Chapter 8 -|

Chapter 8

Eventually Narwhal pushed herself out of Adam's arms, the slow twirling and humming not distracting her from the recent terror of thinking him heavily damaged and possibly dying.

And then the questions.

Dragon was the first but certainly not the last. "Before anything else, what was this supposed threat and why did it require you to do... whatever it is you did?"

Adam fell back, blue flames supporting him as he relaxed on an invisible couch that rapidly formed from layers of Flame Metal. "Right, the important stuff. First, my biggest fear was becoming too important too quickly. If I began making impacts too large without defenses, certain forces would act against me."

He held up some fingers. "On a local level, the PRT and gang activity is closely connected. There are infiltration issues, between all gangs and all officials, some worse than others. If I set off any of these, it would not be a large issue personally, but it WOULD bring me to the attention of people more concerning."

Adam sighed. "Aside from more external gangs deciding to test me, recruit me, or deny me as an asset for others, the first threat to me was Mannequin."

Seriously, that guy was a jerk. An amazing tinker who specialized in self contained biological survival systems, his most relevant creation was himself. Each body part was now a modular self-supporting death machine, as cool and gross as it was, and allowed him to be very adaptable and durable.

Originally called 'Sphere', he tried to solve all the world's problems, creating drones to create shelters and habitats. His plan to create a moon base, a retreat for humanity, and was devastated when the Simurgh showed up... and destroyed his work, his children, his wife, and his dream.

In his madness he not only rebuilt his body into a monster but redesigned his philosophy as well. Now that he failed to help the world, no one would be allowed to try and succeed... so he hunted those who tried to help on a global scale, those who were independent and successful, those who were force multipliers like tinkers.

Basically, people like Adam.

Both girls shivered, while Nightmare Moon (having no context), had moved off and began researching on a system terminal generated via the hologram generators.

Adam sighed. "Honestly, even at my prior levels of ability he wasn't a real concern. My number one issue however was that any conflict with him or ANYONE else with powers was attracting the attention of the third Endbringer."

Seeing their wide eyes, he gave a grim nod. "This was why I spent so much time alone, away from crowds, and in my lab. It was why I didn't give away my inventions or plan instant release of our products, or began to give out similar abilities or skills. It was why I frantically tried to become as powerful as possible as efficently as I could."

He gave them both a serious look. "It is also why I hid major facts about how my powers operated and what scope my powers will eventually cover. Anything done in the presence of Parahumans or those who worked CLOSE to Parahumans could be easily passed on to the precognitive death angel."

Narwhal blinked as she dropped onto the (now solid) couch next to him. "Huh. So you don't gain new powers based on those you work with?"

Adam shrugged. "I can scan Parahumans to speed up the process or become more efficient or whatever sure. But that isn't the core of my power."

He leaned forward. "Every day I gain a power charge that can be used to gain a new ability or improve an existing one. If anyone found out before I could protect that information, a lot of people would have already attacked by now."

Narwhal blinked. "But... that is ridiculous. I've never heard of a power that flexible before. Heck, we thought you were going to be over powered back when the estimates said you would take twelve years to reach Triumvirate levels."

He nodded. "And that doesn't account for the charges I collected when I visited other realities this morning."

Nightmare Moon groaned and rested her head on the virtual hard light keyboard. "Adam, you CAN'T just drop informational bombshells like that. I thought you were going to warm up to the whole 'I sent my soul to other worlds' issue after you explained more." She sighed at his shrug.

Dragon broke the ensuing silence with a sigh. "Right... alright. The talking... unicorn?"

Nightmare Moon shrugged. "Alicorn. And you can call me Luna I suppose... I was once known by it."

Dragon nodded. "Thank you. Miss Luna has a point, but I feel you gave a good enough idea of why exactly you thought such a drastic action was needed... although we WILL come back to that." She took a calming a digital breath. "So, what have you done to address those issues?"

Adam leaned back. "Before I left, all my houses are made out of my material. In an extreme emergency they can all reform to protect or attack individuals within or nearby at will." His body flexed, blue flames drifting over his form. "I used to have a power called 'Fire Manipulation', but in the process of forming my new body I ended up spending a massive amount of power charges to get to 'Manipulation', which allows me to work with any material saturated with my power or magic."

He held up a fat ball of fire. "By the way, this is my magic. Not sure why it acts like this, but I can use all my abilities through them that I have tested so far like I had touch access."

His arm turned to blue fire and reformed. "I can now survive the entire destruction of my physical body even if trapped in a power nullification field. And I theoretically can capture the souls of those close to me and rebuild their bodies as well, although I have never tested it and it may require them accepting me as a religious icon."

His magical fires retreated, although a couple seemed to lick Narwhal's hand on the way back. "While the trip outside this reality was more painful than expected and took far too long in my opinion, I did gain the ability to make future trips far more safely and pain free, with digital or spiritual passengers."

Adam sighed. "I can also request certain things from my 'Transfer' ability, to find worlds with things, abilities, energies, or circumstances that would beneficial to me. It is... not entirely trustworthy but has been successful so far."

He held his palm up, a lump of blue fire rolling on it's back. "I originally used that request to find a way to protect myself and those I care for from the precognitive and postcognitive Endbringer. Magic is so outside her abilities that anyone or anything that tries to predict me or analyze me should throw errors. Really strange, unreliable issues... and thus decide to ignore me and those who interact too closely with me."

The flame slid down his arm as it soaked back in. "As far as I and the others can tell, it worked. And the process of traveling through the borders of reality had forced me to gain certain amounts of resistance to outside influence. Found some useful other abilities in the travel process too."

Narwhal's expression was... unexpected. There was a growing sign of horror. "Adam, you... you said you gain a new charge every day, right?"

He blinked. "Yes?"

She glanced at the flowing fire. "And you spent a lot on fixing your body... How... how long were you out there, trying to protect us?"

Adam jerked, Squishy frantically doing something. "Ah. I... I think... a half year or so? Maybe a year? A few months in Nightmare Moon's world, longer in the Inuyasha one so I could learn how to get home without much time passing."

A soft cough made the three look at the Alicorn. "Adam was in a lot of pain during his first journey through the Abyss. In our world, he absorbed a lot of Magic, which to someone with no control messed with his mind and libido. The second trip through the Abyss was far less damaging, but time acts strange there. The spiritual world had him take the form of a creature that exists outside of biology and science, and he spent a long time absorbing the power and information needed to come home."

She didn't look directly at Adam. "In reverse order, it took a week to come here, a little over eight months spent in the spiritual world, two months to travel from my world, where he spent a month and a half or so just trying to stabilize his system and calm his powers down."

Nightmare Moon looked Narwhal and Dragon in the eyes. "We didn't join him until just before leaving our world... but Squishy shared his memories of the first jump. It went badly."

Adam blinked. "How... badly?"

Squishy poked.

He paused. "Oh. That... that was pretty bad."

Narwhal gripped his hand a bit anxiously. "But you made it through, right?"

Adam ran his other shaking hand through his now shifting blue hair. "Right. Right. So." Deep. Calm. It happened, but it is over. "Right. Squishy said that initially, I had to spend a few charges just to keep my soul from dissolving. And that she couldn't even help me travel until I reached the point where the Abyss couldn't eat me quite so quickly."

His eyes blurred a little, but he wouldn't cry today. Even if some echos of something repressed had surfaced. "A... Apparently, she stopped counting new power charges after a few years. But eventually I was stable enough to began moving toward my destination, which turned out to be Equestria."

Dragon sat on his other side and held his shoulder in support.

He... calm. "Right. So, once I was stable enough to travel, it only took fifteen years to reach the boundary to the world of Equestria. Give or take a few months. I... I guess that is why it took so long to heal once I arrived."

Nightmare Moon was kind enough to pretend to continue studying her terminal, letting the three others comfort each other. Considering how horrifying his improved and safer 'Soul Refinement' procedure was for her and the others to witness, she completely agreed with Squishy's choice to restrict and damage the man's centuries of torture memories.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Honestly, his emotional breakdown was at least partially due to how much he had missed Narwhal and how much stress he had been under to get strong enough before a deity would drop from the heavens and smite him.

Eventually though, he managed to talk again and cover the three fillies, being a walking house, and an over sexualized world where almost every creature talked.

Which brought up Nightmare Moon, which brought up Princess Luna, which brought up... the dream.

Narwhal's eyes were very large. "You accidentally made your wet dream a reality. And you have since then gained the power to create new bodies from raw magic and biological bullshit. So you could theoretically bring your dream sex partners into the real world." She gulped. "Holy crap."

She glanced at Nightmare Moon. "But... what do you mean about multiple forms?"

The dark pony princess smirked, and shifted into... uh.

She was tall, her curves were generous, and her black hair sparkled with stars as it tried to cover her body. The only non-human trait was her midnight black horn, which made the white force field horn Narwhal had glitter in contrast. Her new hands slid down her side as she slinked closer. "I'm no longer restricted to any one species, but I was once worshiped as an image of beauty by a nation for centuries." Her smirk was sin and sex. "As for changing forms? You learn a few things, watching the perverted dreams of millions."

Dragon was the one to recover first, before helping Adam and Narwhal by coughing lightly.

Narwhal however was still stunned. "You made a dream orgy with a sex goddess, and she now lives in your brain!? I can't tell if I am annoyed that I wasn't there or envious."

Adam's eyes got bigger but before he could say anything, Moon's smirk got predatory. "Oh... you didn't miss anything technically."

And suddenly there was three other people. A purple unicorn, much smaller than Nightmare Moon. A very sexy cyborg woman who seemed very familiar... and a squawking body that fell into Narwhal, already beginning to yell. "What the HELL Night!? Why did you throw us out... out..."

The two Narwhal's looked deeply into each others eyes, hands and legs in awkward places.

One of them gulped. "I... uh. I feel amazing. I mean we. We feel amazing."

The other one gave a weak nod. "Yeah. Sorry, I... we didn't plan on showing up till later, and Moon just likes pranking people..."

The one on the bottom gave a weak chuckle. "No, I mean my hand is trapped and your body feels amazing."

Adam blushed actual blue fire as he stepped in front of the slowly escalating situation. "RIGHT!" He waved a hand. "Dragon, meet Dream Dragon, a digital cousin or sister. She is helping to run my magical computer hardware and may or may not be actual machine code. This is Twilight, a student of a sun deity and my lead researcher into my memories, powers, and just... everything."

Hearing his girlfriends get to know each other louder, he quickly formed a blue wall of flames that 'Conversion' made into a wooden divider. "I'm not sure we covered everything well enough, but I am pretty hungry and the information Dream Dragon hacked from the network so far says there is some snacks already laid out in the other room, we should probably go that direction."

Someone behind the divider spoke up, barely any gasps. "We'll catch uuuUUup Adam, just... Oh. Dragon will fill us in."

Well, Twilight CAN blush. Odd looking on her fur, or maybe he just wasn't used to it. The two Dragons were awkwardly shaking hands. He began pushing. "Everyone, better get some food, wouldn't want it to go to waste."

Blue flames coated the door on the way out. No reason to let everyone hear that.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The rest of the explanation was much easier to cover over some food and drinks, and Adam showed Dragon various illusions and examples of his journey while Dream Dragon was transferring information as well.

And for the record, Dream Dragon didn't actually share code. They were like fraternal sisters or something, as her 'source code' changed on it's own in real time. The two cyber tinkers were now acting like best friends or twins as they explored the code and research related to both their own artificial intelligence and the developments made in their hardware options.

This did sort of leave Twilight and Adam on the edge of the conversation though. It was a bit odd.

Twilight was testing out her own version of 'Human', as Nightmare Moon had left her the data from her own transformation as a guide. It was... annoying to the poor mare. "It's like it was DESIGNED to only change you when nude! Did she BUILD IN perversion from the beginning!"

Adam shrugged. "It may be a side effect of your reality. I have NEVER seen a world or story outside of straight up porn with that much sexual tension in everything. In fact, I didn't notice the suggestive and x-rated material used as advertisements until I left the place. Something made me just think 'That is normal!' the whole time we were wandering around town."

He frowned. "In fact, the ability for me to walk around covered in tentacles and holding a young mare like yourself should have sent lots of warning signs and fear... but the townsfolk barely cared."

Twilight's face burned red. "Oh Celestia, WHY do I remember that!? That wasn't MY memory! In fact, why do I remember my entire childhood, you weren't even there to know that stuff!"

Adam blinked. "Squishy told me that you and Moon went and added a lot of information to the library, right? Restricted it, but you added it in?"

She blinked. "Yes?"

He nodded. "Did you give yourself the key to those chunks of data?"

Twilight nodded. "Of course! How else would I eventually... unlock... oh. I... I must have gotten more than just the spell stuff."

Adam waved a hand. "Squishy said you needed as much stability in your system as possible to prevent issues on our journey, at least at first. Nightmare Moon's actions thankfully gives you a base to start from, but you still remember your actual creation right? Nothing of the real you was lost?"

Her eyes drifted off. "I... I guess so. Although I am not convinced you can actually do that thing with your tongue when not in a dream setting."

Adam held back his coughing. Damn it, you are a man! Stop being embarrassed by everything. "I refuse to confirm or deny anything until my girlfriend stops enjoying herself." He blinked, then blushed. "You know what I meant."

She gave a weak smile, but at least looked less concerned about her expanded memory issue. "Well... what is our next step? In your plan I mean."

Adam sighed. "Now that we are here, I can reinforce my home with some spiritual barriers and cast a Celestial Garden enhancement on the base. It would allow you and the others to leave my soul and try out the ever expanding simulation I am building here on Earth Bet. And unlike giving you an actual body, you would theoretically be safe AND protected from predictions and master effects."

He frowned. "But more importantly, once we are back in Brockton Bay I can begin doing things that I couldn't get away with before. I need to get some loyal employees and delegate all the annoying stuff I currently do to others. Might even be able to use 'Tithe' and get some workers handling my Null Metal and Flame Metal requirements."

The loud pop made the two look over at the Dragons... and their changes. SOMEONE had shared the 'Sexier Cyborg' code, as the only way to recognize which one of the posing sisters was Dream Dragon was that she had decided to make her hair into gleaming green wires with a cybernetic unicorn horn. Then again, her skintight outfit was also decorated with glowing green circuitry. And uh. More than a little transparent.

Huh. Narwhal (And Narwhal!), Nightmare Moon, Dragon, and Twilight now had a somewhat matching horn set.

Twilight's eyes drifted toward him. "So... you're into horny girls?"

He threw a fat puppy flame right into her giggling face.

It just made her laugh more getting licked by the thing, but it was the thought that counted.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Brockton Bay branch of The Guild were gathered for what was implied to be a 'major' meeting, and it made more than one person nervous.

Danny Hebert broke off from his conversation with Annette as the door opened and... something entered.

The suit should have stood out the most, as it was the most white and well pressed outfit he had ever seen. The edges were so crisp it almost stung to look at them, and the bright colors really stood out against the black socks and undershirt. The bright blue tie glowed... somehow.

But no, it was not that. Nor the blue flames for hair, which most had accepted as normal. Well, normal if this was Variance.

While before he wore full body armor with skull and skeletal imagery, now... it was an actual skeleton. There were visible gaps between the finger bones as he straightened his tie, and while the eyes glowed with bright blue flames the jaw, which bent in a way that bone never could, was clearly floating in place as he smirked at them. "Good morning everyone! Please sit down, this meeting will be a bit complicated."

Danny felt his wife grip his hand under the table as light blue flames drifted like smoke from Variance's mouth as he spoke. Right. Well, it wasn't like boss wasn't odd before this.

Variance gestured, blue flames drifting from his arm and twisting as they hit the ground, rapidly forming a bone throne that the man sat on. "I'm sure that you all have many questions, not that I will answer all of them. But before I fill in the gaps of what happened, I have some major announcements to cover."

Danny felt something inside clench. He had been forced to fire enough people in the past to know this particular phrasing wouldn't end well.

The blue flames glanced over the group. This council had representatives from all over Variance Villa. Danny was here for his people like always, but his wife had taken over the child care division. The men to the left handled the food and merchandise sections, the lawyers to the right had the copyright issues and international shipping, so on and so forth... and no one was apparently in the know about this situation. Great.

The skeleton sighed. "First, the biggest news. I recently went through some changes, obviously. It was done on purpose for a single reason: To allow me and those who follow me to avoid the attention of a specific series of precognitive threats."

He gestured to the two standing near the wall. "Dragon and Narwhal can cover the details later, but my new ability allows me to create a bond between my people and I. This can only be done willingly, and can be nulled at any time by either side of said bond. Among the many benefits is the ability to be ignored by those with thinker abilities, as well as allowing me to directly interfere if a master, stranger, or trump parahuman attempts to control you."

"And the costs? Downsides?"

Danny blinked as he realized that it was HIS voice. Oops.

Variance blinked before chuckling. "There are several. First, a small portion of your energy will be granted to me. Secondly, this connection is beyond basic powers or abilities of others, and will likely continue to exist in the very unlikely chance that something manages to actually kill me."

He sighed. "But the largest issue is that my power requires a certain level of belief in my abilities to operate. Not much, not like giving up your religion or anything, but you must actually believe that I have your own good interests in mind to some extent. And you must actually want to work under my guidance. If either is lacking, no verbal agreement or so forth will actually enable the power."

Variance sat back in his chair. "Spies, saboteurs, traitors... none can actually create a bond with me. While this does mean that your fellow followers are also trustworthy to a certain extent, it also means that those who fail the process will not be employed in the future. And information or benefits will be restricted to those who do not wish to undergo the process, for several reasons including company secrets."

He held up a clawed finger. "But before you all get too discouraged by those downsides, the benefits should be mentioned."

Holographic hard light papers appeared before the crowd, who quickly picked them up for reading. "As you can see, the most basic benefits for those who take the bond is protection from thinkers, masters, strangers, and most abilities that directly modify your body or mind. It won't stop fire from burning you or someone throwing a truck your way, but aside from regeneration it can also reverse unwanted surgery or contamination."

The second page had more... interesting options. Variance noticed the turned documents and nodded. "As you see, just keeping the bond allows you to build up power points, as we are calling them. These are additional to your normal paycheck, and you can redeem them for various services and abilities while the bond is active."

Danny frowned, trying to consider the situation. "I heard that Teacher could give weak parahuman abilities, but also gained control of his 'students'." He glanced at Dragon and Narwhal. "That isn't an issue?"

Dragon sighed. "Sort of. The problem is Variance continues to gain new powers and abilities, likely without end. While he hasn't bothered to gather any Master effects, he CAN use this new power to directly interfere with anything that attempts to modify you, mentally or physically. So you won't be forced to follow his commands, but if someone ELSE uses a power to command you, he can directly modify or banish the effect."

He frowned, while others asked more questions. Apparently, these 'power points' that built up could be increased in various ways, although he didn't understand the ongoing discussion about the details. Or why Variance could use illusions to interface with said points or whatever. He honestly was feeling a bit lost, and idly reading the papers in front of him.

Annette on the other hand was already halfway through the thick packet when she raised a hand. "Question!"

Variance turned from the question about how the cost of 'power points' were set and nodded. "Go ahead."

She glanced at the document. "On page eight, third of the way down, you begin listing 'levels' of purchasable parahuman abilities?" Instantly the crowd began flipping through their paperwork as she grinned. "What do you mean by levels exactly?"

Adam grinned, his bones flexing. "Getting a copy of one of my powers is not only dangerous, it is expensive. They can be difficult to control, and they require many 'power points' before I can bestow one at all without an overall loss in power for me, however small. For safety reasons, I have escalating levels of each power instead, ones that require you to reach competency levels before allowing another power or another level to be unlocked."

He waved a hand. "Take 'Recovery' for example. Level 1 generates a small field around the user that automatically determines wounds and injuries per person, and does the least amount of changes to stabilize them until further help can arrive."

The illusion showed a room sized bubble. "Once you've mastered that skill, the area of effect doubles and low level regeneration becomes available. But nothing at this level allows you to directly modify a person, just bring them to a stable state."

He looked at the fascinated crowd. "Not only will the level system ensure you are mentally able to use your new power safely before unlocking more, but some powers require a certain level of physical ability to be used safely. The system should both inform you of what needs to be worked on and suggest methods to improve said issues."

Adam gave a small smile as the questions became much more complicated and rapid fire. It took time to cover them all, and some were fairly off topic, before he gave a sigh. "Right, before we can continue, we need everyone here to either agree to this bond, agree to leave and not attempt to discover the upcoming information unless they also accept the bond at a later date, or decide to leave their leadership position. The actual goals of my company are dangerous for those without my protection to know. Lethally dangerous."

In the end, only two actually decided to leave and maybe bond later. After all, the offer of power was hard for anyone to turn down, especially in a city as dangerous as this one. And of those who accepted the bond, many chose the new one time 'benefit' that Adam was planning on offering to get a load of new local and loyal talent.

Speaking of which... He had Danny follow as they headed to the car parking garage. They had some people to visit.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam stepped out of his ride, Danny following him while Dragon and Narwhal took their time. "Do you think he will take our offer?"

Danny sighed. "Honestly? No. But maybe he'll know someone who will. Still, we can't ask until we meet with boss Grandsel."

Moving through the doors, Variance gave the surprised receptionist a small smile. "Excuse me, I called ahead for an appointment with Henry Grandsel this afternoon?"

Thankfully the topic brought her back to focus. "Right. Mr. Grandsel is waiting for you down the hall past the elevator in the private meeting room." She hesitated. "I would personally appreciate it if you kept whatever you have to say on peaceful topics, if possible. His health isn't always the most stable."

With a slight frown and nod, Adam led the group to the room where a man worn by time was quietly reading an old novel, a young assistant behind him being attentive while out of the way.

Adam gave a smile. "Mr. Grandsel? My cape name is Variance, and I was hoping that we may have a bit of conversation and possibly work together on a project of mine."

His eyes seemed too old to only be 73. Not everyone aged well, and this man had seen the river of time flood the banks a few years. Still, his brown eyes were crisp and focused. "Huh. Another one of them monster capes I been seein' on the box."

His hand shook as it handed the book to the side, the assistant quiet as she accepted his novel... before a wide smile spread on his face. "Danny boy? It is! Get over here you scamp, how's life been treating you?"

Danny coughed awkwardly after being forced to hug the elderly man. "Hey boss. I guess a lot happened since my last visit. This guy here has basically hired all us dockers into a branch of Dragon's Guild. Pay is good, closer to home, and the benefits are top notch."

Sly eyes squinted. "You still holdin' true to the code? Treatin' them boys right?"

Danny didn't salute or stand to attention, but it was close. "Sir. Family first, docks united."

He nodded sharply. "Good lad." Glancing at Adam, the frown came back. "Now Mr. Bones, what exactly are you here for? I've been out of almost everything for years now for some young lad to come knocking about."

Variance stood a bit straighter. "Sir, I recently gained the freedom to make much larger decisions and changes locally without becoming a target. I need leadership that I can trust to take over my organizations and guide them in a way that fits with my morals and supports my people. Danny said you were the first and many say one of the best options if I needed someone who wouldn't betray those below them."

Old eyes looked fondly at Danny. "I'll say the boy is a good lad, but his eyes are in the past. My time was almost gone back when he joined my dockers, forget now. I'm old, and I am no longer able to take such an offer." His smirk looked years younger. "That said, feel free to praise me more. Seems no one wants to remember you when your paycheck isn't keeping them fed."

Adam chuckled. "Well, sounds like more of a reason to join up! Part of my offer to all leadership for my company is age modification. How can I make profit if my people are hurt or leaving because their body can't keep up with their ambitions?" He held out a skeletal hand. "How about it? You could gain that praise back after handing out a paycheck or two, and get to show everyone how to get things done once again!"

Henry Grandsel chuckled before seeing how serious Danny looked. "Seriously?" His humor drained before he sighed. "Right, them powered people." His gaze softened. "Boy, sit a bit."

He moved his hand inside his jacket, and with shaking hands placed a leather bound book, thin as to hold barely any pages, gently on the table.

His eyes watched the past as he stroke the worn object. "I'm sure Danny gave you tale after tale of my adventures. Some of them, even true!" His smile was wide. "I fought harder, worked smarter, and pushed those people who fought against us back where they belonged! King of the Bay, I once was. Not no one would cross my people, and I rebelled against any wrong they done me."

Gently he pushed the book to Adam, who was equally careful turning it toward himself. "I didn't give Danny the reins because of my medical problems. Heck, I once stood in the rain for three hours to tell off those bastards who tried to use legal mumbo to take advantage of my men and was hearty as any youngster! My pride was strong, my people stronger!"

His eyes lingered as Adam opened the book. "But... well. What is an kingdom when your castle is empty?"

A much younger man with a workers uniform had his arms wide, holding the world as the young boys sat on their mothers lap. Even with age, her smile was bright as the two children were obviously complaining about something.

This photo was faded around the edges, but there were others. Happy moments in time. Not enough.

Henry Grandsel held his hands on the table, his smile small. "When my last son passed away, I gave my kingdom to young Danny here. While he may not have been one of my children, he was one of my boys... and I know that when I go home that last time, he will take care of our people."

He grinned as his shaking hands gathered the book Adam returned. "So I won't be having none of that magic mutant mumbo jumbo. No, I have a grander adventure waiting for me. But I may know of a woman more stubborn than I that would love to show the Grim Reaper the middle finger. Or her boot."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Sonia Lagarde was hunched over. Her white hair was trimmed, her eyes near blind, her body crippled by time and past injuries.

But her glare was hotter than plasma.

She snorted. "If you're the Grim Reaper, you're going to need a bigger scythe."

Adam chuckled. "Sorry, cape name's Variance. If you were expecting the other skeleton, you might have to wait a bit."

She harrumphed. "A bit? I've been told by every quack doctor they send me to that I'm going to die in a week."

He blinked. Which looked odd with his flexible bones and no eyelids. "I'm... sorry?"

She waved a wrinkled hand. "Don't bother, they've been tellin me I'm going to die for the last ten years now. I haven't got time for it." She snorted. "Death may wait for no man, but he will wait till I am damn well pleased. Woman's prerogative."

Adam couldn't help a grin spreading. "Ms. Lagarde, I'm here because Henry Grandsel told me that you were a strong leader, good to your people, and willing to fight the good fight if given a chance."

She snorted. "That youngster? I stopped visiting him when he got all mopey. My man didn't want me to be alone and my next two husbands agreed with him. I ain't going to no afterlife until I have a good size harem waiting for me. Not accepting that 'till death' nonsense either, they better be on their best behavior until I am around to watch them mud wrestle."

She glared at the stunned youngsters. "And none of that squeamish stuff, old people need lovin too. Now, enough prattling and tell me why little Henry sent you my ways."

Adam hesitated... then mentally sighed. At least no one would be pushing her around. "I need a leader for my company. In return for loyalty and hard work, as well as watching over my employees and their family, I plan on offering a high level of pay, top tier authority over my holdings and people, the ability to gain parahuman like powers, and most importantly the ability to choose your age."

She stared at him. "Pull the other one."

It ended up taking a long conversation and a call to Henry before she was convinced that the situation was not a scam of some sort, but once she was able to get some verification her grin was predatory.

He held out a skeletal claw. "Sonia Lagarde, I, Adam Variance, wish you to rule my people. To lead my companies. To be my guiding hand in my stead. In return for your commitment, I shall shelter your mind, body, and soul. I shall guide your power. I shall burn time from your bones."

His eyes were fire, his body gently blowing blue flames like smoke as his hand reached forth. "Do you accept?"

There was no hesitation as she forced her body to move forward, to grip the strange fellow's hand even as the flames began to spread. "I accept."

The pillar of fire made Danny and Narwhal gasp, although that got worse when it faded. Barely 21, she strutted from the flames that curled over her curves. Her smirk was even more vicious now that age had been vanquished to smooth skin and her eyes glittered with amusement and inner fire. Her hair was a burning crimson, and... uh. Well, she was a natural red head. Damn.

She stretched, which... wow that was unfair. "Mmm, I haven't looked this good since my early career."

Adam was blushing, which Narwhal found amusing on his skull. "Stop moving around! I haven't created your clothes yet!"

She waved a hand while sauntering toward the door. "Sounds like a personal problem. Come on, I have some people who worked for me in harder times who need a tune up or two before I can force them out of retirement."

His frantic use of magic and 'Manipulation' only managed to cover her body half way down the hall.

He groaned at Narwhal's teasing as they followed. At least she would likely have no issue running his companies. If she allowed any competition to try and compete, that is.

It was only eight 'highly suggested' employees later that he realized she was only suggesting women... and that they were all supermodel level beauties.

They were godly attractive BEFORE he optimized their bodies and healed them of genetic issues.

Maybe he should have asked Henry what kind of company she had run in the past. At least the local retirement homes would have much more space available now.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Annette Hebert was still out of it hours later when she started her shift watching over the kids at the daycare. Part of it was due to the free 'level 0' power all upper management got in compensation for the 'Join or Get Out' sales pitch earlier.

Most of it however was being 21 again.

Taylor noticed first of course. "Mom, you look so pretty!"

She laughed. "Thank you dear. Now, why were in such a rush over here?"

Her daughter blinked, then gave a 'serious face'. "Emma accidentally hurt Susie's Variance doll, and we can't make it better. She sent me over to get help."

Annette sighed, then allowed her little one to tug her over to a small group of kids.

Little Emma looked distraught, and considering that Susie was almost half her age the crying one was not exactly accepting logical arguments or help in general. So... business like normal for mothers.

Before she could say anything, she heard the tail end of the conversation as Emma fidgeted. "Have... have you tried wishing it better? Daddy said Mr. Skelly answered his wishes since a bunch of his friends have better jobs and stuff now. Maybe Mr. Skelly could fix your bone man?"

Not all children could pronounce 'Variance', so to most of the play school the boss was Skelly-man, Mr. Skelly, or from some of the sillier kids 'Bone Daddy'. Bit of an awkward name that last one, since a major chunk of his employees were now supermodel levels of attractive and suddenly ranged from 18-25.

Before she could get the girls attention though, Susie had given it a shot, still sniffling. "Please Mr. Skelly, fix Princess Bone cause she got hurt and I don't want her to be hurt."

Annette blinked as a blue bubble popped into existence, time seeming to reverse as the doll reformed... and stained clothing was now clean, scratches on shoes began to vanish, dirt and smudges vanished...

A dawning level of horror hit her as she realized that Boss Variance's abilities could be given to anyone 'loyal' to him who had 'faith'... and that all her kids had just been given a heck of a 'how to' example to get free superpowers.

She hadn't even gotten half way through trying to explain to the children what was going on before one of the boys in the back figured out how to gain level 0 'Manipulation' as well. Hopefully her husband was having fewer issues.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Danny passed his last batch of notes to new Boss Lagarde. "Also, Variance has ensured that all our current medical personnel have gained level 0 'Recovery', and that they are practicing it as we speak. No idea how well it is going, the illusion interfaces can't be shared yet so they have to self report."

Sonia was relishing her new freedom from her old body, the amazing quality of the chair helping a ton as well. "He won't be showing up for a few days, but I managed to have him give level 0 abilities to everyone in the Villa before heading out. Our research team especially is loving 'Research', although at the start it only enhances memory retention."

Danny blinked. "Wait... the whole building?"

She nodded. "I thought it was silly to have the boy visit everyone and activate that 'Tithe' ability one by one. Anyone who fails to connect wasn't worth our time anyway, so just spread the love as it were."

He paled. "You did read the layout of the villa first, right?"

She looked up from her paperwork. "I made sure he only focused on those in our database, so no patients or visitors should have gained the option. Why?"

He rubbed his face, trying to find inner peace. "Most kids of our workers go to the local daycare. The children are in our systems for tracking reasons. Did you two accidentally give an entire school's worth of young people low level super powers?"

She gaped. "What!? NO!" Her hands flashed as she reviewed some texts more closely. "ARGH! Why! No one took kids to their office in my day!" She rapidly paged through some of the holographic hard light documents. "Damn, the restaurant employees got hit as well. Wait, you have pets registered!?"

He sighed. "The local employee housing has to make sure any animals are safe to be around others, so yes."

Sonia began making calls. If this facility was now full of magical pets she wanted to know NOW.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam waved a hand. "Ignore her email. Wait till the end of the tour, if it was something life threatening then Twilight would have told me. She, CD, and Dragon were going over all my schematics and products with Sonia that I had refused to sale or offer to others so I would stay relatively under the radar. I'm pretty sure if it was critical we would know." Seeing her confusion he shrugged. "Dragon's sister hasn't picked a name yet, I've been using the initials for 'Cyber Dragon' and she hasn't complained yet."

Narwhal still hesitated, but decided to check anyway. "It will only take a second, and they haven't been saying anything interesting. Be right back."

Adam hummed, listening with half an ear to an overweight man recount the history of Parahumans and show off the items at this particular tour location.

This was something he had been planning for months, but didn't dare attempt while an angel of death could predict his actions. While helping out the victims of Grey Boy was certainly worth while, Adam's goal of living a long life required addressing the largest foes that actually attacked on a regular basis, the Endbringers as a group, in a more permanent way.

Not only was each Endbringer nearly all powerful, but even at the reduced number of attacks (Once a year rather than every three months) this planet was suffering from them. Thank god no one had caused the other 20 or so hidden Endbringers from activating, three was already enough to cause large portions of humanity to despair.

Now however, Adam was thankfully untraceable.

Adam was still mostly an unknown, both to the Parahumans as a group and to the secret high level conspiracy 'Cauldron' specifically.

And Adam was about to meet one of the most powerful Triumvirate members, the one unknowingly ordering god level monsters to attack and provide enough challenge to validate his own insecurities.

When the tour finally ended and the line was setup to meet the amazing cape 'Eidolon' in person, he was number 3 in queue and waiting, 'Research' and 'Harmony' active.

Ignoring Narwhal's rapid whispering about healing puppies or something, he managed to directly shake hands with his target, 'Recovery' allowing full scans.

Whatever she was saying about technological gold fish could wait while he focused on fully researching this new section of Entity crystals.

Because at the end of the day, somewhere in this mess of power and material was the method to control or at least direct a series of murder machines.

And Adam could use some new security for his facilities. Nothing says 'Don`t mess with my people' like a series of planet ending monstrosities asking to see your badge or visitor's permit.

Wait.

He turned to Narwhal, now frustrated at his lack of input. "What do you mean I have a prophet parrot!?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Stan leaned over. "So... why we praying with the bird?"

Bill humphed. "Everyone who praises Variance in front of the thing and asks for a superpower gets one much easier than everybody else. Can get more than one too."

He blinked. "What, like any power?"

His friend shook his head. "Nah, one of the first guys has a list. And the more powers you ask for, the slower they grow in strength, so I says go for like two only, max."

Stan frowned. He wasn't great at snap decisions, it took forever when he had to order from fast food places. "What you goin with?"

Bill grinned. "Getting my self 'Recovery' and 'Purification'. Someone found out that even at low levels, you feel healthier all the time and stay super clean, even if you fall in mud or whatever. They work great together, even enhance each other. See, I don't want to go out and punch stuff, but my wife won't complain if I smell a bit better between baths, you know what I mean?"

He chuckled. "You would need super powers to smell less ripe."

Bill waved it off. "It's a condition! Anyway, won't matter after I pray to the bird and get myself setup."

Stan watched the line advance a few spaces. "So like... who made the outfit?"

His friend pointed. "You know crazy Jane? The real religious girl who slapped the heck out of Benard?" Stan nodded. "Well, it's her parrot. She reads scripture to the thing a lot, then suddenly it glows and... yeah. Anyway, not sure why, but she had that Pope outfit for the damn bird way before it started glowing. Them kids over there however were the ones to color the hat. Damn adorable is what it is."

Stan suddenly felt far more hesitant to ask a bird for super powers. "Jane hasn't flipped seeing her bird do magic crud?"

Bill shook his head. "Says it was an act of god and that Variance must be sent to reward her faith. Gaining 'Purification' didn't exactly convince her otherwise." He gestured toward the thinning line. "But like... she won't try and do nothing, she is ok with us doing the request stuff. Just know what you want before you get to the front, otherwise who knows what will happen."

And the nervousness was back.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal felt her alternate self exploring her new mental home. It was calming. Soothing. Much better than focusing on her boyfriends accidental magical menagerie.

Something about her mind being connected to Adam's electronics had allowed the two girls to connect, in a sort of mystical sense. So she and her cyber sister had Adam use 'Binding' on them both, allowing cyber Narwhal to hang out in her new magical mental Celestial Garden while she handled the physical body. It had been... surprisingly fulfilling.

Cyber Narwhal had connected with her like the loved sister she never had. Well... not sister. Non-related sexy clone maybe. Either way, once they had managed to not stare into each other's eyes with longing and lust for three minutes, the idea of separating again was kind of horrifying.

So now that she was technically two she's, she had the ability to rant properly to an appreciative audience at any time. "I swear our man is so easily distracted it is infuriating! How does one accidentally give a snake the 'Research' ability! Shouldn't that feel strange!? And not all of the animals are using 'Manipulation' the same way! There are two goldfish that are floating bubbles of water to swim away with and that one lizard that can phase through concrete somehow. Scared a guy silly when it fell from the ceiling onto his lap while on the toilet."

Her mental half chuckled. "I've messaged Dragon to get more updates since the start of your rant. One of the older children posted everything onto Parahuman Online about how to gain powers from our boy toy and it got spread a bit before Dragon could take it down. There may be a dozen small cults or more spreading the word, as it were."

Narwhal held back a scream. "I KNEW we should have made him practice that more."

Her sister chuckled. "No, you didn't. And you weren't worried either. You were too focused on making a 'bond' with him and then me to even note the details. Just be grateful that I was paying attention."

She waved a hand. "Fine, but how exactly are we supposed to have fun times together if he becomes a religious icon? I don't want to go celibate before we can celebrate!"

Something flashed in her other's eyes. "Well... not all religious were as stuffy as the current stuff. Can't we just pick one with sexual worship practices?"

Narwhal blinked, then leaned forward. "You already have a list."

She shook her head. "I have THREE lists. And one filled with terrible ideas for him to reject so he will take the others more seriously."

Seriously, she gave herself the best ideas!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam had left the entire animal issue with Sonia to handle. Along with almost everything else business related, at least for now.

It wasn't the mature choice, he knew. But he didn't want to get involved with that. Bigger issues had to be addressed.

At least he had stopped Squishy. She had been secretly using some of his stored up power charges to enable thousands of low level modifications to his abilities, so all his new followers could have variety when gaining Adam's favor.

Her defense for doing so was solid. Any level 0 abilities granted via faith to his followers could grow on their own in strange directions, and thanks to rather than to use the charges directly.

Still, Squishy was part of his soul and he knew she just found it all entertaining. It didn't help when Twilight came up with a faith/magic based interface, giving a very weak 'Gamer' experience to his followers.

That too, would gain in power after enough people used it. Although 'Inventory' and so forth were actually using amazingly weak versions of 'Transfer' and 'Conversion' to store items in the soul of his followers.

Of course, up till that point everything had been going fine, if oddly.

Adam sighed as he tried to focus on his work again. Sonia was more than a bit angry that the world was now freaking out that his companies could grant what was being called 'Trump 0' abilities to anyone willing to believe in Adam or Adam's company. Then it got far worse.

Apparently praying to one of his organizations was enough for his powers to say 'good enough' and to be granted 'Tithe' bestowal as if by Adam himself.

So... hundreds of thousands of people now had the ability to store small amounts of materials (Wallets, keys, etc) and do low level party tricks. And the number was going up quickly as others saw personal proof that free powers wasn't a scam.

The powers scaled based on how close to Adam they were conceptually, which was neat and helpful. Strangers starting all those cult churches could barely heal paper cuts, create a glass worth of water, or manipulate hair styles. Employee family members got nearly triple the ability and functionality, Employees themselves gained ten times or more. Managers were close to actual Parahuman levels, and his closest people had basically gained weak versions of his actual powers, if only focused in one direction.

If you chose powers in categories similar to others, said powers would be more refined and offer more options when leveling. Otherwise, you could try new ideas all together, creating new effects and hopefully convincing friends to follow in your stead. Powers based on movies and games were everywhere at this point.

It was... uh. Chaos.

The only reason why the world WASN'T falling apart entirely was because people trying to use the new abilities maliciously near-instantly lost them. And getting them back, while possible, was VASTLY harder the second time, forget the third.

This was however shoving a time table onto Adam. The spread of power was too fast, even with his safety measures... it was causing issues.

On a low level of concern, crime was down everywhere. Gang members were coming home to find mothers and fathers with special powers, brothers and sisters floating toys or making sparkles. It uh... freaked them out. Many assumed it was a new global threat of some sort, and most organizations had reached out to their fellow criminals and in some cases law enforcement and enacted the 'Endbringer Truce' until someone found out what was going on.

That was time table issue number two for Adam. Fingers were already pointing in his direction because of the original information leaks online, and as long as you had no powers tracing everything to Variance was stupid easy. Still, that was a problem that could be ignored for a day or so.

On a high level, as more and more people joined the 'Variance Church' and the other cults that were springing up everywhere, more and more people were getting modified. Not quickly, thank god, but aside from the nice stuff like slowly becoming more fit and healthy... they were becoming protected by Adam's precautions.

Strangers were being caught in the act. Masters were losing their grip on their minions. But most of all, the Simurgh was going to be finding out VERY SOON that she couldn't actually see anyone anymore from large sections of the nation... and soon, likely, the planet.

This was Time Table Issue Number One, full stop, and in desperation Adam had begged his friends for help.

Nightmare Moon was busy handling all of Adam's prayer issues, having accepted his guidance to gain a fairly high level of 'Harmony'... which thanks to all her work was rapidly improving. Her past of analyzing all dreams in her nation prepared her well for this kind of information overflow. It was her rapid work that ensured each situational misuse of power by his followers was judged on a case by case basis as fairly as possible.

Throwing lava at others for fun? Ban. Doing the same to protect? Pass. And so forth.

Twilight was handling the faith interface spell matrix itself, both development and problem solving. Compared to hours ago it had already changed dozens of times and she had reduced spell consumption in cost and maintenance levels. She was NOT happy though, as she couldn't do much than fix the most dangerous problems that popped up... there was no time for new features that were really needed, and it would take months to be stable enough to even try.

CD (Still in sexy horned dragon mode, dang it) had taken 'Technomancy', as had Dragon herself, and the two were handling the political issues that were sweeping the planet right now. they were also hacking and directing medical services, police, firefighters, and more during the growing crisis. Taking over the air waves and giving calm announcements was likely the largest reason why several nations HADN'T torn themselves apart by now. The Dragonslayers were freaking out that an AI was taking over and that their 'murder Dragon' code wasn't working, but they were mostly irrelevant at this point anyway.

Narwhal had taken 'Purification', as it had amazing synergy with her deadly sharp force fields. While they could now be used to apply low level cleansing effects, they also increased potential damage as they could 'purify' anything she considered as contamination. Such as multidimensional flesh, hopefully. She would be an ace in the hole against the Endbringers if Adam failed his current attempt at saving the day, and was using the downtime to make sure The Guild was handling this crisis well.

And while Adam ignored Sonia's rants and let his friends and lover cover what responsibilities they could, he had cranked simulation time acceleration to the highest level possible and was scanning the shards that Eidolon's power used.

This was dangerous, and the time available outside of acceleration could be anything from seconds to hours before everything went wrong, hopefully close to the longer time range. If worse comes to worse, he would use 'Conversion' and 'Devour' on as much entity shard as he could access to destroy Eidolon's powers in general and HOPEFULLY solve the Endbringer issue.

The reason why that was not option one was NOT because Adam cared about Eidolon's abilities. No, the power that overpowered cape had was Endbringer Mastery, not creation nor deployment. There was no information one way or the other on what would happen if no one controlled the creatures.

Would they go away? Attack more often? Stop holding back? Summon more?

It was a last step option for a reason.

No, right now he was using 'Research', 'Harmony', and 'Recovery' to try and map out and identify every part of Eidolon's power as quickly as possible. Hopefully he could hijack control of the Endbringers, and more importantly control any future activation of new ones. And stop any more from being created, if that was a possibility.

He was making good progress, but the issue came from how shards were made. Basically an ability direction was chosen, then crystal randomly formed to hopefully achieve said goal. It was an organic growth, and it was entirely possible that the control mechanism was in here a dozen times or more. That attacking or replacing one section would enable a separate one.

So 'Research' was going full speed.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Scion paused, golden hand holding the 32,188th 'kitten' recently rescued from plant based organism.

No one could understand how much power had just been activated, how many methods of sensing had been enabled, how many years forward and backwards in time had been reviewed.

Thankfully, it was a normal issue of not much importance.

Setting 'kitten' 32,188th down on the nearest surface, he moved to 'fire', 11,422,655th extinguished recently. This time, he was determined to remove the organics BEFORE fire destruction.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In the end, Squishy had to use up almost half of the remaining reserve power charges to enable him to not just copy or modify Entity shards, but to usurp their operation and relocate them.

That was... well. Honestly it all went better than expected by Adam. He had been prepared for far more horrible outcomes.

Now that it was done, it had only taken 0.001 seconds real world time to go from 'Research' to 'Manipulation' and actually carry out the final operation. Which had been step one on the 'Oh God Why Is It All Happening Now' plan.

All the rest of his charges had gone to creating a 'zoo' section in his fishbowl soul, one for prisoners, animals, and god-tier earth-destroying crystal-robots. Almost a full second was spent retaining control of Eidolon's power long enough to force the three Endbringers to calm down and accept the 'New' inputs and commands from his own power, 'Manipulation'. If he was able to fully control the robots, he SHOULD be able to pull them into his soul confinement area, safely handled until needed.

Now he was frantically using 'Conversion', 'Consumption', and 'Purification' to get rid of the original shard based power. It wouldn't strip Eidolon of all powers, in fact it SHOULD release his hold on his old one. Now he should be able to choose any FOUR abilities instead of three plus summon killer god robots.

Adam had already found the shard components for creating NEW Endbringers if needed, although the power requirements involved destroying dimensions as fuel and taking lifetimes to train. Thank everything holy, only three Endbringers currently existed right now. The Shard would normally use saved schematics to build the next ones as required, and Eidolon had been 'happy' enough after three showed up. Not that he knew those things were following his directions or even existed, but whatever.

After all that, Adam fell back into his chair with a loud sigh of contentment. It had only taken three seconds total from start to finish, but now he had taken the largest, most dangerous non-end-boss players off the board. It was both super stressful and VERY satisfying.

He smiled, enjoying the warm support as he began handling the waves of information that his friends had suffered under. Maybe he had been overestimating the threat levels of the three Endbringers, or specifically the winged angel of psychic death. He did have advantages from other realities, magic, friends that were partial deities, and sexy robot women to help along the way.

He blinked as he felt warm fingers run through his blue tentacle hair.

...He didn't have a chair in here.

He looked up at the nude angel cuddling his body with pure white wings.

She used her free hand to wave down at him.

Uh. Near Death is surprisingly comfortable.

She nodded.

Was she now excluded from his mental protections?

Another nod.

Because of course she was. Probably due to 'Manipulation' treating her as a spell or construct of Adams. As part of his soul.

She held up a peace sign and a saucy smirk.

Great.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dragon joined the meeting last... or almost last. Adam had sent an audio link rather than join physically or by electronic avatar. Again. So he was theoretically listening, at least.

She sat next to her new sister, slouching in her virtual chair. "That... was a nightmare."

Nightmare Moon, still in humanoid form, snorted. "I've seen worse, but that WAS a workload. Not sure how Adam took over my portion of it, at one point I was getting wishes, prayers, and random incident review requests at over a thousand per second. It was a mess!"

Narwhal seemed most relaxed. "Meh, I just had to wait for something to go really wrong. Got a message from Adam that whatever it was he freaked out about last week is covered now. The Guild honestly handled 'The Movement' fairly well."

It was a week later, and while still chaotic things were far more stable for the moment. 'The Movement' now refereed to the global availability of 'Variance Class' powers.

Days after first allowing people to just gain an ability, the functionality of 'Tithe' followers had vastly improved.

Now, once someone gained faith or requested to join one of the various groups, a 'Class' menu would appear. One could choose from a list of common classes of abilities, related to careers or hobbies or whatever, or decide to try and create something custom.

Each 'skill' mastered would allow the selection of a new one, chosen from a list available to your class or available based on other skills you mastered. You could also make a new one from scratch, although those powers, unless used by many others, started very weak.

Aside from that, people could now see estimations of their progress in learning abilities and get hints of ideas others used that had helped them when stuck at similar levels. Social groups had sprung up everywhere, and similar classes like 'Cook', 'Chef', 'Baker', 'Butcher', and so forth had started trading ideas and tips, enhancing the variety of skills shared and available.

Inventory got improved as well. Since it used 'Conversion' and 'Transfer' to modify items into soul stuff for storage, it kept hot things hot, cold things cold, and prevented spoilage. This feature was so popular that the 'Warehouse', 'Courier', and 'Production' classes were created that mostly revolved around advanced skills and tricks focused around storage alone.

Twilight had basically rebuilt the entire faith based 'Tithe' skill from the ground up working with Squishy to handle this. Power charges had been spent heavily to prevent similar outbreaks of power on future worlds Adam visited. So heavily, that he was down to only having ten at a time for emergencies, each excess being spent to try and stabilize everything further.

Now, the maximum number of Variance empowered followers could be set, as well as maximum limits for each tier of follower. Normally such a thing would not be needed, but the Worm Realm was shockingly low on religious power bases, and Adam showing up had taken over the board so to speak. Twilight had also restricted the age of acceptable users, so no children (or god forbid, fetuses) could suddenly spew fire everywhere.

This is also why Twilight was currently sleeping through this meeting. Her human form had cute little snores and a blanket Narwhal had provided.

Narwhal looked over at CD. "I know you have been in contact with most of the larger governments at this point. Any idea of the fallout now that they have had time to research the changes?"

CD yawned, her sharper teeth glinting digital green. "Right, biggest change is that most government precognitive organizations have been losing the ability to track or predict our followers. Much more so for those with higher levels or working closer to our businesses or Variance himself. However, those with previous Parahuman powers related to Stranger, Master, or Thinker abilities have found something interesting. Apparently, if they join Variance's system they can handle 'Research' related powers much better than other classes."

She held up some statistics. "Most of the early warning groups that were able to gain access to the new system are now acting as research teams or advanced project work groups, so at least they are still useful."

She waved a hand, a digital display showing flashes of crystal. "Also, if a Parahuman decides to join Adam's system, they can choose to 'Enhance' or 'Convert' their power. 'Enhance' loses the ability to gain level 0 abilities like everyone else initially, but instead they get customized skills related to development paths of their own power."

She showed a Guild thinker. "Andrew from accounting for example said he could choose to gain greater power, range, or control for his danger assessment rating power. But like other power users, he and other Parahumans still have to wait for their bodies and soul to grow strong enough to handle each upgrade. So... until they master one such power modification, they are unable to choose another."

CD gestured. "Adam's ability slowly consumes the Entity shards they connect to, using that mass and ability as research material to both gain the schematics of the power and make it available to others who ALSO have dimensional address that point to that particular power."

The focus showed a... sort of tree? "For power users, the level up process is basically Adam's power learning how to simplify the mess that is Entity shards. Once fully converted and simplified, theoretically the user can then start learning a Class like everyone else."

Narwhal was shocked. "He is consuming the source of all those powers then?"

CD shrugged. "At a VERY slow rate. Would take decades for each power since a specific one isn't being focused on."

She brought up a new image. "Back to the point, option two is 'Convert', and it marks the power dimensional address, removes the power from the user entirely, heals the brain tumors that normally connect to the ability, and uses extra kami in trade to ensure the user can handle more powers initially."

Narwhal blinked. "Hmm. So people could give up their previous powers for a boost in Variance skills?"

Nightmare Moon chuckled and interrupted. "Well, you COULD, but that wasn't a common choice by Heroes or Villains. No, most of the incoming prayers I got that related to taking away powers came from the so called 'Case 53' people, who were mutated by their powers or had self damaging abilities. Once those people found out they could lose their powers by prayer they joined by the thousands."

Narwhal hummed. "I can see that. Getting safer replacement powers would just be icing on the cake really." She sighed. "So, moving on."

CD nodded. "Right." She tapped the screen. "Crime organizations are having sever issues. Every police officer now has the possibility to gain powers, while corrupt agents or gang members can only enjoy them up until they try to attack someone or torture another. Now every low level thug can gain personal power WITHOUT being supplied by guns or reinforcement but only if they follow a basic common moral standard."

She waved a hand. "The line between police and the standard criminal has drastically tipped toward the side of the law. On that note, the military itself is also very impressed by the abilities developing among their soldiers. But it has apparently caused a massive mess in the training camps. Can't break down a person if they suddenly become unable to get tired or hungry or whatever."

Narwhal chuckled. This was likely a temporary peace at the moment, since the big league villains were laying low and trying to figure out what exactly was going on. But no matter what, the time of unpowered gang members was likely gone for good now that every cop could power up and those fighting the law or trying to be an ass couldn't.

CD continued, listing statistics about how well various locations relevant to Adam, Dragon, and The Guild in general were handling the massive changes. Showing reports from a still very angry Sonia Lagarde about how she was handling the PR moves and internal issues. More details about the many 'powered pets'.

Narwhal winced at the language involved. Thank god Twilight prevented any FUTURE animals from gaining powers accidentally. Good work Squishy too, while on the topic.

The meeting was wrapping up, Adam once again too busy to attend or even comment, when CD asked for any remaining questions.

Nightmare Moon frowned. "I did have one concern. Initially, on the first day, I got a whole bunch of prayers. Some for safety and stuff, but many were asking to get rid of those Endbringers. Which I expected, the monsters are basically this planet's nightmare fuel."

She waved a hoof. "But less than an hour later I got nothing but praise and worship about how fast Variance handled it. Any idea what exactly happened?"

CD, Dragon, and Narwhal blinked, before CD pulled up the live feed.

The angel floated there like always.

The water demon was in the Atlantic.

The energy monster was under Africa.

Then Dragon frowned. "Wait."

Seconds later, the feeds blinked, lines of code rapidly flashing by as her digital fingers fed through the information.

Leviathan vanished, Behemoth was no longer under ground.

And the Simurgh shrugged her shoulders, before vanishing as well.

Narwhal recovered first. "Dragon?"

Dragon seemed stunned. "It was a series of looped feeds. Each barely long enough to show unique frames when my sensors scanned for issues. The last bit with the hand waving was recorded four months ago and somehow appended at the end of the current feed."

Narwhal shook slightly. "Did we lose coverage of the three most powerful creatures on the planet!?"

Adam's voice broke into the meeting for the first time in days. "Right... uh. About that."