Part VII
Aegis already knew the room was listening.
The faint hum behind the walls. The way his phone stayed warm even when untouched. The camera lens embedded in the corner of his ceiling that blinked once every twelve seconds—just enough to remind him it was awake.
So he played his part.
He sat at his desk, shoulders slumped, eyes unfocused as he scrolled.
"No ability," he muttered aloud, letting frustration leak into his voice. "Not even after everything."
The words were chosen carefully.
Despair was expected. Curiosity was acceptable. Hope was harmless.
He opened the public catalog, letting it load slowly, deliberately. Shift classifications. Compatibility warnings. Probability ceilings. He clicked randomly, almost lazily, as if none of it mattered.
"If I can't have one… I should at least understand them."
That thought stayed unspoken.
Internally, Aegis was cataloging them.
Patterns emerged quickly. Not the flashy abilities—the ones with raw output or visible destruction—but the ones buried under dismissive labels.
Utility-Class. Passive-Class. Non-Combatant.
Abilities no one feared were the ones no one watched.
That was where he found it.
Subject: Marrow-Index 4417
Name: Unlisted (Civilian Registry)
Tier: 1.2
Ability Classification: Cognitive Static
Summary: Generates low-level perceptual interference in observers. Causes mild distraction, forgetfulness, and difficulty maintaining focus on the subject. Ineffective at range. Considered non-threatening.
Aegis stared at the description longer than necessary.
Outwardly, he scoffed. Loud enough.
"People really get powers like this?" he said, shaking his head. "What's the point?"
Internally, something clicked.
This isn't invisibility.
It's misalignment.
He closed the catalog and leaned back, pretending to give up. The surveillance systems would log resignation. Disinterest. Emotional fatigue.
Then he stood.
The subject worked evenings at a transit hub two districts away. Nothing special. No guards. No political relevance. Someone the system had already decided didn't matter.
Aegis waited for rush hour.
Crowds were essential.
He brushed past the man near the ticket terminals—shoulder to shoulder, fleeting, unremarkable contact. No confrontation. No attack.
Just contact.
The catalog responded instantly.
Not on a screen.
Behind his eyes.
NEW ABILITY DETECTED
SOURCE: Direct Contact
SEVERITY: Non-Lethal
ACQUISITION MODE: Passive Synchronization
TIME TO COMPLETION: 48:00:00
A timer appeared—soft, translucent, undeniable.
Aegis kept walking.
Nothing happened immediately. No rush of power. No distortion. That was good. Dramatic changes attracted attention.
Over the next two days, he felt it assembling.
Not like learning something new—more like remembering something he'd always known.
People lost their train of thought around him. Conversations drifted. Eyes slid off him without realizing why. Cameras still captured his image, but operators reviewing footage struggled to recall why they were looking at him in the first place.
The catalog updated as the countdown dropped.
ABILITY ANALYSIS COMPLETE
BASE FUNCTION: Perceptual Interference
LIMITATION: Human cognition only
SUGGESTED AUGMENT PATHS AVAILABLE
Aegis didn't hesitate.
He selected augmentation.
Not enhancement—translation.
AUGMENTATION APPLIED:
— Extend interference to pattern-recognition systems
— Introduce signal noise in visual, thermal, and biometric tracking
— Convert distraction into classification suppression
The timer reached zero.
Nothing exploded.
Nothing glowed.
Instead, the world quietly failed to care.
That night, Aegis walked beneath three traffic cameras, two storefront scanners, and one low-orbit satellite sweep.
No alerts.
No secondary checks.
No follow-up.
He wasn't invisible.
He was misfiled.
"This works," he thought calmly.
And for the first time since waking up in that facility, Aegis smiled—not because he felt powerful, but because he felt safe.
The catalog lingered in his awareness, waiting.
He already knew what came next.
Now that he understood the rules—
He would start collecting.
Quietly.
Carefully.
Before anyone realized what laws he was no longer following.