28

I did my best to forget everything that was going on with Will, as it was only going to give me a headache. Lisa will let me know everything I needed later, probably in a fashion that was much easier to understand.

For now I stretched my wings and flew over the city. Panacea clinging to my back with her hands around my neck. It was the first time we had flown with just the two of us. Before this she had always held onto Cheshire, making her kind of awkward when it came how she sat.

"Do you know where we're going?" Panacea shouted over the wind, yelling into my ear.

"The Docks!" I shouted back. "Going to make sure my dad is okay!"

"Alright, but can you swing by the Boat Graveyard first, I have an idea!"

Instead of answering, I angled my wings slightly to change course. Once facing the right direction, I let it loose.

It struck me right then how many ratings I must have. The speed I was traveling at was enough for a Mover rating, not to mention my teleportation. Would my shield be a Brute power? My telekinesis was something of a Shaker and Blaster power. Plus my Changer ability. And because these wings would never lift a normal horse that's a Breaker state tacked on there too. Would my potions be a Tinker or Trump power? Come to think of it, what was my magic classified as a whole? It doesn't have any set rules as far as I could tell, and I've been discovering something new the more I toyed with it. In fact, a lot of it has been on this odd sense of instinct, so maybe a power specific Thinker power as well. Heck, at this point who's to say I couldn't make a spell that would also tact a Master and Stranger power on the end. Then I'd have more than a bit of everything.

Truly, I am the grabbiest grab bagger of grab bag capes.

I landed in the Boat Graveyard with a little splash as my hoofs sank into the inch or two of water that has been sitting in the location since most of the water drained out into the ocean.

"As much as I enjoy getting algae in my fur Panacea, why are we here?" I asked, lifting a hoof up to examine the goo that now covered it.

"Well, for the algae." Panacea said as she slid off my back and plopped into the water herself. "Algae is one of least complex plants capable of doing photosynthesis. It does everything a plant does, but with no structure to it. Just floating around aimlessly and clutching onto whatever surface it happens to touch. Making for doing something like this."

Panacea knelt down and put her hand in the water, the green algae immediately shifting in response. I had underestimated just how much algae was growing the area until the edges of the water were no longer green while the water near us got even darker. Slowly, green slushy material began crawling up her arm and moving around the outside of her costume until it surrounded everything except her face. Then it began to change shape and colour. It got darker, becoming more wood like. The shape extended a little to match the colour and form a more symmetrical look.

When she was finished she looked like a knight made out of wood. The general shape was more blocky than I would have pictured her with and lacked in finer detail, but it would protect her fine. She grew it without any way for a normal person to take it off, which wouldn't be a problem for her.

"What do you think?" She asked, flexing her fingers inside of the gauntlet she had made, changing it slightly as she felt how it worked.

"It's great," I said. "But are you going to start going out in this a lot? Because it might make it hard for people to recognize you."

"Well, actually," Panacea said slowly. "I was thinking about using this as a sort of cover? Like, if I go back home but still want to go on cape outings with you guys, I could use this and pretend to be someone else."

"Like a secret identity?" I asked. "Specifically for your family?"

"Well, yeah," she responded, suddenly sound a little shy. "We're not exactly on the best of terms right now but-"

"No, I get it." I interrupted her. "And we can work on the idea later, but right now I really want to see if my dad is okay." Instead of responding, Panacea nodded and moved to climb on my back. I shifted uncomfortably as her new armor bit into my skin before she changed the outside of it to not be so jagged.

"Hey, you got a name for this new cape persona?" I asked as I took off into the air.

"I was thinking… Flower Knight?"

"Not going to lie, but that sounds a little too girly to ever be taken seriously."

"This coming from cartoon horse whose power gives her the collective censorship of a PG-13 movie?"

"...Touche."

We flew the rest of the way over to the administration building in The Dock in relative silence. I had only been here once or twice with my father, but I remembered what it looked like. Only now it on the inside of a massive bubble.

The bubble itself was taller than most buildings in the area and encompassed a large amount of them, with my father's workplace being closer to the centre. I couldn't see very far into it because of a massive snowfall occurring inside the bubble. The ground and buildings were already covered in several feet of snow. Enough that people were probably already trapped in buildings.

The PRT was already in the area, surrounding the bubble with a protective perimeter. Miss Militia was on the scene, overseeing everything. Adjusting my course slightly, I went in to land near her.

She had already noticed me by the time I came in for my landing and waited patiently for me to descend. I did so slowly, making sure I wasn't going to accidentally drop Panacea with the new weight and balance she had now.

"What is going on," I asked the moment my hoofs touched the ground. Miss Militia's eyes glanced at Panacea as she slid off my back before answering.

"A cape called Supesu," she explained. "Really dangerous and a completely unhinged Case 53, but until now he was also reclusive. He lived somewhere along the highway between here and Boston, only ever coming out to steal food and other supplies he needed. He never attacked unprovoked which made going after him more trouble than he was worth. Although, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore."

I appreciated her forwardness. I was sure I didn't have much goodwill in the PRT and Protectorate currently, and if they knew I had captured 'Max Clay' and wasn't about to hand him over I was sure I wouldn't have any at all. Although I didn't know the others well, Miss Militia and Armsmaster were the only ones I could picture putting that aside and just focusing on the task at hand instead of trying to give me a brief lecture in between things.

"So what are his powers?" I asked, pointing a hoof at the massive bubble near us.

"Troubling," Miss Militia answered with a nod. "He creates these bubbles where the rules of the world are different. We don't know how long these bubbles last or if Supesu is able to cancel them at any time, and we don't know to what extent he is able to change the rules. But we do know he has limitations."

"Such as?"

"Well, for one he has never created a barrier that couldn't be passed through. The people on the inside can come out if they can get to the barrier while we can go in if it is deemed safe to do so."

"Do we know rules with this one?" I asked, a frown growing on my face. This was sounding less and less like something I would be able to help with easily.

"We know what effect the rule is causing, for lack of anything else." She shook her head and turned to face the bubble, "The inside of all the buildings are being kept at a constant temperature of one-hundred degrees exactly, while everything outside immediately drops to negative fifteen. We're not sure where the snow is coming from, but…"

"But?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"But if this goes on much longer the buildings are going to start caving in, likely causing the effect that is keeping them warm to drop."

My frown deepened. So we were also on a clock.

"Has anyone got out yet?"

Miss Militia's eyebrows drew together. "No, which is part of the reason we haven't sent anyone in yet. There are any number of other rules he might have made that we're unaware of. That and all clothing that might be used to keep a person warm would freeze the moment they stepped in the field. One thing we do know about Supesu's fields is that no rule can kill anyone outright. A sort of less limited Manton Effect that makes it so this cold effect couldn't freeze organic matter."

"What about fur?" I asked. Miss Militia paused and cast me a glance.

"Fur might be immune to the effect, but I wouldn't recommend you going in there. There are other rules we don't know about yet."

I bit my lip as I considered it. If Cheshire were here, she could probably tell us exactly what we're heading into. I briefly considered teleporting back to the house and porting back again, but that would be a massive drain on my magic and I already drank most of my magic replenishing potions after encountering Max. If I ran into any problems while inside the bubble, I wouldn't have much left to work with.

"I'll do it anyway," I stated. "We have to get those people out of there." To her credit, Miss Militia didn't argue. She nodded once and stepped toward the PRT officers to tell them to let me through. As she did that, I turned to Panacea and opened my mouth to tell her she should probably stay here for her own safety, but she interrupted me.

"I'll come too," she stated. "My organic suit can keep me warm for a long time, I've already made fake fur out of the plant material."

"If you're sure," I said. It would have been safer for her to stay here, but it felt better to know a friend would be by my side. Together, we walked up to the edge of the bubble and gazed inside. The PRT people moved out of our way as expected to let us pass. I gave a look back at Miss Militia who offered me another nod. I looked back at Panacea and offered her a wing tip to hold on to, which she took. Then together, we stepped into the bubble.

I gasped as the cold instantly frosted my fur and every colour on the visible light spectrum assaulted my eyes.

Slamming my eyes shut I was able to stop the mounting headache coming from the colours I was getting bombarded with. I was suddenly very glad that I had let Panacea take hold of my wing because now we were walking blind.

"What was that?" Panacea asked.

"It must be another rule, I'm not sure though," I answered. "I think I have something for this." I raised my head a little and let the magic flow out of my horn and surround the area in my magic. Oddly enough, the magic was slow when getting outside of the barrier. Like the barrier didn't want to let it go but had trouble stopping it.

With my magic mapping out a good radius around us, I lead us both forward.

After about ten minutes of trying to walk through the ever-mounting banks of snow, I pulled my wing from Panacea and lifted myself off the ground before picking her up with my telekinesis and putting her on my back. I was glad the cold wasn't accompanied with harsh winds, otherwise this would have been impossible. Flying as low to the ground as I could, I made my way forward, letting my magic map out the way ahead of us.

Eventually I found the Union building and was able to feel dozens of people milling around inside with my magic. I started flying towards it with increasing speed, turning the door handle with my magic before bursting through it.

I was able to feel the warmth of the room for just a moment before the cold rushed into the room and froze everything. There were a few cries from people just before I used my magic to slam the door shut again and the room returned to normal.

Tentatively, I cracked my eyes open just a little and was surprised when the colours of the room didn't leap out at me with mind splitting clarity and complexity. I let out a sigh and said,

"You can open your eyes now, Panacea."

A moment later she was climbing off my back, which I took as a sign that she could see again. I started looking around the room, studying the people gathered there to see if I recognized any or if my father was among them. Then I suddenly heard his voice calling out to me.

"Ta- Nova!" He shouted. I spun on the spot to see him striding past a large group of people to get to me.

"Erm," I said hesitantly. "Danny." His name felt odd on my tongue, probably because it was weird for a daughter to call their father by his first name in almost any circumstance. "What is the situation like."

Dad paused for a moment, either to recall that I was, in fact, a superhero or to think of the situation a little harder.

"Things are stable, for now." He answered. "We got everyone out of the surrounding buildings and into here before the snow got too high. The weird blinding effect kicked in about five minutes after the snow and cold started."

"Alright," I said with a nod. I straightened up and raised my neck to look over the crowd. In a whim, I directed a little magic towards my neck to see if it would make me speak louder. "Listen up everyone, I'm going to get you all out of here but I'm going to need you all to join hands."

"What are you going to do?" Panacea asked.

"I'm going to do a mass teleport," I answered.

"Can you do that? There are a lot of people here."

"Not… normally." I answered slowly. "But if I said the passphrase The Four like to use, I should get enough energy for a few seconds.

"You mean the passphrase gives you more power?" Panacea asked in shock. "Why didn't you say that?"

"I did think about it?" I offered weakly.

"You know Cheshire is going to kill you for not telling her, right?"

"If she doesn't already know."

"You think she wouldn't bring it up just to show off if she already knew?"

"Fair enough."

"Uh, Nova?" My dad interrupted. "We're ready." I looked around and sure enough, all of the dock workers were linked hand in hand with each other. My father was holding on to some other woman's hand and they were all waiting patiently for me. I did one last look around to make sure they were all there, my magic assisting, and then I stretch out a wing to my father. I wrapped Panacea under my other wing then began to focus.

Once I firmly had the image of the area outside of the bubble in mind and I found my centre, drawing up a desperate want to be at that location, I murmured the words under my breath and flexed my magic.

"Adkins S. Montgomery is Ragnarok."

There was a pop and the familiar squeezing feeling right before we were all slammed with the disorienting effect. I let my eyes roll in my head a little before blinking away the haze. The energy boost from the phrase faded from my mind and a harsh throbbing took place around my horn with growing strength. I groaned a little bit as even the effort of trying to get a grip on one of my potions shot a flare of pain through my head.

I wobbled a little as I climbed to my feet, feeling a little weak and a little disoriented. Looking around, I saw all the dock workers I had rescued climbing to their feet and shaking their heads. I also saw a PRT officer coming towards me, alone.

I looked around and saw that all the people I had seen before had disappeared, even Miss Militia. The PRT officers still around seemed more like a skeleton crew.

"Where did everyone go?" I asked as soon as the officer was close enough to me. The man gave me an odd look.

"Nova," he said. "You do realize you were lost inside there for two days?"

***

A/N: So, I'm currently balancing a couple gallons of coffee and Hydrocodone together, so I'm not completely sure how that effected the quality of the chapter. I do know that I have been having an auditory hallucination of Moonlight Sonta for the last three hours, so maybe I shouldn't be doing anything related to the internet. But meh, I can just fix anything with the edit button after I come out of what will likely be a drug and coffee induced coma. Let me know what you think!

"Alright, walk me through this one more time," I said, holding my head in my hands after having spent an hour and a half becoming human again. Dad, Lisa, Amy, and I were sitting around a large mahogany table in a spacious house with hardly any other furniture in it. It was the kind of house a rich person used to a middle-class lifestyle lived in. Large, in good shape, a backyard with multiple trees, a tall wooden fence separating you from the neighbors, and an in-ground pool in the back. And it was my house, apparently.

"So, in the two days we were in the bubble, you bought this house-,"

"Yes," Lisa said with a nod. "Cost almost all of my money and the companies I stole it from are currently conducting an investigation so I won't be able to do much more."

"-and you managed to enrol us both in Arcadia-"

"Because a certain someone who was cheating on their wife was sent a very convincing letter."

"-Got a detailed outline of The Sentient and how they work-"

"It is surprisingly easy with Will giving me all the information he had and two days to work my power on it."

"-Put together our deal with New Wave-"

"That bit was easy, although it was a little difficult to pacify Victoria when she was asking where Amy was. We're supposed to unveil ourselves sometime this week."

"-And during all this, you didn't worry about the three of us in the least."

"Psh," Lisa said with a wave of her hand. "What was to worry about? I knew you would be fine, mostly. Not like the power structure of Brockton Bay."

"And what do you mean by that?" Amy asked. Lisa gave a half-hearted shrug and said,

"Well, all the cape fighting lasted only a day, with gang fights for territory only stopping yesterday. The Sentient offed a few capes in the beginning, Oni Lee, Fenja and Menja, Alabaster, and Stormtiger. Then everyone, including The Sentient, got thoroughly and utterly fucked.

"You see, The Merchants got these new capes, real powerhouses too. They came in unexpectedly and hit The Sentient hard, distracting them long enough for Coil to reclaim a lot of territory they had taken from him. Lung came in not long after Oni Lee bit it and just steamrolled into Sentient territory. The Pedites lost everything they had, if distinguishing the four different gangs is really worth the time anymore. But I think The Sentient knew they were fucked in this battle because they put most of their men into stealing from The Empire, ABB, and Coil while they were fighting. The Sentient lost most of their territory and a lot of manpower, everyone else lost most of their money and stock.

"But that isn't even the worst of it," Lisa continued, getting a little more excited about this than she should be. "Because the Kaiser fucking lost it apparently, told all of his people to get as far from him as possible and started doing things on his own. It was like he suddenly didn't trust a single person. Shantytown in cover in a blade forest now, with the PRT doing their best to take it down. He got away though."

"A lot happened the last two days," my dad observed. Lisa nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but that about sums it up. Everyone is on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what is going to happen next. I think The Empire is getting ready to split up."

"Did anything else important happened?" I asked.

"Well," Lisa thought for a moment. "A few Empire capes got arrested, however long that is going to last. We lost a few independent heroes and mercenaries when trying to move in and take out Kaiser. The PRT has been attempting to bring its PR back from the dead by introducing its new Wards as a villain rehabilitation program that has shown promising results."

"What about the other Supesu bubbles?"

"Oh yeah," Lisa said with a snap of her fingers. "All of the others ones stopped working after a couple of hours, but they all had time dilation effects that made the people inside feel like they were there for a much longer time than they were. One made all surfaces reflective and lessened the effect of gravity. Another made everything pitch black to the people inside except for noise, which was somehow given visible colour. The one at the mall was the most interesting. On the inside, the whole building became absolutely massive. Anything that wasn't alive or being worn at the time grew almost six times in size. But bubble had a space warping effect like Vista so even though it was much larger, it occupied the same amount of space. It made the people inside look really small by comparison. Because of how big the doors were compared to people trapped inside, only four people made it out and we're not sure exactly how. But yeah, fun stuff."

"We're going to need to discuss your definition of fun," I said, rubbing my temples. This was a lot to process, although not all that complex. In short, I could sum it up as The Sentient lost a lot but stole a lot too, The Empire is on a knife's edge, and we were going to be part of New Wave. It was committing all the smaller details to memory that was going to be difficult.

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked. Oddly enough, it was my dad who stood up and said,

"Well, I for one would like to get all my furniture out of the house and over here." He paused and looked around the house. "I have to hand it to you Lisa, this is a pretty nice place. How much did it cost?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Lisa answered. "But on the topic of getting things over here, I was thinking Taylor could just teleport everything over here. I put a bunch of planters and things in the basement where we're keeping Amy's plant armour so Amy could get set up down there, maybe start making the plants for more of Taylor's magic potions. Or… other things."

"Other things?" Amy asked with a frown.

"Well," Lisa said slowly, causing me to look at her curiously. This was odd behaviour from her. "Two days is a lot of time to think, and I might have talked to one of the new Wards who happens to be a Thinker too, and we got to talking about your power. And he had this idea where you made a plant or bio-machine of sorts that grows O negative blood. Or maybe, if you got enough experience, a bio-machine that can make new organs entirely."

"Those would be really complex plants, if you could call them plants at all," Amy said, her eye brows furrowing together as she put a hand to her chin in thought.

"But not impossible," Lisa said. "Ergo, or Thusly now, and I pretty much guarantee it is possible."

"Thusly?" My dad said curiously, putting himself back in the conversation. "This is one of the new Wards?"

"Yes," Lisa said, shooting him a look through narrow eyes. A slight smile spread across Dad's face.

"I see, so what's he like."

"He's… fine."

"I see, I see." He paused for a moment. "Are you planning on introducing us or-"

"I see what you're doing," Lisa interrupted, pointing a finger at him. "And I refuse to let it continue."

"Alright," Dad said, holding his hands up defensively. "Just run it by me if you do bring him by the house." My dad, probably wisely, turned and left the room at that while Lisa shot him a glare as he did so.

"So…" Amy said. "The bio-machines?"

"Yeah, right," Lisa said with a shake of her head. "Seeing as you made that armour on the fly, with a little bit of practice it shouldn't be too hard for you to make these bio-machines like this. Even making seeds for them, turning them into a resource for hospitals to buy and grow."

"You know Amy," I said as I thought about it. "If you wanted to help the most people, couldn't you also make a disease fighting bacteria or virus that could spread and grow on its own?"

"I guess," Amy said, her frown increasing.

"Maybe we should let Amy experiment like that at her own pace," Dad said. "In the meantime, I could really use my armchair right now."

"Okay," I said, rising from my chair. "I'll go turn back into my horse form and start on that."

"And I'll start making the potions you'll need," Amy said, also rising with me.

"In that case," Lisa began. "I'll let Carol know we're ready to make the announcement of us joining New Wave in a couple of hours. That sound good to you guys?"

"Fine by me," I answered.

"I'm okay with it," Danny said with a nod. Amy was oddly silent on the subject. Lisa looked between us for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright then, let's meet back here in four hours in costume. Then the two of us can reveal our smiling faces to the world."

***

I was walking downstairs into our basement a little bit later after having teleported between the two houses over two dozen times just to get all our possession over to the new place. And then using my telekinesis to put everything where it should go. My dad never even had to get out of his armchair, which looked rather out of place on the fresh carpets of the new house.

I found Amy sitting idly by one of the long rectangular planters sitting by the wall. It was overgrown with various plants. Ever since Lisa had taken over the making of potions I had lost track of all the different plants we had and what each one did. With Amy making them with magic circuits I didn't need to charge them, further separating me from them. Not that I didn't appreciate not draining myself emotionally and magically for hours each day.

Will was in a new cell in the far corner of the basement. He had a cot now along with a blanket that he was laying on top of. He appeared to be asleep, a magazine he was given draped over his face.

Moving my gaze away from him, I walked over to Amy. My hooves clopped on the concrete floor, alerting her to my presence. I spoke as she turned to look at me.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked.

"Fine, I guess," she answered noncommittally with a shrug. She turned back to her plants and touched one with a hand, a new flower blooming just a moment later.

"Doesn't sound fine," I noted, waking up next to her. I leaned forward and smelled one of the flowers. It had an almost cartoonishly good smell. Appropriate. "Is it the thing with New Wave?"

She didn't answer me, focusing on her plants. I let out a sigh and turned to look at some more of her plants. The planters on the other side of the room had more exotic plants and small trees growing fruits a little too big for their small branches. It was rather obvious this was all her work, as there wasn't nearly enough sunlight coming through the high windows to justify this kind of growth. That, and it was a little cold for oranges, particularly this close to winter.

"You know that morning after you came to the house for the first time?" I asked without looking away from the plants. "I offered to listen, I didn't give a word of advice. Just listened. I can do that again, if you like, but I'd rather help you."

She was silent for a long moment, the sounds of rapidly growing plants filling the basement. Then she spoke, saying,

"Do you mind if I asked you something?"

"Sure," I responded.

"What is a father supposed to be like?"

I paused. I wasn't expecting that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, almost everyone only has one father and one mother, so we only really know what our parents act like. So when you see the dynamic of a different relationship it can seem weird, but sometimes it can seem better. So, what are parents supposed to act like, to you?"

I fell silent as I thought. Should I tell her what I thought, or what she wanted to hear? For that matter, did I even know what she wanted to hear? I knew from her conversation with Victoria that Carol had stifled her, kept her where she could keep tabs on her. I also heard something about Mark taking medication and him doing something odd when he was off it, along with an accusation that Carol was the reason he needed the medication. Do I tell her that a father is supposed to be friendly? That a father always cared for you no matter what? I still recalled a moment when my own dad had exploded into a rage while at work. He didn't do it often, but it was hard to forget when he did.

In the end, I decided to go with the best truth I could think of.

"I think a father is someone who always is there. Someone who you can count on to be there, no matter what you've done or what you're running from. A person that will give you space when you want it and not ask questions you don't want to answer, but is willing to listen when you want to."

"Oh." She fell silent again, not even the sound of plants filling the room this time. Suddenly, another voice broke the silence.

"Would it be too forward for me to put in my two cents?" Will asked, suddenly wide awake and attentive. Both Amy and I shot him a glare.

"This was one of those private conversations," I said pointedly.

"Hey, if it's private, don't have it next to my cell. I'm serious, it is really boring in here." Will sat up on the cot and let out a sigh. "But on a more serious note, I think Nova is a little off on her view of a father."

"And what exactly do you know about it?" Amy asked sourly.

"Why, I was a father once. I even wrote a speech about it in my off time." Will leaned back and adopted a deeper voice. "It was the summer of '88 and me and Diane had just-"

"No," I sated with a shake of my head. "Anything but another monologue."

"Fine," Will said with an eye roll. "Maybe another day. Anyway, my point would have been this; a father exists solely to bear responsibility." He leaned back forward and fixed Amy with a look.

"The moment child is born, the father exists to provide for that kid. To do whatever he needs to do to provide for her. Provide financial support, sometimes emotional support though that is normally the mother's job, and teach them how to survive in the world they're about to enter. And when they leave home, a father is supposed to be there if she ever needs to come back. Of course, it also a father's job to do their level best to scare away boys from their daughter, but I wouldn't know about that part."

"Um, thanks. I guess." Amy said awkwardly, like she didn't know quite what to make of Will. But to be fair, neither did I. Amy stood up and brushed herself off even though there was nothing to brush off. "I'm… going to go do a thing."

She left the room at a brisk pace. As soon as she was gone I threw a harsh look at Will, who held up his hands defensively.

"Hey, I was just trying to be helpful." He said, his smug grin returning to his face for a moment before fading away. He paused for a moment then slowly said, "By the way, I think you might have a Master effect."

"What?" I said, raising an eyebrow at him as I wondered what he was playing at.

"Well, I spent the last decade or so watching everything I've said, ever aware that the wrong word might get me killed. I haven't thought about my little girl in years, gone out of my way not to. But ever since I met you, it's all I could think about. Not to mention this abnormal urge to talk about it. Needless to say, I'm not acting like I should. When you're around, I'm not the man I spent years building."

"So, you think I have some sort of therapist Master effect?" I asked skeptically.

"Maybe," Will said with a shrug. "I only noticed it because I've kept careful control over everything I say and feel for a very long time, others aren't so lucky. But if anyone has been opening up to you when they don't have much reason to, I would think it shouldn't be much a question."

I stared at him for a moment before turning away. I needed to ask Lisa about this.