the Weld-related bombshells until then. Bombshells was an apt way of describing the news, especially if half of what they were hearing from Medical was true.

"Right, right." The second word petered out to another yawn. "Uh, give Weld my best. It's good to have him back."

Right, back. Even though he was barely here in the first place. What was it the woman from the Youth Guard had been yelling? A Ward not even lasting a full day? Lost before his welcome party?

Hannah sighed and checked the ready room for coffee before going back on shift. It had been way too long a day, and was looking to be an even worse night.

Jumpchain abilities this chapter:

Xenospecialist (Gears of War) 200:

The problem with fighting and violence is that it's no place for an egghead, and as a result valuable information could be lost to a wayward grenade before study. You've taken it upon yourself to bring that knowledge back, and as such you have an easier time understanding alien language and technology. It won't give you instant knowledge, but as you study further you will find it becomes easier to comprehend.

COG Armor (Gears of War) Free:

Standard issue armor that's made of multiple metal plates. On the back of the suit is a magnetic 'holster', that resembles a general infantry backpack, allowing people to carry two weapons on their backs. The armor provides medium protection against damage (multiple assault rifle shots only bruise the wearer), but will not withstand concentrated or sustained gunfire. Helmet optional.

Combat Boots (Gears of War) Free:

They're thick, they're heavy, and they'll serve you well. Along with giving excellent comfort and protection from the myriad of terrains you'll find here, they're also very handy for stomping the heads of enemies like watermelons at a comedian show.

MX8 Snub Pistol (Gears of War) Free:

The standard sidearm for all COG soldiers, this weapon makes up for its low damage and small 12-round magazine through a high rate of fire and its impressive accuracy. Expect to find ammo for it everywhere. Weapon purchases will grant a small stockpile of them inside your warehouse to equip your allies with.

COG Tags (Gears of War) Free:

A form of identification that takes the form of a necklace with small gear-shaped tags. They will have whatever identification you desire upon them.

Personal Digital Assistant (Gears of War) Free:

There is still a reliance on technology, even if the war with the Locust make things... problematic. With this, you'll have an easier time with Command and keeping track of your data.

Weapon Reload System (Gears of War) Free:

You will also gain a weapon reload system inside the warehouse for the unique weapons you may have purchased from this jump.

Imulsion (Gears of War) Free:

Upon completion of this jump, you gain a small pump in your Warehouse that can supply you with fifty gallons worth of Imulsion per month. Do be careful when handling this, especially around other biological organisms.

Customized Weapons (XCOM) 100:

You know that efficiency is number one, because waste is a thief. You know how to make the best designs better, and will ensure that the equipment in use is ergonomic, streamlined, and efficient.

Gadget Master (007) 300:

You've been trained by Major Boothroyd at the skills of his job. You're excellent at creating and maintaining gadgets of all types. You can miniaturize nearly anything, and hide things in forms that... really shouldn't work. You can even make lasers! You're also good at coming up with ideas for unusual methods of assassination; beheading umbrellas, flamethrower bagpipes, and the like.

Dwarven Craft (Lord of the Rings) 400:

You are a master smith, able to singlehandedly run even a large forge. You can make weapons and armor that stand up to hundreds of years of continuous use, and even know how to mine and forge mystical metals such as Mithril.