Apartment Cell

When we finally arrived at the compound I was really tired. It had been an exhausting few weeks and the future didn't look any better. It wasn't like resolving the problems of my missing limbs and the guardians ready to kill me and my sister hadn't reduced my worries, it was just that the resolution had caused more complicated problems than I could have ever anticipated. I wasn't even able to be in the same room with my sister anymore and it mostly wasn't even the PRTs fault. I would have to resolve all those minor and major psychological problems before proceeding with any plans of saving my sister.

And here, in this building full of PRT troopers, police force and government spies would I start the revolution. The only place more inconvenient I could imagine was the Protectorate Headquarters in the middle of the bay and there I would have had an advantage in gaining information. I didn't know how I could get anything done under so much scrutiny.

Almost as if something was trying to answer that question, I could suddenly understand how to add effects to anything. Effects that were almost magical in origin, but the runic language included told me that it was a kind of science, science so far advanced that it seemed like magic to those to stupid, to ignorant to understand the truth of the multiverse. Suddenly I knew things any tinker in this world would kill for, and if I taught people they could copy everything I did, provided they learned the more than 99 million different runes and all the usual grammar and semantics of a language first. And there was still the problem of having access to some kind of magic to truly use this skill, an ability which wasn't provided, which only allowed me to actually use a tiny portion of the knowledge I had gained just now.

At least from now on, if someone asked me how parahuman weirdness was possible I could confidently and truthfully answer "Magic" and watch the anger and confusion take hold. As a magical savant I could prove all those fancy cape scientist and power theorists wrong and I wouldn't even break a sweat. Another awesome thing about enchanting is the fact, that resources are not an issue, almost anything can be enchanted and while more expensive material could endure better and more long lasting enchantments I was skilled enough to turn a pebble into a bomb and that was one of the easiest tricks in my new arsenal. I was the luckiest Tinker in the entire world, no resource limitation and unlimited possibilities were a cheat upon a cheat.

My fantasies of world domination and eternal glory were disturbed by a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey Benjamin, everything okay, we have arrived at your new apartment. If you are scared I can always stay with you, there is no need to fear, this is a good change and I am certain that your will enjoy living here. I mean, free food, a cleaning service and a lot of nice and honest neighbors sounds like a dream to me."

Miranda gave me her best pep talk and a smile meant to reassure me. I got the impression she wanted me to ask her to stay and live with me, but even before gaining those new abilities I wouldn't be tempted and now I needed my privacy.

Instead of answering I simply left the van and walked into the building. Miranda and trooper followed with a little distance between them, but I knew there was no way the PRT would allow me to escape in this situation. Not that I wanted anymore, I needed time and space to deal with the changes in my mind and plan my next steps.

The building truly wasn't anything special, the nicest thing you could say about it was that it was new and well cared for. The windows were small and secured with additional metal shutters, the walls thick and sturdy and the lobby was more of a defensive position than an area to welcome visitors. Cameras were everywhere and even the more open cafeteria was out of sight from the entrance and fitted with thick plates of high impact security glass, or so the small labels on the windows told me. There weren't many people in sight, except those that took shifts manning and protecting the entrances and the service personnel in the cafeteria. I got the feeling that even the old cleaning lady was an ex martial arts master with hidden firearms, this truly was the bastion for all the brave souls in Brockton Bay who dared to fight godlike powers with the mundane weapons and skills on the common man, not that I thought anyone living here wasn't at least capable of taking down the average gang banger, but even well trained and armored PRT troops didn't really stand a chance against any decent villain, not to mention Lung, Hookwolf and the other villains who could shred through walls like they were tissue paper.

If those people weren't also my jailors in this place I would have been more impressed, instead I was contemplating the probability of most of them being suicidal and if I would be able to use it to my advantage.

Tour over, and a further 3 tries by Miranda to get me to ask her to stay we had finally reached what was supposed to be my room now, only to be again reminded why privacy just wasn't in the cards for me. One of the PRT goons, who had sat in the car with us, made a big show about showing me how to enter the code to open my door and it visibly delighted him to tell me that the code couldn't be changed without a master password, one I wasn't allowed to know and that Miranda, my sisters Youth Guard rep and presumably everyone high enough in the PRT and Police could enter my room at any time. After all it wouldn't do to leave a minor without any oversight.

My apartment cell was sparsely furnished and I could see the blank space where a television had been removed, it only furthered my curiosity about what kind of new they were hiding or were expecting to hide from me. At least the kitchen and bathroom were well stocked and a smiling PRT trooper told me that this was a privilege for me, after all they knew I had been cooking as a hobby for years now and they wanted me to be able to further my hobbies in a safe way. I didn't correct their presumptions, I hadn't learned cooking for fun but to survive. My sister, Loki bless her, had tried, but she wasn't the type to follow recipes and what she didn't burn to cinder was so undercooked to be almost raw. Our roles had always been more of a reverse of the tradition, my sister was the macho, beat into a moaning pile before asking questions type, while I had been the organized, almost motherly, and how I despised that word, type who had taken care of our needs and wants. My sister had been the one to get suspended for fighting grown boys in the schoolyard, while I enjoyed my time in the chess and cooking club. Good times.

Now those goons were using that knowledge to show me just how much they had found out about our past, but apparently these ones weren't important enough to get access to the real juicy bits of information or they would have known that I had lived a big part of my life from fast-food because my parents didn't care enough to provide regular meals and kept the hired staff of the property as much as possible. They had to hide their addiction somehow, not that they managed that, but they paid very well so people kept their mouths shut.

I was honestly to excited about my new powers and way to tired of their bullshit to care all that much, so I stopped listening at that point and after a last attempt by Miranda to allow her to stay I was finally left alone. Not without a last reminder that they could enter at any time and that I would be expected to be at the cafeteria at 9 the next morning.

While I would have loved to start experimenting right that second I knew that it was a stupid idea, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be careful enough to avoid detection and I couldn't start before searching the entire apartment for spying devices in any case. A short shower and a few hours of sleep would be way better and the times spent recovering wasn't so much a waste of time, but more of a preparation to ensure the ability for longer hours of tinkering in the future. I wasn't my sister after all, my powers needed more than a wave of a hand to be useful. Not that I was jealous or anything, I could build my own flying device, eventually.

A longer than expected shower, a short search for the promised clothes, who the hell actually puts clothes on hangers in a closet, and a nearly gagging from the awful taste of the toothpaste later, I was almost ready to keel over. Barely managing to cuddle into the planked I allowed myself to sink into sleep. Only to be plagued by nightmares of missing limbs and my sister trying to kill me.