Chapter 8 -||

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam 'Adventure' Burns was grounded.

Like... very much so.

And on some level, he probably deserved it. He had only told Narwhal that he was going to grab Eidolon's power to better protect them from Endbringer attack, not that he was going to secretly collect them all like a hoarder. Or Pokemon trader.

On a side note, Eidolon's power was more like a complicated phone book. It had a listing of all sorts of power dimensional locations and could connect to four at a time. That was it.

Adam capturing and then destroying one of his skills (Why yes, I would love to subconsciously summon death robots to fight the planet) technically made the over powered jerk more powerful. Or at least, more versatile.

That however did NOT explain to his girlfriend that he had planned on gaining control of the large global destroying creatures and sticking them in his soul.

That part was going well, at least. In his fishbowl was a new section that looked like a black grid. Each square was a separate space, and three were in use.

One was full of water and some islands and such. Leviathan seemed to have fun splashing a few tidal waves around, and the various castles and stuff (Not sand, actual twelve story castles) would rebuild over time.

The second was mostly lava, with nuclear bombs dropped randomly for Behemoth to nom on. He mostly rolled around in the same area, splashing massive chunks of magma in random directions.

The third was full of tinker materials, and was generally a flat surface with massive amounts of space to fly in. It was also empty.

Adam groaned as his floating throne ran her fingers through his hair flames again. He had spent the first few days convincing her to NOT be so massively tall, and reduce the hundreds of wings down to six at most. In return for her following directions, or at least putting up with them, he had given her control over the prayer system... which she was thrilled with. Did good work too, now that she wasn't required to torture everyone.

It was odd. He felt he COULD control any of the three things like a second body, but it felt icky to do so. Like opening a puppy's mouth to jump inside and wear it like a suit.

This was only an issue because while the other two Endbringers were perfectly happy to idle around and play, the Simurgh was something of a tease and a troll... and enjoyed 'hanging out', as it were.

At least she wasn't AS identifiable as before. Her body was now human size and a very light blue, his magic slowly spreading through her complex version of flesh. She was far more expressive now, and had thanked him psychically for several hours after he had modified her abilities to be selective rather than enabled by default.

Apparently seeing the future and past but never the present took all surprise and fun out of the world.

Anyway, her eyes were still solid material but they glowed with blue magic and worked well enough now. They went well with her bright blue feathered 'hair', which added some color to her style.

He felt her shift, telekinesis holding them both aloft as her wings wrapped around him like a blanket. Again. Reminding him how nude she was. Again.

If he wasn't currently a skeleton in a suit, he would be having so many issues. Aside from the grounding, he meant.

She also was able to know exactly how far to push and when to do so to keep Narwhal entertained without feeling emotionally threatened. And to keep him from feeling annoyed enough to ask her to pick some other hobby.

He blinked as a cup was handed to him.

It was hot chocolate.

He took a sip. Yep, perfect. Right temperature, extra marshmallows, partially melted. Some cinnamon?

He sighed in exasperation while he felt his 'chair' chuckle. It was things like this that had him eventually take the angel as a personal assistant. And she knew it. And Narwhal found him being manhandled like a plush doll hilarious, once she got over the pants wetting terror.

At least the passive scanning of Behemoth and Leviathan was gaining him some profit out of this mess. Behemoth's ability to control and convert Energy was directly improving 'Conversion', 'Transfer', 'Consumption', and 'Manipulation'. Leviathan's macro and micro control of all liquids (Focused on water, at least when he was sandbagging his fights) was improving 'Manipulation' by miles.

Theoretically, Simurgh's power should improve his 'Technomancy', 'Manipulation', 'Harmony', 'Purification', 'Research', maybe others.

He blinked as a hand crafted business card was handed to him.

"Simmy 'Danger' Burns, The Simurgh, Swears to follow Adam 'Adventure' Burns, in guidance and loss, in sickness in health, till death does us part." What?

'Tithe' activated, and he could feel Simmy choose 'Technomancy', 'Research', and 'Manipulation', all reaching high levels near instantly. What!?

An email popped up. Narwhal looked at him in shock. "Adam, why did I just get an email notification for your wedding?"

He turned in shock at the smug angel.

She kissed his forehead.

...WHAT!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Emma and Taylor were whispering, which had their parents noticed would have set off all kinds of flags.

The topic, as it had been for many years, was again superpowers.

Now, however, it had the potential to be more than another 'Heroes and Villains' game.

Taylor looked at her notes. "No, if you pick something custom it starts off way weaker. And classes have helpful tips and even a power based chat system now, so that would be SUPER helpful."

Emma pouted. "Fine, but I don't want to pick something boring."

She hummed. "Well, I went online and found some people talking about it. They suggest choosing something you could be happy with even if you were stuck forever, so that you won't regret it by picking something like 'Cake Designer' when you are twenty years older or something."

Emma winced. "Yeah, read a couple of horror stories about people picking powers cause they wanted to cheat on tests and stuff. Thank goodness you can pray for a reset now."

Taylor looked at the screen. "Variance System... Huh. New version number."

Emma checked her own. "What does that mean again?"

She shrugged. "First number is for stable release, but that is still '0'. The rest is the current update version. And if the number is even, they added new features. Odd, they fixed bugs.

Emma frowned. "So what, it would go '0.01', '0.03', '0.05' if they only fixed bugs?"

She shook her head. "Stranger than that. More like '0.1', '0.3', and such. Treat the stuff after the decimal as a whole number with no zeros in front."

Emma waved it off. "Don't get it, don't care, don't be a nerd about it." She bounced. "So how do we pick a good class?"

Taylor pointed. "I heard great reviews about the newest feature, 'Suggestion'. It is the option with the blue bird wing that was added yesterday. Otherwise we can try the 'Available' menu, since everyone says we shouldn't risk the 'Custom' option."

Emma absently nodded. "Yeah, Dad said they have teams of lawyers and stuff trying to create iron clad classes under 'Custom' and still mess it up sometimes. Had to get a class reset."

She winced. While available, the 'reset' option apparently hurt like heck. "Anyway, just say or type what you want and 'Suggestion' will give some options. Everyone has been pretty impressed with it so far."

Emma was already typing what seemed to be a novel. All that gossip had certainly made the girl have opinions on life. Taylor focused on her own window.

'I want to help Mom and Dad.'

Cause really, with all the new heroes showing up everywhere now crime and stuff was probably going to be handled fine. But both of her parents had been working overtime, and... well. She missed them.

The blue wing blinked, before a short list of classes showed up. Huh.

No, 'Management' was out. That would just make HER as busy as her parents, not free up anything. Same for 'Nurse' and 'Teacher', although that would help a bit with Mom's job.

In the end, she just felt one of the lower options on the list call her. It felt right, even if it felt a bit like a fantasy job. And she had wanted to be royalty once.

Emma bounced in joy. "Oooh! YES! Taytay, I'm a 'Model' now! My first skill is called 'Acting' and... Oh this is awesome!"

Taylor chuckled. "I got something I liked too... guess I should go for it."

As she pressed the option, she answered Emma's eager expression. "I wanted to help out Mom, so I picked a class called 'Administrator'."

She was still unsure why 'Queen' was listed on it, but the first skill was called 'Multitasking'. That seemed useful.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal entered Adam's 'Punishment Lab', aka 'Stay in there and think what you`ve done' lab.

She didn't stomp. Or slam the door.

Leave the guy alone for less than an hour and he gets married to some sexy angel death bot.

She blinked as she saw her boy Adam, blue flame tentacles reaching from his back and holding the Simurgh in the air. The now blue angel seemed to be a barely legal college student, her six wings and all four limbs held stretched wide by Adam's tentacles.

Even with a blue grip holding the angel by her throat, Narwhal blinked at the saucy gaze being sent her way by the nude angel with crystal blue eyes.

She spoke up, demanding an explanation. "Guh. Mmm."

...She WOULD speak up in a moment or so.

Adam turned to face her, exasperation showing on his skull. "Hey Narwhal, I'm still trying to fix the situation. Simmy's explanation is that she was only showing me a vulnerability in my 'Tithe' system. So no one else would try and marry me or make me a slave or whatever."

'Simmy' was now flexing her pelvis and... uh.

Adam nodded. "Yeah, that would have been a mess. Squishy and Twilight have now modified the ability so I have to actually AGREE with the suggested choices, especially if they target me or mine."

He turned back to his captive, who suddenly shifted from sex goddess to innocent bystander. The curves were less seductive and... oh. She watched as Simmy winked.

Adam frowned. "I'll be honest, I am not feeling a lot of remorse from Simmy about the whole thing. Not sure she even fully understands the idea of marriage, but at least we found out that the vow thing can empower my loved ones."

Narwhal blinked. "Sorry, I zoned out there for a second. Why did I come in here again?"

Whatever he was trying to say as he turned slipped her mind as the angel started slowly licking her lips. "Right. Yeah. Sorry, what?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Lung fumed.

At first, he like all the others sat back.

Watched.

His people gaining power... it was fine. It taunted him that someone somewhere was able to grant abilities to his people that they were unable to earn on their own, through might. But his kingdom grew in strength.

But when his people tried to put those Nazis in their place, BOTH sides had been stunned to see all those followers lose that power they had fought so hard to improve.

And what followed was rage.

Who dare judge his people unworthy of strength!? Who dared judge HIM, LUNG, a dragon among mankind, as anything other than raw leadership and power!?

His people eventually told him the answers he desired. It was that new hero, Variance. Even though he was a normal man of not much importance, that would not spare him.

For no one may defy a dragon and live.

Still, his people convinced him to wait. That the backlash of the world attacking him for violating this pseudo 'Endbringer Truce' was not worth his vengeance.

What a fool he was to fall for this!

One of his brothels, filled with his minions, clients, and working girls... well.

From what he could gather, one of those same clients had informed a single sex slave about Variance and these new potential powers. About how anyone could gain abilities with a single wish.

It took an hour later for him to discover his people slaughtered, the clients castrated, and his property missing.

Human trafficking wasn't his biggest money maker, but it did fuel his desire to be powerful over the many lesser beings... and the idea of HIS sluts escaping from under his claws was NOT acceptable.

Over three dozen terrified and armed people from his gang followed behind him, even as his body twisted and grew, scales and fire rolling down his body as his height increased.

His girls had ran to one of that bastard's safe houses.

He was coming to collect.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Pamela flexed her hands, the green vines tensing and weaving.

There wasn't much time.

She and the other girls able to pray had done well so far, many choosing the option to 'Overdraw' their first skill as long as it meant being free.

The side effects were not as bad as she feared.

'Overdraw' sacrificed a human form for more power, more compatibility. The message said that given enough time they would regain their normal human bodies as a transformation option, but they needed power NOW if they had any hope of escape. It had made castrating those bastard rapists easier and killing those sadist guards a breeze. However the real test was stomping this direction.

She glanced at the crowd. Most, like her, had been drugged and memory wiped by one of Lung's outside men, so they couldn't remember family or how to get help.

Well, they got help anyway.

The loud roar outside the shelter didn't even shake the windows, but they walked out together.

Freedom or death.

And they were NOT going to die today.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Lung slammed a meaty claw on the pitiful structure again.

His rage increased with his height when his burning claws... did nothing.

The colorful sides of the woman's shelter just turned black, while the white trims ignored him completely. What small scrapes his claws left in the black material was repairing before his eyes, while the white stuff was untouched.

He held both arms back, screaming a focused beam of raw heat at the obstacle. His people, now only able to see up to his massive ankles, were half-heartedly shooting at the building randomly. And accomplishing nothing.

Before he could fully recover from his breath attack, the impenetrable doors just... opened. And worse, his sight saw how very thin those obstacles were that had daunted him.

Lung had barely changed focus when a stab of pain hurled him backwards. A wave of steam flooded his side of the field, the screams of his men helping him regain his focus as water continued to attack his eyes.

He roared as he twisted to grip the melting asphalt, toes and fingers twisting through the softening material as he fought head first against the highly pressurized liquid.

He barely saw three white haired triplets gesture at him when everything hurt. Ice crept over his limbs even as his fires struggled to melt everyone.

Lung held his breath, tensed everything... then screamed as fire literally destroyed his skin, gaining enough room to transfer heat outside, freeing himself even as his flesh regrew into thicker scales. His blood evaporated before it could touch the mounds of ice spreading around his feet.

Without care if his worthless people were still alive, he focused his heat and rage into a twisted pillar around himself, using his hands as disposable meat shields that were burned, twisted, frozen, and eaten by acid and lightning. Flesh flowed from his bones and regrew as he bought time and his body forced itself to enhance.

As he stopped defending himself, his four new wings allowing him to fly above these ants and show them how to bow before their betters, the ground shattered.

Black plants, vines like tree trunks, thorns that dripped red slime. Claws of nature tore into his legs, his thighs, his privates. Even as they burned, new growth spawned within the ash coated plants and began twisting inside his flesh, pulling him closer towards the dark soil.

Even as his eyes were punctured and more vines infested his flesh, his rage... it grew.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Pamela gasped for air, the steam still rising. Thankfully the frost sisters were working with everyone who could use water to try and coat her babies with ice.

It wasn't just zero Celsius, the frost sisters were sucking heat away till it could hopefully reach liquid oxygen levels. No idea if they could though, no one knew their powers well enough yet.

She collapsed to her knees, grass spawning and holding her from falling.

They couldn't do that again.

The fight had been fast, short, and far less one sided than they had hoped.

They had attacked first, the other people literally no issue, and had managed to take the dragon down. Hopefully for a while.

They had also been lucky, as the suicide teleporter Oni Lee hadn't shown up.

Even with all those blessings and powers basically chosen SPECIFICALLY to target the bastard, there had been many injuries among her girls. Even slanted to one side she could see medical personnel from the girls shelter helping out.

Her body flinched as she heard a loud crunch from the ice-tree prison.

It... it might not be enough.

Even the idea of more conflict had her body frantically telling her that her limit was reached a while ago. If Lung got out of that frost bush, that would be it. They would die.

Mind drifting back to just hours ago, she remembered a desperate prayer. A hope that emerged from a soul tired of the neglect of God and the failure of Man. Alone in that flesh pit she had prayed for an end to pain.

Again, without hope, she prayed.

"Please... Variance... Help my people."

She couldn't even move as blue fire sparked before her.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Thorns grew in his throat.

He felt rage.

Spikes of wooden flesh spread inside his skin.

Rage burned. Pride was assaulted.

Ice and needles of poison, of twisted pain, deep inside his eyes, reaching into his skull. Through his nose. His ears.

Life was rage.

The noise that escaped his corpse was not louder than his previous shouts and rants.

But it vibrated.

Like the very soil was a speaker, a thrumming echoed in the city.

His city.

A spark. His heart began to burn.

Everything.

His own flesh, his bones, the invading plants, his skin and organs and even brain were consumed in fire as his heart began to grow meat and metallic structure and scales.

The ice bit, the plants scraped, electricity stung, and Lung grew.

Lung endured.

Lung. Was. Strong.

The area that had been cleared of people seemed to pulse... before a pillar of light pierced the sky.

Raw energy. If it slowed for even a moment, flames would have spread through the air itself.

His limbs shrugged off everything. Four arms gripped the spreading liquefied soil and metal, four dragon legs stabilized him. His six wings of flesh and bone spread as his three heads screamed into the sky, three beams of power lancing the clouds.

Each head had massive horns, each hand was a claw of edged maliciousness, his wings were spiked and ready to pierce steel.

His eyes focused down. Far down. To where the puny structure stood and those ants tried to hold him back with their collaboration and tricks.

He was Lung. Gods should bow.

"Huh. You know what, I really didn't expect you to get this big."

He twisted without thought, two jaws attempting to consume the sound while the third rapidly built up a charge and spewed white plasma to the right.

The billowing blue smoke wafted away, leaving a... guy in a suit?

It was kind of hard to focus on him as he was so small. Less than half his smallest claw in height, however tall Lung was now.

Whatever it was didn't matter as his upper right hand lashed out, gripping the near invisible weakling and allowing his three heads to focus better.

Why was it wearing a suit? "You can't talk like that, can you? That's a drawback."

Well, screw you too. He aimed upwards and doused his own claws with three plasma breath beams. Hitting the ground with this attack would make it hard to see, after all. Or wipe his kingdom from the planet.

He ignored the sting as his own hand was evaporated by the power, layers of scale slowly dissolving until the flesh was exposed, then melted away till only fragments of bone were left.

It healed stronger even as he paused the attack.

Now to consume those damn sluts. WAIT! No. They were HIS property, he shouldn't destroy his things. Better to wait a bit until he was small enough to tell which of these meat bags were his hoard and which were snacks.

Lung felt a small sting, and glanced back at his still regrowing flesh.

"Wow... that really damaged my outfit."

...What?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam glared at his burned suit even as 'Manipulation' repaired it. Without somewhere to store the massive energy being absorbed, the whole thing had catastrophically collapsed, leaving him butt naked on a platform of bone and flesh.

It was gross.

He frowned upwards. At this size, he could probably fit a house or two in Lung's nostrils. Any of the six of them.

This needed to be handled before the idiot started walking around and crushed stuff.

He pulsed the magical connections to the simulation. "Right, so quick recap: Simmy's idea to let the girls here defend themselves a bit to grow some self discovery and independence has had a bit of an unexpected side effect."

Narwhal was stunned on the com. "His eye is bigger than my first apartment."

Nightmare Moon hummed. "Yeah, he is a bit bigger than some teenage dragons I know. Still, nothing too concerning."

He held his skeletal hand to his chin. "Your world has magic, Moon. This is pretty impressive for our world's standard. How are we doing Twilight?"

A wall of flesh fell upon his head even as his magical tentacles pulled him far enough to the side to only feel the winds smash into his side. Twilight sounded frustrated but on task. "Already have his shard's dimensional address, analysis is twenty percent complete and rising. Can you keep him busy until it finishes?"

Adam's bones glowed bright blue as a third of the dragon-building matched in color, a burst of telekinesis ripping chunks of the dragon's flesh as the massive creature was hurled toward the coast.

He followed the path that Dragon and CD had focused on evacuating as attack after attack was dodged or redirected. "I can only get so much before he hits the next level of fury. Assuming there IS a next level."

Adam was watching the eyes. For now, Lung still seemed in control... which was good. Last thing he needed was this beast deciding to blow itself up or something.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Burn.

Rage.

BURN.

Each claw sharpened.

Each tooth lengthened.

Wings tried to accelerate.

Muscles tore and regrew.

It... it wasn't enough.

Lung paused, mere feet from being shoved and torn into pieces like before, being hurled into the sea. Where his former greatest foe, Leviathan lived. Where he had failed to protect his hope.

What would a man do for power?

Lung took his mind, his soul, and his heart.

He.

BURNED.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam knew something was wrong when the ranting and screaming beast just... paused.

Feet away from an unlimited amount of coolant, right after a flaming blue tentacle pierced between those massive bones. It just... stopped.

And seemed to collapse.

Adam could feel everything seem to... wait.

Fuck.

He pushed ALL his magic, massive amounts of prayer, and chose 'Recovery', 'Growth', and 'Tithe'. Skills, powers, and tricks from across his followers worldwide helped his power pick the most efficient and optimized path to improve. Millions of similar powers reinforced each other to form SOMETHING to prevent the upcoming damage.

Without focus his prayer abilities went straight to his past of being a Baku.

The closest warehouse vanished as a tiger claw the size of a skyscraper slammed into it. His tusks reached the sky as his massive ears flared, eyes burning blue flames as his trunk began rapidly drawing patterns of faith and power into the air itself.

It was almost too late.

Light, heat, even some potential energy... it just collapsed.

A hole in reality, a pit of existence. The void spawned to absorb the world.

It burned and twisted and grew into itself, twisting into the space where the body of Lung had fought mere moments ago.

The shielding shuddered, forcing all other energy away from the center of the creature.

And when it paused, an ashen egg floated mere feet from the ocean. Only three times as tall as a man, barely anything in size really.

The massive elephant collapsed back into Adam's skeletal form, blue flames twisting as the mass of energy folded into wings of flame.

Adam grit his teeth. "CD, damage?"

She chimed in. "Minimal, only property. The trafficked girls are getting medical attention, and Sonia is likely going to hire most of them unless the Protectorate can bribe them away. Speaking of which, Director Emily Piggot is... well. She is less than happy and requests information and contact at your earliest convenience."

He chuckled, even as his hands rapidly formed runes of binding and capture around the egg. "I am assuming you paraphrased?"

She sighed. "I don't enjoy sharing curse words, so yes. What is the plan?"

Adam gazed at the egg, pulsing. "As far as I can tell, Lung has given a 'destroy everything' command and then killed himself, setting off the 'Threat Detection' algorithm to max. If he finishes his transformation, it would be an 'S Rank' threat at least, no doubt."

Twilight seemed strained. "Just hold for... a... almost... THERE! We have fully mapped his power. Can you handled it now?"

Adam twisted his fingers. "Are you sure Twilight? I don't think we will get a second chance, especially if the bastard pulled a kamikaze attack like this."

The mental message was firm. "I got it, you are green to go."

A dark look crossed Adams face. "Well... good."

He forced himself into the circular boundary, feeling the heat inside hit near solid temperatures and his bones start to vaporize. Without the Null Metal and Flame Metal circuitry, he would have already vanished into atoms by now.

Inch by inch he approached the egg, the feeling of rage and some level of smugness joining the fire that vanished his costume and slowly corroded his unicorn enhanced cyber skeletal structure. Something inside that creation knew it was growing in power, knew that just being near Adam it was starting to consume his essence.

It wasn't enough.

Adam touched the powdery egg, ash thick against what stubs of bones his fingers had left.

His mouth grinned... and more... and widened.

Conversion. Purification.

"Consumption."

White fangs opened to show an empty black pit into his soul. His skull split far too wide, far too open. Even his eyes faded black as the magic in the area joined the energy of the world. To be swallowed. Eaten.

Consumed.

In his fishbowl, in his black grid, a square lit up with fire and rage.

An ashen egg burned within, unaware that the world was gone and that the rage would never be satisfied.

Adam hiccupped as his suit and skeletal structure regrew, a brief puff of white power and black rage escaping his jaws.

He winced as he rubbed his bone face, and turned to walk back through the melted wasteland towards his lab. He was still grounded after all.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

When he stepped onto mostly unmelted street near his women's shelter, Adam was a bit surprised by the dozens of women staring at him in awe and hero worship.

He glanced behind. Nope, it was him.

Awkward.

With a strained smile, he clapped. "Well! I don't know about everyone else, but I feel bone tired!"

There, that helped. "Tibia honest, I am grateful that I marrowly escaped getting hurt."

CD's avatar rolled her eyes, but now the girls looked confused or whatever rather than worshiping his body and selling their souls, so an overall victory.

Adam walked towards the probable leader, the woman who called to him. "Right, I need all you girls to work with the nice nurses to make sure you are healthy, and that your new powers are having no side effects." Thanks for THAT, Simmy. Twilight was furious about the new power option.

He held out a skeletal hand, which the plant woman accepted as she stood. "In the meantime, I have some lawyers from The Guild who will ensure that all of you are legally protected. I received a high level summary of the situation thanks to the prayers you girls sent, but need details since I have recently received a summons from the local Protectorate branch."

The woman swayed, but held firm. "Are... are you Variance?"

His skeletal grin gave off light blue smoke. "Indeed. And you are?"

She gave a weak smile. "Just call me Ivy, for now. If cape names are even a thing anymore, considering I don't have a mask and we just made a hell of a lot of noise."

Adam passed her a quick mask with a combination of 'Manipulation' and 'Growth', the bright green vines able to cover the woman's eyes leaving her mouth free. "Ivy it is then. Get your girls organized, make sure they feel safe and secure, and then we are going to head off and explain to the nice people at the PRT why they can legally bugger off."

He winced as CD smacked his head. "I mean discuss the situation."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Emily Piggot forced herself to calmly handle the tension in the room. Or at least to keep her anger mostly internal.

Armsmaster and Miss Militia were sitting at the table to her left and right, but honestly no one here could do much if this went south. Some damn powers were just on a different level, and Variance had been raising the bar for 'Grab Bag Cape' to Eidolon levels.

She looked at the three visitors. Dragon had not attended, but somehow Narwhal of all people had the time to leave her office despite the mountains of paperwork Emily KNEW was being tossed at her. More annoying, that work was actually being handled correctly as far as anyone could tell, and yet the visiting head of Guild seemed far too relaxed for that.

God knows Emily hated the paperwork piles. But inside she still felt envious that a woman could have nearly double the workload and still look fantastic.

The other two were the topic of today. "Miss Ivy." She watched the red haired beauty nod. Because of course she was a supermodel, everyone around Variance seemed to be. "A few hours ago my city was at low levels of insane panic. It was the best I could do after near nonstop work and effort to ensure that the explosion my city pretends not to be stayed as peaceful as possible. Having many of those panicked people gain powers did not simplify the situation."

She accepted Armsmaster's files, looking at the top. "Twenty two dead gang members. Forty three castrated, twenty seven of which died before medical attention could be administrated."

Ivy didn't exactly look heart broken. Then again, neither did anyone else. If it wasn't for politics Piggot herself would have secretly given a toast to the poor woman for getting rid of some of the slaving and raping scum of the city.

Variance coughed. "I believe this is all covered by Section 2B1... uh." A blue flame poofed a white card with a blue angel's wing. "Thank you Simmy. Section 2B1332, subsection 4a." Well, so much for security. Then again, this room wasn't rated for blocking fire teleportation, or however that ability worked.

Armsmaster had already moved part of his halberd to the side, twisting his weapon's components... and a tiny printer began to push a thin paper tape for him to tear off.

Everyone stared at the thing. Emily mentally sighed and accepted the printout. "Ah. So you are claiming it was a trigger event? Even though most of the girls do not have the brain structures to even gain a power to begin with." Not that they had known that before Variance had handed over the medical information for the girls, needed as they were rape victims.

Adam rotated the paper in his hand all the way upside down, and kept reading. "Subsection 2B1332, subsection 4d through 4f, cover that. Powers granted through tinker effects, trump abilities, or via sudden control of a Parahuman who accidentally master themselves fall under this coverage."

That had happened before? Emily waved Armsmaster off before he could use that stupid tiny printer of his again. Shouldn't something SO unsuitable for combat be in his armor or something? "The issue may still be under debate."

Adam sighed as tiny blue flames consumed the card. "Look Director, I need to wrap this up at some point and I am not good at ALL working with sensitive topics or people. It is why I found capable people to run my businesses and to handle my sales situations. And more recently, to fill in my paperwork."

He leaned forward, his skeletal body shifting as he gazed into her eyes with his sockets. And hadn't THAT change required some getting used to? He frowned. "What exactly is the problem with Ivy's girls that is keeping this from being an open and shut case?"

Emily gave a very uncharacteristic sigh. "Well... I also want today to be over. Miss Militia, if you would?" The room sealed as the cape hit some hidden switches. Everyone assumed that the Tinker would be in control of security, an assumption Emily loved to abuse, but the damn man tended to disassemble everything he got too close to.

She gestured. "Two of the people castrated were very wealthy and connected... and have since passed away. While both were under investigation for a number of issues, and it was assumed that some background blackmail and such were holding up the discovery teams, one man had a long list of contingency attacks in the case of his death."

She waved off the looks. "We have managed to stay on top of it, and if anything it technically should have made everything even easier to handle in the paperwork, but the other man had connections with several legal departments."

Adam hummed. "Well. fuc..." He winced at an elbow jab and glanced at a frowning Narwhal. "Uh. Forget those jerks then." A white folder with a blue wing burned into existence. "As I am sure you know, I also have connections. Some more recent than others."

He placed the folder onto the desk. "Here is a listing of every gang member and 'client' that the girls knew visited that club. It includes Lung and the minions he brought to my safe house, although those men were killed by their boss when he escaped confinement." He glanced at Ivy. "Oh, and we are calling the confinement an attempt at 'Citizen`s Arrest', for what that's worth."

Emily let Armsmaster review the thick stack of dense paper first. "I'm sure it will be interesting, but do you have highlights?"

Adam nodded. "That folder only includes information legally attainable, but is enough to convict a standard felon without supernatural, parahuman, or criminal support in an unbiased court of law. It ranges from abuse and neglect up to murder, depends on the individual. I am sure more exists if we were willing to hack or break into buildings or whatever, and feel free to get some warrants and go to town, but this should be enough."

Armsmaster whistled... which was very uncharacteristic for him. "This was VERY efficient work, Variance. I am impressed."

Adam patted Ivy's knee, as she seemed far more relaxed now that she knew those people wouldn't get away with claiming to be the victim. "While much was gathered by Dragon's sister, I have a new personal assistant who is honestly overqualified for the job."

Several people blinked. Armsmaster especially seemed put off. "Dragon... has a sister?"

He blinked. Oops. Glaring at Emily, he groaned. "See, THIS is why I don't talk to people. I'm terrible at operations security. Just let me punch stuff and make things and everyone will be happier."

Emily smirked. THIS was a weak point that could valuable for a long time. "Well, let's move on then to the next small issue."

Her smirk vanished as some of her internal fury escaped. "Why were you having a Godzilla fight in MY CITY!?"

Variance winced. "I got Dragon to evacuate the area and... well. The initial plan was for me to collect Lung after the Girls took him down, only stepping in if any were in danger of mutilation or death. Everyone with me felt that the girls were organized, sufficiently powered, and motivated to take Lung down even if only a non-lethal fashion."

She glared. "Almost a solid mile of melted city. Dozens of collapsed warehouses, abandoned as they may be. Lung grew larger and more mutated than anything we have on record, and you somehow summoned a massive furry elephant who then popped the giant. How the HELL do you get that from 'Non-Lethal Takendown'!?"

Ivy was wincing herself, but before she could feel the blame a hand gripped her shoulder with support. Adam himself stayed calm. "The problem was they were TOO good. Instead of falling unconscious from blood loss or the sleeping toxins and such, his power decided that there was a lethal threat, more than one, and basically threw out all the limitations and went for full attack mode."

He gestured, images from the fight flickering in the air. "Before Ivy captured him, he was reaching the levels of power he used to attempt to fight Leviathan. The attacks were too strong, too fast, and too well organized. In Japan, Lung ran away when he found a threat this big. Here he couldn't."

Now images of the fight near the edge of the sea. From a perspective FAR higher than before. "I was attempting to use the ocean as a heat buffer, while trying to find the source of his powers and disable them. Like I did with Gray Boy's victims. I think somehow his power detected that... and. well."

A video played, explosions and sound showing the chaos as an ash egg formed.

He frowned. "It got too dangerous to handle the man without lethal intent. If I hadn't sealed the area, that structure... it was deadly. As far as I can tell, his power inverted. Instead of creating more flesh and energy, it decided to consume everything in the area... possibly to create a new form with enough power to slaughter me."

He missed Ivy's shocked gaze as she realized how much Variance had gone through for her and her girls. "In the end, I had to use one of my most dangerous skills to permanently seal away whatever the hell the guy was becoming. Even that process involved me getting fairly damaged."

A skeletal corpse struggled against fire, reaching towards the ashen egg.

Adam sighed, letting that video go. "Thankfully I am fairly sturdy."

Armsmaster raised a hand in the stunned silent room. "Did you become a big furry elephant?"

He blinked. "Uh... technically no? I tried to become as big as possible as quickly as I could, and sort of turned into the Baku by accident in the process." He nudged Narwhal with his elbow. "By the way, writing runes with your nose is surprisingly harder than you would think."

Miss Militia frowned. "What is a Baku?"

Adam held a hand over the desk. Dozens of white peanuts fell onto it... then caught on fire. Blue flames twisted until the mess formed a tiny furry elephant.

He pointed. "That. It is a spiritual creature that eats bad dreams, mental illnesses, sickness, and such. The tend to purify their habitat and environment. Also, they squeak. Not sure why."

Emily felt her body lock up. He could spawn monsters!? Flashbacks of the horror of Nilbog and his mutated former humans twisted into fleshy monsters, the gruesome fight as her people were torn, the... the...

A black ball was now being slowly nommed on by the Baku. Adam nodded. "See? They love that negative stuff."

Emily vaguely heard Master/Stranger protocols called as Narwhal started slapping the shoulder of a confused Variance, Ivy now petting the small creature eating years of pain and self mental harm.

Miss Militia recovered first, even as everyone was being led to confinement chambers. "Variance, could you please get rid of your Baku projection? This process will be bad enough without exposing more people to it."

The last thing she heard as her own room was sealed was... not encouraging.

"Uh... it only exists if you believe it does."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Does being held in a Master/Stranger confinement room make him double grounded? Because while Simmy found this hilarious, Narwhal was ranting up a storm.

Damn it, this is why he didn't do social stuff. He had people for that.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Susan took a deep breath. And out.

She checked to ensure her PRT uniform was presentable... and entered the next detention cell. "Good afternoon, Director Narwhal."

The woman snorted. "I'm still not sure why our group was included in the Master/Stranger procedures. Haven't they already shown that Variance followers are immune to this?"

Susan gave a wry smile. "Actually yes, but it takes time to update procedures." She looked down at the furry mini-phant that was being petted. "So that is the reason for all this? You know I have to also go through M/S procedures after this just for seeing it."

Narwhal sighed. "It may be my fault. Variance's new abilities have barely been explored, much less gone over for policy violations. If the Lung situation hadn't popped up, we would have been spending this month verifying that all of Variance's new powers were classified properly."

And hadn't THAT fight been an eye opener. Nothing like seeing a city destroying monster get bitch slapped to really show how much Variance had been sandbagging his very few fights.

Susan continued to go through what little M/S procedures applied to Narwhal, as the Director of The Guild didn't have the same constantly mutating and bizarre steps to prove sanity as the PRT had to endure. But eventually, she managed to finish, file the paperwork, and move on to the next 'customer', although Ivy was so new there was no profile to verify if she was mastered or not.

She had already entered the cell before she realized that Ivy... was ALSO petting the Baku.

And this one was green, not blue.

The visiting order needed to be redone NOW. She gave a weak excuse before moving to the decontamination room, frantically sending emails through the strange gadget Armsmaster had set up.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

It took twelve minutes to both get approval to jump the queue and another three to actually open Variance's cell.

Susan gazed with weary eyes at the white, black, pink, yellow, and red Bakus wearing what appeared to be color coordinated capes... and ignoring Variance's attempts at getting them in some sort of order.

She coughed. "Variance?"

The skeleton twisted, bones far too expressive showing surprise. "Oh! You guys. Hey, good news! I figured out how to get rid of spiritual creatures I make!"

She looked at the five creatures that were slowly disassembling their 'costumes'. "Really."

The guy looked far too proud. "Yes! The issue turned out to be far more simple than I expected. If I avoid using any of my personal faith peanuts, and just draw on the ambient power of faith in the area, I can get rid of them instantly!" He frowned at the white Baku, which had managed to pull off the cape from two others. "Took a few tries though. I should have caught on sooner, but got side tracked."

Susan watched the furry pile slowly tumble towards the wall as the adorable abominations tried to climb each other. "So... when will you be getting rid of these then?"

He winced. "Ah. Well, the other forty or so left with no problem, but uh. These six and my original one used some of my personal power when being born. I would need everyone who saw them to stop believing they exist... as well as having everyone who saw my 'Baku Kaiju' form earlier help out too."

Susan sighed. "Well, at least if there is only supposed to be seven total, that would explain where the ones Ivy and Narwhal have came from."

He blinked. "What!? When did two get away from me!?" A quick count... "Wait, where did the pink one go!?" He frowned as he reached one hand into the air... and then groaned. "Do Guild Affiliate children have to go through M/S protocols too?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Missy Biron giggled. She had been a bit lost after getting cool powers from Mr. Skelly, even if her new 'Personal Space' skill was fun to play with... and then Miss Pinky showed up and made all the scary feelings about mom and dad feel better.

She held up Miss Pinky to Taylor, who had made all the other girls organize into smaller groups so it wouldn't be so scary to be in the middle of the crowd. "I wanna picture too!"

Taylor grinned as she used her brand new Guild Emergency Phone (GEP, patent pending) to take another shot. Cute stuff pictures count as an emergency too, right? "Alright Missy, do you already have an email account or something? Or do you want me to get mom to print it out instead?"

Missy rolled her eyes. Duh she had email, this wasn't the stone age. "I want it to be my profile pic! Sally and Alex have THEIR pets in their pic, and I want Miss Pinky in mine!"

She might have been a bit jealous when her friends added their super pets to their ParaHumanOnline accounts, but now SHE was the one with an awesome pet!

The Baku was actually asleep at this point, even as it was being swung around and randomly squeaking from hugs. Taylor had been trying to get the girls to treat it better and more calmly, but the lack of damage or complaint from the creature had her give up for now.

She blinked after helping little Missy set stuff up. Why was she getting a text message from Dragon? And mom? And uh... Missy's parents?

Oops.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Susan looked up from her growing list of needed paperwork, having ignored the babbling skeleton as he tried to get his remaining four Bakus to stay still. Which was odd, because every OTHER Baku she had seen was lazy or even asleep.

Variance was now holding them down. "Don't fly! Please don't fly, the teleportation is already getting me in trouble. Why Simmy, WHY did you convince me to make Spiritual Power Rangers!? This was a TERRIBLE idea!"

A piece of paper floated down. From nowhere.

So... operation security was shot.

He snatched the slip. "Go go Baku Rangers... really!? You KNOW Narwhal is going to kill me, right!?" He flipped the paper over and paused. "Well... alright, she is pretty hot when angry, but it is super unfair that YOU get to enjoy the show when she starts being abusive."

He ignored the next two slips, which seemed to make him feel better. Curious, she picked one up.

And put it down, ears red and blushing hot.

Naughty notes aside, she forced herself to be a bit more professional. "Variance, I still have some questions."

As he turned toward her, she ignored the black Baku slowly floating away behind him. "Right, but make it quick. If I lose any more of these things Narwhal might actually blow a fuse or something."

She nodded. "Right. First, thank you for the papers documenting the creatures, but I still need official verification of a few facts for the record."

She moved to the first item. "Are they projections, biological, or mechanical?"

He frowned. "A mix of projection and biological. And can change state between the two."

A nod. "What do they eat, and what can eat them?"

He sighed. "As far as I know they consume general sickness, mental stress and disabilities, and sadness. Each of their body colors though shows that they focus on specific negative versions of particular emotions. Black Baku for example finds despair and depression to be most tasty, while Green prefers jealousy, envy, and so forth. But all of them can consume any negative energy if desired."

He poked the white Baku. "And nothing eats them. Actually, because they are connected to me rather than only the faith of others, I am not sure they CAN be eaten. Or killed, injured, etc. If it gets really bad they can just reform from my power at a later point."

Uh. THAT wasn't in the paperwork. "I see." Better move along. "Can they reproduce?"

He shook his head. "No, Bakus have no genetic genders. They can choose traits of either or both genders if they wish, but there are no organs or process to create new ones. I don't think they ever had such. In fact, I am not even sure they have genetic information or DNA at all. Initially they formed spontaneously in areas of high faith or other powers."

She ignored the religious talk, the man WAS a focus of over a hundred religions by now. "And uh... what happens when they 'eat' from a person? Director Piggot is certainly feeling off so far."

He hummed. "How best to put this..."

He waved a hand, an image of a crystal heart floating in the air. Hopefully the cameras could see this, otherwise her time in confinement would triple... stupid M/S Protocols.

His bone fingers tapped the heart, showing a series of dividers, vertical chambers. "Now this is not in any way what is actually going on, but treat it like a metaphor or something. Everyone has a series of containers, each representing a mental trauma, an emotion, and so forth."

The various chambers filled with colored liquids. "A Baku can consume the emotional investment one has in a selected trauma specifically, or reduce the emotional investment in general if it has certain traits like negativity."

He tapped one of the now empty chambers. "Notice that even though all the anguish is gone, the chamber or trauma itself still exists. Bakus don't make it go away, they just get rid of the parts that make it harder to handle the issue or attempt to heal it."

Variance waved the illusion away. "So in areas with emotional qualities, like graveyards or war zones, the ambient emotion from the living and dead can be consumed to make the area feel less toxic or damaged, just like they can eat the much smaller issues of normal people. They were sort of nature's emotional vultures in a way, at least that is what they were intended to be."

She gave a weak nod. "And you can therefore confirm they do not modify memories or master the people involved?"

The nod was firm. "People change when they don't feel the weight of emotional damage, but if they decide to not seek help or try to fix the issue the problem will build up again. If someone magically made you thin but you didn't change your habits, you would eventually return to your previous weight, for example."

While that was relieving, it didn't change the MASSIVE amount of paperwork and isolation she was going to have to experience today.

She blinked as suddenly the room seemed brighter and her back less heavy... and the Yellow Baku was nomming on something black and wiggly it had just pulled from her.

Even as she noted the additional tests she would have to endure later, it didn't feel nearly as soul crushing as before.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Dragon watched the massive numbers of videos, forum posts, and shared images spread online. Someone (soon to be fired from the PRT) had published security pictures and video of the 'Baku Rangers' in tiny capes with a grinning skeletal Variance tying the last cape on the Red one. The follow up video of him losing control of the situation shortly after was a near instant internet hit.

They had spread from his personal accounts. And were posted on an increasing number of forums. Not that she could do much if it wasn't on PHO itself. She wasn't a forum moderator elsewhere, after all.

She wasn't legally allowed to interfere anyway, although the fact that the fluffy elephants were adorable and she already knew how little threat they posed helped mitigate any worries she might have had.

Still, she notified Missy's parents, recent employees to Variance Villa, that their child's new pet had an internet following.

CD bounced into her server. "Draggy! The Red one escaped and somehow ended up in that park in New York!" A dozen URL's and video feeds were tossed at Dragon as she squealed. "They are even MORE cute than Adam was! Why did they all come out like chibi babies!?"

Dragon chuckled. "Simmy sent me some of his notes while they were experimenting. Turns out he didn't use enough faith to get them to the right age at first, and unlike the later ones he couldn't undo the mistake and try again." It had been VERY frusturating not being able to communicate with Adam while he was in confinement, but she was sure Narwhal would give him a lecture or two about experimenting on creating life while in hostile territory.

CD laughed. "Did she get pictures of his attempts!?"

A pile of virtual image files uploaded into the server and floated from the air.

CD snagged a bunch. "Awesome! I'm going to make like a super album of them all. Like... like a baby album."

Dragon tried to be as serious as an older sibling could, even if she WAS secretly duplicating the files in a background process. Probably time for new wallpapers anyway.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The list of things for him to handle was still long.

Adam was trying to follow the spirit of his 'isolation', even if his soul was filled with visitors and his power was flooding the planet with video game interfaces.

Also, it was easier to do fun stuff without the girlfriend noticing sometimes. Simmy may have suggested the power ranger Baku idea, but it was awesome and could only make this grim-dark universe a bit less horrifying.

Anyway, the fun police had cracked down... for probably good reasons. Producing immortal mind consuming spiritual elephant-tigers-whatever was probably something he should have run by a few more people before designing cute costumes for them. Thankfully the level of background belief was still too weak for Baku to just spawn everywhere, but they may start popping up one at a time in very dense population centers.

Meh, it should be fine.

Now thoroughly bored, he mentally checked his list for this Realm.

Scion? Either non-existent or not local as a threat. Theoretically handled anyway, as more and more shards become consumed by Adam's 'System', eventually the shard that creates that Avatar will fall into his control and the danger would be mostly neutered.

As for the Endbringers...

A soft blue feather tickled his neck out of sight from the cameras.

Mostly handled. Two-thirds were happy and absent, the expected others had either not been created or only formed when called to use, and the last one is humoring herself by sexually harassing his girlfriend.

So... check?

Stabilize society. Uh.

Well, throwing everyone into power-ups without warning was a problem, but on the other hand things were going surprisingly well so far. Especially now that Simmy was handling the prayer situation, as she could selectively make choices or suggest changes for Twilight to try out on the 'Tithe' system. A few people gaining specific powers here and there had prevented several bombings and mass shootings in the last hour alone.

Lots of smaller or longer term problems were being handled on a case by case basis on a scale that would have required an army of operators otherwise.

However... a LOT of corrupt governments were suddenly presented with a population that would NOT put up with shit. Many places were in conflict while before they simply slaughtered a few crowds of people for random reasons. This social unrest mostly only affects areas with low population happiness levels, as any functional society would have a large group of supporters ALSO gaining abilities... what a mess. Not HIS mess though, not if he could help it.

Basically, the world wasn't skittles and rainbows yet.

On the positive side, Case 53's were either gaining a human form now or brand new powers all together, and a significant number of believers were going for the 'Overdraw' ability Simmy created, since many times the bizarre body given was fairly attractive and a normal body could be gained later if desired.

More power for short term weirdness? A lot of people said yes, and seeing so many elves, metal golems, dryads, elementals, and so forth was helping the few case 53's who DIDN'T accept the offer see some additional social acceptance. Not everywhere of course, bigotry wasn't just solved or anything, but having the 'odd group' being sexually attractive solved a lot of early problems.

Well, world peace wasn't really his goal anyway, he was just aiming to prevent societal collapse. Thank goodness Simmy was helping with that, because Adam came close to destroying the economy a few times even while trying to be subtle and on the down low.

Better to just move on from that point.

He glanced at the last Baku, the white one, as the others had already wandered away. "You might as well go too. Your friends are having fun, no reason to be stuck here with me while I wait."

The small ball of fur snored and rolled over.

Well, that was fine as well.

He looked back at his mental list.

Money? Check. Bounties from freeing Gray Boy's victims alone would have been more than enough, forget his multiple businesses being run by Cut-Throat Sonia.

She was having the time of her life, all grumbling aside. Adam had kept an eye on her initially, and she was a shark in a small pond as more and more property in Brockton Bay became her territory even as she reorganized all his random businesses. Her female only hiring practice was uh... maybe an issue. For now, Danny was hiring the qualified men that she was passing over, so it should be fine for a bit.

Thankfully the newly empowered Villa employees were able to use his powers well enough that he wasn't needed to make parts or help with power construction of new safe houses and such. They were slower, needed to cooperate together, and not all of them were as good as rapid prototyping like him... but many hands made light work in this case. And not having to show up all the time to heal people or fill the liquid metal reservoirs was its own reward.

Anyway. Money wouldn't be an issue.

Next... well.

He hadn't wanted it, but at this point he also had a growing Religious and Political power base as well.

Ignoring that. He had enough problems without tackling something so far away from his skill set, and he didn't want to waste a SINGLE power charge on learning how to be a lawyer or whatever. Why make it easier to do jobs he hated? Someone would eventually find out and he would have to get involved with that garbage!

Finally, problematic individuals. Coil had to be handled early, moron couldn't keep his nose out of his business, but finally he could get started on this issue officially.

Lung had been on his 'List of People to Kick' for a while anyway, as human sex trafficking was something he wasn't willing to overlook like weaker vices, gambling and drugs and such. Trying to stop everything was impossible of course, but slavery was one of his larger personal dislikes. After which, it would become an issue that everyone ELSE would dislike. Period.

Still, being stuck here physically was holding him back from the BIG issues he had wanted to address, individual wise.

Slaughterhouse 9 was one such problem. Something similar to the Boogie Man to most of the civilized world.

Now that Simmy wouldn't drop from the sky and wear Adam's skull as a hat, he had the option to get rid of those monsters now. BEFORE Jack Slash got his blood soaked fingers on little Riley, the girl who would be tortured into mutilating her own parents in an effort to save their lives.

'Bonesaw', as she would be called, would be like the healer Panacea but with surgical operations as a focus. Twisted by Jack, she would enhance humans by ripping them open without antiseptics or pain killers, tinkering with replacement parts made from flesh or metal or other, and sew them together into monstrosities, some slaved to be her puppets. Her gifts would be forced to make her attackers stronger, harder to kill, faster, more deadly.

Not even mentioning the plagues and viruses she could and would release and embed inside her own flesh, the little girl would be forced to do Jack Slash's bidding in an effort to be a 'Good Girl' for the man who killed her loved ones. For years. While hurting the young, innocent, and uninvolved.

So yeah, there would be no more Slaughterhouse 9. As soon as possible too.

The sudden paper slip floating over his eyes made him pause... then give a grin.

Simmy had an idea. An awful idea.

The Simurgh had a wonderful, awful idea.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bill blinked as a new window from System popped up. "Quest alert?"

A quick glance showed that his drinking buddies had gotten similar messages. Huh.

He focused and the window expanded. Oh, there were sub options.

Class Quests, Local Quests, National Quests, World Quests.

Well. That was a thing.

He and his buds checked, and a quick glance showed that Class Quests varied heavily even between the two guys like him with the same class, 'Police Officer'. They seemed tailored to individual skills and abilities, rather than to any cop in the area.

Most of the Local Quests were shared, and the last two categories were identical as far as they could tell.

Bill watched Grace accept a quest that rewarded a whole skill level up instantly when she finished thirty court cases, and that really opened the flood gates as everyone began selecting what to work towards.

Only three quests could be active at a time, but the help options mentioned that progress would be saved if someone dropped a quest to work on a new one for a while. Like if some World Quest came up, for example.

Curious, Bill was the first to look through THAT category.

It included quests to research events or ideas, produce materials or products, all kinds of stuff. The rewards were not only huge, but included actual cash prizes as well for some and not just a power increase. Some of the more massive quests (Build a Moon Base!) had rewards for partial participation or contribution efforts, and there were even 'Charity Quests' that rewarded altruistic pursuits like supporting artists or feeding the homeless or whatever.

But his eye eventually caught on a 'World Class' item sub-category labeled 'Kill Order'.

Hmm?

It had a list, filled with people he recognized from the official 'Kill Order' list the PRT published, where courts had confirmed legal death sentences if possible to apply them.

And the first was 'Slaughterhouse 9'.

His eyes widened as he saw the information revealed there.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Legend thanked the intern, the third to share the same information with him today, before falling into his chair in his office.

As one of the Triumvirate and the leader of the Protectorate, he had seen a lot. Not much could catch him so off guard, so unprepared. But maybe this was to be expected.

After all, unlike many of his coworkers, he hadn't joined Variance's System as it swept the globe. It was too risky. If it had a secret nefarious side to it, who would save the day then?

Now though, he was considering taking the plunge.

He glanced over his new notes.

The new Questing System was mostly busy work. You could even create your OWN quests, sacrificing personal ability levels or providing money or promissory notes as a reward. It was rapidly growing in popularity mere hours after being offered as an option, as even basic quests like 'Do your laundry son!' would grant actual experience towards a skill in addition to other rewards (like allowance).

Thankfully someone was monitoring the service, because no random hit jobs or theft requests had shown up yet, even if some people had put up quests to find rare ingredients or walk their dogs.

No, the issue was the 'Kill Order' quests under 'World Quest'.

Apparently, according to his people anyway, each person on that list had a profile given in the Quest acceptance window.

Name, Cape Name, Powers, Weaknesses... to some extent was expected, even if it was far more accurate than any publicly known. And 'The Unwritten Rules' never addressed the issue of people listed as 'kill on sight' before.

Legend did notice that the few people with living relatives that HE knew of didn't have their real name listed, so... maybe it was only being shared when relatives wouldn't suffer? No reason to kill a man's cousin or little girl if HE was the asshole.

Anyway, the shocking detail was the last few data points.

Past Appearances. Current Appearance. Past Locations. Current Location.

A list of images, showing full body and their face in VERY high resolution. And two maps, one filled with lines showing past travel and the other showing a pulsing dot on a separate window.

It came with the current distance from the quest follower. A listing of current equipment the target was wearing. The target's current health.

In the case of the Siberian, the naked tiger-stripe cannibal woman who was invincible and able to tear steel like paper, it showed that not only was she only a power projection from a different person, but the actual location of her 'Master' and his details as well. Capes with a history of using decoys, clones, robots or whatever would now be quite out of luck thanks to this thing.

It was... astonishing. And supposedly being updated in real time.

What... what was he supposed to do? With this level of operation intelligence, even amateurs with a tinkertech sniper rifle could take out some of the known threats on the list. Those people would likely die in the process, but they COULD theoretically win.

Even as he sat here stunned, he could almost feel the rush of people trying to get revenge against these monsters who tortured so many.

Could he bear the sorrow if under-prepared people threw their lives away? Even with this information, there would be many deaths as people tried to take on targets far stronger than they could handle, or ignored hostage situations in their grief and madness filled retaliatory strikes. Not to mention the bystanders.

With a heavy sigh, he made a decision. One that his friends would likely find unacceptably risky... but he had done far more risky things to save people before, with far lower potential payoffs.

"Variance, I would like to join the System."

The blue popup window didn't SAY anything smug, but he felt it anyway.