The power list had a loophole with the Shard Adminiter and Kingsmaker shards. I could lift the point and power restrictions Corinator had limiting her. Combined with the Vigilante path having no restrictions on the amount of powers we could have.It took two days until we were both satisfied with what we made; a pair of quasi-demigods.

And now, on my first night out in a reality of superhero's, I faced my most difficult challenge.

"I'm not wearing a Speedo." I told Ann.

The when the mask came off Anna Swan transformed from suave and dangerous to adorable.

She pouted and continued holding out a black pice of cloth with less material than a dish towel. "Just do it. Everyone in town knows there's gonna be a naked blue guy walking around, this is just brand marketing. Besides, you look hot." She explained with a comical leer.

I crossed my arms. Peck Condition did good work on giving me the 'superhero look' months of cutting and fasting couldn't; My already broad shoulders and height finally fit in place on me. But it wasn't my body image I was worried about.

"Nobody is gonna take a guy in a speedo seriously." I stressed.

She raised a brow. "Your jacked, 6'3, and glow neon blue. If someone tries to fuck with you they're an idiot."

"The world is full idots." I pointed out.

"If you do this I'll put cloths your size on the budget." She bribed. "Stuff we don't have to make ourselves."

That shut me up. Technically I could make my own cloths with Infinite Treasury, the ability to make anything I wanted out of nothing, but the current one ton of matter I could make was being used to hold up one of the walls of the cave.

'I did do swimming when I was a teenager.'

I sighed and held my hand out.

...

The only plus side of today was when I got to use Flight for the first time. The first fifteen minutes of floating through the air were amazingly freeing, breaking free of the bounds of gravity and getting a new perspective of the world.

Until I 'road-killed a bird.

That was humiliating. I floated around the near demolished buildings looking for... huh.

I touched the small ear piece in my right ear, a homemade shortwave radio I MacGyver'd out of one of Ann's radios. "Coranator, what exactly am I doing?" I swerved out of the way of another bird and decided to just go to the ground.

"You're going to draw attention from the Protectorate and gangs so we can draw out the Cabal." She explained with her made up name for Caldron . "Do whatever; go pick a fight with a cape or a gangbanger as you save a cat from a tree and help an old lady load her car with groceries..."

"Alright I get the picture." I told her. "How do I do that?"

It sucked how easy comics make finding people were.

"How about one of the fuckin' hundred POWERS YOU HAVE?"

'Well if she puts it like that.' I thought.

I fumbled through my mental 'list'. The use of the powers might have been instinctual, with some of them being passive, but with too many options came too much input. I felt around until I found something that suited me just fine.

"Presence." I said to the open air.

I felt my mind open and suddenly I was connected with the environment. Every significant movement happening within a kilometer registered inside my mind like I was watching it happen on tv. I could tell that there was a cat inside of a tiled trashcan eating a dinner of a half finished hamburger, that an old lady dropped her keys in front of her apartment door two blocks up.

I could tell a dozen men had just exited a car, several of which were carrying guns. And one man burning with a Dragon shard.

And a single girl with a bug-controlling Administrator shard.

"... did you just call a power name like a magic spell?" I could hear Ann's voice vibrating with humor.

"Corinator," I told her seriously, hearing a shift in her posture over the headset. "Call the PRT, Lung is trying to kill a kid."

The fight was entirely one-sided in the girls favor after she started drowning the gang leader with her insects. And I do mean drown. Lung would burn holes through the swam that flew and crawled on him only to be covered as more bugs took their place.

Maybe I shouldn't have weakend him so much with Power Fluctuation?

The screams and curses of the gang leader were horifying to listen to as it was fascinating. The man transformed from a monstrous being to a naked, unconscious simp in a couple minutes.

I walked up to the girl as she started shaking and patted her on the shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She twisted and as she turned around she threw a punch at my face. I wasn't a good punch, she neither twisted her fist or put her weight behind it, but it still made a deep thunk when it landed on my jaw.

And my Personal Forcefield.

"Fuck!" The girl cried cradling her hand. She still backed up and tried to send her insects at me. I focused on her like I did Lung and with Power Fluctuation turned off her power. I could have done something similar with Shard Administrator but j had the feeling getting it back on would have been a bitch and a half.

I reached out to her and healed her hand with Surgery, passing the injury on to me and healing myself immediately with Regeneration. "Carefull swinging at me; I'm told I have a thick head."

The costumed girl squared up at me and despite how menacing she dressed in a black, full body armored bodysuit I got the feeling she was terrified. She moved her head from side to side like she was looking for an opening. "Who the hell are you."

I decided I should tell her the truth. "I've been going by the name Blue. I woke up in the middle of the city two days ago after urinating on the shoes of a Empire Eighthy-Eight gang member. I have the ability to, among other things, either amplify or diminish the effects of others powers."

Ann's voice crinkled into my ear. "Dude, what are you doing?"

She just kept staring at me so I released the hold on her powers, the insects around the area coming under her command in a instant. The feed back must have shocked her as she stumbled forward.

I caught her before she could fall and she freaked out again.

I took a breath for four counts, held it for five and let it go before I spoke to the teen again. "You had the fight in the bag from the beginning. I rounded up the gang members who ran and called the police and PRT."

I made eye contact through the lenses of her helmet. "I can see into the future of other people. I knew you'd be okay."

I felt someone powerful enter my 1km Prenence range. Looking into the mans equipment with Technopathy I could 'see' a trace going out to local wireless signals.

"Corinator, I have to shut off the ear piece; Armsmaster might trace it." I pulled out the little radio and crushed it between my fingers.

As soon as I did the small group of villains Lung was chasing hoped onto the roof atop giant mutated dogs.

This is starting to get to be a real party.

"What do they want?" Taylor whisperd to me.

I looked into the future with Glimpse. "They want to thank us for saving their lives; it turns out they were the ones Lung was going after for robbing his casino. However there is a 37 percent chance Bitch will attack anyway and drag us into a fight with Oni Lee, Armsmaster, and a couple more thugs. Do you want me to teleport you out of here?"

I looked sideways as Taylor gave me a nod and teleported us away.

"Honey, I'm home." I called out to my team member/roommate. "Also we have company so make sure you're dressed."

"GIve me a minute!" Ann yelled.

There was a made shuffle coming from the inside of her trailer that made it extremely akward next to the armored teen.

Doubly so when a blue bra came flying out of the window and landed a few feet in front of us.

"Hey, Blue?" Said Ann called back. "Mind grabbing that for me?"

I didn't say anything before I tossed the thing back through the window receiving a hasty "Thanks".

I looked to the teen girl standing beside me. "She's usually intelligent. She just hasn't practiced her people skills in a long time."

"Where are we?" The bug-controller demanded. I could sense the insects around the cave starting to surround us.

"The Underworld." My friend said from the door, now doning her disguise. "And just as my blue friend is Hades, I am Persephone.

It took me a minute to understand what she was talking about. "I thought your name was Corinator? Also burning hair-Did you just use me to reference the animated Hercules movie?"

"My younger brother was into Disney movies." She confirmed. She looked at the girl on my side before her eyes turned to me. "You know the whole point of a secret lair is it being secret, right?"

"Sorry, I didn't think that far beyond 'ditch the bad guys.'." I waved a hand. "I was planning on offering the girl who went one-on-one with Lung, for the sake of a couple kids, a recruitment pitch. Besides I'm just waiting for the Undersiders to leave the place we teleported from before we go back."

Ann put a hand on her hip shooting me a frown. It was the first one I had actually seen on her face. "And when is that gonna be?"

"Soon."

"But why?"

Taylor, possibly sensing some hostility, spoke up backing away.

I held her shoulder (ignoring her flinch) and grinned at Ann. "Because by kicking the shit out of Lung to rescue villains, she became an outsider of the normal game; a vigilante like us. And people like us have the highest mortality rate of all capes."

Ann relaxed but the already wound up bug wielded tensed even more.

"No," Taylor said. "I'm a Hero."

It felt strange how she said it, like I was denying her or belittling her efforts. "I never said you weren't; you saved four people from getting offed because they wanted to steal a drug lords money." I told her. "And there is a spot near the ground that's unobserved."

I tightened my grip on her shoulder and teleported us away.

Right behind a professional hero. He whirled around and pressed

A high-tech halberd, I observed with Technopathy, that was currently set to stun.

And an inch from my chin.

The man flicked a switch on his weapon, switching the lie-detector and camera in his helmet on. He spoke with a curtness that demanded compliance. "Why are you here?"

I went still and locked eyes with the hero's visor. "I'm sorry for scaring you, I was just trying to minimize the chance of a fight with Oni Lee and the Undersiders so I teleported away. I've got no intention of fighting you."

Truth. Hs helmet read. I didn't even need to adjust it.

The weapon was lowerd and the mans scowl shifted to a grimance. Focusing on the guy instead of his weapons I felt a little like a fraud. Tall and with a muscular body coverd in dark blue power armor, silver highlights adding contrast. The guy looked looked every inch a real superhero. I bet he didn't have a roommate that made go out in a speedo either.

He shifted his eyes to the big wielder next to me. "Do you want to fight me?"

"I'm a good guy." Taylor said.

"You don't look like one." Armsmaster said.

"That's... my costume came out edgier than I planed on."

"Hmm," Armsmaster hummed.

The air got a little heavy after that so I decided to do the reasonable thing and leave them alone. "I forgot something, be right back." I teleported away.

Popping back to the lair, I caught sight of Ann in the little command center she set up in her trailer. "Sup."

She turned around earlier mood gone and frown replaced with a grin. She sat behind what she deemed "the Boss chair", a giant leather thing on spinning wheels that now overlooked the office addition in her trailer. "Bug-girl give your a goodbye kiss?"

I mined gagging. "She's like fifteen. Nah, I'm gonna grab a couple of transponders incase she gets in a jam."

Ann tilted her head. "Why didn't you just use Remote Transfer?"

I destinctly remembered puting the box of transponders next to the computer. "I need to adjust them so nobody canback track our signal. And 'Cause Armsmaster showed up and I don't want to give him the rundown explaining the whimpering supervillain. Left that to Taylor."

"That's kind of a dick move." My roommate commented. "Also you shouldn't name drop a cape. People get killed all the time for breaking the Unwriten Rules."

"So I have to pretend that I don't know her name?" I shook my head.

"Kind of hard to pretend otherwise when Fake Telepathy is only fake by technicality." Looking through the cabinets and not finding the gear I headed out. "I'm gonna go find myself."

"Good luck."

My journey of self discovery led me all the way to the Workshop.

It wasn't so much an actual workshop but a factory. When I got Tinker powers I, in a flash of weeby self indulgence, decided I wanted a bat mobile, gadgets, and a giant mech suit. There were two big problems with that being 1) I couldn't spare the time to work on the stuff while doing my Superman impression and 2) the parts would take forever to get both legally and under the radar. To combat this I used the Replicant power to make a permeant clone of myself and have him be my makeshift Q.

Which was why it was shocking when I walked in to a half formed replica of BT-7274, the Giant robot protagonist from Titanfall 2.

"Looking good ain't he?" A familiar voice called out.

Stepping out from behind him wearing a tool belt, a smile and nothing else was my very first Replicant.

"What's with the robot, I thought we agreed go slow with the supplies gathering so we didn't end up on some watchlist?" I asked.

"I found a shortcut." My clone said. He walked over to the side and made a super-cringe cry of "Kage bushin no jutsu!"

Suddenly the workshop was filled with dozens of buff naked blue men wearing nothing but tool aprons.

"This looks like the plot of a budget porn movie." I stated

My replicant obviously had the same thought because in the background came the pornhub theme music. We all chuckled in unison.

"So, other than having a peanut gallery that can laugh at all our jokes, what's the point?" I asked.

My replicant put on the smile that I always felt while patting myself on the back for a brilliant idea. "I-meaning we," He said making the back and forth gesture with his hands, "Don't need to scrounge around and go dumpster diving like the broke college student we were; the clones from Mirror image can use Infinite treasury too and the material they make doesn't vanish."

Suddenly, the sound of a train whistle went off and they all went back to work. Some went to the many benches to work on the many gadgets sitting half completed and the others to the sides while the rest went about

I paused and frowned, "Hey if we have access to unlimited stuff why are we walking around naked?"

There was a very pregnant pause as they all turned towards and sighed.

I did as well. "A Perfect Mind we may all possess but that doesn't change who we were." I commented. "Great. This is cool but I need to be on my way, I was going to grab the transmitters and pass them to Taylor and Armsmaster."

"You don't have to worry 'bout it, I put the whole Workshop in a Temporal Bubble. In DBZ terms, this place is in a hyperbolic time chamber." My replicant grinned, passing me a handful of the devices. They were basic wristwatches with the only addition being a spare red button on the case.

"So, anime references aside, how did you get passed the ten meter limit?"

The replicant me grinned wider. "While Shard Administrator can't work on our work on itself..." The replicant trailed off pointing at one of his mirror images. "That doesn't mean clones of ourselves cant use it."

"...How the hell can you figure that out but forget pants?"

I popped back to the two on the roof just in time to hear the end of the conversation, now dressed in a grey t-shirt, jeans, and boots.

"-ho gets credit for Lung." Armsmaster asked before the pair turned back to me.

"I'm back and I brought free stuff." I told the two parahumans. I reached into the denim and pulled out the two tinker-tech watches.

"What are these." Armsmaster asked picking the device up and turning it over. He pulled out a multi tool in the same color scheme of his armor and started going through it. Taylor just held hers like it might bite her.

"A transmitter my brother made. He has tinker powers." I told the male hero. Interestingly, my thoughts on the relationship with my replicant were close enough to come out as true on his lie detector. "I don't have a cellphone and can't afford to pay a wireless plan."

"The girl said you captured the henchmen, where are they?" Armsmaster asked.

I immediately opened up my Pocket Room, a spherical portal spearing behind me, and let all of the bangers fall in a pile. Each one had been hogtied and gagged with thick ropes. "Thanks for reminding me. it would have been embarrassing as hell to have to call you just for a pickup."

Armsmaster looked at the group and nodded tapping his helmet. After a few seconds he nodded. "The police will arrive in a few minutes. Your brother is a tinker, you guys a team?"

I nodded my head. "He's Case 53, if you couldn't tell." I said pointing at myself. "Our whole story involves involuntary time manipulation and dimension travel followed by clones and a speed up temporal bubble. Basic year-five cape shit."

I could feel the incredulous stare behind the twos helmets. Or maybe it was disbelieving on Taylor's part, looking between the pile of dirtbags and me; she didn't have access to the lie detector Armsmaster did so she probably couldn't tell I was speaking the truth.

"So what were you guys talking about when I showed up?"I prodded the pair.

Armsmaster responded. "I was wondering about how you two would want to play this; The leader of the ABB going to jail demands retaliation."

"I didn't touch Lung so that decision is all hers." Igesturd to Taylor. "You can take the crew members though; most are minors and didn't have anything criminal except a couple pistols, weed, and a switch blade." I opend another portal to the Room and dropped said contraband before Armsmaster.

The hero nodded and for the first time I related to him. I took noticed that despite how good he could talk he spoke like a carefully coached politician when addressing me.

"I have to ask you to consider joining protectorate."

"I refuse."

Buissness coach's and sells men always say 'don't take no for an answer.' Armsmaster was obviously not a business man. The man nodded, hopped on his motorcycle and drove away.

I looked at Taylor. "So see you later?"

Victory for Blue!